Hindsight is 20/20: Anything you used to hate about the comic that you now love?

The comic has been going for a long time now, and I thought it would be interesting to look back on some of the narrative decisions The Giant has made up to this point and re-examine them in regards to how WE felt about them at the time of publication vs now.

For example, I remember there was a lot of speculation prior to the Order arriving at the Pyramid that Girard Draketooth was somehow related to the Black Dragons that V had killed. I recall a lot of this speculation being based on little more than his facial tattoo, and thinking to myself, "Well, THAT would be a stupid and lame thing to happen." I don't even quite remember WHY--I think I felt it would be a cheap narrative trick, a way to clumsily connect two separate characters (the Black Dragon Mom and Girard Draketooth) that otherwise would have no reason to know one another.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the big "family tree" scene came up that DID confirm Girard and his family had dragon blood within them! Not only that, but the family was related to the Black Dragon line that V had wiped out with the Familicide spell! At first, I didn't like the decision--again, I think I felt like it was a cheap way to put an obstacle in front of the Order's path. As time went on, though, and we learned more about the ramifications of the event (especially in regards to how it changed V's character, and how V was forced to reckon with the consequences of his/her own actions) it has actually became one of my favorite parts of the entire OOTS saga up to this point!

So, what things about the comic did YOU initially dislike only to then later grow quite fond of? I expect a lot of Miko answers for some reason.... :smallbiggrin:

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Originally Posted by The Aboleth

So, what things about the comic did YOU initially dislike only to then later grow quite fond of? :smallbiggrin:

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1. Initial dislike: Elan. Current status: toleration, since I understand how Rich sets up jokes. Fond? No. He has his moments.
2. Initial dislike: Belkar, even though he got to be involved in some enjoyable jokes. Current status: no longer dislike since Rich broke the 4th wall and admitted about 600 strips in that he'd written a one dimensional character and wrote a few strips that informed us that he'd try to get Belkar to grow. Fond? No. He has his moments.

I wouldn't say I disliked him, because it's more like he was the 6th in the order of characters from the Order I like more: Durkon. On the first on hundred strips, he was the character that made me laugh less. Over time, I really took a liking to him. The fight against Malack was touching and got me cheering him and hoping for him to escape (because I knew he would probably lose). But his moment I liked most was, without doubt, "Lotsa things.... worth doin'... are na painless".

I'll vote Nale. The first time I read the story, I thought that Nale didn't add anything to it, I only hoped that his Linear Guild subplot ended fast so we could return reading about Xykon.
Now, after Nale death and his story, not only I like it, but I'm hoping for a prequel book too.

A second thing could be O-Chul. The first time was lawfull boring, now is one of the coolest character in the entire comic.

I also have grown to enjoy (and miss) the Linear Guild.

First time through for me, especially during War and XPs, Xykon was just "too good" in my opinion. He succeeded when I didn't really think he deserved it, and I hated his guts for breezing through the Sapphire Guard Throne Room fight (round 1 at least) with a nasty trick. The loss of Azure City felt like an injustice to my PC-centric eyes...which I realize now is what it was supposed to feel like.

But with time to think about it, I appreciate Xykon (and Team Evil) a lot more. His savvy makes him dangerous, and his gloating/irredeemable evilness serves its purpose in the story. I'm looking forward to seeing him in the final book: it'll feel like we "get to go back" to the original dynamic, and I feel like the Order has changed enough that it'll bring out new things in Team Evil.

I guess mine is Celia. I thought she was fine at first, even kind of cool in the trial. But during the arc where Haley and Belkar were leaving Azure City and heading to Cliffport, I found her to be kind of pushy and naive, not to mention overly hostile to Haley. I understood why she was there, but she confounded me quite a bit to the point where I actually used the word hate. This is weird as I don't usually have personal reactions to characters in the story and still find myself puzzled by people who morally object to Belkar when he seemed (to me) to be obviously showcasing a particular type of player that exists in D&D rather than someone you'd want to get a beer with.

It wasn't until the end of the arc where we see her with Roy and she expressed how she didn't really feel cut out for the adventuring life that my views on her softened, and I realized I was being too hard on her. I looked back and realized a lot of her decisions either made sense, were understandable, or were no less dysfunctional than ones made by the rest of the Order on a regular basis. She was a nice challenge to the typical adventurer's point of view, and to be fair, if I were there, I'd probably be just as horrified by the carnage that regularly happens in a D&D world.

The other way around for me. A lot of people seemed to like Miko's death scene, but I was quite happy with the early version of the character, and less so with later developments.

I also felt that while Nale's final appearances were an improvement on earlier installments, if it takes 900 strips for the payoff to occur that's not a compelling return on investment.

Hate is too strong of a word, but I didn't see the point of the :mitd: character at first, but now The Monster in the Darkness has grown on me.

Otherwise, the only thing I dislike is a deficit of Greyview, and the looming dread of the strip ending.

I was really excited for vampire Durkon to be actually Durkon and for the vampirization to lead to greater character development for him. So I was very irritated and disappointed when the last strip of Blood Runs in the Family came out and it was revealed that the vampire was actually a separate character. But after a few years of the arc and recently having reread it all the way through again, I decided that having had Durkon change his personality so completely would have been much less interesting than what we have now. While I still think the vampire spirit is a less interesting villain at this point than Tarquin and Malack were at this point in the last book, he still has a lot of satisfying nuances and I really enjoy his interactions with Durkon. It's also made me appreciate Durkon a lot more, while previously he was probably my least favorite in the Order.

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Originally Posted by 2D8HP

Otherwise, the only thing I dislike is a deficit of Greyview, and the looming dread of the strip ending.

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It's true, we've not had enough of Greyview. :smalltongue: I don't dislike the impending strip ending though. It's partly because we still have the rest of this book and one more whole book to go and it could take a while but also because I really want to see Rich's next work.


As for the OP question, it's Tarquin. I initially thought he was a typical hyper-competent wish fulfillment villain. It did strike me as a bit weird that Rich would write someone like that, but I'd just started reading OotS a few days earlier by the time I got introduced to Tarquin and I hadn't had time to process Rich's style well enough to be sure that he really wouldn't write someone like that. Besides, I was reading lots of webcomics at the time and I had noticed it's not unusual for a character like that to pop up and the comic going downhill.

When I realized he's merely someone who thinks that's what he is, I also realized he's a brilliant character and started loving him. At about that point I also realized how much I appreciated Rich's writing, too. I've seen way too many authors fall in love with characters like that.

Well, that isn't exactly a correct answer to the question... I wasn't here in the time of publication and what I described happened over a day or two... hmmm

Ok, here's something else. Back when it first came out I was underwhelmed but now I think this is hilarious. Hell no, Thor won't go!

Elan.

Hate would be too strong of a word, but I was always annoyed when the majority of a strip was about Elan-jokes. I don't find them particularly funny by themselves, although Roy reacting to Elan's silly ideas was often very funny.

Elan grew up to me in the story arc when he and Haley came together, and he really grew up on me in the Therkla story arc. The first arc he became a dashin swordsman, the second one he became a hero. Really liked that one, the pacing, the dialogue. Cool story arc.

I've also started liking Durkon a lot more in the current arc. I didn't dislike him, so much as he just never seemed very interesting to me. But I'm really enjoying his character development now. Same with Belkar, actually.

(Elan's always been my favorite, actually. He's sweet and silly and Good and I like that in a character. :smallsmile:)

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Originally Posted by Elenna

(Elan's always been my favorite, actually. He's sweet and silly and Good and I like that in a character. :smallsmile:)

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WHOO! Go Elan!
:elan:

Funnily enough, for me it's Therkla's death. Her last lines were so sad that I didn't like that she died, but I got over it fairly quickly.

For me it was Haley. The comic started with three male, one female and one fluid character and the female seemed doomed to ditzy airheadedness. I disliked her until the scene where her father’s imprisonment is mentioned.

Initial dislike: the new art style.

Now? The old strips look old fashioned and outdated. Rich should go back and re-do them all in the new style

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Originally Posted by CJG

For me it was Haley. The comic started with three male, one female and one fluid character and the female seemed doomed to ditzy airheadedness. I disliked her until the scene where her father’s imprisonment is mentioned.

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So, sexy shoeless gods of war are inherently genderless?

Azure City. At the time, it just seemed to take forever, when it was really a glorified stop-over and shopping trip with some exposition.

I now realise it was building upon our connection to the city and it's people to make us care about the battle! Man I was wrong, the Azure City section was amazing!

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Originally Posted by littlebum2002

Initial dislike: the new art style.

Now? The old strips look old fashioned and outdated. Rich should go back and re-do them all in the new style

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Ditto. The art style was jarring at first, but it's grown on me.

Only trouble is, it barely counts as a stick figure comic anymore.