OOTS #1141 - The Discussion Thread

[Rrmcklin]

Heres the problem with Redcloak not being redeemed and Jirix helping instead:

The Order of the Stick has no freaking clue who Jirix is.

Even if they did? Jirix is in a nation in the SOUTH. They, are in the NORTH. While on a limited frame of time. To save the world, they have to get to the person involved as fast as possible, and Jirix is way farther than Redcloak.

They do not know anyone with teleportation abilities enough to get them to Azure City.

While its possible for Thor to tell him about Jirix, and for them to cast Sending, good luck getting all that Thor talked about across in increments of 25 words or less. And even if they got the message across, there is no guarantee that The Dark One will listen to Jirix over Redcloak when he is so close to finishing their plan, and in fact might make the Dark One smile

The other option is for them to simply kill Xykon and Redcloak then go to Jirix afterwards to work this out. More plausible than the others, but it still has the problem of Not Knowing Who The Heck Jirix Is. and there is no guarantee Thor knows who Jirix is either? The other problem with this is the Snarl. Based on the desert rift having snarl-stuff clawing outwards, the Snarl is going to break out soon. They may not have the time to travel back to Jirix to convince the Dark One, while The Dark One themselves will be looking at their most prized High Priest being killed and on his plane and seeing that humans haven't changed.....

....which means HOW they convince the Dark One is just as important as convincing him. If Redcloak dies, the Dark One will have an excuse to not cooperate, let the current world be destroyed then remake it so that the next one is better to goblinkind AND immune/resistant to the Snarl while condemning the current one to its fate. Its a petty excuse, but gods are nothing if not petty. and Roy is battling for the right of the CURRENT world to exist. Redcloak needs to live for that to happen.

In fact I'd go so far as to say Redcloak being redeemed....is REQUIRED to make sure the current world exists, or all that they will have accomplished is making sure the next world is safe, not their own. Because while Redcloak needs be stopped, The Dark One is the person who truly needs to be convinced of this world's right to exist. And the Dark One has a lot of negative emotions about this world. He is the one that got killed here after all and started this whole crazy plan in the first place. Words alone will not sway a deity who has held anger against all of humanity for likely centuries and is in the exact position to say "let the current humans die. they deserve death for their sins against my kind. let the slate be wiped clean and whatever new humans be free of the sin against mine in the next world." After all, the Dark One wins no matter what scenario happens- its making sure everyone else wins as well.

All of this is pretty definitive considering we don't even have any idea about what Thor is actually about to say. I'd say it makes more sense to wait for that instead of making proclamations about how the story has to go.