elan and his position in the story

[krossbow]

Examining the plot lately, it seems more and more of the comic has revolved around elan and haley. Elan on his end was the central figure of the fleet, and Haley was the central figure back in the occupied azure city. Before this, a large amount of the story revolved around the linear guild's plot to wreck revenge upon elan, with an inordinate amount of time focused on elan's progression.


Now, this alone is not that big. There are all sorts of small arcs. however, examining the artwork of the newest book, one can glean certain important things from it.
The central characters in this image are haley and Elan. The action depicted in this illustration depicts as the conflict the two attempting to hold on to one another as an outside force attempts to seperate the two.
Though the ostensible leader of the group, roy is present, he is very clearly off to the side, almost an afterthought seemingly in the illustration.

Now, from a psychological standpoint, one viewing this picture who lacked any and all prior knowlege of the strip would immidiately leap to the conclusion that Elan was the main or central character of the strip due to his central location and importance to the picture.




My point is this: though elan may have started out as simply the comic relief character, throughout the story his progression as a character, shifting story arcs by the giant, and increasing relevance to on screen action have transformed him into the central/main character, not unlike how in the lord of the rings series samwise would go one to become (as per tolkien's own words) the main character.

[Sewblon]

He was the main character for most of that book. But right now it seems like Vaarsuvius is next in line to be the main character.

[factotum]

I haven't seen that Elan and Haley are the main characters, to be honest. When the party was split it's obvious that the two with the most pressing reasons to want to rejoin (e.g. the two lovers) would come to the fore, but I don't see them holding that position now the party is back together.

[Ceaon]

Elan was the main character of the Kubota arc, yes. Roy is still the main character of the story. Him being an 'afterthought' on the cover only signifies that, in this book, he plays a smaller role than usual when he's, you know, dead.

[Rhydeble]

If you look at the book, you can see how everyone had his own little story

Elan- Kubota arc
Vaarsuvius - Faustian arc
Haley - resistance arc, and part of the thieves arc
Belkar - Raising sneaky hell arc
Roy - corpse arc
Durkon - There's a chin just waiting to break free arc

[Scarlet Knight]

Forgive me if this was covered in the "Elan's Happy Ending" thread:

When the last book is complete, I believe you will find that Elan's happy ending is that he gets to tell their story; remembering his friends, keeping alive the legend of all the members and becomes a bard of great renown...at least within the ice cream parlor he opens with Haley & Thog...

[TheBlackShadow]

It would seem to me that Elan and Hayley's stints as the two major characters has more-or-less come to an end. Now, I'm not saying that they're going to just disappear into the background and not do anything for the rest of the comic. What I am saying is that, for the most part, their mutual development as characters is pretty much over; except for a few loose ends that need tidying up, eg Nale and the Linear Guild.

Already, the limelight seems to be starting to move away from them, and Belkar and Vaarsuvius seem to be coming into their own, and may become, if you will, temporary focus characters, like Elan and Haley were ever since the fall of Azure City (of course they had been developing long before then, but in similar ways so have V&B since before Roy's resurrection and the party reunion).

[Lissou]

I think they were in the middle of the cover only because they're a couple and therefore having them tryig to reach each other's hand is a good visual.

This story has 6 main characters. Durkon has always been more discreet and Roy was dead. Belkar was sick part of the time, too. In the end, Elan, Haley and V had a bigger role in this book than the other 3, I feel.

Because Elan and Haley are a couple, they might look twice as important now, since everything focusing on one of the two has chances to focus on the other as well. But I don't feel they're main characters more than the others, no.

[Larkspur]

Elan was always the one who got the most character development, simply because he had so far to go to become a useful member of the party.

I don't think we're going to see less of them in this next book, though, because they have to go through some arc with Haley's dad. Roy's big arc is done for a while, and Durkon's on the wrong continent, so we're probably going to be seeing a lot of Haley, Elan, and V, and Belkar in the events surrounding his impending death.

Roy will have a chance to pick up the plot again and do something important once they get to the boss battle. Poor Durkon will probably remain sidelined, as seems to be his fate.

[Acero]

Poor Durkon will probably remain sidelined, as seems to be his fate.

unfortunately, i agree...

we know he is going to die, so people care less about him because we already know his fate

[Kish]

unfortunately, i agree...

we know he is going to die, so people care less about him because we already know his fate

That doesn't make any sense. We know Belkar is going to not only die but be gone from the world forever within seven weeks, and that has people starting multiple "No! No! No!" threads. We know Durkon is going to die at some nebulous point before his final return to his beloved dwarven homelands; he may or may not then be resurrected. His fate is much less certain than Belkar's.

[Thanatosia]

It would seem to me that Elan and Hayley's stints as the two major characters has more-or-less come to an end.

Um, did you miss the part just a couple strips ago where the groundwork was laid for the long buried Haley's Father thread to be raised back up? I dont think their central role in the story is even close to being done.

I think Haley, Elan, and Belkar hog the camera just because they are the most interesting characters. And will probably continue to do so. V is getting little spurts of prominence for character development, but I think thats about coming to a finish, he's learned what he needs to learn, but he's still not going to be much of a limelight hog. Roy will continue to be the strait man to the Haley/Elan/Belkar gags and push the story forward, so he'll get a good bit of focus, but not as much as the 3 zanies. Durkon is just a walking stereotype, his role in the party is more dictated by D&D party build requirements then for his character and personality, so he never has and probably never will get an excessive amount of attention.

[drengnikrafe]

Somebody said something about Durkon being in the background... Yes. Many parties have people who work "behind the scenes". Their low charisma and good role-playing, or inibility to be social in a fantasy world lead them to be more quiet, more out of the way than other players. This statement is off topic. So...

Elan and Haley problem stepped up as quasi-leaders of their respective parties, and I can tell you why. Charisma. In general, I was told by my old DM, the person with the highest charisma has a tendancy to lead the party. Elan, as we all know, has (at least) an 18. Haley also must have a very good score, not to mention she was 2nd in command way back in the start of the comic. As such, it's only natural that, in the absense of the 'real' leader, she take the role as leader of a party, and the leader of the party tends to make decisions for the party, which makes them more central seeming to plot.

And that... is my 2 cp.