Kickstarter Discussion Thread - How the Paladin Got His Scar (SPOILERS!)

[Benjuri]

Backing the Kickstarter all those years ago was worth it just for this. Such and awesome story. Although the story of Shojo and Miko may have just gotten even more tragic than it already was.

[Yana]

Who knows? If we ever return to the Jirix administration, he might come down with a case of "improperly preserved gouda".

It won't happen, but it's a wonderful callback to a more lighthearted time. That whale though. That was a side-splitter. I always figured that paladin mounts tasted like vanilla and/or chicken.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Yes, definitely. Most likely outcome is that I bundle it with the Therkla story and a few other Azure City-themed short stories and sell it as a book, rather than as solo stories like I did Belkar and Halelo/Julelan. Best case scenario would be this Fall, more likely is holiday season.



A lot. Main comic is going to be getting my full attention probably for the next month, then I'll need to see whether I need to split time with an income-generator of some sort.

One of my classmates also reads OOTS but missed out on the Kickstarter. Guess what she's getting for Christmas.

And porthos, you took the words out of my mouth. This comic is one of those pieces of art that softly but firmly grabs you by the heart and doesn't let go. There are a few lines in Night Watch that I go back to every few weeks. The cover is so worn that the pages fall open to those lines automatically. I just sit and look at those lines for a while. I think I might be doing something similar with some of your pages.

Thank you.

[Tala Goodweed]

Excelent addition to the Oots lore! Glad I was able to donate to the KS when it was on!

also (sorry for pointing this out, but there ir a grammar error in the Ettin dialogue in page 10)

Oh, no,I can’t do that. Stopping him would would constitute an unreasonable restriction of his rights.

There is an extra WOULD

[Zyzzyva]

Zhao is the greatest. That is all.

(Well, ok, the fight with the troll ettin troll ettin was also pretty fun. As is Supreme Leader (II), and "The Grinch Who Stole Reservoir Day". And, of course, O-Chul remains amazing and the greatest Paladin to ever have only a stack of Fighter levels, and the flashback story is a really nice bit of misdirect - I was with Saha the whole way. Also "45 minutes later". OK, lots of things to like. But Zhao is still the greatest.)

ETA:

Thinking about this, as I said over at KS, I think the only very, very, very minor criticism I would have of this is that Miko 'learning life lessons' was a tiny bit too neat.

Just a tiny bit. Like a smidgen.

Eh. The O-Chul lesson was a bit on the nose, sure. The Gin-Jun lesson was, IMO, a pretty nice bit of characterization, explaining how someone ostensibly raised by Shinjo could end up like that.

[Porthos]

Since I lightly criticized the 'Miko life lessons', let me balance the scales by commenting that Rich MASTERFULLY threaded the needle of "Sapphire Guard Doing Bad Things" that has been the center of the raging controversy ever since SoD hit our shelves.

It could have so easily not worked. It could have so easily been "Just OK". Instead it was absolutely on point, and well, perfect.

You had an out of control leader. A subordinate who had misgivings but didn't have the courage of convictions to rock the boat too much until the situation changed. And a bunch of, well, sheep, going with the flow.

Until their eyes were opened to what was really going on.

Then EVERYONE, with one notable exception, stood up for What Was Right.

It took a LOT for them to see reason. But reason they still saw.

You also had a very good answer as to why the hobgoblins didn't just obliterate Azure City beforehand (SPOILER: They could have AND at least some were planning on it).

And how both O-Chul and Hinjo found themselves joining the SG? Just beautiful.

So, yes. How the Paladin Got His Scar stuck the landing, as they say. And a VERY difficult landing, I might add.

[Peelee]

Up since 4 this morning, spent all day driving to D.C., and had to read it before I went to bed. Totally worth it. I can never get enough O-chul.

Porthos, you called it as the Good-version of Start of Darkness.

[MReav]

Great story, but my pedantry must be dealt with.

On page 82, when the sword chops through the polearm, the polearm's pieces are moving outward, rather than inward. Also, the sword slashes in the midsection when the angle would look more natural going into the shoulder. Either that, or the polearm should be at a different angle while the sword should be swinging under the target's arm (though that angle would likely cover someone's face).

Still, very interesting look into the characters' pasts.

[Ted The Bug]

In retrospect, this strip has a LOT more weight than it did.

"As long as I am Supreme Leader..."

100%. I don't know why, but basically all and any goblins and hobgoblins are the most fun characters for me.

Also,

Yes, definitely. Most likely outcome is that I bundle it with the Therkla story and a few other Azure City-themed short stories and sell it as a book

called it! Please title it The Blue Book so I can feel sufficiently like a future psychic.

[Porthos]

Eh. The O-Chul lesson was a bit on the nose, sure. The Gin-Jun lesson was, IMO, a pretty nice bit of characterization, explaining how someone ostensibly raised by Shinjo could end up like that.

It just felt a tiny bit like caricature than characterization. On the other hand, Miko is exceedingly difficult to write. Plus the rest of her scenes were very well done and believable.

It's not something I want to make a big deal about. It's just something that I see looking back on the whole story.

(As I think about it even more, I think going to the well twice on Miko Life Lessons which was what is really giving me my minor mixed feelings.)

FWIW, I think when we found out that Miko views herself as a Special Person of Destiny in the bonus strips in W&XP was handled a lot better. But this book is also not Miko's Story AND it's an exceedingly minor quibble.

So consider my thoughts as read, as I really don't want to detract from what I think will be viewed as a masterpiece in time.

[t209]

Well, now we know about the lore...Plus explanation something about "Why are there Chinese and Korean names?"
I wonder what happened to Realm of the Dragon? Sure they might have peeve with their blue cousin, but there is a thing called "ancestral birthright" and having Goblin nations at the border might not sit well with them.
Depends if they decided to push their influence now that Azure City is officially gone. Come to think of it, that might be another reason for other cities to join with Gobbotopia for "protection".
Also was it me or I am seeing Miko as Kenshiro?

[CoffeeIncluded]

This might be the exhaustion talking but one interesting thing is that the title, "How The Paladin Got His Scar," implies that O-Chul already had levels in Paladin when he got his scar. He didn't. At this time he was a single-class Fighter, not a Paladin.

At least, he wasn't technically a Paladin. But he was definitely a paladin through and through, and more of a paladin than Gin-Jun ever was or would be.

[Porthos]

This might be the exhaustion talking but one interesting thing is that the title, "How The Paladin Got His Scar," implies that O-Chul already had levels in Paladin when he got his scar. He didn't. At this time he was a single-class Fighter, not a Paladin.

At least, he wasn't technically a Paladin. But he was definitely a paladin through and through, and more of a paladin than Gin-Jun ever was or would be.

Treat the entire story as a Narrated Flashback.

[Draconi Redfir]

i just finished the o-chul PDF. and i must say, it was beautiful. loved all the things that tied in to what we've already seen in the comic and the like.

LOVED the hobogoblin-centric focus of a majority of the PDF. as a Goblinoid myself i appreciate learning about how a group of humans did their best to protect my cousins. loved the little cultural exchanges as well, very nice overall.

[Zyzzyva]

Well, now we know about the lore...Plus explanation something about "Why are there Chinese and Korean names?"

Oh, yeah, I forgot "nobody knew why they called themselves the Ancient Empire, but besides that, times were good."

I wonder what happened to Realm of the Dragon?

IIRC from... Don't Split The Party?... the red dragon died and was replaced by a much younger, much less intelligent white dragon, and they're dealing with all the internal squabbling that opened up.

[ti'esar]

IIRC from... Don't Split The Party?... the red dragon died and was replaced by a much younger, much less intelligent white dragon, and they're dealing with all the internal squabbling that opened up.

It was actually a standalone comic in SS&DT, though I really wonder whether it might have been originally meant to go in the never-produced OOTS setting book, since that's probably where a lot of this worldbuilding on the South came from. The Ancient Empire was previously namedropped in the Azure City excerpt from W&XP.

[Renegade Paladin]

You also had a very good answer as to why the hobgoblins didn't just obliterate Azure City beforehand (SPOILER: They could have AND at least some were planning on it).

I don't think they could have. What we saw was the end result of 20 odd years of peace and the massive infrastructure projects Supreme Leader Mk II was talking about. At the time of this story they clearly didn't have the population.

[Zyzzyva]

It was actually a standalone comic in SS&DT, though I really wonder whether it might have been originally meant to go in the never-produced OOTS setting book, since that's probably where a lot of this worldbuilding on the South came from. The Ancient Empire was previously namedropped in the Azure City excerpt from W&XP.

Yeah, the... I want to say DStP again... pdf bonus content included some snippets of the splatbook, and the Realm of the Dragon was mentioned in there (I think). The black and white stuff - realm of the dragon, dirt farmers in Medieval Town, "how baby water elementals are born" - were explicitly described as being recycled from the splatbook.

(Sorry for the lack of clarity, I'm sleepy and doing this away from the computer I have my pdfs on. If someone has the pdfs at hand, I stand to be corrected.)

[Aron Times]

I can't believe I didn't realize this until now: The Sapphire Guard are basically the SCP Foundation. They do horrible things in the darkness so the rest of us can live in the light.

The Snarl escaping containment would be an XK-class End of the World Scenario...

[ref]

This is an awesome story! In fact I might want to buy it when published, even though I have read it already. But I take from the Giant's comment that other pdf stories have already been published? I didn't know that.

Also, thank you very much for showing us a sane Miko.

[Porthos]

This is an awesome story! In fact I might want to buy it when published, even though I have read it already. But I take from the Giant's comment that other pdf stories have already been published? I didn't know that.

Also, thank you very much for showing us a sane Miko.

Uncivil Servant and Haelo & Julelan are available on Gumroad as downloadable PDFs.

[Sermil]

So, Saha Kapoor and her kids... If they're moving to Cliffport or Greysky or points nearby, did we ever see them again? Particularly her kids? They would have been young adults by the time of the main story.

[ZMiles]

Loved the comic! O-Chul continues to be awesome.

I did have one question, though. Early on, Nguyen is injured and we get this exchange:

Nguyen: "Captain...if the hobgoblins attack again...you know you can’t count on her, right"
O-Chul: "I know. But right at this exact moment, a live coward is more useful to me than a dead hero [...] Or a half- dead hero who struggles to talk when he has several broken ribs."

And Nguyen apologizes.

Is this supposed to be:

* A joke about how in high fantasy there's very often 'dying' characters who, despite crippling injuries, manage to gasp out entire pages of exposition and warnings before finally perishing?

* An implication that Nguyen isn't really injured and was faking it out of cowardice like Zhou, hence him being able to warn O-Chul when his injuries should have precluded it?

[Porthos]

For timeline purposes, HtPGHS takes place approx 12 years before the start of the comic (the attack on Redcloak's village was 22 years prior and that in turn was 34 years before the start of the comic).

[ti'esar]

I don't think it's supposed to be a meta joke - just O-Chul humorously chiding Nguyen not to strain his injuries by talking.

[Sniffnoy]

Loved the comic! O-Chul continues to be awesome.

I did have one question, though. Early on, Nguyen is injured and we get this exchange:

Nguyen: "Captain...if the hobgoblins attack again...you know you can’t count on her, right"
O-Chul: "I know. But right at this exact moment, a live coward is more useful to me than a dead hero [...] Or a half- dead hero who struggles to talk when he has several broken ribs."

And Nguyen apologizes.

Is this supposed to be:

* A joke about how in high fantasy there's very often 'dying' characters who, despite crippling injuries, manage to gasp out entire pages of exposition and warnings before finally perishing?

* An implication that Nguyen isn't really injured and was faking it out of cowardice like Zhou, hence him being able to warn O-Chul when his injuries should have precluded it?

I interpreted it as a reminder to Nguyen that he shouldn't risk hurting himself further by trying to talk right then.

[PontificatusRex]

Wow, that was just amazing. Great hopping buddha, so relevant and important. Very much in sync with a lot of thoughts I've been having about the world - "Everyone who is for war is really on the same side, everyone who is for peace is really on the same side." serious shades of C.S. Lewis there too, i.e. "The Last Battle". And yes, I agree with other folks who have posted, a wonderful mirror image to "Start of Darkness", Lewis vs Moorcock's Elric tragedy. The ends can justify the means if it's yourself you're sacrificing- other people, no not at all.

And 95 pages of work, my inner stat geek tells me that if we imagine that as equaling one page of the regular strip every 3 days - a very fast turnover, really - that would be the equivalent of 285 days of Oots updates. In other words, totally worth the wait the last few weeks.

[Porthos]

Ow wow. A call-forward/in-joke that COMPLETELY slid by me on first read through.

"What are you doing creeping around listening out there? I really should put a door up one of these days."

Yes... Yes you should have.

[Gift Jeraff]

Wow, we actually got backstory for a 3-panel gag character. Nice job screwing over another neutral goblin settlement, Redcloak.

[ti'esar]

Nice job screwing over another neutral goblin settlement, Redcloak.

It'll all be worth it. You'll see.