Favorite OOTS Character Final: ALL EVIL! #5 BELKAR v #2 REDCLOAK

[alwaysbebatman]

VOTING IS CLOSED

The first seed was knocked out. Who is our favorite character? One thing is sure: the winner will be south of Neutral.

#5 BELKAR BITTERLEAF

VS.

#2 REDCLOAK

[Euclidodese]

"Ladies, gentlemen and everything betwixt and between. The following popularity contest is scheduled for one fall and is for the GITP Heavyweight Championship of the world!
Your referee for this bout is Alwaysbebatman and there is a seven day time-limit.

Introducing first: In the blood-red corner, the veteran of 55 tough years and 17 hard-earned levels. His class ain't mundane, his evil's untamed, and when he looks in the mirror his heart fills with shame.

With more spell slots than a dictionary and more dark plots than a library, heaven doesn't want him, and hell's afraid he'll take over.

He is: The man with the green skin, the black heart and the white-hot fury. The Goblin known as: Redcloak!

And in the cool-blue corner, weighing in tonight at 31 pounds and standing 3 foot and two inches tall, he is: The blackheart, the diamond-cutter, the living legend and the good old-fashioned handsome man:

He floats like a whale corpse, stings like a tax bill, and he's never met a kobold he didn't want to kill.

He'll push your buttons, he'll flick your switch, he'll seduce you with a smile and then leave you with an itch.

He's got the gift of the gab, and the gift of the stab, and he'll pair every punch-line with the flex of an ab.

He is: The laughter-crafter who gives birth to mirth. The undefeated, the undisputed, the unparalleled banter-weight champion of the woooooooooooorld:

'Mr Netflix and Thrill' Belkar "If you ain't DTF yo, you can GTFO" Bitterleaf!"

In short: I vote for Belkar

[Potatomade]

Um... yeah, what he said.

BELKAR

[Peelee]

Well, this one is easy. I vote for O-Chul.

[Goblin_Priest]

Well, this one is easy. I vote for O-Chul.

We must not stop voting now, or it will all have been for nothing.

Redcloak

[Liquor Box]

A short but sweet plug for Belkar (credit to Elros - post 53 of Belkar vs Shojo thread):

" Belkar. First of all, he supplies most of the one liners in the comic (e.g. first panel here). And he headlines an entry on TV Tropes, and receives mention in several others.
The Giant gets a lot of mileage out of this guy..."

I do quite like Redcloak though, and I am partial to a good villian, so I may yet be swayed. I will wait until later to cast my vote.

[goodpeople25]

I vote for Roy, Elan, Daigo, Crystal, Lien, The Oracle, Argent and last but not least Kazumi.

[drazen]

Had Vaarsuvius won, I'd have had a real and difficult decision to make.

But Belkar was a lame, one-note character for the first half of the comic, and showed no real growth for nearly 900 strips. If not for his getting a secondary spotlight in the current book, he wouldn't be winning squat.

So I am left with no choice but to vote for the Green Goblin himself, Mr. Redcloak.

[Bobb]

Well, this one is easy. I vote for O-Chul.

I also will vote O-Chul

[Chobarth]

Pfft. I don't even understand how RedCloak ended up at number 2.

Belkar. Death's L'il Overachiever. #5 indeed...

[Kish]

Villains are necessary. "Heroic Sociopaths" stopped being interesting or appealing a long, long time ago. Redcloak.

[martianmister]

Redcloak, still.

[The Curt Jester]

Redcloak.

It takes a lot of work to make an interesting antagonist. In general, I find most of the ones I come across in books and movies (especially movies) to be boring. Redcloak isn't.

[Fincher]

HA HA HA HA HA HA! It's working! IT'S WORKING, SUCKERS!!

[Fincher]

By the way, I vote for Belkar.

[Ruck]

I really enjoy Belkar and was probably one of the loudest voices in the room for him up until this point.

But one of the crucial ingredients that really makes OOTS a story a cut above is the element of tragedy. Redcloak is the series' most tragic figure, shaped by experiences into a completely understandable course of action, that has nevertheless cost him everything in life worth having except that course of action. It works in the fashion of the best tragedies, creating a character whose decisions we can empathize with yet feel both pity and terror for where they have led him. Belkar is a fun character, but Redcloak is arguably the character who most elevates the story to new heights.

[NamonakiRei]

I'll write something interesting later. For now, I'm nabbing the 8th vote for Redcloak! My favorite number for my favorite character.

[Laurana]

I vote for Belkar Bitterleaf.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Wow, the Belkster really pulled it off! I'm so happy he got to stand victorious over V in the end, I wonder what he did to celebrate? Probably some sort of joke message with hir corpse about the elf having "explosive runs"

Hmm, despite both being small and evil, these two are about as opposite as you can get.
Law vs. Chaos.
A wise bookworm vs. someone who dump statted Int and Wis so he could stab harder.
Melee is the only thing I know vs. the most melee-averse caster in possibly the entire comic (certainly compared to all the other divine casters at least).
A guy who's had good reasons to do bad things all along but has grown into the role of full-fledged villain vs. a guy who's never had sympathetic reasons for anything but is now developing a redemption arc.
One of the main characters w/ the most unflinchingly serious demeanor vs. the main character most dedicated to comedy relief.

Not sure who I want to vote for yet, but I'll be happy w/ either of them as the winner.

[lothos]

I also will vote O-Chul

Yeah, I want to vote O-Chul too...... But futile gestures after the game is over are just that... futile.

I guess when choosing between these two O-Chul wannabes I have to go for Redcloak.

So I reluctantly vote Redcloak.

[Peelee]

Yeah, I want to vote O-Chul too...... But futile gestures after the game is over are just that... futile.

I guess when choosing between these two O-Chul wannabes I have to go for Redcloak.

So I reluctantly vote Redcloak.

Look, if there's an election and I don't like either of the candidates, I write in my vote, and I stand by that.

[Bob_McSurly]

Villains are necessary. "Heroic Sociopaths" stopped being interesting or appealing a long, long time ago. Redcloak.

I, on the other hand, think that Heroic Sociopaths are super interesting, (not to mention hilarious), so my vote goes to Belkar.
Sorry, Redcloak, I just can't forgive you for summoning chemically accurate elementals. The Tarquin in me thinks it goes against genre conventions, the MITD in me thinks it's confusing, the Elan in me thinks it was mean, and the Belkar in me thinks it makes them harder to stab.

[alwaysbebatman]

.... and when he looks in the mirror his heart fills with shame.

It's funny cos it's true.

[lothos]

Look, if there's an election and I don't like either of the candidates, I write in my vote, and I stand by that.

Fair enough.

I like Belkar a lot. He is definitely in my top 10 characters. I like Roadcloak more (probably in my top 5). So redclock gets my vote here.

Neither compare to O-Chul for me though, who is easily my favourite character in the comic.

More generally I don't think there's any character Rich has included in the comic that I really hate. So I think I'll always be able to take a position on any run off for 2nd place behind O-Chul :-)

[Riftwolf]

Evil vs Evil? Yawn.
We could've had Conflicted Neutral/False-repentant CE vs LG Paragon, but nooo...
I vote for Belkar as the lesser of two evils.

[Potatomade]

At least this beats Redcloak v. V. That would have been the dullest thing. Redcloak's a bit overrated (to me, anyway), and the multi-thread V's alignment discussion basically killed my interest in this contest

[Hamste]

I vote Belkar.

[Synesthesy]

I'm happy because they are my favourite characters :) but I don't know if I'll be able to choose only one of them.....

[Rack]

Comedy vs Drama eh? I'm still here for the comedy.

Belkar

[Goblin_Priest]

I love them both, though. Redcloak, V, Belkar, O'Chul, Elan, Tarquin, Malack, those are all top tier characters. Mid tiers being more the likes of Haley, Xykon, MitD, and low tier being Roy.

Though Redcloak is kinda super top tier. (I already voted)