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  1. - Top - End - #1
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    Goblin

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    Default Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Through out OOTS a lot of wacky and cool villains have shown up, from Zyken to Thog, each offering a lot up to story, for me Redcloak is my favorite, he feels original and MINOR SPOILERS,


    Goes through some character development
    So, what's your favorite villain in OOTS?

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    Kish's Avatar

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    That depends on what you're looking for when you say "favorite." I like none of the villains in the sense of thinking they're morally good or wanting them to succeed.

    Redcloak, as you note, has depth, nuance, and some measure of justification, even while having far less of all three than he deludes himself he does. What he claims to be pursuing is a worthy cause; the way he's actually sacrificing the goblin people to his unwillingness to admit how badly he messed up with Xykon makes him tragic.

    Xykon fills the valuable role of a villain who's both overwhelming in power and entirely unsympathetic. He's an appropriate challenge for the heroes to face down at the story's climax.

    Tarquin is, odd as this is to say for someone who openly flaunts knowing he's a fictional character, realistic in a way that makes him a good villain. Real malignant narcissists and sociopaths don't do you the favor of looking like a skeleton, speaking in white-on-black text, and openly stating that they're evil. Tarquin got many, many people making excuses for him even as everything that he actually did showed a monster as vile as Xykon; some of them still do.

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    RedKnightGirl

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    d6 Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Malak and Tarkin they were cooperative and cohesive even being evil
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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Miko - qualifies as a villain at least by The Giant's standards - the "Inspector Javert" of OOTS.
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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Considering how well The Giant develops his characters, I'm going with Redcloak post-Azure City. Prior to that storyline, I thought of him as just a flunky supporting the BBEG. But the arc his story followed through that part of the tale got me thinking more about what he is and what motivates him.

    I'm actually a little sad that his role seems to have pushed him back into Flunky #1.

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    Goblin

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Quote Originally Posted by Sienar View Post
    Considering how well The Giant develops his characters, I'm going with Redcloak post-Azure City. Prior to that storyline, I thought of him as just a flunky supporting the BBEG. But the arc his story followed through that part of the tale got me thinking more about what he is and what motivates him.

    I'm actually a little sad that his role seems to have pushed him back into Flunky #1.
    That's what is was for me two, the sad thing is in order for the arc to happen someone had to sacrifice to see what hobgoblins weren't all that different

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Thog is the champion, Thog's friends! And Thog keeps on fighting to the end!

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    SolithKnightGuy

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Does the MiTD still count as a villain at this point? I think his arc has been the most satisfying of team evil.

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    Goblin

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Quote Originally Posted by mormon_soldier View Post
    Does the MiTD still count as a villain at this point? I think his arc has been the most satisfying of team evil.
    During his earlier stages I probably would have considered him a villain but he really shifted to neutral in the Azura city arc and with are most recent arc we've seen him purposely try sabotaging team evil so, no

  10. - Top - End - #10
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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Quote Originally Posted by Kish View Post
    That depends on what you're looking for when you say "favorite." I like none of the villains in the sense of thinking they're morally good or wanting them to succeed.
    I think it is widely acknowledged that it is ok to like a villain, even to like one more than non-villains - after all I think Redcloak won the most popular character competition a few months back.

    A villain will almost by definition not be morally good, so I don't think you need to explicitly preface your comments by saying so to ensure that nobody thinks that you are a baddy yourself for happening to like one.

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    Flumph

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    There are very few villains I dislike in the sense that I think they’re poorly written characters or that I don’t enjoy seeing them. I like most villains for very different reasons, though, so it’s tough for me to pick a favorite. For instance, I enjoy reading Thog strips more than I enjoy reading Redcloak strips, but Redcloak is a better and more interesting character and I would rather the story lose Thog than Redcloak.

    If push came to shove, I’d probably pick Redcloak as my favorite. It helps that you can root for him in many specific scenarios (particularly when he is opposed to Xykon), even if you ultimately want him to be defeated.

    Side note: Does Hank count as a villain? I wouldn’t pick him as my #1 favorite, obviously, but I’ve always liked him quite a lot for some reason.
    Last edited by Emanick; 2018-02-06 at 11:21 PM.

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Leeky Windstaff
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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Xykon. The B-A-Double-D BADDEST motherflipper on the planet.

    He's the perfect heel. He's cool, he's witty, he's funny, he's calm, he's cocky, he knows full well how damn awesome he is.

    You want him to be in the next strip, because it'll be funny and it'll be cool. You tune in to see him... But he's still evil enough that what you really, really want to tune in and see is him being defeated.

    If he 'died' in the next strip I'd be annoyed since we'd never see him again... But I'll be overjoyed when he dies in the last strip.

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    All you fools know not the true power of a villain, becuase the greatest villain of all... Is Sandy, the unnamed vampire with a sandy hair color!

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    I feel I must nod for:

    "A beloved character", "Hipster tool", "Team Player", "Hobbit fajita", "A bumbling sidekick", "A seasoned warrior", "A sexy shoeless god of cooking", "A SEXY SHOELESS GOD OF WAR", "Robespierre",'The 8th dwarf, "Stabby"', "Still alive","The Belkster", "The most badass halfling EVER", "Daddy", "The Handsome Halfling", "A man with a REAL class", "Ali S. Fakenamington", "Badass ranger", "Brokeass ranger", "The New and Improved"

    Belkar Bitterleaf, aka Little Death's Helper!


    Wait, not a villian?

    He's a hero?



    Really?

    Okay.

    Tsukiko then, 'cause pigtails!

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Quote Originally Posted by hamishspence View Post
    Miko - qualifies as a villain at least by The Giant's standards - the "Inspector Javert" of OOTS.
    I know that the author has... a thing about Javert, but I'm not sure the analogy is all that tight. Javert never assassinates the royals, and isn't actually wrong in suspecting Valjean of various crimes, but he also never rescued the helpless, healed the sick, or found his nemesis conspiring with superiors to break murderers out of prison. Miko has higher highs and lower lows.

    I despise Belkar and everything his presence in the narrative stands for, but from a purely narrative-mechanical standpoint he probably has the most well-rounded character arc out of all the Order, and he can be gold in comedy terms.

    Xykon is a great comedic villain who can be chillingly effective when he his, ah, allowed to put his mind to it. Redcloak is possibly the most fleshed-out character in the strip, though, so he'd probably get my nomination.
    Give directly to the extreme poor.

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    RedKnightGirl

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    d6 Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Quote Originally Posted by 2D8HP View Post
    I feel I must nod for:

    "A beloved character", "Hipster tool", "Team Player", "Hobbit fajita", "A bumbling sidekick", "A seasoned warrior", "A sexy shoeless god of cooking", "A SEXY SHOELESS GOD OF WAR", "Robespierre",'The 8th dwarf, "Stabby"', "Still alive","The Belkster", "The most badass halfling EVER", "Daddy", "The Handsome Halfling", "A man with a REAL class", "Ali S. Fakenamington", "Badass ranger", "Brokeass ranger", "The New and Improved"

    Belkar Bitterleaf, aka Little Death's Helper!


    Wait, not a villian?

    He's a hero?



    Really?

    Okay.

    Tsukiko then, 'cause pigtails!

    You got it wrong your first vote said it best short skirt and flight.

    Comic 522
    Last edited by denthor; 2018-02-07 at 11:19 AM.
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  18. - Top - End - #18
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    Cicciograna's Avatar

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    My favorite villain is the blonde bandit girl from strip 151. Great character, very deep, goes through very detailed evolution throughout the strip.

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    RedWizardGuy

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    It’s tough to pick just one, so I’ll list out a few that I think qualify. Definitely Redcloak and Malack, and possibly Nale for the comedic value.


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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Tarquin is, as OoTS villains go, as good as Rich has come up with (so far) in terms of trying to add some complexity to character building.

    Durkula is gaining on him.
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  21. - Top - End - #21
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    Flumph

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Quote Originally Posted by KorvinStarmast View Post
    Tarquin is, as OoTS villains go, as good as Rich has come up with (so far) in terms of trying to add some complexity to character building.

    Durkula is gaining on him.
    Personally, I tend to think Tarquin is light-years ahead of Durkon* still. The latter isn’t a terribly complex character, though the idea of him being “Durkon on his worst day,” or something related to that, is certainly intriguing.

    Tarquin, on the other hand... his willful self-deception is so multilayered and fascinating that I think he rivals Tedcloak* as my favorite villain. I’d like to write an essay on him someday.

    * Autocorrect produced this. I caught it before I pressed Submit, but am Ieaving it as is because it amuses me.
    Last edited by Emanick; 2018-02-07 at 03:20 PM.

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    I'd go with Tsukiko because she somehow manages to end up being a tragic figure despite being a traitorous sociopathic necrophiliac.

    I like Jirix too, would love to see a book devoted to him, perhaps a side story about what happens in Gobbotopia after team evil leaves.

  23. - Top - End - #23
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    MindFlayer

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Quote Originally Posted by Sienar View Post
    Considering how well The Giant develops his characters, I'm going with Redcloak post-Azure City. Prior to that storyline, I thought of him as just a flunky supporting the BBEG. But the arc his story followed through that part of the tale got me thinking more about what he is and what motivates him.

    I'm actually a little sad that his role seems to have pushed him back into Flunky #1
    .
    Why on earth do you think he is back to being Flunky #1?

    Leaving aside his outright statement that he intends to betray Xykon and the clear and detailed steps he has taken to towards that goal (going so far as to memorize every single detail of Xykon's phylactery, having an exact replica made and then adding most of the exact same abjuration spells to that replica while keeping the real phylactery for himself) there's also these lines from Blood is in the Family:


    And the third was that it allowed me to show Redcloak cutting
    loose and displaying the full might of a cleric with 9th level
    spells. Up until now, Redcloak was always second fiddle,
    power-wise, to Xykon. It was crucial that I show that he’d
    grown into a heavy hitter on his own, thanks to his focus
    on summoning extraplanar allies and the truly disturbing
    implosion spell.
    (In fact, the secondary reason I needed to introduce
    the somewhat unpleasant elven commander and lieutenant
    characters earlier is that I needed someone whom I could
    implode once this scene rolled around. All the existing
    characters in the Resistance were too noble for such a fate!)

    The scene in Redcloak’s study was an interesting one
    to write in that much of the factual information contained
    in it was not new to those who had read the villain prequel
    Start of Darkness—but I still needed to introduce some of
    those ideas to the main comic for those who hadn’t read
    that book. (If that includes you, go read the book! It has
    clown ninjas in it.) I knew that I had to include certain
    exposition in the midst of a scene that had its own dramatic
    punch or else it would be three pages of recapping stuff
    about which half the audience already knew. I had always
    known that Tsukiko was headed to a bad end at Redcloak’s
    hands, and so this became the right time to pull the trigger.
    Her position as a mystic theurge—a spellcaster who can use
    both arcane and divine spells—made her the perfect person
    to figure out how Redcloak was manipulating Xykon to
    acheive his own goals.

    The scene ends with Xykon’s return, and Redcloak’s
    boldest gambit yet in #832: telling his boss point-blank that
    he killed Tsukiko. By mentioning the half of the ritual that
    Xykon had given her behind Redcloak’s back, the goblin
    forced his “employer” onto the defensive, possibly for the
    first time.
    Xykon is obviously suspicious of the ritual or he
    wouldn’t have handed it over to her to examine—but if he
    admits that, then Redcloak would know he was moving
    against him. The fact that he’s even worried about that at
    all may be the most telling indicator of Redcloak’s rising
    power.
    The final strip before they teleport back out (#901)
    showcases the changing nature of the main villains. On
    one hand, we have Redcloak, growing in power and
    agency, becoming fully aware of the Order of the Stick
    as adversaries to his plan
    . At the same time, we have the
    Monster in the Darkness, seemingly unlocking qualities
    even he didn’t know he possessed to argue in favor of his
    friend O-Chul’s allies. And then we have Xykon, the undead
    unchanging lich in the middle
    being tugged at from both
    ends. Does he see how his two subordinates are growing
    in opposite directions? It’s tough to tell, but it is clear that
    he’s much more engaged with stifling Redcloak than he
    is with the Order itself. The Monster wins the tug of war
    not necessarily because of his rhetorical points but because
    Xykon is unwilling to take Redcloak’s point of view seriously.
    Good news for the Order in the short term, but it will only
    reinforce Redcloak’s interest in squashing them next time.
    Compared to his previous role where Xykon puts Redcloak down for the sake of putting him down it seems that the intent now is that Xykon trying to push Redcloak into the flunky position is because he is beginning to get worried about his minion growing powerful enough to actually win when the time for backstabbing begins. It occurs to me that the current story arc might even build up those fears even more. Team Evil is currently spending every single day level grinding against some of the toughest monsters in the world and while some of those monsters are strong enough to give Xykon XP, Redcloak is getting XP from all of them. And as a lower level character he needs less of it to level up. Because of diminishing returns its pretty much inevitable that the level gap will keep shrinking as long as they face equal challenges. I'm not sure if Redcloak will actually be able to win against Xykon (likely not) but I think he will be able to present a credible threat to him when the time comes and might come really close to succeeding.

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Quote Originally Posted by Emanick View Post
    Personally, I tend to think Tarquin is light-years ahead of Durkon* still. The latter isn’t a terribly complex character, though the idea of him being “Durkon on his worst day,” or something related to that, is certainly intriguing.
    True, Rich spent a goodly amount of time giving Tarquin layers.
    Durkon is The Enemy Within. It's a different kind of villain. (Tarquin still in the lead, though ... to be sure)
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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Quote Originally Posted by Unbodied View Post
    It’s tough to tell, but it is clear that he’s much more engaged with stifling Redcloak than he
    is with the Order itself.
    Xykon and RC do have a rather interesting rapport/rivalry dynamic going on. You get these occasional indications of a genuine attachment to eachother or at least enjoyment of eachother's company, but they have fundamentally divergent motives and at least one of them knows it. SoD is a very solid story if you overlook a few flaws, and it's continuation is really quite intriguing.

    Unfortunately, this particular scene was also where Xykon lost all credibility as an antagonist to me, and my sporadic interest in the Order's fate finally flatlined. When your primary villain is this accommodating, I see no way the heroes can fail.
    Give directly to the extreme poor.

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    There appears to be a distinct lack of acknowledgement of Hel here, who's found a way to turn the means of her oppression back onto her oppressors. Even though she has to rely on HPoH, who's quite Nale-esque in his desire to outdo Elan Roy and his liking for complicated arrangements, to enact it.
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    Flumph

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    Quote Originally Posted by Jasdoif View Post
    There appears to be a distinct lack of acknowledgement of Hel here, who's found a way to turn the means of her oppression back onto her oppressors. Even though she has to rely on HPoH, who's quite Nale-esque in his desire to outdo Elan Roy and his liking for complicated arrangements, to enact it.
    My guess is that people hate her too much for what she’s doing to Durkon (and plans to do to the dwarves) to appreciate her scheme much. I personally find it a bit hard to enjoy her cleverness because I’m too invested in wanting it to fail. But it’s possible that I’m just projecting, and not many others feel that way.

    There’s also the fact that we haven’t seen her in many strips so far (has she had ten strips with dialogue in them? I don’t think so).
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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    She's also spent the majority of her screen time acting like a petulant child.

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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    She didn't even came up to my mind. I guess she just not appeared enough to make an impression.
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    Default Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain

    I know I already picked, but I want to give a shout-out to the villian Sabine



    especially for giving advice to Vaarsuvius, when V was being kept by the ICC


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