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2018-02-06, 12:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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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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2018-02-06, 01:53 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2004
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.Orth Plays: Currently Baldur's Gate II
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2018-02-06, 01:55 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2006
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- California
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2018-02-06, 01:56 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain
Miko - qualifies as a villain at least by The Giant's standards - the "Inspector Javert" of OOTS.
Marut-2 Avatar by Serpentine
New Marut Avatar by Linkele
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2018-02-06, 02:18 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2018
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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2018-02-06, 04:01 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2018
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2018-02-06, 04:32 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2015
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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2018-02-06, 04:41 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2017
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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2018-02-06, 04:59 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2018
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2018-02-06, 06:57 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2016
Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain
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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2018-02-06, 11:19 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2007
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- Beverly, MA, USA
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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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2018-02-07, 12:56 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2009
Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain
Leeky Windstaff
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2018-02-07, 03:52 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2013
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- Yorkshire
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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2018-02-07, 07:52 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2017
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- Home, as is the law.
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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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2018-02-07, 08:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2015
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- San Francisco Bay area
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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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2018-02-07, 09:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2014
Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain
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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2018-02-07, 11:05 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2006
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2018-02-07, 11:12 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2008
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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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2018-02-07, 11:14 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2013
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- Skyron, Andromeda
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2018-02-07, 02:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2015
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- Texas
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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.Avatar by linklele. How Teleport Worksa. Malifice (paraphrased):
Rulings are not 'House Rules.' Rulings are a DM doing what DMs are supposed to do.
b. greenstone (paraphrased):
Agency means that they {players} control their character's actions; you control the world's reactions to the character's actions.
Second known member of the Greyview Appreciation Society
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2018-02-07, 03:20 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2007
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- Beverly, MA, USA
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Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain
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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2018-02-07, 06:05 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2014
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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.
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2018-02-07, 06:13 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2015
Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain
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.
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2018-02-07, 10:55 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2015
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- Texas
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Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain
Avatar by linklele. How Teleport Worksa. Malifice (paraphrased):
Rulings are not 'House Rules.' Rulings are a DM doing what DMs are supposed to do.
b. greenstone (paraphrased):
Agency means that they {players} control their character's actions; you control the world's reactions to the character's actions.
Second known member of the Greyview Appreciation Society
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2018-02-08, 05:39 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2014
Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain
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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2018-02-08, 02:37 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2007
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- Oregon, USA
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
ElanRoy and his liking for complicated arrangements, to enact it.FeytouchedBanana eldritch disciple avatar by...me!
The Index of the Giant's Comments VI―Making Dogma from Zapped Bananas
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2018-02-08, 05:00 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2007
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- Beverly, MA, USA
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Re: Who is everyone's favorite villain
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).Number of Character Appearances VII - To Absent Friends
Currently playing a level 20 aasimar necromancer named Zebulun Salathiel and a level 9 goliath diviner named Lo-Kag.
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2018-02-08, 06:44 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2014
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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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2018-02-08, 07:02 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2010
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- Turkey
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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.
Spoiler
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2018-02-08, 07:25 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2015
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- San Francisco Bay area
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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