yossar wrote:Couldn't V be some form of neutral in the "Do whatever it takes to protect my family" sense? Maybe chaotic neutral (another alignment I hated) since he doesn't care about what rules he breaks to do so.
Good would be "kill the Black Dragon." Neutral would be "kill the Black Dragon and its likely reinforcements." Evil is "kill the Black Dragon and ANYTHING related to it."
There's justifiable homicide and overkill. The Fiends provided V with an excuse to go overboard, and it's pretty clear V's overintellectualized the problem to protect zer's tremendous ego. By acting for "all the wrong reasons," V has been damned.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein "I don't stand by anything." - Trump “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867 “It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
Zarathud wrote:
Good would be "kill the Black Dragon." Neutral would be "kill the Black Dragon and its likely reinforcements." Evil is "kill the Black Dragon and ANYTHING related to it."
Errr... no, not really. What you kill doesn't really have any effect on your alignment. The things that change your alignment are HOW (Did you cast a spell with the [Evil] descriptor? Did you deal demons or devils? Did you start a forest fire to kill a camp of bandits?) and WHY (Revenge? You felt like it? Because it will increase your personal power?) you killed.
So yeah, V is definitely damned, because firstly he willingly loaned his soul to devils, secondly he cast a very powerful spell that almost certainly has the [Evil] descriptor, thirdly he acted out of revenge, and fourthly he did it at least in part to increase his own power. He's sooooooo no longer any flavor of Good alignment. If he started out Good he might still be Neutral-leaning-Evil, but I always pegged him as Neutral to start with.
Technically, he hasn't loaned his soul to anyone yet, just agreed to loan it to the fiends.
If there's anything OOTS has taught us over the year it's this: assuming we know where Rich is going with ANYTHING is a losing bet. Gonna be fun seeing how he sorts this out.
Ooooh, is this the one where Jack and Chrissy are planning a surprise party for Janet at the Regal Beagle and she thinks they don't like her anymore because they're avoiding her to keep from spoiling the surprise, and then she treats them like crap to get back, but they then all realize it's just a big misunderstanding and they've damned their souls to a horrible fate . . . ?
I remember now why I stopped following OOTS for over a year. I don't blame the artist for not having any kind of release schedule, but it sure does bug me - enough that I'd rather skip it for a year, then enjoy a few days of catching up. Case in point - the last update was the Arneson tribute on the 9th, and here we are heading into the 16th without an update since. I think I'll find out what happens to V and the gang in 2010.
Glad they're all reunited, for however long it might last. I was starting to get separation fatigue. I always like the strip but think it's at it's best when all the characters are there for the range of interactions.
I went back yesterday and re-read Erfworld from the beginning (prompted to the recent reference to Lord Hamster as a "Hippiemancer" and my vague recollection that there had been a breakdown somewhere during the series of what different types of magic-users did). I have to say that a lot of the slow and confusing early episodes make a LOT more sense and are far more entertaining once you're more familiar with the nature of Erfworld, its rules and its key characters.
But of course. The orc cleric and Nale are likely to be bigger villains anyway.
Spoiler:
What Orc cleric? Do you mean Redcloak? He is a goblin. Did I miss something?
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” - H.L. Mencken
This is a thread about specific OOTS strips. Do we REALLY need spoiler tags? Unless you have inside information on upcoming strips, random speculation is not a spoiler.
“I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.” -Thomas Jefferson
Finding Red Riding Hood well-armed, the wolf calls for more gun control.
Bakhtosh wrote:This is a thread about specific OOTS strips. Do we REALLY need spoiler tags? Unless you have inside information on upcoming strips, random speculation is not a spoiler.
Bakhtosh wrote:This is a thread about specific OOTS strips. Do we REALLY need spoiler tags? Unless you have inside information on upcoming strips, random speculation is not a spoiler.
In this case it might be useful, considering that the title of the thread isn't up to date and could mislead someone into reading about events they haven't seen yet.
I do agree that the purpose of the spoiler tag isn't clear to everyone who uses it though. Sometimes people will spoiler something that absolutely doesn't need it, and other times they'll put something in spoiler tags that is unrelated to the current discussion but serves as a major spoiler for something else, and they won't even give a warning about what's coming ("But I put it in a spoiler tag inside a OOTS thread. You should have known that I'd post a major spoiler about 24 since it was surrounded by the spoiler tag!").
Yeah, I'm dying to see how this turns out. It's a credit to Rich that any number of things are possible. I have to assume that V will fail at this...but there are several possible storylines where he does not.
Given the problems with the website and the infrequent updates, I'm left wondering if this may be the end. I enjoy the comic and hope it goes on longer, but maybe he is just tired of writing it. I'm hoping for some big twists and another long plot line, but I am also cynical.
Fitzy wrote:Given the problems with the website and the infrequent updates, I'm left wondering if this may be the end. I enjoy the comic and hope it goes on longer, but maybe he is just tired of writing it. I'm hoping for some big twists and another long plot line, but I am also cynical.
We're nearing the end of a plot-arc for a book, but I don't think we have to worry about the strip as a whole ending anytime soon.
Sometime this upcoming week, Giant in the Playground will be moving to a new server. Before the dancing in the streets and cries of unbridled joy begin, let me make it clear that this will not eliminate all of our slowness problems. The only way we will truly master those issues is with some sort of multi-server solution, and this is not that. This is simply a move from the best single server our hosting company offered a year ago up to the best single server they offer now. There will hopefully be some improvement, but it will remain an ongoing issue.
So, you may be asking yourself, "Then why not just switch to a multi-server solution now?" The answer to that is that we were about to do so--we had even ordered the servers--but due to some miscommunications with the hosting support staff, it turns out that there are some technical hurdles that require rewriting the website scripts. And that process may take awhile. So rather than wait to make any upgrade until we have worked all the kinks out, we're making a stop-gap move in the hopes that in a few months, everything will be ready to roll out and our server problems will finally be a thing of the past.
Note that none of these issues are contingent on money at this time, so as always, if you have money you wish to donate, pick a charity and send it there.
Anyway, the upshot of all this is that there may be some disruptions this week when the website actually begins to transition over, and there may be a point when some of you are looking at the old server and some of you are looking at the new server. If I can, I will update any new comics during this period to both servers.
I'd guess from this that he's in it for the long haul. NO DANCING however.
GITP wrote:Before the dancing in the streets and cries of unbridled joy begin, let me make it clear that this will not eliminate all of our slowness problems.
That's too bad. Because of his constant server issues, I've all but given up on OOTS. What used to be a frequent weekly check has now turned into "maybe take a look every couple months to see what I missed". Seems like I can never get connected to the site (I received 3 time-out errors just this morning after looking at this thread), and it's a bit baffling why they seem to have so much trouble with it. Shame, as I really enjoy the story and characters he's created.
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
If you'd read ALL of that post, he states quite explicitly why the server's still bad. In short: It requires a multi-server host (currently on a single server, which with the comic's popularity plus hosting Erfworld too, explains a lot). They planned to move into a multi-server setup a while ago, but ran into technical problems. As a stop-gap measure until the tech problems are solved, they're moving to an upgraded single server in the interim.
I read the post, but these connectivity issues have been going on for months now. Maybe I just don't understand the technical end of things, but it seems strange that it would take that long to get the issues straightened out. Especially if OOTS and Erfworld are that popular and successful (it must be doing pretty well if Rich quit his job and is actively telling people to donate elsewhere).
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
I'm continuing on with the "this thread is beyond spoiler tags" mindset, so beware.
TiLT wrote:Think the Monster in the dark is going to intervene?
If he does I think it'll be off screen or otherwise keep his identity secret. Rich has given us way too many big revelations and happenings recently to spill yet another huge secret in this sequence.
TiLT wrote:Think the Monster in the dark is going to intervene?
If he does I think it'll be off screen or otherwise keep his identity secret. Rich has given us way too many big revelations and happenings recently to spill yet another huge secret in this sequence.
Thanks for the answer, but despite your heroic effort at mastering the quote tags, I didn't ask that question.
Looks unlikely that Xykon will be perishing any time soon.
Incidentally, do we even know what/where his phylactery is? I seem to recall something about it being involved with Redcloak, but I don't want to look back through all those comics to find out.
Zurai wrote:Incidentally, do we even know what/where his phylactery is? I seem to recall something about it being involved with Redcloak, but I don't want to look back through all those comics to find out.
iirc it is Redcloak's amulet.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” - H.L. Mencken
