The OotS Thread III

[LadyTevar]

She has Planes-shift once per day. Therefore, she can make her own way back after the limit of the Holy Word ends.

A pity Nale didn't get to hear her say she loved him before he died.

[Irbis]

She might be able to sow a little discord by shapeshifting into people and causing a ruckus, but I'm pretty sure Tarquin is smart enough to know about shapeshifters that can do just that and has a way of dealing with it.

Like this?

[Irbis]

934 up!

Guess who still continues to drag himself into the plot by every mean possible!

[Crazedwraith]

Looks like I yelled out ffs enough already way too early.


eta: this better end in Tarquin been mobbed and killed to death by the order/ airship's crew.

[Spekio]

Wow, a long way off from his collected normal self, huh?

[Gaidin]

This is just getting way too old now...

[Raesene]

new comic is up - 934

it's not over yet...

EDIT: apparently already longer than I thought...

[Starglider]

This is just getting way too old now...

Yeah, I was ok up to the escape, but this confrontation is seriously dragging now. It feels like its taken more strips than the Azure City battle.

[Gaidin]

Tarquin just got conned to hell and back by his son, without his own team knowing about the plan know less. The ones that had a clue didn't really understand what was happening. You'd think this is the kind of progress that, as a bard instead of a fighter, the father would be looking for, but instead it just pisses him off. No. The annoying encounter just drags on. Dude needs to die. With disintegrate.

[Forgothrax]

V needs to end this one, Disintegrate-style.

Or, possibly, he decides to talk the caster down (blasting her down would be Old-V style, New-V might want to change).

[Crossroads Inc.]

Yeah I am getting really... Really... REALLY Tired of this whole thing...

I am also sick of this utterly obsessive idea of Tarquins that his son should be the "Hero" of the story.
Where the fuck did that ever come from? The whole thing seems really out of 'character' for him. he wants his son to fulfill the archetype of good son, slaying evil dad and taking over the kingdom.. Or something...
But this whole "As long as you have your friends you will never be the 'Hero' so I have to kill them all" is just bat shit crazy.

What happened to the Tarquin who seemed 4 steps ahead of everyone else? Who was calm and planned and saw the constant attempts by the Order to escape, kill him, etc, as a good thing! I mean, hew have had him around the order for HOW long and he just came to this "Oh your NOT the leader?"

Elan from the start told him he's just a bard, and just support... Tarquin seemed FINE with that.

Where the hell is all of this coming from, and WHY do we have to keep dragging it out?

[Grumman]

Burlew, stop making the villain be right. For the past year and a half, he has been the antagonist of this series.

[Terralthra]

Tarquin was fine with the Bard thing because he thought Elan was ruling the party from behind the "leader" who was a figurehead, much like Tarquin was the brains behind the throne of the dragon queen. He's fine with not seeming to be the leader, but not OK with not being the leader.

And this all comes from ego. Tarquin wants to be The Villain, the one about whom tales are told of defeating. If Roy is the leader of the party, that makes all this bullshit with Tarquin a character-building subplot, like the Thieves' Guild story with Haley. As long as Roy is the hero, Xykon is the villain, and that means Tarquin is second (third, after Redcloak) fiddle.

Also, just because I understand doesn't mean I'm not also tired of this fight.

[Crazedwraith]

I don't recall Elan actually ever saying he was just support until Tarquin was making a big deal of it. But even if he did. The situation is exactly analogous to Haley and her dad believing she was the leader. No matter how much Roy said he was Ian just thought it was behind the scenes shenanigans.

But anyway *dons hipster glasses* I was sick of Tarquin before it was cool.

[LadyTevar]

I think we will see the death of Julius now.

[Lord Relvenous]

God, Burlew is much too in love with Tarquin. At first he was interesting, now he's just an anchor dragging back plot development.

[PainRack]

Has anyone else figured out this whole Elan thing is a result of Tarquin failure to save his son Nale?


The failure to win back his son, the guilt at killing him and causing his dear friend death, all of this seems to have caused a stress disorder that's causing him to fixate on Elan.

And when Elan now exhibits the same defiance as Nale.........................

[Simon_Jester]

God, Burlew is much too in love with Tarquin. At first he was interesting, now he's just an anchor dragging back plot development.

It depends.

Elan's made at least one major breakthrough because of his interaction with Tarquin recently- realizing that his family was never going to get fixed, and that his family members are irretrievably screwed up. This includes Tarquin.

Durkon's undergone a life-altering change which will have major consequences for his interactions with the rest of the party- because of Tarquin, within the last fifty strips.

There's some potential for character development here still, though not so much for plot development.

On the other hand, on the subject of plot development... I think the one thing to bear in mind is that once we're done with Tarquin, the strip is going to proceed towards the final gate and the final confrontation with Xykon within... I honestly suspect the next 200-300 strips. Maybe less. We are in the part of the series where stories must be wrapped up, in a fashion satisfactory to any readers who care about them.

Tarquin comprehensively ended one of our major sideplots within the last twenty strips, too. With Nale finally pissing off someone powerful enough to put an end to him with his chronic, serial arrogance and betrayals, he's disintegrate-gust-of-winded toast. If it takes a few more strips of combat for the party to get free of him, I'm not going to complain.



The main artistic problem here is simply that Tarquin wasn't introduced until Strip 700 or so, so his villainy isn't enough to carry the comic as well as it should. What Burley should be doing is giving the other characters a bit more agency to fight him.

[LadyTevar]

I just want to see how a Caster/Psion fight will end.

But, this is page 41, and like Julius it's a bit long in the tooth. Time to start a New Page!