I love how Rich approaches all his characters with sympathy, and even love - even the undeserving ones (like his villains). So many writers approaching this material would see only a chance to mock Paladins for believiing in unhip virtues like honor, justice, faith, fairness, and humility. Rich instead makes those belief the foundation of Shining Moment's of Awesome. This is one of Rich's best panels ever. The antagonist is eagerly awaiting battle, but the Paladins have already resolved in the prior panel, "You and I have no reason to fight, so we won't." And they don't, even at the loss of 'face', even with the result of extreme discomfort, because they have nothing here to fight for. Just beautiful. One of those moments where the cartoon transcends being stick people, and becomes art.
A lesser writer would have probably had the characters use this as a diversion, in order to get the jump on the attacker. But Rich has already established these characters have no reason for violence, and so being who they are, they just don't care about their own comfort, their own glory, getting vengeance, or anything of the sort. Indeed, from the Paladin's perspective, killing their attacker would almost be murder.
It's also one of those panels where I as a DM get a tad bit envious, because I wish had players who were as subtle in their RP as rich's characters in his story are, and as a player I get inspired. This is so much the sort of character building and character displaying RP that we should be aspiring to as players. This is what "good play" looks like.
