OotS #440

[Plane Sailing]

Instead, the moment a character is no longer useful to Mr. Burlew, he just kills them off, even going out of his way to kill them off. I mean, if this guy is so unimportant, why waste a panel on killing him in the first place? Why not just ignore him for now and focus on V? He served his purpose as V's straight man already. Killing him is just a cheap way of making this throwaway henchman seem badass and making V's situation seem dire, but it is just poor writing to always fall on the exact same trick to achieve that.

What was the point of his death?

The point of the death was to make a joke!

"You'll never take this city while I'm alive, monster!"
"Terms accepted!" plurtch.

He isn't killed just because he is no longer useful, he isn't killed just to make a henchman badass, he is killed to make a joke.

Made me smile, and I dare say it worked for a lot of other people too.

Cheers

 

[robberbaron]

Heh, heh, 'original recipe, or extra crispy', heh, heh.

Dang, I wish I could come up with lines like that every week.
(fondly remembers the odd moments when robberbaron-inspired jocularity reigned across the gaming table - 'Pimp my Blimp' and the 'Battering Lamb' come to mind).

 

[Kahuna Burger]

The strip didn't work for me, not because of the gratuitous NPC death, but just because it was a "downer" strip and its been a depressing enough couple of days. :\ In this one case, Berlew's perpetual last minute and late produced strips could have come in handy, but I'll have to settle for one day looking back and enjoying it as part of the overall rise and fall of the battle rather than thinking "Great, this was exactly the day I needed an 'everyone dies and the main characters can't accomplish anything' strip". (my least favorite of his motifs to begin with)

Before the inevitable railing, this is a statement of why I personally didn't enjoy it, not a claim that cartoonists should be held acountable for how their strips interact with tragic news cycles.

 

[Voadam]

All I am saying, is that it would be nice to have allied NPCs actually help the Order of the Stick in some minor capacity,

You mean like by suggesting V disintegrate the horse, then hitting the death knight with an AoO?

 

[Voadam]

I don't think he was unroasted; his cloak got shredded when he fireballed. He probably made his saving throw, though, and he might have had a Resist Energy cast on him by Redcloak before he left.

Abyssal blast is half not fire damage, but a resist might have helped a bit. The cloak part is a good point though.

 

[diaglo]

Abyssal blast is half not fire damage, but a resist might have helped a bit. The cloak part is a good point though.

he ripped the cloak. go back to where he orders the charge up the pile o dead.

 

[Laman Stahros]

That was the fake Xykon robes that he had been wearing that he ripped off of himself.

 

[Mort]

Now if V only had an orb spell prepared, the death knight would be toast. Sorry couldn't resist- but it wouldn't be beyond Rich to throw that in. [edit: if conjuration is a barred school V really is screwed without help - will be interesting to see how the help comes].

 

[Voadam]

he ripped the cloak. go back to where he orders the charge up the pile o dead.

Go back and look again yourself. When he charges in his cloak is fine even after the tumble and AoO. In 440 1st panel his cloak is whole, in the second panel when he burns and thereafter it is then ragged.

 

[Gez]

Yup. He ripped the robe, not the cloak.