OotS #570 Is Up, Including Critical Interpretations of Burlew's Style & OotS Content

[Wolfwood2]

The ending to this comic left my stomach feeling like somebody slapped a mark of justice on me. (That may be a slight exaggeration.) The Mark of Justice is just magic, but Haley tossing Belkar out of the group was a real landmark moment for both of them. It was Haley finally taking a stand (one murder too late, but still), and it was karma finally catching up with Belkar, as the only people in the world who cared about him in the slightest told him he'd gone too far. And then, *poof*, the memory charm makes it all go away.

Frankly, it felt like the author chickened out. This confrontation had been building for a long time, and then a memory charm wand wipes it all away. Sure they'll eventually realize the Mark of Justice was triggered, but they'll never remember that it happened because Belkar killed yet another person in a fit of pique. Cue laugh track, reset to baseline, out with consequences.

I've been very patient about letting the story play out, but I found this one very frustrating.

 

[Rechan]

The ending to this comic left my stomach feeling like somebody slapped a mark of justice on me. (That may be a slight exaggeration.) The Mark of Justice is just magic, but Haley tossing Belkar out of the group was a real landmark moment for both of them. It was Haley finally taking a stand (one murder too late, but still), and it was karma finally catching up with Belkar, as the only people in the world who cared about him in the slightest told him he'd gone too far. And then, *poof*, the memory charm makes it all go away.

Frankly, it felt like the author chickened out. This confrontation had been building for a long time, and then a memory charm wand wipes it all away. Sure they'll eventually realize the Mark of Justice was triggered, but they'll never remember that it happened because Belkar killed yet another person in a fit of pique. Cue laugh track, reset to baseline, out with consequences.

I've been very patient about letting the story play out, but I found this one very frustrating.

This.

It feels like a cop-out. An "And it was all a dreaaaam!"

 

[I'm A Banana]

Cue laugh track, reset to baseline, out with consequences.

I think this is why a lot of people are speaking up about the pacing issues now -- this comic called them out in a pretty pointed way by "taking back" the development (I like it when someone above called it "anti-plot" ).

It really helped us realize that Rich is spinning a lot of plates right now, and we just want SOMETHING to fall.

 

[Urbannen]

Triple post

 

[Urbannen]

Triple post

 

[Urbannen]

The ending to this comic left my stomach feeling like somebody slapped a mark of justice on me. (That may be a slight exaggeration.) The Mark of Justice is just magic, but Haley tossing Belkar out of the group was a real landmark moment for both of them. It was Haley finally taking a stand (one murder too late, but still), and it was karma finally catching up with Belkar, as the only people in the world who cared about him in the slightest told him he'd gone too far. And then, *poof*, the memory charm makes it all go away.

Frankly, it felt like the author chickened out. This confrontation had been building for a long time, and then a memory charm wand wipes it all away. Sure they'll eventually realize the Mark of Justice was triggered, but they'll never remember that it happened because Belkar killed yet another person in a fit of pique. Cue laugh track, reset to baseline, out with consequences.

I've been very patient about letting the story play out, but I found this one very frustrating.

I completely agree. I thought for a second some real character development (and natural consequences!) were going to occur. Up till the memory charm hit was some great drama.

But nope. Belkar has recently killed two innocent sentients without provocation. His mark was activated - that's some justice. But it's time for him to change or be ditched.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

The ending to this comic left my stomach feeling like somebody slapped a mark of justice on me. (That may be a slight exaggeration.) The Mark of Justice is just magic, but Haley tossing Belkar out of the group was a real landmark moment for both of them. It was Haley finally taking a stand (one murder too late, but still), and it was karma finally catching up with Belkar, as the only people in the world who cared about him in the slightest told him he'd gone too far. And then, *poof*, the memory charm makes it all go away.

Frankly, it felt like the author chickened out. This confrontation had been building for a long time, and then a memory charm wand wipes it all away. Sure they'll eventually realize the Mark of Justice was triggered, but they'll never remember that it happened because Belkar killed yet another person in a fit of pique. Cue laugh track, reset to baseline, out with consequences.

I've been very patient about letting the story play out, but I found this one very frustrating.

This is one of things I've been trying to say.

I was quite excited when the Mark of Justice went off. Something was happening! I loved Haley standing up to Belkar!! And then it all "never happened".

Sure, the Mark is gone but no one who is able to do anything about it remembers that fact. The reason they went there in the first place (to raise Roy) never happened and no one remembers why. Yet again Haley failed in what she was trying to do and Roy still hasn't been able to talk to a member of his group. Any advances the story had taken went *poof* and were gone.

 

[LostSoul]

This method adds an element of suspense -- they'll eventually figure out that the mark has been activated -- then they'll figure out why -- then there will be a showdown.

I felt like it was a cop-out, too, probably because I've been exposed to too many TV shows where everything is reset by the end of the episode. But you make a good point. Showing the conflict between the characters and then delaying its resolution adds tension. I just need to trust the author that this conflict will be resolved and won't be left hanging.

 

[Orius]

Let me add something: The group is only half as funny when they're split. Belkar is much more funny, if he can annoy the heck out of Roy AND Haley AND Vaarsuvius. This goes for the other members as well. And we miss Roy.

Still reading, relatively happy with the pace, but slowly, it becomes tiresome. I don't want a storyline where they achieve more, I just want their interactions back.

Yeah, I agree. Like I said in the discussion for the last strip, I'm usually not interested in the things Elan, V, or Durkon do, so I was mostly bored with their little side trip. Therkla's bard lust was the only thing that kept me interested.

It's also no fun when Roy isn't doing much of anything at all either.

I'm not sure if the memory charm is actually funny or a cop-out at this point. It would suck if it were the latter. Depends on what happens next I guess.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I think it could have wound up a lot more interesting with the memory charm lifted once the Oracle was dead.

For instance, Haley leaves Belkar. The Linear Guild comes to see the Oracle and find a dead Oracle and a sick Belkar. Recognizing an opportunity to recruit a semi-competent evil character with inside information on the Order, Nale takes Belkar to get him cured of the MoJ. From there, any number of things could happen. Traitor, double traitor (once Belkar sees Roy alive he falters and lets the Order get away again, or remembering what happened when Belkar's wisdom score went up, someone hits him with a maximized Owl's Wisdom and he's temporarily good, etc.)

Or Haley leaves Belkar. Belkar wanders off on his own for a while, then collapses on the road. Team Evil is marching towards the next gate and comes across a nearly dead Belkar. The Monster in the Dark recognizes him, and Xykon keeps Belkar alive to amuse himself and/or get more information from Belkar, convinced he must know more about the gates than they do. Eventually to be rescued but costing the Order another victory.

Or.... Well, any number of things.

Enforcing the memory charm now is sort of anti-plot. It stops a great number of possible things from happening.

As it stands, that was six and a half strips and a little over two weeks spent entirely on getting Belkar's Mark of Justice activated, and no one even remembering it, and that's about it.

QFT
Wolfwood added some more good points, too.
Between the two of them, not much else for me to say...