Durkon needs a plotline

[Liwen]

We know one day he'll come back to dwarven lands, death or not death is still up to debate, but it's not the subject of this thread. This means he's entitled to have a major sub arc in which he'll be the main actor, like in the Vaarsuvius and Ancient Black Dragon sub arc. He once had one such arc with his escapade with Hilgya, but now every main character had the chance to live 2 or 3 such arcs. So I say the Giant will soon balance things out and give poor Durkon a major plot and screen time combo. God knows he needs one, since over a dozen NPCs have beaten him in terms of popularity these days.

So what should the arc be?
When will it happen?
Will Durkon be distinctive from the masses of dwarven clerics after this arc, or will he still be the same classic running gag of dwarven iconography he is?

Discuss!

[Morquard]

Durkon will renounce Thor for being a lousy drunk and turns to Tiamat for guidance.
Thats how he learns about how in fact he's not a dwarf, but a Dragon who shapeshifted into a dwarf and then lost his memory, and so got stuck in that form.
He'll also learn that his kids were killed by V's familycide, because their father was related to the ABD. (Yes Durkon is female and the mother)

How's that for a plot twist? :)

[DBJack]

The problem is that Durkon's character doesn't have many areas to improve. All of the other characters have dropped flaws, like V's arrogance, Roy's snarkyness, Haley's secrets, Belkar's Belkarness or Elan's incompetence.

Durkon is a calm dwarf that wishes to go home and is afraid of trees. I hope that Hilgya will come back with his love child eventually, and maybe that'll change his adherence to duty to the point of abandoning Hilgya earlier, but that's the only thing I can think of.

[Voshkod]

He'll be saved from certain death by a wise old ent, who will teach him to love the forests. Later, they'll settle down and raise some bearded dryad children.

[The Rose Dragon]

Retort: No, he doesn't.

[Shatteredtower]

Retort: No, he doesn't.

I suspect that Durkon might agree on that subject. His story might be boring to some of us, but he's probably busy enough with everything going on in his life as it is.

Come to think of it, his time with the exiles of Azure City has probably been very satisfying for him, considering the reasons he thinks he was exiled from his own homelands. Maybe that's also one more reason he might have a soft spot for these humans.

[RecklessFable]

Retort: No, he doesn't.

I kinda agree. Though, as time goes one, we should at least see the Haley subplot tied up.

The only thing really limited the length this comic can run is if it can stave off leveling into Epic... well forever. (Yeah, I know, folks are already generating plots for Epic to refute that statement).

So far, only the Simpsons and South Park have managed to keep characters from leveling while staying relevant. However, South Park uses the evening news as source material, so it can go on forever...

Back to OOTS. Should Rich decide to continue OOTS for another five years or so, he might try starting a new campaign (same characters, new BBEG). That will be an interesting challenge. But Buffy faces what, 3 Apocalypi? "Never had to use the plural of Apocalypse before"... Anyone? Anyone?

[Watcher]

Whatever happens, he needs an appearance change. Everybody else got one at one point, unless if you don't count Roy's brief changes.

[Armitage]

But Buffy faces what, 3 Apocalypi? "Never had to use the plural of Apocalypse before"... Anyone? Anyone?
Its not the apocalypse or death that bothered ("I died twice"), what Buffy really had to deal with where her nemesisse.. nemesissi... dang.

[Shatteredtower]

Its not the apocalypse or death that bothered ("I died twice"), what Buffy really had to deal with where her nemesisse.. nemesissi... dang.

In the unlikely event that you aren't just running with a very good joke, the plural of nemesis is nemeses.

[Liwen]

The problem is that Durkon's character doesn't have many areas to improve. All of the other characters have dropped flaws, like V's arrogance, Roy's snarkyness, Haley's secrets, Belkar's Belkarness or Elan's incompetence.

Durkon is a calm dwarf that wishes to go home and is afraid of trees. I hope that Hilgya will come back with his love child eventually, and maybe that'll change his adherence to duty to the point of abandoning Hilgya earlier, but that's the only thing I can think of.

Reading this post, I realized Durkon has had another piece of character development in the past. In the Origin of the PCs, Durkon sort of started his story as a naive herald of the dwarven lands, came to hate all humans and began to develop closer bounds with them after meeting Roy. Back at the start of that prequel book, he actually had some areas to work on, but manage to sort these out before issue #1. Still, maybe he doesn't needs to have a arc for himself, but needs to speak more often, to shine, to act. Thankfully Rich has given us a little piece of Durkon in issue 667. I still wish for more!

[Vmag]

Equality is overrated. While Durkon is a major player of The Order, does he need to be contractually obligated to receive as much air time as his costars?

A lot of characters can benefit the most from not taking their turn in the center stage rotation; in many ways, the absence of a lengthy arc is often more beneficial to a character than devoting an entire book to him.

In fact, the best default you can go with an endearing character is one in which the focus of the story is on all the events around him, and not him personally. To overrely on plot elements is to keep him on the status quo, when his true literary value lies elsewhere.

Not everyone needs to take top billing just to be an appreciated and deep character; alternatively, "best to look like a fool than to open your mouth and prove it".

[Surfing HalfOrc]

The problem is that Durkon's character doesn't have many areas to improve. All of the other characters have dropped flaws, like V's arrogance, Roy's snarkyness, Haley's secrets, Belkar's Belkarness or Elan's incompetence.

Durkon is a calm dwarf that wishes to go home and is afraid of trees. I hope that Hilgya will come back with his love child eventually, and maybe that'll change his adherence to duty to the point of abandoning Hilgya earlier, but that's the only thing I can think of.

To me, this is the most likely story arc, which also makes me wonder if it will ever happen. It's kind of obvious, and Rich is good about going against set patterns.

Durkon did his duty by dumping the unfaithful Hilgya, but he will do his duty for his love child. He won't need Maury Povich and a big scene on that show to step up to the plate. A quick Commune spell to confirm patentage, and he's done.

Any "twists" will be based on how badly the team needs him vs. how badly Hilgya and the baby(ies) need their daddy. while all of this will grow and develop the character, will it be funny? And lets avoid the "Character A and Character B do these funny things, Character C and D do this and that, and all their kids are so precocious..." that is so common on TV Sitcoms.

[Liwen]

No... no... no... They invented a Parentage spell?!

I feel sorry for all the careless one night standers lurking in the bars of the OOTS world.

[Zanaril]

He'll be saved from certain death by a wise old ent, who will teach him to love the forests. Later, they'll settle down and raise some bearded dryad children.

I thought I was totally squick resistant. I was wrong. :smallsigh:

[Herald Alberich]

No... no... no... They invented a Parentage spell?!

I feel sorry for all the careless one night standers lurking in the bars of the OOTS world.

Hah, no, not exactly. Commune (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/commune.htm) lets you ask yes/no questions of your deity. They know things like that.

[Liwen]

Wait you mean they watch every make outs of their subjects?

Gods are a bunch of pervs! :smalltongue:

[Herald Alberich]

Wait you mean they watch every make outs of their subjects?

Gods are a bunch of pervs! :smalltongue:

Yes. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0079.html)

(obligatory text)

[Turkish Delight]

The problem is that Durkon's character doesn't have many areas to improve. All of the other characters have dropped flaws, like V's arrogance, Roy's snarkyness, Haley's secrets, Belkar's Belkarness or Elan's incompetence.

I beg to differ. Durkon's fixation on duty seems excessive. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0084.html) When your philosophy is 'keep doing your duty...even if it makes you completely miserable. ESPECIALLY if it makes you completely miserable' and 'bury your feelings away in a dark, dark place', you probably have some serious issues that need to be worked out.

Durkon has to learn to loosen up, in other words. I expect a large number of psychedelic drugs will be involved, leading to a mad dash through the open fields, completely naked and feeling free for the first time in his life.

[Necropie]

Just an Idea for a Durkon story arc, Hilga could be preagnant with Durkons baby.
Just a thought.:smallsmile:

[OITS]

We all know, that there IS something between Durkon and Lien. Just look at the wide panel of #0671*. So Hilgya will come back, carrying a little babydwarf inside her womb (a dwarfettes pregnancy lasts faaaar longer than those of humans), and Durkon has to decide between lawfulness and lawf. He will finally decide, that Lien is too much of a good deal, that he turns his back on Hilgya, but telling his fiancee everything which will make her breaking up, because she knows, that the child would need a father. Durkon will search for Hilgya, who already left the place they were. After tracking her in an extremely long sidequest, he will find her dead body, because she poisened herself because of the love that hasn't been fulfilled. It is not only the love! Durkon dismissed her, because of her lack of lawfulness and now he turned chaotic and it is against her. She will die, taking their child with her, Durkon will go back to Lien who will confess that she is pregnant too. They decide to try it again and try to forget Hilgya, but after the baby dies during a hostile undead-attack, Durkon finally loses control and goes mad. He will go on a rampage, close to his homelands, were Hilgya went. The dwars want to calm him down, he kills them all, bringing death and destruction to his homelands. In the end he gets killed. He is brought to the highpriest of Thor, where the last few dwarves try to decide what to do with him. Their decision is to let him be a while in his afterlife to redeem for his sins. After that they raise him, to become the new highpriest - which he is qualified for because he is the only one who experienced even the worst sides but still came back to the LG-corner. With his new powers, he manages to revive his and Liens baby and after killing Xykon, they live happily ever after.



*Hinjo - Elan+Haley - Lien+Durkon - Kazumi+Daigo - Belkar+wait... well, but anyway: no coincidence!

[Watcher]

Um, what? What?!

[Liwen]

Sorry OITS, your post caused brain damage to Odinswatcher, (and me). I don't think a storyline that causes brain damage should be made into a webcomic :smalltongue:

[TMC]

Sorry OITS, your post caused brain damage to Odinswatcher, (and me). I don't think a storyline that causes brain damage should be made into a webcomic :smalltongue:

See any Chef Brian comic. Ever.

[Liwen]

Yes. But this is much much more troublesome in my opinion.

Btw, Tim Buckley rocks, and never once stopped rocking.

[David Argall]

OK, Durkon needs a plotline. But what? And why would it be better than the alternatives involving the other characters?
That is the main point of course. Durkon is pretty dull and pretty much any idea we present, we find that one of the others can do it better, and Durkon makes a good support character, not a lead.

[Vmag]

I beg to differ. Durkon's fixation on duty seems excessive. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0084.html) When your philosophy is...you probably have some serious issues that need to be worked out.

Durkon has to learn to loosen up, in other words.

Need the plot cover that?
So what I'm understanding is that the purpose of any piece of literature is to take a character, regardless of the plot and fantastical world around him, and decompress him to the point of some sort of emotional revelation?

Sometimes deep-rooted repressions are just deep-rooted repressions. He can handle all that off-screen, if at all; you may find his culture to be a character flaw, but there's no need to "resolve" every iota of detail.

[Turkish Delight]

Need the plot cover that?

No, it needn't. But it can. The idea was that Durkon has no 'issues' which could create a plotline for him, something which is not true. He's a tightly wound little bugger who finds the idea of a proper life to be one lived in blind obedience to ideas that make you miserable. That's an area in which he could be improved....if the Giant were in the mood to pursue that plotline.

As it is, I'm guessing nothing will come of it and Durkon will keep on being the icon of overused Dwarven stereotypes he's been for 99% of the comic, as well as one of the comics most readily forgotten characters because of it. For better or worse.

[OITS]

Sorry OITS, your post caused brain damage to Odinswatcher, (and me). I don't think a storyline that causes brain damage should be made into a webcomic :smalltongue:

What's so bad about it? I mean it's pretty realistic... in some way^^ some... reality^^

[derfenrirwolv]

Soon young padawan, soon.


and no, NOT the paladin.

[Cracklord]

Most of the time he actually seems pretty happy, or at least content.
If he does have a plot line, I would prefer it to be something a bit more interesting then a twisted love triangle. There are other ways to have character development.
A crisis of faith could work, and Durkon as an Odin worshiping manipulative bastard would be pretty cool, (remember, he knows what makes every member of the order tick, he made Haley stick with Miko).
But if he does have a plot line, it will hopefully be in a much less contrived way.

[veti]

I beg to differ. Durkon's fixation on duty seems excessive. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0084.html)
...

Durkon has to learn to loosen up, in other words. I expect a large number of psychedelic drugs will be involved, leading to a mad dash through the open fields, completely naked and feeling free for the first time in his life.

Too right.

Durkon does have a major character flaw: under-confidence. He's far too shy, retiring and diffident. Something needs to happen to make him stand up and take charge of a situation - do something, anything, on his own initiative - take some responsibility for a change.

[Red XIV]

I beg to differ. Durkon's fixation on duty seems excessive. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0084.html) When your philosophy is 'keep doing your duty...even if it makes you completely miserable. ESPECIALLY if it makes you completely miserable' and 'bury your feelings away in a dark, dark place', you probably have some serious issues that need to be worked out.
Excessive by any rational human standards. But dwarves are not human.

[rewinn]

Soon young padawan, soon.


and no, NOT the paladin.The obvious love interest?

V.

They squabble, work together, have grave differences but deep mutual respect. And V may be single now.

Best part: we'll never know whether it's a Spencer Tracey/Katherine Hepburn movie, or "Brokeback Dungeon".


Retort: No, he doesn't.

Agreed.

I once saw a delightful production of Hamlet, built around the idea that it was all a story told by his sidekick Horatio. It required no additional lines, just occasionally staging Horatio as a looker-on, silently reacting as a stand-in for the audience.

Perhaps Durkon is basically Horatio.

[Herald Alberich]

Too right.

Durkon does have a major character flaw: under-confidence. He's far too shy, retiring and diffident. Something needs to happen to make him stand up and take charge of a situation - do something, anything, on his own initiative - take some responsibility for a change.

You think? I don't see that at all. He's merely soft-spoken and doesn't speak unless he needs to. Whenever there's a fight he's right in the thick of it - remember Leeky? And any other time he uses Thor's Might, really. Oh, and the lecture for Julia.

edit: Also, he took responsibility for the entire bandit clan and sent them back to their homes. If he was shy and diffident, he wouldn't have stood against the rest of the Order when it came to Miko and Thor's will.

[Puns de León]

I agree. Durkon is quiet and doesn't draw attention to himself because he doesn't feel the need to. He doesn't have an ego to feed, which is one of the main reasons that he hasn't been involved in deals with extraplanar evil beings or the like. In short, he's emotionally secure enough not to go looking for adventure; when adventure comes to him, he deals with it accordingly. He doesn't have a fault that prevents him from being competent, like at least half the Order (coincidentally, the ones who have personalities, popularity and punchlines). He is merely a very sensible guy.
Also, as you can see from my signature, he's easily the life of any party.



Durkon does have a major character flaw: under-confidence. He's far too shy, retiring and diffident. Something needs to happen to make him stand up and take charge of a situation - do something, anything, on his own initiative - take some responsibility for a change.

You're right, Durkon has been way too irresponsible as of late. He flies right off the handle for nothing. He's a loose cannon! Punk rebel. :smalltongue:

[Demiurge]

That will be an interesting challenge. But Buffy faces what, 3 Apocalypi? "Never had to use the plural of Apocalypse before"... Anyone? Anyone?
The proper plural of apocalypse is apocalypses. And Buffy faced at least 7 of them, though of course it depends on how you define the term.