Maybe V will want to help Xykon now?

[coineineagh]

Things aren't looking up for Vaarsuvius: His magic has failed him/her, his/her blunders have had worse collateral damage than his/her AoE-spells, and s/he faces a reality where s/he must either confess to a crime too horrible to contemplate, or actively lie about it to those who trust him/her. Not to mention s/he is recently divorced. :smallsigh::smallfrown:A lot of weight for one person's character to handle, even if it is as strong and determined as V.

Perhaps V will make the decision that reality is not worth fighting for? It would suit V better to help Xykon (partially), and then just end all misery everywhere by undoing reality.
Not to mention V has some inside knowledge that inside the void there might be another world. Perhaps a better one....:smallsmile:

[MesiDoomstalker]

No. Just, no. V is much stronger than you him credit. It's far more likely V will sequester himself before joining with Xykon. He may be depressed but I doubt someone as logical as V would try to end it all, and by "all" I mean literally all, just to end the pain.

[Red XIV]

Also, given the mess with the phylactery, Xykon might actually hold a grudge against V. As opposed to how he forgets who Roy even is.

[NerfTW]

V (and the order, or in fact everyone but Redcloak) assumes that the plan is to control the gates and take over the world. Not to unmake reality. It would never cross anyone's minds, because Redcloak has convinced everyone that the gates can be controlled by a mortal, and not that the Dark One is taking control of it.

You're also making a rather massive leap from "Well, I screwed up majorly" to "I'm going to unmake reality itself!". Yeah. No. That would make so little sense, most Japanese cartoons would find it far fetched. And they have heroes destroying reality every week!

[FujinAkari]

V (and the order, or in fact everyone but Redcloak) assumes that the plan is to control the gates and take over the world. Not to unmake reality. It would never cross anyone's minds, because Redcloak has convinced everyone that the gates can be controlled by a mortal, and not that the Dark One is taking control of it.

I'm not so sure... remember the Sapphire Guard are aware that the Bearer of the Crimson Mantle represents a threat to the fabric of the world, so it stands to reason that Roy may also be aware of that.

[OrzhvoPatriarch]

I don't think V is going to do that. It looks like s/he truly regrets the actions s/he has done. Besides which, Xykon is pissed that this elf came in and messed up his tower and made him lose his phylactery. Angry enough that he might even remember V's face. If he doesn't, Redcloak isn't going to be happy having another caster sidekick show up after he just got rid of the last one.



I'm not so sure... remember the Sapphire Guard are aware that the Bearer of the Crimson Mantle represents a threat to the fabric of the world, so it stands to reason that Roy may also be aware of that.

We can be pretty sure that Roy thinks the plan is to rule the world, not destroy it, as evidenced by his conversation with Xykon in this strip. http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0442.html I think its pretty save to say that after the whole "getting brought in on charges of weakening the fabric of reality" thing they understand there is a danger of the Snarl getting lose if things go wrong, but it would seem that they are working under the correct assumption that destruction of creation is not the end goal, or at least not the most desired end goal.

[ti'esar]

Yeah, I don't buy this either. V's an emotional wreck, but it looks like sincere guilt, not "I want to end it all" emo-nihilism.

[Bengui]

Also, given the mess with the phylactery, Xykon might actually hold a grudge against V. As opposed to how he forgets who Roy even is.

This. The next time the order faces Xykon, I fully expect him to brush Roy aside, point V with his skelety finger and yell "YOU !!!".

[factotum]

This. The next time the order faces Xykon, I fully expect him to brush Roy aside, point V with his skelety finger and yell "YOU !!!".

Really? We're talking the same Xykon who couldn't even remember Roy's name after he punched his head off and then destroyed his body in Dorukan's protective rune? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure Xykon is perfectly capable of holding a grudge, but that implies he can remember the guy he's supposed to have a grudge against!

[Bengui]

Really? We're talking the same Xykon who couldn't even remember Roy's name after he punched his head off and then destroyed his body in Dorukan's protective rune? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure Xykon is perfectly capable of holding a grudge, but that implies he can remember the guy he's supposed to have a grudge against!

Well, it might be just because it happened during the early phases of the story when it was all goofy and no drama, but at no point during Dungeon Crawling or Paladin Blues did I get the impression that Xykon was even sightly annoyed by the whole "OOTS blowing him up" thing. He just calls it a minor setback, acts calmly and jokes about it like it was planned all along and goes right back to raising an army and dominating the world. At the end of his fight with V and during the aftermath, it's pretty much the opposite, you can almost feel his rage radiate through the pages (or computer screen).

I can think of several reasons why he would hold more of a grudge against V than Roy :
- When V attacked him, he was already in a terrible mood due to being forced to sit on his ass for months by someone he considers his lackey.
- The last time Roy attacked him, he didn't do much more than tickle him with his sword, and Xykon only needed one spell to get rid of him. V, on the other hand, forced Xykon to draw deep in his magical resources, and was actually pretty damn close to defeating him.
- Roy only attacked Xykon's physical body, which he can replace at will. V tried to destroy his phylactery. And even if he failed to destroy it, he then forced Xykon to more "sitting on his ass" while they were looking for it.

[fergo]

...it would seem that they are working under the correct assumption that destruction of creation is not the end goal, or at least not the most desired end goal.


Ignoring the issue that it doesn't make a blind bit of difference--stopping Xykon is just as imperative if he's going to destroy the world or just rule it forever as an immortal and sadistic tyrant--it seems to me that the way the Sapphire Guard would tell the story, they'd stress the whole 'high chance of destroying the world' thing a lot more than just being able to control it.

That's what the Sapphire Guard are all about, after all--protecting their Gate to stop the Snarl from being able to unmake the world.

They don't know about Redcloak's plans and (correct me if there's any evidence to the contrary) they don't have that much concrete evidence about Xykon's, apart from a general desire to somehow use the Snarl to control the world. If I recall correctly, Xykon said as much to Roy during the battle for Azure City, but at the end of the day, I think the Order will be worrying much more about things going out of control and the world ending than Xykon's plans actually going right.

In any case, I agree with you guys: I don't want to speculate on what this means for V.'s character, but over the last couple of hundred strips s/he's been learning to overcome his/her problems in a way that doesn't involve throwing his/her lot in with some evil monstrosity (or monstrosities...). We'll see how this is shaken by the recent revelations, but still, I can't really see it leading to her joining Xykon.

It's being a long-running theme in OotS that evil isn't one big happy family. So, hypothetically, if V. is so shaken by this s/he 'turns bad' (for a want of a better phrase), she definitely wouldn't just throw her lot in with a random bunch of bad guys 'just for the evulz'.

[FujinAkari]

Really? We're talking the same Xykon who couldn't even remember Roy's name after he punched his head off and then destroyed his body in Dorukan's protective rune? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure Xykon is perfectly capable of holding a grudge, but that implies he can remember the guy he's supposed to have a grudge against!

:xykon: don't confuse not knowing with not caring.

Xykon had no reason to remember Roy, Roy was just some schmuck that minorly inconvenienced him for a few days. V treatened his ability to safeguard his very existence.

Yeah, I think Xykon will remember that.

[Man on Fire]

I now have this vision of big clash between Order, Guild and Team that results in ensemble of completely new, Final Evil Organization made of Redcloak, V and Tarquin.

[Dr.Epic]

VERY unlikely. I doubt V would be driven to such a point. And even if they were, I think suicide would be the first thought rather than join the guy who's been fighting V all this time. Plus, if V really wanted to destroy everything, why wouldn't they just go to each Gate and blast it apart all alone? Xykon would just want to take control of it.

[t209]

Or Let Redcloak break V with this story (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0827.html).

[Jaros]

Really? We're talking the same Xykon who couldn't even remember Roy's name after he punched his head off and then destroyed his body in Dorukan's protective rune? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure Xykon is perfectly capable of holding a grudge, but that implies he can remember the guy he's supposed to have a grudge against!

Well I think he was just kind of pissed at Roy. V, however, he was downright outraged at.

[Jay R]

Really? We're talking the same Xykon who couldn't even remember Roy's name after he punched his head off and then destroyed his body in Dorukan's protective rune? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure Xykon is perfectly capable of holding a grudge, but that implies he can remember the guy he's supposed to have a grudge against!

The reason he has a phylactery is so what Roy did can be ignored.

What Roy did was a few months' annoyance. What V did might end up destroying him. No resemblance.

[fergo]

Or Let Redcloak break V with this story (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0827.html).

Really? I don't think V. even knew those people :smallconfused:. And I can't really see V. getting upset about that sort of thing anyways; s/he's more of a big picture guy (maybe s/he'll look on similar to how she looked on the dirt farmers--sad, but there are more important things to worry about. And that was before s/he knew the whole world was at stake).


The reason he has a phylactery is so what Roy did can be ignored.

What Roy did was a few months' annoyance. What V did might end up destroying him. No resemblance.

Agreed. As well as all the in-character reasons given above, the whole 'forgotten name' thing is hillarious applied to Roy, who's just the sort of person to find it infuriating (and, of course, is the resident straight man and as such is the natural butt of such jokes). There's just no point of applying it to V., and it would severely destroy Xykon's credibility as a badass villain (imo).