Will Durkon be saved?

[Orchestration]

Sometimes I really do not get why I read this comic, it depresses me, seeing the good guys lose over and over, I just can't stand it, it makes me angry.

We have seen a whole Paladin city fall, taken over by Goblins. Now Durkon has become undead. I really hope he is saved somehow but I never know where the Giant is taking the story.

I feel that even if the story does get a "happy ending" it will still be in a darker place than when it started, and that just doesn't sit well with me. I like to see justice done and I don't feel we will get that here.

Will we see Azure city saved/taken back?
Will poor, old Durkon be restored? He was a good man (Dwarf), he doesn't deserve this.
Will justice and goodness triumph in the OotS world?

[Steward]

I think the main issue you might be having is that OOTS is so long, it's hard to see the glimmer of light at the end of the dark tunnel. With most movies, books, etc., it's already been finished. All you have to do is watch it straight through, and you get the whole rollercoaster ride in an hour or two.

The good guys getting beaten down over and over (figuratively or literally) until finally they reach a breakthrough and manage to turn things around for them.

All of this stuff happens in basically every other fiction worth paying attention to, but in webcomic form these ups and downs can seem to drag for a lot longer because the story has been running for just under a decade now.

I totally get it. Honestly, I took a break from OOTS a while back. I didn't have a problem with the story or anything, I just like the sensation of rediscovering the story and going through the rollercoaster ride at my own pace.

[Kish]

I find it very unlikely that the Order will leave Durkon as a vampire, any more than they left Roy as an inanimate corpse.

[Shale]

I would be shocked if the Order willingly leaves Durkon as a vampire. It seems entirely possible, though, that they will be unable to (a) locate a cleric willing and able to cast Resurrection and (b) destroy their now-epic former ally, while also beating Team Evil (and maybe Team Tarquin/the LG) to the final gate.

[The Pilgrim]

Well, the fall of Azure City was Karmic Justice, after all.

Regarding Durkon... I get the impression that the next book will be all about how the Order rush to recover him from Malack's clutches. Of course, that means the Giant will probably do something else, but in the end Durkon will be restored as a member of the Order (possibly after resurrecting him with a scroll that the dwarf himself inscribed after overcoming his vampiric urges).

Durkon has always been "that medic-kit over there". People has always complained at his lack of character development. No more, his time under the sun (no pun intended) has come at last.

This is the story of the Order of the Stick. So if someone gets perma-killed (Belkar, V, I'm looking at you), will be at the very end.

[Fale]

Personally, I would rather have a grey or even black ending then a 'they lived happily ever after' one. I agree that some of the events don't deserve to happen to the people that they do but as life is unfair, I wouldn't expect the comic to be any different.

Orchestration, have you read Start of Darkness? I'm just wondering what you think of the Redcloak's mission. Sure, there is no doubt he's evil but in the big scheme of things he is attempting to get equal rights for his race, although it's through questionable means.

Would you say that goblins deserved what they got? I not saying that I agree with Redcloak. I much preferred his brother's way of achieving this task. But in the end, I would like to see them at least slightly getting this.

[theinsulabot]

Well, for the over all story the giant has directly stated this is not going to be a tragedy, so good will prevail in some form or fashion, but I actually have for a while considered that to mean their will be some tragedy along the way in some fashion. Admittedly up until this point, I had been willing to take the longshot that it would be Roy who somehow got karmically screwed because he would be the hardest to do so to (as we already know he has a pass in celestial so the twist where he somehow fell or was unmade by the snarl would have a high impact)

Durkon, however, being a tragic casualty of the system where dispite doing everything right you can be damned by the unforgiving rules of DnD which include if defeated by the wrong enemy your alignment can be forcibly changed, subverting your final rest works pretty well along that line of thought to.

[Flame of Anor]

Well, the fall of Azure City was Karmic Justice, after all.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

[rodneyAnonymous]

Two wrongs don't make a right.

Three lefts do.

[Tragak]

Two wrongs don't make a right.

Hence the words "Actual Justice" were not used :smallsmile:

[Rorrik]

I think the main issue you might be having is that OOTS is so long, it's hard to see the glimmer of light at the end of the dark tunnel. With most movies, books, etc., it's already been finished. All you have to do is watch it straight through, and you get the whole rollercoaster ride in an hour or two.

The good guys getting beaten down over and over (figuratively or literally) until finally they reach a breakthrough and manage to turn things around for them.

All of this stuff happens in basically every other fiction worth paying attention to, but in webcomic form these ups and downs can seem to drag for a lot longer because the story has been running for just under a decade now.

I totally get it. Honestly, I took a break from OOTS a while back. I didn't have a problem with the story or anything, I just like the sensation of rediscovering the story and going through the rollercoaster ride at my own pace.

This is really what's happening. You know when you watch a movie and bad things are happening to good guys and you get a sick feeling like you just failed an important exam. It goes away when the good guys win.

In this case, we're left with the sick feeling every time we think about OotS for months at a time. It's a rough read, to be sure. However, if the ending were going to be black and bleak, it would be ineffective storytelling to have a slow descent into darkness like we're seeing. More likely we are being led into darkness to make the final victory even more dramatic and powerful.

In the end, I think the pain we go through for the characters will make the end more satisfying for us. It's like a well run D&D campaign where the final victory is sweet because you spent years working for it. Heck, it's like real life, where you have to live with the sickening taste of failure all day, every day when it happens. The pain makes the later successes all the sweeter.

[Flame of Anor]

This is really what's happening. You know when you watch a movie and bad things are happening to good guys and you get a sick feeling like you just failed an important exam.

That's a pretty good way of characterizing it, actually.

[Mr.Rictus]

Who knows about what will happen to Durkon? Hopefully things will turn out the best for him, in the end, however he won't be amongst the living anytime soon, and I'm very interested in the direction things are going.

As for Azure city? Sometimes people get conquered and never take their city back. But I don't really feel they need to anymore, they have a new place they might decide to call home one day, and the goblins finally have an actual city and not just dirt (Though one relates more to the goblin's plight after reading Start of Darkness). The azurites fared a lot better than other people whose city was conquered have.

Oots is a complex story with it's ups and downs, just like any great story. Life doesn't always go the way you want it to go, and sometimes you just need to do what's best even in dire circumstances. If there weren't setbacks, emotions, and tribulations, I would be a lot less interested in the story.

I like happy ends, but I hate easy ends.