The REAL reason why Xykon is always bored...

[137beth]

And not that stuff about coffee!

The Giant has explicitly stated that
If one does not care about the protagonists or antagonists and is not emotionally invested in their struggles—whether those struggles are external or internal, relevant to the MacGuffin plot or not—and all one cares about is the resolution of the MacGuffin chase, then you will almost certainly be bored with a lot of the material I'm producing.

But in strip 466 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0466.html), panel 6, Xykon says "All I care about is the MacGuffin,"

So there, now we know why he is bored all the time.

[TRH]

Well, yeah, this does make sense, but I'm not sure it's much of a revelation. Xykon's been around the block quite a few times, TPK'd who knows how many adventuring parties full of do-gooders, and generally "seen it all". He's long past the point of caring about who and what opposes him, so the only thing that's going on that could possibly interest him is the race for the Gates, and let's face it, the way the comic is paced I'd be bored too if I had no interest in the characters or setting. That's what keeps readers going strip-to-strip, far less so the overall plot.

[cheesecake]

I would say after being an undead lich for who knows how long he has been around that you would just simply get bored. You've basically seen or experienced everything there is to do. You are basically evil, and what more is going to bring you enjoyment?

As said above. how many people has he killed? How many plans, plots, or whatever he has hatched. Basically whatever he does is done out of boredom.

[EclipseDarkSun]

Plus he's undead.. ennui due to the lack of a meaty brain filling in his skull seems entirely possible.

[Jay R]

I would say after being an undead lich for who knows how long he has been around ...

27 years, for the record. He hasn't seen everything yet

[Saphir]

Although it is 103 years since he started practicing necromancy according to SoD.

[denthor]

Well, yeah, this does make sense, but I'm not sure it's much of a revelation. Xykon's been around the block quite a few times, TPK'd
who knows how many adventuring parties full of do-gooders, and generally "seen it all". He's long past the point of caring about who and what opposes him, so the only thing that's going on that could possibly interest him is the race for the Gates, and let's face it, the way the comic is paced I'd be bored too if I had no interest in the characters or setting. That's what keeps readers going strip-to-strip, far less so the overall plot.

I disagree with quote within the quote


He does care what type of do-gooder oppose him.

Snips, Snails and dragon tails spoiler

Xykon add:

Me: 100% bone and ready to tussle You: done with grinding and ready for the big finish. You penetrate my secret lair or I desecrate your holy temple, either way is fine with me. No monks.


This clearly states he does care about his opponent.

[Ewig Custos]

He is an old evil lich. That's the main reason.
If you think about it, he's not interested in pursuing some new knowledge, has no flesh urges (he's undead, after all), he did all "basic" evil acts numerous of times even when he was alive.
And he does not sleep. Sum it up.
Of course he is bored, in his place I would be bored too. His main source of excitement are adventurers, so he can even let them go just to get some more interesting action later on. And remember what he did in Dorukans Dungeon.

[TRH]

I disagree with quote within the quote


He does care what type of do-gooder oppose him.

Snips, Snails and dragon tails spoiler

Xykon add:

Me: 100% bone and ready to tussle You: done with grinding and ready for the big finish. You penetrate my secret lair or I desecrate your holy temple, either way is fine with me. No monks.


This clearly states he does care about his opponent.

I haven't read that yet. Are you sure it's necessarily canon?

[Poppy Appletree]

And here I thought the reason he was bored all the time was because he was a psychopath.

[BrotherMirtillo]

Props to people who already suggested that immortality could make one get bored out of their skull, so to speak.


I haven't read that yet. Are you sure it's necessarily canon?

Not only is it Snips/Snails, but it's from the Snips/Snails preface. I leave the canon-ness conclusion to you, but I'm guessing it won't come up again.

The spoilered bit from denthor stemmed from Xykon saying that he wanted to fight against some more entertaining enemies, so he tried to get some publicity to reel them in. The spoiler was one of his older ideas: a personals ad. The ad's result wasn't about his combat-related ambitions so much as it was comic misunderstanding, especially in light of the unarmed, unarmored, grappling people that answered such an exquisitely-phrased ad.

So yeah, probably not canon, and not much of a revelation either. It just draws on the fact that Xykon only cares about other beings as entertainment and as opponents (which, to him, is also entertainment.) We already knew that.

Xykon's been a tough character for me to approach. I figured that the Gates are his top interest, followed by gratuitous murder -- not much I can cheer for there. Furthermore, if he ever achieves the former, then certain realizations about Redcloak would cause him to revert to the latter pretty quickly. Game over.

The result is quite the strange dynamic in the story. Some stories happen because of multiple people racing for certain goals. For most of this comic, that's true, but "Don't Split the Party" only worked as it did because Xykon had no goals whatsoever. If he'd insisted on the Gate, the Order would've been left in the dust, Redcloak would never have turned Azure City into Gobbotopia City, and Tsukiko might not have had time to gain any status with Xykon at all. I loved all those bits of this story, so there's some great advantages to Xykon's boredom.

That being said, when Xykon decides that a target is worth his time, things get very exciting very quickly. The guy has a rather good poker face, and Burlew knows how to get a heart-failure surprise out of that. It remains to be seen just how much effort Xykon will exert to capture Girard's Gate... and how much effort he's already applied in secret.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Dammit, now I want to see Xykon playing poker with some dog-faced humanoids in an oddly modern setting.

[Gift Jeraff]

I'm under the impression that the prefaces are canon in the sense that though the actual act of writing in the books never happened, the various details are true.So Xykon really did make that ad, Miko's confirms that Asmodeus exists in the OOTSiverse, peanut butter sandwiches with crusts is what Elan genuinely believes caused Belkar and Nale to act the way they are, Roy really is allergic to whatever he said, etc.
The exceptions would be Belkar's and Redcloak's, since those are like 100% meta.

[Vinyadan]

And here I thought the reason he was bored all the time was because he was a psychopath.

I do not know. Do psychopaths get easily bored?

[Water_Bear]

I do not know. Do psychopaths get easily bored?

Yup. It's not one of the core diagnostic criteria, but it is related. It sort of ties into the whole impulsivity / shallow affect / egocentricity thing; anything which isn't immediately stimulating to them is a waste of time.

Of course, Rich did not write Xykon out of a DSM and (probably) is not a psychopath himself, so applying psychiatric terminology to his character is probably not very helpful in understanding him. Armchair diagnosis of real people is silly enough, but doing so for fictional characters is even less useful.