Will Miko Try To Get Her Paladin Powers Back?

[Yzorth]

Well, what do you think?

[ElfLad]

I think this thread could use more cowbell.

I mean, poll. I said poll.

And yes.

[Renegade Paladin]

Yes. Whether she'll succeed is another matter entirely.

[Golt]

She will. The next question is will she succeed? And if so will her redemption will be granted posthumously or not?

[Demented]

You can't make me choose!

...

There's no "All of the Above" option?

[Yzorth]

I think she will try to atone, but fail. Maybe after that, she will become a blackguard.

[Terraxos]

I love polls! Hail Yzorth!

As for Miko... I'm really not sure. On the one hand, she has virtually never shown any willingness to see herself as wrong, and accept responsibility for her mistakes. And atoning would require her to recognise her own wrongdoing on a pretty massive scale. It is possible, but it would require a truly *massive* shift in her character, and I'm not sure if she could go through with that.

Admittedly, going the blackguard route would require a certain amount of character shift as well (could Miko, even Fallen Miko, ever have a friendly encounter with an evil outsider?). But judging from what we saw in #406, Miko could probably justify it to herself somehow. I think she's slightly more likely to do that than admit to herself she did something so wrong, it invoked the wrath of the gods.

Actually, perhaps in the long run, both will happen! Miko could carry on down her 'path of evil' in the short-term, and turn into a blackguard; but that doesn't stop her from *eventually* atoning and turning back towards good. It would just be all the harder if it happened that way; after all, if going from ex-Paladin to Paladin requires a lot of atonement, think how much atoning going all the way from Blackguard back to Paladin would require!

[Yzorth]

Wow. I was definitely playing around with the lack of being able to accept fault on Miko's part (due to her immunity to fear), but I didn't think of the fact that atonement requires one to fess up to your deeds on a massive scale.

Thanks for pointing that out Terraxos.

[Lord Zentei]

I love polls! Hail Yzorth!

As for Miko... I'm really not sure. On the one hand, she has virtually never shown any willingness to see herself as wrong, and accept responsibility for her mistakes. And atoning would require her to recognise her own wrongdoing on a pretty massive scale. It is possible, but it would require a truly *massive* shift in her character, and I'm not sure if she could go through with that.

Much of her tendency towards self righteousness came from the fact that she saw herself as the agent of the twelve. It rather defined her whole worldview, self image and confidence in her own cause. Remove that, and you remove the basis for her self image, hence her self confidence and self righteousness.

[Estelindis]

I don't think she'll try to atone immediately - I'm not sure she's able to turn herself around so quickly. But eventually she will. It took her a long time to get to this point, and it'll probably take a long time for her to repent and be renewed (although hopefully not *as* long).

[Ravyn]

Whether she can or not, I'm pretty sure she's going to do everything in her power to try. You can see it in her eyes. How long it takes for her to realize just how far she'd slipped off the path, however, is quite another matter.

[teratorn]

I love polls! Hail Yzorth!

As for Miko... I'm really not sure. On the one hand, she has virtually never shown any willingness to see herself as wrong, and accept responsibility for her mistakes.

I also voted for that, in part because I have no idea on how the Giant will take the story from here. About Miko not being wrong, Durkon managed to convince Miko she was wrong about Roy being evil, and she was very reasonable about it. Later when Haley broke them out of prison Durkon again convinced her that there was a problem with the lock.

[Luvlein]

Samurai atone by seppuku.

[Renegade Paladin]

Samurai atone by seppuku.
She's not going to do that.

[Viridian]

I personally think that in 408 she's going to run from the throne room while everyone is in shock and we won't see her for another 50 strips or so. Of course the question then becomes, what will she be when she pops back up?

I'm leaning towards...fighter. I don't think she'll become a blackguard. But can't even try to atone until she admits how wrong she was, which could take years. In the meantime, she will use her fighting abilities to get by, taking jobs from people she would have slain as evil back when she was a paladin. This will do a tremendous amount of damage to her self-image...hopefully it will be enough that on some rainy night somewhere she'll enter a little chapel with tears streaming down her face and finally ask forgiveness from the Twelve for the horrible things she has done...

[Skyserpent]

I personally think that in 408 she's going to run from the throne room while everyone is in shock and we won't see her for another 50 strips or so. Of course the question then becomes, what will she be when she pops back up?

I'm leaning towards...fighter. I don't think she'll become a blackguard. But can't even try to atone until she admits how wrong she was, which could take years. In the meantime, she will use her fighting abilities to get by, taking jobs from people she would have slain as evil back when she was a paladin. This will do a tremendous amount of damage to her self-image...hopefully it will be enough that on some rainy night somewhere she'll enter a little chapel with tears streaming down her face and finally ask forgiveness from the Twelve for the horrible things she has done...

Streaming tears aren't something that this comic exactly works well with...

[Weezer]

I think that she will work for good as a ex-paladin because she is too proud to atone and too good to become a blackguard. You do not become a blackguard or go from LG to LE by unwittingly preforming evil.

[Underfoot]

I think that she will attempt to atone, and I suspect Roy will be a source of guidance and support in showing her what Lawful Good means.

He may think she's a self-righteous evil biznatch, but he's also very compassionate and kind. I think he'd give her a second chance and try to help her redeem herself, rather than see a fallen paladin become a blackguard.

[Woot Spitum]

I think she'll give atonement a shot. Eventually. I think the shock will leave her pretty much paralyzed for quite a while. The comedic potential of this boggles the mind. I can see it now, Belkar doing everything in his power to irritate her, no reaction, Belkar giving up in disgust, then making the ultimate mistake of audibly wishing the old Miko was back, getting it, then hating himself for it.

[teratorn]

Streaming tears aren't something that this comic exactly works well with...

Hey, if it works for Belkar here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0127.html) and here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0128.html). hehe what a wussy.