Rampant Miko speculation (spoiler -duh)

[pendell]

1) Noticing the title of 407 is "Fading"

Place your bets -- who wants to bet with me that the title of 408 is "to Black" with Miko rising as a Blackguard, or at least taking serious steps in that direction?

2) Here's a truly silly alternative to Miko's atonement that might, in it's own way, be story satisfying.

Miko as Diablo or Raistlin. Miko kneels before the Dark Powers, journeys to the lower planes ...

... meets a Dread Overlord of darkness ...

... DEFEATS him ...

... and takes his place!

THe original overlord becomes a dancing guy on a leash a la Jabba's palace.

C'mon, can't you just imagine Miko as a Dark Goddess of Vengeance? Morrigan or the Furies seem to fit her temperament extremely well.

Respectfully,

Brian p.

[BrokenButterfly]

Looking at Miko's reaction to the gods action, I think becoming blackguardy in the next strip would be a bit too quick.
She seemed really very shocked, now if she looked angry then it would be another matter....

[Konrad]

I think that fading just means losing one's colors, or whatever, I'd have to check, and there aren't some "..." after the "Fading" title, so it isn't implying much at the moment I think.
Going blackguard right now would be far too fast imho, too.

[Duke of URL]

Miko was borderline insane before this (and that's being generous), which leaves several different possibilities for how this plays out. Anything from contrite "I must atone" to nihilistic "kill them all for their false gods" is possible.

So, just grab some popcorn and go along for the ride. Rich has a plan... he always does.

[Baxter Konrad]

Miko has not, and indeed cannot become a Blackguard. For all her failings, everything she did was done for the right reasons, even if the act itself was wrong.

She is still the antithesis of the Blackguard; if not a Paladin in Class, then certainly in spirit.

[Duke of URL]

Miko has not, and indeed cannot become a Blackguard. For all her failings, everything she did was done for the right reasons, even if the act itself was wrong.

She is still the antithesis of the Blackguard; if not a Paladin in Class, then certainly in spirit.

I completely disagree. Everything she has done is for what she thinks is the right reasons; there is a big difference. She has let her own pride be her downfall, but as her kangaroo logic shows, she is far more willing to invent reasons why others are to blame than to accept any responsibility herself.

With that kind of self-delusion already in place, not to mention horrendous Will saves without her Paladinish bonuses, how hard would it be for someone like Nale to convince her that her "12 gods" are false and that a "true god" (i.e., an Evil one) will restore her powers to fight the "evil" OotS and their dupes?

So yes, I can certainly see Blackguard as a logical possibility, if not necessarily a high probability. Of course, she can still retain the giant stick up her *** so that she behaves more like a LE "paladin", i.e., your "paladin in spirit" concept. She would also be insane/deluded enough to believe that her evil actions are for "good" and that her Blackguard powers are just her Paladin powers re-manifested by her new "true god".

[Varg]

I think she'll atone - she's so devout she cannot deny the obvious will of her gods - so that would be the most likely road, anything else isn't really in keeping with her character. She's always been massively self-righteous, but I suspect that was because she knew the gods were on her side - hey, they gave her her powers, who could argue with that?
Now they've taken them away again.
Becoming a monk to atone is in-character, but I can't see many opportunities for fun in that strip-wise. Seeking atonement through honourable death in battle is in-character, too, and with The Battle Of Azure City looking tres imminent that would be a fitting place to seek it, but I'm hoping she doesn't get X-eyed myself, she's too significant a character.

I'm not going to tie my brain up in knots trying to second guess the Giant; he's made it very cool ride thus far, I'll trust him to keep it cool from this point on as well.

[Skyserpent]

I kinda thought "Fading" meant Shojo's dying breaths...

[Sage in the Playground]

I got a weird Fading "Spin Cycle" from the god's position. Like colors fading in the wash.

[beejazz]

Miko will be thrown into the prison by Hinjo shortly, to be dealt with later. He might set her straight if the city wasn't under attack. In prison she will meet up with Nale and Sabine and all. Normally, I'd expect Sabine to disguise herself as a celestial, but she's kind of in an anti-magic cell. So instead, I think she'll present "fallen angels" as the wronged party to gain sympathy with Miko (what prestige class has "peaceful contact with an evil outsider" as prerequisite, btw?). Nale also knows about the gates, and could manipulate an alliance on that basis (the basis of thwarting Xykon and Oots and all). Miko's going blackguard. With monk levels.

I also think a red uniform would look better and fit with her "Ronin" status.

[beejazz]

Holy crap the sword glowed green. Is that normal?

[Raistlin1040]

1) Noticing the title of 407 is "Fading"

Place your bets -- who wants to bet with me that the title of 408 is "to Black" with Miko rising as a Blackguard, or at least taking serious steps in that direction?

2) Here's a truly silly alternative to Miko's atonement that might, in it's own way, be story satisfying.

Miko as Diablo or Raistlin. Miko kneels before the Dark Powers, journeys to the lower planes ...

... meets a Dread Overlord of darkness ...

... DEFEATS him ...

... and takes his place!

THe original overlord becomes a dancing guy on a leash a la Jabba's palace.

C'mon, can't you just imagine Miko as a Dark Goddess of Vengeance? Morrigan or the Furies seem to fit her temperament extremely well.

Respectfully,

Brian p.
I'm offended that you think Miko would be like me ((JK)) I bet Miko looses it really soon and becomes Xykon's Blackguard lackey.

[Mika]

Holy crap the sword glowed green. Is that normal?
Quote swordmaker chick: "On occasion, your sword may glow with an energy paticularly harmful to the undead. To counter this, I recomend-"
:roy: :"No, no, I'll manage through somehow..."

[Rigel Cyrosea]

I'm offended that you think Miko would be like me ((JK)) I bet Miko looses it really soon and becomes Xykon's Blackguard lackey.

Why does becoming a blackgaurd mean Miko has to work for Xykon? Miko hates Xykon. Even if she realized that she had become evil, (which I doubt she would) that doesn't mean she'll suddenly stop hating Xykon.

[Raistlin1040]

Well her world has been screwed up. Shojo who she thought was good, turned out to be evil (In her eyes) Then she realized he was good and she killed him. Then Roy (also good) attacks her. She'd be pretty messed up and might turn to Xykon in desparation.

[Rigel Cyrosea]

You have a point.
However, she still thinks that Roy is evil, so it wouldn't have suprised her too much when he attacked her.
Also, Xykon is very obviously evil. He's a skeleton! Redcloak works for him, and Miko knows Redcloak is evil.
I really don't think Miko would be able to mistake Xykon for a good guy, no matter how screwed up she was at the time.

[Demented]

On the other hand, she hates Roy, she believes Roy is in league with Xykon, and she hates Xykon.

She does have that peculiar Jump (Conclusion) ability, though. She could very well decide not to hate Xykon, if she can convince Xykon to abandon Roy (which wouldn't be very hard, considering Xykon already doesn't care for Roy, but Miko doesn't know that).

After all, she has just concluded that Roy staged everything so that she would kill Shojo, even though it was Shojo who clearly was the one staging everything. For most, hindsight is 20/20, but Miko's is blind.

Then again, her fuzzy logic could be messing with my mind's eye...

[blackout]

Welp, Miko's clearly not gonna change her ways now. :) And, she's on the warpath/rampage. To quote a certain Ork Slugga Boy from the Ork campaign in Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, on the Thur'Abis Plateau mission, "WE'Z ALL GONNA DIE!"

[Stephen_E]

Given that her instinctive response so far has been to blame OotSs for losing her Paladin status I can't see her atoning anytime soon.

As for her hatred of Roy. I'd point out that it mostly comes from the point on their travel to the Azure city where Roy had his epihany and aplogised for his manipulative behaviour and his crass behaviour towards Miko, at which point she showed interest in a romantic relationship with Roy, only to have him precede to accurately detail her considerable character flaws, and mention he had no desire to get involved with her.

In short, her hatred of Roy is almost purely "Women Scorned" and her driving motives are far from ethically pure.

Stephen