adriankas
2007-02-01, 12:04 AM
Reposted from the main discussion thread upon suggestion of Solara.
To look at things from a different perspective:
The Order of the Stick is a work of fiction. It is designed for dramatic tension. If Miko were to atone for what she did right there on the spot, then what would have been the point of all that build up towards her fall in the first place? A story is at it's most riveting when the characters are in, quite frankly, the worst possible scenario. That everything went wrong (for both Miko AND Roy... and all the characters for that matter, except Xykon)... well, that's just good storytelling.
Let's look at this from the metanarrative. The Giant has foresight into the narrative well beyond what any of us see, so he must have planned some sort of larger arc. Given that this is such a critical point of the story, each event would most likely be carefully planned to set the plot into the trajectory of his planning. So if you have any faith in the Giant's storytelling abilities (which you obviously have after reading up to this point) then you would trust in him to know what he's doing.
As many posters have pointed out, Roy's actions are not only justifiable, but entirely human and more than plausible. It's moments of weakness like this that really develop a character. He was angry. Angry at Miko for hurting his friends (OotS), killing his greatest ally and employer, for jeopardizing an entire city, for spurning him and for being a constant thorn at his side for four hundred strips. He just got a green light by the very gods themselves that Miko is in the wrong. All the evidence points to Roy's character losing his temper and making an arguable moral lapse in judgment. This was what the Giant planned all along. This is why he wrote Roy as he did. If Roy DID end up talking to Miko, it would probably create even more dissent because it would not make any sense.
I don't think people are indignant about Roy because they find his actions loathsome. No, I think people are reacting strongly to Roy and villifying him out of compassion and pity for Miko. Infact, if anything, I think that is exactly what the Giant is attempting to do, make us dislike Roy just a little bit (even though his actions were totally in character) to elicit great compassion for a character who had been written since her inception as a character to be utterly hated. It is extremely difficult to completely change a reader's opinion of a character (as demonstrated by all the people calling for Miko's blood) so sometimes, a previously loved character may have to be made a little bit rotten to make the hated character look good.
If anything, it is a testament to Rich's masterful storytelling that he can cause such discomfort amongst readers and elicit such great emotion and passion to defend Miko, and have so many people disappointed in Roy. This is probably exactly what he wants... Roy can always be redeemed later for this blemish as he's the hero, but Miko is going to find the world all stacked up against her right now because she's in the spotlight. When a character is in the spotlight, in DnD games, novels, films, whatever, things always go from bad to worse. The character still triumphs (or fails, if it's tragic) in the end, but once that happens... the spotlight immediately shuts off. The conflict is resolved.
People may argue that Miko=blackguard is cliched, but if you think about it, the cliche had already been set rolling once Miko was introduced. An overzealous paladin? Mistaken wrath? A climactic fall? These are all facets of the archetypal fall-from-grace, and it would be just making things from bad to worse if one did not "finish off" the cliche, so to speak. The Giant isn't an author to pull stops.
Take the Nale/Elan/Haley subplot for example. Evil identical twin attempts to seduce the love of his heroic counterpart? Hasn't that been done a million times? Haley suffered because she was the character in the limelight during that part of the story, and so too must Miko suffer now that the attention is on her. Cliches are cliched for a reason. They work. Or worked, at least. Order of the Stick is about reinventing them so that they work again.
What I think the Giant is doing is using the Cliche as a misdirection. Cliches build a reader's expectation and the best part to defy the reader's expectation is right at the end. After all, when you pose a riddle that is designed to misdirect the riddled, are you vague or excruciatingly specific? Does a magician pull out of an illusion half way to explain what he's doing? Misdirection is about defying what seems to be insurmountable evidence... we haven't quite reached insurmountable yet.
Case in point: just when we thought Nale was utterly defeated and Elan has saved the day, he then pulls the blinds on all of us and tries to trick Elan. That was truly the climax of the built up story because that was where Haley was put into utmost emotional strife and suffering... and yet she overcame it and grew as a character.
If any of you has seen "The Prestige", then that movie describes it perfectly: the contract, the pledge and the prestige... it's not until the very end that the wildest things happen.
I predict that Miko is going to come dangerously close to becoming a blackguard, or maybe she even does become one. But then, and only then, does something completely unexpected happen and the cliche is turned from a formula into a beautiful twist that truly affects the reader.
To look at things from a different perspective:
The Order of the Stick is a work of fiction. It is designed for dramatic tension. If Miko were to atone for what she did right there on the spot, then what would have been the point of all that build up towards her fall in the first place? A story is at it's most riveting when the characters are in, quite frankly, the worst possible scenario. That everything went wrong (for both Miko AND Roy... and all the characters for that matter, except Xykon)... well, that's just good storytelling.
Let's look at this from the metanarrative. The Giant has foresight into the narrative well beyond what any of us see, so he must have planned some sort of larger arc. Given that this is such a critical point of the story, each event would most likely be carefully planned to set the plot into the trajectory of his planning. So if you have any faith in the Giant's storytelling abilities (which you obviously have after reading up to this point) then you would trust in him to know what he's doing.
As many posters have pointed out, Roy's actions are not only justifiable, but entirely human and more than plausible. It's moments of weakness like this that really develop a character. He was angry. Angry at Miko for hurting his friends (OotS), killing his greatest ally and employer, for jeopardizing an entire city, for spurning him and for being a constant thorn at his side for four hundred strips. He just got a green light by the very gods themselves that Miko is in the wrong. All the evidence points to Roy's character losing his temper and making an arguable moral lapse in judgment. This was what the Giant planned all along. This is why he wrote Roy as he did. If Roy DID end up talking to Miko, it would probably create even more dissent because it would not make any sense.
I don't think people are indignant about Roy because they find his actions loathsome. No, I think people are reacting strongly to Roy and villifying him out of compassion and pity for Miko. Infact, if anything, I think that is exactly what the Giant is attempting to do, make us dislike Roy just a little bit (even though his actions were totally in character) to elicit great compassion for a character who had been written since her inception as a character to be utterly hated. It is extremely difficult to completely change a reader's opinion of a character (as demonstrated by all the people calling for Miko's blood) so sometimes, a previously loved character may have to be made a little bit rotten to make the hated character look good.
If anything, it is a testament to Rich's masterful storytelling that he can cause such discomfort amongst readers and elicit such great emotion and passion to defend Miko, and have so many people disappointed in Roy. This is probably exactly what he wants... Roy can always be redeemed later for this blemish as he's the hero, but Miko is going to find the world all stacked up against her right now because she's in the spotlight. When a character is in the spotlight, in DnD games, novels, films, whatever, things always go from bad to worse. The character still triumphs (or fails, if it's tragic) in the end, but once that happens... the spotlight immediately shuts off. The conflict is resolved.
People may argue that Miko=blackguard is cliched, but if you think about it, the cliche had already been set rolling once Miko was introduced. An overzealous paladin? Mistaken wrath? A climactic fall? These are all facets of the archetypal fall-from-grace, and it would be just making things from bad to worse if one did not "finish off" the cliche, so to speak. The Giant isn't an author to pull stops.
Take the Nale/Elan/Haley subplot for example. Evil identical twin attempts to seduce the love of his heroic counterpart? Hasn't that been done a million times? Haley suffered because she was the character in the limelight during that part of the story, and so too must Miko suffer now that the attention is on her. Cliches are cliched for a reason. They work. Or worked, at least. Order of the Stick is about reinventing them so that they work again.
What I think the Giant is doing is using the Cliche as a misdirection. Cliches build a reader's expectation and the best part to defy the reader's expectation is right at the end. After all, when you pose a riddle that is designed to misdirect the riddled, are you vague or excruciatingly specific? Does a magician pull out of an illusion half way to explain what he's doing? Misdirection is about defying what seems to be insurmountable evidence... we haven't quite reached insurmountable yet.
Case in point: just when we thought Nale was utterly defeated and Elan has saved the day, he then pulls the blinds on all of us and tries to trick Elan. That was truly the climax of the built up story because that was where Haley was put into utmost emotional strife and suffering... and yet she overcame it and grew as a character.
If any of you has seen "The Prestige", then that movie describes it perfectly: the contract, the pledge and the prestige... it's not until the very end that the wildest things happen.
I predict that Miko is going to come dangerously close to becoming a blackguard, or maybe she even does become one. But then, and only then, does something completely unexpected happen and the cliche is turned from a formula into a beautiful twist that truly affects the reader.