thoughts on the vampire Durkon storyline

[Czhorat]

As intrigued as I am with this story, party of me wonders if it works have been more interesting without the scenes internal to Durkon's head. Absent those scenes (and the very quick escalation in page 957) the reader works have been with Roy in dealing with a measure of ambiguity abd the question of how much Durkon is still in Durkon. The answer to Belkar's charge cloths have been the vampire's claim that it was his supernatural hunger driving hon to drain nearly all of his halfling friends blood. What we have instead gives the reader such clear direction (the vampire is an evil spirit and Durkon's adversary) that the story behind about tactics and tricks rather than a meditation on larger concepts of self.

[Keltest]

I think from the perspective of Rich telling the story, its fine. It gets across the point he wants it to, allows for us to flesh out Durkon's life and person by integrating flashbacks in a reasonable manner, and allows Durkon to get character development in spite of not being physically present.

As a reader, I think theyre kind of annoying sometimes in that whenever theyre on the page Durkon's body seems to fade to the background, even with Belkar right in his face. This last page gave me hope because Durkon got actual dialogue even though we could see in his head, but all the other ones have him as far too passive compared to the comics without them.

[rodneyAnonymous]

Othello would definitely be different if the author wrote it from Desdemona's perspective, because she is unaware of Iago's deception, but the author went for dramatic irony (where the audience knows something the characters don't) instead.

[White Blade]

I like this as it stands for a couple of reasons.
1) This is a unique picture of Vampirism. I've never seen anything something that was equivalent. The closest parallel would be Buffy-Vamps, but Buffy-Vamps are just demons picking up running the glorified sausage, memory and personality and all. It might seem petty, but a big appeal of fantasy is the imagination of a different world and when there is something unique and interesting in that different world, highlighting it is extremely satisfying.

2) Conflict within Durkon gives us a chance to see plot and spoil bits and pieces of what we see. A big part of the pleasure of stories is understanding where they are going... in part. Just look at the joy that people derive from speculating on Belkar's death if you don't believe me. Plus, nobody will feel hideously ripped off when it turns out it wasn't even a little bit Durkon.

3) Durkon needs a day in the sun and we know so little about him.

4) Belkar. Belkar needs this storyline if we're going to be sad when the little monster dies. For the first time, he's showing loyalty and the most recent strip has made it clear that this isn't just annoyance at having been a buffet for Durkula, but an understanding that Durkon is dead and an anger at his "replacement". If we watched all this and thought it was Belkar's paranoia, I don't think it would have the same effect.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

On one hand, if we still had no idea what was going on with Durkon, it would make things more dramatic as we the readers would also be unsure if Belkar was right. On the other hand, it would prevent us from seeing more of Durkon, and it wouldn't allow us to see this interesting take on vampirism.

[veti]

I'm glad of the exposition, if only because it's an end to the previously-interminable threads on this forum about Durkon's alleged alignment change. Solution: his alignment hasn't changed! Simple, elegant, consistent and just plain right.

Narratively: this whole arc is about Durkon's character development. Durkon's major character flaw, that he's been criticised heavily for pretty much since Book 1, is that he's way too passive - he just responds, very seldom taking the initiative. His current position is tailor-made to force him to get off his hairy buttocks and do something, proactively - because no-one else even knows he's in there now.

And in order to build that story up, we need to see a good many strips of the still-passive Durkon slowly learning how to act in his new position - what he can and can't do. We're in the early stages of that arc now. The possessing spirit thinks he's helpless, but I'm guessing even it doesn't have as many ranks in Knowledge (Religion) as it would need to know that for sure.