Poor Miko

[Professor Tanhauser]

Gods, can we all take a moment to pity Miko? I mean, the forces of evil are literally at AC's gates and she can't lift a finger to fight them.

Seriously, dudes, she must be going thru pure hell. I mean, especialy when she saw them take BELKAR out of his cell to fight the hordes of evil and left her in hers.

Gods help me, I never thought I'd pity Miko, but I do now.....:frown:

[Assassinfox]

:belkar: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHA!

[Icewalker]

Yeah, nevertheless I can definitely see her going blackguard. That'd be fun. Great new villain.

And Nale and Sabine would get to go to a resort, heh.

[Professor Tanhauser]

:belkar: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHA!



Damn, you're a cold one, aren't you?

[Innis Cabal]

she deserves it

[Vespe Ratavo]

:garland: Muahahahhah! Buhahaha! And....neener neener neener!

[StoryKeeper]

Yeah, nevertheless I can definitely see her going blackguard. That'd be fun. Great new villain.

And Nale and Sabine would get to go to a resort, heh.

Absolutely great villain. Kind of like a chick version of Anakin. Oh, and hi. This is my first post.

[Innis Cabal]

i dont see her going blackguard, i see her gettin a Giant Brewed PrC

[NeonRonin]

I have on occasion pitied Miko, but then I review some of her behavior and go right back to viewing her as a misguided zealot with no social skills and no inherent desire to even THINK of changing her ways. I'm sorry, but her whole 'I'm right and you're wrong, so there' mentality gets to be a little grating after a while.

Part of me wishes she wasn't in an antimagic cell just so she could have a chat with Roy's dad... can you imagine what kind of roller coaster ride thru Hell THAT would be?

[StoryKeeper]

Ya, at first I would have gone along with the "sheltered life" thing, but she's got to be the kind of person you would hate regardless of upbringing.

[Demented]

Miko isn't even the current strip, and still threads are being made about her. Why do you do this, twelve gods? WHY ISN'T SHE JOLLY???

Whoops, wrong line.

[StoryKeeper]

Why isn't she jolly? Well remember, the stick IS a paladin class feature. :smallbiggrin:

[Demented]

The Order of the Stick isn't exactly a class feature, but the result is the same. =P

Of course, Roy handles it a little better, but he's probably used to being underappreciated by fate.

[tis_tom]

What is annoying is that Miko would be a LOT of help in the fight! And if they considered it properly they'd know that Miko would gladly fight Hobgoblins over Hinjo any time, if not more so now because she wants to get her paladin status back!

If Azure City lose by a whisker I'm going to blame Hinjo ¬_¬

[Icewalker]

The Order of the Stick isn't exactly a class feature, but the result is the same. =P

No no, what he meant when he said that the stick IS a class feature, is about the comment Roy gave Miko a long time ago, although I can't find the actual strip, about how having a stick up your ass is one of the class features of a paladin.

[MoelVermillion]

What is annoying is that Miko would be a LOT of help in the fight! And if they considered it properly they'd know that Miko would gladly fight Hobgoblins over Hinjo any time, if not more so now because she wants to get her paladin status back!

If Azure City lose by a whisker I'm going to blame Hinjo ¬_¬

She would be no help becuase she'd stab Roy through the chest and proclaim she had killed the traitor. Hinjo and the rest of the order would react by attempting to restrain her and the result would be the forces of AC gaining even more morale problems and having to fight off a lunatic of a fallen paladin whilst defending their city from an army of hobgoblins and a lich.

[Swashbuckler]

May she fall in the massive destruction that awaits her prison! Mwahahahahahahahaha! :smallamused:

[Lord]

Allow me to show my sypathy for Miko at this point.

HAHA IN YOUR FACE!!! YOUR IN PRISON!!! SOON YOU'LL BE PUT ON TRIAL AND CONVICTED OF MURDER AND EXECUTED AND NOBODY CARES!!!

So yeah now that is out of my system.
She shouldn't be thinking about how she's been wronged. What she should be thinking about is how SHE did wrong to other's. In conclusion I don't pity her at all.

Sincerely
Lord

[Bozidar]

i can't fathom what the response will be here when Roy finally kills Miko..

[chrono]

What is annoying is that Miko would be a LOT of help in the fight! And if they considered it properly they'd know that Miko would gladly fight Hobgoblins over Hinjo any time, if not more so now because she wants to get her paladin status back!

If Azure City lose by a whisker I'm going to blame Hinjo ¬_¬
Miko may (or may not) decide to randomly slaughter other good-aligned characters (like... Roy) or others like Belkar, but one thing's for sure - mostly everybody on BOTH sides of the wall want her head (after killing Shojo I bet there's a ton of paladins that would love to carve justice onto her).
Miko is unstable (I dare anybody in his/her right mind to state otherwise) and she's a hazard rather than an asset (example - if she hadn't killed Shojo the nobles would have likely stayed with their ninjas).

[BisectedBrioche]

I'd say she's insane, thus deserving sympathy. All "emotionally different" persons should be respected, with the exception of those who suffer ASPD because they scare me.

[MaxKaladin]

What is annoying is that Miko would be a LOT of help in the fight! And if they considered it properly they'd know that Miko would gladly fight Hobgoblins over Hinjo any time, if not more so now because she wants to get her paladin status back!Frankly, they don't know anything of the sort. She's already tried to kill Hinjo once while knowing the hobgoblin army was closing in on the city (remember that the whole incident with killing Shojo started when she and Hinjo went to the throne room to warn him about the hobgoblin army). How do they know she won't try again?

Then there's the chance she'll immediately pursue her vendetta against the OotS (who she thinks are in league with the hobgoblins via Xycon, remember) and they'll risk losing 6 high level defenders trying to gain one somewhat higher level one.

Frankly, Miko has proven herself dangerously unstable and I don't think anyone, including Miko, can accurately predict what she will do anymore.

[MaxKaladin]

i can't fathom what the response will be here when Roy finally kills Miko..I, for one, will be disappointed -- but only because I'm hoping Belkar gets to be the one to do it.

[Abacab]

As most have said, Miko is crazy (or as I prefer to quote that old rap song, "Insane in the membrane...insane in the brain"). She may be messed up, but I feel bad for people who are crazy, because it's not really their fault. It was, most likely, the way she was raised as a paladin or child, or the people around her. Or it could have been that the gods are manipulating her for their dirty work.

It does suck for her that she has to rot in jail while a huge battle to defend AC is occurring. She has no control over he life, now because somebody could destroy the place she is in. And the situation she is probably in is most likely similar to Belkar's former problem in the battle (they both can't fight but want to).

But then again, Miko is incredibly unpredictable, so who knows what will happen to her next.

[Milandros]

As far as Miko is concerned, the city has already fallen to evil. The Order of the Stick, working together with Xykon the Lich-sorceror and the Bearer of the Crimson Mantle, have suborned first Shojo and now Hinjo, the laws have been corrupted to serve evil and only she can see it - so she probably thinks the rest of the Sapphire Guard is corrupt too.

The battle? Obviously it's part of some master plot by Hinjo and the OoTS to kill as many of the city's defenders as possible as part of some master plan. And that's not *really* Roy and Xykon fighting up there, they're really dancing in glee at the success of their plan. A great good hero of the people who was ready to bring down the evil Hinjo was just murdered by the psychotic halfling. The evil elven wizard has obviously deliberately helped bring down the city walls. Anything that looks like a defence of the city by Hinjo or the OoTS is obviously a fake or an illusion. Anything else would mean that she was wrong, and we all know that that's impossible. The god's wouldn't allow her to be wrong, she's too special for that.

So yeah, I'm not sure that Hinjo the evil mastermind should be letting Miko out of her cell to help "defend" the city against him and the OoTS...

[the_tick_rules]

yeah, Miko is a real wild card right now.

[Njerus_Xhazekarath]

Nah, Miko will become... The Fighter Without Bonus Feats!!! Lo and Behold! lol

[Mummy king]

If they release Miko and the LG, they'll be more of a liability than a help, because Miko's delirious and the Linear Guild would ally with Xykon most likely.

Now, Redcloak fired a few ti elementals at AC. So it's time for AC to return the favour :smallcool:

I think y'all see where i'm going with this. If you don't, the your stupid ¬_¬. It involves Miko, the Linear guild, and one bigass catapult.

[Innis Cabal]

i agree, 20d6 points of falling damage all around!

[Jawajoey]

I don't feel sorry for Miko at all, but I do kind of feel sorry for AC. Losing their best paladin and the strongest individual fighter in the city is no good at a time like this.

But if she were normal, she'd be with the rest of the high level paladins, defending the gate, and releasing her now would be a bad idea, though, she'd make a beeline for the OOTS and kill all the defenders in her way.

Although I do like the catapult idea...launch her to the back of the Hobbo army, give them a second front and a huge problem, throw in a good chance of her killing their strategic leader if she gets to him, and best of all, she'll probably die before she can cause any problems for the defenders on the front lines!

[Sean92k]

I think y'all see where i'm going with this. If you don't, the your stupid ¬_¬. It involves Miko, the Linear guild, and one bigass catapult.I was actually thinking of something like this, just fire miko not LG. Cast 'feather landing' {Is that a real spell? Something to that effect) give her a sword and fire her to the backlines of Xykons {SP?) army and she is obviously gonna kill something and if she works her way back to Ac's walls, relaod the catapult:smallbiggrin: 2 birds 1 stone

[MaxKaladin]

i agree, 20d6 points of falling damage all around!Not Sabine. She can fly.

[Professor Tanhauser]

What if they landed on a nice pile of soft hobgoblin flesh?

[EvilElitest]

What is annoying is that Miko would be a LOT of help in the fight! And if they considered it properly they'd know that Miko would gladly fight Hobgoblins over Hinjo any time, if not more so now because she wants to get her paladin status back!

If Azure City lose by a whisker I'm going to blame Hinjo ¬_¬

But bear in mind, while Miko will fight the hobgoblins, she will also fight Roy and company. She is a lose cannon, and you never want one in a battle. more so if you are LG
from,
EE

[Sean92k]

Yeh, but if you catapult her to the back rows of Xykons army she is nowhere near toots. *My plan top post of the page -_-*

[Kreistor]

Miko is exactly where her thoughts and actions put her.

No pity.

[Innis Cabal]

hear hear! execution is the only way to deal with regicide

[NeonRonin]

There's a small, sick part of me that would actually enjoy seeing a Linear Guild/Miko fight to the death as proposed by Vaarsuvius a while back. Does anyone have the going rates on arena rental fees?

Not that it would ever happen... but I'd enjoy seeing it.

[Cyborg Pirate]

*checks pity-o-meter*

nope, sorry, no pity at all.

[Icewalker]

I like the catapult idea. Sounds fun.

[cavalier973]

I failed my pity check

Question, though: Has Miko's rash act changed her alignment then?

[MReav]

Yeah, even I, a fairly ardent Miko fan, am in favour of putting her in a catapult and aiming her at the largest concentration of hobgoblins.

[Generic PC]

I believe that somehow, the Giant is gonna release her... maybe a titanium elemental crashes through the walls or something, but i believe that a trail wont be held after the war... just an idea. anyway, my pity/sympathy/empathy/anything else...= 0... a large ZERO...

[GoC]

hear hear! execution is the only way to deal with regicide

I would prefer Belkar to be excecuted. At least Miko thought she was doing the right thing.

[Lorde]

People always amaze me.

The only real "crime" of Miko was being of a class the author doesn't like. It's popular now to hate for the same reason.

Any reason to hate her is, curiously, not applied to Belkar. She killed, Belkar killed.. however, her crimes are seen as horrible things.

She is a punchbag whitout ways to fight back. A tooth-less lion for the hyenas to laugh.

I pity her... she tries to do the right thing and the intent for me, counts a lot.

[Professor Tanhauser]

Well, some people consider bisecting shojo to be kinda like a crime, knowudahmsane?

But Miko has apparently been praying all this time, maybe it'll do some good. Touching possibility is she gets out of jail, saves the day, died and in death is restored to her paladin status, with her horse taking her soul to heaven.

Even roy might be touched at that. Belkar would make a crack and hopefully someone would slap him across the mouth for it.

[EntilZha]

GIVE A DAMN V 2.O

Attempting to give a damn about Miko.........................Attempt Failed

[dakiwiboid]

I still can't summon up any pity for Miko. Here she is with her city besieged around her, an enormous battle going on, and she can't even be bothered to raise her head from her prayers!

[NeonRonin]

I still can't summon up any pity for Miko. Here she is with her city besieged around her, an enormous battle going on, and she can't even be bothered to raise her head from her prayers!

My feelings exactly. It's as though she hasn't bothered to pay attention to the fate of her own city since the sun rose. Not exactly the fast track to repentance and absolution if you don't even care about the battle you rode like hell to warn the city about...

[Lorde]

My feelings exactly. It's as though she hasn't bothered to pay attention to the fate of her own city since the sun rose. Not exactly the fast track to repentance and absolution if you don't even care about the battle you rode like hell to warn the city about...

Dude.. she is in jail, whitout weapons and problaly hated by her fellows ex-friends.

I can even see... she try to escape and people would say she is assuming her guilt trying to escape.

She prays, and people say this is bad too. The 2 people above me are a clear example of the "me too"-ism which plague Miko. It's simply popular to pick the weak guy. Kick'em while she is down, I say.

What one can do in her situation? Chew her way out with her teeth? Terrorize the hobbos with harsh words?

[Pollux]

The very least she could do is occasionally look up and see how the battle is going.

Hell, she might even see V defending the walls, dispelling the elementals or something, which might theoretically snap her out of her advanced state of insanity and utter ignorance of what is actually happening.

[Demented]

Eh, she can hear the battle from where she is. No need to look. Besides, we can't really see it from the angle in that shot, but it's clear from previous views of the prison that she'd need to stand on a dwarf in order to see the battle through the window.

[Turcano]

The only real "crime" of Miko was being of a class the author doesn't like. It's popular now to hate for the same reason.

Yeah, because you know how negatively Hinjo, O-chul, and the rest are portrayed, and how everyone on the forum hates those characters. :smalltongue:

[silvadel]

Cue to 4 weeks later:

Xykon has overwhelmed the city -- Redcloak destroys the gate -- The OOTS have moved on to another location to regroup...

The entire city is empty and in ruins except for miko and one demon roach.

[SolkaTruesilver]

People always amaze me.

The only real "crime" of Miko was being of a class the author doesn't like. It's popular now to hate for the same reason.


Correction. In "No Cure for the Paladin's Blue", the Giant said that he beleive people hate her not because she is a paladin, but because she represent the worse way to play a paladin. And he absolutely support this opinion.

The idea of having a group member ordering other party members around, following what (s)he beleive to be the Right Thing, killing things because of their alignement is a really extremist way of following the Paladin's description.

(In the "gaming" section of this website, you can find nice articles about this kind of problem in roleplaying).

In short, the Miko-like paladin play like a jackasse, and they use their alignement to justify it. He uses his "role-play" to limit his group, while players should try to make the group work trough role-play, not trying to tear it appart.

But the Giant doesn't hate the Paladin class by itself. Hell, would you say that a lot of people hate Hinjo because he is a paladin? Would you say that the Giant put Hinjo in a position of weakness. Hinjo is the anti-Miko. He actually DEAL with evil characters rather than killing them on-the-spot.

Why people do not hate Belkar? He doesn't try to make everybody follow his morale code (of lack-of)

[Lolzords]

Yeah, nevertheless I can definitely see her going blackguard. That'd be fun. Great new villain.

And Nale and Sabine would get to go to a resort, heh.

Ugh. She'd be the new team warrior. She'd either start scrapping with Thog, or start going out with him. :smallconfused:

[aberratio ictus]

I pity her a lot.

Moreover, it would be a lot of fun watching her kill hobgoblins.

A duel Miko/Death Knight would be somewhat cool, too.

[Lorde]

The very least she could do is occasionally look up and see how the battle is going.

Hell, she might even see V defending the walls, dispelling the elementals or something, which might theoretically snap her out of her advanced state of insanity and utter ignorance of what is actually happening.

Yeah... she could wear a blue cheerleader outtfit and 2 pon pons too.

Oddly enough, this would raise her popularity... mainly due to the cheerleader outfit.

[Mummy king]

...throw in a good chance of her killing their strategic leader if she gets to him...

Na, Redcloak beat her up pretty bad, even when she could keep smiting him. Plus, he has MitD behind him, if Miko starts beating up Redcloak, i don't think he'd appreciate it.

How does :miko: fly furthest? Via catapult or :mitd:

[AlisdairM]

I guess all the self-righteous posters demanding Miko's head are being ironic, using Miko's own reasoning against her.

No way they are foolish enough to make exactly the same mistake when discussing this perfect example of self-righteous zeal gone mad ...

[Iranon]

While sitting in a comfortable, airy little cell with a perfect excuse for not partaking in the fight wouldn't sound too bad to me, she probably thinks otherwise.

I'd like to see her in the thick of it, smiting evil with the best of them (even if it's merely smiting instead of Smiting). I for one believe her to be still honourable and without duplicity; let her swear to stand trial after the siege and to harm no (demi)human in the meantime, and let her kick some arse.

[Rahdjan]

If they let her out, Belkar would destroy her.


I think they should let her out :smallsmile:

[Kriel]

Na, Redcloak beat her up pretty bad, even when she could keep smiting him. Plus, he has MitD behind him, if Miko starts beating up Redcloak, i don't think he'd appreciate it.

How does :miko: fly furthest? Via catapult or :mitd:

Considering that Miko flew pretty far away from the tower when the MitD was trying to hit her as lightly as he could, I'd say a full-force blow from our darkness-enshrouded friend would send her into orbit. That is, however, if the force of the blow didn't break her into several tiny, broken pieces first.

[Professor Tanhauser]

Considering that Miko flew pretty far away from the tower when the MitD was trying to hit her as lightly as he could, I'd say a full-force blow from our darkness-enshrouded friend would send her into orbit. That is, however, if the force of the blow didn't break her into several tiny, broken pieces first.


Ah, but recall that Miko ALLOWED the MitD to hit her, no dodging or anything like that tried. In a real fight she'd be taking defensive maneuvers.

Plus I still think the the late, unlamented GLG's poison bottle might come in somehwre, like on belkar's daggers....

[Kreistor]

Ah, but recall that Miko ALLOWED the MitD to hit her, no dodging or anything like that tried. In a real fight she'd be taking defensive maneuvers.

Unfortunately, high Strength increases the likelihood of hitting. If the MitD hits 'that' hard, he will also hit 'that' accurately...

[Demented]

In any case, she'd only lose her dex bonus to AC. She wouldn't take any less damage by using defensive maneuvers.

[Kreistor]

In any case, she'd only lose her dex bonus to AC.

And her Wis bonus and Monk bonus to AC from her monk class. She's been getting those despite appearing to wear heavy armour.

[Crispy SpThief]

It's hard to pity Miko when her own actions finally escalated in something I saw coming since we first met her and found out she was a Paladin and not an Assasin, which quite frankly is a class that suits her attitude far better than Paladin ever was. And this is MY opinion, I'm not jumping on the bandwagon like some people assume of everyone.

But nontheless, it would be funny to see Miko and the LG get catapulted, but first one would have to find a way to prevent Sabine and Nale from preventing their falling damage via some spell or ability.

[PerryTatchett]

Yeah, I do sorta' pity Miko, even though I never thought I would.
I just shows how good a writer Rich is, that he can make us pity non-existent characters.

[Gitman00]

@ the OP,

I'm swinging back and forth on this one. For the sake of argument, I'm going to speak as though Miko were an actual person, and not a stick figure.

One could make a pretty good case for Miko being insane. But... I can't really see how it's anyone's fault but hers. Sometimes a person can't help their mental state, but I don't think that's the case for her. Her breakdown (psychotic episode, maybe?) in AC's throneroom was the culmination of a long process of self-deception due to her own pride and refusal to admit error. If her view differs from another's, it is ALWAYS (in her mind) Miko who is right. Every time her worldview is challenged, she becomes violent and irrational. Check out the first time (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0202.html) she encountered the OotS, after the initial attack. "But I'm NOT evil!" "Are you calling me a liar??" *brandishes sword*.

She got off on the wrong foot with the OotS (say what you will, Roy and Durkon at least made an effort to get along with her at first). Their resentment of her for her treatment of them led to some harsh words, and she declared a vendetta against them. She had to go through some complicated mental gymnastics to maintain her negative opinion of the OotS, and her psyche wasn't up to the task, so she snapped. I really think her execution of Shojo was more about the OotS than anything. When faced with evidence that Shojo and the OotS were allied, and that the alliance was deliberately kept secret, she had a choice between believing that her lord was evil, or that the OotS was good. Either way she had some serious mental restructuring to do, but in my experience choosing the good/optimistic option is invariably easier on the psyche.

That said, my compassion for anyone suffering means I do pity her, though not for the reasons given by the OP. True happiness requires humility. You can't laugh, I mean really laugh, unless you forget about yourself. Were Miko real, I imagine she'd be one of the most miserable people alive, because her pride prevents her from ever being happy. "Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused."

[ArmorArmadillo]

I have on occasion pitied Miko, but then I review some of her behavior and go right back to viewing her as a misguided zealot with no social skills and no inherent desire to even THINK of changing her ways. I'm sorry, but her whole 'I'm right and you're wrong, so there' mentality gets to be a little grating after a while.

Part of me wishes she wasn't in an antimagic cell just so she could have a chat with Roy's dad... can you imagine what kind of roller coaster ride thru Hell THAT would be?
Roy has the same mentality, so did Shojo.
Miko did bad things; but everyone in the entire world was either against her or using her;
Yes, she was extreme with the OotS (except Durkon), but they were pretty awful to her for most of the time:
Roy objectified her,
Belkar antagonized her,
Haley constantly ridiculed her,
Vaarsuvius billed her,
Shojo lied to her, and then topped it off by trusting the OotS more than her.

Yes, she did a crappy thing killing her, but I see her as a tragic hero whose actions came about from being raised in an extreme, cloistered way (Monastery to Paladin) and being manipulated or mistreated by those around her. She's a tragic hero, but not a true villain.

Also, she's not going blackguard, because that would be way too obvious (The Giant already covered this when she rejected Sabine's advance)

[Gitman00]

Roy has the same mentality, so did Shojo.
Miko did bad things; but everyone in the entire world was either against her or using her;

I think the problem is that this is her defining attitude: "me against the world". Roy has checks and balances against his self-centeredness, and when he's called on or realizes his mistakes/flaws, he becomes genuinely introspective. See here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0075.html), here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0212.html), and here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0162.html). Miko, in contrast, seems to always assume the worst about others, and rarely admits to making a mistake (only once (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0202.html), very reluctantly, to my recollection, and she went back (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0406.html) on it later).


Roy objectified her,

True, though he was really pretty benign about it, and he made a genuine effort to get along with her. The same couldn't be said about her.


Belkar antagonized her,

Agreed.


Haley constantly ridiculed her,

Well, not quite. Haley didn't ridicule her to her face until after Roy told her off, and that was in cryptograms. And it was actually Durkon who had the idea of making Miko pay for their room and board, although Haley gave voice to it.


Vaarsuvius billed her,

Fair enough, that was over-the-top. Although V was justified in doing so, since (s)he was receiving no compensation for his/her participation in the battle, the terms should have been discussed before the services were rendered.


Shojo lied to her, and then topped it off by trusting the OotS more than her.

Yeah, that sucked, and was a huge blow to her pride.


Yes, she did a crappy thing killing her, but I see her as a tragic hero whose actions came about from being raised in an extreme, cloistered way (Monastery to Paladin) and being manipulated or mistreated by those around her. She's a tragic hero, but not a true villain.

Nitpicking about the specifics aside (I don't think she was really mistreated, except by Shojo and Belkar), I generally agree with this. Even Macbeth, as evil as he was, was a tragic hero. She comes complete with a tragic flaw: hubris.

[Crispy SpThief]

To be fair, not everything that Shojo did was a lie or manipulation. Despite her attitude, one cant argue that Miko had the skill to be a truly great Paladin. problem was, she applied it the wrong way. And had she have introduced herself to the OotS and explained herself, instead of ordering them around and trying to kill them when they said no, they would of had a MUCH better attitude towards her (Well, except for Belkar). Her realationships with the Order are as much her fault as theirs.

[pendell]

Poor Miko?

She's the only character in OOTS that deserves this theme song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkdstdYMziw)

Warning! Mature language.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[NeonRonin]

I'm sorry, pendell, but I just don't see Miko's theme music as being "Kyle's Mom is a Stupid B**ch" in D Minor. Funny thought, but it doesn't really suit her.

[Jawajoey]

People always amaze me.

The only real "crime" of Miko was being of a class the author doesn't like. It's popular now to hate for the same reason.

Any reason to hate her is, curiously, not applied to Belkar. She killed, Belkar killed.. however, her crimes are seen as horrible things.


Wow, way to be presumptuous, arrogant, and wrong. Just like Miko! (Not referring to your opinion, just the above statement, btw)

Miko isn't a victim of class discrimination. Hinjo and the other paladins are shown as perfectly normal and admirable. Even Hinjo himself recognizes Miko as an especially annoying person, who is not typical of paladins in general, and corrects OOTS' assumptions about such. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0265.html)There are plenty of other reasons to hate Miko beyond some sort of mythical insubstantial band-wagon.

"Any reason to hate her."
No...her being evil isn't a reason to hate her. Thog, Xykon, Redcloak, Belkar are all liked for their character traits, not disliked for being evil.
More importantly, Miko is evil arguably at best. People don't hate her because she killed Shojo, they hate her because she's an annoying, arrogant, frustrating, and bonkers.

People hated Miko long before she committed any evil act. I know I did.

Belkar is funny. He's useful. He hasn't done any lasting harm to a party member or well liked character. But mainly, he's funny. He is indeed very evil, but that's a source of material for funny. Miko, though, is rarely funny, rarely helpful, and rarely nice (but also rarely evil) so she gets people's scorn.


Basically, claiming that Miko hating is nothing more than a biased anti-paladin bandwagon is just completely ignorant and totally incorrect.

[Glarx]

Okay, not only is Thog not evil, but he isn't beloved by everyone.

And I hate Miko because she is self-righteous in the extreme. She is, like most religious fanatics, able to take any leap of faith and apply it's logic (or lack thereof) to whatever she wants.

The Crusaders were a terrible time in history. What was the way they justified it? "God willed it!"

I sense a connection in the Force...

[EntilZha]

Okay, not only is Thog not evil, but he isn't beloved by everyone.

And I hate Miko because she is self-righteous in the extreme. She is, like most religious fanatics, able to take any leap of faith and apply it's logic (or lack thereof) to whatever she wants.

The Crusaders were a terrible time in history. What was the way they justified it? "God willed it!"

I sense a connection in the Force...

Same thing with the Inquisition. And the Thirty Years War was due to self-righteousness.

[Rahdjan]

How is Thog NOT evil? He enjoys hurting and killing people.

And yes EVERY one loves Thog.

[my_evil_twin]

Am I the only one who thinks Miko could turn out okay?

All right, hear (read) me out here.

Obviously, Miko did an evil thing. She lost her paladin powers. She rejected the blackguard path pretty pointedly. I say kudos to Rich Burlew for conceiving of a paladin that can fall without magically turning evil.

The gods slapped her down pretty hard. Her actions immediatey before and after that have been irrational, more indicative of confused anger than the normal anti-evil tunnelvision paladins tend to get.

I think there's a good chance that with a little alone time, she'll realize that if the gods say she was wrong, she was probably wrong. What she needs now is humility, and if there's any way to get her some I think it's what's been happening to her thus far. She'll probably never lose her paladin stick (tm) but she may start recognizing the limitations of her own moral judgment.

In any event, I could see her alignment shifting to LN, but not all the way to evil. Misguided, yes, but not evil.

I also love Thog. For the sake of argument, though, I think you can make a case that he doesn't perceive the suffering of other beings, and so isn't so much evil as totally ignorant.

[Professor Tanhauser]

Unfortunately, high Strength increases the likelihood of hitting. If the MitD hits 'that' hard, he will also hit 'that' accurately...

Waitasecond, high strength increases the chance to hit????

In most game systems I know of, strength determines damage, but Dex plus skill determines the chance to hit.

[Kreistor]

Waitasecond, high strength increases the chance to hit????

In most game systems I know of, strength determines damage, but Dex plus skill determines the chance to hit.

DnD is not most systems. Str increases chance to hit with melee, Dex with ranged. A feat can give a person Dex with melee in some cases (lighter weapons, rapiers), but not with Greatswords and big hacking things.

[Kreistor]

And her Wis bonus and Monk bonus to AC from her monk class. She's been getting those despite appearing to wear heavy armour.

It was pointed out that the Giant has stated Miko does not gain AC; however, I base the above statement on the fact that she does get Evasion. 215 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0215.html) Evasion is not allowed in heavy armour if gained from the Monk class, and since heavy armour confers penalties against jumping, it is unlikely she is performing another maneuver in 215. If the Giant breaks the rules, we can't know which rules he does not break unless he tells us in the strip, since only the strip retains permanency.

[MReav]

I would argue she wears light armor.

[Kreistor]

Well, it's hard to make a shoulder pad out of chain. Once she falls, it's steel coloured, so unlikely to be mithral, which means it has to be a chain shirt, which shouldn't have those shoulders.

[Miklus]

She's the only character in OOTS that deserves this theme song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkdstdYMziw)

Warning! Mature language.


She was that at first, but then she became like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mI4is2SlxU&NR=1

Warning! Heavy Metal. :smallcool:

Still, I can pity her a litte because she was heavily provoked before she snapped. Both Roy and Belkar was really mean to her. Belkar set her on fire and Roy really hurt her emotions. They both have partial responsibillity for this mess.

[MReav]

Still, I can pity her a litte because she was heavily provoked before she snapped. Both Roy and Belkar was really mean to her. Belkar set her on fire and Roy really hurt her emotions. They both have partial responsibillity for this mess.

Naw, I'm more inclined to blame Eugene. If he would have sprung for a Sending spell, then the whole thing could have been avoided.

Take that, people who dismiss Evocation.