Miko's redemption

[Avor]

Ok, I've been reading the comic from the early days, around page 36ish or so. This my first time posting, the first time I'm accauly pissed off with the comic.

I like twists as much as the next guy, a comic that you know 50 pages in advance is gay, but this whole Miko thing is totaly BS.

I mean come on, the city is over run, room-full of dead paladins, the leader in pitched battle, what better chance for a selfless act of protecting the city and innocent.

But No, she runs off and ****s things up. I like Miko, there was hope for her, she was a good guy and was a good fighter. Why is she being turned into the most hated character in the comic? Roy's death I could deal with, this just got stupid real fast.

Am I the only person who likes Miko?

[jindra34]

Ok, I've been reading the comic from the early days, around page 36ish or so. This my first time posting, the first time I'm accauly pissed off with the comic.

I like twists as much as the next guy, a comic that you know 50 pages in advance is gay, but this whole Miko thing is totaly BS.

I mean come on, the city is over run, room-full of dead paladins, the leader in pitched battle, what better chance for a selfless act of protecting the city and innocent.

But No, she runs off and ****s things up. I like Miko, there was hope for her, she was a good guy and was a good fighter. Why is she being turned into the most hated character in the comic? Roy's death I could deal with, this just got stupid real fast.

Am I the only person who likes Miko?
Nope but most get hounded to dust and likely leave...

[PaladinBoy]

First off, I also like Miko. At this point is mostly liking the hope for a redemption story that she represents, because most of her actions recently are pretty bad.

The reason why she did this? My guess would be because she's a idiot.

[Avor]

The reason why she did this? My guess would be because she's a idiot.

It just gives me the same painfull feeling of frustration that I get when I watch Stars Wars Episode three, where all you want to do is get up and shout at the screen "WTF!"

[Grod_The_Giant]

no, there are lots of people who like her. But let me put it this way:

She. Has. Issues. Genuine psychiatric ones.

She has deluded herself into thinking it's all the OOTS' fault. She's in denial: she refuses to believe the evidence of her own eyes if it contradicts her view of events.

And you know what? I like her more as a villain. Most of the villains are left over from before the strip started getting really serious. A lot of the recent strips have served to show off Xykon's badass-ness, but he's still funny. Miko is going to fill the roll of "holy **** that's not good" psychotic angry villain. Which we need.

PS: try rereading your post for grammar a bit. I had to read it three times to understand...

[Avor]

And you know what? I like her more as a villain. Most of the villains are left over from before the strip started getting really serious. A lot of the recent strips have served to show off Xykon's badass-ness, but he's still funny. Miko is going to fill the roll of "holy **** that's not good" psychotic angry villain. Which we need.


There is nothing wrong with the "psychotic angry villain", but she's a little more than that.

She's the villain that doens't directly fight or oppose you, she's the one that just screws things over. I hate those, like Lord Denathor in LotR :smallfurious:

[Demented]

What exactly did you expect in terms of redemption, anyway?
(I'm here to redeem my ticket.)

[Lorde]

I like her... since she have lots of flak throw at her lately, this make me like her MORE since she is a underdog now.

Do I want some redemption. Sure. Do I expect it? Nah... I prefer she dies then risking her turn in a Blackguard or something.

I think she have a awful hand to play on the strip lately, my only comfort is knowing what she did, she did with good intentions.

[Setra]

I want to see Miko as an Agent of the Snarl.

[Firestar27]

Why is she being turned into the most hated character in the comic?
Because she supposed to be. If we liked every character, we wouldn't know who to root for. You can't have a good story without conflict. Not just conflict between the characters, but conflict between the reader and the characters. People like to be angry at other people for not realizing the truth. I've seen people attempt to make situations to force the other person to take an opposite stand so that he could prove that he is right. (I stopped him in the end.) We love to hate. Where do you think the phrase "the person that we love to hate comes from"? Probably from that. (Although that speculation about the phrase is just a guess.)

[rosebud]

But No, she runs off and ****s things up.She commits a selfless act, and you condemn her? I thought you said you liked her.

There's no "The End", so it seems premature to think anything else if that's your world view.

[teratorn]

Am I the only person who likes Miko?

No, there a few of us. I liked these last strips because they show that Miko still puts her duty above vengeance. She chose the gate instead of going after OOTS.

Even if what she did was not needed, she followed what O'Chul was trying to do. Her nature is still that of a lawful good character. In the prison with Sabine, and during these strips, she never ever was tempted by evil. Her problem is understanding how Roy and Shojo might have associated with Belkar without being themselves corrupted by evil. There is something about the nature of being lawful good that Roy understands and she doesn't.

[Nathander]

I want to see Miko as an Agent of the Snarl.

No offense, but I honestly have a problem with that happening. Not the "Miko as the agent of the Snarl" part, as, while I'd like to see her redeemed, it would be foolish to think she couldn't fall further than she has. My problem comes with the "Agent of the Snarl" part, as it would imply that the Snarl is a being that would actually care to be served. From what we've seen, I'd personally say the Snarl is an unthinking abomination of horrific power that simply destroys due to that being it's nature. While someone could say they serve the Snarl, they would really just be furthering their own intentions under this mask of servitude, as I doubt the Snarl could give anyone any genuine instructions/power.

Of course, that wouldn't be far off from what Miko is doing right now under the pretense that she's serving the will of the Twelve Gods. So, actually, this may easily come to pass..... >_>


She commits a selfless act, and you condemn her? I thought you said you liked her.

To be fair, we have no idea what was going through Miko's head when she destroyed the gate. Perhaps she really was doing a selfless act, in that she put herself in harms' way to do the only thing she thought would save the city (despite us knowing that there was a much better alternative, which Miko wasn't paying attention to due to her belief of what HAD to be done). At the same time, maybe Miko has genuinely stopped teetering on the edge of the swimming pool known as insanity and chosen to fully dive in, and she's destroyed the gate for some ulterior motive. And then, there's the case of whether she did it solely because she thought it was a good act, or if she thought that by doing what she thought was pleasing to the gods she'd regain her powers and, thus, was actually an act of self-service.

Personally, I like Miko and would like to see her redeemed. However, from all the evidence we're being shown, this happening is going to require her to travel down a very long and hard road, if it happens at all.

[Hungry Kobold]

About what she did in the throne room: I had a former friend who basically got into the same mindset as Miko. Everything he saw that contradicted what he wanted to believe he ignored as irrelevant or twisted to fit his mind. Exactly like Miko. I can't give specifics (religious discussion is banned, correct?), but he did some insane things, claiming exactly what Miko claimed. Once you convince yourself that your source of authority tells you to do what ever you happen to want at any given time . . . . well, you could weaken the fabric of the universe, apparently :smalltongue:


Not at all unbelievable for her to destroy the gate. She thought the Twelve Gods commanded her to. I felt it was quite a great moment. One of those things you don't expect from a stick-figure comic.

[fendermallot]

it's really because everyone hates paladins. goody two shoes holier than thou bastards that they are.

[Hungry Kobold]

it's really because everyone hates paladins. goody two shoes holier than thou bastards that they are.

Another way that former friend I mentioned is exactly like Miko. I love the term "sanctimonious." It's perfect :smallbiggrin:

[Iranon]

All I can say is that a 'redemption' would have to occur at the end of a lengthy plot arc after much character development. Having her perform some feats of heroism and quickly be in the good graces of her gods again would be unsatisfactory on so many different levels.

She always did her very best to be Good and to do Good... she is just not very good at it. I don't question her devotion or her honour, only her judgment. Before a 'redemption' can be satisfying, she needs to acknowledge the deficiencies that led to her fall in the first place... however, that could have major effects of any sorts of her:

Miko defines herself mostly by her achievements and her direct connection to the gods, having little in the ways of worldly ambition or people who matter to her (Lord Shojo was probably the only such person... and as it turned out she actually knew very little about him).
Finding out that the former is balanced out by several epic screw-ups and that she extremely overestimated the latter would shatter her self-image.

Even if she retains her Lawful Good ideals in the long run and atones for all of her misdeeds (which is quite a prospect...), it is not unlikely that paladinhood will be forever soured for her - after all, the overly strict and inflexible interpretation of her duties as a paladin caused most of the mess.
I like her quite a lot as a character, and I wish her to come to terms with herself in a satisfying manner... eventually.

[Kreistor]

Miko can't be redeemed until she agrees that she has done something wrong. You can accidentally Fall, but you can't accidentally rise to grace.

Miko must truthtfuly and honestly admit that she murdered Shojo without justification as her first step to the path of redemption. She believes that was god inspired, and so can never take responsibility for her mistake.

Dealing with your mistakes is a necessary part of atonement. Miko can't, since she deludes herself into the belief that her actions are guided and therefore not her own. Miko must change fundametnally in order to ever regain her status.

[Mordokai]

I don't excatly hate Miko, but I'll like her a whole lot more when(or should I say, if?) she redeems herself and adds a pinch of humility to her self righteous nature. That is what she is missing the most, in my opininion, humility.