Xykon Cares! (A joke, but it is interesting to note.)

[Ezlo]

Look at him, putting the needs of his trusty hench-goblin first! Xykon is as selfless as he is skinless! I say this could change his alingment from evil to good! What do you say? :wink:

[Zaragon]

Well, I think it's just enlightened self-interest. As long as redcloak's around, mobile, and has his phylactery, Xykon's not in too much danger, even if someone does manage to blast him into little tiny pieces again.

Redcloak's a lot harder to replace, unless they have someone around with resurrection magic that I'm not aware of. (I suppose Tsukiko could have raise dead, but I doubt she'd use it on Redcloak after he tried to kill her.

[DraPrime]

Also, just because someone is evil, it doesn't mean they can't care about someone. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0371.html) Xykon and Redcloak have been with each other a long time and occasionally act like friends. What's to say that Xykon doesn't want to keep his friend from dying?

[Thorin]

agreed. To be a bad guy don´t mean "To be alone" or "don´t care for anyone"

[basilisk 89]

Aye. I mean, he's Lawful Evil, right?

[Ganurath]

Aye. I mean, he's Lawful Evil, right?...Chaotic. Yahtzee and pies, basilisk. Yahtzee and pies.

[Parasocrates]

Seconded. I'd say Xykon is too random and unpredictable to really be lawful. Case in point: killing a guy just to steal his cool-looking crown (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0434.html).

Anyway, I think Xykon would care if anything happened to Redcloak because without Redcloak, Xykon would have to directly interact with his henchmen, which would be a pain and really cramp his style.

[Lord_Butters_I]

I would take Xykon's alignment fully into Stupid Evil. He trancends random, stupid actions that involve wholesale omnicide.

[Zincorium]

I would take Xykon's alignment fully into Stupid Evil. He trancends random, stupid actions that involve wholesale omnicide.

Well, he's most likely bored. Xykon has probably done all the reasonable evil actions that can be done long ago, now he's down to the ones that only make sense if there's nothing else to do.

[Parasocrates]

Well, he's most likely bored. Xykon has probably done all the reasonable evil actions that can be done long ago, now he's down to the ones that only make sense if there's nothing else to do.

This doesn't bode well for the safety of the world (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0442.html) (second panel).

[Nathander]

Also, just because someone is evil, it doesn't mean they can't care about someone. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0371.html) Xykon and Redcloak have been with each other a long time and occasionally act like friends. What's to say that Xykon doesn't want to keep his friend from dying?

Agreed. While I think that much of it has to do with the fact that he's basically entrusted his life to Redcloak and that's why he cares for him, there's obviously some kind of odd friendship between the two. It's been an entertaining thing to see be played out, and I have to admit that I almost feel guilty about feeling a twinge of sadness when they were about to be killed by Soon.

[rosebud]

Xykon is what the Evil Overlord (http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html) strives not to be.

[ThorFluff]

He listens to his cleric advisor, whom i might add carry his phylactery. He's not a complete idiot after all :P
....awww.

[The Wanderer]

Well, I think it's just enlightened self-interest. As long as redcloak's around, mobile, and has his phylactery, Xykon's not in too much danger, even if someone does manage to blast him into little tiny pieces again.

Redcloak's a lot harder to replace, unless they have someone around with resurrection magic that I'm not aware of. (I suppose Tsukiko could have raise dead, but I doubt she'd use it on Redcloak after he tried to kill her.

I wish I had a link to it, but Rich once wrote a long essay about running a gaming session involving two villains who were friends since childhood and for better or worse, despite each other's faults, had decided to be a team to take over the world. His players couldn't get this idea through their skulls, and were so sure that one was planning to betray the other that they approached one and tried to use that to turn one against the other. And it backfired on them.

I think Xykon and Redcloak have much the same dynamic going on. Whatever reason they may have for teaming up, they have been allies for a long time, (or so it certainly appears), and they share in-jokes, laugh and struggle together they both let each other get away with doing things and making comments that probably wouldn't with anyone else... that's more than just "enlightened self-interest".

(In the vein of how long Xykon and Redcloak have been teamed up: we'll learn some or all of this for sure when Start of Darkness comes out, but we actually have no idea how old Redcloak is, or when he first signed up with Xykon's Team Evil. For all we know, Redcloak could be in his 50s or 60s or even older, [or the goblin equivalent of such, as I'm not familiar with their life expectancy offhand] and have first met and come under the wing of Xykon when he was a teenager).

[Doran]

Here's a link. (http://www.giantitp.com/articles/rTKEivnsYuZrh94H1Sn.html)

[titan_monarch]

Here's the link. (http://www.giantitp.com/articles/XbsQgS9YYu9g3HZBAGE.html)

EDIT: Curses! Ninja'd! Although, I note we were thinking about different articles...

[The Wanderer]

Thanks for the links guys. :smallsmile: And it was the second one that I was thinking of, although the first is a good thing to look at too.

[Quietus]

Also, just because someone is evil, it doesn't mean they can't care about someone. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0371.html) Xykon and Redcloak have been with each other a long time and occasionally act like friends. What's to say that Xykon doesn't want to keep his friend from dying?

Man, I love that page, and the one after it.

[Castamir]

The most important part in being evil is caring only about your own ass, even at the cost of everyone else. And what Xykon is doing there? Doing his utmost to save his phylactery, and the badass high-level smart guardian attached to it.

Not exactly the most selfless thing to do.

[Emperor Ing]

Hes doing it for self-interest reasons. If a PC carries it, than he will be regenerating forever until they destroy the phylactery. Xykon needs someone he can trust using it, someone who wont go down before the battle even starts. Preferably, someone with unimaginably high power

[DraPrime]

The eight panel in this strip (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0462.html) shows some friendship between Redcloak and Xykon. As I said before, just because you're evil doesn't mean you can't have friends, love others, or do something good. Hitler may have been a vile and disgusting person, but he probably cared about someone. I find it hard to believe that a pure evil person ever existed. Everyone can do something good, no matter how evil they are.

[Dorizzit]

I am forced to agree with dragonprime here. As the esteemed Mr. Burlew said...somewhere on this sight, it is odd to think that all villains are pure evil. I mean, one of the most common trends in writing is having flawed heroes, why not dark gray villains?

[delguidance]

Really makes you think.

[comicadv]

I would take Xykon's alignment fully into Stupid Evil. He trancends random, stupid actions that involve wholesale omnicide.
Xykon isn't stupid evil!!! Nale is stupid evil, the whole linear Guild is Stupid evil (Exclude Thog). Xykon is just bored and random and powerfull. That's a Chaotic combo not a stupid one. Like with the crown...

He's bored his mind's drifting...

:xykon: vision
Man this is boring...
boring...
bor-hey! Look a crown!
With that I would be super badace!
I want it!
The guy with the crown is weak enough...
Zap!!!!

If Xykon's thoughts went like this at all that would have been a chaotic moment not a stupid evil one.
The reason his acts seem stupid is he's so powerfull he doesn't care what's going on (most of the time). He comes with his stupid plans like the bouncing ball because he's bored of blowing up people. He's already done it. Plus death by bouncy-ball would be entertanting for him.
Nothing stupid about his evilness.

Nothing!

:xykon: try to call me stupid and I'll throw so many low level hobgoblins at you you'll suface under a mountian of the ones you slay or if you don't fight back they'll just kill you with thier swords, anyway I get to eat popcorn and enjoy the show.