Maybe Celia can't help it?

[Korota]

I'm starting to think more and more that Celia can't really help the way she's acting due to the fact that she's forced to adhere to her alignment. She's an outsider/fey/elemental type monster, and I'm betting she has "always good" or something like that in her Alignment entry. And when you're forced to travel with Belkar, you can never ALWAYS be good. The best you can do is "often" or "usually". She might be physically incapable of accepting that there's nothing they can do to keep Belkar's evil deeds from going unpunished right now, and she's overreacting as a result.

[Nevrmore]

That'll be a good excuse to use when the next comic goes up.

[Laurentio]

Her whole defensive line on the Azure City trial was on the fact that alignments are a guide, and not a dogma; that "good" is when you try to do the best for others, and not how; that a lawful being must, sometimes, break a rule to respect that rule's spirit.
So, if she can't act against her fixed alignment, she was wrong at the time of the trial, and quite ipocrital. But she is a lawman, after all. You don't have to believe in what you say.

Laurentio

[VetMichael]

I may be reading too much into things here, but my personal theory is that The Giant is making Celia adhere to an "always good" alignment description to illustrate the absurdity of moral absolutism that sometimes occurs in D&D. I am not claiming that The Giant is agreeing with one side or the other, but the conversation between Hayley and Celia represents the essence of the long-standing alignment argument; does "Always Good" (and by extension, all Good alignments) mean that one adheres to a strict moral code regardless of the situation OR does one adopt a more pragmatic approach as required by the situation (as Hayley proposed) OR does one find some "middle ground" (the disguise idea). By highlighting the absurdity of BOTH the strict and pragmatic approach (the "no! chocolate will kill the little dogs" & "murdering the green/orange/purple/etc.-skinned bad guys") that is inherent in D&D.


That being said, Celia IS getting to be quite the "pollyanna" :smallmad:

[MasterofMockery]

Well in my opinion, I think she is pulling off the moral moderator in the party. With out her the sub party is CE and CG. Every one who has set in stone morals is either dead or on a lame drawn-out plot with some B class antagonists. some examples

Roy- Decomposed
Miko- Missing in action
Durkon- at sea
Around 1000 paladins- dead

Belkar's disobedience and open acts of evil( acts of evil not chaotic neutral, people who say otherwise are wrong) have been setups for a ridiculous amount of gags. They need a LG. And Celia was available. Besides that was Frigging hilarious.

Nit-picker with way to much time on his hands
-Out

[Calinero]

I think Celia might be serving as a sort of contrast--we've all gotten used to Belkar. He may be a psychopath, but he's our psychopath, and we're used to him. Killing a random passerby might not shock us now as much as it would have near the beginning of the comic. Bringing in a relative newcomer to the party gives us some perspective on what Belkar is doing, and reminds us that these are evil things. I think she is helping to set up a future conflict about whether Belkar is too evil to be in the party.

[Glome]

I He may be a psychopath, but he's our psychopath, and we're used to him. Killing a random passerby might not shock us now as much as it would have near the beginning of the comic.

Actually, the killing surprised me more now than it would have had it happened at the beginning of the comic. Killing random travelers is actually what one would stereotypically think of when considering a CE character. Yet up to this point, Belkar has only killed people who are either evil and/or are some sort of obstacle to him. While he has talked about killing harmless NPC's, up till now he has refrained from actually doing so in the actual web-comic.

Also, Celia actually tries to trivialize the murder of the gnome by implying it's morally equivalent to killing the hobgoblin, when most people would agree that the Gnome's murder was a much greater evil.

[Moriarty]

I'm starting to think more and more that Celia can't really help the way she's acting due to the fact that she's forced to adhere to her alignment. She's an outsider/fey/elemental type monster, and I'm betting she has "always good" or something like that in her Alignment entry.

nobody's forced to adhere to alignment,(not even paladins, they always are able to commit evil acts, but loose their powers by doing so) "always good" only means, that 90% of those monsters (or something like that, cant remember the exact numbers) are good alignment, not all of them.

besides, an alignment doesn't force you to do certain actions, your actions determine your alignment

[Calinero]

Also, Celia actually tries to trivialize the murder of the gnome by implying it's morally equivalent to killing the hobgoblin, when most people would agree that the Gnome's murder was a much greater evil.

Actually, that was sarcasm. I believe she was berating them on their callousness towards the murder of hobgoblins while simultaneously berating them for killing the gnome. She is a multitasking berater.

I admit that Belkar's murder of the gnome surprised me as well. I think it comes from a combination of several factors.
1. It's been a long time since he killed something. A lot of pent up aggression he needs to let loose.
2. Roy is not here. He's testing his boundaries with Haley. I'm fairly sure that if Roy had been there and Belkar had killed the NPC, a fight would have come out of it.
3. Belkar is chaotic. He doesn't really need a reason for anything he does.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Am I the only person who doesn't think Celia is currently the most reasonable member of the cast?

[Trizap]

Am I the only person who doesn't think Celia is currently the most reasonable member of the cast?

yea shes pretty unreasonable, right now Haley is far more reasonable right now because she going on pragmatism- the concept needed in the situation I mean really, Celia is being unreasonable right now because: 1: they have no healer, if one of them dies, they won't come back until they find Durkon 2. which leads to my second point, theres only three of them and one of them is pacifist, meaning only two of them can actually fight against any random encounters they find
3. if they come up against Nale or anything more threatening than a random encounter, they will have to run 4. Celia isn't really seeing the urgency of the situation so 5. they need all the help they can get, so locking up Belkar wouldn't be smart cause he would break out, kill more people then just catch up to Haley and Celia by tracking their scent.

so yea, Haley is being far more reasonable, its just that shes Chaotic and therefore gets angry more easily.

[Paladin29]

I disagree in part... In Azure City Celia was the most reasonable character, she is the one who take Haley and Belkar out of the city to find the others and resurrect Roy, her plan in the Hobgobling control was wise and allow them to pass without uncover the resistance haven, now she probably is overreacting, but really, if I was in her situation I´d killed Belkar long ago (He is an evil bastard, the worl will be a better place without him)... so letting Belkar live appears to me as very reasonable...

[Spiky]

Am I the only person who doesn't think Celia is currently the most reasonable member of the cast?

There really haven't ever been any reasonable members of this cast. They are funnier without any hint of normalcy.

[Calinero]

Celia isn't really the voice of reason. She's the voice of good without pragmatism. While Belkar is more like the voice of random evil, while Haley is stuck trying to negotiate between the two.

[Alex Warlorn]

I say have Belkar encounter a were bear and get infected, and sit back, relax, and watch his agony and horror as he watches himself commit acts of indifferent kindness and mercy through his own eyes and hating every second of it to the point where it breaks him.

[Calinero]

I say have Belkar encounter a were bear and get infected, and sit back, relax, and watch his agony and horror as he watches himself commit acts of indifferent kindness and mercy through his own eyes and hating every second of it to the point where it breaks him.

Tempting, but I think Belkar is already enough of a threat without having the abilities of a werebear. With our luck, he would survive the attack and be stronger than ever before. And even less mentally stable.

[Alex Warlorn]

That's the beauty of it. The were curse FORCES the victim to change their alingment to the werebeast, and were bears are neutral good!

[Saint Nil]

Wait, I thought were-bears were CG? Anyway, that would be the funniest plothook to ever appear in the whole OOTS saga. Shame Rich won't do it now that it's been mentioned.OR mabye he will because I said he wouldn't? MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Calinero]

Well, in theory, Rich doesn't look through plot speculation things for ideas. If he's going to do it, he will. This shouldn't influence his decision. That would be interesting, though....a Belkar forced to be good....but wait, isn't that essentially what the Seal of Justice is doing to him?

[Callista]

In her shoes, I couldn't help it, either, and I'm "usually true neutral" by race. Doesn't stop me from being rather fiercely opposed to random slaying of innocents.

Celia's just reacting the way anybody would.

[Talyn]

I say have Belkar encounter a were bear and get infected, and sit back, relax, and watch his agony and horror as he watches himself commit acts of indifferent kindness and mercy through his own eyes and hating every second of it to the point where it breaks him.

You are my hero. That is the greatest mental image ever.

[Moriarty]

In her shoes, I couldn't help it, either, and I'm "usually true neutral" by race. Doesn't stop me from being rather fiercely opposed to random slaying of innocents.

Celia's just reacting the way anybody would.

would you dive after a chokolade bar thrown into the woods? ;)