Therkla misses Elan from beyond the grave?

[Mastikator]

One thing bothers me about http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0593.html when she said
"No thanks, then... I'll rather take my chances the afterlife...
won't have any punishment worse...
...than not being with you"

But it's not like she's going to be with him in the afterlife. Whatever punishment she's getting (if any) is not replacing her loneliness, it just adds to it! And it's not like she's automatically going to forgett about Elan either!
I don't understand, it doesn't make any sense!

[Finn Solomon]

I wonder how well thought out YOUR final words would be if you were bloated with poison and inches away from death.

[Tempest Fennac]

I thought she was refering specifically to being in the same life as Elan without being with him rather then being on a different plane and not having him to be honest (admittedly, I'm not that knowledgable when it comes to this sort of thing).

[Faceist]

I uh, don't think you should be examining her last (lovestruck, absurdly pessimistic) words in such a logical way. What she's saying is she'd rather die and go to Hell (or whichever afterlife the neutral evil folks end up in, we don't really know her alignment (please don't let this offhand observation spawn a discussion about it (can brackets be used like this? Here's hoping!))) than live in a world where Elan exists, yet she could never have him. But it sounds less romantic and more idiotic when discussed like this. :smalleek:

[Mauve Shirt]

Yeah, she thinks it's punishment enough to live without Elan, and anything the afterlife can throw at her couldn't be worse. Yes, she'll still be lonely, but it's better than physically watching the love of her life going out with someone else.

Off topic, Faceist, I love your username.

[Morty]

We know that in Celestia, people can throw off the desires they had in life. Who knows what happens in other aftelives?
And I second the notion that dying words tend not to be logical and thought-out.

[Samurai Jill]

I wonder how well thought out YOUR final words would be if you were bloated with poison and inches away from death.
Umm, how about, "I don't want to leave you?" or "I don't wanna die!" or even "I don't want to suffer the eternal blistering torments of Hell?!"

But it sounds less romantic and more idiotic when discussed like this. :smalleek:
Yeah, with a modicum of thought.

[Yoyoyo]

I uh, don't think you should be examining her last (lovestruck, absurdly pessimistic) words in such a logical way. What she's saying is she'd rather die and go to Hell (or whichever afterlife the neutral evil folks end up in, we don't really know her alignment (please don't let this offhand observation spawn a discussion about it (can brackets be used like this? Here's hoping!))) than live in a world where Elan exists, yet she could never have him. But it sounds less romantic and more idiotic when discussed like this. :smalleek:

Parentheses, actually. And, yes they can! :smallbiggrin:

I agree. Too much analysis takes away from the romance and completely ruins the far away shot of the junk on the water.

[Shatteredtower]

Umm, how about, "I don't want to leave you?"

Well, that's both obvious and not going to happen.


... or "I don't wanna die!"

Pretty daft last words for someone who clearly is going to die.


or even "I don't want to suffer the eternal blistering torments of Hell?!"

If it was good enough for her before she met Elan, why should she change her mind now?

She's dying. She's prepared to accept this. She could very well make a new life for herself if she was brought back, but she's little reason for preferring that over her afterlife. She threw away her career and her professional reputation for a guy she can never have. Coming back to that life is just another way of refusing to move on, the way she'd need to do if she wasn't dying.

This isn't suicide. This is refusing to fall back into a cycle that can't end happily for her. She's just putting it into the sort of words a bard is more likely to remember and understand.

[Samurai Jill]

Well, that's both obvious and not going to happen.
I beg to differ. It was exceedingly easy to make happen. Just say anything apart from "I'd like to be dead, please!" It's not like Elan was about to forcefully expel her from the group, and had just offered to have her raised.

Look, I'm sorry that Rich is telling a story in a game where the phrase 'Life Insurance' takes on an entirely new meaning, but this demolished whatever respect I had for Therkla as a character.

[Allanon585]

shes probably scrying on him and arranging halys death

[Allanon585]

im a bed speller

[Samurai Jill]

Not to worry. :smallwink:

[Cen]

{Scrubbed}

[dragongirl13]

{Scrubbed}

I take offense at that!

[Chazzie]

I take offense at that!

Not me! I agree, and I'm a girl! :smallbiggrin:

[Haven]

She had a huge crush on Elan. Have you never thought or said something grandiose because you were absolutely infatuated with someone? If not--you need to live a little! :p

Anyway, thinking about death is hard. Even in a world where the afterlife is as concrete as OotS, I can imagine that the scale of death still doesn't quite register sometimes. Especially when you're a ninja assassin and your entire vocation is based around the fact that life is cheap (well, you expect to get paid a lot, I'm sure, but you know what I mean XD)

If nothing else - she had a crush on ELAN, which means she must have had a dramatic streak and at least wanted to have some awesome famous last words. Sure, after the fact she's probably in the afterlife screaming "holy crap I was wrong, get me outta here" - but, hindsight, yeah?

[Shatteredtower]

I beg to differ.

Why? Nothing was going to prevent her death.


It's not like Elan was about to forcefully expel her from the group, and had just offered to have her raised.

Therkla's getting exiled to a new life in Australia. Elan's offering her a chance to come back to a life in which she doesn't get him and faces life in prison. Why should she take it, when she's got a chance of starting over somewhere else?

Really, in a world where the afterlife is confirmed as fact, it's no different than that.


Look, I'm sorry that Rich is telling a story in a game where the phrase 'Life Insurance' takes on an entirely new meaning, but this demolished whatever respect I had for Therkla as a character.

That's because you see her throwing her life away, while I see her looking at a clean break to start over somewhere else. You see her as heading to damnation where I see her taking a chance in order find something better by letting go of her desire and the pain it brings her, offering pretty good chances at some form of redemption. (I doubt there's a celestial realm in her future, but the Infernal Admissions Review Board probably won't find her record satisfactory either.)

[Optimystik]

If nothing else - she had a crush on ELAN, which means she must have had a dramatic streak and at least wanted to have some awesome famous last words. Sure, after the fact she's probably in the afterlife screaming "holy crap I was wrong, get me outta here" - but, hindsight, yeah?

Why would she want that? Even assuming her last acts weren't enough to redeem her and save her from the evil planes, she still would consider the torment there to be preferable to watching while Haley and Elan get it on.