Concerns About the Progressions of the Goblin Plot (@Rich)

[Ionathus]

So what is your take on the effect that seeing Belkar really enjoy stabbing people all the time and basically getting away with it or having it played for laughs has had on the average reader of this comic?
Is your attitude towards racism in comics significantly different than your attitude towards violence in comics?

No, I don't think it is.

Belkar's evil and sociopathy is an established element in the comic. Characters talk about it, and it's lampshaded constantly. Heck, even a divine judgment from the Deva shows that Roy has essentially been redeeming an evildoer, at least in the way he mitigates & prevents further murders from Belkar. You can't really say that the narrative supports Belkar's behavior, either explicitly or implicitly, and in fact the narrative itself forces him to "Evolve or Die" into a much more traditional protagonist: personally, my money is on Redemption=Death by the end for him.

The difference, and I think it's a crucial one, is that Belkar's behavior is constantly commented on. There's no blanket ban on showing bad stuff: it's whether or not the narrative addresses the bad stuff that matters. If goblins are just "funny looking humans who are never worth redeeming," and the narrative never explores that further or even comments on it, then yeah -- I have more of a problem with a complacent "evil by default" assumption lounging around in the background of a story than I do with Belkar's behavior being brought to the forefront and dissected.

Haley's sexist comments are another good example. Rich is on record saying he just threw them in without thinking about it, and because the narrative never called her out for her language until much later, that behavior essentially went unchallenged. As a result, The Order of the Stick unintentionally endorsed that kind of gender-charged insult until Rich made a conscious effort to stamp it out going forward.