OOTS #640 - The Discussion Thread

[The Giant]

New comic is up.

[Mc. Lovin']

Wow, awesome comic! I can't beleive they didnt have any effect at all though

[Nevitan]

Wow..
I'm glad Familicide got outlined at least.

[MuLepton]

Well, not all black dragons are dead. And I wonder how people will come up with a justification that V is still neutral now. Without doubt they will try to, just curious about their reasoning...

[Trazoi]

I have liked how in this arc that even supercharged Evil V has basically been acting like V. A V on the edge, but V's always had a bit of that edge to V's character throughout the comic.

I'm just pleased that V didn't go moustache twirly, evil-purely-for-the-evulz evil and actually had some of V's logic behind the actions taken.

Although - how does an undead severed dragon head fly?

[Lira]

Oh dear. I'm not sure how to feel about learning the souls weren't altering V's alignment. :S
Still, it's nice to get some answers. Great comic.

[afroakuma]

The Raistlin comparisons become even more apt now.

One of the best lines of the arc:

"We are all in the Monster Manual somewhere, are we not? My entry lies between Elemental and Ethereal Filcher."

[Antacid]

In before "Madness?! THIS... IS... SPARTA!!!!"

Edit: So what we see now is, that the Red Globe/Blue Globe choice wasn't set up to force V to choose between good or evil at all. Rather, it was to make him feel like he'd already chosen, so that he'd be more likely to go with the flow when he had the power to do something genuinely unnecessary of his own free will. And even though V's soul is only the property of the IFCC for a short time under the conditions of the contract if he ends the splice soon, he can still earn an eternal visit to the Lower Planes the old fashioned way. The upcoming strips where we see V's behavior and the reaction of his family now his primary task is done will be interesting to say the least.

[MReav]

That... was utterly sadistic. V's gone off the deep end.

[CyberRebirth]

I didn't think V could be so nasty! Though, I bet I would be just as bad if I didn't think I would have to own up to it.

[CrimsonAngel]

Love panel 7.

[xyzzy]

So is the implication here that V is evil, or isn't? The statement that they were kidding when they said V's alignment might be affected could either suggest that it somehow isn't because he didn't think he was responsible, or that it was changed because she thought she was.

I'm thinking it's the latter, but it's still rather oddly-worded.

[Landon_Fox]

Mad props to the Giant for this twist. It fits so perfectly with human nature. I will never forget about the Milgram experiment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

[Llama231]

Wow, one quarter...

Awesomesauce comic!

[Surfing HalfOrc]

OK, I should know this, but I don't...

Who are the Demon/Devil friends/fiends? They look like college mascots, but I'm drawing a blank!

[David Argall]

So it seems V killed a good deal more than 60 dragons. Not enough to eliminate black dragons, but quite a massive slice.

Also V continues to say that protection of her family is his major reason for the spell.
The claim is rather dubious. Sharp boundaries to what constitutes kin don’t exist. There should still be bereaved cousins of some of the dead dragons. But the comic seems to ignore this and would have us assume that there are none left who will be interested in revenge.

[The Blackbird]

1/4th of all black dragons, dang thats a lot.
I'm almost sorry for the ABD...

[stevekgoodwin]

Is the last panel a joke? Could someone explain it if it is? Ta.

[Trixie]

I somehow feel that people who invented genocide and these ridiculous triple digit caster levels will still try to argue that the rules (or common sense) shouldn't apply to epic magic and the entire population of the chromatic dragons plus their gods died

Anyway, what does that last obscure reference mean? And what they have written on their shirts?

And I totally called V being evil now out of her own volition (they wouldn't try that "cutting off the head" gambit otherwise, now, would they?)

Plus, that last disintegrate was totally uncalled for

[pyrefiend]

Hmmmm... so then I guess V's insane laughter was more due to the general rush of power/lack of sleep, than just evilness? I guess that makes sense.

[otakufan]

And the "Alignment Feedback" defense for V's actions goes up in smoke...

Well played, Fiends. Well played.

[xyzzy]

So it seems V killed a good deal more than 60 dragons. Not enough to eliminate black dragons, but quite a massive slice.

Also V continues to say that protection of her family is his major reason for the spell.
The claim is rather dubious. Sharp boundaries to what constitutes kin don’t exist. There should still be bereaved cousins of some of the dead dragons. But the comic seems to ignore this and would have us assume that there are none left who will be interested in revenge.

We're to assume that's what Vaarsuvius' twisted mind has produced, at least --- I think it's pretty clear that the threat to V isn't gone by any stretch of the imagination.

Cousins would presumably all be covered if I'm reading the description right. The dragon's parents (if they're alive) would die, and their grandchildren would be their direct relatives.

[Studoku]

Although - how does an undead severed dragon head fly?

A wizard did it.

I've been waiting two days to post this.

[EmeraldPhoenix]

Well, I'm screwed. There goes my theory that it wasn't V's fault.


I wonder how V's family will react to that little show...and how long it will be until V decides to end the soul splice.

And what is up over in Greysky, in the afterlife, on the boat, in Azure city, with EVERYONE ELSE? It's about time for a scene change, and my money is on a switch sometime in the next ten strips, and that's being generous. Just a few wrap-ups, and a cliff-hanger, and we can get on to , , , , , , , Hinjo, the theives guild, and Celia. That's a lot of people to check on, so get a move on, Rich!

[Antacid]

For the people wondering, I think the last panel is a joke-via-comic-juxtaposition. First half of comic is an established hero being horribly evil, second half shows us that uber-evil fiends can feel cheesy, relatable nostalgia thinking about their college years. It's not a reference so much as a deliberately whacky contrast.

EDIT: lol, apparently it's also a reference.

[Swordlol]

What if they lied about what will happen to V's soul?

They lied about the Souls may influence - so what would stop them about lying that rather than each one of them getting V's soul for the same amount of time V keeps the Soul Splice - that V is actually damn'd.

[[TS] Shadow]

Hmm...now I can spit in the faces of the "V is still neutral" people! YES! But then again, seeing how many people STILL say that Belkar isn't Evil, I doubt it'll end any time soon.

[Earendill]

Is the last panel a joke? Could someone explain it if it is? Ta.

My guess it refers to "March Madness" - a college basketball event in the US. One of the mascots has "Duke", as in Duke University on it's shirt.

[Liwen]

Although - how does an undead severed dragon head fly?

That my friend is only for the show. Would you rather have a flying dragon undead head or just a regular dragon undead head?

So V appears to be genuinely evil from the information we got from this strip. But allow to point out one of the trio's footnote about the soul splice : They wanted her to reject the responsibility of her evils to the 3 souls, which is probably what V believes right now. Rejecting responsibility allows people to do some of the worst atrocities man as ever committed, but this people aren't evil, they are weak. They found it easier to obey than to confront the authority and express their position

Authoritarian figure : "Hit this man with a baseball bat."
Person : "Why? That gonna hurt him."
Authoritarian figure : "Do Has I demand. We will take full responsibility for your actions, and obeying will grant you the comfortable carefree life you desire, for we can provide."
Person : "in this case" Whack!

Here the Authoritarian figure is V own unwillingness to admit that she fails at magic and that magic ain't the solution to everything. And with the new powers she has now, the little objecting voice saying : "why can you just admit defeat and accept the help and support of others and move on? Those soldiers died, there was nothing you could do to save them and trying will have gotten you killed." is muted.

Finally, allow me to add that a bunch of voices suggesting to make the enemy, who's trying to murder your family to suffer much and die for all eternity, suffer as much as said enemy planned to spread suffering does have a little more power than a bunch of cheerleaders. Three voices you can't shut up constantly suggesting you commit x,y,z atrocities will turn anyone mad very quickly.

[SilentDragoon]

The last panel refers to college sports, specifically Duke Blue Devils and Arizona State Sun Devils, most likely basketball due to the comment by orange in the previous panel.