Things You Never Noticed VII: Wait, This Isnt the MitD Thread?

[danielxcutter]

While the Exarch is using his gaseous form to get back after stealing the teleportation orb, you can see its colors as well.

[woweedd]

Not so much a "thing I didn't notice" as an excuse to analyze Roy's character arc. So, Roy's role in the early strip was to be the Straight Man, the guy who reacts to jokes, not makes them, and also as by far the most competent member of the party. Hell, early on, he was pretty much the only competent member of the party other then Durkon, with V's ego, Haley's greed, Elan's idiocy, and ESPECIALLY Belkar's comical amounts of evil constantly causing problems. While Roy did learn to value his teammates (saving Elan from the bandits being a big turning-point), and, in turn, they slowly became better at their roles, I notice this does play into a not-oft-noted but major character flaw of his: Roy always assumes he knows best, even when he doesn't.

Lots of the times Roy has screwed up, it's because he made assumptions about the situation at hand, assuming he knew what was going on, and didn't listen to people trying to tell him otherwise. This has been played for a joke before IE this strip, where Nale assumes he'll have to do some hard work to sell his ruse...Only for Roy to just accept it at total face value. Or here, where he utterly brushes off the Deva trying to tell him about V's recent issues. Or, of course, the whole Vampire Durkon plotline, where he doesn't suspect a thing the entire time. Roy has a bad tendency to accept things at face value possibly born out of a sense of pride in his own intellect.

On a related note, this flaw can veer heavily into outright callousness, particularly when dealing with NPCs. Shojo's teleporting wizard springs to mind, where, as soon as his role in teleporting them is fulfilled, Roy forgets about him almost instantly. He even spells it out in this strip: "now that you've fulfilled your story purpose, I find I have no intrest in speaking to you any longer". But I digress. Point is, Roy's most common flaw is his tendency to ignore other people on the assumption he knows better. And i'd argue this ties into his character in an intersting way.

Not only in the aforementioned fact that, early on, he was in fact the most competent member of the party by a wide margin, but also his later revealed backstory: His little brother, Eric, died in an accident that is never spelled out, but whatever it was, it was Eugene's fault. Apparently, judging by what Durkon says and what Roy says, Eugene did something dangerous, Roy's mom was distracted, Roy knew it was dangerous and didn't warn his mom, because he was ten, and something happened that killed his younger brother. It's clear from what we see this is a traumatic experience, and, reading between the lines, I think this heavily influenced why Roy is the way he is: I can't speak for Roy, but, for most people, when you're a kid, you assume adults know what they're doing. They're bigger, stronger, smarter, they must know, and you take that. For Roy, he most likely didn't tell his mom because he assumed his dad knew better, this was before their relationship fell apart. And, when it backfired, that may have imbued a subconscious understanding: That people couldn't be trusted, even people who claimed to know better clearly could screw up if Roy didn't do something. I wouldn't be surprised if that may tie into his trouble listening to the ideas of others: Maybe, on some subconscious level, part of his brain still worries that, if he lets other people do stuff on their own, they'll screw it up and people will get hurt or killed, and it'll be his fault for not SAYING SOMETHING. And so he talks over people and assumes he knows better than them, because he's supposed to be responsible. If his dad, the one who was supposed to be an adult and supposed to know better, could so massively screw up...Clearly, it's all on him to make sure nothing goes wrong. I don't know, i'm guessing, but that seems to make sense to me.

[Aa602213x1023]

Analysis

I don't have anything substantive to add; I just wanted to thank you for sharing what I thought was a very insightful post. I appreciated the analysis of Roy's character.

[Naysmith]

In 841 "Lunchtime", the ancestry murals are already visible around the door before the reveal - even as topped by a dragon.

[LadyEowyn]

In the course of reading an annotated (by Tolkien!) translation of Beowulf, I have discovered that Wrecan (well, technically, wrecca, with the plural being wreccan) is the Old English for “adventurer”.

[Lord Torath]

I never noticed the soldier dropping his shield to grab the scroll near the middle of the second page (panels 5-6) here.
Cool!

[Rollin]

I never noticed the soldier dropping his shield to grab the scroll near the middle of the second page (panels 5-6) here.
Cool!

That was the first OOTS I ever read, and I don't recall ever noticing that, either. Truly a "classic for a reason."

[ti'esar]

Ouch. I feel like learning about that adds just a bit of extra sting to V's later guilt over abandoning the soldiers.

[Kish]

It does, and also to explaining their attitude toward the Katos and the rest of the Azurite fleet: they want to believe that NPCs are essentially vermin because if they are, there's no reason to feel guilty about the deaths of people who never revealed their names.

[Rollin]

Although in this strip V does save that soldier from a fall, along with another who had been on top of the same piece of masonry. V doesn't return their thanks, however, as V well might have--which I also never noticed.

[Rollin]

I've got a new one: Mr. Scruffy chasing Bloodfeast's tail during the fight with Serini and Sunny. (Last panel--apparently only the punchline ever got through to me on previous readings.)

[Peelee]

I've got a new one: Mr. Scruffy chasing Bloodfeast's tail during the fight with Serini and Sunny. (Last panel--apparently only the punchline ever got through to me on previous readings.)

I think that's more Mr. Scruffy trying to throw Bloodfeast off.

[Kardwill]

I just noticed that, in 464, when Soon says he's fading to the celestial realms, he's actually fading a little on each panel.

That seems obvious in retrospect, but I never paid attention to it

[watersnap]

it is interesting that in #235, Roy says "The lesson here is that if the magic item does not specifically say it grows hair, it probably doesn't." However, in #9, that same girdle caused the ogre to lose hair while wearing it, as all the ogres in the fight were bald, and the dead ogre has long hair.

[danielxcutter]

I presume that ogre just wasn't in-panel and they grew hair after putting it on. The slow way, I mean.

[watersnap]

I presume that ogre just wasn't in-panel and they grew hair after putting it on. The slow way, I mean.

I disagree. In #5, Roy said about the original ogre that they have "attracted two of his friends", bringing the total to three ogres. In that same comic, there is a panel with all three ogres visible, and all of them are bald.

[Precure]

Roy is bald, the ogre is just shaving.

[Kardwill]

In the search montage at #692, I never noticed that Haley is sleeping holding the cactus flower Elan "fought" earlier, and has a big smile. It's a smalll detail, but awwwww.

[danielxcutter]

Also the scorpion that was chasing Mr. Scruffy was killed and was being cooked by Belkar in the next panel.

[dmc91356]

And Elan has cactus spines in him (two in his head and one in his arm) as he is sleeping next to Haley.

[Metastachydium]

but awwwww.

[G-L-A-R-E-S.] You are bad and you should feel bad.

[danielxcutter]

Is there a reference I'm missing here and do I want to understand it.

[Tzardok]

Is there a reference I'm missing here and do I want to understand it.

You mean, in Meta's post? Meta pretends to be a flower on this forum and gets angry when people hurt or disparage plants (or birds. He loves birdies.). For example when Elan fights a cactus just to steal its flower for his lover and people find that romantic.
How would you feel like if a tree broke into your home and cut off your genitalia as a gift for a lady-tree?

[Peelee]

How would you feel like if a tree broke into your home and cut off your genitalia as a gift for a lady-tree?

Regardless of my other feelings, i have to admit i would be very impressed.

[danielxcutter]

The Azurite samurai leader is invisible next to the elven captain, you can see their eyes. Just their eyes, I dunno why, but still.

[Kardwill]

You mean, in Meta's post? Meta pretends to be a flower on this forum and gets angry when people hurt or disparage plants (or birds. He loves birdies.). For example when Elan fights a cactus just to steal its flower for his lover and people find that romantic.
How would you feel like if a tree broke into your home and cut off your genitalia as a gift for a lady-tree?

And now, we know why the Lady-Ents departed, never to return.

(In real life, I'm the kind of guy who can't pick a flower because they're too pretty in nature ^^)

[Metastachydium]

pretends

[G-L-A-R-E-S.]

and gets angry when people hurt or disparage plants (or birds. He loves birdies.)

Ah, damn. You know me to well; I can't be mad at you. [U-N-G-L-A-R-E-S.]

How would you feel like if a tree broke into your home and cut off your genitalia as a gift for a lady-tree?

Regardless of my other feelings, i have to admit i would be very impressed.

And now, we know why the Lady-Ents departed, never to return.

For the record, mammalian genitalia are incredibly disgusting and I have no idea who thought your going with them was a good idea. You can all keep those.

(In real life, I'm the kind of guy who can't pick a flower because they're too pretty in nature ^^)

If I were a government, you'd now get a medal.

The Azurite samurai leader is invisible next to the elven captain, you can see their eyes. Just their eyes, I dunno why, but still.

So that we know he doesn't have any. [Runs away.]

[watersnap]

In #779, i didn't notice the lead pun in the title.