Rich has been able to develop character in the past while advancing the plot simultaneously. It irritates me that everything has essentially ground to a complete standstill while comic after comic is nothing but exposition for a plot that still hasn’t materialized.
I think that’s the point. The plot hasn’t yet materialized in the current storylines. A year from now, these storylines will be completed and we’ll be able to look back and maybe see the overall plot. The key to the starmetal story was Roy initially leaving Elan to his fate and then realizing his error; the fact that this was a major turning point in Roy’s life was not immediately apparent at the time.
You really don’t think the plot’s been advanced at all? So far, we’ve had:
Haley leading a raid against occupying forces in Azure City, cementing the various fractions of the resistance into one front, and escaping from the city with Roy’s body. Also, she’s managed to rope Roy’s girlfriend into actively helping the party.
Elan and Durkan foiling an assassination attempt against Lord Hinjo, escaping from a group of orcs (twice, now) and possibly recruiting a half-orc ninja to aid them, depending on where the comic goes from here.
O-chul being a total badass, and giving the moral slapdown to Xykon despite being tied to a stake and forced to watch him slaughter dozens of innocent civilians, and incidentally inspiring his fellow prisoners to resist. (Seriously, does anyone else think O-chul is as cool as I do? He’s a first class example of how to make paladins cool.)
Roy sitting on his ass in fluffy cloud land.
Okay, not a lot going on in that last one, but I’m willing to make excuses on account of him being a corpse.
The point is, the plot’s been moving ahead at a good clip. Except that there are at least three main plots at this point, so the overall momentum of the strip is slowed down as Burlew has to jump between them to keep all the balls in the air. I think he’s doing fine. If the pay off for this story line is as good as it was for the similarly measured start to the second story line, we’re in for a hell of a ride.
Incidentally, did anyone else catch the name of the latest strip?
“Meanwhile, His Teammate was in Rhodes.”
Yeah, for the title joke you need to have picked up on some Seven Wonders trivia along with your Homer and Stan Lee.
I understand there’s a Dharma & Greg joke in there, too… but I don’t watch Lost and so didn’t catch it.
So far we’ve had:
…Haley explaining how she can’t lead the forces to re-take Azure City, discussing an tedious political situation which becomes completely irrelevant the moment she leaves. Now she’s gone, making me wonder why we spent so much time on all of it.
…O-chul failing to tell Redcloak and Xykon anything, but doing so in a very dynamic way for a long period of time. Why couldn’t they have accomplished all that in one strip?
Roy doing nothing, as we agree.
Elan and Durkan and V accomplishing nothing of consequence as they attempt to help Hinjo in his quest to accomplish nothing of consequence. Yes, Azure City fell, boo hoo. I’m not remotely interested in the quest to recapture it, especially it drags down the pace of the story. For me, it really kills the urgency of the “save the world from the Snarl” if our heroes spend all their time on relatively minor chores. If the house is on fire, you don’t mop the floors.
It’s the poster in the background of panel four. The Greg Initiative is a parody of the Dharma Initiative from Lost.
And don’t forget the Batman reference in panels four and five.
Homer could have cut down on The Odyssey by just having Odysseus and his crew sail straight back to Ithaca. But that’s missing the point.
But you forget, the major force that poses the greatest threats to the bonds that keep the Snarl imprisoned is ALSO STILL IN AZURE CITY! Remember, they’re NOT, at this point, trying to “save the world from the Snarl.” They’re trying to keep the Snarl imprisoned.
If Xykon had shown any signs of leaving en masse, not only would Haley and Belkar NOT be trapped and incommunicado to begin with, but I’m sure the forces outside the city would’ve given extremely serious thought to leaving the rest of their friends behind and go in pursuit, trusting those left behind to catch up.
Elan, Durkon, and V have no way of knowing that Xykon is still in Azure City. Why are they still dinking around, playing second banana?
They’re on a boat full of paladins. Why are the paladins more concerned with capturing some real estate than they are with saving the world? Oh, right, because of an oath. So why are the heroes hijacked by this oath too?
For that matter, would Haley and Belkar know if Xykon were around? If the battle for Azure City proved anything, it’s that the good guys aren’t very skilled at knowing where to find Xykon.
What galls me the most is that for 100 strips, Rich has taken the plot out of the hands of the protagonists. The protagonists are supposed to drive the action, make the decisions, and so forth. Belkar has rarely if ever been inclined to push the plot forward, but there’s no excuse for letting Roy, Elan, Haley, and Durkon twist in the wind. V is the only one who seems to be making and acting upon decisions of his (?) own, ineffective though the results have been.
For goshsakes, Haley couldn’t leave the city until freakin’ Celia showed up. Hello? This is a stark example of what I’m talking about: minor characters driving the plot, while the major characters sit around and twiddle.
At least Odysseus was the freakin’ captain. If Rich wrote the Odyssey, Odysseus would be demoted to the servant of a minor character, sailor Incyklikos, who is temporarily made captain so he can go visit his aunt in Crete.
Fish, what can I say? Life rarely takes us from along a clearly defined path directly between Point A and Point B. There’s no reason fictional characters should be any different.
Actually, this is a good question. I think the magical “aura” of Cloister might be a big hint, though. It seems unlikely that he’d let that continue if he was just gonna slip out during its effect. Besides, once someone is out of Cloister’s effect, there’s nothing stopping magical scrying THEN, and if V hasn’t yet detected any (large-scale) movement out of the city, then it’s a safe assumption, wouldn’t you think?
Like you said, they’re on a boat. I don’t see any evidence they’ve been able to find another means of sea transportation. Besides which, if they assume that they’re still going to be facing that huge goblin army, they’ll need all the help they can get. Which means not ticking off or running off without the paladins (to whom they owe their lives in the first place, BTW, and whose leader they know are in direct and immediate danger of losing his life).
Again, I hadn’t thought of it that way. But in the months they’ve been on the run and been in combat with Xykon’s forces, I can’t imagine that they haven’t either overheard a mention of him, and/or gotten the impression that most of his forces are still in the city.
As for the rest of what you’ve said, I’ll have to consider. Ever posted on the comic’s message board? I’m genuinely interested in what the longtime regular readers there would think of your arguments, or answer them, if they disagree.
There’s a reason we don’t usually patronize fictional lives that are just as boring, disorganized, and rudderless as our own.
No, Cloister doesn’t work that way — remember, Celia said that Haley is still shielded by Cloister even though she’s already left the city. There’s every reason for Xykon to have left the city with an undetectable army, and there doesn’t seem to be much point in waiting for the spell to wear off before departing. As far as I can tell, the only reason for this is so V can’t contact Haley: Rich has used Cloister to deliberately prohibit the OOTS from gathering, so we can watch… this… instead.
Sea transportation, nothing. V is a wizard and can freakin’ teleport. Vaarsuvius is obsessed with his ineffectual scrying precisely because it neutralizes his (?) prodigious and irreplaceable magic. And what I want to know is why? What makes this year-long section of waffling so important that Rich feels the need to render all his characters impotent?
Best guess: he wants to show us Roy’s dynamic and effective leadership upon his return. And that would be a good, worthwhile scene if this past year hasn’t been so intolerably dull. Just get off the dime, dammit.
No. I have an account there, but I don’t post often. I find that the longtime readers there are more interested in saying “this is the Xth time that somebody has posted this” or “Rich can do no wrong” and variants thereof.
OK. All I was saying was that by mentioning your opinion there, you might get a perspective that could cause you to look at what’s going on in a new light.
At any rate, I wouldn’t say there’s “every reason for Xykon to have left the city” when he obviously HASN’T, so there must be a reason (thanks for the reminder on Cloister, BTW).
But I have a feeling we’re getting close to the point that we’re just going to go around in circles. 
Maybe if I find a better way to express my opinion.
I understand what you’re saying, Leaper, but I’m speaking from the perspective of the spellcasters. If they suddenly find they cannot detect the presence of anybody known (at one time) to be within Azure City, it’s equally probable to assume “Xykon must have abandoned his pursuit of the gates and is staying put” as to assume “Xykon has concealed his army and is marching on Girard’s Gate this very minute.”
It’s been specifically established that s/he can’t.
Vaarsuvius’ obsession with attaining ultimate arcane power and sense of guilt over not having the power to do more to help defend Azure City (to the point of having to ignominiously use his/her last spell to turn invisible and run away) lay pretty solid groundwork for digging in and pounding away at this obstacle until it gives.
A few of them are; although the fact is that a lot of the time it is the same argument that has been hashed back and forth until most readers are sick of it.
I have an account there myself (though I’m more active on the Erfworld board than the OotS one lately – and, yes, I stipulate that that may be a point in favor of the opinion that the OotS plot is moving too slowly).
Interesting. I didn’t recall that.
It doesn’t change the fact that Hinjo’s fleet has been in and out of various seaports around the world — at least I assume since they’re in boats, and they’re visiting other nations, there must be seaports — so there’s no excuse for them to be unable to locate a ship.
It may be in character, but that doesn’t mean it’s interesting or necessary. Besides, it’s in character for Vaarsuvius to be intelligent. At some point over the course of months he should have come to the conclusion that it wasn’t possible to solve that problem in that way, and that a different strategy was called for.
Just out of curiosity, in which D&D supplement does the Cloister spell appear? I haven’t been able to find it in my 30+ books.
Apparently, it is a unique spell created by a wizard in the OOTS world, Dorukan. I’m going to assume he used the standard spell research rules to do so.
That would explain why I couldn’t find it 