Judging from the hobgoblin’s remarks about having been imprisoned for harassing an immigrant, I’d assume he was a bigot who picked on a green goblin. Redcloak wouldn’t have been annoyed if a hobgoblin had harassed a human or even some other “evil” race. So the dead hobgoblin probably wasn’t some secret hero.
But if he was a bigot who hated other races, what does that make the elf who killed him? Or the paladins or other heroes who kill goblins on sight just because they’re goblins? Burlew was again making the point that the dividing line between good and evil is not as clear as the fantasy genre makes it out to be. One being’s righteous crusade is another being’s genocide.
Dang! Believe it or not, the next one, [#708: An Animated Discussion](708: An Animated Discussion), is up.
[spoiler] Seems like Rich is reeeeally going out of his way to make the point that elves suck. Shooting a couple in the back as they return from a party? Is that really the way to hide an insurgency? I’m hoping this is a red herring, but I doubt it.
I did cackle at “continue with your cop drama.” Tsukiko is a sick mofo but she’s hilarious.[/spoiler]
I can’t say I really see a problem with shooting the couple returning from the party. I mean, is there any chance that if they let them live, they’d do anything other than immediately tell the “cops” about the raid, as well as which direction their hideout is? It’s ugly, but the insurgents didn’t really have much choice, there.
This is in contrast to the treatment of the hobgoblin prisoner. You don’t want to trust him, that’s fine, but the tactically smart thing to do would be to keep him locked up indefinitely in insurgent headquarters and pump him for information. It wouldn’t be completely reliable information, of course, but even unreliable information can be useful, as long as you know it’s unreliable.
Man I am just starting to realize how long this book is going to take.
We have the order to follow.
The gobos
The Insurgents.
Xykon and Redcoak.
Havn’t even seen the linear guild.
Still waiting on the fiends to collect their bargain.
Possibly the Paladins
possibly Eugene.
and certainly a bunch more background on the rift sealing fellowship.
This arc is gonna take years.
Possibly because, as Tsukiko says in panel #7, it is a “high-end undead” (and, therefore, presumably intelligent) rather than your average mindless zombie.
Redcloak’s deceased brother, who was co-leader of the goblins with Redcloak, had lost his left eye. It’s just a poke in a tender place for Redcloak courtesy of Xykon.
Also supported by her use of the “create undead” spell, rather than “animate dead”. I’m guessing ghoul (or ghast, basically a more powerful ghoul), since the end result doesn’t look like a mummy or mohrg.
