I’m rather surprised that Eugene’s the only oathspirit left on that cloud. Seems statistically unlikely, doesn’t it?
Yeah, I was wondering about that, too. Has something happened to release a bunch of them very quickly? Though, to be fair, we don’t know how many there were before: Maybe Eugene and Violet were the only ones.
Maybe an impending end of the world( and a whole bunch of incoming paperwork) relaxes standards and expedites appeals a bit.
Maybe Frudu destroyed the Ming.
Maybe even the dead have started avoiding Eugene.
Maybe Blood Oaths of Vengeance had gone out of style and no one was getting them anymore. Or everyone else is better at fulfilling them.
If i recall, you don’t have to have fulfilled them, you have to have given it your best shot - hence Roy got to progress to afterlife, whereas Eugene who had given up on it whilst still alive didn’t
Well, we don’t know exactly how that exception works. It may be that Roy was judged more leniently because he inherited the Oath, while Eugene initiated it.
We do at least know that oathspirits get in when their descendant fulfills their oath. That’s what happened to Eugene’s girlfriend.
Maybe a lot of people had sworn blood oaths against black dragons.
This comic seems to back up OAOW that the sticking point was Eugene giving up on his oath while still alive.
LN wouldn’t have him, either, because of the Blood Oath. Taking an oath like that and then ignoring it is probably going to keep you out of any Lawful afterlife. But that probably explains why Eugene is the only one left up on that cloud: with the end of the world coming, everyone else gave up on trying to get into the LG afterlife and just took whichever plane would have them (I’m guessing the CN afterlife is pretty lax about who they let in). Eugene is still hanging around, because going to a different afterlife would mean admitting that he wasn’t really Lawful Good all along - and Eugene would rather be erased from existence then admit he was wrong about something.
Question: Let’s say I vow a blood oath to slay Flurg, the evil sorcerer. Let’s say I have to–or choose to–abandon that blood oath due to family obligations or something, but my son and daughter vow to take it up. Let’s say they sincerely take up the blood oath and pursue Flurg, but before they catch him he chokes to death on a pretzel. What happens to my spirit? (Assume that me and my offspring are LG)
Damnit, now I have Zapp Brannigan and the whole Neutral thing in my head.
I imagine the wording is important.
“I and my heirs swear that Flurg the Sorceror shall die!” - You’re cool.
“I and my heirs swear that Flurg shall be slain by the ancestral blade of my family” - hmm, more dicey.
Abandoning the Oath is a pretty Chaotic act though. I wonder if the deva was trying to explain the issue to Eugene, he keyed into the BOoV as a limiter, and then ignored all the comments about being a crappy father and husband, not to mention whatever other Chaotic indiscretions he has. I’d be unsurprised if Xykon died, and Eugene finds out he was never eligible for the LG afterlife after all.
My guess is you get a pass as long as you tried your best. Look at Roy; he didn’t kill Xykon but he still got into Heaven. Eugene’s sin wasn’t failure, it was not making the effort.
So if you sincerely set out to kill Flurg and then found out he was already dead, then your effort to fulfill the oath counts outweighs your technical failure.
This doesn’t apply to Eugene, but I can imagine situations where two lawful good imperatives conflict. Or where being lawful conflicted with being good*. There might be very good reasons a person would have to leave the blood oath to their heirs. Of course the Deva covered this with her “You were trying” comment to Roy.
Like, do you cut the head off the Night’s Watch deserter, when what he was trying to do was to warn those south of the wall of the rise of the White Walkers? That’s the lawful thing to do…
I was wondering about that, but Eugene was upset that Roy was getting in early, not that he was being screened early. From that, I assume that Eugene was screened when he first arrived, but was told he couldn’t enter until the BOoV was satisfied. Otherwise, I would expect him to have freaked out as soon as Roy’s screening began, or at least mentioned it while he was complaining about Roy’s admission.
I would tend to doubt this. The devas are creatures of pure lawful good. They wouldn’t deceive Eugene, even by omission. As soon as they realized Eugene misunderstood where his final destination was, they’d have cleared it up for him.
Sure, for the heir. But Larry’s question was about the father who originally took the oath. If Xykon went and got himself killed in some way that was totally unrelated to Roy’s quest, we know Roy would still get into heaven, but what about Eugene?
Although, I suspect yellowjacket is right: the failed Blood Oath is just point 1 in why Eugene isn’t getting past the pearly gates, but he didn’t bother to stick around to hear all the other reasons why he’s not qualified, and just fixated on the first thing they said.