For those who were not Kickstarter supporters, there’s a new OotS wallpaper available for downloading. This one was inspired by the passing of Leonard Nimoy and has the OotS playing ST:TOS characters:
Roy as Kirk
V as Spock
Durkon as Scotty
Julia as Uhura
Haley as Sulu
Belkar as Chekov
Elan as McCoy
Banjo as Nurse Chapel
Celia as Rand
Mr Scruffy as a tribble
Blackwing as a red shirt
Thog as a Klingon
Hinjo as some superior at Starfleet Command
A Magic Jar-type effect is, however, an integral ability of their main nemesis, Xykon (remember him). So it would be in both Roy and V’s peripheral awareness at least.
I think they had trouble coming up with a consistent mythology for vampirism on “Buffy”-- at the very least, it evolved over the years. But your explanation makes as much sense as any. Kind of explains why some vampires were conscience-less but not particularly evil (Harmony and (arguably) Spike) and others really delighted in the whole “evil” thing (Angelus). Not quite sure how Season 8’s ur-vampires fit into the whole mythology.
I am a grown man and I just squealed “Ooooo! Crayon!”
A tale of somebody doing their duty to the end and sacrificing their life for the greater good right before an evil being puts a plan into effect.
I think Durkon’s posthumous state may be fast approaching.
In Buffy, didn’t Spike get his nickname because he enjoyed impaling people on railroad spikes?
No, he got it because his poetry was so awful, you’d sooner drive a railway spike into your ear than listen to any of it.
From Buffy Season 2, Episode 3, “School Hard”
Then, when the vampires are attacking the school during parent teachers night, you first see him grabbing a man, and then, after another vampire gives him a status update, considering it, then saying to the guy he’s grabbed. “I’m a veal type of guy. You’re too old to eat.” Then he snaps his neck and says, “But not to kill. I feel better.”
He was nerfed in later seasons, when they wanted to make him some sort of anti-hero and romantic interest for Buffy, but at least when Spike was introduced, he was an impulsive, murderous sadist engaged in a bizarre codependent relationship with Drusilla.
Ah, but from Season 5, Episode 7, Fool for Love:
He’s already “posthumous”. He just hasn’t stopped moving.
As a partial derailment, I think that Spike’s nickname can refer to and is both. I think he knew what they said, as he’s not a moron, and merely decided to make it his own.
As for OotS, I feel like this whole subplot is a bit of a derailment itself. Unless Rich was going to handwave the journey, which he hasn’t so far, this feels like a big digression. I guess I’m feeling like we are near the end of the Xykon story line and don’t want it to go off on a tangent for a while but that’s me.
vislor
In general I think this is part of Durkon’s story arc, much as we’ve already had or are having major story arcs for the other characters.
I don’t think it’s likely to be directly relevant to the Xykon story but it might connect to the Snarl one (indeed, I suspect the Snarl outbreak is a likely cause of the Godsmoot being called so abruptly).
I think it’s more “he acts however he thinks his current love interest wants him to”.
I like Durkon just fine and so I don’t need his specific arc because I feel like we already got it in terms of how he acts in the other’s arcs. Now, Rich has surprised me before and maybe this will also be good and I will enjoy it. At the moment, I’m ready for the ending of this story, and then let something else fill in the backstory. But that’s me.
And good point on the Godsmoot and reason for it.
vislor
We don’t know anything really about Godsmoots and what you need to do to get an invite but it seems like Redcloak would at least be aware of the big priest convention given that he’s the Dark One’s chosen, certainly the DO’s highest level priest and likely one of the highest level priests in the entire game world. The last based on Hayley’s comment when trying to Resurrect Roy that she didn’t know if this world even had 17th level clerics and Belkar helpfully pointing out that Redcloak was probably 17th+ level.
If Redcloak knows that there’s a big priest pow-wow about his plan, does he try to stop them? Try to just hustle Xkyon along before they can act? Arrive triumphant to blackmail the gods? Seems that they wouldn’t set up the whole ritual thing and not have it happen in some form or another so I can’t believe that Team Evil won’t seize the Gate for at least a little while despite everyone’s best efforts.
There’s also this:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0826.html
Four real time years later. But it implies that Redcloak just leveled up to his 9th level Cleric spells. Absent anything bumping him artificially, that’s 17th level. He’s able to cast Implosion twice during the day, which he does in that strip.
It may be that only Good-aligned clerics (or perhaps non-Evil-aligned) would be invited, so Redcloak wouldn’t be on the list.
Actually, he only casts it once. And Belkar was probably just guessing at Redcloak’s level.
The Godsmoot is a convocation of just the Northern Gods’ high priests, not those of every pantheon. Veldrina is representing the Western and Elven gods at it. It’s quite likely that the Dark One has been kept in the dark about the whole thing. And if he does know, may or may not be sending an observer. Redcloak would be unlikely to be that observer; he has a much more important mission.
There’s lots of speculation about the reason for the Godsmoot, but I’d say the lashing out by the Snarl at the Draketooth rift is almost certainly not it. That happened in the Western Continent, so it would be the Western/Elven gods who would be having the moot about it. If they even know about it, which they may not. Was there any cleric at the scene to give them a report?