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| 2 | %% Zero Context Example entries are NOT allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them. |
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| 5 | %% In addition, any further edit warring over character alignments will result in edit bans. |
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| 8 | [[WMG:[[center:[-[[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStick Main Character Index]] | [[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStickTheOrderOfTheStick The Order of the Stick]] – '''Human Party Members''' – [[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStickNonHumanPartyMembers Non-Human Party Members]] | [[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStickTeamEvil Team Evil]] | [[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStickTheLinearGuild The Linear Guild]] | [[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStickTheOrderOfTheScribble The Order of the Scribble]] | [[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStickAzureCity Azure City]] | [[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStickGreyskyCity Greysky City]] | [[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStickTheEmpireOfBlood The Empire of Blood]] | [[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStickNorthernLands Northern Lands]] | [[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStickAnimalCompanions Animal Companions]] | [[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStickDivineBeings Divine Beings]] | [[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStickOthers Others]]-]]]]] |
| 9 | |
| 10 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | !The Order of the Stick |
| 13 | |
| 14 | For general tropes about the whole group, see [[Characters/TheOrderOfTheStickTheOrderOfTheStick The Order of the Stick]]. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | [[folder:Roy Greenhilt]] |
| 17 | !!Roy Greenhilt |
| 18 | [[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/roy_oots_6515.png]] |
| 19 | |
| 20 | ->''"Is that another 'Fighters are dumb' crack?"'' |
| 21 | |
| 22 | ->'''Race:''' Human\ |
| 23 | '''Gender:''' Male\ |
| 24 | '''Class:''' Fighter\ |
| 25 | '''Alignment:''' LawfulGood, Beleaguered Good [-(according to the Adventure Game)-] |
| 26 | |
| 27 | A very intelligent human warrior with an ancestral sword and a serious problem with his unsupportive father ("Powerful mage, Devoted husband, [[ParentsAsPeople Passable father]]"), Roy is the leader of the Order of the Stick. Deals with copious amounts of stress daily, often due to somewhat... er... [[WithFriendsLikeThese unreliable]] teammates. Sworn to kill Xykon as part of his father's BloodOath. |
| 28 | ---- |
| 29 | * AmazonChaser: Zig-zagged. Immediately after finding out that [[ThePaladin Miko]] is female, he starts hitting on her, but after realizing that she's a {{Jerkass}}, he stops his pursuit just as quickly. Afterwards he starts a relationship with the [[NiceGirl much nicer]] ActualPacifist Celia, but she is [[ShockAndAwe by no means weak]] and fights in courts of law. |
| 30 | * AncestralWeapon: He inherited the Greenhilt sword, his Grandfather's greatsword, to which his family owes its name. In fact, he used it so much that his devotion to it has made it into a Weapon of Legacy. He uses a large wooden club for a while when his sword is broken. |
| 31 | * ArchEnemy: Xykon. Ironically, the lich himself considers Roy an UnknownRival at best. |
| 32 | * AscendedGlitch: Non-video-game example. Characters are drawn with asymmetric eyes, with the eye opposite the direction the character is facing appearing larger (i.e. if the character is facing left, the right eye from the viewer's perspective will be larger), to simulate it being closer to the fourth wall. This was accidentally reversed in Roy's character template, with the "closer" eye being the smaller one. By the time the error was caught enough strips had been published that it would have been a hassle to go back and change them all, and it had become somewhat iconic to Roy's look, so the reversed eyes were kept that way in subsequent [[ArtEvolution art upgrades]]. |
| 33 | * ArmorPiercingResponse: When the deva questions Roy about keeping Belkar on the team, he asks if she'd rather he slit his throat while he sleeps. She has no response to that, though Roy gives her a workaround (trying to reform an evildoer). Ironically, Roy is unknowingly reforming Belkar. |
| 34 | * BackFromTheDead: It takes quite a bit longer than you'd expect in this kind of world, but Durkon eventually brings him back from the Lawful Good afterlife. |
| 35 | * BadassNormal: He has no inherent magic whatsoever, in a world where LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards is in full effect. Despite this he has been able to take on foes even when seriously outnumbered and outleveled, and is the leader of [[BadassCrew the Order of the Stick.]] It's also highly likely that he has the best stats in the group, see JackOfAllStats. |
| 36 | * BaldOfAuthority: Though significantly more snarky than the traditional example, he is still the ring leader of this circus. |
| 37 | * BaldHeadOfToughness: BadassNormal who is unusually tough and strong even before obtaining the Belt of Giant Strength and gains SuperStrength when wearing it. He also shaves his head completely bald. In a prequel volume, it's shown that Roy started shaving his head in college, and his father lampshades the trope during a visit, specifically noting that the shaved head made Roy look tough. When he was a teen, [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0113.html he sported an afro]]. |
| 38 | * BareHandedBladeBlock: He manages to block a [[spoiler:''dominated'' Elan]]'s blade with one hand. {{Justified|Trope}} in that Elan wields a rapier, a stabbing blade, and was using it to slash. |
| 39 | * BarredFromTheAfterlife: {{Subverted|Trope}}. He ''thinks'' he's going to be locked out because he failed to complete the Blood Oath. But he died honoring the Oath to the best of his ability, and the Lawful Good afterlife doesn't ask for more than that. He makes it in. |
| 40 | * BattleAura: Roy manifests an impressive flaming green one [[spoiler:through the power of his Starmetal sword during his fight against Vampire Durkon when he finally gets over his denial]]. |
| 41 | * BeingGoodSucks: Not only does he have to be the moral center and wrangle his dysfunctional party members into becoming an effective fighting force, he also has to be the one to shoulder the responsibility of stopping a world-ending threat instead of leaving it to someone else. He also can't/refuses to rise to the petty infuriation caused by his father or his enemies despite the temporary satisfaction it would give him. |
| 42 | * BerserkButton: |
| 43 | ** [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0114.html Don't break his sword]]. |
| 44 | ** "[[ButForMeItWasTuesday Bad guys not remembering their evil deeds]] [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0788.html is something of a pet peeve of mine.]]" |
| 45 | ** More broadly, he resents the "[[DumbMuscle dumb Fighter]]" stereotype, which is implied to be why he hates Thog so much. He uses the arena fight as an opportunity to vent how insulting it is to have the half-orc as an evil counterpart. |
| 46 | * {{BFS}}: He wields a greatsword that is almost as long as he is tall. After infusing it with starmetal, it gains a +5 with a bonus against undead, in addition to its inherent Legacy Weapon effects (which includes ''word of recall''). |
| 47 | * BlackAndNerdy: In college, he was unpopular, studied nearly 24/7 in a library, and was once hung from a flagpole by his underwear. It was [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0855.html fighter college]]. |
| 48 | * BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[spoiler:With regard to the main characters, though he got better and a good chunk of the ''Don't Split the Party'' arc was dedicated to making it happen. When it does, Haley gladly returns to her former position as NumberTwo. Altogether, the racial aspect of this trope is moot]]. |
| 49 | * BlueIsHeroic: He is the main character and blue is the predominant color on his armor. |
| 50 | * BodyguardBetrayal: Attacks [[spoiler:Durkon]] when he is informed that there are no rules against this [[spoiler:at the Godsmoot after he learns that Durkon has been deceiving him, and is consigning every dwarf everywhere to eternal torment.]] |
| 51 | * BorrowedCatchphrase: {{Invoked}} by Roy against the High Priest of Hel. |
| 52 | -->'''Roy:''' But as a certain half-orc once said, "Talky man talk too much!" |
| 53 | * CallingYourAttacks: "Great Cleave!" Note that this is standard for the setting, though -- calling your attacks is how you make them. |
| 54 | * CameBackStrong: |
| 55 | ** Roy trains with his [[spoiler:dead grandpa]] during his stay in heaven, and learns [[spoiler:a new sword technique, which he remembers well enough when he comes back.]] |
| 56 | ** Played with, since this is an RPG-rules mechanics universe and Roy was brought back with a Resurrection spell, logically, within the context of the universe, he'd have lost a level upon being brought back to life. |
| 57 | * CarryABigStick: Temporarily, while his sword was broken, he used a greatclub. |
| 58 | * ChangedMyMindKid: Roy does this to Elan after the latter is captured by bandits. The inevitable rescue is then hilariously {{subverted}}. |
| 59 | * CharacterDevelopment: |
| 60 | ** Goes from using his teammates as a means to an end to AFatherToHisMen. He also listens to the team more and considers their input before making a decision, to the point where he even starts trusting Belkar to an extent. [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1218.html Minrah]] even comments how she loves the team are listening to each other, which Belkar states it's because they exhausted all other options. |
| 61 | ** In [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1187.html #1187]], Elan lampshades it, noting Roy trusts them enough to handle things while he sleeps off his drunkeness. Haley points out [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0014.html Roy couldn't even sleep]] because he mistrusted them so much. |
| 62 | * CharacterizationMarchesOn: |
| 63 | ** Early in the comic he called Vaarsuvius very silly nicknames like "dog" and "V-Man". It's hard to imagine Roy doing something like that nowadays. |
| 64 | ** One early comic has Roy decapitating a pair of sleeping goblins. Roy is hardly a paragon of honor or pacifism, but future comics wrote him as someone who prefers to only use lethal force if there aren't any clear alternatives: for instance, an arc in ''On the Origin of [=PCs=]'', which takes place chronologically earlier, shows him going out of his way to negotiate peace with a group of orcs rather than simply wipe them out, and at one point, he even outright dismisses the idea of killing someone in their sleep. Later comics would reserve that kind of behavior to Belkar. |
| 65 | * CharlesAtlasSuperpower: His degrees in Fighter College are certainly paying for themselves. |
| 66 | ** Despite not ''technically'' knowing any magic, Belkar points out that he is as strong as a giant -- owing in part to his Belt of Giant Strength -- and survived being impaled on the horn of a triceratops. In the same strip, he casually grabs a rope two experienced sailors were visibly wrestling with and easily holds it without apparent effort. |
| 67 | ** The triceratops impalement happened shortly ''after'' being chewed on by a gigantic allosaurus and less than a minute or so ''before'' being impaled on his own sword, with few ill effects. Roy is up, around, and directing the battle action within a couple heartbeats. |
| 68 | * ChekhovsSkill: Roy learns [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0600.html to time his strikes so a caster's spellcasting fizzles.]] It comes in handy later, albeit the first time is just an illusion. |
| 69 | * ChronicHeroSyndrome: Julia accuses him of having this, but in truth it's averted as Roy is too pragmatic for that. |
| 70 | * CombatPragmatist: He's willing to resort to underhanded tactics if his opponent is powerful enough that he can't win a straight fight. During his arena duel with Thog, he uses discarded crossbow bolts and a [[GrievousBottleyHarm potion bottle]] as improvised weapons, [[AHandfulForAnEye chucks a handful of sand into Thog's face to blind him]], and finally wins by goading Thog into collapsing part of the ceiling on himself. |
| 71 | * CoolBigBro: Elan regards him as this. On more than one occasion he's had an ImagineSpot about Roy falling into the "cool older brother" archetype. |
| 72 | -->'''Elan:''' What would Roy say if he were here?\ |
| 73 | '''Imagine Spot Roy:''' OK, gang. we need to get to Azure City fast, but we don't have anyone to cast Teleport and traveling by boat or horse will take weeks. What we need is an alternate mode of transport. Also, you're my best friend in the whole world, Elan, and I'm happy to serve as your surrogate big brother, considering how your own father wasn't there for you growing up. Wanna go bowling? |
| 74 | * CoolSword: His grandfather's AncestralWeapon is a greatsword. Now it has been reforged with [[ThunderboltIron Starmetal alloy]] which causes it to [[PowerGlows glow]] with green anti-undead energy. [[spoiler:Further in the story, it becomes a Weapon of Legacy, and he discovers that should he lose it, he can summon it to teleport back to him.]] |
| 75 | * {{Counterspell}}: Fighter style. The technique he learned from his late grandfather is designed to interrupt spellcasting, thus giving him an edge versus spellcasters in a world where LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards is in effect. It is later revealed that it's a SecretArt called the Spellsplinter Maneuver, and there's no Fighter alive who knows it anymore. |
| 76 | * CripplingOverspecialization: Despite being a JackOfAllStats statistically, Roy's actual build is laser-focused onto a single strategy: that being, hitting things with a greatsword until they die. As a single-classed fighter, he relies mainly on his good mental stats and overall cleverness whenever handling leadership duties, since he doesn't have a lot of skill points to work with or any notable abilities outside of his combat feats. Additionally, as a fighter, being so focused on greatsword combat means that whenever he has to trade down to another melee weapon (most notably the club he uses during ''No Cure for the Paladin Blues''), he takes a very noticeable hit in effectiveness, and his skill at other fighting styles like mounted combat or archery is only passable at best. He doesn't even bother to carry a backup weapon. A few characters have pointed out that his focus on being a fighter has left him with a lot of gaps in his skillset--including, in ''Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales'', ''himself'', with 4e Roy pointing out that he would probably have been better off as a warblade (Roy responds by griping that Eugene would never have paid for a [=PhD=] program). |
| 77 | * DeadpanSnarker: Roy's coping mechanism for the insanity he endures is a near-constant output of sarcasm. He eventually grows somewhat out of it, [[spoiler:when it comes to his father,]] at least. His LawfulGood deva does advise he cut down on the snarking at one point. [[invoked]] |
| 78 | * DeadPersonConversation: Thanks to the spiritual link granted by the Greenhilt sword, he can talk with his father's spirit. When the sword is broken, Roy's just TalkingToTheDead. He doesn't realize it, he just thinks his dad can't be bothered to appear to him. |
| 79 | * DeathIsCheap: [[spoiler:Subverted; it takes a long time to resurrect Roy due to Durkon being separated from Roy's corpse. It was also quite expensive on a monetary level, since resurrection requires diamonds]]. |
| 80 | * DecapitatedArmy: Belkar notes that while Roy was dead, the party completely self-destructed, and the only reason it holds together is because of Roy's leadership and ability to keep a RagtagBunchOfMisfits focused. |
| 81 | * DespairEventHorizon: Very nearly [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0881.html crosses it]] [[spoiler:when Durkon gets vamped]]. ''[[TokenEvilTeammate Belkar]]'' of all people pulls him back. He's still in HeroicBSOD mode, though [[spoiler:until Durkon (seemingly) regains his free will]]. |
| 82 | * DramaPreservingHandicap: Not to the extent as Vaarsuvius, but when the team could really use a) leadership and/or b) a hardy [[DamagerHealerTank tank]], Roy is either dead or incapacitated. |
| 83 | * EmpoweredBadassNormal: |
| 84 | ** His Belt of Giant Strength increases his already great strength to superhuman levels. |
| 85 | ** His Starmetal sword also gives him a serious boost, [[spoiler:especially during the fight against the High Priest of Hel, where it manifests as an impressive BattleAura.]] He acquires magical powers in the form of the Weapon of Legacy feat. |
| 86 | * EtTuBrute: [[spoiler:When the High Priest of Hel reveals his true colors, Roy, mistaking it for an EvilAllAlong Durkon, is left in utter shock.]] |
| 87 | * EurekaMoment: When fighting [[spoiler:Vampire Durkon at the Godsmoot, Roy is still convinced that Durkon is still himself until the vampire tries to bring up one of Roy's worst memories to bring him down further. Roy realizes that his best friend could never be that cruel, and that this isn't really Durkon.]] |
| 88 | -->'''Roy:''' [[spoiler:Ah. I understand. ''[snaps out of Domination]'' '''YOU'RE NOT DURKON AT ALL!!!''']] |
| 89 | * EveryoneHasStandards: He doesn't like Gannji or Enor, but he's clearly uncomfortable when the two are forced to fight each other, commenting on how it's like "watching someone duel their own puppy". |
| 90 | * ExpertInUnderwaterBasketWeaving: When the Order first gets horses, he's forced to admit that he studied goat herding instead of horseback riding because "it seemed like an easy A". He also gets ribbed for having studied Architecture and Engineering ''in Fighter College'', though he's eventually able to [[ChekhovsSkill apply that knowledge]] to win a fight. |
| 91 | * EyeColorChange: [[spoiler:His eyes turn green when activating his cool Weapon of Legacy powers.]] |
| 92 | * FatalFlaw: |
| 93 | ** Not paying enough attention to what's going on around him (because of a crappy [[FailedASpotCheck Spot Check]] and lack of Sense Motive), and [[KnowNothingKnowItAll thinking he knows more about a situation than he actually does]]. As illustrated in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0362.html "Grand Theft Identity"]]. [[spoiler:Even worse, crossing into PoorCommunicationKills, with the Vampire Durkon situation. He refuses to listen when Belkar tries to bluntly tell him, "That isn't Durkon. It's something ''possessing'' Durkon," though Vampire Durkon's quick use of his powers whenever anyone ''too'' reliable tries to share the information is at least partially to blame.]] |
| 94 | ** Overdependence on his primary weapon. He doesn't have a backup weapon and he doesn't carry any sort of ranged weapons until his sword gained the returning property, which bit him in the ass in his original fight with the High Priest of Hel. He even sold off a magical sword he could have used while searching for the starmetal, forcing him to use a nonmagical club instead. |
| 95 | * AFatherToHisMen: Albeit after some CharacterDevelopment, he takes care of his subordinates in the Order. Before that, he was the only one who refused to rescue Elan from the bandits. |
| 96 | * FirstLawOfGenderBending: Roy subverts this along with the SecondLawOfGenderBending and the ThirdLawOfGenderBending. He isn't stuck as a woman because he's traveling with a cleric who can break the curse; he [[DiscussedTrope observes]] that having different hormones is distracting but doesn't act stereotypically feminine while wearing the belt; and he doesn't prefer it to his original gender, despite Durkon checking whether he really wants to change back. |
| 97 | * FiveStagesOfGrief: Roy experiences these following [[spoiler:Durkon's vampirization.]] He goes through Denial, Anger and Bargaining all in the same page, spends the following one on Depression, and then gets to Acceptance after [[spoiler:seeing Durkon again in Girard's epic illusion.]] Unfortunately, [[spoiler:the High Priests's Durkon-act]] shifts him back into Denial for some time. |
| 98 | * FriendToPsychos: |
| 99 | ** Roy is kind of like this to Belkar, even putting in a good word to get the psychopathic halfling out of prison. Although in his case, it's more from realizing that the HeroicComedicSociopath is better off in his charge, where he can keep him "pointed at the bad guys", rather than placing his bets on the idea that any prison can hold Belkar. However, while Roy's chief strategy is to "run out the clock" that leads to Belkar's UncertainDoom, he still [[FathertoHisMen pulls him out of any dangerous situation they come across.]] |
| 100 | ** Unfortunately, his association with Belkar makes him a little too trusting of [[spoiler:a vampire Durkon, thinking it's just "Durkon now evil and needs blood, but still loyal to the Order."]] |
| 101 | * GenderBender: While wearing the Belt of Masculinity/Femininity, he is female. |
| 102 | * GeniusBruiser: One wonders how many points this excellent fighter allocated into INT[[note]]Roy's grandfather was a single-classed fighter, while his father and sister are magic-users, so it probably is InTheBlood[[/note]], and how many people who must have given him crap for it at the time are singing a different tune now. |
| 103 | -->'''Roy:''' [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0808.html THAT'S how I use my Intelligence score in combat, DUMBASS!!!]] |
| 104 | * GenreBlind: Usually quite savvy, but he is [[spoiler:so guilt-ridden over Durkon's death and desperate to believe Durkon is OK, that he is easily completely manipulated by the High Priest of Hel.]] |
| 105 | * GoodIsNotNice:[[invoked]] Make no doubt that he's a heroic character, but he has little tact and initially has a low opinion of his teammates. [[spoiler:[[DeconstructedTrope It is deconstructed a bit]] when he dies and meets his Celestial adviser. He becomes worried when his permanent record is brought up. Him abandoning Elan was the big thing brought up and Roy clearly feels remorse for it all. His adviser claims that had Roy not gone back to save him, Roy would've been chucked into the "True Neutral" afterlife as a result of it. Meanwhile, Roy was edging nearer NeutralGood than LawfulGood because of his various pragmatic actions, especially including [[ChaoticEvil Belkar]] on the team. However, the fact he tries to be both Lawful and Good is what keeps him there in the first place. She does advise Roy on the snark and Roy later learns to be more appreciative of his friends and listening to them.]] |
| 106 | * GuileHero: As the Deva points out, Roy often employs Chaotic means to gain Lawful goals, which brings him dangerously close to Neutral Good territory (but he's trying to remain Lawful Good, which counts more.) |
| 107 | -->'''Roy:''' ''[[[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0022.html after motivating Belkar]]]'' I work with the tools I'm given. Sue me. |
| 108 | * HatesTheirParent: Roy has no love lost with his father, Eugene. Eugene never respected Roy due to his dream of becoming a Fighter (Eugene was a proud wizard who looked down on non-magic-users), and Roy resented his father for being a neglectful parent whose over-focus on work led to the accidental death of Roy's younger brother. A good deal of Roy's character arc is driven by his desire to one-up his father and the mutual dislike between the two. |
| 109 | * HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: He has never been seen with an helmet, despite otherwise wearing a lot of armor. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Julia, who sardonically asks if he was absent from fighter school the day they were teaching about them. |
| 110 | * TheHero: CharacterDevelopment has Roy come into this (or rather re-realize since it's why he became a Fighter in the first place). He ultimately wants to take Xykon down because he ''[[ForGreatJustice needs]]'' to be taken down, not to fulfill a blood oath or prove himself to his dad. He lampshades how his selfishness had blinded him to why he became a Fighter in the first place when the others had gone to rescue Elan. |
| 111 | * HeroesPreferSwords: Roy is TheHero and the only one in the group to regularly use a greatsword. Although Haley does have an enormous dagger/shortsword/thing and Elan wields a rapier, those are back-up weapons and have their own associations. |
| 112 | * HeroicBSOD: Has one (bordering on the DespairEventHorizon) when [[spoiler:Durkon is killed, vamped, and enthralled by Malack]]. Surprisingly, it's Belkar of all people who [[QuitYourWhining snaps him out of it]], but Roy is still clearly shaken. |
| 113 | * HeroicWillpower: He's the only one who has made a successful will save against [[spoiler:Vampire Durkon's]] mind control. He manages it even though it's a ''dominate'' effect and the command is phrased to make it seem reasonable to prevent giving a bonus on saves. That he is a JackOfAllStats came to his aid again, [[spoiler:along with the fact that the entire world is at stake means he had a pretty major circumstance bonus]]. |
| 114 | * HeterosexualLifePartners: When he and Durkon met, the two didn't get along right away. But after Roy proved himself to be more upstanding than their adventuring partners, the two became friends, and probably have the closest friendship out of the whole Order. [[spoiler:When Durkon is killed while exploring Girard's pyramid, Roy very nearly crosses the DespairEventHorizon, and it takes ''Belkar'' (of all people) to convince him to keep going.]] |
| 115 | * HonorBeforeReason: During his fight with Xykon over Azure City. Xykon notes that as strong as Roy's gotten, the lich himself is still a league or two above him, and Roy doesn't currently stand much of a chance in one-on-one combat, and as a corollary to this, offers to let Roy go and essentially grind XP for a while. Naturally, Roy objects. It is subverted as Roy explains the perfectly reasonable motivations behind not letting the homicidal lich control the world and that as far as Roy knows he is still the one with the best chance of stopping Xykon from destroying Azure City. |
| 116 | -->'''Roy:''' Are you joking? Or are you that stupid? |
| 117 | * {{Hypocrite}}: |
| 118 | ** He very much enjoyed lecturing Miko about her flaws, namely being rude to the members of the Order, constantly policing them, jumping to conclusions and suffering a major case of[[invoked]] ConfirmationBias. All of these are valid pieces of criticism... but can be easily applied to Roy himself. He was impolite and dismissive to his teammates on multiple occasions, as well as kept them -- successfully or not -- from committing evil deeds. And he sure has a [[FatalFlaw nasty habit]] of overestimating his knowledge about a situation. Notably though, he has been shown to be both able and willing to [[CharacterDevelopment overcome these flaws]] over time, while Miko... didn't. |
| 119 | ** For as much as he chastises Belkar for slaying goblins just because they're "evil", [[spoiler:he never really stopped to ask why they're helping Xykon conquer the world either, something Durkon throws back in his face over a ''thousand'' strips after the fact.]] |
| 120 | * IAmNotMyFather: He became a fighter for the sole purpose of proving he was different from his wizard father. |
| 121 | * ICallHimMisterHappy: Roy calls it his "Trouser Titan" in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0234.html "The Ultimate Sacrifice"]], while protesting Elan's idea to disguise him as a woman. |
| 122 | -->'''Roy:''' There's no way I'm [[GenderBender saying goodbye to the Trouser Titan]] just so I can fool some lame-ass assassins.\ |
| 123 | '''Elan:''' [[{{Beat}} ...]] You call it the "Trouser Titan?"\ |
| 124 | '''Roy:''' NOT THE POINT! |
| 125 | * IdiotBall: Despite being established as very intelligent, he grabs the ball pretty hard after his ancestral greatsword is shattered. He refuses the magical sword Elan offers him as a replacement because he plans to have his old sword reforged. He ends up using a nonmagical club in the interim instead, when the sword would have made use of his prodigious swordfighting feats. This was probably a storytelling choice to make his later defeat by Miko more believable. Belkar of all people lampshade how irresponsible it is of him to not have any backup weapons. |
| 126 | * IMinoredInTropology: He took goat herding instead of horse-riding because, by his own admission, it was an easy A. He also has cross-class knowledge of engineering and architecture, which comes in handy several times. He also mentioned a "mandatory two semesters in Archery." |
| 127 | * TheInsomniac: In the early days of the Order of the Stick's adventures, Roy would pull several all-nighters as guard watch as a result of his mistrust of other members of the Order (with Vaarsuvius and Durkon needing the night to replenish their spells, that left Haley, Belkar and Elan; he believed that Haley would run off with everyone's gold, that Belkar would kill everyone as they slept and that Elan's sheer incompetence would allow enemy ambushes to kill everyone). By the time of the Order's adventures in the Dwarven Lands, everyone has undergone significant CharacterDevelopment and have become FireForgedFriends, and he's alright with leaving them to do what needs to be done while he goes sleep off the effects of drunkenness. |
| 128 | -->'''Haley:''' Yeah, remember when he used to never even sleep?\ |
| 129 | '''Belkar:''' That was because of ''us?'' I just thought he had an undiagnosed medical condition. |
| 130 | * InspirationalInsult: Roy nearly breaks down and gives up on the whole quest after hearing that [[spoiler:Durkon has been turned into a vampire]]. Belkar proceeds to [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech really lay into him verbally]], which enrages Roy enough to steel his resolve. Belkar's comments afterward imply that, rather than insulting Roy for the hell of it, Belkar was deliberately invoking this trope to [[RousingSpeech inspire him to keep soldiering on]]. |
| 131 | -->'''Belkar:''' Of course, it would mean that [[spoiler:your best friend got horribly killed]] for absolutely no damn reason at all. Me, I'm a heartless little bastard. I can shrug that kind of thing off. But you seem like maybe that might bother you at some point down the road.\ |
| 132 | '''Roy:''' You-- You of all people-- You have no right to--! ''[{{beat}}]'' Fine. We keep going. |
| 133 | * InterspeciesRomance: With Celia, a sylph. |
| 134 | * InUniverseCatharsis: After suppressing the urge to beat [[TheDitz Elan]] for a long, long time, he's absolutely ''gleeful'' to have to fight [[EvilTwin Nale]]. |
| 135 | * {{Irony}}: His dad gives him a lot of crap for being a fighter instead of a wizard. [[spoiler:Come Strip #1025, it is revealed his dedication to the family sword has turned it into a legacy weapon, which allows him to be a MagicKnight.]] |
| 136 | * JackOfAllStats: Mentally speaking, he counts this trope in regards to the rest of the Order because he still has a fighter's general build. V outshines him in Intelligence, Durkon outshines him in Wisdom, Haley outshines him in streetsmarts, and even Elan has him beat in Charisma. However, his collective Int and Wis are repeatedly shown to be the best in the group and after some character development he learns to see through plenty of guile. He's outright stated to have the stats required to pursue a career as either a Wizard or Cleric, and when the mindflayer sees everyone's heads as various kinds of foods, Roy's incredibly well-rounded mental stats look like a full course roast turkey dinner, to the point that it passes up Vaarsuvius's wizard brain to try to snack on Roy's first. Really, it's not clear whether Roy even ''has'' a DumpStat; it could be he has an average Charisma, since the Deva does not suggest Roy (who is Lawful Good) be a Paladin. He's demonstrably above-average or better in everything according to the rules lawyers in the forum's Class and Level Geekery thread. [[JustifiedTrope This is perfectly possible in D&D if you simply roll reasonably high for all your starting stats.]] From an InUniverse standpoint, it has to be noted [[LamarckWasRight Roy has a fighter grandfather, and a father and sister who are wizards]]. |
| 137 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He has moments where he's more of a {{Jerkass}}, but the heart of gold is there. He's lawful good, after all. |
| 138 | * JokeItem: The Bag of Tricks. It's a bag that fires small animals. |
| 139 | * KnightInSourArmor: He does genuinely try to be LawfulGood even if he fails. His bitter remarks toward his teammates and trash talk during battles are his way to cope with the hardships and by his own admission the hope that one of his zingers will force his dad to change. |
| 140 | * KnowWhenToFoldEm: [[http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?6495-Order-of-the-Stick-November-II/page17&p=291639#post291639 If Rich's description of the fight with Miko is anything to go by,]] Roy is willing to throw the towel when he deems the risk higher than the reward, as he surrenders to the paladin instead of trying to strike her down. He also attempts to surrender to Thog in the gladiatorial arena, and is [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown beaten senseless with a slab of masonry for his trouble.]] [[spoiler:It is {{averted}} during his suicidal attack on Xykon, when he refuses to back down, even when it becomes clear that he cannot win]] |
| 141 | * TheLeader: Starts out as just the guy paying the team to go on the quest, but he evolves over time. When he's not around, the team falls apart, although, that was also partly due to the party being split by physical proximity beforehand. |
| 142 | * LeeroyJenkins: His reckless charges usually turn out fairly well. [[spoiler:His ill-fated attack on Xykon isn't an example -- he knows he's outmatched and is as prepared as he reasonably can be]]. |
| 143 | * LethalJokeItem: |
| 144 | ** Roy eventually figures out how to use the Bag of Tricks in combat by using the animals as a distraction, and he eventually finds out that there is a ''rhino'' in there. Unfortunately, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard the rhino kinda backfired on him]]. |
| 145 | --->'''Roy:''' You know, this bag of tricks isn't so bad once you get the hang of it. |
| 146 | ** It comes in useful again with critters [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1116.html riding summoned giraffes]], to the utter astonishment of the High Priest of Hel; they set off the traps laid for the Order. |
| 147 | * LiteralTransformativeExperience: Roy is forced to spend some time as a woman thanks to the Belt of Femininity/Masculinity, and being flirted with while he's a woman makes him realize how unwanted and demeaning his own attempts to flirt with Miko have been. |
| 148 | * MadeOfIron: Roy has a lot of hit points but not SuperToughness. He doesn't have as many as O-Chul or Thog, but still enough to give this impression. |
| 149 | * ManIFeelLikeAWoman: Averted when Roy dons the Belt of Gender Shifting. He doesn't act any differently. |
| 150 | * MeaningfulName: His family got its name from the ancestral sword, which does have a green hilt. And a looser case can also be seen with his first name of "Roy" -- Not only is he TheLeader and ReasonableAuthorityFigure among his own guild, but he was (as noted below) once mistaken for the king of a faraway land. |
| 151 | * MistakenForSpecialGuest: Roy is [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0226.html mistaken]] for the King of Nowhere when staying at an inn. |
| 152 | * MockingTheMourner: Roy gets into a fight with a vampire who was raised from the corpse of one of Roy's former comrades. The vampire looks through its host's memories of Roy in order to find something to demoralize him with, and [[KickTheDog starts mocking him over the accident that killed his younger brother Eric]]. [[spoiler:Fortunately, this is sufficiently out-of-character that Roy realizes the vampire isn't Durkon and gets a HeroicSecondWind.]] |
| 153 | * MoralityChain: To Belkar, in a fashion; [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0748.html if Roy weren't capable of knocking him out in one shot]], Belkar would be far more difficult to control. |
| 154 | * MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:For a long time, Roy blamed himself for the death of his infant brother when one of his fathers magical experiments backfired. While intellectually, he knows it wasn't, since Roy himself was just 10 at the time, he's never fully emotionally accepted it. Meeting his brother again in the afterlife alleviated it a bit.]] |
| 155 | * NayTheist: |
| 156 | ** As demonstrated by this dialogue: |
| 157 | --->'''[[CelestialBureaucracy Bureaucratic Deva]]:''' Let me ask you something: Why did you never consider becoming a cleric yourself? You have halfway decent Wisdom and Charisma scores, you could have pulled it off.\ |
| 158 | '''Roy:''' Well, this is awkward to say, given [[FluffyCloudHeaven where I am]], but I've never been that religious.\ |
| 159 | I mean, I guess my mom raised me to worship the [[Myth/NorseMythology Northern]] [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Gods]], but I always figured as long as I don't actively offend any of them, they'd leave me alone. |
| 160 | ** As he finds out at the Godsmoot, however, such a dismissive attitude toward religion in general might not be a good idea in a world whose fate literally hangs on the whims of the gods. |
| 161 | ** We later [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1195.html learn]] that this was instilled into him by Eugene, who saw gods as "fancy alien wizards" that "crowdsource their magic." He sees it as one of the few good things his father taught him. |
| 162 | --->'''Roy:''' I think that's probably one of the only good things he ever instilled in me, honestly. That the gods don't deserve any deference solely because they're powerful. If they can judge us based on our actions, we should be treating them according to their own. |
| 163 | ** This unfortunately gives him a poor understanding of true devotion, leading him to get blindsided when Durkon and Minrah ignore his order to not engage in negotiations with Redcloak. As the leader of the party (and Durkon's friend), Roy certainly expected to be obeyed, not realizing that a direct mission from their god would counter any mortal's authority. |
| 164 | ** When Belkar convinces [[spoiler:Serini]] to aid the Order, he does it by telling her that the gods will absolutely burn down the world to keep their own positions. Nobody -- even the paladin Lien -- can refute that, and afterward, Roy's opinion of the gods sinks even lower. |
| 165 | * NeckLift: Favors this [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0101.html intimidation]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0356.html method]] for interrogating {{Mooks}}. |
| 166 | * NoNonsenseNemesis: When he realizes [[spoiler:Durkon]] is an enemy, he foregoes his usual wordiness and goes straight for the throat [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1001.html with a great sword.]] |
| 167 | * NonStandardCharacterDesign: Very downplayed. Roy's eyes are placed differently than other characters. For example, while a regular character faces right, the longer eye is shown to the left of the shorter eye, and vice-versa. When Roy faces left, the shorter eye is to the left of the longer eye, and vice-versa. This was initially due to Burlew accidentally reversing the eyes on Roy's template in Adobe Illustrator, and because it became one of Roy's identifying features, he kept it that way for later art upgrades. |
| 168 | * NotNowKiddo: Tying into his FatalFlaw, Roy brushes off the deva in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0664.html "Down to Earth"]] who's trying to tell him about Vaarsuvius's DealWithTheDevil. He doesn't pay enough attention to what is around him. |
| 169 | * OffendedByAnEnemysIndifference: Roy has become enraged by Xykon's continued attitude of [[ButForMeItWasTuesday casual indifference if not ignorance]] about Xykon's evil deeds towards Roy and the people in his life. |
| 170 | * OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Wearing a Belt of Gender Changing to rescue Elan. |
| 171 | -->'''Roy:''' ''[whispering]'' Please do not mention that incident within earshot of my father. I'm begging you here. |
| 172 | * OnlySaneEmployee: Most of his job is to manage the insanity of his party. |
| 173 | * OnlySaneMan: {{Reconstruct|ion}}ed. The party initially begins as a bunch of borderline non-functioning psychos, with only Roy and Durkon standing out as being decent at their jobs within the Order. Vaarsuvius is too full of themself to be effective in diplomacy, Elan is an idiot, Haley's plans for fame and fortune put the party at risk, and Belkar is so Chaotic Evil that he's almost TheLoad. It initially seems like Roy will have no control over them and will have to clean up their messes. However, Roy's support for his friends and his willingness to put his boot down ultimately begins to bring out their better traits, and when Haley's own attempts to lead in his absence fall apart, she's forced to admit that Roy really is the best leader for their party. He's essentially a demonstration as to why we need to have an OnlySaneMan in the first place, as without him, the Order would fall to pieces. [[spoiler:It is PlayedForDrama at the Godsmoot, where he's the only who realizes that the assembled clerics could [[CuttingTheKnot just destroy the (former) High Priest of Hel]] instead of randomly smiting the nearest vampires.]] |
| 174 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: |
| 175 | ** During ''Blood Runs in the Family,'' [[spoiler:he ''nearly kills Belkar'' when the halfling reveals that Durkon has been vampirized, completely ignoring Belkar's use on the team as he's so furious at what seems to be TheMillstone of his guild yet again putting everyone in danger. It's only when Haley points out to him that [[EvilCannotComprehendGood Belkar likely wouldn't be able to properly conceive of]] Durkon's HeroicSacrifice that he accepts the truth and nearly shuts down as a result]]. |
| 176 | ** A minor example: His heartfelt goodbye to Wrecan can come off as this to readers who are unaware that Wrecan is a tribute to a deceased member of the online [=OotS=] community. When they part, Wrecan is in no particular danger [[spoiler:(at least, no more than any other creature on the planet)]], and a RunningGag has Roy immediately lose interest in interacting with minor characters who have served their narrative purpose. |
| 177 | * PhraseCatcher: |
| 178 | ** Subtle, but he has gotten "Stop talking!" from [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0408.html more than]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0796.html one]] pissed-off opponent, due to his incessant [[YouFightLikeACow combat banter]]. |
| 179 | ** "You call it the Trouser Titan?" |
| 180 | * PlatonicLifePartners: He has this dynamic with Haley once he starts to see past the differences in their alignment. They confide in each other about party issues as well as personal, and their jabs about their differences are playful instead of hostile. |
| 181 | * PoliticallyIncorrectHero: When he first meets Miko, he tries to make crude passes at her to get into her pants, and treats her more like a sex object than an equal. However, his temporary escapade as a woman causes him to drop this attitude towards her, and he apologizes for treating her as such. |
| 182 | * RageBreakingPoint: After failing to take advantage of an opportunity to ambush Xykon and Redcloak in [[spoiler:Kraagor's Tomb]], he [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness atypically]] gets into a ClusterFBomb rant. |
| 183 | * ReforgedBlade: The Greenhilt Greatsword has been reforged with [[ThunderboltIron Starmetal alloy]] which causes it to [[PowerGlows glow]] with green anti-undead energy. Apparently, it also works against the Damage Reduction of Evil Outsiders. |
| 184 | * RefusingParadise: [[spoiler:Roy enjoys a peaceful afterlife with his family in Celestia. However, upon realizing that his allies have failed to resurrect him on schedule, he rushes off to search for answers]]. |
| 185 | * ResurrectionSickness: [[spoiler:Roy lost a level from being resurrected. He also {{faceplant}}s right afterward on his first attempt to walk.]] |
| 186 | -->'''Roy:''' [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0665.html Oh, right. I have to actually move my legs when I'm on this plane.]]\ |
| 187 | '''Celia:''' Don't worry, honey, I make that mistake ''all'' the time. |
| 188 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: |
| 189 | ** When Xykon [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0112.html breaks his ancestral sword]], Roy [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0113.html loses it]] and [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0114.html attacks the lich barehanded]], throwing him unceremoniously into the Gate protected by the best spells of [[TheArchmage Archmage]] Dorukan. |
| 190 | ** Delivers an even more brutal one when [[spoiler:he realizes the High Priest of Hel is not Durkon and he has been manipulated during the whole fight.]] |
| 191 | * RulesLawyer: [[invoked]] Being LawfulGood, his first reflex is to try to work within any system he finds himself in. He's gotten fairly good at abusing technicalities for the greater good. In the appropriately named strip [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1022.html "Terms and Conditions Apply"]]: |
| 192 | -->'''High Priestess of Hel:''' That staff is the property of the Church of Hel, and the official regalia of the high priest. I hereby issue a formal request that it be turned over at once, in accordance with protocol.\ |
| 193 | '''Roy:''' [-Oh, of course, gotta follow protocol.-] ''['''SNAP!''']'' The Order of the Stick is not responsible for any damage that may occur during the delivery of unholy relics. |
| 194 | * RummageFail: His Bag of Tricks, much to his irritation, never seems to produce anything helpful when he needs it -- when he uses it in combat or while falling, it creates small, useless animals... except for the time where it creates a more useful rhino, which then lands on him. |
| 195 | * RunningGag: |
| 196 | ** He makes a reference to the [[ICallHimMisterHappy Trouser Titan]], and someone else says, "You call it the...?" |
| 197 | ** Him having to exasperatedly scream "NOT THE POINT!" whenever someone gets SidetrackedByTheAnalogy. |
| 198 | ** Various characters (such as his father, sister, and Belkar) all like to roast Roy over having gone to Fighter College. |
| 199 | --->'''Minrah:''' ''[to Belkar]'' Thanks for coming and asking me about spells and stuff. I don't think Roy really knows what to do with me yet.\ |
| 200 | '''Belkar:''' ''[dismissively]'' Yeah, but Roy needed to go to college to figure out what to do with a sword. |
| 201 | * ScarfOfAsskicking: Puts one on when the Order moves up to the Northern lands, because it is cold up there and he is incidentally in a higher character tier than when he was in the Southern Lands. |
| 202 | * SecretArt: The technique his grandfather taught him in the afterlife is a rare fighting style. Apparently the Spellsplinter Maneuver, as it is called, is a technique that no living fighters know anymore. |
| 203 | * SelectiveObliviousness: Despite being generally perceptive and good with people, it takes him way more time than it should to realize that [[spoiler:Vampire Durkon is evil when he shows up saying he now serves Hel]], because he does not want to believe his friend is truly dead. Especially not since he blamed himself in an earlier chapter. [[spoiler:In the end, though, faced with irrefutable evidence, he ''does'' realize the truth and act to correct it, even when the High Priest of Hel tries using a ''dominate'' effect to play on it.]] |
| 204 | * SenselessSacrifice: Discussed during the Godsmoot. He has no problem dying in order to stop evil, but only if it is a real victory and not just a setback. Even earlier he said that while not afraid of being permanently destroyed by the Snarl, he won't risk it as long as Xykon is still around. |
| 205 | -->'''Roy:''' Recent lesson, connected to that "dying" thing. Noble sacrifices only make sense when they solve the problem at hand. |
| 206 | * SticksToTheBack: His sword, though he's now got some leather straps on his back he sticks it through. |
| 207 | * StraightMan: He is mocked by Belkar for being the guy who reacts to jokes instead of making them in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0411.html "The Power Behind the Throne"]]. |
| 208 | * SummonToHand: [[spoiler:He can will his sword to teleport back to his hand after it becomes a Weapon of Legacy. Even at a good distance, as seen the first time, where the weapon was lost in the mountains.]] |
| 209 | * SuperMode: In Strips 1009-1010, when Roy becomes sufficiently pissed at [[spoiler:the vampire possessing Durkon's body]], his sword emanates a green fire which glows around him, healing his wounds and giving him even more power. |
| 210 | * SuperStrength: Roy already has an 18 Strength, but with the Belt of Giant Strength, it becomes superhuman. |
| 211 | ** In [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0730.html #730]], he grabs Enor by the tail and swings him overhead to slam against a table, breaking it. Enor is a big half-ogre half-dragon who must weigh at least ten times as much as Roy. |
| 212 | ** In #951, Roy takes over holding a rope that two of the ''Mechane'''s crewmembers had just been straining to keep under control. He grips it nonchalantly with one hand, and it doesn't move an inch. |
| 213 | ** A later strip shows he can fight Frost Giants evenly while wearing it, and throw one for a loop by ''punching'' her. |
| 214 | * TeethClenchedTeamwork: He frequently falls into this with Belkar, as the latter is the Order's incredibly selfish and near-sociopathic TokenEvilTeammate, to the point where Roy is able to use himself being essentially Belkar's mobile warden as a way to get out of being blamed for all of Belkar's crimes performed while he is the halfling's commanding officer in the guild. The below exchange from [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0951.html #951]] when Roy is securing a loose rope on ''The Mechane'' and Belkar mocks him about it serves as a good example of Roy and Belkar's typical interactions: |
| 215 | -->'''Belkar:''' I think this whole "fighter" thing has really gotten in the way of you discovering your true destiny as a wharf.\ |
| 216 | '''Roy:''' I'm going to dance on your grave, you know.\ |
| 217 | '''Belkar:''' ''[imitating Roy]'' "Xykon, you let my father's skiff drift out with the tide! '''I will avenge it!'''"\ |
| 218 | '''Roy:''' Maybe a nice jig? I might take lessons first. |
| 219 | %%* TeenyWeenie: Implied in the prequel books. |
| 220 | %%-->'''Girl:''' Hey Greenhilt, nice dagger! |
| 221 | * ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: Roy [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1122.html has started throwing his sword as a favored tactic]] ever since [[spoiler:he discovered the weapon can be [[SummonToHand summoned to hand]].]] |
| 222 | * ThunderboltIron: His reforged sword is an [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0297.html alloy]] of Starmetal, which makes it more effective against undead. |
| 223 | * ToBeLawfulOrGood:[[invoked]] Virtually always chooses Good over Lawful when pressed, but doesn't fall into NeutralGood by virtue of trying to be both whenever possible. In ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickOnTheOriginOfPCs On the Origin of PCs]]'', Roy outright refused to slay the orc camp once he learned they were just there for concert tickets, even though they're officially listed as ChaoticEvil. |
| 224 | -->'''Bureaucratic Deva:''' Tricking your friends into participating in a quest to fix your sword — much less conspiring to work behind the backs of an order of paladins — are not acts that scream "Lawful". Using Chaotic means to fulfill Lawful obligations strikes me as fairly Neutral... I don't think my superiors would blink if I kicked your case over to the Neutral Good afterlife, but there's one factor preventing me: You're trying. You're trying to be Lawful Good. People forget how crucial it is to keep trying, even if they screw it up now and then. They figure that if they can't manage it perfectly every waking second, then they should just pick some other alignment because it'll be easier. But it's the struggle that matters. It's easy for a being of pure Law and Good to live up to these ideals, but you're a mortal. What matters is that when you blow it, you get back up on the horse and try again. |
| 225 | * TooDumbToLive: Despite being intelligent enough to form cunning plans within limited time and outsmart opponents with greater skill and power, Roy is prone to tremendously underestimating his opponents, especially [[BigBad Xykon]], culminating in [[spoiler:the Battle of Azure City, where he attempts to [[CurbStompBattle fight Xykon, an immortal lich with tremendous magical power, one-on-one]], while he is riding an undead dragon, without having any enchantments or spells to save him from the fall, then ignores the opportunity to leave the battle alive and level up, which Xykon gives him out of sheer boredom. Xykon promptly flies away and destroys his mount, causing Roy to fall to his death, killing him ([[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist temporarily]]).]] |
| 226 | * TookALevelInKindness: Becoming kinder to his teammates and learning to work with their quirks is a major part of his development. In the comic's early days, he had little patience for most other members of the Order and frequently doubted, insulted and generally devalued them, treating some of them as little more than annoyances. By the time the Order reaches Kraagor's gate, he's learned to accept their various eccentricities and treats them all with respect, taking care to involve them in his plans and being empathetic to their struggles. This change is most visible with Elan: Roy went from telling Elan he hates him and abandoning him to be killed by bandits, to asking for Elan's imput on important matters, trying out his silly ideas in earnest and apologising to him for every misstep. [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0891.html Even Elan was shocked by this development!]] |
| 227 | * TrademarkFavoriteFood: His mom's jamabalaya appears to be this, mentioning he has been wanting some every day for the past three years. Though the fact that it's his mother's specialty and likely not being able to have any since her demise is likely a big reason for that. |
| 228 | * TheUnchosenOne: Roy eventually takes up the quest to destroy Xykon not because of his father's BloodOath, but simply because Xykon ''needs'' to be stopped. |
| 229 | * UnknownRival: |
| 230 | ** Xykon cannot remember who he is (and surprisingly enough, this isn't being faked to tick Roy off; it's genuine). Redcloak does a better job, but it's not until [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0901.html Strip #901]] that he actually realizes the Order is directly working against them (and neither of them can remember Roy's original motive). The Monster in the Darkness uses this to save Roy and crew by noting that Roy is just some fighter Xykon offed casually, while O-Chul is a {{Determinator}} samurai paladin who wants revenge. |
| 231 | ** He's so annoyed by not being remembered by Xykon that he's actually a little glad when an evil [[spoiler:''goddess'' knows who he is and that he's a threat to her plans]]. |
| 232 | ** In a fit of irony, he's actually starting to end up on the ''receiving'' end of this trope too. [[TheDragon Redcloak]] solidly recognizes him as, if not his ArchEnemy, at least one of the most recurring and dangerous heroes working against him. ("Greenhilt. Of ''course'' it would be Greenhilt.") By all accounts, ''Roy'' isn't really aware of ''Redcloak'' except as "Xykon's cleric minion". |
| 233 | * UnstoppableRage: Even worse than Thog, who he even overpowered when the half-orc was in berserk mode, since his fighting skills are greater than Thog's and are not lessened by his rage. His beatdowns on Xykon and [[spoiler:the High Priest of Hel]] are the best examples. |
| 234 | * UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:The High Priest of Hel played Roy like a fiddle and led the fighter to believe he himself was still good ol' Durkon with an alignment shift to trick Roy in taking him to the Godsmoot, where he could bring about the destruction of the world to the benefit of his mistress.]] |
| 235 | * VetinariJobSecurity:[[invoked]] Roy may have trouble keeping the group on a single goal, but it's been conclusively established that he's the only person capable of exerting any level of control over any of them. The ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickDontSplitTheParty Don't Split the Party]]'' arc is one long proof of this, but in particular his management of Belkar; without Roy's influence, Belkar's [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0489.html projected]] "evilness" (measured in [[AbstractScale kilonazis]] by the archons in charge of the LawfulGood afterlife) would have skyrocketed. When Roy was temporarily killed by Xykon and Haley took over, she had little to no real control over Belkar. [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0881.html "Temporary Weakness"]] directly acknowledges this. |
| 236 | * WellDoneSonGuy: Starts out as a straightforward example, but over the series he has discarded this motivation in favor of SmallStepsHero. His father's spirit, on the occasions it gets a chance to haunt him, now usually only merits a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. |
| 237 | * WeWereYourTeam: Haley essentially gives Roy this speech after he was resurrected, noting that the party completely fell apart without his leadership. As mentioned above, Belkar does the same, though far harsher, in "Temporary Weakness". |
| 238 | * WhatTheHellHero: |
| 239 | ** After increasingly ignoring his party in favor of trying to get on Miko's good side despite her {{jerkass}}ery, Elan finally [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0231.html confronts]] him in a way that Roy can't simply snark off: He asks him calmly and politely why he's doing that followed by asking if he likes some random rude paladin more than his party. |
| 240 | ** [[spoiler:After dying]], a deva [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0488.html calls him out]] for [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0153.html abandoning Elan]] earlier in the strip and says that if he hadn't realized his error he would have been [[spoiler:tossed into the True Neutral afterlife]]. He's also called out for being Belkar's leader despite his clearly evil tendencies, but on this point he defends himself competently. |
| 241 | ** Subverted when the party is traveling through the desert. A [[Literature/{{Dune}} spice-addled]] Belkar tries calling him out for [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0689.html using him as]] [[MotivationOnAStick Motivation on a]] ''Bugsby's hand'', but then laughs and admits that he's just joking. |
| 242 | * WhatWouldXDo: Roy is a model of levelheaded, intelligent badassery. Elan, Haley and Durkon all say something like "What would Roy do?" while trying to decide the right course of action. |
| 243 | * WontTakeYesForAnAnswer: Roy does this at least twice. |
| 244 | ** During his [[YouAllMeetInAnInn tavern recruitment]] of the party in ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickOnTheOriginOfPCs On the Origin of PCs]]'', after meeting with a refusal from some thirty adventurers, Roy begins to thank Haley for listening and saying that he understands, before realizing she just accepted to join. |
| 245 | ** In [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0284.html "Shattered Expectations"]], when the "Being of Pure Law and Good" renders the judgement of the Order's trial for weakening the fabric of the universe, Roy is so much expecting a guilty verdict that he starts saying "{{it has been an honor}}" to the rest of the party, until the words "not guilty" actually register. |
| 246 | * WorthyOpponent: Tarquin eventually decides that Roy is ''too worthy'' [[spoiler:and holding Elan back from being the hero of what Tarquin considers the real story (about Tarquin and Elan), and so needs to die.]] |
| 247 | * WouldNotShootACivilian: Even civilians enjoying the GladiatorGames are spared his fighter fury. |
| 248 | * WreckedWeapon: In the first book, Xykon breaks Roy's ancestral sword to bits with a ''shatter'' spell, spurring a whole sidequest to have the weapon reforged. |
| 249 | * YouFightLikeACow: Taunting his opponents is one of his defining character traits. [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0490.html The Deva even scolds him on enjoying doing it too much during his afterlife review, but Roy says there would be too much potential humor lost if he stopped]]. |
| 250 | * YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: TropeNamer. Roy says it when [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0171.html receiving compliments]] on dealing with a prisoner from Belkar. |
| 251 | * ZombieAdvocate: When he encounters [[spoiler:a vampirized Durkon]], whom he sees as a ReluctantMonster, he quickly comes to [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0968.html bemoan]] the prejudice faced by [[FriendlyNeighbourhoodVampire well-behaved undead]]. [[spoiler:When he realizes the spirit animating Durkon's body is playing him for a fool, he does an abrupt about-face [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1010.html with a greatsword]].]] |
| 252 | [[/folder]] |
| 253 | |
| 254 | [[folder:Haley Starshine]] |
| 255 | !!Haley Starshine |
| 256 | [[quoteright:190:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/haley_oots_5397.png]] |
| 257 | |
| 258 | ->''"Gods, it's frustrating how Lawful you people are!"'' |
| 259 | |
| 260 | ->'''Race:''' Human\ |
| 261 | '''Gender:''' Female\ |
| 262 | '''Class:''' Rogue\ |
| 263 | '''Alignment:''' ChaoticGood, Chaotic Greedy [-(according to the Adventure Game)-], Chaotic Good-ish [-(according to herself)-] |
| 264 | |
| 265 | A cute rogue with a motivation for her theft (if she can't come up with enough money, her father faces imprisonment for life). She is incredibly neurotic with a very fragmented personality. She's also in a relationship with Elan. By her own admission, "ChaoticGood-ish". She's the second-in-command of the Order of the Stick. |
| 266 | ---- |
| 267 | * ActionGirl: A rogue, to be more specific. She at one point [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0153.html gathers]] the adventuring party to save Elan once he gets kidnapped... and likely would have succeeded were it not for [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0157.html Belkar]]. |
| 268 | * AmbidextrousSprite: The position of her loose hair depends on which direction she is facing. |
| 269 | * ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: PlayedForLaughs in ''Dungeon Crawlin' Fools''; after it's revealed that [[PsychopathicManchild Thog's]] AchillesHeel is that he's afraid of pretty girls (since GirlsHaveCooties), Elan is able to scare Thog into surrendering through [[MasterOfIllusion casting an illusion of a pretty half-orc woman]]. Haley is offended that ''she'' apparently doesn't count as a "pretty girl" by Thog's standards. |
| 270 | -->'''Haley:''' What, so what am I, chopped liver? |
| 271 | * BackStab: Her obvious choice for dealing damage is a sneak attack, because she's a rogue. |
| 272 | * BadassNormal: No magic but her bags of holding and a couple magic weapons, yet she can still bring down outsiders and monsters. |
| 273 | * BagOfHolding: Haley thinks one can never have enough extradimensional storage space, and carries a collection of them. |
| 274 | * BareMidriffsAreFeminine: She's the only obviously female member of the Order, and though the art style makes it hard to tell at times, her top looks a lot like a leather sports bra. She averts it starting with her resistance leader outfit, and later with her "leather armor" in ''Blood Runs in the Family''. She later lampshades that it was a poor idea: |
| 275 | -->'''Haley:''' Like dungeon delving with a bare midriff, all I can say is that it seemed like a good idea at the time. |
| 276 | * BeyondTheImpossible: PlayedForLaughs in [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0649.html Strip #649]], where Haley is shown to be such an amazing ImpossibleThief that she can steal a diamond ''from herself'' [[PaintingTheMedium via the comic's own cast page]]. |
| 277 | * BowsAndErrors: She's typically depicted as keeping her bow strung at all times, even when it's kept slung across her back when not in use. |
| 278 | * BuffySpeak: Well, you can't exactly blame her for not being that eloquent right after a mind-blast, or in the middle of wildly dodging in combat. The important point is to get the message across. |
| 279 | -->'''Haley:''' My brain feels like a psion... did some psiony stuff.\ |
| 280 | '''Haley:''' V and the boys are all out of it, can you please cleric at them vigorously while I do, uh, whatever I'm gonna do about this? |
| 281 | * ButNotTooBi: Has "Latent Bisexuality" as one of her personality fragments and mentions having kissed girls in the past, but her only on-page relationship is with Elan and she is not about to cheat on him. |
| 282 | * CallingTheOldManOut: Haley has an angry reaction when her father [[spoiler:judges Elan to be every bit as evil as his father, General Tarquin, accusing him of spying on her and tricking her into loving him]]. |
| 283 | * CallingYourAttacks: She always yells "Sneak Attack!" whenever she performs a sneak attack. Partly for the irony, and partly to let the reader know she's performing a sneak attack, since they are pretty much identical to normal attacks. |
| 284 | * CannotSpitItOut: She has trouble talking about her emotions in general, and hesitated to confess her feelings about Elan for a ''long'' time. |
| 285 | -->'''Haley:''' [[DyingDeclarationOfLove Elan... I think I'm in love with y—]]\ |
| 286 | '''Durkon:''' [[HealingHands Cure Critical Wounds!]]\ |
| 287 | '''Haley:''' ...[[LastSecondWordSwap Ukuleles.]] |
| 288 | * ChainmailBikini: [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0675.html Haley buys some "leather armor" which is basically just a normal top]]. So she invokes this trope. |
| 289 | -->'''Haley:''' Four people on the street have accidentally addressed me as "young man" since we got here. I think some flaunting is in order. |
| 290 | * CharacterDevelopment: |
| 291 | ** She becomes less greedy over time, and gets a justification for her greed. Compare near the beginning of the comic [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0045.html when she objects to teaming up with the Linear Guild because it would mean that the loot would be split among more people]] to [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1029.html having legitimate concerns about the team's budget.]] |
| 292 | ** She has also become more moral, best demonstrated by her attitude towards slavery changing [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0171.html from]] AndThatWouldBeWrong to [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0749.html freeing her host's slaves just because she can]]. This likely ties into her self-description as ChaoticGood-ish as opposed to strictly ChaoticGood. She started out leaning toward ChaoticNeutral, but through CharacterDevelopment is now more solidly ChaoticGood.[[invoked]] |
| 293 | ** She has also grown into the role of second-in-command; instead of just using the position to get a bigger share of the loot as she did in the beginning, she now uses her roguish experience to advise Roy on things a Lawful Good fighter might not consider. |
| 294 | * CharacterizationMarchesOn: |
| 295 | ** Haley was far more "chaotic" and less "good-ish" than she would be later. For example, she takes Belkar's idea of selling a villain and her father to slavery because of profit margins seriously; even before CharacterDevelopment, Haley would find that ''abhorring'', considering why she joined the Order in the first place. [[spoiler:Her father was being held prisoner and forced into gladiatorship.]] |
| 296 | ** In early strips, she had a girlish giggle ("tee hee!") that was later phased out. Burlew points out in some of the commentaries that early comics often wrote Haley as something of a BrainlessBeauty; future comics treated her as reasonably bright. |
| 297 | * CharacterTics: She sticks out her tongue whenever she's lining up a difficult shot with her bow. |
| 298 | * CheatedAngle: There's always a stray hair on the side of her head facing the audience, no matter [[AmbidextrousSprite which way her head is turned facing.]] |
| 299 | * CloudcuckoolandersMinder: She's the one to take this role most often with Elan, both before and after they're in a relationship. She knows him well enough to [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0675.html include an "Elan tax" in the shopping budget.]] |
| 300 | * CombatPragmatist: Haley has no problem fighting ''very'' dirty. |
| 301 | ** For example, [[spoiler:she ambushes Crystal as she's in the shower, catching her without her weapons, armor, and protective jewelry, and kills her while she's stunned on the floor]]. |
| 302 | ** And again [[spoiler:once Crystal as a golem finishes turning against Bozzok in Gnometown. She lures her on top of a drawbridge above a [[KillItWithFire waste disposal facility]] and lets her fall into the lava below.]] |
| 303 | * CoolBigSis: She tried to invoke the "big-sister-bonding thing" with Bandana concerning sudden promotions to leadership. It turns out Bandana doesn't need it, but she still appreciates the effort. |
| 304 | * CovertPervert: Not above [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0088.html taking advantage of a discount]] ''invisibility sphere'' to grope Elan. Or seeing what Elan's charisma is worth [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0028.html "under the hood"]]. Also the first party member to notice the phallic symbolism of a [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0690.html Gigantic Purple Worm]]. After she and Elan hook up, the "covert" part goes out the window. |
| 305 | * CurbStompBattle: When she and Belkar are hunting for Roy's corpse after the Fall of Azure City, they're chased by a group of 22 hobgoblins. Since Belkar's Mark of Justice makes him worse than useless in a fight, she takes them all on her own [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0470.html and wipes the floor with them]] solely through use of her archery and tactical thinking (shooting out a stone holding up a collapsed tower so it falls and crushes more than half of them). Notably, even ''Belkar'' is impressed. |
| 306 | -->'''Belkar:''' You know, this is where I normally make an offensive — possibly sexist — remark ...[[EveryoneHasStandards but that was just too awesome to ruin with words]].\ |
| 307 | '''Haley:''' [[SarcasmMode Gee, if I'd known that shooting hobgoblins would render you speechless, I would have saved that last one for later.]] |
| 308 | * CurseOfBabel: After a building explodes and takes most of her gold with it, she develops aphasia and is only able to speak in cyphers for two arcs. |
| 309 | * CypherLanguage: She is afflicted with this for a while and several jokes are made at characters attempting to translate it. |
| 310 | * DamselOutOfDistress: Generally speaking, she saves herself nearly as often as she gets rescued, and frequently manages to help other people break out in the process. |
| 311 | ** One of Xykon's goblin minions kidnaps her in ''Dungeon Crawlin' Fools''. She easily knocks him out and rejoins the party, practically before they even notice she's gone. |
| 312 | ** She needs Roy to rescue her from the bandits in ''No Cure for the Paladin Blues'', but grabs a bow and jumps back into the fight the second she's freed from her bonds. The scenario repeats itself (this time with Celia as the rescuer) during the brawl at Old Blind Pete's house. |
| 313 | ** In ''Blood Runs in the Family'', Tarquin knocks her off a ledge into a squad of armed guards and uses the possibility that she'll be killed to browbeat Elan into surrendering. By the time he orders off his {{Mooks}}, [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome Haley's already killed all of them with a stolen ranseur]] and even complains about how she now has to go find someone to surrender to. |
| 314 | * DarknessVonGothickname: When she was a teenager, she went through a {{Goth}} phase and called herself "Dark Mistress Shadowgale". |
| 315 | * DeadpanSnarker: Has her moments, such when she muses aloud that Blackwing probably doesn't run into an invisible Vaarsuvius when they're both flying only because of [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness V's verbosity]]. |
| 316 | * DumpStat: Constitution and Wisdom. As a rogue, she needs good Dexterity for combat and sneak-attacks, Intelligence for her various skills, and uses her Charisma fairly often to bluff with, but she gets drunk very easily and at the start of the comic hasn't really made a lot of good life decisions and gives in to her character flaws, particularly her greed. [[spoiler:Lots of CharacterDevelopment has indicated that she might have been investing in a slightly higher Wisdom score, though Durkon still worries about her Will save when fighting a vampire.]] It is lampshaded early on, when a mindflayer [[MeatOVision sees her brain]] as a caramel sundae: sweet, but with a lot of empty calories. |
| 317 | * ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter: She is the best at analyzing the motives of others among the Order, and is very good at determining if someone is lying or not (though she needs to look into their eyes for this talent to work). As an example, she determined that an early character is evil, while everyone else insisted that they should cooperate. That character became a major recurring villain. |
| 318 | * {{Fanservice}}: She parodies this in the prequel, [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0752.html and later plays it as straight as one can with the comic's art style]]. She decided flaunting was in order. |
| 319 | * FatalFlaw: Both her inability to trust people (thanks in large part to her father raising her to have a rabid paranoia for everyone outside of her "family") and rampant {{greed}} (though this gets increasingly downplayed [[spoiler:after her father finally gets out of prison]]) have screwed her over multiple times. |
| 320 | * FemaleMisogynist: For some reason, Haley rarely gets along for very long with other women, either good (Miko, Celia)[[note]]she and Celia do bond as the story progresses, however[[/note]] or evil (Crystal, Sabine, Samantha[[note]]to the point of considering making her a slave[[/note]], Tsukiko... -- she jokes once she's always fighting "flying skanks"). There are exceptions, however, as she's best friends with Vaarsuvius (who is genderqueer) and seems to have no problem with Niu (in Azure City) or Jenny (in the backstory), and later Bandana. So it's more of a case of only meeting women whose personalities clash with hers. She recognizes this trait of hers and tries to move beyond it by ''Utterly Dwarfed'': |
| 321 | -->'''Haley:''' [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Well, historically speaking, it was either that,]] [[TakeThatUs or we try to murder each other while hurling offensively gender-charged insults.]] |
| 322 | * FieryRedhead: Haley sure can be fiery, but it's downplayed: she suffers from considerable self-loathing issues and feels it necessary to hide her true feelings much of the time, believing people wouldn't like her if they really knew her. |
| 323 | * FireForgedFriends: She and Bandana quickly became the best of friends after they helped each other survive against and ultimately defeated [[spoiler:the flesh golem Crystal in Gnometown]]. |
| 324 | * FreudianExcuse: After her mother died when she was little, her father instilled in her a crippling paranoia regarding others to help keep her alive in [[WretchedHive Greysky City]] that has persisted into adulthood, to the point where she now suffers from severe self-loathing issues[[note]]she openly remarks at one point to her self-loathing that she doesn't want to open her heart to Elan because she's convinced that if she did, he'd run away just like everyone else in her life eventually seems to[[/note]] and is near-pathologically unable to open herself up when talking to other people. |
| 325 | * GiveMeBackMyWallet: Except that she turns the tables by picking the pickpockets' pockets. |
| 326 | -->'''Haley:''' Seriously, Durkon, if you're going to get your pocket picked in every town we visit, at least try to attract higher-leveled thieves. Twelve silver pieces and some string is a waste of my talents. |
| 327 | * GodivaHair: Haley takes advantage of the PowerPerversionPotential of magical cosmetics in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0752.html "Picking Locks"]]. |
| 328 | * {{Goth}}: As a teenager, she was the gloomy, rebellious kind. |
| 329 | * {{Greed}}: Haley's initial personality was all about the loot, though she does receive character development and a real need to collect a lot of money. Although she still really likes money, thinks about money to get into a sexy mood, and has an obsessive desire to polish it, she's now able to better manage her greed and work through it rather than getting so stressed out about it that she can temporarily afflict herself with aphasia. |
| 330 | -->'''Roy:''' Haley, I know it causes you physical pain to see money spent without haggling, but--\ |
| 331 | '''Haley:''' ''[dismissively]'' No, no, it's not that. As long as I don't see the coins change hands, it'll just be a mild rash. |
| 332 | * GroinAttack: |
| 333 | ** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0477.html "...I'm sure Durkon can fix that, too."]] |
| 334 | --->'''Belkar:''' ...Did you shoot Roy's corpse in the nuts? |
| 335 | ** She's [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1251.html on the receiving end of one]] from Serini. |
| 336 | * GuileHero: While Haley's definitely more than able to hold her own in a fight, she's particularly adept at using her wits, various rogue skills, and Charisma to out-think and talk her way out of problems. In particular, she ends up defeating [[spoiler:the flesh golem Crystal]] by first telling her who was really responsible for [[spoiler:her being turned into a flesh golem, which prompts Crystal to utterly slaughter Bozzok]], and then [[spoiler:leads Crystal along and keeps her distracted with a heart-to-heart discussion about their mutual rivalry until she's right over a waste disposal pit]]. |
| 337 | * HadToBeSharp: She grew up in a WretchedHive of a city, with her father being a high-ranking member of a ThievesGuild where there was always a chance of being betrayed, cheated, and/or killed by the people she was living around on a daily basis. Notably, this is gradually deconstructed, as it turns out that her growing up in such a terrible environment might've helped her in becoming an excellent rogue, but it also resulted in her developing a near-pathologic inability to trust or open herself up to anyone. |
| 338 | * HandicappedBadass: |
| 339 | ** She's temporarily afflicted with aphasia after a near-mental breakdown, but can still hold her own in a fight. |
| 340 | ** And later, when fighting on the ''Mechane'', [[spoiler:Tarquin breaks Haley's arm. However, she is still resourceful enough to [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0936.html use her good hand and her foot]] to aim two arrows at Tarquin, which cause him to fall off the ship.]] |
| 341 | * HateAtFirstSight: The flashback of her first encounter with Crystal strongly hints at instant and mutually reciprocated loathing. |
| 342 | * HeroicBSOD: She was hit with this early in the series after several craploads of her loot were utterly destroyed in an explosion. [[spoiler:Afterwards, she gets an episode of CypherLanguage (see above), and finally learns to get over her abandonment issues and openly admit her feelings for Elan, the shouting of which cured her]]. |
| 343 | * HeroicWillpower: Haley's high Bluff ability goes both ways, as she's able to resist a failed charm ray save by using LiteralGenie logic to delay obeying the orders. |
| 344 | * HonorBeforeReason: After learning that Belkar [[spoiler:has tripped his Mark of Justice, she decides to leave him to rot and take on the entire Thieves Guild along, which proved to be a terrible idea and almost ended in her death. In fairness to Haley, though, she had no reason to trust Belkar at that point and he had yet to undergo fake CharacterDevelopment here into becoming a genuine team player]]. |
| 345 | * HyperspaceArsenal: She doesn't carry a quiver. When Roy is handed her bow and he asks Elan where she keeps her arrows, he says "I dunno. [[LampshadeHanging They just sort of appear in her hand when she needs one]]." Haley proceeds to complain to Roy about not following WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief. |
| 346 | * ImportantHaircut: In [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0610.html "You're It"]], but latter defied by [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0752.html "Picking Locks"]] where she uses magical cosmetics to grow her hair back. Like many other things, the trope is discussed: Elan thought the haircut was supposed to symbolize character development but Haley says it was just a stupid haircut. |
| 347 | * ImpossibleThief: In [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0649.html "It's a Shame She Didn't Grab That Script While She Was There"]], Haley steals a diamond from ''[[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/ootscast.html the cast page]]'', resulting in said diamond replaced with an [=IOMe=] (it's not an IOU because Haley stole it ''from herself''). |
| 348 | * ImprobableAimingSkills: Haley is able to fire two arrows at [[spoiler:Tarquin's eyes even with a ''broken arm.'']] |
| 349 | * InformedAttractiveness: Many characters comment that Haley is hot/pretty or curvy, but due to the art style she looks no more attractive than her companions. |
| 350 | * InSeriesNickname: Her WantedPoster mentions she's also known as "Mistress Nightengale" [sic] or "The Red Blur". |
| 351 | * {{Irony}}: She's mentioned to have ''Manyshot'', which is commonly agreed to be one of the worst feats to ever be printed in '''any''' ''D&D'' sourcebook along with being almost completely worthless for any rogue. Naturally, Haley has used ''Manyshot'' three times in the comic -- twice against Sabine and once against Tarquin -- and each time it was responsible for saving her life or Elan's. |
| 352 | * IResembleThatRemark: PlayedForLaughs in [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0743.html #743]]. |
| 353 | -->'''Durkon:''' Ye dinnae trust anyone! [[InsaneTrollLogic Ye think marsupials be shady 'cause they haf a secret pouch!]]\ |
| 354 | '''Haley:''' [-They could have a knife in there, you don't know!-] |
| 355 | * TheLancer: Haley Starshine is the official NumberTwo and is a greedy thief to contrast Roy Greenhilt's duty-bound warrior. She eventually becomes Roy's advisor on devious lines of thought. Both she and Belkar find themselves sharing this role after [[spoiler:Vampire Durkon's true colors are revealed]] in ''Utterly Dwarfed''. |
| 356 | * LoveableRogue: Yes, she's a rogue, and she's also quite loveable. |
| 357 | * MaamShock: Haley takes more exception from Samantha calling her "old woman" than from [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0168.html the lightning bolt she took in the face.]] |
| 358 | -->'''Haley:''' I'm not old! I'm 24! That's not old! Twenty! Four! |
| 359 | * MagicWand: Pilfers three of them from [[spoiler:Zz'dtri's body]] and buys a few more, later. As a rogue with Use Magic Device, she can use them... though it takes some [[EpicFail practice.]] |
| 360 | * MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Haley and Elan once have sex on the back of a giant purple worm. She implies that its phallic shape turned her on. |
| 361 | * MiserAdvisor: Justified by [[spoiler:the ransom she needs to gather to free her father]]. Although she's still plain old greedy too, as fitting for a rogue. |
| 362 | * MissingMom: Mia Starshine died when Haley was very young. |
| 363 | * MoneyFetish: A very literal example; Elan mentions that she wanted to do it on top of a pile of gold coins, and she's admitted it's true on multiple occasions. |
| 364 | * MrViceGuy: Haley is the most common version, since she's always looking for ways to get more loot from adventuring, but won't sabotage saving the world to satisfy her greed and does go out of her way to look out for her fellow man whenever she can manage it. |
| 365 | * MsFanservice: She's often described as a HeadTurningBeauty. Her brief nude scenes reveal quite the rack, she has a BathtubScene in one of the prequel books and considering that she's [[FlexibilityEqualsSexAbility also an extremely flexible redhead]], she's as close to this trope as the comic's artstyle will allow. |
| 366 | * {{Multishot}}: She has the appropriate feat. She doesn't use it very often, but it comes in handy against Sabine (since she's not sure whether the succubus is weak to silver or cold iron), and later Tarquin (to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard hoist him with his]] ArrowCatch feat). |
| 367 | * NeverSayThatAgain: Never tell her that treasure isn't that important. |
| 368 | * NonIndicativeName: Her name means "hay meadow", but she grew up in a fully urbanized WretchedHive and isn't really a fan of living out in the countryside. |
| 369 | * NoSell: |
| 370 | ** Her Evasion allows her to straight-up ignore damage from a lot of area-of-effect attacks. Lampshaded in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0848.html "Acid Redux"]], when she somehow manages to dodge two acid attacks that fill ''the entire room''. |
| 371 | ** Trying to pickpocket the party will result in the thief being pickpocketed ''themselves''. |
| 372 | --->'''[[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0673.html Note]]:''' Not on my watch, pigtails. - H |
| 373 | * NotCompletelyUseless: ''D&D'' players have long complained ''Manyshot'' is an [[AwesomeButImpractical impressive-sounding Feat]] that is actually not very useful -- and Haley herself has noted that -- but as mentioned elsewhere, it comes in useful to save herself and everyone else from first Sabine and later [[spoiler:Tarquin]]. |
| 374 | * NumberTwo: She manipulated Roy into giving her the position for a greater share of the treasure. It backfires when in Roy's absence she finds herself actually in formal charge of the Order. While she struggles when in charge and is relieved to relinquish the role on Roy's return, she's gradually growing into the position of second-in-command and advisor. |
| 375 | * OddFriendship: |
| 376 | ** With Vaarsuvius, whose formal and reserved attitude is in stark contrast to Haley's more outgoing and energetic personality. |
| 377 | ** With Roy, as he is a Lawful Good fighter while she is a Chaotic Good rogue. |
| 378 | ** She also becomes good friends with Durkon as they spend more time together among the Order. |
| 379 | * OnlySaneMan: Takes over this role in Roy's absence and does not like it one bit. Managing the Order's eccentricities is ''not'' fun. Furthermore, she's the only level-headed and competent leader of the [[WeAreStrugglingTogether different Azure City resistance cells]] until she appoints Thanh as her successor. |
| 380 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In "[[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0393.html Truth]]", she breaks down crying out of frustration and fear when Nale briefly tricks Elan into thinking she was EvilAllAlong while she can't refute this due to being TheUnintelligible. |
| 381 | * OtherMeAnnoysMe: Haley's mental projections annoy her quite a lot, especially Dark Mistress Shadowgale. |
| 382 | * PlatonicLifePartners: She and Vaarsuvius have always been extremely close, with Haley only ever agreeing to share a room with V until she and Elan became a couple. Their friendship is so strong that when they are temporarily separated from one another for the majority of ''Don't Split the Party'', Vaarsuvius starts to suffer from severe SanitySlippage (which is further compounded by [[ExhaustionInducedIdiocy trance deprivation]] and their lingering guilt over the Fall of Azure City) [[spoiler:leading up to their DealWithTheDevil]]. |
| 383 | * PowerOfTrust: She has this relationship with Elan, in spite of her father's strenuous objections, because she knows he won't abandon her. |
| 384 | * ProphecyTwist: Surprisingly averted. Out of all of the members of the Order who ask the Oracle their questions -- with hers being "How can I restore my speech?" -- the advice given to her ("When the gift horse comes calling, don't look it in the mouth.") is actually pretty metaphorical and ''not'' a case of ExactWords in play. That aforementioned advice referred to [[spoiler:Nale-impersonating-Elan's offer of a date during ''War and [=XPs=]''; Haley's acceptance despite her suspicions led to the circumstances that not just broke her mental block, but her giving her LoveConfession to Elan]]. |
| 385 | * ProperlyParanoid: Thanks to her father's upbringing, she has a problem trusting some people. Sometimes she's right not to: |
| 386 | ** Her first reaction to the Linear Guild is "Evil!", and sure enough, Elan's long-lost brother is the EvilTwin, and the whole party are assassins working for Xykon. |
| 387 | ** She also doesn't trust Elan's father, or Malack (the cleric he works with), and, yup, they are bad, too. |
| 388 | * QueerEstablishingMoment: She technically has two, with the first being obscured by it occurring when she was suffering from her speech impediment. |
| 389 | ** When she's trying to tell random secrets to Elan to cure her aphasia in ''War and [=XPs=]'', she mentions that she's kissed a girl more than once during their lunch "date". |
| 390 | ** Later, in ''Utterly Dwarfed'', when she and Bandana are fighting against [[spoiler:Golem-Crystal]] and Bandana asks if their attacker was a former girlfriend of Haley's, the rogue's only response is to scoff and say that she had ''much'' better taste in girls than [[spoiler:Crystal]]. |
| 391 | * RainbowPimpGear: Consciously averted. "...so the Boots of Speed were totally powerful, but they were, like, lime green." [[BrickJoke Later on]], we learn she held on to them and gets a craftsman to dye them a more suitable color. |
| 392 | * RapidHairGrowth: Haley magically regrows her hair very long in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0752.html "Picking Locks"]] after overcompensating for her short haircut before. She cuts it back to something manageable afterward. |
| 393 | * RebelLeader: After the TimeSkip, before handing that role off to Thanh, she runs the Azure City Resistance. |
| 394 | * RefugeInAudacity: |
| 395 | ** Early on, she steals two of Belkar's potions to heal Elan. When Belkar accuses her, she guilt-trips him about being prejudiced [[EverythingIsRacist by accusing him of assuming she stole them just because she's a rogue]]. |
| 396 | ** After managing to increase her already huge Bluff skill to ludicrous levels in [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0767.html #767]], she's able to effortlessly convince whoever she's lying to no matter the absurdity of whatever she's saying. |
| 397 | * SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: In a sense; growing up in a hellish WretchedHive like Greysky City resulted in her quickly learning and easily grasping the necessary skills to become a great rogue, but also resulted in her becoming incredibly insecure and paranoid. |
| 398 | * ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: "[[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0765.html Screw that, I'm just flat-out ignoring Roy right now]]." |
| 399 | * ShootTheDog: [[spoiler:After turning Crystal against Bozzok and generally making peace with her, she nevertheless finishes Crystal off one last time because the latter ''is'' a proven danger to everyone and has confirmed that she will only continue to spread needless suffering if left to her own devices.]] |
| 400 | * SignificantGreenEyedRedhead: She has red hair, and Elan's puppet show in the retail version of ''No Cure for the Paladin Blues'' implies that she has green eyes. The "significant" part comes in because she's one of the main characters. |
| 401 | * SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers: Grows into this trope thanks to Elan's influence and becomes more optimistic and trusting. |
| 402 | * SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Her love for Elan, as she [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0772.html explains to her father]]: She loves him because he is so pure and good that he makes her a better person just by being around her. |
| 403 | * SlipknotPonytail: Happens to her during a trap search (along with WardrobeMalfunction). |
| 404 | * SlippedTheRopes: She clearly has ranks in both Escape Artist and Use Rope, meaning tying her up is doomed to failure. |
| 405 | -->'''Gannji:''' Hey, wait. Weren't you tied up a moment ago?\ |
| 406 | '''Haley:''' That was a moment ago. |
| 407 | * TheSnarkKnight: She certainly isn't one... but, on the other hand, her brain is hosting "[[DarknessVonGothickname Mistress Shadowgale]]", a.k.a the [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0311.html imaginary personification of her self-loathing,]] who certainly has several levels of Snark Knight. |
| 408 | -->'''Haley:''' You look like I did as a teenager.\ |
| 409 | '''Mistress Shadowgale:''' How ''else'' would you expect your self-loathing to look?\ |
| 410 | '''Haley:''' [[{{Touche}} Good point]]. |
| 411 | * TheSneakyGuy: As is fitting for a rogue, she has the stealth, the deception and the "sneak attack!" |
| 412 | * {{Spoonerism}}: While drunk: |
| 413 | -->'''Haley:''' I'm gonna sit on this spin until the room stops chairing. |
| 414 | * StepfordSmiler: Her jokey and extraverted personality hides a mass of paranoia, cynicism and self-loathing. Over the course of the strip (and especially her relationship with Elan) she comes to terms with this and becomes a much more genuinely happy person. |
| 415 | * SticksToTheBack: Her bow, unlike Roy's sword, has no latch. |
| 416 | * StreetSmart: Social savvy and pragmatism are required to survive Greysky City for any length of time, so her dad made sure she was. |
| 417 | * TakenForGranite: [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0789.html She blows the saving throw]] against a ''flesh to stone'' spell from Zzd'tri. Durkon later turns her back to normal. |
| 418 | * ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: "SNEAK ATTACK -- BITCH!" V later [[BorrowedCatchphrase borrows it]]. |
| 419 | * ThisIsUnforgivable: [[spoiler:After Belkar kills the Oracle, she decides that since Belkar has finally crossed the line and he's now completely useless, she's perfectly fine with leaving him to vomit himself to death somewhere far away from her and Celia. She's only prevented from following through on this thanks to the Oracle's memory charm, and after re-learning later on from a cleric of Loki what happened, she leaves Belkar [[LaserGuidedKarma to suffer and deal with the repercussions of his actions]].]] |
| 420 | * TimeToStepUpCommander: [[spoiler:After Roy's death, she is promoted to head of the Order.]] |
| 421 | * TokenMinority: [[invoked]] Haley is the only member of the Order [[WordOfGay to have been confirmed as bisexual]] per WordOfGod (with Vaarsuvius being AmbiguouslyGay and the rest of the Order being at the least straight-passing). |
| 422 | * TookALevelInBadass: Both a literal and metaphorical case; the TimeSkip not only has her becoming even more of an awesome and skilled rogue than she already was, but she's also become considerably more stable mentally speaking, along with being a more effective tactician and team leader as the head honcho among her group of LaResistance. |
| 423 | * TraumaticHaircut: Crystal attempts to do this during the fight in Greysky City, chopping off Haley's hair while she's unconscious. It doesn't work -- Haley isn't happy about it, but goes right back to fighting perfectly well when she gets back up. She eventually has her hair grown back out through magical means while she and the Order are staying in Bleedingham. |
| 424 | * TrickArrow: |
| 425 | ** She eventually gets an Icy Burst Bow after stealing it from Old Blind Pete. |
| 426 | ** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0858.html She also uses one to counter Tarquin's snatch arrows feat]]. |
| 427 | * UnConfession: In [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0184.html "Hawaiian Love"]], Haley, seriously wounded and apparently not expecting to live, starts to tell Elan that she loves him. She's interrupted by Durkon healing her wounds. |
| 428 | * WantedPoster: She has one, as shown in ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickOnTheOriginOfPCs On the Origin of PCs]]''. Amusingly, she uses hers ''as a resume.'' |
| 429 | * WeaksauceWeakness: Averted, but Crystal is under the mistaken impression that Haley is lethally vulnerable to pickles just because she never liked having pickles on her sandwiches. Just to be clear: Crystal is dumber than a post. |
| 430 | [[/folder]] |
| 431 | |
| 432 | [[folder:Elan]] |
| 433 | !!Elan |
| 434 | [[quoteright:202:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elan_oots_2958.png]] |
| 435 | |
| 436 | ->''"♪ Bluff, Bluff, Bluff, Bluff the stupid ogre! ♪"'' |
| 437 | |
| 438 | ->'''Race:''' Human\ |
| 439 | '''Gender:''' Male\ |
| 440 | '''Class:''' Bard/Dashing Swordsman\ |
| 441 | '''Alignment:''' ChaoticGood, [[StupidGood Foolish Good]] [-(according to the Adventure Game)-] |
| 442 | |
| 443 | A fairly dim but highly charismatic bard with an idiosyncratic thought process and only a slight effect in battle. Later this is mitigated after he takes his first level in Dashing Swordsman. Can be extremely slow on the uptake. |
| 444 | ---- |
| 445 | * AccidentalInnuendo: [[DefiedTrope Defied]] in the final book; [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1236.html left alone with his thoughts]], Elan starts thinking about puns to use on Xykon, and specifically notes that trying to make a "bone" pun is just ''asking'' for this trope. |
| 446 | * AchievementsInIgnorance: In [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0558.html "Sort of Like a Reverse Psion"]], Daigo comments that Elan is more useful the less he understands what's going on. Durkon agrees, and adds that Elan has "ignorance" as a class power source. |
| 447 | * AllCheeringAllTheTime: Elan is a Bard, but definitely falls into the "cheering at inappropriate moments" category. Like "Concentrate, Concentrate, Concentrate!" or "[[WithCatlikeTread Move, Move, Move Silently across the battlefield!"]] |
| 448 | * AmbiguouslyBi: While he's in a very happy and mutually loving relationship with Haley, he also comes across as visibly disappointed when [[spoiler:Vampire Durkon feeds on him in ''Utterly Dwarfed'' and he's informed that they don't now share a "mystical blood bond [[HomoeroticSubtext that draws [Elan and Durkula] into]] [[VampiresAreSexGods a mesmerizing web of erotic subtext]]"]]. |
| 449 | * AntagonistInMourning: Inverted. [[spoiler: He's genuinely distraught over the death of his EvilTwin and ArchEnemy Nale, and at least part of his uncharacteristic cruelty when defeating Tarquin is seemingly motivated by avenging him.]] |
| 450 | * AndThisIsFor: A subtle one to Tarquin, telling him that [[spoiler:[[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0936.html he's not a twin anymore]]]] before letting him drop from the airship. |
| 451 | * AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Definitely qualifies; Elan is frequently shown to get very easily distracted and part of his CharacterDevelopment is him learning more impulse control. At one point during ''Utterly Dwarfed'', it takes him '''[[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1069.html eleven tries]]''' to cast ''mending'' and fix a rip to the hot air balloon used by the ''Mechane''. Granted, there was a big fight going on along with a mutiny, but ''still''. |
| 452 | * TheBabyOfTheBunch: Elan is physically the youngest member of the overall Order at only 22 in the comic's present day[[labelnote:For sake of reference:]]In the comic's present day, Roy is 29, Haley is 25, Durkon is 55, Vaarsuvius is over 131, and Belkar is over 28[[/labelnote]], and his general status as a {{Manchild}} also definitely makes him the youngest from a behavioral standpoint along with various asides (e.g., Belkar calling him "kid" and Elan himself claiming to have just come out of "bard camp" before deciding to become an adventurer). |
| 453 | * BadLiar: As Haley explains to him when trying to encourage him to not try and [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0767.html bluff his way out of a bunch of guards]]: |
| 454 | -->'''Haley:''' No offense, but you literally can't bluff to save your life. In fact, I think your bluffs usually endanger your life in new and exciting ways. |
| 455 | * TheBard: His character class is bard. He talks about story conventions and has a bard spell called ''summon plot exposition''. He is described as a "certified bardic genius" by one of a pair of Dwarven bards. |
| 456 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: He's probably the nicest, sweetest member of the Order, always happy to help anyone the group comes across. He also tries to drown [[AristocratsAreEvil Kubota]] after he killed Therkla, sets a sword-wielding killer on Nale and throws his father off an airship. |
| 457 | * BewareTheSillyOnes: Sure, Elan may have dump-statted his Intelligence (it's speculated to be in the single digits) and he constantly annoys his teammates to the point of being a liability, but his Prestige class makes him a truly formidable JackOfAllTrades who can fight, cast, heal, and buff to support the other specialists in the Order. |
| 458 | * BeyondTheImpossible: In [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0794.html Strip #794]], Elan seduces a ''succubus''. As in, you know, a demon who is, by her own admission, an evil incarnation of illicit sex. |
| 459 | * BigDamnHeroes: One of his Dashing Swordsman class features lets him sense where to go to dramatically save the day, and ensures that he always arrives there just in the nick of time. |
| 460 | * BiggerIsBetterInBed: His {{Pixellation}} hiding his nudity is significantly bigger than Roy's, and Haley as well as many Azurite women are also extremely pleased upon seeing him naked. |
| 461 | -->'''Haley:''' Well anyway, V says Elan has been running around naked, so I'm off to see what his 18 Charisma is worth "under the hood". |
| 462 | * BrainlessBeauty: He's considered [[HeadTurningBeauty very attractive]] InUniverse, even if the "beauty" part is difficult to tell thanks to the art style. |
| 463 | * BuffySpeak: Due to his ditziness, he often defaults to this when trying to either name or describe something. As noted below, when he's trying to FaceDeathWithDignity, he asks to be stabbed "in one of the less hurty organs." |
| 464 | * BumblingSidekick: |
| 465 | ** To Roy until the party got split, due to the counterproductive songs and ditziness. |
| 466 | ** He was this even more so to Sir François in ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickOnTheOriginOfPCs On the Origin of PCs]]'' because he was younger and (more) foolish. |
| 467 | * CallingTheOldManOut: Dishes one out when [[spoiler:Tarquin orders Roy, Durkon, and Belkar killed to "bring order" to his and Elan's narrative.]] |
| 468 | -->'''Elan:''' You're wrong. You're wrong about everything. You only ''think'' you know what's supposed to happen. But ''we'' get to decide what sort of story this is and what role we play-- hero or comic relief. [[TakeAThirdOption Or both at the same time.]] |
| 469 | * CannotKeepASecret: It's a good thing the rest of the Order usually keeps an eye on him, because Elan is ''exceptionally'' bad at keeping anything hidden. Seen below in [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0727.html Strip #727]]: |
| 470 | -->'''Haley:''' A secret kind of quest.\ |
| 471 | '''Elan:''' Yeah, we need to find this guy, Girard Draketooth, and tell him that--\ |
| 472 | '''Haley:''' Elan!! What part of "secret" do you not understand?\ |
| 473 | '''Elan:''' The part where I don't tell other people, obviously. |
| 474 | * CargoCult: |
| 475 | ** Elan is currently the sole worshiper of his handpuppet, Banjo, Clown God of Puppetry. Due to the way divinity works in the Stickverse, Banjo ''actually is'' a (very weak) god, thanks to the fact that Elan worships him; he gets stronger because a tribe of orcs believes he exists, and worship his brother Giggles. |
| 476 | ** When he, Durkon and a pair of paladins are negotiating with orcs on an island, the orcs begin worshiping Banjo, and steal him from Elan. After getting him and the paladin back, Elan cheers up the tribe by introducing them to another handpuppet: Giggles, the Clown God of Slapstick, who is also Banjo's brother and rival. Due to their rivalry, the orc's worship of Giggles also empowers Banjo (and by extension Elan). |
| 477 | ** He also indicates the possible existence of Banjuhlu (Banjo with an illusion on him giving him face tentacles). |
| 478 | * ChaoticStupid: [[invoked]] Averted; Elan is ChaoticGood and Stupid separately (and has been working on the "Stupid" part... more or less). However, Elan is less Stupid and more Foolish. |
| 479 | * CharacterDevelopment: Elan is not so much a dimwit now as at the start, but is still TheDitz nevertheless. More focus has also been given to highlighting how he's ''clever'', not ''smart'', how he's significantly matured as the story has gone on, and how his MetaGuy nature [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower is actually a lot more valuable than it may first seem]]. |
| 480 | ** Really underscored in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0889.html issue #889]]; in the early days of the comic, if Elan was the one to break the party out of an illusion, he'd most likely do it by being TooDumbToFool. Here, he has developed enough to realize that his dreams are childish, unrealistic and completely unlikely, including outright calling his father and brother on the fact that they are evil, hateful people who will never be able to be a proper family to him. Thus he convinces the others by pointing out the plot holes in their own dreams, like how they apparently beat Xykon but never went on to break up Tarquin's empire. |
| 481 | ** Another very pointed example is the contrast between [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0069.html early comic #69]] and [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0936.html way later, #936]]. In both situations, Elan has an opportunity to SaveTheVillain, but makes different choices. In the latter, Elan even explains the similarities and differences to the villain in question, highlighting what he's learned. |
| 482 | ** Perhaps the greatest indication of Elan's character development happens in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1218.html #1218]]. When the Order is split down the middle on whether or not to [[spoiler:confront Xykon]], Roy defers the decision entirely to Elan, asking him if the situation feels like the climax that the current narrative arc has been building towards. He decides it's not, and everyone immediately trusts his judgement. At the beginning of the comic, Roy would have been offended by the mere suggestion of asking Elan for advice, and no-one would have paid attention to him if he offered any. |
| 483 | * CharacterFocus: ''Blood Runs in the Family'' is heavily focused on Elan, with his [[CharacterDevelopment increased maturity, cleverness, badassery]], and MetaGuy traits all deliberately contrasted against both Nale and Tarquin. |
| 484 | * CharacterizationMarchesOn: It can largely be chalked up to CharacterDevelopment, but in the earlier days of the comic, Elan's {{Manchild}} nature was often comically exaggerated to the point of infantilization (e.g., asking to have Roy read him a bedtime story and tuck him in for the night). Later on, while he's still pretty immature (e.g., spending his first day in Bleedingham riding on the Empire of Blood's equivalent of kiddy rides), he also has more of an adult nature emphasized about him (such as him and Haley [[InsatiableNewlyweds often eagerly and enthusiastically ravishing each other when given the opportunity]]). |
| 485 | * ChekhovsSkill: |
| 486 | ** [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0017.html His skill at carving words into stone]] helps him provide [[spoiler:[[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0598.html one kickass tombstone]] for Therkla]]. |
| 487 | ** Speaking of [[spoiler:Therkla]], Elan would have never learned ''neutralize poison'' if not for her, and that skill [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0712.html later comes in handy]] [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1244.html twice over.]] |
| 488 | * ChickMagnet: It's been [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0028.html stated outright]] that he has 18 Charisma (the normal maximum at character creation). Indeed, Elan initially considered this part of his job description and did not understand why Haley didn't care for it. |
| 489 | * ChildhoodBrainDamage: A flashback explains Elan being TheDitz as a result of his brother [[EvilTwin Nale]] continually {{Dope Slap}}ing him out of frustration when they were babies. |
| 490 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: He has had many strange ideas (such as "naked = invisible"), and his {{Genre Savv|y}}iness frequently comes across as inane babbling. |
| 491 | * ColorCodedWizardry: Whenever Elan casts spells, his magic is light blue. |
| 492 | * ComedyAsAWeapon: Elan's moves as a Dashing Swordsman gain more power if he makes a pun while attacking. |
| 493 | * CompanionCube: Elan worships Banjo the Clown, his own hand-puppet. |
| 494 | * ConsultingMisterPuppet: Averted. While Elan worships his puppet, Banjo, he never believes Banjo can speak (barring the intervention of half-orcish ninjas). |
| 495 | * ContractualGenreBlindness: |
| 496 | ** Hilariously invoked in [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0793.html #793]]; In spite of being as GenreSavvy as he is (in that, since [[spoiler:[[NeverFoundTheBody Nale's corpse was never found]], Elan knew that he must have still been alive]]), he acted surprised to find that [[spoiler:[[NoOneCouldSurviveThat Nale was, indeed, alive]]]], but only ''because'' MainCharacters in a position like his are always surprised at such a revelation. |
| 497 | --->'''Nale:''' But... if you know that then how can you be surprised... Why didn't you realize that thinking [[spoiler:I was dead]] was... I mean... Gah! I'm giving myself a migraine trying to understand the level of willful ignorance that requires!\ |
| 498 | '''Elan:''' ''[with an absurdly smug expression on his face]'' First blood: ELAN! |
| 499 | ** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0670.html If Elan were like other bards, he would have avoided telling Haley the story of Therkla]] in order to {{invoke|dTrope}} RuleOfDrama by causing [[PoorCommunicationKills misunderstandings]]. However, he opted for the ''other'' genre convention -- the {{Denouement}} confession to give a HappyEnding. |
| 500 | * CripplingOverspecialization: His original use of his ''silent image'' spell, which revolves around projecting an illusion of a female version of whoever he is fighting to distract them. It only works once (sort of) against Thog, and only because Thog is [[GirlsHaveCooties afraid of cooties]]. It becomes far more useful once V helps him use it more creatively. |
| 501 | * {{Cuckoosnarker}}: While he's almost always SarcasmBlind, he typically becomes pretty sarcastic whenever he's particularly upset (e.g., him asking his father if he's planning to "make [me] watch as you [[EvilIsPetty punch a bunny in the face]]"). |
| 502 | * DesignatedVictim: As noted below, he usually is the one to end up in a hostage situation, most often due to his brother Nale. Ironically enough, it's usually [[ActionGirl Haley]] that tries to save him. |
| 503 | * DespairEventHorizon: Briefly brought to the brink when he's half-[[DidYouActuallyBelieve goaded]], half-{{Brainwashed}} (specifically, under the effects of ''suggestion'') by Nale into thinking Haley is TheMole, and almost kills her over it. |
| 504 | * DisorganizedOutlineSpeech: We really must mention the epic one he gives just before the Battle of Azure City. |
| 505 | -->'''Elan:''' [[Theatre/JuliusCaesar Friends, Azurites, countrymen, lend me your ears]]. [[Film/RobinHoodMenInTights Not literally, because ewww. I mean, that would be disgusting.]] |
| 506 | And messy. And since you'd just be lending them, we'd have to figure out how to reattach them all, and that'd be a lot of work.\ |
| 507 | Today, we stand here on the wall, preparing to defend this city from the forces of evil. And probably chaos, too.\ |
| 508 | [[Theatre/HenryV We few, we happy few, we band of brothers]]. And sisters. Definitely also sisters, they are part of the band too. [[Music/TheWhiteStripes I think they play drums]].\ |
| 509 | [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings A day may come when the courage of men (and women) fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day]].\ |
| 510 | And if the battle lasts through tomorrow, it's not that day either.\ |
| 511 | It may or may not be the day after that, I'm not sure. Still too early to tell.\ |
| 512 | But in case it's not that day, or it is that day but the battle is already over so it doesn't matter, I want you to remember this:\ |
| 513 | [[Film/{{Patton}} No one ever won a war by dying for their country]]. They won by making the other guy die for his country. Which still applies even though hobgoblins don't live in countries.\ |
| 514 | They live in caves, I think. So make them die for their caves. Which, admittedly, sounds a lot less heroic than dying for your country.\ |
| 515 | But today will be the day when Azure City declared in one voice, "[[Film/IndependenceDay We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight!]]"\ |
| 516 | And the fact that it rhymes does not make it any less true!\ |
| 517 | We'll stand here together and tell our enemies that [[{{Film/Braveheart}} they may take our lives...]]\ |
| 518 | '''[[Film/{{Braveheart}} But they will never take our freedom!]]'''\ |
| 519 | ''[acclaims]''\ |
| 520 | Unless... unless they kill us, then animate the dead corpses as zombies to fight for them. Then I suppose they've taken our lives AND our freedom.\ |
| 521 | ''[{{beat panel}}]''\ |
| 522 | ''♪ Fight, fight, fight, fight the-- ♪''\ |
| 523 | '''Random Azurite Soldier:''' You suck! |
| 524 | * DistressedDude: Happens often enough that he lampshades it: |
| 525 | -->'''Elan:''' ''[glumly]'' I wonder if I qualify for some sort of hostage-based prestige class by now... |
| 526 | * TheDitz: Initially, he was spacey, dimwitted and thought that singing could improve a Move Silently check. This changed when CharacterDevelopment toned it down. Mocked early on when a mindflayer [[MeatOVision describes his brain]] as a diet soda: something sweet but completely devoid of any real nourishment. |
| 527 | * DoggedNiceGuy: Elan keeps trying to win his potential father-in-law over, despite said father-in-law being TheParanoiac and Elan being the son of his greatest enemy. Elan finally manages to convince him he's not trying to betray him or Haley -- if ever there was proof of an 18 Charisma... |
| 528 | * DumbassHasAPoint: |
| 529 | ** Happens a few times. |
| 530 | --->'''Haley:''' Am I drunk enough yet that later, I won't remember [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0747.html getting out-logicked by Elan?]] |
| 531 | ** In later comics, this actually becomes something of a gag involving him and Roy: Roy has gotten so used to Elan's CrazyEnoughToWork and GenreSavvy aspects turning out right for him that he will actively take Elan's viewpoints into consideration or even give them a shot. At times, this even scares Elan: when Roy gives an entirely serious explanation for why they couldn't use Banjo the Clown to break the tie at the Godsmoot, Elan looks horrified until Roy [[ClueEvidenceAndASmokingGun concludes by noting that Banjo is a hand puppet]]. |
| 532 | ** Together, Elan and Belkar, the two least intelligent members of the party, independently deduce that part of the reason Xykon's such a prick is because, as an [[DemBones undead lich]], he's unable to experience the pleasures of the flesh, by speculating idly about whether or not he can taste ice cream and what the point of living would be if someone couldn't. |
| 533 | * DumbassNoMore: Post-TimeSkip he's gone from TheDitz to something between a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and a GeniusDitz. |
| 534 | * DumbIsGood: His lack of knowledge and common sense is practically a RunningGag, and he happens to be the nicest member of the group. Also played for laughs when he knows something the others don't. |
| 535 | * DumpStat: Intelligence, and especially in early strips, Wisdom. Both, especially the latter, are improving, and he has shown moments of GenreSavvy mixed with SimpleMindedWisdom. |
| 536 | * EthicalSlut: Elan is a childish, kindhearted dumbass...with a charisma in the low 20s and a self-proclaimed job of seducing female villains. When he gets in a committed relationship with Haley, the two are running off to...[[UnusualEuphemism scrub the monkey]] on the regular. |
| 537 | * EurekaMoment: It's heavily implied that he finally realized his own romantic feelings towards Haley when he was wrongfully imprisoned by Nale and started to ''especially'' freak out when he had the sudden revelation that she was now at Nale's mercy as he infiltrated the Order. |
| 538 | * EvilTwin: He has one in Nale, who looks just like him except for an evil goatee and a perpetually sinister expression. |
| 539 | * EyepatchAfterTimeSkip: [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0502.html Invoked and parodied]]. He wears an eyepatch because it is customary to do so after a TimeSkip and it makes him look fierce. Hinjo tells him to take it off. |
| 540 | * TheFace: He's highly charismatic and once talks a female enemy into a HeelFaceTurn. Roy invokes this trope when the group needs to talk to someone, like the teenage goblin in the first arc. |
| 541 | * FaceDeathWithDignity: When he believes that [[spoiler:his father]] is going to kill him his only request was that he "stab him in one of the less hurty organs". |
| 542 | * FaceDoodling: He does it to Roy while the latter is paralyzed by poison. |
| 543 | * FatalFlaw: His naivete and ditziness. As the comic goes on, Elan actually becomes quite clever and wise in how he recognizes his own over-idealized view of the world, but still is pretty kooky and not all there in the head. |
| 544 | * TheFool: Elan plays with this trope in many directions depending on the strip; foolish, insightful, lucky, etc. |
| 545 | * ForgotAboutHisPowers: In the early comics, he often forgets about his illusion magic, since he is so bad at coming up with a good use for it. After Dorukan's Dungeon, he slowly begins to use them more effectively thanks to V's advice. |
| 546 | * ForHappiness: Elan and his mother both always try their best to live up to this trope. When he gets a chance to ask the all-knowing Oracle of Sunken Valley a question, his is merely: "Will there be a happy ending?" |
| 547 | * FriendToAllChildren: Perhaps due to his own child-like nature, Elan is good with the few children we see in the comic, particularly [[spoiler:Kudzu, Hilgya and Durkon's infant son.]] |
| 548 | * FunPersonified: In [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0302.html "New Beginnings"]], Elan and Hinjo are walking down the street while a festival is going on. Elan manages to party with ''everybody'' while Hinjo completes an expository monologue on what the festival is and [[DramaticIrony why Elan and Hinjo shouldn't be celebrating right now]]. When Hinjo turns his head to check on Elan, Elan is back to his normal walking pace behind Hinjo, with his lute and puppet put away and his clothes back on (and a woman's hotel room key in his pocket). |
| 549 | * GagPenis: Apparently, having maxed-out Charisma is worth quite a bit "under the hood". |
| 550 | * GeniusDitz: Primarily due to being GenreSavvy, he's smarter than his silliness makes him appear. |
| 551 | * GenreSavvy: Although he's been [[WrongGenreSavvy mistaken]] sometimes, he has a general idea of what's going on. Also occasionally suffers from ContractualGenreBlindness, as exaggerated and, in the process, {{Defied|Trope}} (when it gives Nale a headache) in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0793.html "Critical Thinking"]]. |
| 552 | * GoodAngelBadAngel: In addition to Chaotic Angel and Lawful Angel, which only appeared once. He dismissed them for being unhelpful. |
| 553 | * GotMeDoingIt: Haley, Lien, and Durkon have all started adopting his beliefs in RuleOfDrama[[spoiler:, though only Durkon's turns out to have any payoff]]. |
| 554 | * GoYeHeroesGoAndDie: His rousing speech prior to the Battle of Azure City, basically told them that they would die and then become enslaved zombies. |
| 555 | * HairAntennae: Shared by his [[EvilTwin brother]] [[spoiler:and father]], and they're all idiots (in different ways). |
| 556 | * HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Blond-haired, and far and away the sweetest and most innocent member of the Order of the Stick. |
| 557 | * HammyHerald: For Sir François in ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickOnTheOriginOfPCs On the Origin of PCs]]''. Including when it's wholly inappropriate, like while entering a BadGuyBar. |
| 558 | -->'''Elan:''' Behold, {{wretched hive}} [[Film/ANewHope of scum and villainy]]! The noble Sir François is here!\ |
| 559 | Your days of seedy backroom dealings and poor personal hygiene are at an end, for he is here to wash this corrupt city clean!\ |
| 560 | He is much like a giant scrub in that respect. He also has bristles -- again, like a scrub brush.\ |
| 561 | However, he is not easily held in one's hand and used to scrub cutlery, so that's one way he is different. I'm sure I can think of other ways.\ |
| 562 | '''Sir François:''' Um, Elan?\ |
| 563 | '''Elan:''' Yes, oh vanquisher of unpleasantness?\ |
| 564 | '''Sir François:''' Yeah, see, the thing is that this was supposed to be a low-profile visit.\ |
| 565 | '''Elan:''' Oh! I can fix that!\ |
| 566 | Attention, scum and villainy! If at all possible, please ignore the dashing and righteous Sir François as he goes about his business of making a few Gather Information checks regarding your illicit activities, to better shut them down at a later date. |
| 567 | * HappilyEverAfter: [[spoiler:Elan's fate, according to the Oracle, because this story will have a happy ending for him]]. |
| 568 | * HealingHands: Has the spell ''mass cure light wounds'' from a bard level, and picked up ''neutralize poison'' at the same time. Post-Empire of Blood, he decides to take on a "backup healer" role and picks up ''cure critical wounds'', as well as a wand of ''cure moderate wounds'' later on. |
| 569 | * TheHeart: He's outright referred to as such by Durkon. He's more heroic than anyone else (with the possible exception of Durkon himself) and very likable. Heck, even ''[[TokenEvilTeammate Belkar]]'' likes him. |
| 570 | * HeartIsAnAwesomePower: His {{Genre Savv|y}}iness is actually an incredibly useful and vital skill since he lives in a world built around the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality. Just as an example, Roy at one point uses Elan's advice regarding storytelling to determine whether or not the Order should fight Xykon yet (read: if it seems like this is the proper climax that the whole story has been building up to), and his decision is shortly proven to be right. |
| 571 | * HeroWithAnFInGood: Sometimes because he's TheDitz (to the point at which Roy briefly abandons him to his fate) and sometimes because he's ''too'' GenreSavvy, his heroism can have few results. |
| 572 | * HeroOfAnotherStory: Okay, "[[TheLoad hero]]" is honestly being a little too charitable, but ''On the Origin of [=PCs=]'' reveals that he'd been a bard for a good while prior to meeting the Order, to the point where his reaction to being abandoned by his previous charge in the middle of a random city [[OhNoNotAgain is to just complain about it having happened yet again]]. |
| 573 | * HiddenDepths: [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0141.html "Horse Sense"]] reveals that he's actually quite skilled in horseback riding. Justified since his first job as a bard was serving as the herald to a paladin, and so they rode on horseback pretty much everywhere. |
| 574 | * HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: His obliviousness to [[spoiler:his father, Tarquin,]] being evil is astounding. This isn't so much a case of Elan's ditziness as it is WrongGenreSavvy -- Elan mistakes ruthlessness for the well-intentioned pragmatism displayed by Roy. Also, he understandably loves/trusts [[spoiler:his father]], and the affection is mutual despite [[spoiler:his father's]] [[CardCarryingVillain Card-Carrying Villainy]]. |
| 575 | * HurricaneOfPuns: This trope is required by the Dashing Swordsman class feature, and it is {{lampshaded}} by Tarquin when he tells Julio that Elan's vocabulary is terrible. |
| 576 | * IdiotBall: He grabs it whenever [[RuleOfFunny it has the potential to be funnier]]. |
| 577 | * IdiotHero: He sure is an idiot, and he tries very hard to be a hero. Maybe not as bad since he TookALevelInBadass, but he still has some cringe-worthy moments. |
| 578 | * IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou: A good one from ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickOnTheOriginOfPCs On the Origin of PCs]]'': |
| 579 | -->'''Elan:''' Sir, I'm not about to tell an innkeep I just met about the priceless antique shield Sir François carries, or the pouch of rare gems he keeps hidden in his saddlebags, of his purse filled with platinum pieces that he hides in his left boot when he sleeps. |
| 580 | * IneptMage: As a bard, Elan is capable of casting spells, but he's not very good at it. This is largely because he's focused on illusion, a school of spells where the caster's intellect and creativity is the main limitation. Most of his illusions, therefore, end up being unconvincing or useless, barring some occasional lucky breaks. He also has a tendency to forget he can even use them in favor of focusing on swordplay -- most notably, in the Battle of Azure City, Vaarsuvius was surprised to find that Elan had only cast a single spell in the entire battle. He does improve over the comic's run, with Vaarsuvius's tutelage helping him craft actual effective illusions and a newfound focus on healing. |
| 581 | -->'''Roy:''' And as of right now, we don't even have any spellcasters!\ |
| 582 | '''Elan:''' Roy, I'm a spellcaster.\ |
| 583 | '''Roy:''' YOU DON'T COUNT!! |
| 584 | * InformedAttractiveness: He's a stick figure character that doesn't look much different than any other, and yet has multiple girls flirting with him. |
| 585 | * InsaneTrollLogic: His reasoning behind InvisibleStreaker, among several other things. |
| 586 | * InstantIceJustAddCold: V "accidentally" encases him in ice, for "[[UnwantedAssistance helping]]" with [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0041.html a concentration check]]. |
| 587 | * InvisibleStreaker: There is an attempted inverted invocation; Elan tries to be this when he thinks that because wearing heavy armor makes you less stealthy, wearing less armor will make you stealthier and [[NakedPeopleAreFunny being naked will make you invisible]]. |
| 588 | * {{Irony}}: While he's by far [[TheDitz the dumbest member of the party]], he actually has the ''best''-optimized build of them all thanks to his [[GentlemanAdventurer Dashing Swordsman]] prestige class and bard traits both relying on his incredibly high Charisma stat. |
| 589 | * ItsTheBestWhateverEver: Elan has a habit of saying some version of this, [[TemptingFate usually just before the other shoe drops]]. |
| 590 | * JackOfAllStats: His bardic music, illusions, and limited healing make him a passable support caster and healer, and his Dashing Swordsman class has boosted his combat effectiveness enough to make him a decent melee fighter as well. He doesn't outstrip any of the team's specialists, but he's an effective replacement for any member of the team but V. |
| 591 | * LargeHam: Thanks to being a bard, Elan absolutely ''loves'' to go full-ham and be as comically overdramatic as much as possible, even going out of his way in the earlier arcs to intentionally invoke certain tropes he really liked just to make the story seem more dramatic. Part of his CharacterDevelopment is this facet of his personality getting increasingly tapered down, with Elan greatly benefiting from learning discretion and how to be more subtle and less obnoxious when interacting with others. |
| 592 | * LawOfDisproportionateResponse: Gladiator arena is where falsely imprisoned men kill each other for the benefit of the cheering crowds. What is it that offends Elan the most? [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0775.html The awful choreography of the pre-game show]]. |
| 593 | * LeetLingo: Parodied in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0696.html "Still a Long Way to Go"]]. V assures Roy that there will be a proofing stage for Elan's message. |
| 594 | * TheLoad: At the beginning of the comic, many jokes are made about his uselessness. Until he [[TookALevelInBadass Takes a Level in Badass]], Roy compares adventuring with him to adventuring with syphilis. He leans toward TheMillstone when his music keeps making things worse, and especially when he blows up Dorukan's Dungeon. In the prequel book ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickOnTheOriginOfPCs On the Origin of PCs]]'', Sir François ditched him when he screwed up one too many times (though unlike Roy, at least it was in a populated, if seedy, city where there was no immediate danger) and Elan's reaction to realizing he was just abandoned indicates this wasn't the first time this has happened. |
| 595 | * LoonWithAHeartOfGold: While not quite mad, Elan is certainly full of quirks. He's also incredibly kind and loving to pretty much everyone, even his evil family members. |
| 596 | * LoverNotAFighter: Initially, because he's a bard. Then he becomes a Dashing Swordsman, a prestige class that lets him use his Charisma as his primary attack stat. |
| 597 | * MadDictatorsHandsomeSon: His father is Tarquin, a Lawful Evil warlord. Elan's attempts to reconnect with his father after the party run into him on the Western Continent [[spoiler:cause conflict between him and Haley, who doesn't trust Tarquin's AffablyEvil demeanor and whose father is a prisoner of his regime.]] |
| 598 | * MadLibsCatchPhrase: "[[MagicMusic X, X, X, X the Y!]]" when using his Bardic Inspiration. This varies from the trivial ("Jump, jump, jump, jump, over the pit! "), to the trashtalking ("Deny, deny, deny deny the psychopathic egomaniac!") to the...unhelpful ("Bluff, bluff, bluff, bluff the revenge-driven kobold into not realizing that you're faking it on account of being under the effects of a magic curse that prevents you from doing lethal damage within a town, city, or other urban area!") |
| 599 | * MagicMusic: Being a bard, this is his stock-in-trade. He primarily employs it for (often ineffectual) {{Status Buff}}s, but also makes use of the Song of Freedom ability to [[spoiler:free Belkar from Girard's ''simulacrum'' trap]]. |
| 600 | * MagicWand: Haley picks him up a magic wand of ''cure moderate wounds''. |
| 601 | * {{Manchild}}: It's practically a RunningGag for Elan to display behavior fitting more with a not-so-bright kid than an adult (though he ''does'' still significantly mature and grow over the course of the comic). Notably, Roy has to baby-sit Elan, fixing at what time he could go to sleep for example. When [[spoiler:reunited with his father, Tarquin, he spends a full day enjoying the Empire of Blood equivalent to kiddy rides (riding dinosaurs)]]. |
| 602 | * ManicPixieDreamGuy: Fits this trope suprisingly well, being a childish, free-spirited, immature and beautiful man whose love gets the cynical and ruthless thief to lighten up, trust others and learn to enjoy life. |
| 603 | * MasterOfIllusion: "Master" is a bit generous, but Illusion is Elan's favored school of magic and the one he most relies on whenever he remembers to use his bardic spells. |
| 604 | * MeaningfulName: Elan's name is a French word that literally means "enthusiasm"/"liveliness". |
| 605 | * TheMedic: He's become the secondary healer after leveling up during the TimeSkip, which came in handy later with [[spoiler:Durkon's vampirism problem]]. |
| 606 | * MetaGuy: GenreSavvy is his only form of useful intelligence, and after he takes a level in Dashing Swordsman, he derives his new powers from adventure tropes. This is even invoked on occasion, with Roy trying to use Elan's talents here to help search for Girard's Gate while they're all in the desert by asking him to find "where the most dramatically appropriate location for the Gate would be" along with using his invocation of a searching montage to change the time from day to night so they can all rest. |
| 607 | * {{Metaphorgotten}}: A frequent trait of his, especially when giving speeches. |
| 608 | * MinMaxing: He's ironically the only member of the Order with an optimized build, since both Bard and Dashing Swordsman are primarily Charisma-based for Spellcasting and Swordfighting, respectively -- and Charisma is a stat that Elan has in spades. |
| 609 | * MommasBoy: Downplayed; he was raised by his kind and loving mother, a tavern waitress in their home village, after his father Tarquin left, taking Nale with him. Even as an adult, out on his own as an adventurer, he often brings her up and her parenting has clearly shaped the way he sees the world. It's telling that the Oracle, who everyone usually just remembers being a member of their own species due to his memory charm, is remembered by Elan as the spitting image of his mother. The first time he saves Nale is because his good angel pointed out his mom will cry if he doesn't. |
| 610 | * MoralityChain: He helps Haley develop beyond a greedy and selfish rogue; this is even why she fell in love with him. |
| 611 | -->'''Haley:''' ''[to her father]'' Elan is the best man I've ever met. Sure, he's a little dumb sometimes... [[NotHelpingYourCase Most of the time.]] But he's... I don't know. [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Pure]]. Honest. [[HeroicSelfDeprecation Better than I am, that's for sure]]. [[PositiveFriendInfluence He makes me a better person just by being around]], [[GoodFeelsGood and I like feeling that way]]. |
| 612 | * MotorMouth: Given the opportunity, Elan will talk someone's ear off by either [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} spouting various inane comments]] or [[MetaGuy giving meta-textual commentary]]. |
| 613 | * MrExposition: Most often through song, and with the addition of illusory magic to provide illustrations. Belkar lampshades it at the start of the final arc, calling him "Cap'n Recap". |
| 614 | * MrFanservice: [[invoked]] He's described as being a HeadTurningBeauty InUniverse, is [[BiggerIsBetterInBed apparently pretty well-endowed]], and has gotten naked the most times out of any of the comic's cast of male characters (albeit moreso [[NakedPeopleAreFunny for the sake of comedy]] than sex appeal). As such, he's probably the best example that the comic's artstyle will allow. It's particularly PlayedForLaughs when Therkla is EatingTheEyeCandy in [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0503.html "Surreptitious Admirer"]] and her espionage quickly becomes a comically long diatribe of FemaleGaze, {{Squick}}ing out Qarr in the process. |
| 615 | * MusicForCourage: A bard skill is boosting performance with song. He has varying success, though not for lack of trying. |
| 616 | * MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: Sometimes, as a result of his Genre Savviness. |
| 617 | -->'''Elan:''' [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0461.html ...Hey, did anyone else get that foreboding feeling just now?]] |
| 618 | * NakedPeopleAreFunny: His belief that being naked renders him [[{{Invisibility}} invisible]] is PlayedForLaughs a few times. |
| 619 | * NiceGuy: He's solidly "good" on the character alignment, being easily the friendliest and kindest member of the Order who intentionally tries to always look on the bright side of things along with going out of his way to keep everyone's spirits up and try to encourage the better side of everyone he comes into contact with. Easily one of the best examples of this is [[spoiler:when Nale is killed by Tarquin and he screams out in genuine anguish. Keep in mind, Elan knows '''exactly''' how evil Nale is at this point -- but Nale is still his ''brother''.]] See also TheHeart. |
| 620 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: The others have to call him on his stupid choices sometimes, especially Roy after the destruction of Dorukan's Gate. |
| 621 | * NobleShoplifter: |
| 622 | ** After escaping the Cliffport prison, he leaves a note of excuse in the clothes shop he's stealing from (since he doesn't have any money at all). |
| 623 | ** Later, he leaves gold after getting a new lute while fleeing Azure City. Especially notable since it's in the middle of an invasion and it's unlikely the store owner is even coming back. |
| 624 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: Heavily downplayed since he really ''is'' an utter ditz, but it's shown at times that several of his more outwardly self-destructive actions (e.g., setting off the self-destruct mechanism for Dorukan's Gate) are him trying to intentionally [[InvokedTrope invoke]] particular tropes he likes/thinks are appropriate to the story he thinks he's in. Part of his CharacterDevelopment involves him increasingly moving past this, even admitting to Roy in [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1230.html Strip #1230]] that the Order's previous cruelty towards him was slightly justified at the time thanks to him willfully acting as TheMillstone ForTheLulz. |
| 625 | * ObliviousToHisOwnDescription: At one point in ''Blood Runs in the Family'', when he and Haley are [[spoiler:trying to break Haley's father Ian out of the Empire of Blood's prison/gladiatorial arena]], their plans are momentarily foiled when it turns out that the Empire of Blood's guards are all given manuals giving them GenreSavvy-laden advice that forces them to flee. Cue the following conversation when Haley and Elan are running from a bunch of guards: |
| 626 | -->'''Elan:''' ''[exasperated]'' [[HypocriticalHumor Man! Is having someone who points out all the cliches in all your plans always this annoying?]]\ |
| 627 | '''Haley:''' ''[annoyed]'' I love you, so I'm not going to answer that. |
| 628 | * OddFriendship: |
| 629 | ** He gets along well with Thog, the evil and dimwitted barbarian -- probably because Thog is also TheDitz and comes across as ObliviouslyEvil. |
| 630 | ** Additionally, while "friendship" is admittedly pushing it when describing ''any'' kind of relationship involving [[TokenEvilTeammate Belkar]], Elan actually gets along (relatively speaking) well with the halfling ranger and probably has the most positive relationship with him out of any member of the party. Sure, Belkar may insult Elan a lot and [[ComedicSociopathy once even tried to kill him for]] XP, but has also insisted that they save Elan from bandits since [[PetTheDog "He makes me laugh,"]] and even trusted Elan to take care of his cat [[MoralityPet Mr. Scruffy]] while he and Roy were imprisoned. Most poignantly, [[spoiler:during the time the Order spent in [[LotusEaterMachine Girard's phantasm]] and Belkar is thought to be dead, only Elan and (to a far lesser extent) Haley are shown to be mourning the halfling (with [[TeethClenchedTeamwork Roy]] and an illusion of [[SitcomArchNemesis Vaarsuvius]] both being [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing visibly happy about Belkar having finally died]])]]. |
| 631 | * OneStatToRuleThemAll: Charisma is the key ability for his bardic music and bard spells, and his Dashing Swordsman levels let him apply it to attack and damage rolls as well. |
| 632 | * OnlyOneName: Unlike many other characters who have LukeNounverber names, but like his brother and father, he is just "Elan". |
| 633 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: |
| 634 | ** Generally speaking, whenever Elan's upset, he takes a level in snark, as evidenced with him getting angry with Vaarsuvius for [[spoiler:disintegrating Kubota simply for being a hindrance on them reuniting the rest of the Order]] or having to meet up with his father again [[spoiler:after the destruction of Girard's Gate]]. |
| 635 | ** Specifically when dealing with his ArchnemesisDad near the end of the Empire of Blood arc. To see Elan delivering TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to him and letting him plummet hundreds of feet from an airship with a cold, blank expression are rather jarring, considering he's a NiceGuy otherwise. |
| 636 | ** He also reacts with teeth-clenched anger whenever Kubota is around and minces no words that he ''hates'' the guy. Considering Elan can't muster that level of antipathy even towards the brother who's tried to murder him multiple times, it really goes to show what a slimeball Kubota is. |
| 637 | * OvershadowedByAwesome: In combat, he lacks Roy's physical power or Belkar's aggressiveness, and while he can do spells he isn't capable of V's firepower or healing as well as Durkon. He's perfectly fine with this. |
| 638 | -->'''Elan:''' I don't know why everyone complains about being overshadowed in combat. I always found it very relaxing. |
| 639 | * OutOfFocus: Through most of the story Elan has been getting almost as much limelight as [[TheLeader Roy]], but after defeating Tarquin he has been staying in the background and hasn't impacted the new plotline in any significant way. This lack of focus fits his decision to defy his father by not taking the lead and might even be an intentional (lack of) action on his part. |
| 640 | * PermaShave: He not only never has any facial hair from the start, but after Nale frames him by shaving off his own beard and gluing it to Elan's face, the glue apparently affects Elan's skin such that he now couldn't grow a beard even if he wanted to. |
| 641 | * PickedLast: Elan is picked last when the party splits. Even when there was ''nobody else left to pick'', Roy still didn't want to pick him. |
| 642 | * PositiveFriendInfluence: Elan's kindness and sheer optimism often brings about the best in everyone around him, such as him helping Haley realize that she wanted to be a legitimately better person and not just be "Chaotic Good-ish," while Therkla fell in love with him and performed the closest thing to a HeelFaceTurn she could manage [[spoiler:prior to her death]]. |
| 643 | * ThePowerOfActing: The Dashing Swordsman class is like playing the role of a movie-style ActionHero in real life. |
| 644 | * PrestigeClass: Dashing Swordsman. He's the only party member to take a prestige class (though he needed it most). |
| 645 | * ProphecyTwist: The Oracle of the Sunken Valley answered his question "Will this story have a happy ending?" by saying "Yes - for you, at least." [[spoiler:Near the climax of ''Blood Runs in the Family'', the Order of the Stick (sans V and Durkon) accidentally wander into a LotusEaterMachine while looking for Girard’s Gate, and the illusion gives them all a "happy ending" where they all won. Notably, Elan is able to SpotTheThread and snap both Roy and Haley out of it when he ultimately realizes that his overly idealized concept of a happy ending is too naïve and foolish to actually happen, and so their "happy ending" is false.]] |
| 646 | * ProtectorBehindBars: The danger Haley is in really inspires him to break out of jail. |
| 647 | * PungeonMaster: His Dashing Swordsman prestige class allows him to add his huge Charisma bonus to damage as long as he makes a pun with each attack. Fortunately, lame puns qualify, and Elan uses them to ''demoralize'' his enemy. |
| 648 | * QuirkyBard: Elan's the archetype before taking a prestige class... and often afterwards as well. His GenreSavvy and ditziness makes him plenty quirky. |
| 649 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives a deceptively simple yet incredibly effective one to his father during the FinalBattle of the ''Blood Runs in the Family'' arc after Tarquin begs Elan [[SaveTheVillain to help him aboard]] ''The Mechane'' [[WrongGenreSavvy so he can be imprisoned and later interrogated]] while hanging onto the airship's railing for dear life. Suffice to say, [[ItsAllAboutMe Tarquin]] gets absolutely ''wrecked'' psychologically when Elan points out how he's, at best, an ArcVillain. |
| 650 | -->'''Elan:''' You know, [[CallBack the first time I met Nale]], we ended up in almost the exact same situation. He wound up hanging over a pit of monsters, and I pulled him up. [[EvilCannotComprehendGood He didn't understand why I did it]]. I told him it was because [[CainAndAbel I was the Good twin]], [[WhatYouAreInTheDark not the Neutral twin]].\ |
| 651 | '''Tarquin:''' Good, good, glad to hear it. Now pull me up, I think my fingers are slipping.\ |
| 652 | '''Elan:''' But see, Dad, that's the thing. [[spoiler:[[AndThisIsFor I'm not a twin anymore]].]] And you're not the '''real''' villain.\ |
| 653 | ''[[[OhCrap Tarquin's eyes widen]] as he finally loses his grip and falls overboard]''\ |
| 654 | '''Elan:''' ''[mockingly]'' Don't worry. ''[[IronicEcho You'll live.]]'' |
| 655 | * RousingSpeech: |
| 656 | ** Spoofed in Elan's speech prior to the Battle of Azure City. He quotes a number of famous speeches, goes off on a tangent and then tries to use his bardic music. |
| 657 | ** On a more heartwarming note, he gives two more genuinely motivating and uplifting speeches later on in the comic, the first inspiring the rest of the Order to keep their hopes up [[spoiler:after breaking out of Girard's epic LotusEaterMachine]], and the second helping inspire the Order to get ready to beat Xykon after a drunken Roy completely blows his own attempt at one. |
| 658 | * RoyalRapier: His weapon of choice, although he's lost a few. His silver rapier was given to him by Julio Scoundrél [[spoiler:and sundered by his father]]. It's one of the few melee weapons Bards start their careers proficient with, and is likely integral to the ''Dashing Swordsman'' prestige class as well. |
| 659 | * RuleOfDrama: He mostly follows it, though he also knows [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0670.html when to avert it]]. [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0938.html Stories are fun, but they aren't worth hurting people over]]. |
| 660 | * RunningGag: His bard songs making things worse instead of helping, his belief that [[NakedPeopleAreFunny being naked makes you invisible]], and his {{Manchild}} antics. |
| 661 | * SarcasmBlind: Though Elan is slowly getting a better grasp of sarcasm, it's still hit-or-miss for him. |
| 662 | * SelfAwareLoon: Elan seems to be aware of his own ditziness and quirkiness on at least ''some'' level, particularly as he takes levels in competence and moves closer to being a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} GeniusDitz. For example, as noted above in Strip #727, he muses to Haley that the part of "secret" he doesn't understand is "obviously" the part where he doesn't tell other people. He also sometimes sets up jokes about his stupidity ''himself'', such as in #1091. |
| 663 | * ShatteringTheIllusion: [[spoiler:He's the first to realize the party was stuck in a LotusEaterMachine after descending Girard's pyramid, and subsequently assists the party in breaking out of it.]] |
| 664 | * ShipperOnDeck: During the bonus strips of ''Don't Split the Party'', he tries to set up Lien and Hinjo on a date, [[InsaneTrollLogic thinking they need to "repopulate the paladin race"]]. It goes nowhere because Lien already has a boyfriend and Hinjo does not want to date one of his subordinates [[UnequalPairing due to the power imbalances involved in it]]. |
| 665 | * ShowSomeLeg: Early on, this is his primary tactic with illusions -- make an attractive female version of the enemy's species. [[SubvertedTrope It never works as intended]], as his enemies tend to be married, gay, or [[GirlsHaveCooties Thog]]. |
| 666 | * TheSocialExpert: Because of his high charisma stat and storytelling knowledge, he can convince people to join his cause with ease. |
| 667 | * SoftGlass: The Dashing Swordsman PrestigeClass gives him immunity against damage from shattered glass. |
| 668 | * SomethingThatBeginsWithBoring: Elan with Roy, while waiting in the dragon's cave. |
| 669 | * TheSquire: Formerly the squire of a paladin, Sir François, who ditched Elan due to his constant incompetence. |
| 670 | * SuperWindowJump: He has taken a liking to glass-breaking dramatics since acquiring his Dashing Swordsman PrestigeClass. |
| 671 | * SupportPartyMember: MagicMusic and the occasional bardic knowledge check were pretty much the only things he contributed to the party for a long time, and he's also taken on the role of the team's secondary healer after the events of ''Blood Runs in the Family''. After taking levels in Dashing Swordsman, though, he's become able to play a more active role in combat. |
| 672 | * SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: |
| 673 | ** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0004.html When trying to help Roy bluff an ogre, he warns the ogre that they are bluffing]] and so it doesn't work. |
| 674 | ** Haley has to repeatedly remind him that singing can't ever improve moving silently. |
| 675 | * TemptingFate: GenreSavvy enough to become worried when someone invokes {{Retirony}}, for example. |
| 676 | * ThereWasADoor: Elan prefers to jump through windows even when doors are present, because his Prestige Class gives him immunity against damage from shattered glass. And because it's dramatic. At one point he specifically jumps through the window because they had left the door open, so he couldn't burst through it dramatically like everybody else. |
| 677 | * ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: His incredible Performance skills come in handy when fighting a beholder: he successfully makes a skill check to make the creature's eye water until it blinks by describing a hot and dusty desert, disrupting its anti-magic gaze-cone long enough for the party to get access to a key magic item. |
| 678 | * ToThePain: During ''Dungeon [=Crawlin'=] Fools'', he gives an... [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0101.html unconventional]] version when the Order is interrogating a goblin teenager for Haley's location and Roy's attempt at just bodily shaking the goblin into talking doesn't work. |
| 679 | -->'''Elan:''' But me, I have a different method of persuasion. Tell us what we need to know, ''or''--\ |
| 680 | '''Goblin Teen:''' Do your worst!\ |
| 681 | '''Elan:''' --I'll cry.\ |
| 682 | '''Goblin Teen:''' ...What?\ |
| 683 | '''Elan:''' You heard me. I'll start bawling like a toddler who dropped their ice cream on the sidewalk. In front of your friends, your teachers, any girls you like. And I'll tell them it's because '''you''' won't be my friend. \ |
| 684 | '''Goblin Teen:''' ''[[[FauxHorrific visibly horrified]]]'' ...You ''wouldn't.''\ |
| 685 | '''Elan:''' ''[leans in menacingly] I think I'm misting up already!'' |
| 686 | * TooDumbToFool: Shockingly ''subverted''. When [[spoiler:the team is under the influence of an illusion spell which makes them live through their greatest dreams, Elan is the one able to see through it, because while Roy and Haley have somewhat realistic desires, Elan's greatest wishes are, as he himself puts it, "stupid childish ideas that should never have happened". Thanks to his increased maturity, Elan is able to SpotTheThread and convince the other two that they need to snap out of their hallucination and return to the real world]]. |
| 687 | * TooDumbToLive: While he regularly gets into life-threatening situations and makes existing situations worse by his stupid actions, [[AvertedTrope he has not yet died]], although this is entirely thanks to his luck and the help of his friends. |
| 688 | * TookALevelInBadass: He is a quite literal example of this trope. Dashing Swordsman hugely improved his effectiveness because its power is based on his high Charisma. |
| 689 | * TragicDream: More than anything, he wants to see his family brought back together. A big part of his CharacterDevelopment is his coming to terms with the fact that Nale and Tarquin are irredeemable, and that he'll have to look [[FamilyOfChoice elsewhere]] for a happy ending. |
| 690 | * UpbringingMakesTheHero: Pointed out in an early strip, where Elan's happy childhood with his sweet, loving mother is responsible for turning him into the good-hearted lovable goofball he is, while his brother's father turned him into a miserable sociopath. [[spoiler:As he grieves over his brother, he laments that while Nale may have deserved what he got, he might have been no better if their positions were reversed. While the readers know this isn't ''quite'' true, since Nale was whacking Elan when they were babies, it's still a powerful and tragic moment.]] |
| 691 | -->'''Elan:''' [[spoiler:He was your SON! Not a plot element! And if he were kind of a crappy person, it's because YOU made him that way!]] |
| 692 | * WanderingMinstrel: He's a bard; his understanding of [[{{Tropes}} fictional devices]] is part of what gives him power. |
| 693 | * WhatTheHellHero: Does this to V for [[spoiler:[[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0596.html disintegrating Kubota]]]], using his illusion casting abilities to drive it home. |
| 694 | -->'''Elan:''' ''[to Vaarsuvius]'' Wow, V, you're absolutely right. It's ''totally cool'' for us to go around killing people. As long as it make it more convenient for us, why worry? I mean, it's not as if knowing that we need to ''lie about it to the paladin'' is a good indication that it may be the wrong idea.\ |
| 695 | '''[[MasterOfIllusion Illusion]] [[TokenEvilTeammate Belkar]]:''' I honestly don't see any problem with that plan. Rock on, elf buddy!\ |
| 696 | '''V:''' Your swift progression with illusions is overshadowed only by [[SarcasmMode your long overdue grasp of the basics of sarcasm]]. |
| 697 | * WhatWouldXDo: When forced to think for himself, his default tactic seems to be "work out what Roy would say". |
| 698 | * WhiteMaleLead: Defied (much to his father's annoyance), with Elan instead serving as the PluckyComicRelief among the Order. Tarquin's attempts at {{Railroading}} Elan into taking up the leadership mantle only further ensure that Elan stays in his current position among the team, to the point where he's deliberately OutOfFocus in the following two story arcs. |
| 699 | * WholeCostumeReference: In ''War and [=XPs=]'', he dons a [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Locke Cole]] outfit (complete with wig) to attempt to sneak onto an airship with the other protagonists of that game. They end up throwing him off the ship, but Elan keeps the outfit. However, ArtEvolution would later show that Elan's outfit has sleeves, something Locke's outfit lacks. |
| 700 | * WithCatlikeTread: Elan is spectacularly bad at stealth, as shown in the strip when he '''[[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0090.html ROLLS A 4!]]''' on his Move Silently check, and when Haley has to remind him that singing to encourage his companions to move silently across the battlefield is counterproductive. The one time he manages to use stealth effectively, he immediately sneaks back into the bandit camp he'd just escaped from because he feels it is his duty as a bard to seduce the bandit queen. |
| 701 | * YouFightLikeACow: It's part of his Dashing Swordsman skillset, but he hasn't exactly mastered this move yet. Although he did quite well during his battle with Nale just after getting the Dashing Swordsman class. |
| 702 | -->'''Nale:''' We're identical twins, you idiot! You just insulted yourself!\ |
| 703 | '''Elan:''' Really? 'cause you seem to have a couple more holes in you right now. |
| 704 | [[/folder]] |
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