The Order of the Stick

On the one hand, I kinda like in a morbidly funny way that Hilgya is considerate enough of a mother to Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears when she was offing Durkon.

On the other hand, just being in a highly stressful environment with its loud noises and constant anxiety emanating from the others will take its toll on Kudzu's psyche. Judging by how the baby doesn't seem to be affected by that at all, it probably already did.

Rule of Funny in action, though.

Edited by Millership on Dec 18th 2018 at 6:27:04 PM

Spiral out, keep going.

Im waiting until their conversation is over before coming to any conclusions.

Agreed.

On top of that... of course Hilgya lit him up. She's been promising herself this for ages, she said she'd raise him just to murderise him again... and she's got a major issue with the institution of marriage (and has gone on at length about what she thinks of tradition for tradition's sake). Also, this is an extended (and pointed) application of "the Cleric's Feather Fall" in action. As part of a major disagreement on world views.

Pop the question out of the blue to make an honest woman out of her on top everything else: get a free roasting with complimentary chili bites. It's not rocket science. She's also wrong to do it this way, but wrong in a reasonable way that makes sense, given what we know of her.

Edited by Euodiachloris on Dec 18th 2018 at 2:53:38 PM

Like I said, this was so perfectly Hilgya. Offering to rez him again almost counts as character development.

Hilgya has been stalking someone in order to murder them over a rejection.

Durkon was not under any obligation to be in a relationship with her, and while he was impolite and hurtful and missed an opportunity to do good, that's not the same as evil, and it certainly doesn't give her any right to punish him for it. He had every right to reject her.

The narrative is being ridiculously harsh to Durkon and ludicrously lenient to Hilgya, who is stalking someone in order to murder them over a romantic rejection.

Hilgya is full-blown Chaotic Evil to the core, no ifs-buts-or-maybes. Being cute and funny doesn't make you any less evil, and I'm disappointed that the narrative isn't treating her like the murderous creep that she is.

Edited by LogicDragon on Dec 18th 2018 at 3:23:33 PM

I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

I agree.

If only the comic had ever pointed that out to us directly.

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Dec 18th 2018 at 6:23:24 PM

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I think the difference here is that Hilgya will probably get away with it.

I mean I assume the fact that he got her pregnant and also got angry with her for trying to escape an bad situation also had something to do with it.

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

You know, the whole "told her to go to back to an abusive relationship" thing makes sense, but I'll never understand why people talk as if her getting pregnant is something she has any right to blame him for.

He didn't force her to have unprotected sex. If the situation were she got pregnant and he disavowed her or something that would be one thing, but just her getting pregnant is not something that unilaterally falls on him like I've seen a lot of people implying.

And beyond that, she doesn't seem upset about the pregnancy or having a kid anyway.

Edited by LSBK on Dec 18th 2018 at 1:07:37 PM

I find it weird that people think the narrative is treating hilgya sympathetically and durkon harshly?

Like, the narrative's clearly apathetic, but it seems like a just tone to take when the plot story is "we are allying with evil people because the end goal is so much bigger". It's a similar tone to a lot of stuff belkar got.

Read my stories!

There's argument because Hilgya was legitimately put into a terrible situation, and so people debate whether her actions to get out of it, and any subsequent actions of retribution count as evil or not.

Personally, I'm not totally sure if Hilyga is capital E Evil or not, but regardless of her actual alignment I'm fine calling her a terrible person. I don't think the story expects us to think she isn't, either.

Edited by LSBK on Dec 18th 2018 at 1:11:38 PM

She is a terrible person who was Also put in the terrible situation. That's kind of Hilgya's entire character, isn't it? She has sympathetic reasons to do what she does, but also goes over the top every time.

Read my stories!

Yeah, but then you have stuff like this where you still have people going "Well, that was bad, but I understand why she did it and I think he deserved it."

Which is....yeah.

Like toasting Durkon for being a jerk.

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

And since she is now back, I expect some development is in her future.

It's made more complicated by how her Husband is shown to be genuinely trying to make her happy and make the best of things, which still doesn't stop her from trying to just murderize him.

So yeah, bad situation, which she did not handle well.

Neither did Durkon, even without knowledge of what her husband was like.

It was still a horrible move to kill him again after such a lengthy and heartfelt apology, but whether you think he made the wrong move or that she'd have done that no matter what, it happened....and I laughed.

One Strip! One Strip!

Relax guys, she's rich now, she can just rez him again.

The very fact that she is planning to raise him again does influence the actual harm committed by killing him in an interesting way. It's the whole Death Is Cheap thing; does killing someone and then immediately resurrecting them really carry the same moral value as murder, or is it more equivalent to a punch in the face?

And how much does the factor of whether or not someone's already inclined to like or hate Hilgya affect their answer on that?

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 18th 2018 at 1:05:13 PM

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I mean, it's better than just leaving him dead, but I'd definitely say it's way more than a simple punch in the face.

And I'd also argue that being so casual/callous with a person's life because "I can bring them back" also says something terrible about her as a person. Maybe not "evil" but, again, I've been thinking that Hilgya was generally an awful person without really caring about her specific alignment for a while now so this doesn't really change my perception of her one way or another.

As I've seen someone else put it, if I rob a bank but then immediately return the money, am I not responsible for robbing the bank in ther first place?

Edited by LSBK on Dec 18th 2018 at 2:10:26 PM

@49060

Ee... I've actually been seeing something like that as a meme on Facebook, basically stating that because males are always fertile and women are only periodically so, a man is always at fault from any pregnancy, is inherently guilty, even if both parties were aware of the possibility and consenting.

That is an interesting question. I'm not a lawyer, but I think you'd be on the hook for lesser crimes depending on the nature of how you robbed them - which would then further be plea bargained down. I doubt you'd get off with worse than a slap on the wrist.

If you point a gun at someone and demand their wallet, then immediately return their wallet without taking anything from it, you'd still be charged for pointing the gun at them. But probably not for the theft of their wallet.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 18th 2018 at 1:18:13 PM

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Anyway, some people seem to be expecting (or even hoping...) that Durkon goes to Hel for the brief period time between his next come back, but I don't get thinking anything is going to come from that.

And it's assuming he'd even go to Hel at all.

So. If I pickpocketed you, then handed you your wallet, without having stolen any of its contents

did I do anything wrong?

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

I'm fairly sure the next strip will start with "Raise Dead!" and Durkon coming back, and then Hilgya speaking her mind. The panels will parallel the current strip's. I don't think we'll get any scenes of Durkon's spirit, wherever it is; we just did a ton of that.

edit: If there's no robbery/assault, that's just being a bit mischievous, a Lovable Rogue. You see that sort of thing all the time, usually as a lesson for the victim to keep better track of his things.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on Dec 18th 2018 at 3:36:58 PM