This is the thread for discussion of The Order of the Stick plot, characters, etc. We have a separate thread
for discussing game rules and mechanics. Excessive rules discussions here may be thumped as off-topic.
OP edited to make this header - Fighteer
edited 18th Sep '17 1:08:08 PM by Fighteer
One thing I was also reminded of is that incident in his "bad, old days" (pre-Epiphany) where Belkar casually murdered that gnome guy (who watched Fox) and justified it to Haley and Celia by commenting that the guy was just an NPC there to provide some color.
I think what I'm getting at is that basically, while Belkar was right about the guy's role in the story (just like Tarquin is often right), just because a character has a role in the story doesn't mean they aren't also an individual with a rich, off-screen inner life (even if they watch Fox).
Edit, edit, edit, edit the wikiYeah, whenever a significant character tries to pull the "NPCs don't matter" card, it tends to backfire in some way.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Further diagnosis of Tarquin's thought process:
1. Tropes Are Tools. 2. Tropes entail narratives playing out in certain ways. 3. People fulfill narrative roles. 4. People are Tropes. 5. Therefore, People are Tools.
edited 9th Sep '13 2:43:02 PM by Hodor
Edit, edit, edit, edit the wikiTBH, I think it's rather more likely that he started with "people are tools" and rationalized it with the thought process you describe. That is how actual sociopaths operate.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"So, a sociopath is effectively indistinguishable from someone who reads too much Tv Tropes?
edited 9th Sep '13 2:46:11 PM by Hodor
Edit, edit, edit, edit the wiki"Tarquin initially went into the "rule an evil empire" plan when he believed that he would face a non-dramatic death, probably at the hands of "some random peasant schmuck""
I read that as him previously thinking he would be the Evil Overlord overthrown by a plucky Farm Boy, and being satisfied with that (classic story formula, after all), but realising once Elan turned up that being overthrown by his own estranged son was miles better. He's only dismissive of the hypothetical peasant schmuck in comparison to Elan.
Incidentally, that woman from the Free City of Doom also owes T a grisly end. What else was she introduced for?
I don't really think he'd been expecting an anticlimactic death. Remember, Luke Skywalker was a farmboy. Tarquin sees himself as Palpatine.
Just because the person who kills you is low-class doesn't mean it can't be dramatic; even a peasant revolt would have been a satisfactory end in his mind, I think; it would've been dramatic.
What he fears is ending in a way that's either comedic or mundane; dying alone to a disease or an animal or an accident would be his worst nightmare, I expect. EDIT 2: Or a run-of-the-mill assassin; that'd be just as bad. He wants a noisy death that everyone will read about in the history books.
EDIT: Fail; I managed to say the exact same thing as the above post without reading it. :/
edited 9th Sep '13 6:03:25 PM by Knowlessman
i care but i'm restless, i'm here but i'm really gone, i'm wrong and i'm sorry, babyTarquin sees himself more as Darth Vader, complete with the Luke, I Am Your Father moment he's been waiting FOREVER for
.
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His last line before dying will be a riff on "no retreating in my moment of triumph."
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Actually, word of the Giant confirmed the naming similarities to be a coincidence. Same with Malack and Malak
.
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Something I've speculated on is that Tarquin likes the image of Darth Vader because Vader was Easily Forgiven for his crimes. I'm not sure that Tarquin necessarily sees himself as Vader (except in the sense of being an Archnemesis Dad), bu it has an appeal.
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I would love to. But I can't whistle.
There's also Tarquin
, last Roman king. and if you care about urban dictionary
...
Mind you, it's a trope, and he (probably) reads Tv Tropes. He could have never seen the movie (although that's astronomically unlikely), and he'd still know that reference. Hell, I don't think Moff Tarkin's name was ever mentioned in the movie.
Also, if one attaches Annie's portrayal to the Darth Vader theory, it starts making inordinate amounts of sense.
edited 9th Sep '13 8:26:18 PM by Knowlessman
i care but i'm restless, i'm here but i'm really gone, i'm wrong and i'm sorry, babyTarkin's name is most definitely mentioned in the film.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Re: Malack and Tarquin's names, it's kind of amazing that he ended up picking three "random" names in the Empire of Blood that all link back to Star Wars (Tarquin/Tarkin, Malack/Malak, and the paladin Kotor from the "Macebook" gag).
edited 9th Sep '13 8:28:59 PM by Shale
Nope. It was going to be Malachi, but he decided at the last minute that it sounded overly demonic. "Malack" was him tweaking the name to be less Obviously Evil.
edited 9th Sep '13 8:45:39 PM by Shale
...which is weird, because Malachi is an Hebrew prophet and Moloch is an evil Canaanite god of infant cannibalism...
ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NO

Those jokes over NPC names are partly in-universe and partly tongue-in-cheek. We've seen how NPCs can be characterized and given meaningful lives, but those "Goblin Cleric #3" jokes are supposed to serve as Lampshade Hanging and mockery of things like Nominal Importance and What Measure Is a Mook?.
Redcloak certainly recognizes the identities of his subordinates and values his people as a whole, even if he is willing to sacrifice some of them to achieve a goal. Roy, for his part, has been caught several times doing the "NPCs don't matter" bit, and has occasionally paid for it.
edited 9th Sep '13 2:27:12 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"