after writing an essay on the paladin of all time, i had to make this joke

Paladin Tourney - Preliminary Poll #8 (Order of the Stick)

O-Chul (Order of the Stick) vs. Miko Miyazaki (Order of the Stick)

Propaganda:

O-Chul

OotS is a D&D webcomic, so of course they have paladins—a whole faction of them called the Sapphire Guard, ranging from Lawful Stupid crusaders to rule-bending youths to one old aristocrat without a PC class level to his name. And then there's O-Chul. If Miko is everything wrong with paladins, O-Chul is everything that be right about them. He's noble and honorable, sticking to his paladin oaths...most of the time. Unlike Miko, he's willing to recognize when bending the oaths is Good and when failing to uphold them is inevitable. He cares about friends and allies, doing what he can to protect them; he shows empathy towards many of his enemies, most notably the Monster in the Darkness. He's a good, heroic dude who encourages others to be better. His heroism isn't just a matter of attitude. A paladin has strong fortitude and will, and O-Chul excels at both, even if his reflexes are rather poor. He endured months of imprisonment, torture, and villains betting on whether he'd survive the torture without losing either his life or his compassion towards (some of) the people betting on him. And judging by his implied level and lack of paladin class features, this paladin's paladin has at least twice as many fighter levels as paladin levels.

Miko Miyazaki

In a DnD-inspired world, she’s so how-not-to-play-a-paladin that her trying to be a paladin brought the end of the world one out of five steps closer

The Saga of Lead Sheeting

miko miyazaki they could never make me hate you

redraw of this "what if tsukiko did turn miko into an undead" drawing. i stand by my idea that it would be max edgy impractical problematique etc. like. it's tsukiko

Looking back it's very obvious how formative Vaarsuvius's little speech here was on my taste in shipping.

Love me some juxtaposition.

Controversial Character Tournament Round 1: Miko Miyazaki from Order of the Stick

order of the stick spoilers below!

This entire sequence gave me major Star Wars vibes

Somehow, while I was reading Order of the Stick #406-409, I was both “Oh my god noooooooooooo Miko girl stop this isn’t you 🥺🥺🥺🥺” and “Oh my god somebody obliterate this girl NOW 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥”

My dope OC Miko Miyazaki whose deal is she’s an honor bound samurai so honor bound that she doesn’t understand how to form relationships with other people because she’s so obsessed with serving her weird gods and all of our Western protagonists think she’s super annoying except when they want to fuck her because she’s also really hot!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Miko Miyazaki was Vriska before Vriska.

my continuing OOTS brainworms and obsession with the Worst Paladin led me to commission this lovely thing from @bewarethewarp. go follow her twitter! she has commissions open!

FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE WHO LIKES ORDER OF THE STICK it’s one of my favorite stories Ever and I’ve been reading it over half my life but I almost never get to talk about it lol. What’s your fav arc mine is Blood Runs In The Family.

YEAAS it's so good lichrally my favorite webcomic!! I only discovered it in 2018 so I haven't been reading nearly as long but I'm always criminally disappointed it isn't more popular. My favorite arc is prolly the Azure City one, War and XPs I think? Redcloak is everything to me and I really love it when heroes actually lose things that by all storytelling conventions they would normally win. Also Miko Miyazaki my god. I won't spoil the ending of her story to anyone who hasn't read the comic (DO IT) but the last panel with her..... wrow

Paladiary Day 22: Order of the Stick

Yes, I'm still going this, dang it.

As mentioned before, by paladin identity was influenced (even awakened, one could say) by playing a paladin in a D&D game. So it's influenced by D&D-specific lore (though not limited to it alone). And before I ever played a game myself, my knowledge of D&D was basically learned through reading the Order of the Stick webcomic.

OOTS is an excellent webcomic. It plays with fantasy tropes and expectations of a standard D&D setting. And like any very good satire, it ends up questioning and deconstructing and reconstructing the very fundamental ideas of the world. I find it legitimately tragic that some of the best writing I've ever read will be dismissed out of hand by someone because it happens to be a stick figure webcomic. It has foreshadowing and call backs spanning hundreds of pages and literal years. It has a deep-hitting deconstruction of assigned villainy and 'always chaotic evil' races. And of course, it has paladins.

There are multiple paladin characters in OOTS. And given the satirical nature of the comic, each of them is tackling a different aspect of what a paladin is and what that means.

There's Miko Miyazaki. She's meant as an example of a certain stereotype of paladin players in D&D. She's lawful to the point of self-brutality. She imposes her will, often violently, on others and refuses to see any flexibility or shades of grey. She's holier-than-thou and refuses to accept that she might make mistakes or ever be in the wrong. One of the best moments with her character is when another Lawful Good character calls her out for using the Law as a weapon to use against others, and not caring about the actual worth and dignity of other sentient beings. Miko is a warning, a what-not-to be.

There's O-Chul. O-Chiul is, perhaps, the idealistic example. He's not the paladin I relate to most, but he's the one I look up to. He is wise and humble. He acts carefully, willing to wait for the right moment, but never being ruled by sheer pragmatism, and always looking for the time to act. In many ways everything Miko isn't, O-chul is the one that teaches a monster to care for it's heart and mind, and attend to it's own moral compass. His prominent character trait is persistence (one saving throw at a time).

There's Hinjo. Hinjo is a character study in balance. He is the heir to the city's ruler (who was, himself, not a paladin). And as the events of the story progress, finds himself regularly questioning his role and oaths as a paladin, and his duties as a civic leader. He often does have to take the pragmatic view of things, choose the big picture of his populace over more personal drives (like vengeance) and more high-minded ideals. He acts in accordance with honor and duty but what is honorable or what his duty is changes with the circumstances. Also he has a cool wolf.

There's Lien. She (alongside Hinjo) is perhaps the paladin in OOTS I find most personally relatable. She's not an extremist like Miko or a wise elder like O-Chul or a monarch like Hinjo. Her family are fishermen. But when her city was in need and lives were in danger, she picked up a spear and stood her ground. She's brave and resourceful and has a sense of humor.

And that's not even getting into the non-paladin characters that end up presenting important questions on the nature of lawfulness and goodness and right. I could probably pull pages and pages of quotes from OOTS that exemplify my thoughts and ideals and philosophies in this sense.

miko miyazaki. you agree. reblog

miko fancam be upon ye