The Order of the Stick continues to annoy me, though not enough to get me to stop reading. I mean seriously, why couldn't Xykon's phylactery have fallen into the Snarl so that when he dies and his soul goes to it he ceases to exist forever? But no, instead of a super dramatic end to the arc... it falls into the sewer. Fuck. Why?
I know. That burst of activity where O'Chul bust out of prison and started wrecking peoples' asses was a reminder to the good old days, which makes me just think he's in a slump -- as opposed to jumping the shark.
But to answer your question, I suspect that Burlew has sort of fallen in love with his villain so doesn't want to screw him over too much or keep him out of the spotlight. I like Xykon, but he has a tendency to overexpose himself. He doesn't play off of the heroes like a good villain should and doesn't seem to have much in the way of tactics other than 'fly and blast'. So I think that this is a mistake.
My fanwank theory? Redcloak should usurp Xykon and take head honcho status. Even though he has the same problem of not really having much to do with the characters other than being an obstacle, he's at least a more interesting character.
I'm also annoyed that V's appearance reverted back to normal when the Splice ended. I mean for fuck's sake, Rich actually had his characters say that a change in appearance was a good way to indicate change-why couldn't V stay looking all evil and stuff to indicate that he had actually changed from all this?
Probably because except for (arguably) the Dragon thing Varsuuvius isn't actually being evil.
But as it stands right now, the good he did in those 20 minutes of the soul splice far outweighs anything he's done in the entire strip. I really would like to think that Burlew is too talented a writer (and I believe that he is) to keep pushing this plot point despite the fact that it's clearly not working.
