Serini explains why she captured the paladins.
Cast[]
Transcript[]
- Panel 1
O-Chul: None of this explains why you have detained us. If Xykon is your enemy, then we have that in common and should work together.
Serini: Oh yes! The only threats more terrifying than an old lady with a blowgun are the two clowns who got beat by the same old lady!
Serini: Surely the sorcerer lich quakes at the thought of these two unstoppable powers joining forces!
- Panel 2
Serini: I'm sure you both have very grandiose ideas about your place in the grand scheme of things, but I'm here to let you know:
Serini: You don't have the juice.
Serini: You don't even have the bottle that the juice would go in.
- Panel 3
O-Chul: I have few illusions about my own stature in that regard, but that hardly justifies imprisoning us.
Serini: But it does. In this exact case, it actually does.
- Panel 4
Serini pokes at O-Chul with her staff—"poke poke".
Serini: And to understand why, let me ask you a question:
Serini: Given that Xykon is so much stronger than you, are you willing to do whatever it takes to stop him from taking control of the Gate?
- Panel 5
Lien:Yes, duh, of course! I mean, within the bounds of our paladin oaths.
O-Chul: Too many of my friends died trying to stop him for me to do otherwise.
Serini: And that's exactly why I need to dump you somewhere far away.
- Panel 6
O-Chul: You…believe it will require actions we are unwilling to take because we are paladins?
Serini: No, I think you stopping him will require actions you'll consider fully within bounds for your oaths.
Serini: That's the problem.
- Panel 7
Serini: Look, I'm not as paranoid as Girard. I don't think you paladins are going to suddenly flip and try to take over.
Serini: But I do think there's only one way you two chuckleheads have any chance of stopping Xykon—
Serini: —and that's destroying the Gate.
- Panel 8
Serini: I think you're more than capable of deciding that it would be better to blow up the world than let Xykon win.
Serini: Heck, you may even feel your paladin oaths require you to do so, to minimize the overall suffering.
Serini: But I can't let that happen.
- Panel 9
O-Chul: I can understand your concern, but I assure you we have no intention of destroying the Gate.
Serini: Oh! Oh, no intention, you say. Perhaps I misjudged you, sir!
- Panel 10
Serini: I'm sure you could put my feeble little mind at ease by, say…
Serini: …swearing to your Twelve Gods that you are someone who would never, under any circumstances, try to destroy such a Gate.
O-Chul: Uh…
- Panel 11
Beat. Flashback to the throne room, with O-Chul preparing to destroy the sapphire that binds Azure City's Gate. Xykon is right behind him, ready to paralyze.
- Panel 12
O-Chul: Is there maybe a way to rephrase that so it's more of a forward-going promise?
Serini: Sure, sure. "May the Twelve Gods strike me down if, in the future, it turns out someone used my personal katana to shatter a Gate."
Serini: Yes? No? Just spitballing here.
D&D Context[]
- Paladin's must adhere to a Code of Conduct. If they ever transgress this code they can have their paladin abilities stripped by their god(s).
Trivia[]
- The flashback panel is a scene from #448, "Just Crazy Enough to Work". While it depicts a moment also portrayed in that comic, it is new art done in the current artistic style.
External Links[]