Parable - 60 - HD (Patreon)

 "It's just a little renounced! It's still good! It's still good!"

Commentary

This will, of course, take at least twelve comics.

I wasn't going to bother having Rhoda realize her own cutscene blunder, but then I realized I could get to paraphrase the movie Chinatown.

For the sake of this comic, I prefer the "we're going to need another monk" approach. If this were an actual video game, I would have the ritual not being performed in time be a consequence of doing this quest while in this state of only "technically" being evil. It wouldn't be a direct choice you make, but rather the effect your past choices had on another person's decisions, which I think is fair. If a story's going to emphasize morality, there should be room for unforeseen consequences.

In my "you're technically good and have done good things" ending to the quest, Rhoda would still grab the hammer, but renounce nothing, and perform the ritual afterword. Instead of Rhoda rejecting life in the temple, it would be others in the temple rejecting her, claiming her violent actions were not justified regardless of the circumstances.

Whatever higher power was at play, however, would seem to disagree, as the ritual would still succeed.

The tragedy of my hypothetical "technically evil" ending would be that the ritual definitely would have worked in spite of Rhoda's renouncement. She would choose not to do the ritual, thinking herself unworthy, even though it actually would have worked just fine.

AIN'T THAT A DOWNER? There's a reason I'm not doing that in the comic itself.