Miko Miyazaki

Superherobox


caption=Miko Miyazaki (after losing her Paladin powers), drawn by Rich Burlew.
comic_color=background:#8080ff
character_name=Miko Miyazaki
real_name=
publisher=Giant In The Playground
debut="The Order of the Stick" #120, first revealed in #200
creators=Rich Burlew
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
status=Active
alliances=Sapphire Guard of Azure City
previous_alliances=
aliases=
relatives=
powers=Highly skilled warrior, proficient in two-weapon fighting, possesses monk evasive skills. Formerly possessed paladin abilities|

Miko Miyazaki was a major recurring antagonist in the webcomic The Order of the Stick, by Rich Burlew. Young female attendants in Shinto shrines are known as Miko, but Rich Burlew claims this to be coincidence.

History

Miko was sent by Lord Shojo of Azure City to retrieve the Order in order to fulfill plans of his own. Informed that they were dangerous criminals, Miko was determined to lawfully slay the group [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0120.html from the start] , but under orders from Shojo that they should be brought to him alive, she agreed to do so if possible. She hunted the Order for roughly eighty comics, following closely in their wake and, in the process, slaying two evil characters spared by the Order who threatened her after release. Eventually, she caught up with the Order and [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0200.html engaged them in combat] during a thunderstorm, which severely hampered the Order's ability to fight against her. This, combined with the reluctance of Durkon Thundershield to fight (as he was convinced that the presence of the storm indicated that his deity, Thor, didn't want the Order to slay their attacker) allowed Miko to gain upper hand in the fight.

With their non-evil credentials mostly [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0202.html established] (Belkar Bitterleaf used a lead sheet to block Miko's scan), the Order agreed to accompany Miko peacefully to Azure City in order to prove their innocence. While travelling with them, Miko managed to repeatedly offend the group, partly through her sanctimonious and judgemental comments and partly through failure to include others in decision-making. By the end of the Weary Travelers Inn subplot, a situation that was, somewhat ironically, begun when the Order [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0224.html overruled] her intent to sleep in the wild when the Inn was nearby, Roy spoke for the group (other than the again reluctant Durkon) in refusing to accompany her any further, stating that they would only return if she dragged them back in chains. In an unseen combat situation, Miko narrowly defeated all five rebellious Order members single handedly, and [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0251.html did exactly that] (though Roy Greenhilt laments that it is only because of the 'stupid railroad plot').

Bringing the group to Azure City as prisoners, she came into direct conflict with the escaping Belkar Bitterleaf, who taunted Miko to come after him by leaving messages [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0265.html written in the blood] of a slain prison guard. The two ended up facing off in a battle that raged around the castle. Miko eventually bested Belkar in a [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0284.html dramatic entrance] into Lord Shojo's hall, and nearly killed him (which is, in fact, what Belkar wanted, theoretically to induce Miko's Fall from paladinhood). However, the paladin was stopped by Vaarsuvius, claiming that no matter how much (s)he disliked Belkar, (s)he still preferred him to Miko. With the rest of the Order opposed to Belkar's execution, Miko prepared to take on the entire Order before finishing her quarry, but was stopped in her tracks by an order from Lord Shojo, whom she both respected and revered.

Miko subsequently vowed that the Order of the Stick would suffer for their defiance, and prayed that their demise would be at her hands, for allowing party loyalty to stand between her and finishing Belkar.Her most recent assignment was to carry a message from Durkon Thundershield north into the dwarven homelands and to return with a response from his high priest. She also took the opportunity to buy Lord Shojo a souvenir, a bottle of well-aged fine dwarvish brandy. She was on the return leg of her journey and [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0368.html arrived at a watchtower] in Azure City's territory just as it was attacked by Xykon and Redcloak. She attacked Redcloak on sight, acknowledging him as the bearer of the 'Crimson Mantle', whose previous bearer was slain by her Paladin order. She defeated him, but was imprisoned in a forcecage by Xykon before she could finish the goblin off, something that caused her enormous frustration. She managed to escape by weakening the floor with an explosion (created using the potent dwarven brandy) and pushing the forcecage off, something the spell (a variant of the normal forcecage called "Xykon's Moderately Escapeable Forcecage", after its creator) was designed to do. She later [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0374.html faced off against] the Monster in the Darkness in a game of "Who Can Hit the Lightest", a game that he lost when he managed to knock Miko far away through the wall of the tower (with Windstriker following and landing on Miko). Learning the identity of her captor, she came to the conclusion that the Order of the Stick lied about defeating Xykon, believing that they are aligned with him and swore to bring them to justice for their duplicity. The letter she had received for Durkon from the new High Priest of Thor was [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0375.html found] in her dropped purse and eaten by the Creature in the Darkness.

It was subsequently revealed that Xykon orchestrated Miko's escape, in order to provide him a suitable scrying target for locating the Azure City gate (based on the assumption that the city's paladins will be called to the Gate's defense during the siege). Miko returned to Azure City, apparently without further incident, only to [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0405.html overhear] a conversation between Lord Shojo and Roy Greenhilt where the pair discussed the duplicitous lengths that Shojo had gone to get the Order to Azure City, and how he was using the Order to get around the oath sworn by all the Sapphire Guard paladins along with Hinjo, Shojo's nephew. This led her to the conclusion that Shojo was plotting with Xykon to overthrow the Sapphire Guard. Despite Hinjo's pleas to put Shojo in a fair trial, Miko, in her capacity as the highest ranking paladin in the Guard, judged Shojo to be guilty of treason. Drawing her sword, she [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0406.html executed] him. This caused the Twelve Gods to revoke her powers as a Paladin, an act which seemed to surprise her. In addition, her clothes underwent a notable change at the very moment of Lord Shojo's death, turning from blue to a more bleached or faded appearance. Roy confronted her, leading Miko to immediately accuse him of manipulating her into slaying her lord. The two fought, with Miko coming off worst, until she was able to temporarily stun Roy and attempt to flee the building, with only Belkar standing in her way. She was about to kill the halfling when Hinjo [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0409.html interceded] , telling her that she was under arrest for murder. She attempted to explain her actions and failed miserably, contradicting herself and generally making little sense. Hinjo talked to her calmly and nearly persuaded her to hand over her sword and face trial, when she suddenly took a swing at him. The pair fought, with Miko swiftly getting the upper hand before Roy stepped in, sending Miko flying into a wall and knocking her out. She woke up in a jail cell, where Belkar and the other jail residents [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0419.html welcomed her] and acknowledged her first evil act with a hearty round of applause.

When questioned about her fallen status by Sabine, Miko insisted that she has not fallen despite all evidence to the contrary. Sabine extended an offer of conversion to Blackguard, despite Nale's observation that Miko was hardly Linear Guild material. Sabine tried to press the point by saying Miko would look good in black leather, but Miko responded by snapping Sabine's neck barehanded and entering meditation, leaving Sabine irritated and with her head stuck looking over one shoulder. As the battle for Azure City began, Miko was locked in meditation, asking her Gods for guidance.

Miko [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0460.html broke out] shortly after the Linear Guild escaped, believing a crack in her prison bars caused by the damage to the tower to be a sign that the Twelve Gods wanted her to do so. She kicked the weakened bar in half. Once free, she was horrified at the state of Azure City and restated her oath to bring the Order down, assuming them to have had a hand in the city's ruin. She also believes that Hinjo is attempting to usurp her position as the highest ranking paladin. As she brooded over this, she overheard Xykon fighting in the nearby throne room, and with her oath to protect the Gate taking precedence over her desire for vengeance, headed in that direction. Shocked at the chaotic battle occurring within the throne room, Miko, believing that her path was now clearly laid out before her, [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0461.html entered] the room. While Soon battled, incapacitated and was about to kill Xykon and Redcloak, Miko approached the throne and [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0462.html shattered] the gem that holds Soon's gate. This resulted in a massive [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0463.html explosion] that destroyed the Gate and most of the castle around it. Torn in half in the ensuing explosion, Miko was then [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0464.html visited] by the spirit of Soon Kim, who said that while she had technically succeeded in her oath to protect the gate from the forces of evil (even though said forces had already been subdued and would have been dispatched had she not) she was unable to find final redemption. In Soon's words, mere execution of her duty was not enough for redemption. To become a paladin again she had to seek forgiveness for her actions and acknowledge the possibility she could be wrong - which had never even occurred to her. Soon then said he would guide Miko's spirit to its final destination (it is unknown what that was) and, comfortable in the knowledge she had fulfilled her duty and that she would see Windstriker again, Miko passed from the realm of the living. Tsukiko [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0465.html briefly considered raising Miko] as an undead warrior for Evil, but decided against it since she could not find the lower half of her body.

Personality, Traits, and Abilities

Miko seemed to be an archetypal paladin in the sense that she adhered to the strictest letter of the Lawful Good alignment, though she was arguably more Lawful than truly Good; it can be argued that she had become Lawful Neutral after falling. She was suggested to have had a very sheltered life, and as such knew little socially beyond the concepts taught of monks and paladins. She was innocently unfamiliar with sexual references, and tended to be extremely direct and occasionally somewhat naive in her speech. She was often described as "having a stick up her ass" (which, according to her, is a paladin class feature).

As the most powerful paladin in the Sapphire Guard, she was utterly convinced of her own superiority and the rightness of her actions, and considered anyone who disobeys her or manipulates her to be going against the will of the Twelve Gods. When she was challenged or proven wrong she became irrational and violent, utterly convinced there was some other explanation that put her in the right. Her belief that she was always right, according to Redcloak, is a potentially repulsive feature exacerbated by the Paladin immunity to fear - as Paladins lose the consciousness of fallibility which could moderate their actions. The loss of her paladinhood did not seem to restore this consciousness, and Miko remained convinced she was in the right until her death.

Unlike an archetypal villain, Miko was an extremely law-abiding person with immense personal honor (as is required of a paladin), but was also highly judgmental and narrow-minded. She almost never smiled; the closest she usually got is a blank neutral expression on her face. It could be argued that her commitment to Good was mostly expressed in killing things that she finds out are Evil. Not that she limited herself to those, necessarily; she had also prayed for divine retribution toward characters of good alignment for actions against her own moral code, and engaged them in combat. She was a high-level paladin, with a few levels of Monk as well, whose power was almost on par with the entire Order of the Stick put together (except the unresisting Durkon and the fact it was raining, and Roy lost his sword, and Elan's arm was broken, and Vaarsuvius couldn't use arcane spells, and Haley had to fight with a bow). She was considered a samurai as a social class, though she has no roleplay character class named "samurai," a joke on the differences between game classes and social standing.

Miko was very single-minded, a trait that kept her at the heels of the Order of the Stick for so long. This mindset, mixed with her imperious attitude and strict paladin code of morality, caused her to go about situations via methods that greatly annoyed the Order when forced to work with her. She once suggested sleeping in a muddy ditch, with sharp rocks as pillows and plenty of moss to eat, over a well-appointed inn next to the ditch (which she saw as giving into gluttony and corruption). Hinjo, a paladin who is more easygoing and amiable than her has remarked that this is the reason she was often sent on missions far abroad that kept her away from home for long periods of time; even other paladins found Miko unbearable. This single-mindedness was perhaps the main contributor to why she fell from grace - in her desire to uphold law and honor, Miko had the tendency to leap to conclusions without gleaning all available information beforehand, always assuming the worst (such as the idea that Lord Shojo was in league with Xykon based on the minimal information she had gathered, coupled with her already poor opinion of Roy and the Order). Soon said at her death that the fact she never considered the possibility she was wrong denied her any chance of redemption.

Another good example of her hatred towards evil is shown preface to "Order of the Stick: Start of Darkness", the OotS book which details the pasts of Xykon and Redcloak, as it is written from Miko's perspective, where she attempts to discourage readers from continuing the book and soon becomes convinced that the reader is evil for continuing.

Miko, as a mainly warrior-based character, was highly skilled in combat, particularly in melee using two-weapon fighting (normally using a katana and wakizashi, as typical of a samurai). She had twice managed to single-handedly subdue the Order (again, excluding the non-resisting Durkon) in simultaneous combat, leading to estimates that she was around level 16. Roy, however, chalked these defeats up to a railroad plot. Considering her class selection, it was likely that she possessed an "Attack Bonus" nearly equal to her level. As a paladin, she possessed all normal class abilities in combat, such as the ability to smite evil, turn undead, and heal herself or others. Due to the levels taken in the monk class, she possessed evasion (allowing her to fully dodge some area-of-effect spells instead of receiving half damage, as is the normal for all but rogues and monks), some unarmed combat ability (including the ability to stun someone with a punch or a kick as well as decapitate with a kick), and high agility and acrobatic skill that paladins do not typically possess.

With the loss of her paladinhood (including all the divine abilities that go with it) Miko was essentially a warrior. Her monk skills remained intact, however, as they did not depend on divine favor.

Relationship with other characters

Miko generally had an antagonistic relationship towards the characters she met. She got along with none of the main cast and wasn't liked even among the Sapphire Guard, which, as a whole, [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0265.html was more reasonable] than she. She was only shown maintaining a consistent good relationship with her paladin special mount, Windstriker.

Miko earned the enmity of Vaarsuvius for ordering him/her around as well as rudely referring to him/her as "elf", Haley Starshine's for accusing her of greed and Roy Greenhilt's for, as he puts it, following the letter of the Lawful Good alignment and not the intent. She and the Chaotic Evil Belkar Bitterleaf despised each other greatly and Windstriker has earned Belkar's particular enmity for grappling him in their first encounter. She initially respected Durkon for his dutiful and honorable personality; in turn, Durkon didn't attack her when Miko and the Order [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0263.html fought] and generally didn't hold any ill will towards her. This animosity eventually drew the entire Order of the Stick between her and Belkar when she was ready to kill him for his crimes, Durkon doing so with great reluctance to prevent further bloodshed. Miko [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0285.html considered] this "choosing Evil over Good", was thwarted from attacking only by her liege, and swore that the Order would suffer divine punishment for its sins. She piled additional charges on the group as she slipped deeper into irrationality: Miko held them complicit in the decimation of Azure City, and was intent on [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0460.html delivering] that punishment herself.

Belkar is the party member whom Miko hated most; beyond being the only member who is actually of Evil alignment, Belkar had taunted, baited, and generally annoyed Miko every time he had a chance. His skill with a lead sheet and her own scruples against violating legal restraint kept her from using Detect Evil. This culminated in a long, protracted fight that saw both of them utilizing every skill in their arsenal. She eventually beat him, resulting in the confrontation above. Afterward Belkar revealed that he "wanted" Miko to kill him; believing (mistakenly, as it turned out) that Durkon could simply cast Raise Dead on him, he wanted Miko to break her personal code and lose her paladinhood. This level of deviousness, not wanting to beat an opponent physically but spiritually, is an indication of the utter disdain the Chaotic Evil Belkar holds for Miko.

When she was first revealed to be female, Roy was noticeably attracted to Miko, and prone to using sexist language towards her. After being briefly girt by a "Girdle of Femininity/Masculinity" caused him to spend time as the opposite gender, Roy came to respect Miko as a woman, but detest her as a person. He also commented missing his [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0234.html 'Trouser Titan'] may have had something to do with the shift in attitude.

Miko had a strong bond (literally and figuratively) with Windstriker. Suggested to be supernaturally smarter than a normal horse (as paladin mounts generally are), he is likewise unwaveringly loyal to Miko. Windstriker lives in the "celestial realms," is summoned by Miko via a Poké Ball (an item seemingly often used by the Sapphire Guard to contain their mounts), and is also known to eat "Heavenly Oats" brand horse feed. Windstriker has not been seen since Miko fell and it is unknown how the horse views Miko's actions. Upon her dying moments, she asked Soon if she would be allowed to see Windstriker again, being unredeemed; when Soon replied she would, Miko was comforted enough to die in peace.

Miko had met, and was utterly opposed to, Xykon and Redcloak in their roles as evil villains. She recognized the latter as "the Bearer of the Crimson Mantle" on sight; he recognised her as a member of the Sapphire Guard and the two went for each other's throats that same instant. From that [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0369.html encounter] Miko seemed nominally stronger than Redcloak, although he was a close rival. In comparison, Xykon easily trapped her within a forcecage before she could get anywhere near the lich. When she saw the two of them going after the Azure City gate, she temporarily forsook her vengeance against the Order of the Stick to deal with them.