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Order of the Stick Updates
Mod
uhm, did Rich really just kill Roy AGAIN?! I really didn't expect Tarquin to succeed in this fight. Guess we'll see...
And man, Tarquin just keeps getting more evil and remorseless even when it doesn't seem possible anymore. Poor Elan. :(
Mod
Guess not. Yay!
"Don't look at me like that, there were a like a ton of hints on this one."
Hilarious trademark Rich messing with the fourth wall, and preemptively addressing fan "complaints" about the twist. I'll have to go back and look for the hints though, as this took me completely by surprise.
There are points where I wonder how this fight will read in the book. Yes, shifting success and failure is the way to keep us on our toes, but we can't stay on a high pitch forever.
Mod
Earlier on I was thinking Laurin was going to call in the granted favor and end up at cross purposes with Tarquin at some point, but now I thinking that will come after the battle.
I think Tarquin needs to die. He won't stop for anything less, they have nothing equally incapacitating, and a real death is necessary to keep things going.
Laurin can always tell another team member what she was going to ask.
Mod
Mod
"I assure you my companion's decisions are reflective of nothing - least of all, rational planning."
I like this strip a lot. A decent fight, some amusing banter, and another of Tarquin's allies vanquished means we should be heading towards end of this battle. And the "enemy of my enemy" thing going on with Sabine and V is great.
I liked the bit at the end. The careful use of exact words to be honest and deceiving at once. (One does not want to betray one's source of information.)
Mod
New strip: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots09...
Not at all what I expected, but I like. It closes things well enough for now and sets up Tarquin's eventual return down the line. Elan's double burn of "I'm not a twin anymore" and "you're not the REAL villain" was great.
I also loved seeing Haley outmaneuvering Tarquin. There's nothing I enjoy more than smart characters and battles that swing back and forth without one side acting stupid.
Yes. That is wonderful. Tarquin got what was coming to him.
Now, perhaps, the fifty-buck question is -- how is Tarquin going to die? Leaving him hanging about is not conducive to Elan's happy ending.I suspect that he's going to fall prey to the calling-Xykon-Zykon-in-his-presence peril. or something else suitably anti-climatic.
Mod
oooooo -- he's not dead yet!http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots09...
And it looks like he might STAY there.
Especially since the next page is a quiet moment after all that action:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots09...
Wheee! They just keep coming!http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots09...
Wow. Even after the last scene with Tarquin, I wasn't expecting MORE character development from Elan.
Mod
And it looks like he might STAY there."
Yeah, while I do think we'll see him again in the course of the main narrative he seems out of Elan's hair for a while.
I love the most recent strip. As you said even more character development for Elan, Roy continues to see him more and more as a friend, and a great end panel to show he's still himself at his core.
Rich using the title of the strip to try to head off speculation about Elan's punchline is a nice touch.
It's impossible to head off fannish speculation. . .
Mod
New strip: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots09...
Maintaining Durkon though a "blood drive" is hilariously awesome.
Good thing he didn't observe "before it was cool." Someone would have upstaged him by observing that blood is hot.Q: Why did the hipster burn his mouth?
A: He drank his coffee before it was cool.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots09...Man, that ties up a lot of threads. Improbably neatly, though not perhaps TOO neatly.
Mod
Yeah, it's an interesting and logical development but I feel like I should be placing bets on which part of that alliance betrays the others first.
The stuff with Haley and her dad is very touching, which is a nice accomplishment by Rich since I don't actually like her father much. Elan's method to both help against his father and gain ground in trying to get Haley's father to come around was inspired.
I definitely feel the end of a volume coming. Things are being closed out / reset for the next big plotlines.
Mod
And more rapid-fire exposition and closing of plot threads. All fits pretty well though, and reestablishes Bozzok as a looming threat. Nice tie in at the end with a throw-away character everyone's sure to remember.
Mod
heh. Gotta love Elan's devotion to proper dramatic form (at least in times of low danger).
Rich really is a master at playing with conventions and the forth wall.
Belkar's unreasonable: Blackwing saved his lizard
Mod
And this is a surprise? ;)
Well, actually, yes, because Belkar's being unreasonable when there's nothing in it for him and it's not particularly funny.Perfectly coherent if you think he's overwhelmed by sentiment and feels guilty that he had left Bloodfeast behind, to be sure.
Mod
Mod
Wow. So much to love about this strip. All exposition, but important stuff and well done. Both the fact that V's looking to Roy for guidance and Roy's reaction of "this is too big to wrap my head around" are great. The resulting discussion is pitch perfect and the callback to what happened to Roy's little brother is a nice surprise. The last panel lightens things up just enough and the punchline is classic OotS.
Mod
"The truth is, we don't know what is really going on anymore." Me neither Roy, but I'm certainly interested in finding out...
Whoops!I wonder how fatal this is going to be for Laurin & Co.
Just when you thought everything was going so well. . . .Oooph. What a cliffhanger.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots09...
Having had time to philosophically ponder it after just reacting. . . I think there were so few clues of this so that we would feel as betrayed as the Order will no doubt feel once they learn the truth.
Mod
Good observation. I certainly had no inkling of this twist. I want to go back at some point to see where he dropped the accent...
It does nicely point towards another prophecy being fulfilled of "Durkon's" return to the dwarven lands bringing doom.
Today's the day! We hope. Barring trouble or disaster.
bounces about with excitement
Ah. . . .You have to get to the end of the new comic to get the import.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots09...
Mod
Heh. Very well structured. I expected a very different punchline when the strip started.
I'm not sure what I expected before I reached the end.
Mod
Yes, present day was what first occurred to me, but not much more than that. It could, after all, also have been, oh, the set up for Team Evil's arrival, to humanize (dwarfenize?) the victims before the attack. Order's arrival was another possibility.
I know what Durkon's trying to dohttp://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots09...
He's trying to corrupt the evil energy spirit to the side of good by surrounding him with Good Memories.
Mod
Or, of course, both. In his situation, I would try to have as many irons in the fire as I could, because one of them might work.
Haley shows a wonderful aptitude for looking on the bright side.http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots09...
Mod
I think the beat panel is V's careful inspection to be sure that the problem was fixed.
Mod
The subtle character touches are just perfect, from V considering for a second before just going with "No" as a correction to Roy not really showing anger at Belkar at the end, just matter of factly talking about dancing on his grave.
Why aren't they trying to put Belkar to work too though?
Roy is strong. That's something.But what would you do with Belkar?
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Books mentioned in this topic
Utterly Dwarfed (other topics)Blood Runs in the Family (other topics)
The current fight with Tarquin over refusing to let Elan take a backseat to Roy is fantastic. The Order is really performing like a team. Rich gives the perfect small touches of comedy too, like in the most recent strip (#927) where Elan shows a moment of leadership, comes up with the key that saves Roy from Tarquin, and immediately says "What now Roy?", furthering Tarquin's fury at his son's willingness to be a follower. Or the great "You named the dinosaur -- ?" exchange from #926.