Drama vs humor

[Liwen]

Behold! Before you stands the battleground of two of the most powerful driving forces of the OotSverse. Rule of Drama and Rule of Funny. Rich has been using these forces to make this amazing comic over years now, and now we shall see which one has overruled the other the most. We shall now pick comics, one by one, starting from #13 (at which point Rich decided to actually start a plot, which gave birth to the battleground of jokes vs plot points and truly awesome and horrific moments.) Each comic will be debate, sometimes quickly, sometimes for days if needed to determine if it was a joke oriented comic, or a drama oriented comic. Now let's being!

Tutorial :How do I decide if a comic is funny or dramatic?

Well I believe most of them will be obvious. By a few pointers can help. If a comic is more funny than dramatic, it should : make you laugh and/or smile, be quickly forgotten during the course of your day and not forward the plot in any major way.

If a comic is a drama win, it should impress you, surprise you, run again and again in you head all day and forward the plot in some significant way. Also, a feeling of happiness or dread is a dead give away that drama takes over the jokes in a given issue.

Now all that remains is to deliver your opinion of the comic. If after one day or so, I find that the current comics are unanimously declared funny or dramatic, I'll conclude to their nature and give a point to one of the Rules for each of them as appropriate. However, if there's debate, I'll let it go on until everyone has had his or her fun debating about it (that's one of the most enjoyed past time of these forums) before I give my final decision, which I'll base only on the quality and logic of the arguments presented to me. I will remain impartial to the whole thing, as any good judge should be.

The Score (to be edited as the thread progresses)

Drama : 0
Humor: 1

Wins by Drama
Issue # 15 : Family Time (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0015.html)
Wins by Humor

Issue #13 : Plot, Ahoy! (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0013.html)
Issue #14:Why Roy is Always Tired (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0014.html)
Issue #16 : Turn of Phrase (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0016.html)

Current Debates :

#17 Rapier Wit (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0017.html)

Has the party's spellcasters regain their daily spells, the 'sneaky people' is sent on a scouting mission, only to face a terrible enemy...

#18 Double surprise (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0018.html)

Haley shows a chimera why you shouldn't be caught flat-footed in point blank range of a rogue.

#19 Evade! (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0019.html)

Again the lovely rogue shows off some of the neat abilities of her chosen class, while Elan craft a brilliant of escape, or so he believes.

[Forbiddenwar]

Round one: Laughs won.

[Jagos]

Laughs. Hands down.

[Pronounceable]

Drama vs Humor? No way, they can and do live in peace and harmony.#13 is obviously heavy on humor.

[Asta Kask]

I agree. In fact, they feed on each other.

[Mordokai]

That may be true. But for the sake of the game(which you just lost)...

Round one goes to laughs.

[Mystic Muse]

laughs. definitely laughs.

[Turkish Delight]

Even in the vast majority of the 'drama' ones, there is almost always at least a nod given to laughs or trying to somehow fit in a punchline.

[Tijne]

Even the most dramatic ones are humourous.

Or at least to me. :D

[Thanatosia]

Can anyone find an example of an OOTS strip that is completely and utterly devoid of any Humor, Puns, or comedy of any type?

Edit: Hrmm, one does occur to me - http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0629.html ?

[Killer Angel]

They are married and works very well togheter. But OotS is most a humorous comic, so humor wins.

[Weimann]

I don't think that's possible, but we are derailing here :P

I'd say humour won the first round, but it should also be noted that humour has an unfair advantage. Humour can be thrown in at almost any point, while drama must offten be built up towards. It's also much easier to overdose drama than humour.

But yeah, let's see how this goes :smallamused:

[Asta Kask]

On the other hand, "Dying is easy, laughing is hard." It is much more difficult to makes us laugh than it is to make us cry.

[Turkish Delight]

Can anyone find an example of an OOTS strip that is completely and utterly devoid of any Humor, Puns, or comedy of any type?

Edit: Hrmm, one does occur to me - http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0629.html ?

Even that one has quasi-funny elements. The elven children referring to V and his mate as 'other parent' and 'parent.' The jab at the typical adventuring mentality that even a baby dragon is just a monster with stats to kill. V's awful aim.

The overwhelming majority of V's fight with the Mama Dragon, however, is awesome but distinctly not funny. And the aftermath of that fight (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0642.html) is pretty much completely empty of any joking whatsoever.

[Katana_Geldar]

On the other hand, "Dying is easy, laughing is hard." It is much more difficult to makes us laugh than it is to make us cry.

No, that's not completely right. To make someone laugh at an old joke or something familiar is not that hard, to make up new jokes is what is difficult.

[Cleverdan22]

Humor definitely wins round one. It is going to win a lot.

[Gullara]

Can anyone find an example of an OOTS strip that is completely and utterly devoid of any Humor, Puns, or comedy of any type?

Edit: Hrmm, one does occur to me - http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0629.html ?

You just answered your own question, not funny moments happen in oots although rarely.

[Scarlet Knight]

They are married and works very well togheter. But OotS is most a humorous comic, so humor wins.

This marriage can't be working out too well if Drama is getting serviced in the back alley by a copper piece harlot like Probability .

:smallredface:

[Liwen]

While it is true there is humor in just about every comic in OotS, it's also true that as the comic progresses, more and more drama drive the story forward. When your judging if a comic is more humorous than dramatic, go with you overall impression. If your thinking : this comic is awesome, jaw droping, terrifying or sad, then it's a win for drama. If you simply think it was hilarious, then funny wins. I've though about this concept for a while now, and I'm beginning to think, with the story closing more and more to a climax, that drama actually stands a chance. Just think about 'YOU BROKE MY SWORD and Belkar's comeback to the ranks of those capable of slaying people inside city limits. The entire battle of azure city, the whole 'Dark V' sub arc, Kubota's showdown. I believe only a few comics in the first 100 might have a chance to into the Drama's wins, but as we go on, things will change. And even if humor does 'win' in the end, maybe we'll get a fairly accurate ratio of how much drama and how much humor it takes to drive a story like Rich does.

I'm doing this out of curiosity and I intend to try this out as long as the tread remains popular. Starting from now however, we'll check in comics in batches of 3, so that it doesn't takes like 2 years to do this. Also, check the first post regularly, I'll be editing it.

[dps]

Well, regardless, humor definately prevails in #13.

[Milskidasith]

And here I was thinking this was going to be a topic about how #683 ended with, instead of a fight as would be good for drama, Belkar being subdued by a simple punchline.

[Bibliomancer]

14: Humor.
15: Plot*
16: Humor

*Disguised as Humor.

The early comics are, predictably, humor-heavy.

[Forbiddenwar]

Predictably:
14 humor
15 drama (plot)
16 humor

[rangermania]

14,15,16 =>Humor,Drama,Humor... definetely...

[hobbitkniver]

Humor is much more important until they get to Azure city when they set up the plot.

[Omergideon]

14,15,16 =>Humor,Drama,Humor... definetely...

I concur.

Also, I feel that the dramatic content is threadbare at best (with minor exceptions) until issue 43 when the linear guild arrive. However it still does not become a driving force for the comic until Miko begins her pursuit of the order. So I expect humour to win most of the time until the end of Dorukans dungeon. Also even at it's most dramatic there is some humour in the comics, and at it's best they are perfectly balanced e.g. 659 Flight of the phylactery.

My preference is for the dramatic, with a humourous context or subtext, over the straight up humour comics but that is just me.

[Optimystik]

That may be true. But for the sake of the game(which you just lost)...

I hate you so much right now

[Liwen]

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the thread so far. I apologies for not updating it yesterday, I was rather busy. New comics have been posted.

Results of Round 2 :

#14 Humor win

#15 Drama win

# 16 Humor win

[Bibliomancer]

17-19 all go to humor, since the only connection to plot would be the chimera's appearance, which is not a major plot point (especially since the other bargain mercenaries don't show up and the chimera is killed outright).

[Herald Alberich]

17-19 all go to humor, since the only connection to plot would be the chimera's appearance, which is not a major plot point (especially since the other bargain mercenaries don't show up and the chimera is killed outright).

I thought the implication was that the Linear Guild was the bargain mercenaries.

[Liwen]

Xykon got both the Linear Guild and the chimera Trigak from the Discount mercenaries deals. He should probably ask for a refund. One is dead and the other halfway as competent as the Order, which is not that much in D&D standards : )

[zql]

humor x 3
the chimera didn't reveal anything valuable (at least in this strips)