OotS #635: The hidden message that wasn't

[Peregrine]

I'm having trouble believing that nobody got here before I did. But multiple searches (forum's own and through Google) tell me that there are zero posts about it. So here goes...

Good old OotS #635 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0635.html), V's rise to power. In addition to the evil laughter and the faux-Latin chanting, there are cool magicky runey symbols circling around V in the first panel.

I couldn't help noticing that the symbols weren't just random scrawls; the same symbols were used several times, like letters of an alphabet. And as one of the many who went in for Haley's cryptograms, I couldn't resist trying to figure out whether this too was a hidden message.

Unfortunately I failed, mainly because I mixed up some of the symbols. (All those variations on "3" confused me, okay?) But then today I came across a font called "Dark Arts", from Blambot (http://www.blambot.com/font_darkarts.shtml). 2.8 seconds later, I realised where I'd seen those symbols before.

And finally I was able to decode the message. It says...


BET YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD FOUND A SECRET MESSAGE IN THIS DIDN'T YOU

Well yes, I did, and really I was right. :smallwink: It's a hidden message telling us there's no hidden message, but it's still a hidden message!

Now why do I get the feeling that I've seen these symbols show up somewhere else in the comic?

[Lycan 01]

Hm. Well, I haven't heard anything about this, though I'm not fully informed on OotS easter eggs and whatnot. So bravo, dude! Good job on such an awesome find! :smallbiggrin:

[npc revolution]

Nice one. :smallsmile:

That is all.

[Tass]

I remember reading this at the time when the comic was new, presumably in the comic thread.

Still, nice find. Well done.

[Starscream]

Great catch. I've read the commentaries from the book, and even it doesn't mention that.

Makes me wonder what else Rich is hiding from us.:smallbiggrin:

[Peregrine]

I remember reading this at the time when the comic was new, presumably in the comic thread.

I guess the comic thread for #635 has probably been deleted since then. (Or my searching skills really suck.)

Give it a year or so and this thread, too, will probably disappear. And then someone else can come along, discover the hidden not-really-a-message, and be surprised that "nobody's noticed it before". :smalltongue:

[DaveMcW]

OOTS #635 - The Discussion Thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5848629#post5848629)

[Secris]

I missed it in the discussion thread too (I can never read the whole thing), so I say good job anyway! You weren't the first, but I certainly wouldn't call it common knowledge. And yes, what else is Rich hiding from us? Is Rich the MitD?! I just blew my own mind.

[Vemynal]

bravo none the less on a truly obscure find

[LuPuWei]

Is Rich the MitD?! I just blew my own mind.

No, we are all (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8852409#post8852409) the MitD...

[The Rose Dragon]

Well, this was discovered two hours after the comic was online, so truly this is not a really obscure find. It's even on TVTropes.

[TheBlackShadow]

Either way, well done and good work for figuring it out on your lonesome.

[Swordpriest]

Well, I didn't notice it either in the comic or in the discussion thread, so that's a pretty impressive find to me. :smallcool:

Great job! :smallsmile:

[Roderick_BR]

I'm having trouble believing that nobody got here before I did.
Why hard to believe? Not everyone likes to play with these things (I know I'm too lazy to even notice these things). Nice find though, and a cool joke from Rich.

[Dr.Epic]

I'm having trouble believing that nobody got here before I did. But multiple searches (forum's own and through Google) tell me that there are zero posts about it. So here goes...

This actually has been pointed out and discussed before. I'm surprised you didn't find anything.

[Ancalagon]

This actually has been pointed out and discussed before. I'm surprised you didn't find anything.

... well... there was this forum-purge a while ago?

[Morph Bark]

...wow.

Just... just wow.

I was like "no censoring way" when I saw that. Interesting. Guess sometimes there's stuff in the comic that is quite obscure, eh?

[Leecros]

This actually has been pointed out and discussed before. I'm surprised you didn't find anything.

well, it takes some effort to search a forum for something sometimes. Posts and threads can be tedious to go through.

[PallElendro]

You win the internet for finding that out. Post that into your signature.

[Peregrine]

OOTS #635 - The Discussion Thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5848629#post5848629)

And thus is the mystery solved. The person who originally translated the runes put a space between every single letter. Hence my searches never found a post with the translated words. My dignity is intact... mostly. :smallsmile:


Why hard to believe? Not everyone likes to play with these things (I know I'm too lazy to even notice these things). Nice find though, and a cool joke from Rich.

Not everyone, no, but a large enough portion of the GiantITP community. Cryptograms, anybody? :smallbiggrin:

(PS Also, forum search didn't consider "635" a valid keyword; too short, I think.)

[JoseB]

Incidentally, for those who were looking for discussion threads about old comics and couldn't find them... I would like to point you at this thread:

The Discussion Thread Index II (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103669), started and maintained by Lira. It can be found in any of the first three pages of "The Order of the Stick" sub-forum (it moves around those, depending on forum traffic and frequence of updates).

She keeps there links to ALL discussion threads for ALL of the previous comics in OotS (except for a few that were accidentally lost during the great forum purge of some time ago).

I think that this resource deserves to be better known.

[LuisDantas]

Well done. Maybe it is a reference to early Groo comics?

[Souhiro]

Man, sure you're a REAL Nitpicker!

[Vaarsuvius4181]

Watch, next thing you know, we weill find a clue to Vs gender.

[Nimrod's Son]

Watch, next thing you know, we weill find a clue to Vs gender.
Seems like about 50% of this forum think they already have. They're wrong, though.

[Cealocanth]

Watch, next thing you know, we weill find a clue to Vs gender.

I thought I found one back in the Starmetal cave. You could see the tiny rectangular fragment of V's body behind the dragon's tail. This led me to believe that V was male, that was, untill we saw V's mate, who is ambiguously gendered as well. V's mate has a rectangular body too.

So this has led me to believe that the base gender of the OOTS world is male, because drawing male bodies is easier than female ones.

_________

Nice find on that message. That's way too deep for me to have ever discovered in a million years.

I think I found where we saw that script before. Check if the runes on the gates are part of that alphabet, or annother alphabet. The resulting letters that are found could spell a word in the order the gates are revealed. (ie, Dorukan's gate, Lirian's gate, Soon's gate...)

[Dvandemon]

I remember reading this at the OoTS wiki. After that I could read it all by myself.