The Sticks Awards 636-640

[Nazzo, the 102nd]

Hi, and welcome to The Sticks Awards!

The Sticks Awards are given to the best strips of all times, chosen by the polls here in the Playground. Read the The Sticks Awards Results Compilation (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34791) thread for more details and previous results.

To vote, simply post your favorite strip of the current 5 on the thread. You have 5 days to do it.

The poll will close on April 23rd, 00:00 AM forum default time.


The Sticks Awards 636-640

636 Shattered, Shattered (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0636.html)
637 It Only Shows Reality Programming (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0637.html)
638 A Dragon's Victory (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0638.html)
639 If They Pull a Knife... (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0639.html)
640 Madness (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0640.html)

[Lesingnon]

Hmm...tough one this time around, none of the comics really seem to be head and shoulders above the other. I'll go with #638, I do love seeing spells used effectively like that.

[ThePhantasm]

639. The comic we all love to hate.

[RayGallade]

638, lots of spells makes for an awsome comic.

[monomer]

Gotta go with 638, the height of the victory, before everything comes crashing down in the next strip.

[Heksefatter]

Going with 640. For some reason, I like seeing just how taken aback Lee, Nero and Cedrik are at V's actions.

[Killer Angel]

Again, I cry for all the strips I can't vote for.
We have fun (637 - Hell Damned Blood Plasma)
We have epic combat (638)
We have masterful execution of evil plans (640 - "convince them that they're not responsible")

But 639 - Familicide, is the winner. No contest.

[Gift Jeraff]

#638. I really see the scenes actually play out here and the payoff is good.

I gotta admit, I didn't quite get what was happening in #639 when I first read it, so it loses some points for me there. I didn't put together "family + -cide suffix;" it made me think of formaldehyde. :smallredface:

[JoeSkull]

My vote is 639

[Kurald Galain]

639, hands down. It's one of the most epic pages in the entire OOTS comic, and finally shows the full extent of both Vaarsuvius's newfound power and descent away from ethics.

[Nimrod's Son]

Hmm...tough one this time around, none of the comics really seem to be head and shoulders above the other.
Yeah, much as I love this arc, these strips blur together a bit for me too. It's made worse by the way they're laid out in the book, with all these page-and-a-half-strips running end to end. I'll have to go with #639, purely for how visually different it is to every other strip ever.

[Joerg]

Well, 637 and 638 are really good, but this has to be 639, which may be my favorite for BotH. Great artwork, and the climax of the 'evil V' plot.

[DBear]

639 Lots of good ones in this round, almost went with 640 for the March Madness references, but Familicide has to be the topper.

[RunicLGB]

I'll vote 639.

Just seeing that epic spell go off...I remember reading ti the first time and slowly scrolling down to see dead black dragon after dead black dragon, hell even the eggs weren't spared. The strip just had a very cinematic quality to me.

[martianmister]

638 for being awesome.

[Gandariel]

i'll have to go with 640, just because of the "we are all in the Monster Manual somewhere, are we not?"

[recluso]

I vote 639 Familicide.
The previous is close but, hey, Familicide is what you remember most. And the whole page of dying dragons can graphically compete with the cool shapechange caused bursting dragon.

[Kato]

Hm.... tough one. #639 is kind of difficult to judge... I guess I'll go for #638, awesome spell casting.

[Ninja Dragon]

Really though one.

But I'll go with 639. It's one of OOTS's best moments. It's evil, it's sad, it's beautifully drawn, and it's a big part of V's character development.

[Emanick]

I'll go with 638, because it's hardcore awesomelike. The payoff of 639's impact doesn't really come until later. The payoff of 638, though, is all within 638. :smallamused:

[Bleak Ink]

This batch is just brutal to chose from... I'll say 640. Hurray for the lecture V gives and for shocking members of a Lower Plane who hope to one day chat over Angel blood in plastic cups.

[Chaos rising]

649. Total devastation.

[MoonCat]

This is all a great series, with great jokes and high tension. #638 has the awesome mislead in the title, but for the real brilliance there's no doubt about it, #639.

[Hardcore]

#638. Awesome shapechange. Pink Dragons for the win.

[Ted The Bug]

649, but narrowly. That whole arc was a huge adrenaline burst, some of Rich's best storytelling IMO.

[MoonCat]

649. Total devastation.


649, but narrowly. That whole arc was a huge adrenaline burst, some of Rich's best storytelling IMO.

I think you mean #639.

[Adrayll]

639 It's one of the most epic in scope strips, and the visual spread of The Familicide is very well done.

[Red XIV]

It's too bad (for the purpose of this contest) that so many epic strips were back to back, but 639.

[JoseB]

#639, of course.

[Raistlin82]

The whole fight was epic, but yeah...

FAMILICIDE!

639 wins. Jeez, I'm so evil... :smallfrown:

[NegativeFifteen]

639. No question. The dragon begging for mercy before the familicide, along with the art following it, no comparison in the other four.

[Morgan Wick]

Giving this a good late bump.

[Andre]

#639 for the Familicide and the scenes of the zapped black dragons, but they are all good.

It wasn't an easy choice as it seemed, since as of 640 I'd call a quarter of existing black dragons exterminated a good start. And it features the top quote of the lot.

"We are all in the Monster Manual somewhere, are we not? My entry lies between Elemental and Ethereal Filcher."
Take that, alignment system. :smallbiggrin:

[StyxMotors]

Gotta be 639 because of its art and historic importance.

[Crossfiyah]

639

easy easy

[warmachine]

#638. Epic battle.

[DrGonzo]

639

epic epicness is epic

[ORione]

640. We see the dragons actually dying in 639, but the real payoff for me is in 640, at V's most evil point. Then we see more of how the IFCC manipulated V, which is brilliant. And, of course, if you've shocked a devil, a daemon, and demon with how much evil you've done, you're doing something seriously wrong.

[aldeayeah]

I like 636 (the single word "Disjunction" to me was more impressive than the whole barrage of 638) and 639 for the obvious reasons...

I say 639.

[Flame of Anor]

639, yeah. Several great ones here, though.

[hajo]

The Sticks Awards 636-640

636 Shattered, Shattered (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0636.html)
637 It Only Shows Reality Programming (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0637.html)
638 A Dragon's Victory (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0638.html)
639 If They Pull a Knife... (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0639.html)
640 Madness (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0640.html)

I vote 638 "Shapechange"

[martianmister]

Take that, alignment system. :smallbiggrin:

Huh? That doesn't make sense...

[dps]

638, for the wham! payoff.

[Felixaar]

639 for EXCELLENT comic design, with 638 a close runner up.

[Homunculus]

638 for great justice

[Andre]

Huh? That doesn't make sense...

It does not. By alignment canon, V has committed so evil an act, the evil black dragon calls him a monster.
By saying that anyone is actually a monster, V refuses to admit he committed an evil act on the ground of saying "Hey, did you not want to kill my family and bind their souls? Ok, but two can play at that!"

Technically, this is the brief moment where he steps out of the alignment spectrum. Hence why... :smalltongue:

[Red XIV]

The Black Dragon only found it monstrous because her own kind was the target. If she'd witnessed Familicide being cast on a lineage of Gold Dragons, she'd probably have just enjoyed the show.

[Morgan Wick]

Well, 637 and 638 are really good, but this has to be 639, which may be my favorite for BotH. Great artwork, and the climax of the 'evil V' plot.

Eh... I get the sense there may be a slight backlash against 639, given some of the non-639 votes (before 639 started pulling away late on the first page, 638 was actually leading, and part of the reason 640 received any votes at all was because of people not being satisfied by 639). And speaking for myself, I actually find 634 more powerful, so much so I devoted a lengthy blog post to it (http://webcomics.morganwick.com/2009/03/because-someone-claimed-part-v-of-webcomics-identity-crisis-didnt-count-as-februarys-oots-post-also-mega-mega-spoilers/), so I think 639 may have a hard time even getting out of the quarter.

(Incidentially, I don't think the fiends are actually all that shocked by Familicide, at least in 640. Qarr is, but that's because he took the fiends' reassurances to V at face value; the fiends' "Actually... we were" initially looks like they're as shocked as Qarr is, but the following explanation seems to imply they fully expected this to happen, since it has a logical explanation that presumably has some experience behind it.)

Meanwhile, I am absolutely shocked 636 and 637 didn't garner a single vote, especially 637 which I expected to place second for its plot importance. It seems to me that 638 is the 633 to 639's 634, and the latter placed a very distant third with only five votes, so I don't understand why 638 gets fully half 639's votes. (By the way, that now makes four strips so far this hundred that go voteless, which seems like a lot to me given we're barely a third of the way through. The vote totals aren't that much lower than in the last few groups of five of the last hundred - in the sense that one of the no-vote strips came in a voting round with over 50 votes total - so maybe the other strips in these rounds really are that dominant, but it still makes me wonder if vote totals might be depressed somehow.)

The next batch of strips consists of V's attempt to defend himself to her mate and her arrival at and teleportation of the Azure City fleet, with the last strip setting up the next group in Greysky.

641 features the end of one of the splices, but consists mainly of exposition. The heart of the confrontation between V and K comes in 642, when Inkyrius tells off V and forces her to effectively abandon them forever. Normally, 642 would run away with this group of five.

But 643 is just genius. V pops in, threatens Kazumi and Daigo, teleports the entire fleet a good distance away (a big plot point) just so she won't have to hear their whining, prepares to find Haley and Co. with a big magical display... only to have Kazumi and Daigo reveal everything to him, the first of several frustrations that will make him wonder why she abandoned his family.

644 is weaker than its earlier counterpart 536 (any pathos is somewhat ruined by the attempt at an actual punchline), which placed fourth in its group of five, and in this group it might well be the runt (though I fully expect it to get at least a few pity votes, which could be enough to pass 641). 645 reveals the off-online-panel rescue of Roy, features Haley and Belkar reuniting with V, and the brief confrontation over whether V has turned evil and Belkar defending her. I expect 642 and 643 to battle for the win with 641 and 645 languishing behind, with 645 more likely to take third.

[ORione]

The Black Dragon only found it monstrous because her own kind was the target. If she'd witnessed Familicide being cast on a lineage of Gold Dragons, she'd probably have just enjoyed the show.

I'm not sure about that, since the Black Dragon was fine with her son being friends with "that nice green dragon girl". If it happened to a non-dragon, I would say you were probably right.

[Flame of Anor]

I'm not sure about that, since the Black Dragon was fine with her son being friends with "that nice green dragon girl". If it happened to a non-dragon, I would say you were probably right.

The point is that Gold Dragons are Good dragons. Green dragons are not.

[ORione]

The point is that Gold Dragons are Good dragons. Green dragons are not.

Really? My mistake. You're probably right, then.

[martianmister]

The poll will close on April 23rd, 00:00 AM forum default time.

...Ahem...

[ORione]

... Hello? The twenty-third of April was a week ago.

[Flame of Anor]

Well, I'm not sure when OP plans on announcing it,l but 639 is clearly the victor.

[Killer Angel]

...Ahem...


... Hello? The twenty-third of April was a week ago.

Sometime, life happens.
Take it easy, Nazzo will come, sooner or later. :smallwink:

[Nazzo, the 102nd]

Mixed feelings. I'm sorry that I do not close the polls in time, really. But, as people complain, it means that they are eager for the next one. So, I take it as a good thing. :smallbiggrin:

That said, here are the official results. I really don't remember the last time a comic won by more than 60%...

636 - 0 (0.00%)


637 - 0 (0.00%)


638 - 12 (29.27%)
Lesingnon; RayGallade; monomer; Gift Jeraff; martianmister; Kato; Emanick; Hardcore; warmachine; hajo; dps; Homunculus

639 - 25 (60.97%)
ThePhantasm; Killer Angel; JoeSkull; Kurald Galain; Nimrod's Son; Joerg; DBear; RunicLGB; recluso; Ninja Dragon; Chaos rising; MoonCat; Ted The Bug; Adrayll; Red XIV; JoseB; Raistlin82; NegativeFifteen; Andre; StyxMotors; Crossfiyah; DrGonzo; aldeayeah; Flame of Anor; Felixaar

640 - 4 (9.76%)
Heksefatter; Gandariel; Bleak Ink; ORione