So I've been reading for over 6 years now...

[Kjata]

I've been reading this comic off and on for almost a third of my life. I started reading about the time when the story took a huge role (I remember when the Crayon drawings were being posted, for god's sake). Anyway, here are my thoughts.

When I began reading, Elan and Belkar were my favorites. Me being 13 and the general tone had a lot to do with it. Now, however, I hate both of them.

Belkar not being as sadistic is a breath of fresh air. He has had a lot of growth, but the fact remains that he is still a gag character. Awesome when the strip was comedy based, but I haven't laughed much in the last couple years, yet I feel the comic is better. A deep story with comedic moments is better than a comedy with a story on the side. Belkar is necessary, as the comedic role is still important due to the comics origins, yet I still am not a fan of the character.

Elan... is so out of place. Honestly, he feels so childish that him and Haley kind of disturbs me. He has an important role, due to Nale and Tarquin, yet he is so damn stupid and childish, it grates on me every time he appears.

Durkon was, and has been, my least favorite character in the strip. He is so boring, and i dislike lawful good more than any other alignment. Whatever, different strokes. He is a fine character, don't want him to change. I just don't like him.

Wow, that was negative. Ah well, I feel that beginning negative and ending positive makes the entire post have a more positive feel. So let's get to some good stuff, shall we?

Roy is a fantastic hero. He feels exactly how a hero should. Annoyed that saving people lands on his shoulders, but willing to accept responsibility. Driven to succed. All in all, a very solid character. One of my favorites six years ago, still one of my favorites today.

Haley is also quite a solid character. Honestly, don't have much to say on her. I'd give her a 7/10. Good character, adds a lot, yet isn't one of my favorites. Her time leading the resistance was fantastic.

V... now this is a character. Strangely enough, I hated him at the start, yet his recent development is fantastic. His time being godlike shows what would happen to most people with that kind of power. Then, when it is gone, he realizes all the horrible things he did, and is trying to atone. Fantastic.

Now, to the baddies. Also, I lied when I said it was going to be positive, because there are some baddies i dislike.

First off is thog. Chilidish psycopath feels out of place now. Used to be awesome, but the story's change in tone means Thog dying would be an improvement.

MitD is similar to thog. Also, the darkness thing has gotten to the point where it can NEVER be revealed, because it will be a dissapointment no matter what it is. However, it is still a fine character, because it doesn't actually do anything. It is a stupid, childish monster of unbeleivable power, yet it fails to do anything but be a lazy bastard and hang out. Due to him appearing less frequently, I still enjoy the character.

Nale and Sabine are fine. Never excited or unhappy to see them. Somebody has to be the perfectly average characters, they get the role.

Xykon is a great character. Being the most powerful being in the world would make you lazy. If I could level cities by myself, I would probably be hanging out with the higher up minions, betting on something out of my control (O-chul in the shark tank). But when something goes wrong, his lazy, uncaring self is gone, and business time begins.

Redcloak is everything you want in a villain. Second in command, second on the hit list, but saying "Oh by the way, i'm actually in charge, Xykon is easy to manipulate and I'M the real threat." Interesting backstory, interesting currently, all around just a scary mother****er.

So yeah, there you have it. Obviously i approve of the last few years, and I would like to see it keep it up. {scrubbed}

TL,DR: You are too lazy to read the original post? Scroll your lazy ass back up to the top and read the damn post :smalltongue:

[thisisnotspam]

why would you dislike lawful good?

[Jaros]

I assume because some people immediately think lawful stupid instead?

[KillianHawkeye]

Congratulations!

[Emperor Flumph]

I love Elan. I don't think he feels out of place, and he'll continue to be one of my favourite charcters because of his unadalterated, passionate exuberance. He's a hero who genuinely enjoys what he does and makes no bones about it, in addition to being one of the (if not the) most pure-hearted characters in the comic. Also I have a soft spot for bards because my first character was one, and I was a lot like Elan back then. I had no idea what I was doing, but I had so much fun playing the game. I'm sorry you can't appreciate him like I do.

[ThePhantasm]

Redcloak is everything you want in a villain. Second in command, second on the hit list, but saying "Oh by the way, i'm actually in charge, Xykon is easy to manipulate and I'M the real threat." Interesting backstory, interesting currently, all around just a scary mother****er.

So yeah, there you have it. Obviously i approve of the last few years, and I would like to see it keep it up. {scrubbed}

TL,DR: You are too lazy to read the original post? Scroll your lazy ass back up to the top and read the damn post :smalltongue:

You might want to read the Forum Rules (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/announcement.php?a=1). :smallsmile:

[Omegonthesane]

First off is thog. Chilidish psycopath feels out of place now. Used to be awesome, but the story's change in tone means Thog dying would be an improvement.

Far as I know, Thog has in fact died. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0808.html)

[Jaros]

Oh come on, never saw the body and last we heard people were looking to fish him out and didn't know whether or not he was alive? No way he's dead.

[RecklessFable]

why would you dislike lawful good?

Last panel of todays comic:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0844.html

I was LG as a person before I knew what it was. Now I understand how frustratingly self-righteous I was. Tyranny of Goodness indeed.

[Kato]

Last panel of todays comic:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0844.html

I was LG as a person before I knew what it was. Now I understand how frustratingly self-righteous I was. Tyranny of Goodness indeed.

LG doesn't necessarily make you a tyrant. There are many ways to play Lawful Good. Roy is a pretty good example. Or Miko. Or Hinjo. Whoever. Okay, we don't really have the "friend to all living things" variety yet but that's kind of another turn on the thing. LG is not always a bad alignment.

[thisisnotspam]

Last panel of todays comic:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0844.html

I was LG as a person before I knew what it was. Now I understand how frustratingly self-righteous I was. Tyranny of Goodness indeed.

It seems to me that they are scolding her because they are lawful, not lawful good, Tarquin also has a similar attitude and he's LE.

[Dwy]

Oh come on, never saw the body and last we heard people were looking to fish him out and didn't know whether or not he was alive? No way he's dead.

Or if he is in fact dead... Undead Thog would be a pretty cool villain.

[Kjata]

I can't go into why i dislike lawful good, as it violates multiple forum rules. Drugs and religion are large parts of it.

{Scrubbed}

[Mr. Pants]

You hate Belkar Bitterleaf huh? Guess he'll have to toss Mr. Scruffy on top of your face and have him claw your eyes out...:smallfurious:

[Bastian Weaver]

Truth is, Belkar doesn't have any character growth... he's just pretending.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Truth is, Belkar doesn't have any character growth... he's just pretending.

Theres a point when you've lied so much, you start to believe your own lies. I think Belkar is (or has) reaching (ed) that point.

[tassaron]

The only thing "childish" about Elan that I think goes a bit too far is his insistence on calling his mother "mommy" all the time. Everything else is completely believable and fits right in with his generally optimistic, naive, and purely-good-at-heart character, in my opinion.

[Silva Stormrage]

The only thing "childish" about Elan that I think goes a bit too far is his insistence on calling his mother "mommy" all the time. Everything else is completely believable and fits right in with his generally optimistic, naive, and purely-good-at-heart character, in my opinion.

He is childish other times too, rushing to see the dinosaur stables, and especially him spending the day with Tarquin stand out recently for me.

[Craft (Cheese)]

The only thing "childish" about Elan that I think goes a bit too far is his insistence on calling his mother "mommy" all the time.

...You don't do this?

[BaronOfHell]

Thread title:
So I've been reading for over 6 years now...

OP's extra details:

I've been reading this comic off and on for almost a third of my life. [...] Me being 13 [when I began reading oots]


So you've been able to read for over 6 years. You began to read this comic when you were 13 and you've been reading this comic for ~1/3th of your life.

Ergo, your current age is 13*3/2 = 19.5 years old. Which means you've been reading this comic for about 6.5 years. So in other words, you had barely learned how to read when you were 13 and ever since then you've been reading this comic?:smallamused:


I love Elan.
Well, why don't you just marry him then?:smallbiggrin: Oh right.. Haley.

[The Succubus]

He is childish other times too, rushing to see the dinosaur stables, and especially him spending the day with Tarquin stand out recently for me.

True, however...

The DStP arc with Roy dead, Haley missing and V going loco, he was forced to be more mature. Granted, he still had his innate silliness but at the end he was actually going to turn V over to Hinjo for questioning over Kubota's death because he believed that is what Roy would have done. He also had to make some very difficult choices regarding Therkla (?spelling) as well, so the way I see it he's earned a little time to be himself again.

[River]

Even though I've joined the forums only recently, I've been reading the comic for around the same amount of time as the OP and I have to say I can't really remember what I thought of the characters back in the beginning. However I do remember Vaarsuvius has always been my favourite. I also had a major soft spot for Elan and found Xykon hillarious. As of now... I do not like Elan half as much as I used to (which doesn't mean I dislike him, only that he's not above the median), I grew to adore MitD, Xykon I still do find an interesting and somewhat amusing villian and Redcloak has risen to be a completely different kind of an interesting character so I can't really compare the two. I actually like Durkon, even though some could find him bland. Vaarsuvius... As I said, he's been and is my favourite, although "always" may be a bit of a stretch as there was a period (and I think it's not hard to guess which part of the comics I mean) where my "feelings" towards him were growing colder to the point of a "grudging dislike" at the most critical moment. However it did lead him to a point in character development where he became a better (I don't mean it in the moral sense) character than before.
About the rest... Well, I don't really care about the Linear Guild either while disliking the leader of this group a bit, but not enough to actually care about the character.
Thus I've said what's my opinion on some characters without giving any reasons, pardon.

*I rather think of V as a "he", though I've noticed I do not mind fanworks where V is female at all and I think I wouldn't mind either if the canon gender was female

[cheesecake]

I started reading this comic in 2007. I personally hate Roy and love the rest of the group.

If Roy died off next strip because of some kind of trap, I'd get up strip down naked and run down the road screaming "I'm Invisible"

[BaronOfHell]

I personally hate Roy and love the rest of the group.

Yet you will torture anyone in your near vicinity, should the guy be removed from the comic, hmm..

[Sutremaine]

Xykon is a pretty well-written CE character who isn't Stupid Evil (unlike Belkar, who admittedly has toned himself down ever since his Hippy Vision Quest). He's Evil, he's Chaotic, he's a baby-eating baby-serving monster, but as a whole he's not a cookie-cutter villain whose only defining character trait is 'Chaotic Evil puppy-kicker'.

I always thought Tsukiko was kind of 'meh'. The only shticks she had were 'I looooove the dead' and 'I can cast lots of spells per day'.


I rather think of V as a "he", though I've noticed I do not mind fanworks where V is female at all and I think I wouldn't mind either if the canon gender was female
How... generous?

[River]

I would rather call it random than generous. I simply tired of using "they" when referring to V and would rather not use "(s)he" and "hir", however as it was the very first time I've used a gender pronoun when refering to V (unless I've let it slip somewhere and failed to notice) and I am aware of some discussion(s) in the forum regarding the aforementioned elf's gender I "automatically" stated my opinion on the matter when giving my stance towards he character, not realising at the moment it does not make much sense in the context of my post and the topic I was posting to. Apologies.

[Blisstake]

I don't think characters like Elan, Belkar, or Thog are really out of place in this story. Just because the story has been getting more complex and dark doesn't mean that there isn't room for good-natured humor every now and then. Elan and Belkar act serious enough when it's warranted, but are able to lighten the mood in their own unique ways, which definitely contributes to their characters and to the overall story.

Just my thoughts on it anyway.

[Tricia]

He is childish other times too, rushing to see the dinosaur stables, and especially him spending the day with Tarquin stand out recently for me.He hadn't seen his father his entire life. I think he can be forgiven a bit for that. Tarquin himself acted a bit "childish" at times too, finally being able to spend time with his long-lost son.

And if being excited to see dinosaur stables makes you "childish", at least half the people on this board would probably qualify.

Don't get me wrong...Elan does have a child-like nature. But that doesn't mean that a few moments for humor or when he's in an emotional state negate all the character growth he went through during DStP.

[Kjata]

He hadn't seen his father his entire life. I think he can be forgiven a bit for that. Tarquin himself acted a bit "childish" at times too, finally being able to spend time with his long-lost son.

And if being excited to see dinosaur stables makes you "childish", at least half the people on this board would probably qualify.

They do, or at least their childish side comes out here. The strict moderation on this site created an atmosphere of serenity, which allows people to express their childish sides more freely without having to worry about getting flamed. Exactly like, idk, a playground :smalltongue:

i think it's a great thing. Unfortunately, this means I only tend to come here when I'm feeling down, or stressed, or some sort of negative emotion, making me more likely to want to flame people. There's a reason why i have less than a thousand post on this site, it's because I delete a lot of them after typing them, because they are inappropriate.