Number of Character Speech Bubbles

[Onyavar]

Update from 1025 to 1055:
Roy +132, Lien +62, Belkar +63, Haley +51, O-Chul +43, Oona +43, Eugene +42, Elan +38, Redcloak +37, Bandana +32, Xykon +27, MidD +26, Andromeda +13, Demon Roaches +11, Greyview +10, Vaarsuvius +9, Blackwing +8, Felix +3, Kwesi +2, Mateo +1


Protagonists (>1000)
Roy Greenhilt: 3837(+910)
Haley Starshine: 2614(+ Self-loathing: 96; other personalities: 24) (+766)
Elan: 2422 (+ Shoulder personalities: 12) (+754)
Belkar Bitterleaf: 2097 (+ Shoulder personalities: 19) (+709)
Vaarsuvius: 1669 (+358)
Durkon Thundershield: 1159 (+305) (+341 as Vampiric Priest of Hel)

Important Supporting Cast (200-2000)
Redcloak: 807 (+622)
Xykon: 704 (+606)
Tarquin: 815 (+55)
O-Chul: 247 (+539)
Nale: 717 (+51)
Hinjo: 467 (+277)
Celia: 524 (+57)
Monster in the Darkness: 367 (+194)
Eugene Greenhilt: 258 (+247)
Miko Miyazaki: 420 (+95)
Shojo: 293 (+112)
Therkla: 170 (+160)
Right Eye: 0 (+328)
Sabine: 271 (+40)
Minister Malack: 310
Blackwing: 278 (+56)
Crystal: 163 (+102)
Tsukiko: 233 (+10)
Qarr: 221 (+16)
Lien: 167 (+82)
Thog: 167 (+40)
Julio Scoundrél: 122 (+82)

Side Characters (50-200)
Demon Roaches (all): 168
Gannji: 158
Ian Starshine: 155 (+13)
Bandana: 143
Oracle: 112 (+12)
Daigo Da: 114 (+6)
Kubota: 99 (+22)
Wrecan: 99
Bozzok: 87 (+22)
Roy's Archon: 94
Sara Greenhilt: 60 (+33)
Cedric (IFCC): 89
Roy's Deva: 87
Kasumi Kato: 79 (+6)
Julia Greenhilt: 82
Nero (IFCC): 80
Lee (IFCC): 79
Ancient Black Dragon: 78
Jirix: 70
Mr. Jones: 64 (+6)
Mr. Scruffy: 63 (+6)
Hilgya Firehelm: 67
Jephton the Unholy: 66
Lirian: 6 (+59)
Zz'dtri: 63 (+3)
Horace Greenhilt: 64
Thanh: 64
Ganonron: 64
Veldrina: 62
Enor: 61
Hieronymus Grubwiggler: 54
Cleric of Loki (Greysky): 53
Jiminy (Polearm Merchant): 52
Sangwaan: 15 (+37)
Geoff Starshine: 50


Incidentally Speaking or Side Characters (grouped by place/region)

Redmountain dungeon side characters:
Mr. Phil Rodriguez: 41 (+4)
Flumphs: 27 (+4) (+ lame ghost flumph: 4)
Young goblin with puberty spots: 27
Trigak: 24
Young goblin with glasses: 16
Yikyik: 13 (+2)

Northern lands (temperate) side characters:
Kaboom Redaxe (Somewhere assassins): 42
Former Bandit Leader: 40
Samantha: 40
Shadowdancer: 38
Dirt farmer husband: 22 (+9)
Dirt farmer wife: 17 (+8)
Gortok the Destroyer: 22
Sir Francois: 1 (+19)
Young Black Dragon: 17
Half-ogre with chain (Ogre Camp): 13
Maid in the Somewhere Tavern: 13
Brother Hiram: 13
Horsekeeper: 12
Armor Merchant Gnome: 11
Larry: 9
Eve: 8
Rookie Bandit: 8
Weasel: 7
Erik Greenhilt: 5
Elan's Mom: 5 (+9)

Azure City side characters:
Highpriest of the Twelve Gods: 29 (+8)
Niu: 33
General Chang: 32
Skullsy (Eye of Fear and Flame): 31
Elfish Commander: 24
Resistance-Fighter Samurai: 20
Grand-Larcenist: 18 (+3)
Blacksmith: 17 (+1)
Axe (Capt'n): 16
Huecuva: 15
Hobgoblin General: 15 (+10)
Sangwaan: 15
Isamu: 13
Death Knight: 13
Eyepatch-Resistance Fighter: 13
polymorped Hobgoblin spy: 10
Xanadu: 10

Order of the Scribble and related:
Kim Soon: 41
Girard Draketooth: 32
Dorukan: 4 (+17)
Serini Toormuck: 9 (+1)
Kim Mijung: 3
Kraagor: 1

Cliffport side characters:
CPPD Rookie: 35 (+14)
CPPD Chief: 48 (+1)
Leeky Windstaff: 36 (+10)
Pompey: 38 (+3)
Yokyok: 17 (+6)
CPPD Prison Warden with Eyepatch: 14
CPPD Officer (Brownhaired, Female): 9
CPPD Officer (Blond): 10
CPPD Officer (Dark skin): 9
Warthog: 9
CPPD Prison Warden (Mustached): 8
Larry Gardener: 8 (+1)
CPPD Prison Warden (Brown hair): 7
CPPD Phantom drawer: 2

Sunken Valley and Southern Sea side characters:
chief grukgruk: 28
Haerta Bloodsoak: 23
shaman vurkle: 23
Questguard Mouth: 16
Dr. Vampire: 15
Qarr's Pitfiend: 10
Green Guy: 8
Red Guy: 8
crong: 6
mungu: 3
gok: 3

Greysky City side characters:
Dead Blind Pete: 42
Chuck: 8 (+16)
Jenny: 17 (+16)
Brotherkiller: 11
Giro: 6 (+6)
Mia Starshine: 3

Western continent side characters:
Laurin Shattersmith: 48
Kilkil: 45 (+3)
Empress of Blood: 23 (+22)
Amun-Zora: 35
Inkyrius: 35
Miron Shewdanker: 29
Yukyuk: 20
Pitmaster (Arena): 18
Evisceratus: 16
Turban Mage (Drawmij): 16
Judy Morningstar: 15
Buggy Lou: 14
Bob Bloodcamel: 13
Sandsedge Armor Merchant: 13
Cartographer: 12
Gourntonk: 7
Offpanelio (Gladiator): 5
Lord Tyrinar the Bloody: 3
Weeping King: 1
Shoulder Pad Guy / Vektor: 1
Jacinda: 0 (+1)

Tinkertown side characters:
Acolyte of Hoder: 20
Ferdinand: 10
Female Gnomeland Officer: 9
Eartha: 4

Mechane Crewmembers:
Andromeda: 49
Felix: 19
Crewmember with pegleg: 6
Crewmember with goatee: 4
Crewmember with grey beard: 4
Crewmember with five-o-clock shadow: 4
Crewmember with dotted bandana: 4
Kwesi: 5
Mateo: 2

High priests and Far Northern side characters:
Sigdi Thundershield: 49
Gontor: 24 (+20 in Vampire Form)
Oona: 43
Thirden: 40
High Priest Hurak: 3 (+37)
High Priestess of Odin: 27
High Priestess of Thor: 22
High Priest of Balder: 12
High Priest of Sunna: 10
High Priestess of Freya: 10
High Priest of Freyr: 10
High Priestess of Hoder: 8
High Priestess of Sif: 7
High Priestess of Hermod: 6
High Priest of Heimdall: 4
High Priest of Mani: 6
High Priestess of Frigg: 5
(New) High Priestess of Hel: +4
High Priest of Dvalin: 4
High Priest of Tyr: 4
High Priest of Loki: 4
High Priestess of Sigrun: 4
High Priestess of Iounn: 4
High Priest of Vafthrudnir: 3
High Priestess of Njord: 3
High Priest of Thrym: 3
High Priest of Fenrir: 3
High Priest of Bragi: 3
High Priest of Skadi: 2
High Priest of Surtur: 2

Extra count: Gods
Thor: 34 (+2)
Hel: 35
Loki: 23 (+2)
Heimdall: 6
The Dark One: 4 (+8)
Surtur: 3
Odin: 2 (+1)
Freya: 2
Zeus: 2
Hades: 2
Tiamat: 1 (+2)
Dragon: 1 (+4)
Pig: 1 (+1)
Tiger: 1 (+1)
Marduk: 0 (+2)
Rooster: 0 (+1)
Rat: 0 (+1)
Nergal: 0

FAQ
Similarly to this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=231084), I would like to count here the number of each characters speech bubbles.

It shouldn't, like, AT ALL. But I'm rather sure that there will be fellow geeks interested in the numbers. It was interesting for me to compare the Number of Characters Appearance with the amount of speech that a character delivered all along. Or see that Right Eye has a bigger impact (counted in bubbles) than Malack. Or compare Jiminy with Zz'dtri. :smallsmile:

a) As the thread name indicates: Speech bubbles: Each circle where a character says something. Two consecutive speech bubbles in one panel count as two. Wordcount doesn't matter, so the lengthy, big bubbles from Vaarsuvius count less than the frequent, annoyed Roy-bubbles with "...".
b) One-liners: Each comment which is not inside of a speech bubble still counts as one. Think of the demonroaches here, or a "meow" of Mr. Scruffy.
c) Colored Narrator Boxes: Think of Shojos narrating style in the Crayons of time here - each box counts as a speech balloon.
d) If two or more characters share a Balloon (cf. #120, e.g.), it counts for each character.

Written text (like V's exploding runes, or letters, signs, books) and sound effects (boom! fft!)

The black numbers are the webcomic speech bubbles. Plus in red, those from the bonus material in the printed comics. Together, they make up the number by which they are ranked here. That end number is not shown.

I didn't count the bubbles manually :smallwink:
Six years ago, forumists started to translate OotS into german (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4972). By today, we have a complete translation from the character sheet up to comic #946 (end of book five). In the last years I spent a lot of time into proofreading and standardization (there were more than 50 contributors in that project) and created a text file with the complete transcript in german. I don't claim that this file is without errors, so the following numbers might be a bit off. The more often I went over the file in the last months, the more misattributions I found. I believe I cleared out almost all of them by now. New numbers can be simply added comic by comic. Last update is 981 so far.

I asked Wrecan a few weeks ago and he thinks he doesn't want to handle that; since his thread would grow out of hand.

Okay. We can work that out together in this thread. :smallcool:

I own all of them, so YES. It's the red numbers (+123). These HAD to be counted manually, so I have a table with all the characters/all the pages. If someone wants to check whether the numbers are correctly counted, I can just send you that file. Not that I'm betting on many requests anyway.

Okay, it's:
- Every additional (not-in-the-web-comic) speech bubble that appears in the books -1,0,1,2,3,4,5,D.
- Every speech bubble of the following Kickstarter bonus comics: Uncivil Servant, Haleo and Julelan, Spoiler Alert, How the Paladin Got His Scar ...
- NOT the speech bubbles in the merchandising articles. So, not the calendars, not the coloring book, not the magnets or stickers or T-Shirts, and not the reprint drive "story line". The reason here is, that I don't own all of those and don't think it's particularly important to give additional +50 counts to the main cast - they're leading the count, anyway. I reserved another tablespace for merchandise, though, so if some other fanatic really wants to do this, I won't object.

[Onyavar]

Recurring or named minor characters of interest from bonus material
(additional entries can be requested)
Saha Kapoor: +211 (Scar)
Zhou Bo: +204 (Scar)
Gin-Jun: +167 (Scar)
Roy Greenhilt (4ed): (+111) (SSDT)
Pangtok: +73 (Scar)
Tinktox: +70 (Scar)
Haley Starshine (4ed): (+57) (SSDT)
Hobgoblin General: +47 (Scar)
Kohaku: (+46) (Spoiler)
Sato: +45 (Scar)
Clerical Supreme Leader: +44 (Scar)
Belkar Bitterleaf (4ed): (+39) (SSDT)
Vaarsuvius (4ed): (+35) (SSDT)
Nhek: +34 (Scar)
Vampiric etc. Snail: (+33) (SSDT)
Elan (4ed): (+32) (SSDT)
Dragon: (+32) (SSDT)
Narrator: (+31) (Fools)
Shart: (+29) (Uncivil)
Fat Supreme Leader: +28 (Scar)
Ettin: +27 (Scar)
Mummy Queen: (+27) (SSDT)
Virginia: (+27) (SSDT)
Gated Planetar: +25 (Scar)
Deputy Mayor: (+25) (Uncivil)
Ridiziak: (+25) (Darkness)
Professor Xavion: (+25) (Darkness)
Durkon Thundershield (4ed) (+25) (SSDT)
Jeff the Goblin: (+22)
Belkar's Jail Warden: (+22) (OoPCs)
Eriaxnikol: (+21) (Darkness)
Mayor: (+20) (Uncivil)
Brint: (+20) (Uncivil)
Unsympathetic Paladin: (+18) (OoPCs)
Firuk: (+14) (OoPCs)
Less-humpbacked-than-Giro Grubwiggler Servant: (+11) (Party)
Fyron: (+11) (Darkness)
Gronc the Orc: (+11) (OoPCs)
Unsympathetic Wizard: (+11) (OoPCs)
Yunji: (+10) (WAXP)
Jiaya: (+10) (WAXP)
Jeff the Demon: (+8)
Fidel Secundus: (+8) (SSDT)
Unsympathetic Rogue: (+8) (OoPCs)
Imherstu: (+8) (SSDT)
...
Right-Eyes Daughter: (+4) (Darkness)
...

Interest groups and stuff, each totaled. Seperate (mostly unique) characters with more than 10 bubbles are not counted unless noted otherwise.
"generic" Azure City guards and soldiers: 156
"generic" Hobgoblin soldiers: 135
Empire of Blood guards/soldiers: 138
Goblins (all; uniques with >10 bubbles or generics): 65
Hobgoblin casters (colorcloaks): 21 (brown) + 40 (blue)
CPPD Team members: 45
Bandit Team members: 41
Greysky City thieves guild members: 39
Wights (all): 35
Azure City casters (clerics+mages): 30
Kubotas soldiers and ninjas: 26
Ogers: 20
Displacer beasts: 20
Draketooths (animated bodies): 20
Team Peregrine "resistance" elves with 10 bubbles or less: 16
jungle island orcs: 15
Aton Sisters: 15 (Purple: 4, Green: 6, Old: 5)

[Gift Jeraff]

I was wondering when you were gonna post this. :smalltongue: Nice work!

Interesting to compare this to the appearances thread. Redcloak, Eugene, Tsukiko, and Yokyok seem to have a high speech balloon:appearance ratio. (I would guess stuff like #500 and Tsukiko's death factor heavily into this.)

[Bulldog Psion]

That's truly impressive. Bravo!!! :smallbiggrin:

And, it's interesting, since it shows that Roy, Haley, and Elan are by far the main characters of the comic -- it's their thoughts, ideas, and feelings that are expressed verbally most often, which means that the events are seen most through the lens of their personalities.

Intriguing.

And kind of sad for Durkon ... :smallfrown:

[ti'esar]

For a character who was introduced just over a hundred strips ago, Tarquin has done a lot of talking.

[mrmcfatty]

Horatio Greenhilt: 64


isnt his name Horace?

not that it is a big deal, just jumped out at me :P but very good list though.

[fergo]

Very interesting :smallsmile:. Thanks.

[NerfTW]

Maybe you should reconsider the category names. I would hardly refer to Z as "incidental" and Hilgya as "infrequent". Z has had two appearances to her one. His tendency not to speak (especially in his first appearance) doesn't make his character incidental.

Not to mention you've got the order of the Scribble and Thor in there as "incidental" as well, despite their obvious importance to the plot.

[Onyavar]

Maybe you should reconsider the category names. I would hardly refer to Z as "incidental" and Hilgya as "infrequent". Z has had two appearances to her one. His tendency not to speak (especially in his first appearance) doesn't make his character incidental.

Not to mention you've got the order of the Scribble and Thor in there as "incidental" as well, despite their obvious importance to the plot.

Okay, umm... which categories would you use instead?
"Silent Characters" instead of "incidental"? Then you would argue that the dirtfarmer husband isn't exactly "silent"...
Should I sort them according to their appearance/speech bubble ratio? With the Polearm merchant on pole position with 46:1 and Roy on 6.6:1 ? :smallconfused:

[AndToBeLoved]

Wow. That must have been...tedious. Impressive.

[Gift Jeraff]

Were thought bubbles counted? And what about hypothetical/imagined scenarios like Roy and Tarquin in Elan's imagination?

[tassaron]

Should I sort them according to their appearance/speech bubble ratio? With the Polearm merchant on pole position with 46:1 and Roy on 6.6:1 ? :smallconfused:

You could not label them at all and use just the numbers.

I also think that appearance/speech bubble ratios would be just as or more interesting than raw numbers. That would be a good thing to add to the first post for each character.

[Bulldog Psion]

I prefer the current method. It breaks the information up into more easily viewed chunks.

[Katana_Geldar]

...do you have a job or go to school or something? Not that I'm admiring your accomplishment here, but...really?

[Gift Jeraff]

...do you have a job or go to school or something? Not that I'm admiring your accomplishment here, but...really?Couldn't this have been done with search functions in Word, Chrome, or the like? Unless you're making fun of translation projects...

[Katana_Geldar]

No, I'm not making fun of them, but you still have go go through every single character and get all their speech bubbles. Even with the document in word, that's a lot of work.

[Dr. Gamera]

No, I'm not making fun of them, but you still have go go through every single character and get all their speech bubbles. Even with the document in word, that's a lot of work.

If only there were some sort of electrical computing device that could do the counting in some sort of automated fashion...

[The Dark Fiddler]

I have a question on how you counted situations such as Durkon's Dispel Magic in 850 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0850.html). Would that be one ("Dispel Magic! ... Nuts.") or three ("Dispel Magic!", "...", and "Nuts.")?

[Onyavar]

I have a question on how you counted situations such as Durkon's Dispel Magic in 850 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0850.html). Would that be one ("Dispel Magic! ... Nuts.") or three ("Dispel Magic!", "...", and "Nuts.")?

That would be three.
Also note:
last row, first panel (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0808.html): 3 bubbles for Roy.
Third Panel: (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0116.html) "three bubbles" counted for demonroaches (because of lines)
First row: (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0622.html)The "meow" of Mr. Scruffy were counted as one bubble per panel (because of no lines) and last row, "purr" counts as a bubble, but "munch" and "rustle" don't count at all (sounds)

[recluso]

Nice work.
However, who is that Cleric of Loki if its not Hilgya?

[Dr. Gamera]

Nice work.
However, who is that Cleric of Loki if its not Hilgya?

The cleric introduced in Clerical Temp (#602) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0602.html).

[Steward]

OK, I'm curious as to how the Search function in Microsoft Word could be used to count the speech bubbles in a comic strip. I just spent like 10 minutes looking over the help file for it and I just don't see it. I can definitely see it working if you had a transcript, but with an image file?

[Onyavar]

Were thought bubbles counted? And what about hypothetical/imagined scenarios like Roy and Tarquin in Elan's imagination?
Thought bubbles (e.g. Haleys or Nales internal dialogues) counted, yes. In the translation I did something to distinguish them from spoken language. And the imagined scenarios of course counted, too: It's a panel with a regular speech bubble, nothing extraordinary. Same applies for Belkars hippie dream quest thing with Shojo.


...do you have a job or go to school or something? Not that I'm admiring your accomplishment here, but...really?
No, I'm not making fun of them, but you still have go go through every single character and get all their speech bubbles. Even with the document in word, that's a lot of work.

Uh huh. In case you didn't notice, the german translation thread has been around since 2006. It's by far the oldest thread that is still current and has never been archived. I started participating there in 2009, around comic 450. That project was a free time thing and now, after six years (!!), I managed to put all the effort of 100 contributors into a single text file... Yes, it took a large bit of my free time over the years. But it was fun.


If only there were some sort of electrical computing device that could do the counting in some sort of automated fashion...
OK, I'm curious as to how the Search function in Microsoft Word could be used to count the speech bubbles in a comic strip. I just spent like 10 minutes looking over the help file for it and I just don't see it. I can definitely see it working if you had a transcript, but with an image file?

Since I have the transcript and this in a nicely formatted fashion, it IS sort of automated. I simply input the search term "Roy: " or "Nale: ".
Now how to get a transcript automatically... If you have enough time and devotion, I can tell you how to do it. First you would need to download all comics. Next you would program a perfect science fiction-like OCR that can recognize white bubbles and put the text of each bubble into a single line. Afterwards, you need to do the same with black speech bubbles (IFCC/Xykon/Qarr) and blue (Roy/Celia) and so on. Then you would need to go over those results and sort out which character said which bubble. Next, you need to let the OCR recognize all text which wasn't put into a speech bubble and then sort out which one is text said by a character (noises and inscripts don't count, remember).
Having done all of that your next step is to program OCR-bots to fool every captcha in the net and become bilionaire.

Or you could simply pay around 50 students to do the job of typing down a trancsript, 17 comics for each and you're done.
Wait. NOT paying 50 devoted OotS fans to type it will also work.

Well, I have no idea how this would work out in MS Word. I'm using notepad++ to handle the text file, and said file comprises of 44470 Lines (as of #850) and apparently 2 Million charakters/letters. The file size is almost 2 MB - I can imagine it would be at least 10 times bigger if you start with Word.

[Dr. Gamera]

Now how to get a transcript automatically...

By no means am I suggesting that there's a reasonable automatic way to get a transcript. As you point out, while we can imagine getting much of the text from OCR, assigning text to characters is AI-hard in the general case. Once you have a carefully-formatted transcript, however, it's easy to write a program to count speech bubbles by character.


I'm using notepad++ to handle the text file, and said file comprises of 44470 Lines (as of #850) and apparently 2 Million charakters/letters. The file size is almost 2 MB - I can imagine it would be at least 10 times bigger if you start with Word.

What Onyavar implies, but does not explicitly state, is that notepad++ automatically provides concordance (count the number of occurrences of this string) as part of its search function. But even that is a little less automated than I envisioned, as somebody has to go through and run the search function for each character's name. I confess that I've employed similar schemes from time to time in the past, though.

[Sith_Happens]

Now there just needs to be a "character word count" thread.:smallbiggrin:

[Albion]

Now there just needs to be a "character word count" thread.:smallbiggrin:

V would rank a lot higher in that one! There would be many other differences as well compared to this list. We need to see this, come on! :smallbiggrin: No, don't, just kidding.

[raymundo]

V would rank a lot higher in that one! There would be many other differences as well compared to this list. We need to see this, come on! :smallbiggrin: No, don't, just kidding.

That could probably be done in one rainy evening, if one had the transcript. Hmmm..

[Dr. Gamera]

Now there just needs to be a "character word count" thread.:smallbiggrin:


That could probably be done in one rainy evening, if one had the transcript. Hmmm..

It shouldn't take more than about fifteen minutes to write the program. I'm not a Perl programmer, but heck, I imagine it could be done in one line of Perl.

[Chronos]

That could probably be done in one rainy evening, if one had the transcript. Hmmm..If you had the English-language transcript, sure, but as I understand it the OP only has the German one.

[Onyavar]

If you had the English-language transcript, sure, but as I understand it the OP only has the German one.

Exactly - sorry guys. Except for the "Sending" strips, the word count is mostly a bit larger in the german transcript (http://ootstick.wikispaces.com/oots0000-0850). The proportions could be more or less the same, I guess, but the exact numbers would be off.

If you need a source for english transcripts, I think, the OotS Wikia has a few of them, but not complete, afair.

I think it would ALSO be interesting to do an appearence count per panel (looking at Wrecan :smallwink:)

[Cizak]

853:

Belkar: 2
Durkon: 1
Elan: 3
Haley: 4
Malack: 3
Nale: 1
Roy: 6
Sabine: 1
Tarquin: 2

[martianmister]

Greatest thread ever. :smallbiggrin:

[asphias]

since no bothered to look at the Speeches/Appearances, i decided to go ahead and do it myself.
note that only characters with either more then 30 appearances, *OR* at least 100 speeches have been counted. anything below that and i'd soon have to count 4 times as much characters:smallfrown:


oracle 11,2
tarquin 9,4
therkla 8,5
tsukiko 8,3
shojo 8,3
redcloak 7,8
eugene 7,7
celia 7,2
roy 6,6
xykon 6,6
nale 6,2
hinjo 6,2
ian starshine 6,1
ganji 6,0
miko 6,0
qarr 5,3
monster 5,2
elan 5,2
haley 4,9
ochul 4,8
belkar 4,6
malack 4,3
V 4,2
sabine 3,5
daigo 2,9
durkon 2,9
demonroaches 2,9
thog 2,5
lien 2,5
blackwing 1,5
zz'dtri 1,4
mr.scruffy 0,4

its interesting to see that the order of the main characters does not chance, no matter if we look at speeches, Appearances, or speeches/Appearances.

[137beth]

Celia: 511
Tarquin: 512
I think these are suppose to be flipped:smallamused:

[Onyavar]

Asphias, that's a great job with the appearance/speeches table.


its interesting to see that the order of the main characters does not chance, no matter if we look at speeches, Appearances, or speeches/Appearances.

The opposite would have surprised me, in fact. Most fascinating, I wouldn't have suspected the oracle at the top, but Tarquin, Redcloak and Celia.

[Onyavar]

Update of 854:
Malack +12; Tarquin +10; Sabine +3; Qarr +2; Nale +1

Update of 855:
Roy +10; Haley +7; Belkar +5; Elan +3; Durkon +1

[martianmister]

856:
Nale +11; Tarquin +4; Malack +3; Sabine +3; Qarr +2; Kilkil +1

857:
Blackwing +16; Vaarsuvius +12; Nale +1; Sabine +1; Zz'dtri +1

[Tass]

OP. Could you send me the text file? I'll try to whip up some matlab magic to let us graph the activity of the characters at a given time in the comics run, not just the total activity to date.


The opposite would have surprised me, in fact. Most fascinating, I wouldn't have suspected the oracle at the top, but Tarquin, Redcloak and Celia.

It makes sense though. Celia and Tarquin are more often background characters, following the main action (although both talk a lot), the oracle has rarely appeared in a strip that was not completely centered on him. With mane bubbles per appearance as a result.

[Gift Jeraff]

#858:
Haley +2, Kilkil +2, Malack +4, Nale +3, Roy +1, Sabine +5, Tarquin +8

#859:
Durkon +1, Kilkil +1, Malack +3, Nale +7, Qarr +1, Sabine +2, Tarquin +2, Zz'dtri +1

[Onyavar]

OP. Could you send me the text file?

Sent you a PM, the same day even. Could you do anything with that data?


stuff

Thanks, updated.

[irenicObserver]

I think this is the only fandom I know to undertake endeavors such as this :smallbiggrin:

[martianmister]

#860:
Nale +12, Roy +1, Sabine +5, Tarquin +5, Zz'dtri +1, Belkar +4

#861:
Qarr +4, Roy +4, Tarquin +4, Malack +3, Zz'dtri +1, Durkon +1, Haley +1


#858:
Tarquin +8

This should be +9. :smallsmile:

[Onyavar]

Ok, I just took the liberty to update the count numbers in my OP, after a long time of absence from this thread. Hope this doesn't count as necromancy, since starting a new thread seemed kinda waste to me.

Also, new statistic regarding the appearance / speech bubble ratio that asphias introduced last year:

9,33 Oracle
7,73 Therkla
7,71 Tarquin
7,28 Tsukiko
6,73 Redcloak
6,55 Eugene Greenhilt
6,06 Shojo
6,02 Celia
5,91 Roy Greenhilt
5,81 Gannji
5,43 Nale
5,34 Xykon
5,23 Monster in the Darkness
5,13 Miko Miyazaki
4,93 Minister Malack
4,92 Ian Starshine
4,79 Hinjo
4,7 Haley Starshine
4,39 Elan
4,06 Qarr
3,87 O-Chul
3,82 Vaarsuvius
3,81 Belkar Bitterleaf
3,25 Sabine
2,59 Daigo Da
2,5 Enor
2,45 Durkon Thundershield
2,42 Demon Roaches (all)
2,16 Lien
2,02 Thog
1,67 Blackwing
1,13 Zz'dtri
0,35 Mr Scruffy

There may be differences in weighting because I added the blue numbers from the multipage count, as well as speech bubbles from Haleys personalities.

Wow, Tarquin really pushed himself into the foreground, he will soon have more bubbles than Nale. I can already see him as the side character of the comic with the most speech bubbles, even more than Reddie. Since Tarquin can't be main villain, this is a nice consolation price.

[Gift Jeraff]

Wow. Were Nale and Tarquin ahead of Xykon last time you updated? Could've sworn it was Xykon>Nale>Tarquin with significant gaps between the 3.


This should be +9. :smallsmile:

Oops.

[henrykazuka]

Also, new statistic regarding the appearance / speech bubble ratio that asphias introduced last year:

9,33 Oracle
7,73 Therkla


I thought ninjas were supposed to be silent? and also do a lot of killing?

[Onyavar]

Wow. Were Nale and Tarquin ahead of Xykon last time you updated? Could've sworn it was Xykon>Nale>Tarquin with significant gaps between the 3.
Oh yes. I could have sworn the same. A year of tarquinery can change many things.


I thought ninjas were supposed to be silent? and also do a lot of killing?

In the strips where Therkla appeared, she apparently talked a lot. When she didn't talk, we had no chance to see her... because, you now... ninja? So her ratio went through the roof.

[137beth]

Nice to see that even after all this time, the Polearm Emporium Clerk retains his status of the highest speech bubble to appearance ration:smallbiggrin:

[Onyavar]

Update of 919:
Vaarsuvius +10; Blackwing +1; Roy +4; Belkar +2; Durkon +1

[Zmeoaice]

Needs the little OOTS smilies.

I wonder if someone is patient enough to count the amount of words said by each character.

[Yxylu]

V would rank a lot higher in that one! There would be many other differences as well compared to this list. We need to see this, come on! :smallbiggrin: No, don't, just kidding.

I was sort of waiting until the end of book 5 for the reveal, and I won't go into too much detail here, but this is in-process. To address your specific assumption, Vaarsuvius comes in 5th, with 23,998 words. Roy is the chattiest by far, with 48,356 words.

This includes the on-line archive, all seven books (plus the coloring book), the Kickstarter updates, both reward PDFs, and the cards from the board game.

[Onyavar]

I wonder if someone is patient enough to count the amount of words said by each character.


I was sort of waiting until the end of book 5 for the reveal, ...

You really... you... okay. What we also need is a count of characters in PANELS (yes, eat your hearts out, appearance-per-comic-strip-counters wannabe nerds (:smallwink:)).
I once even started a file attempting such a per-panel count, but then I asked myself - why exactly am I doing this?


I think this is the only fandom I know to undertake endeavors such as this :smallbiggrin:

:smallbiggrin: So. True. :smallbiggrin:

[Yxylu]

You really... you... okay. What we also need is a count of characters in PANELS (yes, eat your hearts out, appearance-per-comic-strip-counters wannabe nerds (:smallwink:)).

You... you're really making me tip my hand here. There's a reason why I was able to identify in the Individual Comic Discussion thread how many Empire of Blood infantry there were either charging down into the depression (654), or surrounding the wall of fire (157).

I'm updating with current comics, and back-filling from the beginning. I'm going slowly, 'cause I'm getting hung up on which bandit is which. There is a surprising number of them.

[Onyavar]

I'm getting hung up on which bandit is which. There is a surprising number of them.

It made my head hurt, too. There is a brownish-red haired one who speaks rather often, but there is another brown-haired and another red haired...
I started at the beginning, once, and if I remember correctly I struggled through the bandit arc and lost motivation soon after. If I had to guesstimate from memory, I'd say there were the ex-leader, Samantha, 12 mook-level bandits with speaking roles and maybe 20 extras, all on-panel. And after being disbanded, the female apprentice bandit sat in the tavern!

You're also going to have a lot of fun with the individualized EoB soldiers (different from the montonous azurite soldiers). There is an arena guard with semibrown skin who talked so much I nearly considered him as recurring character, maybe he had more bubbles than the arena overseer - but maybe he was just a regularly-used pattern, so I stopped tracking him.

[137beth]

Are you still planning on updating this?

[Onyavar]

Are you still planning on updating this?

Of course, thanks for reminding me.
I translated 922 and 923 yesterday, and recounted just now.

[Zmeoaice]

Can you change the link to number of character appearances to this?

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=276152

[137beth]

For 924, we have:
Miron: +6
Tarquin: +10
Laurin: +5
Kilkil: +1

[Onyavar]

Included update for 925+926.

Laruin and Miron crawl their way to top. Slow but steady.

[Onyavar]

Hello all, the OP post is updated to the finale of book 5; I finally counted the Speech bubbles from 926-946 (automated via the german translation, as before):

Roy+94, Elan+74, Tarquin+67, Haley+46, Julio+42, Vaarsuvius+37, Ian:+33, Laurin+30, Belkar+25, Blackwing+21, Geoff+13, Miron+11, Gannji+7, Hel+7, Amun-Zora+5, Bozzok+2, Enor+1, Jiminy+1

And in the light of the most recent strip, I did the step to separate the two characters of Durkon and Durkula (for lack of a better name, I hate that denomination myself): Durkon loses 36 counts, Durkula now has 59.

[137beth]

And in the light of the most recent strip, I did the step to separate the two characters of Durkon and Durkula (for lack of a better name, I hate that denomination myself): Durkon loses 36 counts, Durkula now has 59.

I suggest "High Priest of Hel", as that is what is given in the comic (and is being used by the other stat tracking threads).

[Onyavar]

I suggest "High Priest of Hel", as that is what is given in the comic (and is being used by the other stat tracking threads).

Oh great, thanks! I should have checked on that thread...

[Onyavar]

I felt like doing a count on the first 15 strips of the new book, and here are the numbers:


Update for 947-962:
High Priest of Hel+70, Roy+39, Belkar+38, Bandana+37, Vaarsuvius+36, Durkon+32, Elan+24, Sigdi+24 (new on list), Haley+23, Andromeda+22 (new on list), Blackwing+14, Felix+10 (new on list)

HPoH is doing a lot of talking inside his head, and Belkar and Durkon get more dialogue. Bandana and Andi talk frequently, too.
I counted Andi (formerly Sally) on 935, then 952, 956, 961.
I counted Sergeant Sigdi (Durkon's Mom) on 947 and 962.

Also, the older numbers from the finish of last book:

Update for 926-946:
Roy+94, Elan+74, Tarquin+67, Haley+46, Julio+42, Vaarsuvius+37, Ian:+33, Laurin+30, Belkar+25, Blackwing+21, Bandana+16 (new on list) Geoff+13, Miron+11, Hel+7 (new on list), Gannji+7, Amun-Zora+5, Bozzok+2, Enor+1, Jiminy+1
Recategorization of Durkon:
Durkon-36, High Priest of Hel +59

[137beth]

As usual, Roy does the most talking in the Order. HPoH is working his way up pretty quickly, though.

[Onyavar]

Update for 963:
Durkon+25, Sigdi+11, High Priest of Hel+9, Roy+7

Go, Durkon!

[Onyavar]

Update from 965 to 981:

Haley: +108, Crystal: +89, Bandana: +36, Bozzok: +27, Roy: +24, Belkar: 21, Elan: +16, Hieronymus: +14, Vaarsuvius: +7, High Priest of Hel: +7, Blackwing: 6. Recurring characters new on list: Female Gnomeland Officer (9), Sir Francois (1)

[137beth]

HPoH is losing their momentum, it would appear. Not surprising, as they was the focus of the book's opening, and they'll probably get some of it back when more of their purpose is revealed.

[Gift Jeraff]

Favorite speech balloon tournament when?

[Onyavar]

Oh, I'd like to mention that I'm now also counting the bubbles in the bonus material. I put these numbers in the OP in red.

More precisely, I counted them the last week, when I was ill and had nothing else to do. I made a table with all the characters and all the pages, so if someone wants to check whether the numbers are correctly counted, I can just send you that file. Not that I'm betting on many requests anyway.
For the regular speech bubbles in the webcomic itself, I still use the german transcript/translation. That file can also be sent around to people interested.

Also, I should reveal which bonus material was counted, right?
So, it's:
- Every additional (not-in-the-web-comic) speech bubble that appears in Print. I have all the books, i.e. from -1 to 5, +D.
- Every speech bubble of the following bonus comics: Uncivil Servant, Haleo and Julelan, Spoiler Alert, ...
- NOT the speech bubbles in the merchandising articles. So, not the calendars, not the coloring book, not the magnets or stickers, and not the reprint drive "story". The reason here is, that I don't own all of those and don't think it's particularly important to give additional +50 counts to the main cast - they're leading the count, anyway.

[ChristianSt]

I have all the books, i.e. from -2 to 5, +D.

Call me intrigued, but what is Book -2? :smalltongue:

[Onyavar]

Oh yeah, -2... That's this supercool book before -1. What you, don't have it? It's all aboutthose cool adventures of the Scribbles, and how Tarquin met the travelling Serini when he was a young boy. It fixes many little plotholes, too, like how Fyron's son resurrected Eugene those many times, before Xykon killed Fyron junior, too. Which explains why Eugene was reminded of the importance of his oath. And probably more stuff, like, about the sapphire guard before Lord Shojo. It will be great! (And probably totally different than we all imagine.)

(no, really, I wasn't paying attention to the actual numbers on the books when writing this. I still knew, however, there are two prequels, and since one of them is -1...) Error corrected; I have -1,0,1,2,3,4,5,D, just like yourself.

[Onyavar]

Update from 981 to 999:
Roy: +165, Hippo: +78, Wrecan (new): 71, Veldrina (new) +47, Thirden (new:) +40, Durkon: +37, Belkar: +31, Gontor (new): +24, High Priestess of Odin (new): +18, Vaarsuvius: +16, Sigdi +14, Bandana: +10, Elan +9, Loki +8, Haley: +7, Heimdall (new) +6, Felix:+5, Blackwing: +4, Andromeda: +4, High Priest of Balder (new): +4, High Priest of Sif (new): +3

I only counted those High Priests who had speech in more than one comic so far, which would be only Odin's, Sif's, Hel's and Balder's. Having 16 more twofers at the bottom of the list wouldn't add a lot to it. The same with Hoskin, by the way, he has only 3 so far.

[137beth]

Does the "+218 as Vampiric High Priest of Hel" next to Durkon include the times HPoH is speaking as an energy spirit inside Durkon's mind, or just the times he is speaking through Durkon's physical mouth?

[Onyavar]

Both what "Durkula" says to the world and what he says in internal conversations.

This even includes the few bubbles "Durkula" said when he was still a thrall to Malack, since I don't think that there is a difference between thrall-Durkula and Hippo - only that the thrall didn't have free will yet.

PS, I will also include the count of him as Hel's mouthpiece during the voting, unless the goddess speaks directly through the summon proxy spell.

[Onyavar]

Update from 1000 to 1007:
Hippo: +70, Roy: +62, Durkon: +23, HP of Sunna: +6, Wrecan: +4, HP of Balder: +4, HP of Freya: +4, HP of Freyr: +3, Hurak: +3, HP of Odin: +2, HP of Vafthrudnir: +1, HP of Frigg: +1, HP of Njord: +1, HP of Mani: +1, HP of Hoder: +1, HP of Tyr: +1, HP of Thor: +1, HP of Heimdall: +1


(The hour of the vampire!) :smalleek:

[Haar]

I don't see Shoulder Pad Guy from the Vector Legion up there, Lord Tyrinar, or the Weeping King. Given, they're only in flashbacks (And each only speaks once), but that doesn't seem to be a factor for disqualification.

[Onyavar]

I don't see Shoulder Pad Guy from the Vector Legion up there, Lord Tyrinar, or the Weeping King. Given, they're only in flashbacks (And each only speaks once), but that doesn't seem to be a factor for disqualification.

added these characters to the list, as requested (the list with 10 or less only includes characters that are of interest. One-panel cameos like Firestorm and Batman (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0359.html)aren't "disqualified", either, they're just of too little interest, so far.

[137beth]

I found an error!
Specifically in regards to the formatting in the FAQ of the question "I found an error!"
Your brackets aren't exactly in the right place, so the question is part in and part out of the spoiler box.

[Onyavar]

I found an error!

Thanks, fixed!


Update from 1007 to 1012:
Hippo: +36, Roy: +27, Hel:+5, High Priestess of Hermod: +5, Veldrina: 3, Wrecan: +3, Highpriest of Balder: +3, Blackwing: +3, Vaarsuvius: +2, High Priest of Surtur: +2, High Priestess of Sigrun: +2, High Priest of Bragi: +2, High Priestess of Iounn: +2, High Priest of Thrym: #2, Haley: +1, Elan: +1, Highpriestess of Sif: +1, Highpriestess of Odin: +1, High Priest of Mani: +1,

[137beth]

Who's Hippo? Do you mean High Priest of Hel?

[Onyavar]

Who's Hippo? Do you mean High Priest of Hel?

Yep. HPoH, or Hippo for short, someone else suggested it somewhere else. In other threads, I also like to call him Undurkon. I don't care for the Durkula nickname.

[137beth]

I don't care for the Durkula nickname.

On that, we agree (I called him "vampire Durkon" prior to strip 946). I like Hippo, though, so I might start using it myself:smallsmile:
Also, the color of V's bonus speech bubbles in the OP is missing a bracket.

[Onyavar]

Update from 1013 to 1025:
Roy +64; Blackwing +54; Belkar +23; Vampire Gontor: +20; Wrecan +17; Vaarsuvius +16; Vampire-Durkon/FHPoH/Hippo/Phyrnglsnyx/Undurkon/Greg +14; Veldrina +12; Mr. Scruffy +7; Bandana +3; High Priest[ess] of... [Thor +19; Odin +6; Dvalin, Freyr, Hel +4; Balder, Frigg, Hoder, Sif +3; Freya, Hermod, Iounn, Mani, Sunna +2; Fenrir, Loki, Sigrun, Thrym, Tyr +1]; Hel +2; Loki +3; Miko +1; Felix +1


Darn, that took some time rechecking all the names.

[unbeliever536]

You list Important Supporting Cast as having 200-2000 speech bubbles. Shouldn't that be 100-1000? (if so, the Side Characters range would also need to change)

Also "Right Eyes Daughter" should probably have an apostrophe.

[woweedd]

That's truly impressive. Bravo!!! :smallbiggrin:

And, it's interesting, since it shows that Roy, Haley, and Elan are by far the main characters of the comic -- it's their thoughts, ideas, and feelings that are expressed verbally most often, which means that the events are seen most through the lens of their personalities.

Intriguing.

And kind of sad for Durkon ... :smallfrown:
I find this blatant Anthrocentrism disgusting!:smalltongue:

[137beth]

I find this blatant Anthrocentrism disgusting!:smalltongue:

It's because humans are overpowered, and the Giant always decides his characters' species based on which is most optimal in D&D 3.5.

[Onyavar]

Half a year and 30 comics later: new update.


Update from 1025 to 1055:
Roy +132, Lien +62, Belkar +63, Haley +51, O-Chul +43, Oona +43, Eugene +42, Elan +38, Redcloak +37, Bandana +32, Xykon +27, MidD +26, Andromeda +13, Demon Roaches +11, Greyview +10, Vaarsuvius +9, Blackwing +8, Felix +3, Kwesi +2, Mateo +1



Update from Paladin/Scar Kickstarter story:
O-Chul +536, Hinjo +218, Saha Kapoor +211, Zhou Bo +204, Gin-Jun +167, Pangtok +73, Tinktox +70, Shojo +50, Hobgoblin General +47, Sato +45, Clerical Supreme Leader +44, Nhek +34, Fat Supreme Leader +28, Ettin +27, Gated Planetar +25, Miko +25, Ngujen +6, Mrs. O +6, Mr. Kapoor +3, Redcloak +2, Zayan Kapoor +1. (Various hobgoblins +36. Various paladins: +20, among them Duong +5, Xo +2)