For the love of thor, please no more filler!

[Nanako]

i'm not even sure what the OOTS update frequency is right now, but it feels like less than 1 per week.

it's been 6 strips since anything remotely plot-related happened (vaarsuvius deciding to stop being useless). This whole illusion corridor subplot was seen through, predicted, and called out, from the first strip it was posted (885). Clearly xykon was not going to appear this early, and everyone knew it. if there were even a few believers, they were dispelled by 886.


The strips since then (886-890) are just random crap taking place in a nonexistent mental universe, and every single reader knows it by now. This is, in the most literal and concrete sense of the term, a "filler arc". Nothing that happens in this illusion sequence is important, and yet it just keeps dragging on. If it were updating every day (like the awesome durkon/malack battle) then it'd be perfectly awesome. That would be a good way to include nonsignificant filler arcs like this. However that's not the case. The frequent update pattern is gone, and we're back to getting a new strip roughly every 10-ish days,

Last strip, with elan's deductions about the nature of their reality, it seemed to be finally over. i was hoping the next strip would finally get back to something worthwhile

However, with the posting of 890, the faint hope of finally escaping from it seems to be fading away as we're informed that belkar gets his own seperate dream sequence. I don't care. I hope a few people at least feel the same.

i'm begging, for the love of thor, tiamat, or whatever other god you worship. Do not show us belkar's dream sequence. Just get on with the story. LOet us know about tarqun's interesting machinations, or how nale is going to fail spectacularly again, or even what xykon is up to. (he's among the most interesting fictional characters i've ever seen, and turns almost any strip into gold) Waiting 7 days for another piece of meaningless filler is not anyone's idea of fun :|

either that or update more frequently D:

[oppyu]

Ooh, this should be good. Fight! Fight! Fight! Unleash your passive aggressive walls of text on each other! Condemn the poster who complained!

[The Succubus]

I think we've been reading different comics. In the one I've been reading, I've seen epic level Illusion magic, some terrific insights into what makes each character, some good character growth by Elan and an unexpected side of Belkar's personality.

I guess we just have different meanings of the word "filler". :smallsmile:

[rodneyAnonymous]

It seems like the illusion trap will probably be relevant to the plot, and it's way too soon to decide anything is filler.

[sam79]

Welcome to the Playground! So let's see...Comments about the update schedule, which is against forum rules. Talking about "filler", a subject which caused the main thread for strip 889 to be locked. And starting a whole new thread about "filler", specifically against the wishes of the author/Chief Moderator. What a good start.

Thread locked in five, four, three...

[oppyu]

Welcome to the Playground! So let's see...Comments about the update schedule, which is against forum rules. Talking about "filler", a subject which caused the main thread for strip 889 to be locked. And starting a whole new thread about "filler", specifically against the wishes of the author/Chief Moderator. What a good start.

Thread locked in five, four, three...
Wait, this thread can't be locked. It hasn't devolved into inane bickering yet :smallfrown:

[Cecil]

Most of the comics readers aren't regulars on the forum. To say that it was "called" in 885 is being hasty.

The strips of the OOTS under the illusion runes are part of the character growth, and are done extremely well. Character growth is half of what makes the comic tick!

[Justyz]

I don't comment at all, long long time follower -

The past few strips were pieces of masterstroke (hehe). I was throttled, excited, and mostly saddened by them, and the finish with belkar really took my heart away (and gives us another nuance of his development).

Not to even mention the tremendous artwork, to think that this is a stick figure comic!

I got so excited about the last few strips that I even got to (strongly) recommend my girlfriend to wade through the first 120 strips to get to this amazing story (like me, she has no idea of DnD, but cares a lot about good storytelling). These strips were the final approval for me - OTHER PEOPLE NEED TO SEE THIS ****.

[Fish]

Yes, there's no way this thread will end badly.

Go watch "Game of Thrones" or something. Seriously. Take a few months away from the comic strip and come back later.

[Nanako]

I've seen epic level Illusion magic
considering how few of the readerbase it managed to fool, i'd call it pretty weak illusion magic. People were about 60/40 in the thread about 885 as to whether it was an illusion or not, and with the next strip thatrapidly turned into ~99% for.

I'm basing this on approximate observations of comments in the official thread about each particular strip. possibly with some exaggeration :p



terrific insights into what makes each character
i'd mostly have to diagree here. roy's feelings of fighters being better (than illusionist wizards, for example), and elan's desire to have a united family, were already well known. the belkar thing in the last two panels may possibly be mr scruffy's dream, so i'm not sure it can be counted as character growth for belkar.

[Neoriceisgood]

I think the last few pages really showed some insight in how various team members have grown, particularly Elan & Belkar.

Another thing that stands out to me is that the only party member who seems to have trouble understanding this at all for any member is Roy.

[Nanako]

Yes, there's no way this thread will end badly.

Go watch "Game of Thrones" or something. Seriously. Take a few months away from the comic strip and come back later.
actually i'm taking a few months away from GOT until the entire third series finishes broadcasting, so i can watch it all without interruption. :p

but on a more relevant note, i'd love to be able to do the same with OOTS. and in fact, i sometimes do. But the update frequency is so random that it sometimes doesn't result in much. the durkon/malack battle all happened in less than a week, but sometimes we're lucky to see 3 updates in a month.

I HAVE tried taking a month away from OOTS, but the problem is, nothing has happened by the time i come back. that's partly what's made me want to make this thread.

[CRtwenty]

What's one reader's filler is another reader's favorite strip. I've personally loved the whole illusion bit. We've gotten some serious character growth from Elan here, and some extra Belkar points as well. Just because the Order isn't knee deep in a fight with the Linear Guild atm doesn't mean what's happening isn't important.

[Nanako]

On a more somber note, i understand that rich has recently had an injury affecting his writing capability. and for that i do understand the low frequency of updates. I'm guessing the durkon/malack thing was done in advance, and released like stored ammunition

But given that, is it unreasonable to expect stuff to happen in those few and far between strips? i personally think 6 strips is too long for a "dream" arc which almost every reader can identify as such./ the limit of usefulness was reached at two strips and this corridor has been just filler since then.

[Morty]

I'm curious about your definition of "stuff happening". What constitutes a strip in which something happens, as opposed to it being filler?

[JoseB]

I HAVE tried taking a month away from OOTS, but the problem is, nothing has happened by the time i come back. that's partly what's made me want to make this thread.


Don't take one month off from the comic, then. Take six. You know the pace of updates is rather slow -- take that into consideration. That is what I do with webcomics that at a given moment don't appear to have the pacing I'd like them to have.

Also -- reading these pages right one after the other in a book, or in an archive binge later on, gives a different impression than reading them once a week. In any case, I feel that that's the best way to read a webcomic (or any comic, really): in batches.

[Sunken Valley]

On a more somber note, i understand that rich has recently had an injury affecting his writing capability. and for that i do understand the low frequency of updates. I'm guessing the durkon/malack thing was done in advance, and released like stored ammunition

But given that, is it unreasonable to expect stuff to happen in those few and far between strips? i personally think 6 strips is too long for a "dream" arc which almost every reader can identify as such./ the limit of usefulness was reached at two strips and this corridor has been just filler since then.

Rich will not be fully recovering from his injury (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15239917&postcount=134)

Also, the illusion arc has actually had a more rapid update speed than suggested.

885: Apr 25
886 (2 pages): May 5 (10 days)
887: May 12 (7 days)
888: May 17 (5 days)
889 (3 pages): May 20 (3 days)
890: May 26 (6 days) (end of arc)

More than a week between updates? You got 6 strips (9 pages) in 42 days. Compare just before injury when you got the same amount of strips (6 pages) in 57 days.

Incidentally, both times Rich is alternating the comic with Kickstarter work including a new Romeo and Juliet themed story. He's very busy juggling both things.

Subsequently, Elan got character development from the arc, now he knows he has to face his father in battle. We also know Belkar's becoming less evil, as his fantasy was scruffy oriented.

Furthermore, Rich said any filler themed thread would be locked so:

Rich: The Giant is only Large! The Giant is only Large!

[King of Nowhere]

I don't remember EVER seeing filler in this comic. Read the books, or go through the archive if yuou don't have them. Sometimes we're shown random events that may look like filler, but they were either part of character development, or they conveyed some information that would be plot-related eventually.

I'm thinking for example on the strip about hinjo's junk, that initially felt just like one strip dedicated to a double entendre, but it actually served to establish that there's a ship the characters will use to escape.

Or the arc with the dirt farmers, that had no consequences for the plot, but served to show the oots acting altruistically, and gave us a better insight into miko's personality.

Just because the purpose of a story arc is not evident immediately it don't means it's useless.
And anyway, this is a humorous comic strip, so a few strips once in a while dedicatted just to random jokes are perfectly fine.

As for the plot advancing, you rarely see the plot advance in a single strip. Yet every strip do something, and when you read a story arc you realize it.

One last note: frankly, I'm surprised that there's still people posting here to complain about the comic and expecting not to be bashed by the general audience. We are rich's fans, you can't expect us to agree with you. You don't like the comic? It's ok, no one forces you to read. But don't come here telling us what is filler and what is not. If you want to find consensus about Mr Burlew doing some poor job, you may want to post this kind of criticism on an harry potter forum after a link to the larry gardener strip. Rich said in book commentaries that some hp fans didn't appreciate the joke and he received a few hundreds of hateful e-mails, so if you will go among those people telling them that oots is filler and poorly planned, I'm sure they will all agree with you.

EDIT: unless you are trying to get people to tell you how awsome the comic is, to show you the errors of your ways and make you a good fan of the strip again, in which case you have my well-wishes.

[Jimorian]

There's also the point that aside from the thumb injury, a faster comic pace has been something that has been PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for some years now.

[Sunken Valley]

I don't remember EVER seeing filler in this comic.


Fruit Pie would like a word with you. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0091.html)

As would the Snacks. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0301.html)

[The Giant]

I do not care if you do not like the content I am producing. Other people do. I'm writing for them.

As for the schedule, I have explained at great lengths why it cannot be increased several times over the last few weeks. It is what it is. I am not going to change the content of my story because of it, because then the books will suffer, and the books are how I earn my living. The free webcomic is just an elaborate form of advertising for the books.

Come back in a year and read it all at once. Or don't.

Thread locked.