Oots #900

[martianmister]

So...

What will happen in 900th strip? There is some possibilies:

A joke:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0100.html
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0600.html

Something plot-wise important will happen:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0200.html
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0300.html
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0400.html
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0500.html
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0600.html ?

Totally random:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0700.html
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0800.html

[Magnasword2]

Xykon teleports in wearing a pink tutu, announces the MITD is in fact Spiderman and that he no longer needs the gates as he has found happiness with Scientology.

[Rover]

Important plot.
Maybe destroying the gate?:smallconfused:

[Gift Jeraff]

Gate exploding/pyramid collapsing/book ending, and by extension a multi-page strip with splash panels/a montage, seem like good possibilities for #900.
Not saying Rich specifically has that planned for #900, it just seems possible that they can coincide.

[Ron Miel]

I predict that Rich will take a holiday after #899 to let his thumb heal. He will publish strip #900 on September 29th, which is the 10th anniversary, and to mark the occasion ... it will be an ordinary strip.

[CRtwenty]

I guessing something important will happen. Such as:

Roy will destroy the Gate, Xykon will appear, V will reappear Tarquin will show us what he's been doing since he disappeared.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I predict that Rich will take a holiday after #899 to let his thumb heal. He will publish strip #900 on September 29th, which is the 10th anniversary, and to mark the occasion ... it will be an ordinary strip.
I side with this right here, actually.

[SaintRidley]

Either first strip of Book 6, or last strip of Book 5. That's my guess.

[137beth]

I thought he wasn't trying to base his strips/pacing on strip numbers?

Regardless, I am fairly certain that it will contain either a joke, a plot point, or both, as every other strip contains one or both of those things.

[Jay R]

Strip #900 will contain the crucial plot elements to form the connection from #899 to #901.

[ti'esar]

Strip #900 will contain the crucial plot elements to form the connection from #899 to #901.

Not necessarily. It might show the funeral of Milk Dudes instead.

[Ron Miel]

I doubt it, he died almost a year ago.

[Bulldog Psion]

I thought he wasn't trying to base his strips/pacing on strip numbers?


True, but if the number happens to come up at just the right time, why not use it? :smallamused:

[SaintRidley]

I thought he wasn't trying to base his strips/pacing on strip numbers?


I assume this is probably partially in response to my post.

I've been betting on 895 ±5 for a while as the end of this book, so that's why I put my answer the way I did.

[Sniffnoy]

There's no way he's going to manage to wrap up this whole story arc in just 5 more strips. Not without it being a big anticlimax, anyway.

[Ron Miel]

Sure he could, if every update is 3 pages. 15 pages is plenty.

[DaggerPen]

Don't we do this every hundred-multiple strip? Plus for #666? And I don't believe we got anything for either #666 or the last two hundred multiples. I'd be surprised if we got more than a small joke about it or an extra length strip (which may not even be related - we've had a lot of multipage updates recently, and it might just fit the pacing better). We might manage to get something for #1000, which is a bigger milestone, but I doubt we'll get anything this time.

[Morph Bark]

Clearly Nale's new allies will show up (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0804.html).

[The_Tentacle]

Don't we do this every hundred-multiple strip? Plus for #666? And I don't believe we got anything for either #666 or the last two hundred multiples. I'd be surprised if we got more than a small joke about it or an extra length strip (which may not even be related - we've had a lot of multipage updates recently, and it might just fit the pacing better). We might manage to get something for #1000, which is a bigger milestone, but I doubt we'll get anything this time.

The only important thing about #1000 is that it's 24 away from a nice round number milestone (http://xkcd.com/1000/).

Also, I don't think that anything special will happen because of it being #900, especially not a joke. This bit here is really tense and rather grim, and I just can't see it being interrupted by such a light-hearted joke this soon (especially when said joke has been done twice before).

[ti'esar]

Don't we do this every hundred-multiple strip? Plus for #666? And I don't believe we got anything for either #666 or the last two hundred multiples. I'd be surprised if we got more than a small joke about it or an extra length strip (which may not even be related - we've had a lot of multipage updates recently, and it might just fit the pacing better). We might manage to get something for #1000, which is a bigger milestone, but I doubt we'll get anything this time.

Although it's worth noting that #668 was this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0668.html)... and there were two unplanned tribute strips during that book.

Coincidence? I think so, actually, but it's still kind of interesting.

[Morquard]

Although it's worth noting that #668 was this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0668.html)... and there were two unplanned tribute strips during that book.

Coincidence? I think so, actually, but it's still kind of interesting.

True, but just in case you're implying (or someone else will...) that he had planned that strip for #666 and the two tributes messed up his timetable, then he would just have rolled four single strips into two doubles and would have ended up back on track.

What I believe Rich meant by "he's not aiming for the numbers" anymore, is that for example he had planned Miko revealing herself in #200 for a long time and then made that happen.
He won't do that anymore. He didn't say when writing #712 or whatever, that #900 will be "this and that" and then make it happen.

But when he's at 895 and he knows something important is about to happen, he might just squeeze it so that it matches. Or he won't.

I mean, in the end it really doesn't matter :)

[ti'esar]

True, but just in case you're implying (or someone else will...) that he had planned that strip for #666 and the two tributes messed up his timetable, then he would just have rolled four single strips into two doubles and would have ended up back on track.

What I believe Rich meant by "he's not aiming for the numbers" anymore, is that for example he had planned Miko revealing herself in #200 for a long time and then made that happen.
He won't do that anymore. He didn't say when writing #712 or whatever, that #900 will be "this and that" and then make it happen.

But when he's at 895 and he knows something important is about to happen, he might just squeeze it so that it matches. Or he won't.

I mean, in the end it really doesn't matter :)

I'm inclined to agree with that, especially given that #700 and #800 didn't even have jokes about it being a significant strip number. Like I said, I just think it's an interesting coincidence.

[ChaosOS]

700 had the revelation that Tsusiko only had half the ritual, which translates into a major plot point of demonstrating the distrust Xykon was developing for Redcloak. 800 shows serious character growth for V, in terms of using his reasoning capabilities to get around a challenge that he couldn't just straight blast.

[Rogar Demonblud]

That has nothing to do with Xykon's distrust of Redcloak. He only had half a ritual because Redcloak only gave him the arcane half of the ritual. And Xykon gave it to Tsukiko because he lacked the INT to figure it out himself.

[Gift Jeraff]

That has nothing to do with Xykon's distrust of Redcloak. He only had half a ritual because Redcloak only gave him the arcane half of the ritual. And Xykon gave it to Tsukiko because he lacked the INT to figure it out himself.

And he never bothered trying to get someone to figure it out in his ~30 years of having it until after Redcloak screwed up.

[Anarion]

I'm expecting totally random at this point. I don't think that the comic is interested in taking a break to make a strip number joke at a currently tense moment, and if it coincides with a major plot moment, that's more likely to be happy timing than an intentional change in pacing to accommodate the number.


700 had the revelation that Tsusiko only had half the ritual, which translates into a major plot point of demonstrating the distrust Xykon was developing for Redcloak. 800 shows serious character growth for V, in terms of using his reasoning capabilities to get around a challenge that he couldn't just straight blast.

You're stretching a bit. Lots of strips have important plot information. Neither of these two were the same sort of "epic" moment that appeared in something like the #300 and #400 splash pages.

[Umberhulk]

Fan mail answering session, while Durkon's "dead" make-up is reapplied.

[Dire Lemming]

Strip #900 will be skipped.

That is all.

[Coldwind]

Belkar's heroic death or sacrifice will be seen.

[Hogwarts9876]

Belkar's heroic death or sacrifice will be seen.

Belkar already 'died' very recently. I doubt it'll happen for real so soon after the illusion.

[Thrillhouse]

Honestly, several of the more recent strips, had they been the 900th strip, would have been fairly dramatic. Just given where we are in the plot it probably doesn't even matter.

[warrl]

700 had the revelation that Tsusiko only had half the ritual, which translates into a major plot point of demonstrating the distrust Xykon was developing for Redcloak.

Nope.

If anything, it shows the distrust Redcloak had for Xykon. Redcloak has the full ritual, straight from the Dark One.

But really, there's no need for Redcloak to write out the divine half of the ritual *at all*, and even if he trusted Xykon, having it written out would be a security risk (ref: Tsukiko). And trusting Xykon would be really stupid of him, considering he's lying to Xykon about the purpose of the ritual.

[Sunken Valley]

10 soul pieces it is end of Book 5.

[Tragak]

Totally random:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0800.html How is it totally random that Vaarsuvius finally learned that massive explosions are not the answer to everything? After all of the character arcs devoted to showing that brute arcane force is not always the best answer, isn't it a big step for V to specifically notice a better one?

[martianmister]

I guess that's it.