The Stick Awards II: Second Edition (#0121 - #0130)

[Porthos]

Welcome to The Stick Awards II: Second Edition! :smallsmile:

The Stick Awards are handed out to the best strips of all time as chosen by our fellow Playgrounders.

This week we are covering the comic strips 121 through 130.

For full details about the Stick Awards, please check out the main thread here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=283609).

To read more about the original Stick Awards, created by Nazzo, the 102nd, please read his thread here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34791)

To vote in this thread, simply state which comic of the ten listed is your favorite. Bolding the number of the comic (Like this) helps it stand out.

Voting for this week will close on September 1st, 4pm EDT. Any votes made after that will NOT count toward the totals.

Last week, 120 :elan: - The End of the Beginning (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0120.html) turned to the audience and struck a pose befitting a triumphant victor. Who will end up winning this week? Only you can decide that. :smallsmile:

Is it Howdy Doody Time? No, silly. It's time to vote for.....

.THE STICK AWARDS II: 0121 - 0130

121 The Return of Mail Call (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0121.html)
122 Adventurers Are Coming! Adventurers Are Coming! (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0122.html)
123 Double Your Entendre, Double Your Fun (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0123.html)
124 Ding! (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0124.html)
125 Free Experience (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0125.html)
126 Multiclass Struggles (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0126.html)
127 New Wizard in Town (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0127.html)
128 The More You Know... (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0128.html)
129 Rock Solid Investment (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0129.html)
130 Itempalooza (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0130.html)

[137beth]

This is hard. There are a lot of very good ones, but no great ones, and they all seem about equal. I think I'm going to go with 126, just because I, like Varsuvius, have always thought the fluff surrounding multi-classing was silly.

[quasit]

I'll go with 127 that eight-ball staff...
hilarious :smallbiggrin:

[LadyEowyn]

128, because it's sweet.

[Demolator]

127, we need some more Elanicalicus.

[Tris]

None of these stick out, but my favorite is 127.

[Torrasque]

I'll take 124 for the panel of belkar killing the rat.

[littlebum2002]

I love 129 showing the difference between Lawful and Chaotic.

"Yes, yes I did". LOL

[Yendor]

Voting for Pirate Queen Haley. 121

[nogall]

129, classic Haley moment!

[Infinite]

129, because that's just a great scam.

[Sir_Leorik]

Behold! I have come forth to pass judgment on ten strips from "Order of the Stick"! It is I your new board judgment passer, Sir_Leorikalicus, here to use my frabjulitulity to mictiforcate your giltooney! Lo, by the power of my brand new judgment passer staff and hat and robes, I say that Strip #127 is the bestest and most biollorky of these ten strips!

:vaarsuvius: "THAT IS ENOUGH! I will not allow you to mock the noble past-time of voting for one's favorite "Order of the Stick" strip (chosen from a selection of ten other strips, by numerical progression, to be later matched against the other winners in a series of semi-finals)! You are not a judge, simply a simpering buffoon paraphrasing from strip No. 127!"

BWAAAAAAAA! I just wanted to be smart, and cool, and vote for strip #127, like you Vaarsuvius...and BWAAAAAAAAA!

:belkar: "Wow. You made Sir_Leorik cry. Even I've never done that before."

:vaarsuvius: "Crushing Despair".

:belkar: "Sob! :smallfrown: Poor Sir_Leorik!"

tl;dr Put me down for #127, okay?

[thatSeniorGuy]

Definitely 122

[David Argall]

Not a strong group, but I guess I will go for 123.

[Saharo]

127 makes a strong case for itself, but I think I'm gonna go with 121. The whole barbarian/d12 section is a classic for me.

[Cuthalion]

I'm going to go with 123.

[Gift Jeraff]

#121REALITYISANILLUSIONTHEUNIVERSEISAHOLOGRAM

[Bird]

122, for one reason that will ring true for all D&D players.

"Cryptic Musings By Old Man
200 gp"

He even has an unimpressed expression! And he's chewing on a stalk of wheat! And he's sitting in a rocking chair! When this strip came out originally, he was my desktop wallpaper for almost a year.

[tassaron]

122 is the only one in this batch that I actually remember without rereading. (I did reread, but that's a sure sign it's the best. )

[mythmonster2]

I'll go ahead and vote for 122 this time.

[Emanick]

Tough bunch; they're all pretty similar in terms of quality. I'm going to go with 128: The More You Know..., because it's one of the first bits of genuine character development V seems to have had.

[Mike Havran]

122 is just wonderful.

[AKA_Bait]

130 for answering an age old question.

[martianmister]

128: "I'm going to die alone and unloved."

[NobodyWasTaken]

128

That's my vote.

[Killer Angel]

129

Haley rocks! :smallbiggrin:

[Coopenhagen21]

128

"I'm going to die alone and unloved" Hahahaha

[GameJudge]

130. I love you guys.

[Ninja Dragon]

122 takes it.

[Ourgh]

130, because the last panel

[rs2excelsior]

Hmm. A lot of these are just meh. It's down to 124 or 129...

Elan's desire to remain a not-hat or Haley tricking the rest of the party...

Gotta go for humor. 124 it is.

Besides, Belkar threatened to make ME into a hat if I didn't vote for this one. I don't wanna be a hat either! :smalleek:

[ChristianSt]

While I really like 127/128 I'm putting my vote on 122 - Adventurers Are Coming! Adventurers Are Coming! ... I love small towns :smallbiggrin:

[ORione]

This is a tough one; most of them are good, but not so outstanding that I have to vote for them.

I'll go with 126, because that's exactly what I would do if I were a D&D adventurer. :smallbiggrin:

[Gil-Galad II]

Tough...127 is amusing, and 130 almost wins it solely for the last panel - I love you guys too!

However, the cryptic musings of my grandfather indicate that it must be 122. Grandfather has spoken!

[Porthos]

36 hours to go update! :smallsmile:

121) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0121.html) 3 votes
122) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0122.html) 8 votes
123) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0123.html) 2 votes
124) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0124.html) 2 votes
125) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0125.html) 0 votes
126) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0126.html) 2 votes
127) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0127.html) 4 votes
128) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0128.html) 5 votes
129) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0129.html) 4 votes
130) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0130.html) 3 votes

[ChristianSt]

Wow - I thought I would "throw away" my vote by voting for 122 (I thought for sure 127 or 128 would do much better), but as it seems that wasn't the case. It is really good I don't bet on the outcome of this :smallwink:.

[LadyEowyn]

I really don't understand the voting on this. Pretty much every strip chosen so far is one I've found middling at best. Are the only folks voting the ones who prefer D&D gags to plot or characters?

[Porthos]

I really don't understand the voting on this. Pretty much every strip chosen so far is one I've found middling at best. Are the only folks voting the ones who prefer D&D gags to plot or characters?

If you're talking about the winners of each award, I've actually found that the 'gag heavy' ones aren't doing as well as before.

For instance, in the original Stick Awards, the one with Thor's might (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0111.html) actually won last time around (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33111).

This time? Finished in a tie for fifth. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=298558&page=2)

To back that up, in the original Stick Awards the (in)famous 'Roy has boobies' (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0102.html) won (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32482). This time? second place (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=297409&page=2).

The only really dramatic strip that hasn't won so far, IMO, is Saddest. Comic. Ever. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0084.html) Ironically however it did much better this time, finishing second (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=292351&page=2). Last time around it didn't even win place or show. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30785) (it finished a distant fourth, one vote ahead of the fifth place strip)

I haven't done a rigorous examination of it, but it seems to me that the 'plot heavy'/'running gag' strips are doing a bit better than they did before.

====

Now if you're talking about just this week? Well, maybe it's because the 'plot' strips are spread out over three or four strips spreading the vote around a bit. Dunno, really.:smallsmile:

Personally, I'm disappointed in the one I'm probably going to vote for getting any love at all. Almost shocked, actually. But, shrug, surprises happen from week to week, I guess. :smallsmile:

[Carl]

121

Pirate :haley: is just too fun :).

[LadyEowyn]

I meant generally. I didn't understand why #84 wouldn't win, and I really don't get what people found so great about #90 (Consequences of a Failed Skill Check) or #50 (Do You Hear What I Hear). The winner for this round is fairly funny, but I wouldn't call it the best of the ten by a long shot. And I really expected Roy 'destroying' Xykon to at least win its round. Really, before this started I'd have bet on #84 or #114 winning Best of the Hundred, not losing their Best of 10 rounds.

The only trend I can identify is that "jokes revolving around Elan doing something dumb" (#4, #80, #90,) are really popular.

But everyone has different tastes (and I'm likely to be voting for a 'joke' strip over the main characterization one next round anyway, because the Potion Shop thing is pretty funny).

[FLHerne]

Count me for #121, because Ninja :haley: is kinda cool (and none of the other strips are at all).

[RyanKoopa]

Definitely 122. As someone who's never played dnd but loves turn based rpgs the humor works for me better than the rest of the lot.

[Emanick]

I meant generally. I didn't understand why #84 wouldn't win, and I really don't get what people found so great about #90 (Consequences of a Failed Skill Check) or #50 (Do You Hear What I Hear). The winner for this round is fairly funny, but I wouldn't call it the best of the ten by a long shot. And I really expected Roy 'destroying' Xykon to at least win its round. Really, before this started I'd have bet on #84 or #114 winning Best of the Hundred, not losing their Best of 10 rounds.

The only trend I can identify is that "jokes revolving around Elan doing something dumb" (#4, #80, #90,) are really popular.

But everyone has different tastes (and I'm likely to be voting for a 'joke' strip over the main characterization one next round anyway, because the Potion Shop thing is pretty funny).

It may be just a taste thing. #90 happens to be my #1 favorite strip from Dungeon Crawlin' Fools (albeit partially because that strip spawned a running gag in my own game), so clearly there's a wide range of opinion of just how funny some of these joke-based strips are. Also, it's easier for them to compete with the plot-based ones from the first book or two, when Rich was less focused on the story he wanted to tell and more exclusively focused on humor.

Also, #84 has never really resonated with me for some reason, dunno why. And maybe I'm not the only one. So that could be why some of these early plot-heavy comics aren't as popular with some readers.

[Porthos]

Also, #84 has never really resonated with me for some reason, dunno why. And maybe I'm not the only one. So that could be why some of these early plot-heavy comics aren't as popular with some readers.

Well, the real problem for Saddest. Comic. Ever. is that it runs smack dab into the buzzsaw known as the Church of Banjo comics. And say what you will about them, but they have had a lasting imprint on the story. Furthemore, the "I Got A 4" one is an Iconic strip. One of the most famous of the first couple of hundred, probably. So between the two of those forces, SCE was facing long odds.

Like I said, SCE last time barely clawed into 4th place, and was far behind the leaders.

Still, as another data point, Plot, Ahoy (Comic #13) didn't even chart into the Top Three last time, but this time it won.

If it's any consolation for people reading, the strips I vote for rarely win either. But then I have pretty eclectic tastes. :smalltongue:

[TinyMushroom]

I thought 128 was pretty sweet. So 128 it is.

[Porthos]

Ah, man. Color me surprised. Lots of good strips here. But one has been throughly neglected. No one has invited it to play games like "I pick you, strip" or "Show them all that you're the best, strip" or even "I pick you to show them all, strip". So to stop it from rising up and brutally murdering all of the other strips in their sleep, I'll go ahead and choose 125 to keep it pacified.

And shame on all of the Belkar fans out there for ignoring it. :smallannoyed: :smallwink:

Now that I have staved off a bloodbath in the future.....

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED!

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g68/Cats_Are_Aliens/Banners/Hiram_zps9c7e54c3.png 122 - Adventurers Are Coming! Adventurers Are Coming! (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0122.html) is the winner this week! It now moves on to the Best of the Hundred tournament.

Full Results are as follows

...THE STICK AWARDS II: 0121 - 0130
{table]|Comic Number | Votes Received | Vote Percentage |
|
121 |
5 |
13.16|
|
122 |
9 |
23.68|
|
123 |
2 |
5.26|
|
124 |
2 |
5.26|
|
125 |
1 |
2.63|
|
126 |
2 |
5.26|
|
127 |
4 |
10.53|
|
128 |
6 |
15.79|
|
129 |
4 |
10.53|
|
130 |
3 |
7.89|[/table]

Please join us for the next round of voting for Strips #131-140 here.

PS: For the 'winner' smilie, I've requested a custom smilie of Brother Hiram be made, as he really was the centerpiece of this strip. Even if 'A-yup Man' stole the show for some. :smallwink:

If and when one is made, I'll edit in here and in the Results and Commentary thread. :smallsmile:

Many thanks to Nimrod's Son for the excellent smilie! :smallsmile: