The Stick Awards II: Second Edition (#0591 - #0600)

[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 591 through 600.

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 October 10th, 4pm EDT. Any votes made after that will NOT count toward the totals.

Last week, http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/redxiv/kazumiwedding.gif 587 What to Expect When You're Expecting Assassins (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0587.html) gave a stirring dissertation about gender equality and how to best address concerns about how to redress the wrongs of the world.

...

Oh yeah, and it did all of that while whacking people left and right with its sword.:smalltongue: Given such strong reasoning how could it not move on?

That was the penultimate strip to move on to the Best of the Hundred tournament. But it won't be the last, naturally. So without too much further delay lets get said last strip into the tournament by voting in....

.THE STICK AWARDS II: 0591 - 0600

591 Antipathy for the Devil (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0591.html)
592 Stuck in the Middle (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0592.html)
593 Another Choice (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0593.html)
594 Rock the Boat (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0594.html)
595 Trial of the Century (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0595.html)
596 Convenience Story (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0596.html)
597 Threat Assessment (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0597.html)
598 To Say a Few Words (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0598.html)
599 Separate Ways (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0599.html)
600 Headed Down (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0600.html)

[Emperordaniel]

598 To Say A Few Words. One of Elan's finest moments, in my opinion.

[GAAD]

Man, Therkla's or Kubota's death scene... which to pick...

593: Another Choice.

While Trial of the Century was a pivotal moment in V's character arc, this strip killed off Therkla. Kubota, Therkla made Banjo speak. She made Banjo speak how could you do this Kubota I liked her more and so I'm voting for her death scene over yours just to spite you.

[Killer Angel]

So many strips...
I'm sorry V., your disintegrate + gust of wind is a masterpiece, but I cannot not vote for Elan, this round. 598.

[ChristianSt]

I'm voting for 593 - Another Choice. Nothing much to say other than that Therkla was a great character that faced a lot of hard (and maybe even impossible) choices. I'm looking forward to see some more of her for the Kickstarter story.

(I'm seeing myself voting a lot for those tragic strips somehow.)

[nogall]

Rock on, 596!

[Sylian]

596 - This is quite a strong round. Elan using sarcasm, after having tried to justify V's actions? Yeah.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

The one that I'm voting for may seem like an odd choice, given some of the other dramatic, powerful strips in this bunch. Indeed, scenes like Therkla's death and Elan's making her grave are very strong. However, I tend to vote for strips that manage to pull a reaction out of me the best, be it humor or sadness (or both), and that strip is #597.

So far, it seems like this round will be a close race!

[Meph]

From 598 with love.

[Emanick]

It's so unfair that the best strips are always the ones with the payoff, after all the unloved strips have worked so hard to set them up for success. But it's just true, dang it.

593: Another Choice. Poignant and heartbreaking. Like Elan, I never wanted it to come to this.

[137beth]

Late time vote for 596!
It shows how much Elan has grown.

[oppyu]

595

Now can we PLEASE resume with strips that don't include that one-note 'all she wants in the whole world is the male protagonist' character? Hell, even her gravestone is defined by her failed attempt to get with the boy.

[ti'esar]

I'm really torn between 595 and 596 for this one, because while I love the way how Rich manages to make Kubota's demise both an incredibly cathartic and incredibly disturbing moment at the same time, you kind of need both strips for it to work. Ultimately, though, I just feel like V's lines in 595 are one of the single most memorable bits in the entire comic. So 595 it is.

[NobodyWasTaken]

I choose 599 wheeee

[Bird]

Love everything V does in this batch, but 591 and the gargantuan demon get the edge. "Great, now I'm cursed."

[thatSeniorGuy]

598 is really touching, and 600 is great because of both the fact that it's strip #600 and it's hilarious, but I knew I'd be going for 593 since last round because I think Therkla was a nice character, and her death was really touching.

[declinator]

What a close race! I don't particularly like the grave strip (I'm with oppyu on this one - Therkla's defining chararcteristic was being the not-girlfriend), and I'm really torn between 595 and 596. It'd be sad that splitting the vote could benefit 598, but I'll have to go with my preference: 596 for :elan: topping :vaarsuvius: on moral grounds.

[GAAD]

595

Now can we PLEASE resume with strips that don't include that one-note 'all she wants in the whole world is the male protagonist' character? Hell, even her gravestone is defined by her failed attempt to get with the boy.

But Therkla ISN'T one of these characters. She doesn't want Elan more than anything in the whole world, she wants her master. She was given a decision between both of the two people who gave a blink what happened to her and her doom came from her trying to choose BOTH, not the hero.

Also? Best. Last words. Ever. Still get chills when I read that scene.

[Jasdoif]

I've gotta support 598. A lot of Elan trying to work through things to the best of his ability...including the best of his ability to come up with an epitaph. A lot of introspective for our usually-goofy bard.

[LadyEowyn]

Tons of great strips in this round! Contenders for my vote:

591: Vaarsuvius defeats the devil in a highly innovative, not to mention amusing, manner. Even on the edge of a psychological breakdown, s/he can have awesome moments.

593: Therka's death. I know a lot of people didn't like her storyline, but I did. And I'm a sucker for a Les Miserables reference (whether or not it was intentional).

594: Elan stops being the comic relief character, and gets angry. It's amazing how much determination the third panel manages to put into a stick-figure expression.

595: "Disintegrate. Gust of Wind." Lawful? No way. A poor omen for Vaarsuvius' mental state? Yes. Awesome? Also yes.

597: Elan stands up to V and defends the importance of people (Therkla in particular) as people rather than plot elements. (This becomes a trend with him, as he does the same to Tarqui re: Nale.) And manages to blunt V's threats through protective denseness. It's also a fantastic strip because it shows us just how far over the edge V has gone.

598: A touching scene, and Therkla's badass headstone.

Very, very difficult choice.

Given how close the vote is looking right now, I will vote for 593.

[Gift Jeraff]

Strip #593

[AGD]

596

It was a Decision between 595, 596 and 597, because i loved Vs Arc. While 595 was epic, it was just the One-Liner that startet the following two Strips(not that there ist anything wrong with that). I settled for 596 over 597, because it has Elans Sarcasm and Vs insane "He has a Mustache and is tied up, so i have enough reasons to kill him"-Logic in it.

[Mike Havran]

#597 because it shows what kind of a person V was, deep down.

[littlebum2002]

593 makes me choke up whenever I read it.

They're stick figures! Get yourself together man!

[Porthos]

Don't have quite as strong of an opinion on this set as others seem to do. 593, for instance, just doesn't do it for me. Oh, it's good. But it's not a classic in my eyes. But I never really was into the Therkla strips that much. 600 isn't getting enough love here, I think, for it's sheer anti-climatic nature. It's last X00 joke we've had and it went out in style.

Also a little surprised that :vaarsuivius:: "Disintegrate. Gust of wind." didn't get as many votes considering just how much it was talked about then and for quite a while afterwards. Celebrated even. Still, as monumental as that strip was, I have to vote for 596. Elan's reactions were a mirror to the audiences in many ways. His journey from "Well, I guess he had it coming" to "Wait, what? You killed him for what reason again?" was central to the current arc and the next few ones as well. That he finally learned the basics of sarcasm just sealed the deal. :smallamused:

And with that....

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/redxiv/therkla.gif 593 Another Choice (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0593.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: 0591 - 0600



Comic Number
Votes Received
Vote Percentage





591

1

4.35





592

0

0.00





593

7

30.43





594

0

0.00





595

2

8.70





596

6

26.09





597

2

8.70





598

4

17.39





599

1

4.35





600

0

0.00




Please join us for as we head out once more to the Best of the Hundred tournament, which can be found here. :smallsmile: