Has it really ony been two weeks since Strip #672?

[PontificatusRex]

Haley mentions "It's been a busy two weeks" talking to Lien, implying that's when they last saw each other...that seems wayyy too short a time. It looked like Xykon and Redcloak had been exploring Kraagor's Tomb much longer than that, or it wouldn't have been so easy for them to lose track of which cave they'd explored. I had assumed that there was more downtime exploring the desert and flying in the Mechane between on-panel scenes, I suppose.

Am I missing something?

[Fyraltari]

Haley mentions "It's been a busy two weeks" talking to Lien, implying that's when they last saw each other...that seems wayyy too short a time. It looked like Xykon and Redcloak had been exploring Kraagor's Tomb much longer than that, or it wouldn't have been so easy for them to lose track of which cave they'd explored. I had assumed that there was more downtime exploring the desert and flying in the Mechane between on-panel scenes, I suppose.

Am I missing something?

Nope, the timeline checks out with the various mentions of passing time.

I agree that the confusion in the number of doors a night shouldn't have happened, as well as the paladins noticing an increase when they started watching them the day before or so, but that's what we got.

[Yanisa]

The countdown of belkar's death (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?361715-Countdown-to-Belkar-s-Death-Scene) and my follow-up count (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24771133&postcount=3) gives us 29 days passed since 672

Two weeks ago was around 709 (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0709.html). :smalltongue:

[hamishspence]

The Sapphire Guard contacted the Order here:

https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0893.html

I'd speculate that when V "updated Hinjo as to our progress"

https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0946.html

Hinjo relayed it to O-Chul and Lien, and that's the "two weeks" they've been waiting (closer to 10 days) the time since the Order began to set off from Gate 4 to Gate 5.

[Yanisa]

The Sapphire Guard contacted the Order here:

https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0893.html

I'd speculate that when V "updated Hinjo as to our progress"

https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0946.html

Hinjo relayed it to O-Chul and Lien, and that's the "two weeks" they've been waiting (closer to 10 days) the time since the Order began to set off from Gate 4 to Gate 5.

The last update Lien had was two days ago (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1189.html). The day they got kidnapped too.

I do agree with the idea that O-Chul and Lien split up around two weeks after the Order left Hinjo, making their own journey around two weeks long. It still feels odd Haley says it towards Lien, because neither has been seen interacting in the past month.

Then again I am obsessively analyzing a single statement of time. :smalltongue:

[Mike Havran]

Isn't ''a busy two weeks'' a phrase of some sorts? That means something like ''a lot has changed since the last time we, who aren't everyday buddies, met'', and should not be taked literally?

[KillianHawkeye]

I read Haley's statement as saying they would have arrived sooner if not for the events of the last two weeks, not as saying it's been two weeks since they saw each other.

[Darth Paul]

I read Haley's statement as saying they would have arrived sooner if not for the events of the last two weeks, not as saying it's been two weeks since they saw each other.

For what it's worth, I agree.

[TRH]

Isn't ''a busy two weeks'' a phrase of some sorts? That means something like ''a lot has changed since the last time we, who aren't everyday buddies, met'', and should not be taked literally?

I dunno, "a busy [x length of time]" is an expression, but I don't think there's an idiom about two weeks specifically. It probably should be taken literally or at least pretty close.

[Darth Paul]

I dunno, "a busy [x length of time]" is an expression, but I don't think there's an idiom about two weeks specifically. It probably should be taken literally or at least pretty close.

When I say something like "It's been a rough week", I might mean the last 7 days, or just the last 2 or 3 depending how rough those were. People use idioms differently.

[TRH]

When I say something like "It's been a rough week", I might mean the last 7 days, or just the last 2 or 3 depending how rough those were. People use idioms differently.

In the latter case, there would be an implicit "so far," though. Anyways, that's the opposite of what people are suggesting, where it's actually ten days instead of seven. Or in this case, instead of two weeks people are estimating twice that long, in which case "couple of weeks" would pass muster, but "two weeks" feels too specific.

[pearl jam]

It's not an idiom. Saying, "It's been a rough week," and meaning some vague length of time from a week to several weeks is not idiomatic usage either. It's just not being precise. Idioms are phrases that have a specific socially accepted meaning within a certain group that is generally not decipherable from dictionary definitions. It's not just a synonym for being vague.

[Darth Paul]

Idioms are phrases that have a specific socially accepted meaning within a certain group that is generally not decipherable from dictionary definitions.

That's exactly what it is in my social groups, I don't know about yours.

[Peelee]

The last two days have been a rough two weeks.

For me, at least.

[Fyraltari]

The last two days have been a rough two weeks.

For me, at least.

I feel you, the last two years have been a rough couple of months.

[Peelee]

I feel you, the last two years have been a rough couple of months.

At one point a few years was a hell of a decade.

[TRH]

Some decades are weeks and some weeks are decades.

[pearl jam]

That's exactly what it is in my social groups, I don't know about yours.

Well, ok, I suppose maybe you have me there. lol

I suppose I should say I don't think that "it's been a rough week" having an idiomatically understood application to lengths of time that are in no way close to 7 days has achieved a level of recognition to be standard usage among English speakers, broadly speaking.

There are many idioms in standard English that have nearly universal recognition among native speakers, but I don't believe this is one.

[TooSoon]

Certainly the comic has been taking a long time to move along lately.

[enq]

Some decades are weeks and some weeks are decades.
Dungeons and Dragons: The game where a three hour journey takes five minutes but a five minute battle takes three hours.

[brian 333]

I sometimes forget that this forum is accessible on Vulcan. For my Vulcanian siblings out there, humans are often less than precise when discussing the passage of time. Indeed, some will exhibit the emotional reaction known as 'annoyance' when units of time are expressed with exactitude.

When Haley states that it has been a rough two weeks, she is implying that the interval has been greater than seven days and less than twenty-one. Her degree of variance from that may be much less than fourteen days, but one cannot infer a precise time span from the general statement.

In the given context, I infer that the margin of error is within a few days, but that opinion is based more on the narrative structure of the work. The author is helping the audience to affirm the timeline within the story after taking so long chronometrically to produce the comic.

[littlebum2002]

According to The Timeline (https://oots.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline), the day exactly 2 weeks ago started with Roy and Belkar getting arrested.

https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0728.html

[Crusher]

Dungeons and Dragons: The game where a three hour journey takes five minutes but a five minute battle takes three hours.

"5 minute battle"? hah, you wild exaggerator! That battle will be *lucky* to last as long as 30 seconds.

[Yanisa]

I sometimes forget that this forum is accessible on Vulcan. For my Vulcanian siblings out there, humans are often less than precise when discussing the passage of time. Indeed, some will exhibit the emotional reaction known as 'annoyance' when units of time are expressed with exactitude.

When Haley states that it has been a rough two weeks, she is implying that the interval has been greater than seven days and less than twenty-one. Her degree of variance from that may be much less than fourteen days, but one cannot infer a precise time span from the general statement.

In the given context, I infer that the margin of error is within a few days, but that opinion is based more on the narrative structure of the work. The author is helping the audience to affirm the timeline within the story after taking so long chronometrically to produce the comic.

As human I cannot stop obsessing about because it doesn't fit my understanding of the timeline at all. Last time Haley and Lien met was about 4 weeks ago. Last time the paladins and the order had contact two days ago. Extending it to 1-3 weeks doesn't help that. The real question then is, why did Haley express being late two weeks?

Well when we go back those two weeks, we arrive in the early part of Blood Runs in the Family (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0728.html). At this point a meeting at Kraagor's gate seems really implausible. The order hadn't found Girard yet and Xykon was still chilling on Azur City. Xykon only started moving about a week ago. (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0899.html) Only after that point it makes sense that the Order and the paladin would meet up north. Which implies the rough [period of time] Haley mentions are the events of Utterly Dwarfed. That entire book took about one week (see both timelines), not nearly two weeks. So from my initial gut feeling it didn't make sense.

After a lot of pondering, I did came up with an alternative. The paladins are already on the move before Xykon moves and they did started moving about two weeks ago (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0709.html). Lien also mentions here they might wait days... or weeks (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1042.html). Starting with days means that is the optimistic estimate. Perhaps the Order and the Paladins expected that the desert arc would be over quicker, because they expected Girard alive and easier accessible. Which means they expected to meet at Kraagor's Gate when Lien and O'Chul arrive. In that case the order, and thus Haley, are two weeks later then expected. However that requires a couple of assumptions, but makes the two weeks fit a lot better.

Or perhaps the 2 weeks are a reference to the fact 2 books passed. Two rough books. :smalltongue:

[Throknor]

As human I cannot stop obsessing about because it doesn't fit my understanding of the timeline at all. Last time Haley and Lien met was about 4 weeks ago. Last time the paladins and the order had contact two days ago. Extending it to 1-3 weeks doesn't help that. The real question then is, why did Haley express being late two weeks?

Well when we go back those two weeks, we arrive in the early part of Blood Runs in the Family (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0728.html).

Dealing with the Empire of Blood and then Durkula were sidetracks for the past two weeks. She expected to meet with Girard right before that and then if things went well the paladins arriving at the pole wouldn't even matter. They knew from the Oracle that Xykon should be at Girard's gate first. The paladins were sent to the pole 1) in case he was wrong and 2) to keep them away from Girard. Until Girard's gate was destroyed there was no specific plan to meet there and that happened roughly two weeks ago.

[elros]

Dungeons and Dragons: The game where a three hour journey takes five minutes but a five minute battle takes three hours.
You should play the Hero System, especially Champions RPG, where a five minute battle can take several gaming sessions.

[Crimsonmantle]

I don't see the issue at all. The last (approximately) two weeks have been (rhetorical understatement) busy; the weeks before than were more chilled than after or before?

[Precure]

There is also the famous time gap happened during Haley and Celia's travel from Azure City to Greysky.

* Haley and Ceia start their journey three and half months (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0531.html) or 16 weeks (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0532.html) after the fall of Azure City.
* Clifford is more than four weeks (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0532.html) north of Azure City. But they halfway returned south (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0564.html). What happened after that is shady and hard to explain.
* Haley and Celia were in Greysky for about a week (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0602.html), and they were planning to stay there for few more days (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0622.html). They also called Elan days before (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0643.html) Vaarsuvius' power trip.
* Gobbotopia's declaration of statehood happened six weeks before the anniversary (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0702.html) of Azure City's conquest. Same strip also establish that Vaarsuvius' attack happened roughly a week before that.