Giant's "Take that!"s at the forum?

[lemonhoney]

I stole the term "Take that!"s from Tengu in his original message "Not the first time Giant gives the forums a Take That! And can't blame him, really." which is the inspiration for this thread. :smallbiggrin:

Where were the times you guys can think fo where the Giant has made a jab at the forums/forum members in the comic? Like, something that spawned from the general reactions of a certain part in the story.

The two instances I can think of are when Roy tells Miko she never will be a part of the Order of the Stick and when Tsukiko contemplates reviving Miko (or something) and then decides not too.

Can anyone list more of these instances? They're amusing :D

[kpenguin]

Here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0436.html)

There was a lot of discussion about whether that poison arrow would fulfill Belkar's prophecy.

[lemonhoney]

Oooh, thanks. Oh, and a bit offtopic, but I never understood that strip... Why was V sheilded from the arrow?

[BigDumbFighter]

Oooh, thanks. Oh, and a bit offtopic, but I never understood that strip... Why was V sheilded from the arrow?

He cast Protection from Arrows (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0422.html) at the beginning of the battle.

[Icewalker]

Yeah, that is the first one to spring to mind. I'm sure there are loads though.

[OmegaDonut]

Xykon's Moderately-Escapable Forecage (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0376.html) is another (since Miko could not have escaped an ordinary forcecage the way she did).

[Grey Watcher]

There are tons of thorw-away lines that refer, or at least seem to refer, to board activity. I know one of Haley's cryptograms translates (#251 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0251.html)) as "Ten gold says she cries!", which was something a fair number of us (myself included) thought might happen. And then, of course, it didn't.

And Xykon's Moderately Escapable Forcecage (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0376.html) could very well have been a respone to a thread titled "That's NOT how Forcecage works".

Heck, the punchline of #242 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0242.html) was, as the Giant explicitly stated in the discussion thread, a response to one poster's comment about how the strip becoming more about plot and less about rules jokes had affected its overall quality (for the worse, in that person's opinion, if I remember correctly).

EDIT: I got ninja'd about XMEF. I need more ranks in Spot. Or at least a Wisdom score that compares favorably to Belkar's.

[Souju]

a lot of the ghost and celia lines in the latest comics almost imply taking pot shots at forumite theories
which, i think, is frickin awesome. I love it when the author gives people who read WAY too much into things a metaphorical finger :)

[Tempest Fennac]

Very minor OtOoPCs and SoD spoilers.

I assumed that the bit where Haley spelt Rogue as "Rouge" and characters corrupting Xykon to "Zykon" and "Xyklon" were digs at people who spell those words incorrectly.

[SlightlyEvil]

Very minor OtOoPCs and SoD spoilers.

I assumed that the bit where Haley spelt Rogue as "Rouge" and characters corrupting Xykon to "Zykon" and "Xyklon" were digs at people who spell those words incorrectly.

Well, the rogue/rouge thing is as old as the games themselves. The Zykon stuff is definitely a shot at the forums though.

Random thought: would it be possible to implement a filter on the forums, similar to a profanity filter, that detects the more common mispellings of the major characters and insults you if you use them. I mean, seriously, it's all in print, there's really no excuse.

[Arkenputtyknife]

Random thought: would it be possible to implement a filter on the forums, similar to a profanity filter, that detects the more common mispellings of the major characters and insults you if you use them.
Not unless you want to endure the same kind of farcical results that The Wotch forum's profanity filter produces.

[Tempest Fennac]

Sometimes it may be entirely accidental due to typing in a hurry, or because your tired (my typing can be absloutely awful sometimes). hat would the filter do once it detected a mispelt name or word? What are The Wotch's forums like regarding their filter?

[David Argall]

I stole the term "Take that!"s from Tengu in his original message "Not the first time Giant gives the forums a Take That! And can't blame him, really." which is the inspiration for this thread. :smallbiggrin:

Where were the times you guys can think fo where the Giant has made a jab at the forums/forum members in the comic? Like, something that spawned from the general reactions of a certain part in the story.

The two instances I can think of are when Roy tells Miko she never will be a part of the Order of the Stick and when Tsukiko contemplates reviving Miko (or something) and then decides not too.

Tsukiko and Miko seems fairly likely. It gains a lot of humor because we had been yelling about Miko becoming some sort of evil undead, and it is just a little unnecessary part of the comic. Just the sort of thing that might be put in because there were two empty panels and the fans had been mentioning it.
Roy telling off Miko is a quite different case. Our writer had found he wasn't succeeding with the Miko-Roy romance, and had to ditch it. So it wasn't a matter of our predictions.
Now some parts of 531 &/or 532 may be our fault. Our "discussions" of Cloister, etc may well have clued our author into some aspects of the situation he would have to cover. But it is pretty hard to guess which one[s] since he would know most of them in any case.
V's escape from the poison arrow is almost certainly not our fault. She cast Protection from Arrows in 422. The arrow is shot in 435 and misses him in
436. So the idea was in the air long before we would have considered it.

[FujinAkari]

Miko breaking Sabine's neck is a bit of a "Take That!" because there had been rampant speculation that Sabine would turn Miko into a Blackguard, -especially- once both were sent to the same prison.

[Ceaon]

Roy telling off Miko is a quite different case. Our writer had found he wasn't succeeding with the Miko-Roy romance, and had to ditch it. So it wasn't a matter of our predictions.

When did the Giant say he ever wanted the Miko-Roy-romance to succeed?

By the by, it seems the Giant does read the forums, even the occassional {spoiler}ed message. Hmmm...

[Khanderas]

By the by, it seems the Giant does read the forums, even the occassional {spoiler}ed message. Hmmm...
I have it from good authority (the gnomes that live in my sockdrawer) that Rich, is infact, only human.

[SPoD]

When did the Giant say he ever wanted the Miko-Roy-romance to succeed?

Not "succeed" in the sense of them ending up together, "succeed" in the sense of it being an interesting and entertaining part of the story (whether or not they ended up together). And he says it in the commentary in Paladin Blues, though I think he ditched the idea within a few strips of Miko showing up.

I'm also going to agree that a number of things that are universally held as being "aimed" at the forums are simply Rich covering all the logical bases. As David said, Protection from Arrows was cast long before the poison arrow was shot and served no other story purpose. I took the poison arrow as a reference to the Oracle's prophecy: the arrow barely missed three of the people that Belkar was prophesied to cause the death of, but then didn't hit anyone. The different rules for the Cloister would needed to have been worked out before Rich introduced it in #484, because it's a crucial part of the current plot. He didn't invent them to reflect our comments.

The only ones I truly take as commentary to fans are Tsukiko not animating Miko, Haley speculating on Roy-as-Undead, and Haley's subconscious complaining about the lack of a punchline. I just don't actually think he reads the forums enough to worry about what we say.

[Mauve Shirt]

And what about Roy's comment here? (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0528.html) :smalltongue:

[SPoD]

And what about Roy's comment here? (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0528.html) :smalltongue:

I don't agree. Rich had to know that if he was introducing a plot point about whether or not Roy could contact people while a ghost that there would be certain possibilities that needed to be eliminated. You can't discover what works until you eliminate what doesn't. The possibilities Roy mentions are really the first logical things anyone in his situation would think of, they didn't need to be said by us in order for Rich to think of them.

Saying that Rich only thought of those possibilities after forum posters mentioned them just implies that you don't think he knows what he's doing when he develops the plot.

[Mauve Shirt]

Oh, well I didn't mean he didn't think of those possibilities without us, but I think "I wish I could look back through this comic's archive" is a little jab at the forums.

[kabbes]

There are no "Take Thats!" to the forum. The Giant has specifically said so himself (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1076894&postcount=45). Any that would appear to be are merely a combination of coincidence and the Giant understanding how his readership think.

He said it, so I believe it.

[warmachine]

I don't think the author cares, even if he reads the forum. Otherwise he'd have responded in some way to the ruckus about the bouncing insanity ball.

[Doran]

There are no "Take Thats!" to the forum. The Giant has specifically said so himself (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1076894&postcount=45). Any that would appear to be are merely a combination of coincidence and the Giant understanding how his readership think.

He said it, so I believe it.

He did say this in 2006 however, and merely states he only reads a very small proportion the stuff that goes on here. Some of the take thats such as that scene with Miko and Tsukiko couldn't be explained by coincidence.

[ssjKammak]

There are no "Take Thats!" to the forum. The Giant has specifically said so himself (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1076894&postcount=45). Any that would appear to be are merely a combination of coincidence and the Giant understanding how his readership think.

He said it, so I believe it.

Of course if the giant said so it must be true <said with nothing but utter sarcasm>

Honestly Rich produces at least 3 single page comics a week, the material required for the sub plot to each comic comes from some form of muse. I completely agree with lemonhoney, there a subtle jabs at certain inspirations derived from the forums. Just as comics like 216
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0216.html
clearly inspired by an obscure combination of feats, someone conjured either Rich himself or someone he has gamed with or read about.

The true art he produces isn't where he gets his inspiration from though, its the resulting comic and the fact that, without knowing anything about DnD or reading the forums you can still thoroughly enjoy the comic.

Just an aussies 2 cents

[Ikialev]

...what means that 'Take That!'?

[David Argall]

Our writer has confessed to a desire to surprise us, going to the possible extreme of re-writing the story just to make sure our guesses are wrong [a reason he wants us to use spoilers, to make it easier to resist such urges.]

So one meaning of "Take That" here is "You readers are wrong again, neider, neider, neider."

[Doran]

TV Tropes to the rescue!
Take That (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TakeThat), although it's really more of a Shout Out (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShoutOut), since the Giant isn't being mean-spirited about it.

[The Extinguisher]

Does anyone else feel that the waistband mention in #531 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0531.html) was a subtle poke at the people who thought Celia was pregnant?

[Iliad]

I will be the first one to mention comic 100 :smallwink:

[David Argall]

100 doesn't seem to qualify. That #100 gets something special is a common idea in many webcomics and our writer does not have to hear from us to have ideas on the point.
We also have word on the subject that there were vague plans for a special at 100, but things didn't work out and so it was reduced to the one panel.

[VetMichael]

I stole the term "Take that!"s from Tengu in his original message "Not the first time Giant gives the forums a Take That! And can't blame him, really." which is the inspiration for this thread. :smallbiggrin:

Where were the times you guys can think fo where the Giant has made a jab at the forums/forum members in the comic? Like, something that spawned from the general reactions of a certain part in the story.

The two instances I can think of are when Roy tells Miko she never will be a part of the Order of the Stick and when Tsukiko contemplates reviving Miko (or something) and then decides not too.

Can anyone list more of these instances? They're amusing :D


Well, I think there's one, glaring example where I was singled out by The Giant (JK :smallwink: )....but, the whole thing surrounding the mysterious, off-panel voice controlling Kubota being an imp/quasit/little red dude instead of a cool, sleek sophisticated, powerful Aboleth.

[SPoD]

I'm really starting to wonder about how everyone seems to think that the forums are at the center of the OOTS universe...


Oh, well I didn't mean he didn't think of those possibilities without us, but I think "I wish I could look back through this comic's archive" is a little jab at the forums.

How? It's Roy breaking the fourth wall about the fact that unlike the reader, he can't check these things. It has nothing to do with anything anyone posts on the forum.


Does anyone else feel that the waistband mention in #531 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0531.html) was a subtle poke at the people who thought Celia was pregnant?

No. I took it as a subtle poke at the way some women sometimes dish passive-aggressive insults at each other (even among friends), particularly about their bodies. It's like when my friend in high school told me that she couldn't possibly borrow my shirt, it would be way too tight on her. (Translation: I have bigger tits than you.)


Well, I think there's one, glaring example where I was singled out by The Giant (JK :smallwink: )....but, the whole thing surrounding the mysterious, off-panel voice controlling Kubota being an imp/quasit/little red dude instead of a cool, sleek sophisticated, powerful Aboleth.

There's a difference between subverting reader expectations and making a shout out to a specific group of people. Rich obviously intended for people to assume that the red-and-black speech balloon was something powerful, so that he could get a good surprise later when it was revealed that it wasn't. I can't even comprehend thinking that Rich put the speech balloon in #484 without knowing EXACTLY what it was--and exactly how we would react.

Hell, he's done it before: Shojo speaks off-panel in #120, letting us assume he is a big bad powerful warlord, not a senile old man with a cat.

[Souju]

And what about Roy's comment here? (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0528.html) :smalltongue:

Roy makes a specific reference to being able to look back through the archives...which is what a lot of the forumites do
a lot
really
it's kinda scary

[Firestar27]

He cast Protection from Arrows (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0422.html) at the beginning of the battle.

No. She/He/It cast Protection from Arrows at the beginning of the battle. Get your pronouns right. :smallbiggrin:

[Roderick_BR]

Oh, well I didn't mean he didn't think of those possibilities without us, but I think "I wish I could look back through this comic's archive" is a little jab at the forums.
I think that's just more metalanguage (4th walls) humor than a jab, like when Elan pointed out their new clothing accessories, and Haley tells him it was just an art upgrade.

I'm still debating if Roy's theories on how he can be seen is a shout out to the forums, or it was just natural that he would try those ideas anyway, when he saw people still couldn't hear him. The last line about the soldier shooting down yet another theory was fun :smallbiggrin:

[Ceric]

The first panel of today's comic (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0534.html) is a pretty big "take that".

[MyrddinDerwydd]

The first panel of today's comic (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0534.html) is a pretty big "take that".

For sure. An in story "take that" within a comic that tells us to "take that"...impressive.

The sword won't work, and a psychic won't work, and I reeeeally wish we had gotten to see the fruits of the Scruffinator theory.

[XenoTherapy]

"The Cat Stays in the Picture"

Talk about a Take That! from the Giant...

[kabbes]

The first panel of today's comic (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0534.html) is a pretty big "take that".No it isn't. He set that joke up from the very beginning, by having Roy and Eugene muse about Eugene's appearances to Roy and Roy's non-appearances to others. This went back way before anybody on this forum started discussing it.

There is nothing in the comic that can't be explained merely by the Giant understanding in advance how his readership are likely to think and setting things up to subvert that. There is no need to assume that he reads one word of these threads.

[Finn Solomon]

Nevertheless, it is pretty plausible that the Giant derives a certain fiendish pleasure in reading threads and then destroying the dreams of his loyal readers. There is no need to assume that the Giant was being 100% truthful in his statement regarding forum readership.

[AtomicKitKat]

Well, the earliest example of the forums influencing Rich was when someone questioned Roy calling V "V-man" in Strip 9. The joke has since taken off, although the prevailing theory is that V was male until that point.

[HamsterOfTheGod]

You know it doesn't necessarily feel bad getting a "Take that!" from the Giant...speaking hypothetically of course.

[David Argall]

He set that joke up from the very beginning, by having Roy and Eugene muse about Eugene's appearances to Roy and Roy's non-appearances to others. This went back way before anybody on this forum started discussing it.
This seems to be arguing that he was setting up the joke long before he was setting up the joke. [Tho actually at this point Roy & Eugene have not discussed Roy's non-appearance. They have discussed why Eugene stopped appearing to Roy, but they have yet to get together since Roy discovered there was a problem of being seen by others.]
Now the idea here was that Roy was going to have a major problem in getting noticed, and that means he would have several theories fail. This in turn means our writer has to think of several ideas that will fail for no better reason than because the story needs failed ideas. So he could have already though of any given idea we might suggest. We can't label any of them a "take that".
But neither can we say that none of them are. Just about any idea we suggested might have been one he had missed, and then adopted when he saw it in the forums.


There is nothing in the comic that can't be explained merely by the Giant understanding in advance how his readership are likely to think and setting things up to subvert that.
You recall the saying "Once is an accident, twice is a co-incidence, and three times is enemy action."? Clearly any one event in the comic can be explained this way, but the more we find, the more suspicious we have to be.
And our author should be mining the forums, like everywhere else, for useful ideas. V's sex is still a running joke, and was apparently started by comments in the forums.
To the extent he wants to subvert our ideas, reading them and then subverting is much more efficient. That way, he knows what rathole to be waiting in front of. Of course, he wants to pound a lot of "rats" that don't post as well, but even so, the forums remain a good way to make sure he gets the most rats.


There is no need to assume that he reads one word of these threads.
Well, since he posts answers in these threats from time to time, he certainly does read parts of these threads.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Objection!

...sorry.

[Mc. Lovin']

Objection!

...sorry.

Over-ruled. Carry on Mr. Wri ...
I mean people of GitP :smalltongue:

[Snadgeros]

Objection!

...sorry.

*Snaps fingers*

I think you've wasted enough of this forum's time, Mr. Wright!

[VetMichael]

There's a difference between subverting reader expectations and making a shout out to a specific group of people. Rich obviously intended for people to assume that the red-and-black speech balloon was something powerful, so that he could get a good surprise later when it was revealed that it wasn't. I can't even comprehend thinking that Rich put the speech balloon in #484 without knowing EXACTLY what it was--and exactly how we would react.

Hell, he's done it before: Shojo speaks off-panel in #120, letting us assume he is a big bad powerful warlord, not a senile old man with a cat.

Nope, it's definitely Rich saying: "Ha! take that, you aquatic monster-type-loving S.O.B. who I've never met! I spit at you and your pet theories, hoping to crush your reason for living! You're worthless and weak; slink on back into the anonymous abyss from whence you came, you slimy, elder-beast-o-phile!"

It's so obvious; Rich takes time out of his busy, personal schedule to find posts made by me (AND ONLY ME) and constructs elaborate schemes to undermine what is obviously such genius ideas in order that people won't abandon his stick-figure webcomic to clamor for pearls of wit and wisdom from yours truly. Of course, the fact that you don't see the connection just means that you're in on the whole scheme! what did he promise you? A new world order and a seat to the right of his internet-based throne?


The preceding message was proffered in jest and in no way implies that the author is a paranoid psychotic nor that Rich Burlew is anything other than the sole creative force behind the Order of the Stick (OOTS). Any and all remarks are made facetiously and are not intended to be taken literally by anyone, anywhere, for any reason.

[Prince_Rohan]

I don't know that I should be so arrogant as to think Giant was motivated by a couple of Gnome posts I did on pages 40 & 41 of "Jokes You Didn't Get" thread.

(Regarding the lift of race/class restrictions...)

Thanks Zeb. Yeah, I remember now. Those class rules helped support some races existance (i.e. Illusionist). Otherwise who would want to play a Gnome?

If so, I'm flattered; but if not I am happy to think we have the same sense of humor.

.

[Lloyd]

Has anyone mentioned the whole "Control Weather" debate, followed by http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0353.html?

[bluish_wolf]

Over-ruled. Carry on Mr. Wri ...
I mean people of GitP :smalltongue:

Objection! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiX7QINsmnY) I couldn't wait 10 years to post that.

Carry on.

[Talya]

The latest comic's "Every female dark elf cavalier weilding two lances from the back of a unicorn" seems a shot at the gaming forum, which has had a rash of silly (but legal) dual lance weilding mounted builds lately.

[arlanakavallas]

As someone who rarely visits the forums (like, four times since I started reading, two of those times being since Mr. Gygax died) I think all of your 'take that' theories are...silly. And narcissistic. Sad, really.


First, the undead Miko thing. Maybe, just maybe, Miko wasn't turned into undead because that would just be too obvious in general? Or maybe *gasp* he has other plans for her?

Second, Roy wishing he could check the archives. I do that all the time. People who read things over longer periods of time tend to do so.
A lot.
Really.
It's kind of scary.



Please take the time to read what you all have typed and think about it.


(I will give you #242 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0242.html) however.)

[Capt'n Ironbrow]

I do believe the Giant occassionally peeks at what is being said here, and might incorporate it...

however, I think it very likely that the Giant does not make this comic page-by-page... few comic artists do that, and if so, they'll face writersblock at one point or other (writing without a plan seems the fastest way when you start, but if you have no difined direction, you'll get stuck). The Giant knows where he's going and works with that. If he sees something of particular interest on these boards (or in real life like the demise of venerable Gary Gyrax), he might add a page or two, but his narrative object remains the same and none of us can ever be certain of what that could be extactly.

[Helios Sunshard]

Well, there are some things that make me wonder if the giant is just messing with forumites or had everything planned before, like the poisoned arrow or multiple miko theories. Yet, i dont feel that those are forced like in others comics, movies or books, they seem pretty natural, so i am going for "Rich had it planned all along".

[Khosan]

I always thought the first three panels (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0353.html) were a reference to the ridiculously long debate on the forums over whether or not Control Weather could actually do that.

[Green Bean]

I always thought the first three panels (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0353.html) were a reference to the ridiculously long debate on the forums over whether or not Control Weather could actually do that.

It's really more of an explanation than a shout out. Normally, Control Weather won't cause sonic damage, so it was something that genuinely needed to be explained. It isn't a reference to the forum any more than 201 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0201.html) is a coded reference to forum debates about why Durkon surrendered.

[drengnikrafe]

I'm pretty sure this is a bit off topic, but a question of a long time ago reoccured to me when I was reading this about "whether or not Rich planned all this stuff out"...
Belkar's Ring of Jumping.
When he gave it to Belkar, I figure he had planned forward to Belkar's Prision escape, but do you suppose he planned forward to when he gave it to Roy so he could fight Xykon on the Dragon? (I'm still really bad with links, so I can't set any up, sorry).

[Qov]

Do you suppose he planned forward to when he gave it to Roy so he could fight Xykon on the Dragon? (I'm still really bad with links, so I can't set any up, sorry).

I don't think he planned that far forward, but once you have a ring, it's good to put it to good use. For some reason it always bugs me that while Haley specifically picked up the amulet, Belkar isn't seen to be recovering the ring from Roy's corpse. He uses it shortly thereafter to bag a vulture, I just thought it should be clearer.

[Roderick_BR]

The latest comic's "Every female dark elf cavalier weilding two lances from the back of a unicorn" seems a shot at the gaming forum, which has had a rash of silly (but legal) dual lance weilding mounted builds lately.
Since Roy was talking about the very first versions, I thought that would be something about 1st edition, mainly some NPC in a setting or romance. It did sound weird, though.

[SPoD]

The latest comic's "Every female dark elf cavalier weilding two lances from the back of a unicorn" seems a shot at the gaming forum, which has had a rash of silly (but legal) dual lance weilding mounted builds lately.

:smallannoyed: Uh, no, that's a shot at Unearthed Arcana, the original AD&D sourcebook, written by Gary Gygax. It included rules for cavaliers (who got huge bonuses with lances) and dark elves. Female dark elves were more powerful than male dark elves, and female elf cavaliers could take a unicorn as their mount. Therefore, when UA came out, overnight, the cheesiest build possible became a female dark elf dual-wielding lances from the back of a unicorn. That kind of cheesy min-max powergaming existed LONG before 3rd Edition.

It's a stretch to think that Rich reads all of the crap we post here in Comics, but I really have trouble believing he's looked in Gaming in, like three years.

[David Argall]

I'm pretty sure this is a bit off topic, but a question of a long time ago reoccured to me when I was reading this about "whether or not Rich planned all this stuff out"...
Belkar's Ring of Jumping.
When he gave it to Belkar, I figure he had planned forward to Belkar's Prision escape, but do you suppose he planned forward to when he gave it to Roy so he could fight Xykon on the Dragon? (I'm still really bad with links, so I can't set any up, sorry).

The answer is no better than "maybe". We know our writer has the strip planned out to the end, but we don't know in what detail, and we do know the plan is subject to change, sometimes rather drastic.

Our belt of sex change was likely meant to change from the start, but the circumstances of the change were to be quite different.
Then we have Miko, who was intended as Roy's more or less permanent romantic interest, but what had been planned for a minimum of a hundred strips was abandoned within 50, with changes that upset the plot for 200 strips, and likely for the entire strip.

So we can't say how far the writer is looking forward with a particular element, nor if that plan will actually be carried out.

[R.O.A.]

I don't know. It's tempting to think some of these are referring to the forum, but a lot of them can be explained as simply 4th wall breakers, or Rich meta-story thinking, predicting how the reader will react, without actually looking to see if he's right. The green arrow thing is a good example; Rich can see that the readers are going to think of the prophecy, without looking at the forum.