OOTS #864 - The Discussion Thread

[Hendenicholas]

Long-time lurker, longer-time reader, appreciator of Start of Darkness, and first-time poster.

Rich, glad that you're doing better and hope that you continue to improve but _please_ make sure that you're back up to snuff before drawing and pushing yourself. You've created an amazing universe here that would only suffer for rushing things. Best wishes, prayers, and hopes for 2013 for yourself and your family.

Oh, and the "recap" was hilarious.

John

[AtomicKitKat]

Am I the only one who sang Elan's song to "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"? Or maybe I've heard that tune too often when people try to do "medieval". Especially with a flute.

[jywu98]

Thanks for the comic!

[Math_Mage]

Glad to see the Giant Thumb Convalescence has reached a sound conclusion.

[Diadem]

Great strip! Great come-back! Glad to see you are on the mend, Giant! Good luck in 2013!

[Subzero008]

All hail the Thumb Knight!
May his recovery be quick!
His enemies, he shall smite!
And bring about the return of our beloved comic!

All hail the return of the Order!
But their re-entry won't be swift!
They'll have to wait until he's better!
To search again for Girald's rift!

[LordofNaught]

A plot advancing recap, something I haven't seen in a long time. And a mention of bold Sir Thumb being struck down by the evil Glass Shards. Hope you give us all a comic of how brave Sir Thumb rose again once you've finished healing.

A happy new year to all.

[Canisius]

I was clicking through my bookmarks, saw the GITP link and thought "Maybe Rich has an update on his thumb". et voila - a NEW COMIC!

Take it easy, Mr. Giant. I have an organist friend who managed to go through a plate-glass patio window. His hand was messed up for quite some time, but he's back at the console again.

Best wishes for a complete recovery, Rich! As for me, I won't mind if you take your time between updates till you're back at full hitpoints.

Happy New Year!

[texascarl]

Bravo! Good to 'see' you back again...and awesome poem/song/update.

Thumbs up (and healed, I hope)

[Gloverboy]

Myself being another lurker, I gotta step from the shadows long enough to say I am so glad to see you back at it Rich. Your talent is too great for a right and just universe to allow your hands to be compromised too long. Welcome back! We'll all watch patiently as the comics trickle back in. Take your time, and know you are loved by thousands of people you've never seen

OOTS is the first bookmark on my daily wake up rounds, and I never took it down or even moved, even for these months. You do great art, you tell a great story. Thank you sir.

[Kheldarath]

Thank you sir giant! Hope your thumb continues to improve :) meantime happy new year!

[SN137]

Am I the only one who sang Elan's song to "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"?

I did it to magic carpet ride .

[JackRackham]

The battle between the thumb knight and the glass = Thumb War

[J's]

Is that the right smiley for your hand? I thought in the pictures it was right hand. Whatever.

Nice shout out to self :). Continue mending.

[DCR]

Glad you're back, liked the recap (poor V) and can't wait for more!

[oppyu]

Hooray, it's back!

*leaves to go check on my threads*

[Faltenin]

Welcome back. You have been sorely missed...

[HammerCrush]

BEST. NEW. YEAR. EVER!

[Kazasu]

BEST. NEW. YEAR. EVER!

This, exactly!

Absolutely made my day, thank you Rich. I am glad you're feeling better!

[rottenvenetic]

Great to see you're back, Giant. How's the hand?

[Sweet_Goddess]

New comic is up.
There's a brief News post about it as well.

Rich,
1) Love seeing your off-hand cameo (or is it your strong hand I guess in this case)
2) As everyone has said, take your time (slow updates are just fine with me, since they help you exercise your hand, we get the comics, but you don't aggravate the injury), get better, and we'll all cheer you on
3) Thank you for the comics, we love them, we're all your bards, and we all want to sing to give you morale boosts and buffs

BEST. NEW. YEAR. EVER!

SO!!! TOTALLY!!! AGREE!!!

Am I the only one who read the song on The Hobbit's Lonely Mountain tune? I guess I've been listening to it for too long :/

I heard it to "Brave Sir Robin" from Monty Python

Seconded! Monty Python all the way -- in fact, I was getting a little upset that I couldn't keep the meter/rhythm matching all the way through.

I always sing songs and poems that I do not know the tune for, to the Gilligan's Island theme.

That works for anything in ballad meter which means I can never read Emily Dickenson without giggling to myself. :)

http://xkcd.com/788/

Am I the only one who sang Elan's song to "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"? Or maybe I've heard that tune too often when people try to do "medieval". Especially with a flute.

I did it to magic carpet ride .

I had the Walrus and the Carpenter from Alice in Wonderland, but I can hear most of the others pretty well too...

Spoiler

Show

Glass shard
Construct

2hp, CR: 1/8, special.

Str 8
Dex 0
Con 0
Int 6
Wis 5
Cha 18

Attacks: +5, 1d4-1 piercing; +5, 1d2 slashing

Special: when attacking members of the digit family, all attacks gain +1d8 damage, an gain a 75% chance of incapacitating victim for 1d8 months.

How's that succubus? Just wrote that in like 3 minutes, not a good monster, but its a start.

Pretty good start, but let me make a few adjustments

Spoiler

Show

Glass Shard
Construct

2hp, CR: 1/8, special.

Str 8
Dex 1
Con N/A
Int 6
Wis 5
Cha 18

Attacks: +5, 1d4-1 piercing; +5, 1d2 slashing

Special: when attacking members of the digit family, all attacks gain +1d8 damage, an gain a 75% chance of incapacitating victim for 1d8 months.

Extraordinary: When a Glass Shard is hit it, it has a 25% chance to divide itself into 2d4 Glass Shards.

Slashing/piercing
You were saying?
Not draw, all 3 fights were lost to nameless mooks.

Without conveniently placed Cliff of Doom he would have been killed, and that was as nameless mook as possible. So, unless Roy for some reason thinks only Tarquin can beat him now, that was odd logical jump to make.

Yes, he gave reasons, but between Tarquin's/Malack's demonstrated hatred of Nale and the fact Nale assembled new band, instantly jumping to conclusion it was Tarquin and not just random jobless tavern occupant can be seen as a bit weird.

Point Taken.

Spoiler

Show

Besides, if I remember correctly, it wasn't too long ago Roy got his butt kicked by Thog in the arena. The only reason he survived was because of his cross class ranks in knowledge: architecture and engineering.

Agreed, Miko isn't nameless, the half-ogre losses (and assuming he'd have won without a cliff is assuming something not in evidence, Roy might well have come up with something else), and the mindflayer fight is aborted without actually happening.

There's no evidence of Roy losing to nameless mooks.

Which doesn't neccessarily mean Roy can easily figure out T's presence, it isn't implausible that the Linear Guild could have found another fighter somewhere, they do keep finding kobolds after all.

Since her name is given 5 strips later, she is the very definition of nameless mook when she won the fight. Shall I explain 'mook' part too?

Here, allow me:

Mook is a generic term used in fictional media for a group of enemy characters that are insignificant to the plot and simply there to be killed by the protagonist.
The character who's contribution to the story is negligible, if any.
A static self centered character whose purpose in the story is to obstruct other characters by either being clumsy, foolish, greedy, evil, obtrusive, or a combination of those elements.
An insignificant character's passing is often part of the story and the audience is often unsympathetic to that passing.

So no, Miko was never a mook, therefore we go back to the issues. Nor were the other two. Nameless at the time, Miko wasn't a mook, and she wasn't totally nameless, she was a foreshadowed 'threat'. This is comparable to calling MitD a helpless critter because we can't identify what species it is, which doesn't matter because MitD isn't helpless and isn't a critter, even before we saw MitD perform mighty acts didn't make it helpless nor a critter.

The only valid point, Malack's hatred of Nale (Tarquin doesn't hate Nale, he just doesn't respect Nale, there is a major difference. Tarquin has similar feelings for Nale as he does for Elan. They are his good and evil sons who are meant to challenge him and one will eventually bring him the glory of defeat that will make him legend), that has been made is the one that is invalidated by the Order not knowing Malack is there. They haven't seen Malack yet, and therefore don't know he is temporarily cooperating with Nale.

In addition, while the Guild has repeatedly found Kobolds, they were not mooks either, Yikyik was a skilled ranger, Yokyok a skilled swordsman, and Yukyuk was an even better ranger then Yikyik, and each has been an opponent for Belkar, not Roy... in fact, besides Yikyik, Roy has never met one of the Kobolds in a setting where they could swap opponents and he face the Kobold (Yokyok was dead by actual 'Nameless Mooks' and turned into salsa and a nacho dish before Roy could even meet him, Yukyuk was already V's puppet and Mr.Scruffy's servant/litterbox by the time Roy met him.

Thog and Nale have been Roy's LG opponents since their first appearance, so the introduction of a substitute for Thog, who'd met Thog (months) before the arena (since he was impersonating Thog) but didn't fight along side the LG at the palace, coupled with the other points that have been brought up, eliminates almost anyone except Tarquin... and it was that glaringly obvious that even Elan considered it as the most likely candidate.

People keep thinking, hey, Elan has gotten smarter... no... Rich is pointing out that the preponderance of evidence is really stacked like a huge mountain, people have just been fixated on one little outcropping of the mountain of evidence, but the characters haven't been... Tarquin being the LGs new 'Melee Guy' would actually be pretty obvious... unless you're an Roleplayer who ignores what the DM has hinted at (Belkar), and even the guy with Intelligence as a dump stat can figure it out.

Also, Roy has grown in skill greatly, and this is the guy who beat an Epic Level Lich Sorcerer with his bare hands before he faced all but one of the foes you presented. Thog is his nemesis and will always be as strong or stronger then Roy, so overcoming him will be a challenge, for someone to dispatch not just Roy, but the entire Order with relative ease, and yet be working for Nale implies that the guy has some connection and is not really working for Nale... Tarquin suddenly becomes the only guy that could viably fit the bill.

[Bastian Weaver]

Best. Strip. Ever.
Well, maybe second to the one where Elan and Haley share their first kiss.
Welcome back to the world of drawing, brave Sir Thumb. We never lost faith in you!

[Onyavar]

Whooooooooooooooo!

So glad you're back, Rich! Congratulations on the recap and all, all my best wishes to all your digits, may they keep drawing until a very old age!

I nearly didn't find my way in the forums.

[HandofShadows]

Yea! And the plot is able to move on during a recap. Isn't there a law againt that someplace?

[Hopeless]

New comic is up.

There's a brief News post about it as well.

First off... WELCOME BACK!!!

Secondly... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Oh I almost forgot.... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I think that covers it... have I forgotten something?!

[Edhelras]

Yay! Hooray! The OOTS is back! 2013 will be a brilliant year! Cheers, everybody!

[stsasser]

I read that SOOOO HARD!

[PhotoRob]

Bold Sir Thumb versus the glass... brilliant!!

I have to say, for someone with only 9/10 of his fingers intact, the strip looks awesome. Glad the thumb is getting better. And don't worry, take all the time you need - I'm sure we'd all rather see perfect strips than frequent ones.

[Unahim]

What I liked most about this page:

A while ago there was a big debate in one of the threads here about whether or not Tarquin's joke was about sex, or about doing blow. I'm happy to see it has been confirmed as a sexist joke in this strip.

[Basooned]

Don't overwork yourself Rich, we're all pretty patient :)