The Annotated Order of the Stick - A Companion Guide

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Strip 555 (fix):
Panel 12, but just say "last panel".

I say "In Panel #" rather than "In the Last Panel" or "In the First Panel" because it's less characters to do so. I used to do it your way but someone pointed out that since the character count is a thing its smarter to try to save characters where we can.

Strip 675 (fix):
The bridge thing was actually referenced earlier.

You're referencing 548 with the Bridge to Terabithia reference. While they are similar, I've referenced them differently because they're different enough.

Here's a first batch of Title annotations from 1-200

I've put them in my list of title annotations that need to be added. Some were very similar to what I already had, which I believe might have been entries you've given me in the past that I haven't had the chance to add at the present. Thank you for your hard work.

Oh, I find out only now OOTS is pretty well documented on Wikia, with in particular :
List of Running Gags
Strips individually annotated with transcripts

(from the first post)

Please know that this project has no plans to leave this website in any type of coding project, or for contribution to the Order of the Stick Wiki. However if you wish to input things you notice on the wiki that this project is missing, or visa versa, please do!

---

EDIT: And input most of Musaran's second group of submissions, answered questions (thanks Gwyn), and running gags. Keep 'em coming folks!

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Spoiler: Votes So Far

Show

No. The names are far more likely to be coincidences than a reference.

GW

No. The thread shouldn't claim we know more than we do.

Yes, for the reasons I outlined here.

That said, the wording should make sure we aren't affirmatively saying the Giant took some names from the forum. It's just that #1030 strongly looks and feels like a wink towards the forum posters.

Yes, for the reasons Gwynfrid writed.

No, this is likely not a reference to the forums.

Yes. The comic is clearly poking fun at the audience, to which the Giant had easy direct access.

Why not write in the annotation that a reference is possible, but that we don't know if it is one?

Otherwise, I personally don't think that it's a reference, so I'm voting no.

yes........

No, we don't need to make up excuses to pat ourselves on the back.

No. Definitely No.

On the matter of: Should we include the annotation that in strip 1030, the Giant referenced some of the things people on the forums called Durkon since there wasn't an official name.

Votes Tally:
Yes - 4
No - 6

Voting will end on October 16th.

[ti'esar]

I'm going to also vote no. Like I said, I don't think the names are a nod, and while I do think the strip is a bit of a joke about the audience debating what to call the vampire, there's no way to prove that, and even if it's the case it's possible that Rich simply predicted his fanbase's behavior rather than actually being aware of it.

[alwaysbebatman]

What? That's exactly how it was a nod whether he actually ever read a single post about it or not.

[ti'esar]

I think there's a difference between "there's a bunch of threads debating what to call the vampire; I should make a comic about it" and "if I know my fans, they'll be debating what to call the vampire; I should make a comic about it".

[alwaysbebatman]

Absolutely. What I'm saying is both of those qualify as "nods to fan theories."

[Gwynfrid]

FWIW, I think any debate about what the Giant may or may have not been thinking is a red herring. We aren't supposed to be speculating on the Giant's intentions or lack thereof. The proposed annotation makes, or doesn't make sense, opinions on this may legitimately differ. What the Giant was thinking at the time is none of our business and ultimately not relevant to this thread's intent.

[Kish]

Going to be changing your vote, then? Because the entire case for "yes" that you made is that you're certain Rich was responding to the forum--the proposed annotation is entirely about what he was thinking.

[Gwynfrid]

Going to be changing your vote, then? Because the entire case for "yes" that you made is that you're certain Rich was responding to the forum--the proposed annotation is entirely about what he was thinking.

No, I don't think that's the case I made (here). My case was 1) I disagree that we should prove every statement in an annotation as a point of fact and 2) I think #1030 is more enjoyable (a very subjective, personal opinion) when the possibility of a "nod" is considered. But I never said the "nod" needs to be intentional for this to apply. If I gave that impression, then it's my bad.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

No, I don't think that's the case I made (here). My case was 1) I disagree that we should prove every statement in an annotation as a point of fact and 2) I think #1030 is more enjoyable (a very subjective, personal opinion) when the possibility of a "nod" is considered. But I never said the "nod" needs to be intentional for this to apply. If I gave that impression, then it's my bad.

Perhaps it would be better to point out the parallel rather than a connection, and let people draw their own conclusions? I've done that a few times to make a topic annotation worthy.

Furthermore, if anyone ever encounters an annotation they do not think should be in the thread, or thinks it can be better worded, I'm all for talking about it so that we can improve the thread over all.

[Kish]

No, I don't think that's the case I made (here). My case was 1) I disagree that we should prove every statement in an annotation as a point of fact and 2) I think #1030 is more enjoyable (a very subjective, personal opinion) when the possibility of a "nod" is considered. But I never said the "nod" needs to be intentional for this to apply. If I gave that impression, then it's my bad.

...Okay, why don't you give your definition of an open-inverted-commas nod close-inverted-commas then? Because I genuinely have no idea what you mean by it now, if you're suggesting that the thread should note that Rich's chin may have moved without him intending it to in some (metaphorical) way; I know no definition of "gave a nod" that doesn't include "intentional."

Those who are saying 'yes' believe that at least some of the names were direct references.

Do you believe that, or not? If the answer amounts to that you believe they were possibly direct references without being intended to be references, how does that work? Because now I'm wondering if we all have the same understanding of what we're voting on.

I believe, and please correct me if I'm wrong, TheWombatOfDoom, that if the "yes" votes carry the day the thread will state that strip #1030 includes direct references to names people on the forum had been guessing. It will not say anything less overt about Rich's intentions.

[Gwynfrid]

...Okay, why don't you give your definition of an open-inverted-commas nod close-inverted-commas then? Because I genuinely have no idea what you mean by it now, if you're suggesting that the thread should note that Rich's chin may have moved without him intending it to in some (metaphorical) way; I know no definition of "gave a nod" that doesn't include "intentional."

While I understand the way I have expressed my view may not be the most clear, and I'm sorry about that, I also think the acerbic tone here isn't warranted.

Do you believe that, or not? If the answer amounts to that you believe they were possibly direct references without being intended to be references, how does that work? Because now I'm wondering if we all have the same understanding of what we're voting on.

My answer to this question is - it doesn't matter. The annotation suggests an interpretation of the comic which is independent of the author's intentions. The "nod" could be intentional, or not, and I don't really care. I'm putting "nod" in quotes because, while it's a convenient shortcut for discussion, I don't think it's the ideal word to describe this.

Also: This thread isn't, and (imo) shouldn't allow itself to become a speculative discussion of what the Giant thinks or doesn't think. That would be borderline creepy.

I believe, and please correct me if I'm wrong, TheWombatOfDoom, that if the "yes" votes carry the day the thread will state that strip #1030 includes direct references to names people on the forum had been guessing. It will not say anything less overt about Rich's intentions.

The wording I suggested above doesn't use the words "nod" or "references", and doesn't say anything one way or the other about intentions. It states verifiable facts, nothing else. It's been called misleading, I don't think it is but I see how it could be construed that way. I guess I could try to offer another wording. However, it looks like the noes are going to have it, so the case will be closed anyway. That's democracy, and that's fine.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

As Gwyn foretold, the vote ends at 7 to 4, against. The vote passes to reject the annotation for this iteration. If the forum can come to an agreement on the annotation wording to please a majority, I will add it at a later date. Thanks for the input everyone, and as always, lets get some more annotations in here!

[Ron Miel]

Strip #425 panel 1 Elan says "We kicked their shiny metal asses." This is a near quote from Futurama, where the robot character Bender frequently says "Bite my shiny metal ass."

[Ron Miel]

Strip 1130. Durkon's memories show him performing a wedding ceremony for his Uncle (top right corner). In 1086 Durkon's uncle says "Ye know yer on the hook ta perform our weddin now, right?"

[Rogar Demonblud]

And if memory serves, that's the same one who was regularly proposing to Sigdi. I guess he finally made a Deduce check to realize she was staying loyal to Tenrin and decided to move on.

[Ron Miel]

In #991 Hoskin warns Durkon against smoking pipe-weed.

One of the memories in #1130 is younger Durkon with a pipe. Thirden looks upset or angry. (At least I think it's a pipe. He might be playing the saxophone badly. Hard to be certain from such a small picture.)

[Joerg]

I think it's the music, and Thirden is covering his ears. Can't wait to see this in better resolution in the PDF.

[Ron Miel]

The Annotated Order of the Stick
Strips 701 to 800

Strip 714: This Whole Time, He'd Thought of It as the Snack That Got Away

• In the last panel, Blackwing finally realizes after 40 Strips that Haley had revealed that Vaarsuvius was the purple lizard that was in Strip 178.

Actually, Blackwing is responding to V's comment 1 strip earlier, #713 panel 3. He must have missed Haley's comment.

I'd suggest the following correction:

Strip 713 Oh, Right. That.

• Panel 3 V comments about being turned into a purple lizard in Strip 178. Blackwing seems slow on the uptake and does not respond until the next page.

Strip 714: This Whole Time, He'd Thought of It as the Snack That Got Away

• In the last panel, Blackwing finally responds to V's comment in the previous strip.

[Hardcore]

Strip 615
What is an Axiomatic bow? It is a joke here but I don't quite see if.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Strip 615
What is an Axiomatic bow? It is a joke here but I don't quite see if.

Axiomatic is the D&D key-word for Lawful-aligned weapons (deals 2d6 extra damage to Chaotic targets & ignores certain DRs). Chaotic individuals such as Elan and Haley get a negative level if they try to use one.

GW

[Hardcore]

Axiomatic is the D&D key-word for Lawful-aligned weapons (deals 2d6 extra damage to Chaotic targets & ignores certain DRs). Chaotic individuals such as Elan and Haley get a negative level if they try to use one.

GW

Ouch!

Thanks, GW. I recognise that kind of stuff from Baldur's gate CRPG. There is a sword, or two, that works like that. I found them too specialised to be useful.


If the thread curator is around maybe we could add gws' explanation to sttip #615?

[Rogar Demonblud]

The opposite to axiomatic is anarchic, which would include the chaos sabre Julio gave Elan.

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Ogre: *slaps thread* It's time for school. Get up and get on Zoom.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Thread revived! Thanks Mark, I appreciate it! So if people have contributions toward the format, please submit! We have plenty still to add, and thanks Hardcore for getting us awake!

[knag]

I love this thread. Lots of great trivia that I missed reading through the comic. Definitely think we should carry this through the final book so the thread is a full annotation to the comic. Thanks Wombat!

[Gwynfrid]

To celebrate the welcome reawakening of this thread, here are a couple of new annotations. I see I stopped at #200 last time... Huh, was that 3 whole years ago?

Spoiler

Show

Strip 201: Seeing Signs

• Panel 5: As hints that Miko is a paladin, Durkon lists visible characteristics of the class: Good saving throws (typically the best in the game, because at level 2 the paladin gets Divine Grace, a feature that adds the Charisma bonus to all saving throws), a special mount (a faithful, stronger and smarter than normal steed), and the Smite Evil power (extra damage to evil creatures a few times per day).

Strip 202: Scanning...
In this strip, we see that Miko employed her paladin's Detect Evil power, usable at will, to scan the party prior to arresting them. Having read Roy as evil because he carries Xykon's crown, she had no qualms using deadly force against him. Here we see the first case of the Miko character as an indictment on poorly played paladins in the D&D game, a well-known problem that has become a cliché: When the paladin player takes advantage of the class' power and righteousness to play a morally rigid, overbearing and violence-prone character.

• Panel 12: Belkar takes advantage of the rule that says most detection spells are blocked with a thin sheet of lead.

Strip 203: Just the Facts, Ma'am

• Last panel: Elan spoofs a classic biblical text (Psalms): "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."

Strip 206: Hidden Benefit of Being an Adventurer

• Panel 6: Belkar spoofs the famous Frank Sinatra song, New York, New York: "If I can make it here, I'll make it anywhere".
• Panel 7: Belkar refers to another key D&D rule: Paladins aren't allowed to associate with evil characters, and risk losing their class powers if they do.

Strip 207: Now If Only We Could Organize the Fiends Somehow
This strip pokes fun at another classic D&D cliché: In the Monster Manual, there are two groups of dragons. Good-aligned dragons all have metallic scales (gold dragons, silver dragons, copper dragons, etc) and the evil-aligned dragons all come with colored scales (red dragons, white dragons, blue dragons, etc). A typical criticism of D&D's alignment system is that this simplistic classification allows characters to kill whole groups of creatures without having to reflect on moral implications, as long as their victims are labeled as evil. This is precisely what Miko takes for granted in this strip.

Strip 208: A Battle of Wits

• Panel 2: The paladin's mount is a feature of the class. It grows in power automatically as its master gets higher levels.

Strip 209: Multiclass Discrimination
In this strip, Miko and Elan discuss multiclassing, a rule that allows characters to take a mix of levels in multiple classes to mix and match their powers. Along the years, the D&D game evolved to encompass a huge number of classes, filling ever more elaborate niches for character description. In some cases, such as the samurai class, several versions of the class were published. Also, variants such as "prestige classes" (panel 10) were created - a prestige class is a class a character can only take levels in after meeting certain prerequisites earlier in their career. This explosion in the complexity of the class system can lead to absurd-sounding discussions between players, resembling the Miko-Elan dialog in this strip.

Strip 210: Displaced Persons
The strange monsters in this strip are displacer beasts, creatures that have the magical power of displacement, which allows them to appear to be some 3 feet from their actual location.

• Panel 3: The Monster Manual lists a Preferred Environment for each monster, indicating the type of location (forest, plains, mountains, etc) where the monster is most likely to be encountered.
• Panel 7: Published D&D adventures nearly always include a random encounter table, a list of monsters that may appear whenever characters are traveling between places. Whether and which monsters appear is the result of a die roll.
• Panel 10: Well aware of the D&D rules, the displacer beast knows the characters have an incentive to kill them, in the form of experience points (XP) for their victory.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Strip 203: Just the Facts, Ma'am

Something in the back of my mind tells me we were excluding references in titles, but just in case it is not: "Just the facts, ma'am" is a reference to Dragnet, a detective show from the 50s whose main character often cut to the chase when interviewing victims/witnesses/suspects with similar phrasing. The actual sentence (very much like "beam me up, Scotty") is never actually uttered in the show, and instead originated in a parody.

Grey Wolf

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Something in the back of my mind tells me we were excluding references in titles, but just in case it is not: "Just the facts, ma'am" is a reference to Dragnet, a detective show from the 50s whose main character often cut to the chase when interviewing victims/witnesses/suspects with similar phrasing. The actual sentence (very much like "beam me up, Scotty") is never actually uttered in the show, and instead originated in a parody.

Grey Wolf

We certainly do annotate comic titles. Plug away at those.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

We certainly do annotate comic titles. Plug away at those.

I'm not going to promise or commit to doing all, but I can do a few:

ETA: I just realised why I thought you weren't doing them: they are separated into their own section; so a lot of these are duplicates.

3 - See Spot Spot: Title is a reference to the classic children's book "Dick and Jane", which often describes the dog Spot performing a series of activities (such as "See Spot run. Run, Spot, Run"), combined with the pun that spot is an activity in and of itself.

6 - The Cleric is 'In': Title is a reference to the Peanuts comic strip psychiatric help cardboard booth, manned by Lucy, who had the phrase "The Doctor is {In/Out}" on the front

20 - Arcanolypse Now: Title is a reference to the film "Apocalypse Now"

40 - The Gods Must be Busy: Title is a reference to the film "The Gods must be Crazy"

59 - The Shot Heard Round the Dungeon: Title is a reference to "The Shot Heard Round the World", a phrase associated with the opening battle in the American Revolutionary War.

65 - The Magic Words: Title is a reference to the common way of requesting a children to use polite requests ("What is the Magic Word?") to get what they want when their impolite attempts are failing.

85 - The Elder Puppet: Title references the Lovecraftian mythos, where the creatures from the beyond are known as the Elder Things or Elder Gods.

95 - Dead Men Tell Tales: Title references the classic saying "dead men tell no tales" (i.e. the best way to make sure a secret stays a secret is to kill everyone that knows of it), reversed since in D&D it is relatively trivial to interrogate the dead

145 - Mr(s). Wizard Explains It All: Title is a reference to the TV Show Clarissa Explains it All

154 - One Bird with Two Dozen Arrows: Title is an inversion of the classic adage "killing two birds with one stone"

Grey Wolf