The Index of the Giant's Comments VI―Making Dogma from Zapped Bananas

[Jasdoif]

In case anyone missed it on the last page, new answers post by the Giant over on Patreon.

#	Question	In Favor	Against	Disposition	Posters
1	"Did you always plan for Serini to return, or did that develop as you wrote the story?" (Yes, she was always going to return.)	10	0	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification Against:
2	"I'm not sure if this crosses the threshold into personal information, but I was curious about what kind of training you received as it relates to art and writing. Are you self-taught and just enjoy drawing and consuming a breadth of media or have you specifically attended classes to develop the skills you exhibit? As a related follow-up, have you considered teaching a class?" (Not a whole lot.)	2	8	Exclude	In Favor: mjp1050, Gwynfrid Against: Peelee, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari
3	"As an artist, what was The Moment when you realized, "Hey, I could do this professionally?"" (Kind of stumbled into it.)	3	8	Exclude	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Gwynfrid Against: Peelee, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Jaxzan Proditor, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari
4	"Do you ever find yourself held up on putting up a comic because you're trying to find a good title?" (Sort of.)	8	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification Against: Precure
5	"Was there anything that you've drawn that just made you laugh after you've finished drawing it?" (The Coming of the Reapernana.)	7	2	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification Against: Schroeswald, Precure
6	"You’ve written a lot of death scenes in the comic. Which character’s death hit you hardest emotionally to write?" (Sangwaan's.)	9	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification Against: Precure
7	"I understand if you'd rather plead the 5th, but after years of reading our heroes go through personal struggles with their families while on their mission to save the world, I wonder if you might have seen or experienced similar ordeals. Would you be willing to talk about some of your inspirations, or am I a tactless ghoul for asking something so personal?" (Nothing specific.)	8	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification Against: Precure
8	"Who would be the most conventionally beautiful characters (male and female) if they were drawn non-sticky?" (<insert curation comment about multifaceted sarcasm here/>)	4	9	Exclude	In Favor: Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, dancrilis, Personification Against: mjp1050, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, super dark33, hroþila
9	"Hi, I really enjoy your comic. Thor agreed with Durkon's point that the goblins got a bad deal when the gods created the OOTS world. However, the hobgoblins that Red Cloak dragooned to attack Azure City had a robust city. You showed a picture of it. Maybe goblins weren't doing so well, but those hobgoblins right there were doing OK. They overcame the obstacles that had been set before them. Why does Red Cloak feel that it is worth throwing away what has been accomplished by him and others on the chance that the next world will be better?" (He's the kind to overplay a hand that isn't as good as some have guessed.)	10	0	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification Against:
10	"What is one color palette choice you made early on that you wish you could change now?" (Elan's initial appearance. Also Nale's initial appearance.)	8	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification Against: Precure
11	"What is the alignment of each of the twelve gods? I interpreted Rat to be evil, how about others? Since, according to your previous answer, most Azurites worship the pantheon as one, how do good aligned worshipers feel about revering evil gods this way and vice versa? Does this imply that many of the followers of the religion are neutral aligned? How about the paladins in Azure city, how can they worship evil gods by proxy of worshiping the whole pantheon and still be strictly good?" (They kind of have to be True Neutral.)	10	0	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification Against:
12	"I know this is dumb but where do dwarves get the cloth for their clothes from?" (<insert pithy summary of an Underdark textile industry here/>)	6	3	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Schroeswald, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification Against: Doug Lampert, Precure, littlebum2002
13	"How do you come up with the designs for the covers of the books?" (A single dynamic image of the protagonists not spoiling the book's contents.)	9	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification Against: Precure

Spoiler: Breakdown by Poster

Show

Poster	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
mjp1050
Peelee
Metastachydium
Doug Lampert
Schroeswald
Jaxzan Proditor
Sir_Norbert
Precure
littlebum2002
dancrilis
Fyraltari
Gwynfrid
super dark33
hroþila
Personification

---

If I don't vote on the other questions, can I vote 13 times against #8?

Since we aren't at the point of voting yet, it doesn't matter that much; you can certainly reiterate your disdain for a hypothetical entry that would make me wonder whether Rule B could benefit from more clearly reflecting usage of the "Reflections from the Author" subcategory.

[Peelee]

Keeping in mind that I didn't intend for my comment to actually be on favor or against any of the contenders, as I stopped voting on things like this once I became a moderator.... I would like to break tradition and openly support #12, given my previous pithy commentary on that subject.

This is D&D. It's a subterranean race, so they would clearly use Deep Cows. Also there's even odds the milk would be Evil.

Deep Sheep are used for their Wiley Wool. Deep Cows are the ones that make the Malevolent Milk.

And bonus points to the Giant for not going for the low-hanging Deep jokes.

[Kish]

Include all.

[Jasdoif]

If I don't vote on the other questions, can I vote 13 times against #8?

Since we aren't at the point of voting yet, it doesn't matter that much; you can certainly reiterate your disdain for a hypothetical entry that would make me wonder whether Rule B could benefit from more clearly reflecting usage of the "Reflections from the Author" subcategory.

Actually, I'll tell you what: Unless/Until someone can make a reasonably convincing case that this is actually relevant to Order of the Stick, instead of a comment about what it would be if it absolutely wasn't Order of the Stick, I'm not going to make an entry for it on account of violating Rule B.

---

Spoiler: Summary

Show

#	Question	In Favor	Against	Disposition	Posters
1	"Did you always plan for Serini to return, or did that develop as you wrote the story?" (Yes, she was always going to return.)	11	0	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish Against:
2	"I'm not sure if this crosses the threshold into personal information, but I was curious about what kind of training you received as it relates to art and writing. Are you self-taught and just enjoy drawing and consuming a breadth of media or have you specifically attended classes to develop the skills you exhibit? As a related follow-up, have you considered teaching a class?" (Not a whole lot.)	3	7	Exclude	In Favor: mjp1050, Gwynfrid, Kish Against: Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari
3	"As an artist, what was The Moment when you realized, "Hey, I could do this professionally?"" (Kind of stumbled into it.)	4	7	Vote-able	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Gwynfrid, Kish Against: Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Jaxzan Proditor, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari
4	"Do you ever find yourself held up on putting up a comic because you're trying to find a good title?" (Sort of.)	9	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish Against: Precure
5	"Was there anything that you've drawn that just made you laugh after you've finished drawing it?" (The Coming of the Reapernana.)	8	2	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish Against: Schroeswald, Precure
6	"You’ve written a lot of death scenes in the comic. Which character’s death hit you hardest emotionally to write?" (Sangwaan's.)	10	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish Against: Precure
7	"I understand if you'd rather plead the 5th, but after years of reading our heroes go through personal struggles with their families while on their mission to save the world, I wonder if you might have seen or experienced similar ordeals. Would you be willing to talk about some of your inspirations, or am I a tactless ghoul for asking something so personal?" (Nothing specific.)	9	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish Against: Precure
8	"Who would be the most conventionally beautiful characters (male and female) if they were drawn non-sticky?" (<insert curation comment about multifaceted sarcasm here/>)	5	9	Vote-able	In Favor: Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, dancrilis, Personification, Kish Against: mjp1050, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, super dark33, hroþila
9	"Hi, I really enjoy your comic. Thor agreed with Durkon's point that the goblins got a bad deal when the gods created the OOTS world. However, the hobgoblins that Red Cloak dragooned to attack Azure City had a robust city. You showed a picture of it. Maybe goblins weren't doing so well, but those hobgoblins right there were doing OK. They overcame the obstacles that had been set before them. Why does Red Cloak feel that it is worth throwing away what has been accomplished by him and others on the chance that the next world will be better?" (He's the kind to overplay a hand that isn't as good as some have guessed.)	11	0	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish Against:
10	"What is one color palette choice you made early on that you wish you could change now?" (Elan's initial appearance. Also Nale's initial appearance.)	9	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish Against: Precure
11	"What is the alignment of each of the twelve gods? I interpreted Rat to be evil, how about others? Since, according to your previous answer, most Azurites worship the pantheon as one, how do good aligned worshipers feel about revering evil gods this way and vice versa? Does this imply that many of the followers of the religion are neutral aligned? How about the paladins in Azure city, how can they worship evil gods by proxy of worshiping the whole pantheon and still be strictly good?" (They kind of have to be True Neutral.)	11	0	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish Against:
12	"I know this is dumb but where do dwarves get the cloth for their clothes from?" (<insert pithy summary of an Underdark textile industry here/>)	8	3	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Schroeswald, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Peelee, Kish Against: Doug Lampert, Precure, littlebum2002
13	"How do you come up with the designs for the covers of the books?" (A single dynamic image of the protagonists not spoiling the book's contents.)	10	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish Against: Precure

Spoiler: Breakdown by Poster

Show

Poster	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
mjp1050
Metastachydium
Doug Lampert
Schroeswald
Jaxzan Proditor
Sir_Norbert
Precure
littlebum2002
dancrilis
Fyraltari
Gwynfrid
super dark33
hroþila
Personification
Peelee
Kish

---

So, since posts have slowed/stopped...potential entry-ness:

Tentative Entries for Index 6.10
🍌Design of the Book Covers(#13) "...making sure all of the protagonists are on the cover....make sure the covers give you an idea of what's in the book without giving away spoilers...."	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌On Changing Elan's and Nale's Original Appearences(#10) "...have you ever used an entire story arc as a vehicle for changing a costume you don't like anymore?"	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌On the Dwarven Textile Industry(#12) "Keeping in mind that I am absolutely 100% inventing this answer on the spot...."	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌On the Overestimated State of Goblin Civilization(#9) "If you wanted to hand out an award for Most Improved Civilization relative to their starting point, sure, maybe the goblins would rate well by that measure, but otherwise they're objectively worse off."	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌On the Surprise of Sangwaan's (Re)death Scene(#6) "...I had absolutely no plans to ever address the character or her demise again....But...I surprised myself by finding more depth there."	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌Serini was Always Going to Return(#1) "...it was planned from the first introduction of the Scribblers...."	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌The Giant Lucked into Doing the Comic Professionally(#3) "...I soon realized that if I accepted the position, there was no way I would be able to continue producing the comic on the side.....I decided to take the risk of turning down the new job...."	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌The Giant's Favorite Self-Comedic Drawing(#5) Spoiler: Good Deeds Gone Unpunished Show "The banana tree scene in [/i]Good Deeds Gone Unpunished[/i]"	#1260	2022/06/22
🍍🍌Repeated Strip Titles are Accidental See also here[sup](#4) ("...reusing titles...is not symbolic of any deep connection between the strips...").	#1088	2017/08/04
🍍🍌Religions and Deities in OOTS World Background details on who worships whom, and on Thor, Hel, and the Twelve Gods. See also here(#4) ("...the vast majority of citizens of Azure City, Miko included, worship all twelve gods as a single pantheon") and here#11 ("Functionally speaking, the Twelve Gods are all True Neutral....their alignment is pulled in all directions at once by different believers projecting their own morals onto them, and they end up in the middle somewhere.")	#848	2012/04/11
🍍🍌Redcloak is Evil More here(#5) ("If you're reading Redcloak's dialogue and uncritically accepting every word of it, you're overlooking one of his defining character traits: that he cloaks his vile actions in lofty rhetoric to convince himself that he is morally and ethically superior to the likes of Xykon.") and here(#9) ("...furious about getting less even if one slice was technically enough to survive on....")	#830	2012/01/23
🍍🍌Parental Problems Parents are in the story only to introduce conflict. That fathers are included and mothers are absent for the human characters is simply a coincidence. See also here(#7) on the latter point ("...there's just not much more to it than poor planning and unexamined influences.")	#815	2011/11/18

Anyone have any suggestions/alternate proposals?

---

And bonus points to the Giant for not going for the low-hanging Deep jokes.

I believe pig tails are traditional, anyway.

[137beth]

I'll say include all of them except 8, and exclude 8.

[Kish]

Actually, I'll tell you what: Unless/Until someone can make a reasonably convincing case that this is actually relevant to Order of the Stick, instead of a comment about what it would be if it absolutely wasn't Order of the Stick, I'm not going to make an entry for it on account of violating Rule B.

Sarcastic as it is, I think it encodes the information:
1) You should not assume good looks are in any way correlated with how major a character is here.
2) Mr. Scruffy is a very attractive cat.

Neither of which anyone is too likely to build a massive theory over not having pointed out to them, but, as always, I think the default position should be inclusion, not exclusion, and I see no reason not to include it.

[Satohika]

include all except 3 and 8.

[b_jonas]

On recent Patreon answers.
Include 1 (Serini rogue) because it helps us understand a specific decision that the Giant made. Include 11 (Twelve Gods alignment) because how that pantheon works is still confusing and comes up often and we will be looking for all the pieces that the Giant tells about them. Include 13 (design book cover art) because it's very informative and specific example about the Giant's artistic decisions.
Exclude 2 (the Giant's education) because it's not very new. Exclude 4 (dupe titles) because it doesn't tell anything that we didn't know already. Exclude 5, 8, 12 because they're irrelevant trivia, not something useful to understand the comic that we need in our ever-growing database.
Abstain on 3, 6, 7, 9, 10.

[Jasdoif]

Okay, so a couple things have been re-dispositioned in the last few days....

Spoiler: Summary

Show

#	Question	In Favor	Against	Disposition	Posters
1	"Did you always plan for Serini to return, or did that develop as you wrote the story?" (Yes, she was always going to return.)	14	0	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish, 137beth, Satohika, b_jonas Against:
2	"I'm not sure if this crosses the threshold into personal information, but I was curious about what kind of training you received as it relates to art and writing. Are you self-taught and just enjoy drawing and consuming a breadth of media or have you specifically attended classes to develop the skills you exhibit? As a related follow-up, have you considered teaching a class?" (Not a whole lot.)	5	8	Vote-able	In Favor: mjp1050, Gwynfrid, Kish, 137beth, Satohika Against: Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, b_jonas
3	"As an artist, what was The Moment when you realized, "Hey, I could do this professionally?"" (Kind of stumbled into it.)	5	8	Vote-able	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Gwynfrid, Kish, 137beth Against: Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Jaxzan Proditor, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Satohika
4	"Do you ever find yourself held up on putting up a comic because you're trying to find a good title?" (Sort of.)	11	2	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish, 137beth, Satohika Against: Precure, b_jonas
5	"Was there anything that you've drawn that just made you laugh after you've finished drawing it?" (The Coming of the Reapernana.)	10	3	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish, 137beth, Satohika Against: Schroeswald, Precure, b_jonas
6	"You’ve written a lot of death scenes in the comic. Which character’s death hit you hardest emotionally to write?" (Sangwaan's.)	12	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish, 137beth, Satohika Against: Precure
7	"I understand if you'd rather plead the 5th, but after years of reading our heroes go through personal struggles with their families while on their mission to save the world, I wonder if you might have seen or experienced similar ordeals. Would you be willing to talk about some of your inspirations, or am I a tactless ghoul for asking something so personal?" (Nothing specific.)	11	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish, 137beth, Satohika Against: Precure
8	"Who would be the most conventionally beautiful characters (male and female) if they were drawn non-sticky?" (<insert curation comment about multifaceted sarcasm here/>)	5	12	Exclude	In Favor: Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, dancrilis, Personification, Kish Against: mjp1050, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, super dark33, hroþila, 137beth, Satohika, b_jonas
9	"Hi, I really enjoy your comic. Thor agreed with Durkon's point that the goblins got a bad deal when the gods created the OOTS world. However, the hobgoblins that Red Cloak dragooned to attack Azure City had a robust city. You showed a picture of it. Maybe goblins weren't doing so well, but those hobgoblins right there were doing OK. They overcame the obstacles that had been set before them. Why does Red Cloak feel that it is worth throwing away what has been accomplished by him and others on the chance that the next world will be better?" (He's the kind to overplay a hand that isn't as good as some have guessed.)	13	0	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish, 137beth, Satohika Against:
10	"What is one color palette choice you made early on that you wish you could change now?" (Elan's initial appearance. Also Nale's initial appearance.)	11	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish, 137beth, Satohika Against: Precure
11	"What is the alignment of each of the twelve gods? I interpreted Rat to be evil, how about others? Since, according to your previous answer, most Azurites worship the pantheon as one, how do good aligned worshipers feel about revering evil gods this way and vice versa? Does this imply that many of the followers of the religion are neutral aligned? How about the paladins in Azure city, how can they worship evil gods by proxy of worshiping the whole pantheon and still be strictly good?" (They kind of have to be True Neutral.)	14	0	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, Precure, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish, 137beth, Satohika, b_jonas Against:
12	"I know this is dumb but where do dwarves get the cloth for their clothes from?" (<insert pithy summary of an Underdark textile industry here/>)	10	4	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Schroeswald, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Peelee, Kish, 137beth, Satohika Against: Doug Lampert, Precure, littlebum2002, b_jonas
13	"How do you come up with the designs for the covers of the books?" (A single dynamic image of the protagonists not spoiling the book's contents.)	13	1	Include	In Favor: mjp1050, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Schroeswald, Sir_Norbert, littlebum2002, Fyraltari, Gwynfrid, Personification, Kish, 137beth, Satohika, b_jonas Against: Precure

Spoiler: Breakdown by Poster

Show

Poster	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
mjp1050
Metastachydium
Doug Lampert
Schroeswald
Jaxzan Proditor
Sir_Norbert
Precure
littlebum2002
dancrilis
Fyraltari
Gwynfrid
super dark33
hroþila
Personification
Peelee
Kish
137beth
Satohika
b_jonas

---

Most notable is that the question about the Giant's background training has entered the vote-able range, so I've created an entry for it. (There has to be some sort of cross-class skill joke in there somewhere....)

Tentative Entries for Index 6.10
🍌Design of the Book Covers(#13) "...making sure all of the protagonists are on the cover....make sure the covers give you an idea of what's in the book without giving away spoilers...."	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌On Changing Elan's and Nale's Original Appearences(#10) "...have you ever used an entire story arc as a vehicle for changing a costume you don't like anymore?"	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌On the Dwarven Textile Industry(#12) "Keeping in mind that I am absolutely 100% inventing this answer on the spot...."	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌On the Overestimated State of Goblin Civilization(#9) "If you wanted to hand out an award for Most Improved Civilization relative to their starting point, sure, maybe the goblins would rate well by that measure, but otherwise they're objectively worse off."	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌On the Surprise of Sangwaan's (Re)death Scene(#6) "...I had absolutely no plans to ever address the character or her demise again....But...I surprised myself by finding more depth there."	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌Serini was Always Going to Return(#1) "...it was planned from the first introduction of the Scribblers...."	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌The Giant Lucked into Doing the Comic Professionally(#3) "...I soon realized that if I accepted the position, there was no way I would be able to continue producing the comic on the side.....I decided to take the risk of turning down the new job...."	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌The Giant's Art Background(#2) "...I mostly taught myself how to draw in Illustrator....For writing, I am entirely self-taught."	#1260	2022/06/22
🍌The Giant's Favorite Self-Comedic Drawing(#5) Spoiler: Good Deeds Gone Unpunished Show "The banana tree scene in [/i]Good Deeds Gone Unpunished[/i]"	#1260	2022/06/22
🍍🍌Repeated Strip Titles are Accidental See also here(#4) ("...reusing titles...is not symbolic of any deep connection between the strips...").	#1088	2017/08/04
🍍🍌Religions and Deities in OOTS World Background details on who worships whom, and on Thor, Hel, and the Twelve Gods. See also here(#4) ("...the vast majority of citizens of Azure City, Miko included, worship all twelve gods as a single pantheon") and here(#11) ("Functionally speaking, the Twelve Gods are all True Neutral....their alignment is pulled in all directions at once by different believers projecting their own morals onto them, and they end up in the middle somewhere.")	#848	2012/04/11
🍍🍌Redcloak is Evil More here(#5) ("If you're reading Redcloak's dialogue and uncritically accepting every word of it, you're overlooking one of his defining character traits: that he cloaks his vile actions in lofty rhetoric to convince himself that he is morally and ethically superior to the likes of Xykon.") and here(#9) ("...furious about getting less even if one slice was technically enough to survive on....")	#830	2012/01/23
🍍🍌Parental Problems Parents are in the story only to introduce conflict. That fathers are included and mothers are absent for the human characters is simply a coincidence. See also here(#7) on the latter point ("...there's just not much more to it than poor planning and unexamined influences.")	#815	2011/11/18

Also fixed some formatting errors I missed the last time....Any suggestions/proposals?

---

And, because this distinction seems to keep coming up when I'm categorizing entries; I intend to have the top-level "Art" category labelled "Visual Art" going forward. Anyone have objections?

---

Actually, I'll tell you what: Unless/Until someone can make a reasonably convincing case that this is actually relevant to Order of the Stick, instead of a comment about what it would be if it absolutely wasn't Order of the Stick, I'm not going to make an entry for it on account of violating Rule B.

Sarcastic as it is, I think it encodes the information:
1) You should not assume good looks are in any way correlated with how major a character is here.
2) Mr. Scruffy is a very attractive cat.

Neither of which anyone is too likely to build a massive theory over not having pointed out to them, but, as always, I think the default position should be inclusion, not exclusion, and I see no reason not to include it.

Hrmm....Since this is still in easy reach of coming up, how would you suggest categorizing an entry to that effect? It doesn't really work for Visual Art (since it's like the opposite of that), or Reflections from the Author (as sarcastic as we note it is, it'd be more like putting words in the Giant's mouth keyboard there), or Reading Too Much Into It (because that would be meta-referential for my own amusement and I try to keep stuff like that out of the Index).

(It also occurs to me that the panel the Giant indicates in #423 has two Azurite archers, one of which the Giant describes as "drop dead gorgeous" and the other the comic portrays as dropping and presumably soon-to-be dead.)

[Jasdoif]

Well then.

---

UPDATE COMING, CALLING FOR PMs TO REQUIRE VOTES

Anyone thinking entries marked "Accepting PMs to require vote" should not be included in the Index should send me a private message, saying the entries should require a vote. (The default is to include, an item not voted on will be included in the Index.) If I get PMs from two or more people about a particular entry, it will be voted on to decide inclusion; the vote will be the next stage, and I'll announce it when the vote is ready.

The other entries below reached strong consensus already. A vote is considered unnecessary in that case; they will be included.

Proposed Items for Index 6.10
🍌Design of the Book Covers(#13) "...making sure all of the protagonists are on the cover....make sure the covers give you an idea of what's in the book without giving away spoilers...."	#1260	2022/06/22	No vote required, will be included.
🍌On Changing Elan's and Nale's Original Appearences(#10) "...have you ever used an entire story arc as a vehicle for changing a costume you don't like anymore?"	#1260	2022/06/22	No vote required, will be included.
🍌On the Dwarven Textile Industry(#12) "Keeping in mind that I am absolutely 100% inventing this answer on the spot...."	#1260	2022/06/22	No vote required, will be included.
🍌On the Overestimated State of Goblin Civilization(#9) "If you wanted to hand out an award for Most Improved Civilization relative to their starting point, sure, maybe the goblins would rate well by that measure, but otherwise they're objectively worse off."	#1260	2022/06/22	No vote required, will be included.
🍌On the Surprise of Sangwaan's (Re)death Scene(#6) "...I had absolutely no plans to ever address the character or her demise again....But...I surprised myself by finding more depth there."	#1260	2022/06/22	No vote required, will be included.
🍌Serini was Always Going to Return(#1) "...it was planned from the first introduction of the Scribblers...."	#1260	2022/06/22	No vote required, will be included.
🍌The Giant Lucked into Doing the Comic Professionally(#3) "...I soon realized that if I accepted the position, there was no way I would be able to continue producing the comic on the side.....I decided to take the risk of turning down the new job...."	#1260	2022/06/22	Accepting PMs to require vote. PM threshold met; voted required.
🍌The Giant's Art Background(#2) "...I mostly taught myself how to draw in Illustrator....For writing, I am entirely self-taught."	#1260	2022/06/22	Accepting PMs to require vote. PM threshold met; voted required.
🍌The Giant's Favorite Self-Comedic Drawing(#5) Spoiler: Good Deeds Gone Unpunished Show "The banana tree scene in Good Deeds Gone Unpunished"	#1260	2022/06/22	No vote required, will be included.
🍍🍌Repeated Strip Titles are Accidental See also here(#4) ("...reusing titles...is not symbolic of any deep connection between the strips...").	#1088	2017/08/04	No vote required, will be included.
🍍🍌Religions and Deities in OOTS World Background details on who worships whom, and on Thor, Hel, and the Twelve Gods. See also here(#4) ("...the vast majority of citizens of Azure City, Miko included, worship all twelve gods as a single pantheon") and here(#11) ("Functionally speaking, the Twelve Gods are all True Neutral....their alignment is pulled in all directions at once by different believers projecting their own morals onto them, and they end up in the middle somewhere.")	#848	2012/04/11	No vote required, will be included.
🍍🍌Redcloak is Evil More here(#5) ("If you're reading Redcloak's dialogue and uncritically accepting every word of it, you're overlooking one of his defining character traits: that he cloaks his vile actions in lofty rhetoric to convince himself that he is morally and ethically superior to the likes of Xykon.") and here(#9) ("...furious about getting less even if one slice was technically enough to survive on....")	#830	2012/01/23	No vote required, will be included.
🍍🍌Parental Problems Parents are in the story only to introduce conflict. That fathers are included and mothers are absent for the human characters is simply a coincidence. See also here(#7) on the latter point ("...there's just not much more to it than poor planning and unexamined influences.")	#815	2011/11/18	No vote required, will be included.

PMs will be accepted until July 10th, 9PM EDT already. I'll try to update the table if/when entries get sufficient PMs.

To send me a PM, click my username (The vaguely-pronounceable(?)-looking word above the spellcasting-and-invocation-using banana with purple hair) and select "Private Message". Or I guess you could click here. Anyway, include the title of the entries you're nominating in the message. Mentioning something about "Index Nomination" in the subject line would be helpful.

A few final reminders:

• Don't post suggestions to require votes. They're sent by PM to avoid filling up the thread with them, posts will not be counted.
• Only PM for entries you think should be excluded. They'll be included if they don't receive sufficient nominations.
• We're not voting on the entries yet. The voting will be the next stage; I'll call for the vote at an appropriate time.
• We still have a banana in charge. Hi. (I neither confirm nor deny a zapped status.)

Further discussion of entries is encouraged at this point. In particular, recommendations for different titles and descriptions for the quote entries are things I'd be happy to consider.

[Jasdoif]

That certainly didn't take long....

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Items up for voting:

The Giant Lucked into Doing the Comic Professionally(#3) "...I soon realized that if I accepted the position, there was no way I would be able to continue producing the comic on the side.....I decided to take the risk of turning down the new job...."	#1260	2022/06/22
The Giant's Art Background(#2) "...I mostly taught myself how to draw in Illustrator....For writing, I am entirely self-taught."	#1260	2022/06/22

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• Please bold your yes/no votes, it'll make it easier for me to notice when I go through and count everything.
• Votes must be posted (as in, not PM-ed to me) to be counted.
• Please avoid discussing the quote itself, outside of giving an explanation for your vote in the same post as your vote. This'll make it easier to catch up after the vote, if a new quote comes along while we're still voting.
• Per Rule F4, inclusion by vote requires a quote to have two more votes in favor than votes against.

Voting will be open until July 12th, 9PM EDT.

---

The other eleven entries will go into the Index after the vote is concluded.

[Precure]

No to both of them.

[Kish]

Yes to both.

[b_jonas]

The Giant Lucked into Doing the Comic Professionally(#3) "...I soon realized that if I accepted the position, there was no way I would be able to continue producing the comic on the side.....I decided to take the risk of turning down the new job...."

#1260

2022/06/22

I vote exclude on the entry about how the Giant draws comics as his job, because it doesn't tell us much that we didn't know and it's not really about the comic.

And I still don't like how you call for yes/no votes but don't tell whether it's yes to exclude or yes to include the entries.

[pearl jam]

Yes is to include and No is to exclude.

Yes, to both.

[Gwynfrid]

Yes to both. I see them as relevant to the writing process. They also are questions that will occur naturally to readers interested in the comic’s origins. In that sense, they’re about the comic.

[Metastachydium]

NO, EXCLUDE on 2, for the same reason that I gave earlier. The Giant's Wikipedia page knew all this and more years before this Q&A. Let's be serious.

I still don't care enough about 3 to put in a definitive vote.

[Jasdoif]

Okay; while there's still thirty hours to go it's looking like...I shouldn't be surprised if the two-vote margin becomes a point of (expressed) contention.

Entry	Yes Votes	No Votes	Voters
The Giant's Art Background(#2)	3	2	Yes Votes: Kish, pearl jam, Gwynfrid No Votes: Precure, Metastachydium
The Giant Lucked into Doing the Comic Professionally(#3)	3	2	Yes Votes: Kish, pearl jam, Gwynfrid No Votes: Precure, b_jonas

[Ortho]

Yes to both.

[Doug Lampert]

No to both.

[Satohika]

No to both.

[hamishspence]

Yes to both.

[theangelJean]

No to both.

[mjasghar]

Your interpretation of the Redcloak hobgoblin City answer is a bit off - Rich points out it’s pretty primitive and requires complete militarism to survive. He also uses the analogy that should someone be happy with one slice when the next person has a full loaf. So it’s not as clear cut as saying Redcloak underplays a good hand.

[Doug Lampert]

Your interpretation of the Redcloak hobgoblin City answer is a bit off - Rich points out it’s pretty primitive and requires complete militarism to survive. He also uses the analogy that should someone be happy with one slice when the next person has a full loaf. So it’s not as clear cut as saying Redcloak underplays a good hand.

He never says it requires complete militarism to survive. He says that complete militarism is why it is able to conquer a much larger human city, that and two high level casters in support.

[137beth]

Include for both.

[Jasdoif]

Alrighty then.

---

• The Giant's Art Background failed to pass; 6 for, 5 against (thread rules require two more in favor to pass)
• The Giant Lucked into Doing the Comic Professionally failed to pass; 6 for, 5 against (thread rules require two more in favor to pass)

Spoiler: Voting Results

Show

Entry	Yes Votes	No Votes	Voters
🍌The Giant's Art Background(#2) "...I mostly taught myself how to draw in Illustrator....For writing, I am entirely self-taught."	6	5	Yes Votes: Kish, pearl jam, Gwynfrid, mjp1050, hamishspence, 137beth No Votes: Precure, Metastachydium, Doug Lampert, Satohika, theangelJean
🍌The Giant Lucked into Doing the Comic Professionally(#3) "...I soon realized that if I accepted the position, there was no way I would be able to continue producing the comic on the side.....I decided to take the risk of turning down the new job...."	6	5	Yes Votes: Kish, pearl jam, Gwynfrid, mjp1050, hamishspence, 137beth No Votes: Precure, b_jonas, Doug Lampert, Satohika, theangelJean

The Index has been updated with the remaining entries.

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And I still don't like how you call for yes/no votes but don't tell whether it's yes to exclude or yes to include the entries.

With as many posts as there are that independently(?) use "yes" for include and "no" for exclude, and since only simple additions were up for voting this time, it doesn't seem particularly ambiguous; and given the former I have doubts I'd be able to dissuade "yes/no" votes.

Keeping that in mind...since I'm considering more standardization with regard to votes anyway; what specifically are you proposing?

---

Your interpretation of the Redcloak hobgoblin City answer is a bit off - Rich points out it’s pretty primitive and requires complete militarism to survive. He also uses the analogy that should someone be happy with one slice when the next person has a full loaf. So it’s not as clear cut as saying Redcloak underplays a good hand.

It seems to me that your interpretation is focused on a fragment each of two sentences, without considering the context of each paragraph they're part of...that my summary says that Redcloak is the type to overplay a hand that isn't that good, doesn't inspire much confidence in it either.

In any case, the answer summaries are ephemeral; made for the express purpose of referencing multiple paragraphs of answer in a table-friendlytolerable form. Since they don't influence the entries themselves, I'm not worried about it now that the entry procedure has concluded.

[Peelee]

And I still don't like how you call for yes/no votes but don't tell whether it's yes to exclude or yes to include the entries.

It never even occurred to me until I read this that it was even possible to construe "yes" as "exclude".

[b_jonas]

It never even occurred to me until I read this that it was even possible to construe "yes" as "exclude".

There's a stage where some snippets are included by default and Jasdoif asks messages from users who want it to get excluded so that we vote on them.

[Peelee]

There's a stage where some snippets are included by default and Jasdoif asks messages from users who want it to get excluded so that we vote on them.

To the best of my understanding, at every stage of new quotes, the question is, "should this be included?"