Ultimate OOTS Book Tournament 2: Semifinal 2 (SoD vs BRIF)!

[137beth]

Greetings to all people of the Playground, and welcome to
The Ultimate Order of the Stick Book Tournament II!


Back in 2014, I ran a series of polls to determine the forum's favorite OOTS book. Start of Darkness won that tournament, defeating Blood Runs in the Family by one vote. Since that time, the number of available books has increased, and the readership has had more time to reflect on earlier stories in light of more recent events. Hence, I felt it was time for another tournament. Without further ado, I present

The Contestants

Start of Darkness
Don't Split the Party
Blood Runs in the Family


Dungeon Crawling Fools
On the Origins of the PCs
No Cure for the Paladin Blues
Snips, Snails and Dragon Tails
Haleo & Julelan + Uncivil Servant
Good Deeds Gone Unpunished
War and XP
Utterly Dwarfed


I have grouped together the two stories which are currently digital-only. The 11 contestants will compete in a double elimination tournament, with your votes deciding who wins each match. The winner of the entire tournament will be crowned Grand Champion of the Stick!

Due to the fact that there are more than 8 but fewer than 16 contestants, five books will get a free pass on the first round. The contestants were seeded randomly. You can see the entire tournament bracket on Challonge.

Vote once in each match by posting your vote in this thread. For the semifinals, we will have an extended two week voting period. Voting for this match will close Saturday, April 25, at which time I will post the next match. I will vote only in the case where a tie-breaking vote is needed. Please put your votes in bold, since it makes it easier for me when tallying them.


The Current Match

Match 18: Start of Darkness vs Blood Runs in the Family

[rgrekejin]

Start of Darkness, and it's not really close. Start of Darkness is OotS at its best. The writing is razor-sharp and the pacing is perfect - there's not an ounce of storytelling fat here. It makes fantastic use of its limited page count. In contrast, Blood Runs in the Family is very good, sure, but it feels a little bloated. It drags in places, and Tarquin's antics start to feel a little threadbare towards the end of the arc. It's not even my favorite of the core story books - I'd rank it behind both War and XPs and Don't Split the Party.

[Sylian]

Start of Darkness

[CriticalFailure]

Start of Darkness

For sure. I might come back and post about why later though.

[Vulkos]

Start of Darkness

[understatement]

Start of Darkness. Xykon's ending speech is phenomenal.

Actually, I changed my mind. Blood Runs In The Family has everything in it -- Azure City, Linear Guild, Vector Legion, Team Evil, and the Order actually operates like a cohesive unit for once.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

Well, if I put Start of Darkness above GDGU, it's definitely got to win here.

[KorvinStarmast]

Blood Runs in the Family. By a large margin.
Why? The Order of the Stick is mostly not in SoD.
At least with DCF the Order is in the book.

Plus, SoD isn't part of the series that's on-line; a significant detractor in my view.
(This point is the only hit against GDGU that I can come up with)

Granted, SoD has some good moments.
I did enjoy the MiTD origins bit.

This is a matter of taste, I am sure, but

Spoiler: how that happened

Show

the whole "how Xykon became a lich while captive to Lirian" was IMO a poor origin story element. "How a lich is made" is one of those things that (traditionally) took a significant dark story line of its own; and as far as I can tell, lich (in the form that is Xykon) as a very dangerous undead spell caster is a D&D invention as a monster. (Greyhawk, 1976) (I think the term is from old English or Germanic roots ...)

To me, it amounted to a hand wave.

[Ruck]

I'm gonna vote for Blood Runs in the Family. As great as Start of Darkness is, I think BRITF really benefits from both how much the Giant has grown as a writer over the years, and how many big plots and major events happen and pay off in a satisfying way.

[trtl]

Start of Darkness

[PopeLinus1]

Start of Darkness

I like my books to have the real antagonist.

[Linneris]

Voting for Blood Runs in the Family for the same reasons as Ruck. It's a spectacular example of Rich's growth as a writer; it has an interesting setting and an intricate plot with many twists and clever use of foreshadowing. One downside of SoD is that since it's a prequel that focuses on the antagonists, we already know how it ends, though of course the interesting part is how it gets to that point.

[Procyonpi]

Voting for BRiTF. Not a vote against SoD, but Recloak's scenes in BRiTF are great and Taruin is a fun antagonist.

[LadyEowyn]

Voting for BRITF.

[KorvinStarmast]

Voting for BRiTF. Not a vote against SoD, but Recloak's scenes in BRiTF are great and Taruin is a fun antagonist.

I have been trying to capture his character, and I am mixed up between "comfortable in his own skin" and "comfortable in his own evil."

[knag]

Blood Runs in the Family

Tarquin's speech on the viewing stand with Elan is the high point of the whole comic for me. In addition, the plot elements of V's guilt, Durkon's demise (which plants the seed of Belkar's redemption), Haley's resolution with her family and the final showdown with the Linear Guild are just some of the things that make this particular chapter of the story great.

[KorvinStarmast]

Blood Runs in the Family

Tarquin's speech on the viewing stand with Elan is the high point of the whole comic for me. In addition, the plot elements of V's guilt, Durkon's demise (which plants the seed of Belkar's redemption), Haley's resolution with her family and the final showdown with the Linear Guild are just some of the things that make this particular chapter of the story great.

Yes, while the Death of Nale is hardly the Death of Ceaser, I rather liked it. Death of Zzrdt was also satisfying, but that has to do with my disappointment with how the Salvatore character went from "a neat idea" to ... oh, no, not again!

[Laurana]

I vote in favor of Blood runs in the Family.

[137beth]

The fan base today is different from that of 2014. And opinions among long time readers may have changed. But one thing that hasn't changed is the close divide between SoD and BRiF.

Match 18: Start of Darkness vs Blood Runs in the Family (7-8)

Congratulations to Blood Runs in the Family. There may be a rematch in the finals, though.

The next match is up in a new thread.