Number of Character Appearances VII - To Absent Friends

[Yxylu]

For 1234 I Mean, Geez:

Belkar Bitterleaf +1 (1233, 30 Apr 2021)
Durkon Thundershield +1 (1233, 30 Apr 2021) +122 words
Elan +1 (1233, 30 Apr 2021)
Haley Starshine +1 (1233, 30 Apr 2021)
Mr. Scruffy +1 (1233, 30 Apr 2021)
Quippie +1 (1230, 26 Mar 2021)
Roy Greenhilt +1 (1233, 30 Apr 2021) +234 words

No changes on word count rankings, not surprisingly.
Roy extends his lead to 64,501 over Haley (39,122).
Durkon (22,739) is still comfortably between Vaarsuvius (27,998) and Redcloak (18,940).
No one else spoke.

Compared only to the main story (any book with a number), Book 7 is barely clinging on to first place in number of words per panel, beating DStP 27.284 to 27.277. Third place is BRitF with 23.908. No shocker, but it’s bringing up the rear in number of panels and number of pages, and it only beats OtOoP in total number of words (15,552 to 12,896).

[knag]

For 1234 I Mean, Geez:

Belkar Bitterleaf +1 (1233, 30 Apr 2021)
Durkon Thundershield +1 (1233, 30 Apr 2021) +122 words
Elan +1 (1233, 30 Apr 2021)
Haley Starshine +1 (1233, 30 Apr 2021)
Mr. Scruffy +1 (1233, 30 Apr 2021)
Roy Greenhilt +1 (1233, 30 Apr 2021) +234 words

You missed Quippie in the first panel.

[Yxylu]

You missed Quippie in the first panel.

You are correct. I updated my post.

[Yxylu]

For 1235 Idle Thoughts:

Belkar Bitterleaf +1 (1234, 17 May 2021) +39 words
Durkon Thundershield +1 (1234, 17 May 2021)
Elan +1 (1234, 17 May 2021) +152 words
Haley Starshine +1 (1234, 17 May 2021) +31 words
Lutey the Lute-tastical Lute +1 (1233, 30 Apr 2021)
Minrah Shaleshoe +1 (1232, 22 Apr 2021) +10 words
Mr. Scruffy +1 (1234, 17 May 2021)
Quippie +1 (1234, 17 May 2021)
Roy Greenhilt +1 (1234, 17 Apr 2021)
Vaarsuvius +1 (1230, 26 Mar 2021) +47 words

Roy is still way out in first place of words spoken (64,051).
Haley is comfortably in second place (39,158).
Elan is in third (34,929), with exactly 2,800 panels where he speaks.
Belkar stays in fourth (33,773).
Vaarsuvius is in fifth (28,045).
Durkon comes in last for the original Order (22,739).
Minrah (3,255) is in 26th place behind Bandana (3,266) and ahead of Sabine (3,203).
Mr. Scruffy makes his 944th appearance in the comic, with a total of 118 words. He’s in 243rd place.
Quippie and Lutey are tied for last place (technically 1,091st place) with 0 words spoken, and that’s unlikely to change. By my count, 908 characters have no spoken words.

[Schroeswald]

With this comic that brings Minrah’s total page count to 100, the 22nd character to reach this point, and by my categorization that makes her the 16th main character, leaving Bandana and Lien tied for the most appearing not main characters, with 72 appearances.

[Precure]

What happened to Emanick?

[Squire Doodad]

Does anyone have a link to the Wrecan news post? The one on the first page doesn't link to it anymore, it seems to just jump to the normal "news" page.

[Precure]

Does anyone have a link to the Wrecan news post? The one on the first page doesn't link to it anymore, it seems to just jump to the normal "news" page.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150826...:80/index.html

[Yxylu]

I don’t think I’ve seen this pop up yet, but has anyone done anything with the “no comic here” pages like this one, or the one after the current one 1236 as I type this?

It’s one more appearance each for Belkar, Monster in the Darkness, and Demon Roach if we do count them.

[Squire Doodad]

https://web.archive.org/web/20150826...:80/index.html

Thank you.

That should probably be added to the first post when the next thread is made.

[Emanick]

Updated through 1229
Lien, O-Chul, Serini Toormuck

Updated through 1230
Belkar Bitterleaf, Durkon Allotrope Thundershield, Elan, Haley Starshine, Minrah Elle Shaleshoe, Mr. Scruffy, Quippie, Roy Greenhilt, Vaarsuvius

Updated through 1231
Durkon Allotrope Thundershield, Minrah Elle Shaleshoe, Odin, Thor

Updated through 1232
Durkon Allotrope Thundershield (+1), Fenrir, Minrah Elle Shaleshoe, Odin (+1), Thor (+1)

Updated through 1233
Belkar Bitterleaf, Durkon Allotrope Thundershield, Elan, Haley Starshine, Mr. Scruffy, Quippie, Roy Greenhilt, Vaarsuvius

Updated through 1234
Belkar Bitterleaf, Durkon Allotrope Thundershield, Elan, Haley Starshine, Mr. Scruffy, Quippie, Roy Greenhilt, Vaarsuvius

Updated through 1235
Belkar Bitterleaf, Blackwing, Durkon Allotrope Thundershield, Elan, Haley Starshine, Minrah Elle Shaleshoe, Quippie, Roy Greenhilt, Vaarsuvius

Minrah has now appeared on 100 pages.
Lien is now #24 outright, at 72 appearances, and Eugene and Shojo are now tied for #25 at 71 appearances.
Thor has gone from being #31 outright, at 63 appearances, to being tied with Malack for #28 at 66 appearances. Hilgya is now #30, not #29. Zz’dtri is out of the top 30.
Odin has gone from being tied with the Ancient Black Dragon and Girard for #86 (21 appearances) to being tied with Vampire Dwarf with Blue Curly Hair for #71 (24 appearances).
Serini has gone from being in a 12-way tie for 126th place (13 appearances) to being in a 6-way tie for 120th place (14 appearances).

I'm very sorry that I've been away for so long, everyone. Real life has been... not simple. I may as well leave it at that. But that stuff seems like it's mostly over, or at least I hope so.

I've updated the thread through 1235 with the regular appearances, as well as a notable alteration for Durkon in a Commune spell and for Fenrir/Fenris as an illusion (whom I've decided to label as such, in case anyone is trying to find him by searching the page, since he only appears twice and neither name seems to be clearly invalid).

Now to get up to speed with the other things. It looks like there's lots of other things to address, but I wanted to post this now before working on the other stuff. I'll edit this post to reflect the other changes, unless somebody else posts in the meantime.

Just noticed something, I’m pretty sure that the count for O-Chul is off, his page 2 and 3 appearances in 1189 wasn’t counted so it should be 54+93+12.

I finally checked on this (as well as on some other stuff to make sure I hadn't accidentally recorded the appearances elsewhere by mistake) and you're absolutely right! Fixed, and thanks for spotting this.

Does anyone have a link to the Wrecan news post? The one on the first page doesn't link to it anymore, it seems to just jump to the normal "news" page.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150826...:80/index.html

Great catch, Squire! And thanks for the URL replacement, Precure. I replaced the old link with the new one.

That's for sure!

I am going to create a summary post that shows what our jointly validated count is for each character. The thread can then do what they will with that information: alter the count or not.

Did I miss this summary post, or has it not been made yet? I think what I'd like to do is manually check your jointly validated count when possible, but I may wind up just taking it for granted, given the amount of work you two have done cross-referencing your findings.

I don’t think I’ve seen this pop up yet, but has anyone done anything with the “no comic here” pages like this one, or the one after the current one 1236 as I type this?

It’s one more appearance each for Belkar, Monster in the Darkness, and Demon Roach if we do count them.

I'm not sure if this has been discussed before, but I think those pages would count as website art rather than part of the comic proper, so I doubt we'd count them. It would be like counting a banner on the website advertising a new book, which I'm pretty sure we've never done.

[Squire Doodad]

I'm very sorry that I've been away for so long, everyone. Real life has been... not simple. I may as well leave it at that. But that stuff seems like it's mostly over, or at least I hope so.

It's not problem at all, real life always takes priority. I'm glad to hear most of it's been resolved, and I wish you the best on the rest of it. Take care.

[knag]

Did I miss this summary post, or has it not been made yet? I think what I'd like to do is manually check your jointly validated count when possible, but I may wind up just taking it for granted, given the amount of work you two have done cross-referencing your findings.

I have not made it yet. Real life, as you note, gets in the way. I'll probably get to it soon though.

[Yxylu]

For 1236 No Strings:

Belkar Bitterleaf +1 (1235, 25 May 2021) +20 words
Durkon Thundershield +1 (1235, 25 May 2021) +26 words
Elan +1 (1235, 25 May 2021) +172 words
Haley Starshine +1 (1235, 25 May 2021) +30 words
Lutey the Lute-tastical Lute +1 (1235, 25 May 2021)
Minrah Shaleshoe +1 (1235, 25 May 2021) +10 words
Mr. Scruffy +1 (1235, 25 May 2021)
Quippie +1 (1235, 25 May 2021)
Roy Greenhilt +1 (1235, 25 Apr 2021) +66 words
Vaarsuvius +1 (1235, 25 May 2021)

Roy is still way out in first place of words spoken (64,117).
Haley is comfortably in second place (39,188).
Elan is in third (35,101).
Belkar stays in fourth (33,793).
Vaarsuvius is unchanged in fifth (28,045).
Durkon comes in last for the original Order (22,765).
Minrah (3,265) is just barely behind Bandana (3,266) and ahead of Sabine (3,203).
Mr. Scruffy keeps his total of 118 words. He’s in 243rd place.
Quippie and Lutey are tied for last place (technically 1,091st place) with 0 words spoken, and that’s unlikely to change. However, Lutey is finally becoming more of a character, now, so in your face, people who [probably correctly] thought I was silly for counting his appearances!

[Emanick]

Updated through 1236
Belkar Bitterleaf, Durkon Allotrope Thundershield, Elan, Haley Starshine, Minrah Elle Shaleshoe, Mr. Scruffy, Quippie, Roy Greenhilt, Vaarsuvius

No significant changes in anyone's ranking, although Minrah is closing in on tying the Demon Roaches on number of pages appeared on.

Elan has now been depicted as charmed on 11 different pages. Ouch.

Lutey is finally becoming more of a character, now, so in your face, people who [probably correctly] thought I was silly for counting his appearances!

I like to think that The Giant reads this thread and has decided to honor your commitment to treating Lutey as a character by proving you correct.

[Squire Doodad]

Quippie and Lutey are tied for last place (technically 1,091st place) with 0 words spoken, and that’s unlikely to change. However, Lutey is finally becoming more of a character, now, so in your face, people who [probably correctly] thought I was silly for counting his appearances!

I can't help but wonder if there's a list of important inanimate object appearances (the Greenhilt sword, Durkon's Hammer of Thunderbolts, but not clothing or anything), but that seems like an excessively granular and overall unimportant list relative to counting characters.

[Yxylu]

I can't help but wonder if there's a list of important inanimate object appearances (the Greenhilt sword, Durkon's Hammer of Thunderbolts, but not clothing or anything), but that seems like an excessively granular and overall unimportant list relative to counting characters.

I’ve been struggling with this. Specifically, I have been tempted to count the Greenhilt sword and the Mechane, but have held off so far. I do count Armand Vestinghole, but not the others, yet. Besides the hammer, does anyone have any other suggestions? If I am going to do this, I’d rather go through once and get everything in one go.

[b_jonas]

Yxylu: perhaps the appearances of each of the five gates and rifts could be counted. They're definitely plot-central objects.

[Ron Miel]

The real and fake phylactery/ holy symbol.

[Yxylu]

The real and fake phylactery/ holy symbol.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the fake one only appears in comics 831-833. Redcloak admires the workmanship in 831, where it never leaves the box. He casts a bunch of spells, then shows it to Xykon, who snatches it away from Redcloak. Presumably, it is stashed in the Astral fortress between then and Team Evil’s next appearance.

I’ll add the phylactery to the list, but the fakelactery doesn’t seem like it would be useful.

The list so far:
Greenhilt Sword
Xykon’s Crown
Xykon’s Phylactery
Dorukan’s Rift
Lirian’s Rift
Soon’s Rift
Girard’s Rift heh heh butt
Kraagor’s Rift
The Mechane
Keen Rapier
Crystal’s Knife
Icy Burst Bow
Malack’s Staff
Chaos Saber
Hammer of Thunderbolts

While it’s an interesting item in and of itself, the Crimson Mantle doesn’t have an interesting catalog of appearances. It’s almost one-to-one with Redcloak himself, with only a small handful of appearances separate from each other.

[Ron Miel]

Xykon's crown.

[Squire Doodad]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the fake one only appears in comics 831-833. Redcloak admires the workmanship in 831, where it never leaves the box. He casts a bunch of spells, then shows it to Xykon, who snatches it away from Redcloak. Presumably, it is stashed in the Astral fortress between then and Team Evil’s next appearance.

I’ll add the phylactery to the list, but the fakelactery doesn’t seem like it would be useful.

The list so far:
Greenhilt Sword
Xykon’s Phylactery
Dorukan’s Rift
Lirian’s Rift
Soon’s Rift
Girard’s Rift heh heh butt
Kraagor’s Rift
The Mechane
Crystal’s Knife
Hammer of Thunderbolts

Specifically Haley's new bow, as well as the Keen Rapier and the Chaos Sabre? Trying to think of things that have been singled out in-comic. V doesn't have a weapon, nor does Redcloak, and Belkar's daggers are very nondescript.

[Ron Miel]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the fake one only appears in comics 831-833....
I’ll add the phylactery to the list, but the fakelactery doesn’t seem like it would be useful.

I see what you mean, but I believe the fake is a Checkhov's Gun, which will have major plot significance before the end. I think it's worth including.

Specifically Haley's new bow, as well as the Keen Rapier and the Chaos Sabre?

Here I disagree. Haley breaks her bow, and gets a better one. Not a major plot twist. The story would not be changed significantly if you remove that detail.

[b_jonas]

Squire Doodad: The Greenhilt sword, Xykon's real philactery, and the Loki Sucks hammer are definitely worth counting. Tarquin's axe Soul Muncher has the odd status of having a statblock in the Geekery thread but is apparently not tracked in the first posts here.

I'm not sure whether other weapons and equipment are worth tracking, and there are a lot of others that seem equally unimportant. Let me list possibilities just to give ideas. Xykon's Cloister headband that he got from Dorukan, Roy's crown that Xykon stole from Fryon, Malack's staff, the Belt of femininity and masculinity, Belkar's new psionic dagger with which Tarquin killed Nale, Durkon's old heirloom axe, Durkon's old armor, Haley's new frost bow, Blackwing's magic bauble crafted from one of Laurin's ioun stones, Tarquin's whip (first seen in #863), Roy's bag of tricks, Roy's club, Roy's belt of gians strength, Roy's armor, Dorukan's amulet, Haley's lime green boots of haste, Elan's elven boots, Vaarsuvius's Headband of Intellect, Haley's two big round gemstones that her mother gave to her, the +5 Air Freshener of Pineness, fake Xykon philactery, the MitD's cage, Elan's two old rapiers, Miko's katana (which killed Shojo) and wakizashi, Lien's ring of water breathing (back story in GDGU), both of Lien's katanas, Durkon's holy symbol, Belkar's ring of jumping, Vaarsuvius's Ring of Wizardry (pried of Xykon's charred fingerbone), Serini's diary, the gemstone that contains Durukan's and Lirian's soul, Crystal's knife (now Haley's), Kubota's ring laced with lotus extract, the five rifts or gates.

[Ron Miel]

.... Roy's bag of tricks...

Since it produces animals, and the animals are more significant than the bag, I'm not sure we can count it as inanimate.

[Metastachydium]

Squire Doodad: The Greenhilt sword, Xykon's real philactery, and the Loki Sucks hammer are definitely worth counting. Tarquin's axe Soul Muncher has the odd status of having a statblock in the Geekery thread but is apparently not tracked in the first posts here.

Soul Muncher is an intelligent item, hence its own entry there. If it gets featured here, make sure to list it as a character rather than an object.

[Emanick]

Soul Muncher is an intelligent item, hence its own entry there. If it gets featured here, make sure to list it as a character rather than an object.

It actually has an entry already. 16 appearances in the main comic, plus 4 in bonus material.

[Metastachydium]

It actually has an entry already. 16 appearances in the main comic, plus 4 in bonus material.

Note to self: you shall not trust b_jonas!

[b_jonas]

It actually has an entry already.

Ah! It's called "Soul-Muncher" here. I searched for "Soul Muncher" and "Soulmuncher". Thank you.

[Emanick]

Ah! It's called "Soul-Muncher" here. I searched for "Soul Muncher" and "Soulmuncher". Thank you.

Those pesky hyphens, they'll getcha every time!

(For what it's worth, this got me to dig out my copy of Blood Runs in the Family from my moving boxes and double-check that we have its name recorded properly. And yes, there is indeed a hyphen in the name.)