The Stick Awards II: Second Edition (#0561 - #0570)

[Porthos]

Welcome to The Stick Awards II: Second Edition!

The Stick Awards are handed out to the best strips of all time as chosen by our fellow Playgrounders.

This week we are covering the comic strips 561 through 570.

For full details about the Stick Awards, please check out the main thread here.

To read more about the original Stick Awards, created by Nazzo, the 102nd, please read his thread here.

To vote in this thread, simply state which comic of the ten listed is your favorite. Bolding the number of the comic (Like this) helps it stand out.

Voting for this week will close on September 18th, 4pm EDT. Any votes made after that will NOT count toward the totals.

Last week, 552 And Yet the Turtle Got Away on His Own doubled down on its own unique way to solve life's little problems. And, as strange as it may seem, it somehow managed to work well enough to see it through to the next round of competition.

Now, though, in the Stick Awards II, we examine the phenomenon of déjà vu. That strange feeling we sometimes get that we've voted for an encounter that we've already seen through to its completion.

*looks at card*

Huh. That's odd. Anyway, now, though, in the Stick Awards II, we examine the phenomenon of déjà vu. That strange feeling we sometimes get that we've voted for.....

.THE STICK AWARDS II: 0561 - 0570

561 Pop Idolatry
562 Heroic Fantasy
563 Air Mail
564 It's What's For Dinner
565 The Test of the Memory
566 One for the FAQ
567 The Simplest Explanation
568 A Sign That You Have a Problem
569 Justice Can Be a Messy Business
570 Clean Slate

[Sange]

561.
The orcs are funny as always, the Banjo-Giglles rivarly, and Durkon denied.
But puppets cannae even eat pie!

[nogall]

561, for giggles and banjo!

[Jaxzan Proditor]

This strip has a lot of funny ones, but I have to say I love seeing Belkar finally get hit by his Mark in #568.

[zinycor]

567 am starting to think that i am gonna vote for every time belkar kills someone

[Bird]

570 is one of the most emotionally complex pages in all of OotS. Belkar absolutely deserves to get left behind by Haley, but seeing him sick and begging not to be abandoned still makes me uneasy. Haley kicking out Belkar shows an interesting turn in her leadership. And while the forget spell resolving the conflict may seem like a cop-out, I thought it was eerie how close Belkar was to being ex-Order. Not many laughs, just great dialogue and a thought-provoking page.

[Sylian]

570 - Haley finally standing up to Belkar was really good. There are other good strips in this bunch, but this one is the best, in my opinion.

[Emanick]

568: A Sign That You Have a Problem was a tremendous surprise to me when I first read it. Particularly coming off of the shock of the previous strip, it still stands out to me for how excellent a twist it was, nearly four hundred strips later. I can't help but vote for it.

[NobodyWasTaken]

I'll toss in a vote for 565 for sinister purposes.

[Yendor]

An absolutely brilliant move by the Oracle in 568.

[ChristianSt]

As Belkar said, (though ironically in the next strip) "People tune in to watch me stab things." So I feel obligated to vote for the the comic we see him stab things: 567 - The Simplest Explanation. And to be honest: while the Oracle was maybe a (kinda) useful resource, with his massive jerk-like behavior he has earned himself some stabbing.

[Apani]

I vote 568: the Oracle showing his masterful planning.

[Killer Angel]

I love 562 for the lawfulevilness... but 568 is just epic.

[declinator]

Nice sequence towards the end of this set. stabbing, oracle planning or leading - what is it going to be? 570 due to the bonus of using the verb behoove.

[littlebum2002]

So many good ones! I think i'm going to have to go with 568

[137beth]

The only way to settle the best strip is a pie eating contest!
Comics Cannae even eat pies!

561.

[LadyEowyn]

Well, I like 562 for Therkla's effective weaselling-out-of-trouble, and I expect 568 is going to be popular, but I'm choosing 570 for Haley's awesome telling-off of Belkar.

Until about the last third or last quarter of Book 5, he is far more of an asset than a liability to the Order due to his idiocy and impulse-control issues, and he's an aggravating little twerp too. It's awesome to see him scared, if just for one panel.

[Cartographer7]

568. Though 562 always gets a chuckle out of me.

[thatSeniorGuy]

For me, it was a toss-up between 568 and 569, but 568 pulled out ahead with the reveal of the ... imaginatively named village.

[Emperordaniel]

561. Behold the power of Banjo as he vanquishes Giggles!

[martianmister]

570 Clean Slate

[Meph]

Hinjoker's wonderful. But 567.

[Porthos]

Lots of great ones here, with some real gems. I do have to echo people mentioning how wonderful Haley's telling off of Belkar was. In any other set of strips, I'd probably vote for it. Unfortunately, my love for the Oracle of the Sunken Valley knows no limits. Which means it's a showdown between 567 and 568 for me. Both are classics. In a way, I prefer 567 because there's a lot of meat on the bone. Especially with the whole "yeah, I wasn't buying it either" that so often gets overlooked by people trying to suss out a conspiracy theory with V's death.

But, in the end, Lickmyorangeballshalfling ( "No, seriously, give 'em a good once over") makes me laugh each and every time I see it. It was wonderful to behold them and it will be a wonder of the ages years for now. No, 568 must get my vote. And it will be a strong contender for my vote in the Best of the Hundred as well (fighting tooth and nail with the O-Chul strip no doubt).

And with that....

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED!

568 A Sign That You Have a Problem is the winner this week. It now moves on to the Best of the Hundred tournament.

Full Results are as follows

........THE STICK AWARDS II: 0561 - 0570

	Comic Number	Votes Received	Vote Percentage
	561	4	18.18
	562	0	0.00
	563	0	0.00
	564	0	0.00
	565	1	4.55
	566	0	0.00
	567	3	13.64
	568	9	40.91
	569	0	0.00
	570	5	22.73

Please join us for the next round of voting for Strips #571 - #580 which can be found here.