The Stick Awards II: Second Edition (#0771 - #0780)

[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 771 through 780.

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 March 31st, 4pm EDT. Any votes made after that will NOT count toward the totals.

Last week, 763 Plotting Something finally laid it's plan on how it will win, even if it loses. Deciding not to see what would happen to them if it "lost", the judges sent it on its way, if only so they don't have to think about its machinations for a while.

And while the last set of judges are fleeing from that strip with ever so slight megalomaniacal issues, a new set of judges needs to step up to continue these Stick Awards. And while it might be late in going up, that's no excuse not to vote in......

.THE STICK AWARDS II: 0771 - 0780

771 Also, "Chib" Would Have Been Acceptable
772 Haley's Commitment
773 Never Mind, She'd Need a Better Bow to Use It
774 Telling Lies
775 Welcome to the Arena
776 A Sombering Oration
777 Under the Arena
778 Nitpick Your Battles
779 They Follow His Lead
780 The Duel Everyone's Been Waiting For

[Gift Jeraff]

#772, I guess.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

Plenty of funny ones here. I think I have to vote for #780, though there are many good candidates.

[thatSeniorGuy]

772 for me.

[Emperordaniel]

Voting for 771 Also, "Chib" Would Have Been Acceptable. "Okay, yes, but it was consensual every time, sir!", "I can't! He's in my pocket!", and "I wonder if I qualify for some sort of hostage-based prestige class by now..." are all comedy gems.

[Cartographer7]

775 for the bait-and-switch.

And while we're here, I've always disliked 774. I think Haley robbed her father of a chance to realize the problems with his way of life and make amends to the people he hurt along the way.

[Emanick]

Lots of pretty good ones here, but 772: Haley's Commitment is a fairly obvious standout. It's a painful strip to read, but the pathos is real.

[Mike Havran]

No clear favourite here, but #777 will do.

[declinator]

Although it indeed hurts to read 772, it's still my favourite of the ones on offer this week.

[kivzirrum]

Wow, there's a lot to like in this run of strips. Roy and Elan are my favorite characters, so their interactions in 771 are gold. And the peek into Haley's psyche in 772 is good character stuff. But for me, it's between two that absolutely tear my heart out, 774 and 777. I adore both those strips. But I imagine calling it a tie would be considered a cop out?

I guess I'll go with 777, because it's easy to make me feel for Haley after following her for many years and almost eight hundred strips. But to make me care about two characters I literally felt nothing for prior to that moment, and all in the span of seven panels? That is some fine, fine writing.

[Killer Angel]

777.
'cause cold-blooded lizardmen, can be heartwarming.

[Torzini]

777 for sure. Agreed with the comment above about the Giant taking two minor characters I didn't care about, and making them heartwarming underdogs. I absolutely loved Enor and Gannji (especially Enor) after this arc. So much warmth and fuzzies.

[Meph]

What a bunch of low-profile yet damn-finely-written material. I fully appreciate them as a (kind of) writer for they're something I have hard times writing: small talks.
Let's say 780 because I'm not voting a Belkar centered strip since too long.

[LadyEowyn]

772. Great character moment for Haley.

[ChristianSt]

Honestly I'm not sure on what to vote. I just put down 775 - Welcome to the Arena for the awesome additional half page.

[Jasdoif]

Eesh, tough choices. The finely wrought role reversal of "child acting out against one parent to make other parent proud" in 772, the acknowledgement of feline power in 780....But, well, I've always had a liking for how well 773's simple "Yeah, you are" expresses Haley's character, so it gets my vote this time around.

[nogall]

778, dinosaurs and all. Though I have to say it's the first time I could tell why Ian was worried about Bozzok, in 779.

[martianmister]

774 Telling Lies

[Bird]

No votes for it yet, so--776.

"Uh, OK, well, that was a very interesting speech from my son, Elan."

*waves*

[Elenna]

sigh decisions...I'm going to go with 776. Elan's failed speeches are fun.
The chances of Elan succeeding at any given task is directly proportionate to how much effort he is expending on achieving its inverse.

[littlebum2002]

Mr. Scruffy FTW. 780

[Porthos]

OK, no excuses this time. Just kept forgetting to update this.

Still, on a time crunch so I'll make it fast once again. Gonna vote for 780 because of the delightful "Cat Beats Commoner" bit. Hilariously anti-climatic. Not only for all of the people predicting Belkar's death (it was a big theory back in the day), but the subversion that this guy was some sort of mid-high level paladin.

N-ope.

And with that....

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED!

772 - Haley's Commitment is the winner this week. It now moves on to the Best of the Hundred tournament.

Full Results are as follows
8
........THE STICK AWARDS II: 0771 - 0780

	Comic Number	Votes Received	Vote Percentage
	771	1	4.76
	772	5	23.81
	773	1	4.76
	774	1	4.76
	775	2	9.52
	776	2	9.52
	777	4	19.05
	778	1	4.76
	779	0	0.00
	780	4	19.05

Please join us for the next round of voting for Strips #781 - #790 which can be found here.