Order of the StickFollow

Emphasis mine. I was just observing that depending on what the focus of the story is actually supposed to be, once Durkon heads off to the Dwarven lands to cause mayhem amongst the clan leaders, the godsmoot becomes a moot (haha!) issue. It's not actually needed anymore. Well, from a story arc point of view. Having the new high priest get dusted by Roy and Belkar right off the bat would be a bit strange from a "how did Hel think this was a valid plan B" point of view. But bad guys (and good guys) having poor plans isn't exactly a new thing for this strip. If the focus of the strip is the order dealing with an evil vamped Durkon, then the godsmoot has served its purpose for that story. Whether it remains as an additional threat isn't super relevant to the objective of the OotS. Either way, they're going after Durkon to stop his evil plan(s) and restore him to his real self.




My understanding is that this book will deal entirely with character development and dwarves and other shenanigans and the whole "stop team evil" bit will be in the next (and final) book. Basically dealing with the fallout from the previous book, much as Don't Split up the Party did. Or... dragging it out.

Oh. I agree that's the most likely course of action. I'm just pointing out that it's not necessary for it to go that way. There could always be a plan C.

The pacing is so off that I've lost track of Cringer the Brave Tiger.

I love how Blackwing is deliberately muffing the scroll (at least, I assume that's what's going on).

Apparently, this strip was intentionally written to establish the fact that in the stickverse, failing to properly use a magic device (like a wand or scroll) results in an explosion. It actually says so on the scroll Blackwing is reading (when translated properly). Or so I'm told.

Aaaaand now I get what you mean. Apple-polly-loggies and a couple rate-ups for j00, gbaji.


Edited, Feb 1st 2016 4:42pm by Bijou

I guess V spends a lot of time moving unconscious pussy.

I don't know. The whole bit with Roy saying he knew that he did not count as the bodyguard of the new HPoH because "it was the single most frustrating way to rules lawyer it" was pretty good. Doubly so given all the drama about this on his site. That and the whole bit about not being responsible for damage to the staff thing. Honestly, what I liked about this page was that it put to rest a ton of ridiculous questions about "why can't this happen?" or "why didn't that happen?". Of course, this still didn't prevent someone on that site from asking (in the thread about this strip no less) "why doesn't Roy just go ahead and kill the new priest anyway?". Um... He spends like 4 panels explaining why he's not going to do this. Did you bother to read the thing?

Not sure how Burlew handles people on his site. I'd be all like "OMG! How clearly do I have to spell things out for you guys?", and then mass banning them for sheer stupidity. But then, I suppose that's not a good idea given that he makes his living off this. Still. I've got to imagine he's temped some times.

Eh, unless he stabs himself through the hand over it forum drama really isn't noteworthy.

/rimshot

Lol. They didn't even make it to the second page of this strip's discussion thread before someone said "why don't they just do <insert something specifically mentioned and rejected as not working in the very strip you're discussing>". Sigh. i seriously gain a much greater respect for the posters on this forum every time I read that forum.

As to the strip itself. More exposition and explanation. Which is fine. But the remaining question is: How's Belkar doing? I'm assuming Roy's heading out now, and V's heading in. So they should run into each other at some point. I'm assuming, given the "jump from one scene to another, because they're all basically happening at the same time" format of the last 20 strips or so, that we'll jump back and see Belkar dealing with the door guard vamp guy next. Probably concluding with one or both of Roy and V arriving. Maybe arriving on time, or maybe too late. Dun dun dun!

On that note though, there's lots of talk about the prophecy that Belkar will breathe his last breath before the end of the year, and tons of speculation about it happening here (gets vamped himself, or attacks the new HPoH without knowing the consequences, etc). I don't think that's going to be the case though. The strip is about the order of the stick, and he's a member. Given that there's one more whole book to go, I'm going to assume anything that permanent to one of the main characters will not happen in this book, but will at some point (probably quite late) in the final book.

Of course, this assumes an actual permanent death. If there's some other meaning for "breathe his last breath", that somehow still allows him to walk around and be a functioning character in the strip, that could happen at any time. What would be funny is him being vamped, but the "deep dark place" in his heart is actually his emerging chaotic goodness, and he turns into a nicer person as a result, so they decide to keep him that way. Possibly even foreshadowed by the whole bit with Durkon pretending to breathe (pointing out that vampires don't breathe). Um... Which I don't think is very likely. Having two members being vamped kinda steps on itself story wise. That and vampires are explicitly stated to be evil. Which, I suppose, could still result in him being less evil than now, but still. Probably not a condition that the team would allow to continue, doubly so after the betrayal by Durkon. Roy's not going to believe that Belkar isn't just as evil and more of a threat as a vampire than as a living halfling.

Maybe he gets turned into a sentient golem or something? Nah... That's just silly.