History YMMV / TheOrderOfTheStick

** The gag panels with Hel arguing with Thor aren't quite so harmless once it is revealed she plans to wage war on the dwarvern homelands.

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: As it turns out, [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1136.html Thor thinks the dwarves' dislike of trees is ridiculous]], but as we saw earlier, [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0874.html he's still willing to use it as an argument to keep his followers' souls from Hel.]]

** after charming the worm in the desert, Haley says they “can hightail it out of here while it just looks on lovingly!” To which Belkar replies, “just like leaving Grandma Bitterleaf at the nursing home!”

** The first thing to happen after Durkon's resurrection is Hilgya killing him again with a Flame Strike because he proposed to her. Then she shuts down the outraged Order by pointing out that she's rich and can just resurrect him again.

** UpToEleven at the Godsmoot. Even some good gods (through their emissaries) like Heimdall voting for the destruction of the world and all the people in it? That's already pretty harsh. [[spoiler:But made considerably harsher when it is revealed later that they have gone through the motions literally millions of times. The (good) gods aren't callous or apathetic, they just learned the hard way that destroying everything and starting over from scratch is their only available option.]]

** ''Start of Darkness'', as a gag, portrays Sorcerers as being like the ''ComicBook/XMen'''s Mutants. Then ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' comes along and does just that, using the Sorcerers' bloodlines to give them actual powers outside their spellcasting and even some mutations.

** [[spoiler:Sunny, a beholder who should normally be a LawfulEvil AbsoluteXenophobe, but calls Serini "Mom" and cheerfully chats with Elan -- and apparently plays with crayons.]]

** Belkar has always been one of the more divisive main characters but has become even more so in later strips with his 'fake' CharacterDevelopment. Some fans welcome the possibility that he will be redeemed and possibly die a hero. Others are less thrilled, either because they prefer him as an amusing, completely amoral ChaoticEvil HeroicComedicSociopath or because they don't believe that any amount of good deeds can make up for the actions he's performed and therefore any redemption would be unearned.

** There's another controversy about which fans ''aren't'' civil. Miko Miyazaki: TheFettered LawfulGood KnightInShiningArmor, or LawfulEvil KnightTemplar {{Jerkass}}? Pick one or the other; as Miko herself would be the first to insist in either interpretation, you are not allowed to compromise.

** Belkar. Thanks to his "fake character development", some insist he's ChaoticNeutral, despite [[WordOfGod Word of the Giant]]. Note that [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0058.html an early strip]] strongly implies that his constant anger and aggressivness is a consequence of his low Wisdom, being temporarily wiser turns him into a non-violent nice guy.

** In the Empire of Blood arc, Roy and Belkar got imprisoned for life for not having entrance papers. Apparently illegal immigration is SeriousBusiness in a LawfulEvil nation...

** Belkar -- ChaoticEvil or ChaoticNeutral ([[WordOfGod Word of the Giant]] be damned)? Other fans debate how much of his CharacterDevelopment is fake, and whether the amount changed. Note that [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0058.html an early strip]] strongly implies that his constant anger and aggressiveness is a consequence of his low Wisdom; being temporarily wiser turns him into a non-violent nice guy.

** Crystal. [[spoiler:Since coming {{back from the dead}} as a self-aware flesh golem, she claims to be [[AndIMustScream in a state of constant agony]]. The forum-goers' hearts went out to her almost immediately; no-one, they felt, deserves that -- not even Crystal.]]

* WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings: It's noticeable that The Giant (Rich Burlew) doesn't respond as much in the forums lately. This is undoubtedly due to unspecified health issues, which already make it harder to devote time to the comic; but one can't help feeling there's an element of AuthorDisillusionment as well, given the tone of some of the posts and the frequent questioning about the schedule.

** Hel's petty, vindictive, ungrateful to the few friends and has, and is unspeakably cruel. However, from her VillainousBreakdown scene, it's clear that the way she gathers worship is taxing on her psyche. Was she different before the bet on worshippers? Or has she always been the way she is? Is the stress changing her personality, or just bringing it to the surface?

* TrappedByMountainLions: The frost giants arc, going on for close to a year, turned into this for many fans. It amounts to a glorified random encounter and focuses heavily on two [[BaseBreakingCharacter incredibly divisive characters]] with very little character to them, despite the main characters supposedly being on a time-crunch to reach dwarf territory before the apocalyptic deadline. Numerous threads complaining about this have appeared on the forum only to be put down by locking. And unlike other side arcs or lulls in the storyline, it's not all that humorous and has virtually no CharacterDevelopment to go around.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Celia and Haley have an argument over Belkar's murderous tendencies when he kills a nameless hobgoblin soldier and Solt Lorkyurg, an innocent gnome merchant. Celia feels that both murders were wrong and accuses Haley of falling under WhatMeasureIsANonHuman by justifying the hobgoblin's death over Solt's, whilst Haley argues that the hobgoblin was an enemy soldier and not comparable. It's supposed to be one of the times the comic deconstructs common fantasy tropes and gives a balanced argument, but most fans sided with Haley's pragmatism and thought Celia was just being naive. Unlike other examples of WhatMeasureIsAMook or Non-Human, this hobgoblin was an armed enemy soldier and part of the occupation of a conquered city instead of some random monster Belkar decided to pick on.

** Xykon's name is sometimes mistaken for "Zykon", both [[PsmithPsyndrome in-universe]] and out. This is a [[BerserkButton point of contention]] for him.

** In Book 6, the Order of the Stick first gets redirected [[spoiler:by the High Priest of Hel]] to the Godsmoot in hopes of finding someone to resurrect [[spoiler:Durkon]]. Then it turns out there's a vote there by the gods on whether to [[spoiler:end the world]]. Then the vote goes to a tiebreaker, and Roy tries to fight [[spoiler:the High Priest of Hel]] to stop a vote, then the tiebreaker requires a tiebreaker when the final tiebreaker voter needs to convene a council far away, which results in ''another'' detour by the Order to prevent the final tiebreaker vote from being manipulated. Fans got so vocal that WordOfGod eventually addressed it [[http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?472566-The-pace-the-pace-The-pace-is-too-slow/page2&p=20211651#post20211651 here]].

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:

* GeniusBonus: When Haley is rendered unintelligible from seeing a large amount of treasure destroyed, she only speaks in cryptograms until cured. Not only can all the cryptograms be translated, but ''the translation keys themselves'' occasionally have hidden messages.
* HarsherInHindsight:
** Everything about Malack before TheReveal. Including what some readers probably felt was a typo in the name of a tea...
** [[http://www.cafepress.com/orderofthestick/8305389 The T-shirt]] of Durkon turning [[Literature/{{Twilight}} a vampire]] has become this now that [[spoiler:Durkon has become a vampire]].
** And, while not very funny to start with, [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0333.html Durkon's joy upon being told he'd return to his homeland after dying]] becomes far worse when [[spoiler: he does so as a Vampire in order to destroy the world]].
** UpToEleven at the Godsmoot. Even some good gods (through their emissaries) like Heimdall voting for the destruction of the world and all the people in it? That's already pretty harsh. [[spoiler:But made considerably harsher when it is revealed later that they have gone through the motions literally millions of times. The (good) gods aren't callous or apathetic, they just learned the hard way that destroying everything and starting over from scratch is their only available option.]]

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Tsukiko may have been smart enough to figure out Redcloak was lying to Xykon about the Gate ritual, but by bringing everything into the open, straight to Redcloak's face, [[spoiler:she fatally underestimated the high priest of the Dark One]].
** If Nale thought his father was going to just let his [[spoiler:killing of Malack]] slide, especially after [[spoiler:he boasted about making the cleric suffer while dying ''straight to his face'']], he didn't know Tarquin at all, and deserved everything coming to him afterwards just for being that ''stupid''. Even if Tarquin wouldn't have given him what he had coming, Laurin most definitely ''would'' have, making this doubly stupid.
** Oh yes, Bozzok, call the flesh golem [[spoiler:[[AxCrazy Crystal]]]] an idiot and do exactly what she was calling you on while you're totally and completely unarmed and have no way to defend yourself. See how long you last.

** In Book 6, Bandana and Andi, the acting captain and the chief engineer of the ''Mechane'', both of whom are intensely polarizing characters. Andi (as well as some of the rest of the crew) don't take to Bandana's leadership well. Some readers insist that Bandana is reckless, incompetent, and egotistical, getting the ship into increasingly dangerous situations without adequately preparing for them, and trusting her crew to keep saving her bacon even as everything crumbles around her, and that Andi is the OnlySaneMan desperately trying to take control of a bad situation to get the ship to safety. Others argue that Bandana is a skilled and capable captain, and Andi is a petty, egomaniac lunatic who seized the ship out of sheer jealous rage and then immediately delved into CommanderContrarian, proving why she shouldn't be in charge of the ship like she desires. And then, there are those who TakeAThirdOption and think neither woman has the talent to be a captain. Still others think that Julio Scoudrel must have had good reason to promote Bandana as he did, and that her eventual performance proved him out.

** In Book 6, Bandana and Andi, the acting captain and the chief engineer of the ''Mechane'', both of whom are intensely polarizing characters. Andi (as well as some of the rest of the crew) don't take to Bandana's leadership well. Some readers insist that Bandana is reckless, incompetent, and egotistical, getting the ship into increasingly dangerous situations without adequately preparing for them, and trusting her crew to keep saving her bacon even as everything crumbles around her, and that Andi is the OnlySaneMan desperately trying to take control of a bad situation to get the ship to safety. Others argue that Bandana is a skilled and capable captain, and Andi is a petty, egomaniac lunatic who seized the ship out of sheer jealous rage and then immediately delved into CommanderContrarian, proving why she shouldn't be in charge of the ship like she desires. And then, there are those who TakeAThirdOption and think neither woman has the talent to be a captain.

** While using the spell [[{{Sizeshifter}} Thor's Might]] to become giant, Minrah gained the nickname "Maxrah".

** In-universe, Tsukiko [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0700.html sees]] Xykon this way. Out of universe, he's a LoveToHate villain to the fandom.

** Averted with Xykon, as Burlew took great pains to make sure that even though the character's GallowsHumor is funny, he's never sympathetic and never suffers VillainDecay. (Tsusiko was a {{Parody}} of someone who ''would'' apply this trope to him.)

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: Rich Burlew has deconstructed the trope several times.
** He's taken great pains to make sure that Xykon, the series' BigBad, never becomes a DracoInLeatherPants or LaughablyEvil. He gets a lot of funny lines, but he is also sadistic and cruel and always reminds the reader he's worse than any jerk.
** General Tarquin is shown to be GenreSavvy and seems to be CrazyPrepared, but he's shown that he has no real loyalty from his teammates, and he's not as savvy as he thinks he is.
** On the flip side, Miko is a paladin who is a complete "jerk", but is shown to be a WellIntentionedExtremist who has touching last words before dying.

* UnfortunateImplications: In an early strip, Belkar {{lampshade|Hanging}}s the unfortunate implications of the standard DungeonCrawling adventure plot:
-->'''Belkar:''' We have a goal?\\
'''Roy:''' Sure. Why did you think we were here?\\
'''Belkar:''' Well, I just figured we'd wander around, kill some sentient creatures [[FantasticRacism because they had green skin and fangs and we don't]], and then [[KleptomaniacHero take their stuff]]. ''[everyone else in the party glares at him]'' [[DefensiveWhat What?]][[note]]It's also a reference to ''On the Origin of [=PCs=]'', in that the entire reason Durkon joined Roy was that Roy refused to kill green-skinned fanged sentient creatures and take their stuff for no reason. ''Start of Darkness'' also focuses on the extreme racism of the paladins, wiping out a goblin village and murdering non-combatants because, well, they're goblins.[[/note]]

** Sunny, a beholder who should normally be a LawfulEvil AbsoluteXenophobe, but calls Serini "Mom" and cheerfully chats with Elan -- and apparently plays with crayons.

** This is deliberately averted with Belkar, according to the foreword that Rich wrote for ''On the Origin of [=PCs=]''. While Belkar's evilness may be a result of [[FreudianExcuse a horrible childhood,]] Rich doesn't want to reveal anything similar because it would make all of his hilarious sociopathic scenes just look sad and tearjerky.