History Fridge / TheOrderOfTheStick

* Mr Jones' terrible track record points to him being a terrible lawyer, but when you see that his clients include people convicted by the Empire of Blood, you realize that he is representing people he not only had zero chance of defending, but given Rodriguez's "please don't hurt us" line after changing their plea to "Ultra premium guilty" Gannji and Enor's paperwork was intentionally lost by the Empire of Blood, risked bodily harm for dragging out any trial past a few minutes. So while he is a scummy lawyer for throwing Rodriguez under the bus, his terrible record may be less a case of incompetence and more a case of him defending the indefensible.

* What appears as a simple BrickJoke becomes {{Foreshadowing}} with hindsight: [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1087.html On this page]], Durkon remembers Squeaky brushing off his apprentice's lack of Bardic skill, because if she were the least bit ''good'', [[SelfDeprecation he would have nothing to teach her]]. Toward the end of the page, [[FanNickname Durkula]] muses to Gontor that if Durkon were any good at getting [[RevengeBeforeReason the revenge he "deserves"]], his vampire-self wouldn't have anything to teach him. This implies that absorbing memories from Durkon affects the vampire spirit seemingly without it noticing, just as Durkon is counting on. It also applies in reverse: the vampire were any good at understanding Durkon's motivations, it wouldn't have anything to learn from him...and once it has nothing to learn from him, it will be '''[[AssimilationBackfire perfect]]''' at being [[TheParagon Durkon Thundershield]].

* After being turned into a vampire, Durkon accidentally uses Inflict Wounds rather then Heal Wounds on Roy, forgetting that as an evil cleric he automatically casts that. Except, as we later learn, that ''wasn't'' Durkon. It was an evil spirt created that day...fully formed as an evil cleric. This wasn't Durkon failing to adapt, it was a deliberate, spiteful attack by a monster.

** Really, though, this all leads back to Elan's deposition. He doesn't ever fight to be effective. In fact, he enjoys being overshadowed because it's relaxing to him. Elan never lives up to his full potential as a combatant because of this, but it makes sense from a pure story perspective. It's a combination of society's bias against bards, his love of narrative, his low intelligence, and his own goofy complacency. Elan is never going to grow as a true hero until he can put all of that behind and fight effectively. Honestly, that basically applies to every member of the Order of the Stick: casual ineffectiveness.

* Elan hangs on to the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity because he thinks it might come in handy (and he was curious). Why did he think such a random, impractical item might be useful at some point? Because ''it was mentioned''. He's GenreSavvy enough to know a ChekhovsGun when he sees one -- he makes sure to keep it because a) he considers it bad storytelling to draw attention to something and then just leave it there, never to come up again, and b) he knows that the fact that attention was drawn to it ''guarantees that a situation will come up where it's necessary''. Well, he also mentions to Roy that he kept it because he was [[TransgenderFetishization a little curious]] too.