Finally reformed, the Order of the Stick go to Girard's Gate. However, the Western Continent it's hidden on is a tense, unstable place, where the rulership of the many territories frequently changes hands. What's more, the pasts of several Order members, both distant and recent, choose that time to return.
Tropes
- A Death in the Limelight: Nale gets noticeably more narrative focus (and even some moments of depth and sympathy) in this arc leading up to his death at his father's hands.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Discussed and zig-zagged with regards to Nale. While Haley bluntly points out how much of a horrible person Nale was, Elan is still heartbroken because they were twin brothers and he can't help but mourn who Nale could've been if he hadn't been raised by the sociopathic Tarquin.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: Once Durkon learns that Malack is a vampire, he is horrified and ends the friendship then and there, leading to a battle, which ends with Malack turning him into a vampire.
- Anti-Climax: Weaponized by Elan to finally send off Tarquin, who Elan knows wants a huge climactic father-son battle.Tarquin: Elan! This arc isn't over yet! Where's the growth? You didn't lose anything! Nothing has changed! YOU GET BACK HERE AND GIVE THIS PLOTLINE A SATISFYING RESOLUTION THIS INSTANT! ELAN!... ELAN, THERE'S NO SENSE OF CLOSURE! I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! THIS IS A TERRIBLE ENDING!!!
- Arc Villain: Tarquin, and his teammates the Vector Legion to a lesser extent. But don't tell Tarquin that.
- Ascended Extra: This story arc has Blackwing becoming an important and major member of the comic's cast, taking on the role of V's ersatz conscience and calling them out on their crap whenever necessary.
- Avenging the Villain: Sabine gives Vaarsuvius a full scouting report on the Vector Legion once Tarquin kills Nale.
- Back for the Dead: Linear Guild members Zz'dtri and Nale (absent since Books 1 and 3 respectively) return after a long absence, only to both be killed off. It's especially noticeable in Zz'dtri's case, as Nale at least has an important role (not to mention his absence was much shorter than Zz'dtri's).
- Benevolent Boss: The Fiends take Sabine's tantrum in stride and just note that they'll take the damage off her salary; for fiends, that's fairly reasonable.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- After coming back from the Lower Planes, Vaarsuvius singlehandedly turns the tide of the battle between the Order of the Stick and the Empire of Blood's forces, giving a chance for them to escape. Also, when Tarquin and Laurin have personally boarded the Mechane, V nearly knocks the evil warlord off the ship before engaging in an epic Wizard Duel with the psion.
- Julio Scoundrél and the airship Mechane arrive at Elan's behest to save the Order from the Vector Legion near the end of the story arc.
- Break the Cutie: Subverted. In Girard's illusion, Elan is forced to admit that his deepest desire - his father and brother redeeming themselves and his family reuniting — is never going to happen. When Haley checks on him, worried about this trope, he's actually surprisingly OK with it. Even if it was an illusion, seeing it happen gave him closure, and now he can focus on more realistic goals.
- Bread and Circuses: How the Empire of Blood operates. It's even lampshaded on a poster.
- Cerebus Callback: Belkar's line of "When in doubt, set it on fire" in No Cure for the Paladin Blues was previously just an amusing example of his Comedic Sociopathy during his fight against Miko. Here
, it's used as Belkar's completely serious response to Roy when the surviving members of the Order are discussing whether or not they should shatter Girard's Gate to prevent it from being taken by Xykon. - Cerebus Retcon:
- The amusing showcasing of Hidden Depths regarding romance Vaarsuvius previously showcased in No Cure for the Paladin Blues becomes rather depressing after it's revealed in this story arc that they were Innocently Insensitive and neglectful towards their spouse Inkyrius and adopted children, and following them getting Drunk on the Dark Side in the last story arc, Inkyrius has filed for divorce and a now thoroughly-humbled Vaarsuvius chooses not to contest it out of guilt upon realizing how actually clueless and selfish they really were.
- One case is taken to the point of self-parody when even the Weapons Shop Guy, a throwaway gag character featured in a one-strip Monty Python reference early on in the comic, turns out to be the son of Geoff, who agreed to betray his allies in order to buy his only child a chance to leave the Thieves Guild.
- Character Focus: Elan gets the most Character Development here, between his desire for a happy family being revisited and his father Tarquin being the Arc Villain.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: The use of lead sheets to block magical identification. Belkar previously used it to prevent Miko from proving he was Chaotic Evil in No Cure for the Paladin Blues, and later in this story arc both Niu and Thanh use it in #779 as part of a humorous Call-Back to prevent a hobgoblin cleric from detecting the good-aligned resistance members in Azure City. And even later in #894, it turns out Girard used it as part of a brilliant double-bluff to conceal the true location of his Gate.
- Chekhov's Gag:
- In #171, Belkar claimed to "know a guy who knows a guy" in the slave trade. The guy in question - Buggy Lou - finally makes an appearance in this story arc during #685.
- The Ylang-Ylang moisturizer Haley purchased from Aton in #711 helps Belkar lead Roy to her kidnapper in #728.
- Belkar's sensitivity to the smell of humans. #101 showed that it was immensely annoying when Belkar was dungeon-crawling with a human-majority party, but #838 shows that this talent's actually very useful when he's searching a labyrinthine canyon for a magically concealed hideout.
- Zz'dtri being quite taciturn to Vaarsuvius was previously just an amusing example of him being V's Evil Counterpart, but here it bites him in the rear since he neglects to sufficiently distract V from a psychological perspective during their Wizard Duel, giving V the chance to have a "Eureka!" Moment and figure out how to defeat the drow.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The familicide Vaarsuvius performed during the Soul Splice comes back to haunt them when the entire Draketooth family was killed through the spell. As it turns out, one of the dragon's family members crossbred with a human and made them targets.
- In #737, Durkon brings up how dwarves must die with honor to avoid eternal suffering in Hel. The whole business revolving around dwarven souls becomes one of the primary plot threads of the next story arc.
- The ritual (or rather, half-ritual) that Tsukiko confronted Redcloak about (and got herself killed over) is in fact first seen in #700.
- The unspecified spell Redcloak cast when he confronted Tsukiko is revealed in #830 to be command undead.
- Malack is a Daywalking Vampire because he has a protection from daylight spell, which he always prepares twice every day. When he vampirizes Durkon, he uses up one of his casts on Durkon as Nale watches. This provides the opening that Nale needs to kill Malack once and for all.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- Tarquin was briefly shown first in #50. He's also later revealed to be the one who conquered the kingdom seen in #680.
- The two old gladiators imprisoned along with Roy and Belkar turn out to be Haley's missing father and uncle.
- Zz'dtri finally returns to the comic after several real life-years by invoking Parody Retcon on their resemblance to Drizzt.
- In #801, Elan happens upon Captain Amun-Zora's cell while running from Nale. And then later in #941, Amun-Zora shows up with bounty hunters Gannji and Enor, to recruit Ian in their scheme against their common enemy, Tarquin.
- Elan actually invokes this trope, by talking about his secret plan some ninety-three pages before he calls in an old friend in #930. The arrival of the Chekhov's Gunman is itself a Chekhov's Gun.
- Tarquin was briefly shown first in #50. He's also later revealed to be the one
- Chekhov's Skill:
- Near the very end of War and XPs, Vaarsuvius gave Elan valuable advice on the proper use of illusions in combat. In #805, Elan creates an illusion of a "celestial tree sloth" to spook Sabine.
- Having learned from his time spent with Therkla, Elan almost instantly gets into a situation in this book where he has to cast neutralize poison.
- After Roy first suggests it, Durkon spends a long time trying to learn mass death ward, and during the first time he tried to use it in battle, it failed. He finally gets to use it against the very person who helped him learn it... but it only works temporarily.
- Roy's ranks in architecture (first noted in #808) help him spot something iffy about a particular pillar in Girard's pyramid by the time of #895.
- It's practically a Running Gag throughout the entire comic that Belkar is the worst ranger ever, and his supposed class ability to influence the behavior of animals (Wild Empathy) is mentioned twice as just such gags in previous books. Much later on in #922, he gets an Androcles' Lion moment with the Allosaurus he'd earlier released into the gladiator pit.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Played for Laughs in #772.Roy: (to Geoff) If you move, I will crush you the way that every word out of Elan's mouth crushes my spirit!
Elan: (concerned) Yikes, no need to get that rough! - Contrived Coincidence: It turns out that the territory the Order is looking for Girard's Gate in is ruled by Elan's Evil Overlord father, and it's the same dictatorship that's holding Haley's dad for ransom.Durkon: Geez, wha be tha chances o' tha??
Elan: Ummm...
Durkon: Och, right. Like, a hunnerd percent, in this comic. - Critical Existence Failure: Tarquin outright exploits it. When Elan tries to invoke Go Through Me to protect Roy, knowing Tarquin won't kill his own son, Tarquin confirms that Elan is on full HP and stabs both him and Roy in one move, knowing that Elan will survive while Roy is already critically injured. His son's visible agony? Not his concern.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Redcloak single-handedly wipes out the Azure City Resistance save for a Sole Survivor.
- Darker and Edgier: The Cerebus Syndrome is even more noticeable in this arc than in the previous ones, what with both Nale and Tsukiko's deaths and Durkon's vampirization being portrayed and treated with immense drama and tragedy.
- Darkest Hour: The Order faces this in #880. For as much as they all know, Vaarsuvius is dead, and a half-dead-on-his-feet Belkar has just confirmed to them all that Durkon was turned into a vampire and is now a servant of Malack. Elan breaks down crying into Haley's shoulder (while she herself is visibly heartbroken), and Roy almost kills Belkar out of denial-induced fury before he lapses into a Heroic BSoD and almost crosses the Despair Event Horizon in the next strip. Most notably, even Belkar is visibly saddened, with him being clearly still in shock to an extent and not trying to defend himself from Roy's murderous denial before Haley realizes that he's telling the truth.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Elan keeps trying to win his potential father-in-law over, despite said father-in-law being The Paranoiac and Elan being the son of his greatest enemy. Elan finally manages to convince him he's not trying to betray him or Haley — if ever there was proof of an 18 Charisma...
- Dysfunctional Family: Tarquin and his sons, Elan and Nale. Tarquin is a control freak who wants to tell the greatest story ever with himself as the villain, Nale wants to usurp his father and doesn't care for storytelling tropes, and Elan deeply wishes they could all just get along despite knowing that there's little to no chance of it. There's also Elan's mom, who while very sweet and kind, is where Nale inherited his Complexity Addiction from.
- Elemental Embodiment: Hilariously spoofed when Zz'dtri temporarily banishes Vaarsuvius and a brainwashed Yukyuk to the "Semi-Elemental Plane of Ranch Dressing." Needless to say, its inhabitants aren't the most dignified embodiments ever conceived.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Both Ian Starshine and General Tarquin (at least initially) mistake their child to be The Man Behind the Man to Roy in the Order of the Stick.
- Fatal Flaw: Several.
- Malack has the flaw of Vanity, with him constantly needing to present himself as "civilized" and "proper". This bites him in the tail when Nale and Zz'dtri exploit it as a Logical Weakness to easily kill him in a single strip.
- Both Haley's father Ian and Girard have the flaw of Mistrust. Ian stays in prison despite Haley giving him a perfect opportunity to escape because she was with Elan (whom he doesn't trust because Elan is Tarquin's son), and Girard unnecessarily complicates the Order's job (finding the Gate and thus saving the world) because of his mistrust of paladins.
- Nale's flaw is Pride. His refusal to humble himself and take the chance for forgiveness that Tarquin gave him gets him killed.
- And much like Nale, Tarquin's flaw is also Pride, as demonstrated through his total inability to accept that he's not the Big Bad.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: In the strip where the Order get trapped in Girard's Lotus-Eater Machine, there's a few hints towards what exactly is going on before the end of the strip explicitly reveals that they are trapped.
- The colors begin to fade and get pinker and more "dreamlike".
- Xykon calls Roy by his name right before Roy slices his head off. Xykon barely remembers Roy's name, much less that he's dedicated his adventuring career to stopping Xykon.
- The battle goes a little too well. Vaarsuvius shows up just in time and prevents Redcloak from healing Xykon, while Redcloak does nothing to escape from V's forcecage. It's also just a bit too convenient that the only member of the protagonists who seemingly gets Killed Off for Real (and rather anti-climatically, at that) is The Friend Nobody Likes (Belkar).
- Foreshadowing:
- Early on, Haley implies that a cousin of hers tried to frame someone for murder. It's written off as a joke, but her father Ian and Uncle Geoff's last scene reveals that it was Geoff who was helping Tarquin's mooks keep Ian from escaping, blackmailed into doing so by Bozzok.
- "Girard Draketooth" isn't just your basic fantasy name. He's the grandson of a dragon - Specifically, a dragon related to the one Vaarsuvius nailed with familicide. Additionally, V's initial death toll shows a bipedal half-dragon warrior and sorcerer, and a dragon-centaur. Later, V sees Girard's a dragon hybrid.
- Elan briefly lets his idea of a happy ending slip when he first meets his father:
- Malack doesn't eat at the welcoming banquet for Elan because he requires "a special diet". Also earlier, when drinking tea with Durkon, the latter finds it to taste foul and he wonders what's in it. It eventually turns out his "special diet" is blood.
- "Do you need, like, 200-foot tall flaming letters or something?!" Yes, apparently.
- In #762, Tarquin mentions that it has been many years since he's had to pun-duel. #931 reveals that his previous pun-duel opponent was Julio Scoundrél.
- In #764 V remarks on only recently learning the benefits of resource management over brute force. This comes in handy about 200 strips later in #935 when V fights Laurin. She brags that she can counter any of V's spells, but V, using knowledge obtained from Sabine reveals to have been fighting conservatively, while Laurin pulled out the big guns early and often and was running low on energy.
- Also from #764, in one of Durkon, V, and Malack's casual friendly conversations, V and Malack start to compare their robe fashions. V suggests Malack try a higher hemline on his, to which Malack casually declines, stating it doesn't "work as well" without a rope belt, like V's has. In truth, it's to hide the fact that Malack is not a lizardfolk as many assume him to be - he's a Yuan-Ti, and the lack of any legs underneath his robe would very quickly give it away.
- During their duel in #874, Durkon offers to raise Malack from the dead and restore him as a mortal. Malack refuses, claiming "Bringing me back to life is just a complicated way of annihilating the person I am today." As the final page of this comic reveals, that was Malack using Exact Words - the spirit of the original host and the vampiric spirit are actually two separate beings.
- In #893, Nale (inadvertently for the latter) foreshadows the deaths of both Malack and himself: "Don't worry your precious dead head, Malack. Once I secure this Gate, you won't have to worry about me anymore."
- Multiple times after being released from Malack's control, Vampire Durkon talks without his Dwarven accent, most notably whenever he's stressed (e.g., saying "The Sun!" instead of "Tha Sun!" like Durkon normally would've). Hmmm, it's almost like he's not really Durkon and is just putting on an act to fool the Order... Furthermore, Hel is first alluded to in #737 when Durkon is discussing theology with Malack and the topic of death gods comes up. How fitting that Durkon's vampiric spirit would turn out to be Hel's first High Priest.Durkon: (on the subject of Hel) Well, sorta, but nobody worships 'er, much less serves as 'er priest!
- In #932, Roy notes that he should really start lashing his sword to his hand. In the next story arc, his family heirloom becomes a Weapon of Legacy, which means that he can summon it back to his hands no matter if he loses it.
- Freudian Threat: Belkar threatens Ian that he'll make sure Haley stays an only child if he ever blabs to Roy that it was him that released the dinosaur in the arena. Ian retorts back that he's been sterile for years after triggering a poison needle trap to the groin.
- Funny Background Event:
- The activity field of macebook glimpsed in #739 is full of hilarious details.
- While Haley is telling her father she loves Elan in #772, the latter is busy proselytizing Banjo to Geoff while Roy Face Palms.
- Heroic BSoD: Roy and the other members of the Order (minus V, who isn't with them at the time) enter into one after learning of Durkon's vampirization. They only get snapped out of it after Belkar goes into a furious "The Reason You Suck" Speech aimed at Roy where he tells him to Quit Your Whining and recognize the fact that it's solely up to them to stop Xykon from ending the world.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Durkon lets himself get killed by Malack after making the vampire promise to not harm the rest of the Order.
- History Repeats: Just like with the Order of the Scribble, the Order of the Stick has their dwarven member perform a Heroic Sacrifice on their behalf.
- I Have to Go Iron My Dog:
- Early on, Elan and Haley excuse themselves from Tarquin by saying they have to "give their pet orangutan a bath." Tarquin assumes they're just going to have sex.
- Later on, Elan just skips the euphemisms:Elan: Uh, Dad? Haley and I need to go... uh... have sex.
Tarquin: Well, you'll miss the big fight, but you do what you need to do.
Haley: Come on, V. And bring the cat, just in case.
Tarquin: ...Huh.
- Implied Death Threat: Tarquin gives Elan one of the nastiest in the series.Careful. You're starting to sound like Nale.
- Improperly Paranoid: Girard is convinced that the Sapphire Guard will eventually try to take over the other gates, oath or no oath, and as such leads them to a trap rather then his gate. The Sapphire Guard never broke their oath (as we learn in later books, arguably to a fault) and all the trap does is delay the independent forces saving the world.
- Killed Off for Real:
- After being freed from servitude to Malack, Vampire Durkon kills Zz'dtri with a Neck Snap.
- Tsukiko is killed by Redcloak using her own wights, who life-drain her to the point where she drops dead. Then, her corpse is eaten by the wights followed by the wights eating each other and the last wight incinerating itself in the fireplace.
- Nale is killed by Tarquin in retaliation for killing Malack. To ensure he isn't resurrected, Tarquin's psion vaporizes his body. Needless to say, Sabine is pissed.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: One of the traps in Girard's pyramid is an exceptionally powerful phantasm that traps the victim in an illusion of their perfect world. Elan, of all people helps the Order break out when he realizes that his idea of a perfect world - his family reunited - is too impossible even for a Manchild like him to believe in.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Combined with I Always Wanted to Say That, when Tarquin reveals himself to Elan. Elan, in turn, says that growing up without a father was Worth It just for the dramatic reveal.
- Meaningful Background Event: In #764, Malack, Durkon, and Vaarsuvius all chat about frivolous things while Elan can be seen in the background (apparently) updating Haley about his recent experience with Tarquin.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Despite Tarquin's protests at the Anti-Climax, quite a lot changes in this arc:
- Nale is Killed Off for Real, the Linear Guild is effectively destroyed and Elan admits his dreams of a happy family with his dad and brother and mother are truly unrealistic, growing as a person.
- Vaarsuvius finally confesses their deal with the fiends to Roy so that Roy has a fuller understanding of the situation surrounding the Snarl, divorces their mate, and improves their relationship with Blackwing considerably along with coming to terms with having committed genocide through their casting of familicide.
- Durkon is killed and made a vampire and an agent of Hel while still pretending to be Durkon.
- The Snarl is now coming through a rift in the Western Continent's desert and attacks some people.
- There are strong hints that Belkar's fake Character Development has led to some genuine development as well.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Nale vehemently disagrees (for the most part) with the assessment when Elan tells Nale that he's just like Tarquin in #794. (He does admit that at least they've always had "murdering innocent people" as something to bond over).
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Girard Draketooth programmed one in his decoy illusion in the event that Soon Kim was the one to have travelled to the coordinates he had given him to find the gate.Girard Draketooth: It should have been you that died in that rift, you cowardly son of a bitch. Allow me to remedy that error now. Say hello to your barnyard gods for me.
- Sexual Euphemism: Tarquin takes Elan's excuse of him and Haley needing to "give their pet orangutan a bath" as a euphemism for sex. Then he starts in on it himself, saying he, too, can still "Bathe an ape," and asking them if they're done "scrubbing the monkey." By the time he suggests Elan "wash behind the ears," the poor bard is hopelessly confused.
- Shoot the Television: In a rage over Tarquin killing Nale, Sabine hurls a couch at the fiends' plasma screen television. They tell her it's coming out of her holiday bonus.
- Signs of Disrepair: Tarquin has a sign of Elan's name made from burning crucified escaped prisoners erected on a hill. The three prisoners at the bottom of the "E" burn out, leaving it to look like 'Flan'.
- Stealth Pun:
- Malack spell-checking Durkon's scroll. Spell-checking. Got it?
- The three empires on the Western Continent are never mentioned together in the same sentence. They're the Empires of Blood, Sweat, and Tears.
- The title of Strip #914, "Last in the Coffin". This strip is the one confirming that Nale is not coming back from the dead. The title is from the expression "putting the last nail in the coffin".
- Malack spell-checking Durkon's scroll.
- Swapped Roles: In a brief gag, the Lawyers swap roles with the Flumphs by acting as a Living Crashpad for one of the characters. The Flumphs are then shown trying to pose as the two lawyers.
- Tempting Fate: Durkon's preface to the print version. He assumes everything will go fine in the book and even if it doesn't he'll end up in Valhalla. Everything does go wrong and Durkon dies in such away that prevents him moving on.
- The Ending Changes Everything: The final two pages reveals that not only has the Snarl started reaching out of its prison, but Durkon's corpse is actually being possessed by an evil spirit in league with the Northern goddess of death - Hel - and Durkon is a prisoner in his own mind, powerless and Forced to Watch as his Evil Twin plans to cause The End of the World as We Know It.
- Violation of Common Sense: In Strip #767, Haley uses Elan's Potion of Glibness to boost her already high Bluff skill to such a high level that she can effortlessly convince anyone of anything, no matter how ludicrous.Haley: You don't hear or see us.
First Guard: Huh. Must be a trick of the light.
Haley: You actually don't work here anymore.
Second Guard: Oh, Crap! How am I gonna pay my mortgage?!
Haley: You're actually a yellow-footed rock wallaby.
Third Guard: Screw this guard stuff then, I'm gonna go find a wizard to polymorph me back! [hops away] - Visual Pun: Instead of casting dancing lights, a hobgoblin cleric accidentally casts "Dancing Knights" in #706, causing two ballerinas dressed as medieval knights to randomly appear (and who then dance off into the background together).
- Wham Episode: Plenty. Just check this page.
- Wine Is Classy: Tarquin sips wine casually after some brutal acts.
- Wizard Duel: Vaarsuvius gets involved in two over the course of this story arc, the first with Zz'dtri and the second with Laurin Shattersmith. V technically wins both, but only through acting as a Combat Pragmatist (taking control of Yukyuk and making them into a portable crossbowman for the former, and exhausting the latter to the point of retreat through Death of a Thousand Cuts).
- Wrong Genre Savvy:
- Much of the arc is driven by Tarquin's very sincere belief that he is the main villain because he thinks Elan is the main hero. He does not react well to having this illusion challenged.
- Another good portion of the arc is driven by Girard Draketooth having believed that Soon Kim, a paladin, would break his oath, and passing his distrust of anyone outside his family down through said family, both things complicating the Order's mission.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!:
- Girard Draketooth purposely gave Soon Kim, and by extension, the Sapphire Guard and the Order, the wrong coordinates to the Gate because he believed Soon would use the threat of the Snarl as an excuse to invade his home.
- Then subverted, with Girard's final double-bluff — a pillar in the center of the pyramid proclaiming, "Sorry, your gate is in another pyramid." Which turns out to house the gate.
Celia: Wow, that was a really long book! I'm gonna go reread the parts with my boyfriend in a loincloth.
