The Order Of The Stick / Tropes P to R

Tropes A to C | Tropes D to F | Tropes G to I | Tropes J to L | Tropes M to O | Tropes P to R | Tropes S to U | Tropes V to Z

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The Order of the Stick provides examples of the following tropes:

P

• Painting the Medium: The speech bubbles for certain groups or characters under special effects are different colors and/or shapes as detailed under Speech Bubbles.
• Paint It Black: This happens at least four times in the comic. Vaarsuvius, Miko, and Durkon each receive one of these, while Belkar gets an inversion when given a temporary Wisdom boost. The title of the strip which has Vaarsuvius' transformation actually references the song/trope title as well, as V's robe is, in fact, painted black.
• Pair the Spares: Parodied in the Order's illusory "Happy Ending" montage; after Elan/Haley and Roy/Celia get The Big Damn Kisses, Elan imagines Banjo kissing a lady puppet. Deconstructed in the next couple of strips; he also imagines his father and mother getting back together, but it's the fact that this would be totally out-of-character and schmaltzy that clues him in that they're trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine.
  • Subverted in a print-only arc where Elan tries to set up Hinjo and Lien because he thinks they're the last two paladins and they need to replenish their numbers. Turns out neither sees the other in that way and Lien already has a boyfriend.
• Palette Swap: Tarquin and most of his companions, as seen in some flashbacks. They change their colors according to the current nation they're "advising" (plus greying hair as they grow older), but keep the same design of clothes and/or armors. Tarquin even has his armor specifically enchanted to change color because it comes in handy for how often he changes the flag he's under.
• The Pardon: Tarquin offers Roy one. Roy manages to get him to pardon Belkar, Haley's father Ian, and Ian's brother-in-law Geoff as well. Ian thinks it's a trick, though.
• Parody Magic Spell: The Harry Potter parody character uses "Stopus Badguyus!" when trying to repel Thog.
• Parody Retcon: An In-Universe example. Zz'dtri manages to get out of jail by declaring himself a parody of Drizzt rather than a copy.
• Passing Notes in Class: Haley combines this with Arrow Gram as a gag during the Azure city battle, the arrow hitting a hobgoblin mook about to attack Elan. Said arrow has a cute romantic note on notebook paper. Hinjo plays up the role of the exasperated teacher who takes the note and requests to see Elan after class, er, battle.
• Pass the Popcorn:
  • The Monster in the Darkness is a common offender, whether it's dwarfs doing the nasty or Miko and Redcloak duking it out.
  • In "A Piece of His Mind":
    Belkar: Do you think I have time to get popcorn??
  • One of the fiends spying on V while they're fighting the elder black dragon.
• People's Republic of Tyranny: People's Democratic Dictatorship.
• Percussive Pickpocket: Some kids try to pull this on Durkon in "Too Slow".
• Perpetually Shiny Bodies: The strip introducing the gladiators parodies this trope.
  Gladiator Warden: You will remain stripped to the waist with your muscles oiled at all times, for no apparent purpose. See the oil steward if your skin becomes dry for any reason.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Belkar, who takes great joy in ending humanoid life, adopts Shojo's cat and is fiercely protective of it; it and the dinosaur he tames are among the few creatures he doesn't actively loathe.
  • Tsukiko likes the dead a little too much, trying to win Xykon's approval and viewing the undead she makes as her "children". Her reasoning? If Humans Are the Real Monsters, then the undead, as the opposite to the living, must be better.
  • Even though Tarquin is a mighty warlord, he's still willing to dedicate a day to bonding with his estranged son. Except that every place they went to reminded the reader of how terrible a person he is.
  • When we see Xykon pet the dog, he presents it as a slap in the face to Redcloak, although it's entirely possible he really did think Jirix had at least earned a Raise Dead spell.
• Phlebotinum Analogy:
  • When Lord Shojo reveals the existence of the Snarl to the Order:
    Lord Shojo: As the gods pulled on the last few strands, the new world formed in the same planar space as the Snarl, shunting it into a tiny demiplane from which it could not free itself. The gods had been clever and built their planet to exist in multiple coterminous dimensions, thus blocking the only vibrational frequencies the Snarl could have used to escape from its cell.
    Haley: Huh?
    Vaarsuvius: He means our world is merely the padlock on the jailhouse door of reality.
  • Minrah asks if the increasing power of beings created by more than one divine "quiddity" is anything like "mutts being healthier than purebred dogs". Thor commends her on an excellent analogy.
• Pie in the Face: Redcloak barters ten minutes of Xykon's attention to discuss strategy with this old gag, spicing it up by having acid-spitting beetles in the banana cream pie to fit better with the lich's tastes.
  Redcloak: Don't go anywhere, I've still got a coconut custard that has "siege engine disposition" written all over it.
• Pietà Plagiarism: Therkla's death.
• Pilfering Proprietor: Before joining the Order, Elan was servant to the paladin Sir François, and frequently caused trouble with his stupidity. The last straw came when Elan passed over several decent-looking establishments and chose to stay at the Rob-U-While-U-Sleep Inn. When the morning came, they found that all of Sir François's valuables had vanished.
• Pinball Projectile: Lucky shot variant during the Battle of Azure City; subverted in that the poisoned arrow doesn't hit anybody.
• Pinned to the Wall: Used in "Shock and Awwwwww". To stop him from falling, Haley pins Roy to the wall of an earthquake-created chasm by shooting an arrow into his groin. Roy's probably happy he's already dead for that.
• Pirate Girl: Given the choice between pirate and ninja, Haley declares this suits her better.
• Pixellation:
  • Humorously used to hide the genitals of naked characters (mostly Elan). Because, you know, stick figures...
  • Used in a flashback in one of the prequel books. Eugene casts an illusion spell, which pixilates the frame. His teacher Fyron decides it's time to teach him about image resolution.
• Placebo Eureka Moment: Expecting his father's ghost to turn up and haunt him again, Roy talks to him anyway, and comes to a realization about his treatment of Elan.
• Plagiarism in Fiction: Vaarsuvius manages to get Zz'dtri dragged off by the Lawyers by stating he's a rip-off of Drizzt. However, Zz'dtri later returns to the plot by declaring himself a parody of Drizzt.
• Planning with Props: The Azure City war council is planning the battle by using pre-painted plastic figurines. Problem is, they have trouble finding accurate ones, so they improvise.
  General Chang: No, sir, the bugbears are the hobgoblins. The hobgoblins are the zombies.
• Playboy Parody: After the Order slay a black dragon and claim ownership of his Dragon Hoard, they find copies of "Playdrake" magazine at the bottom of the hoard and conclude he must have been a young adult male.
• Player Character: The protagonists are officially labeled this, earning them a special status in the universe within the webcomic. Lampshaded when goblins hand out "I Killed a PC and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt" tees.

• Please Select New City Name:
  • After nearly one year of occupation by the hobgoblins, Azure City is renamed Gobbotopia City.
  • Names of towns and countries change regularly in the volatile Western Continent. For example, Bleedingham (capital of the Empire of Blood) was formerly known as Terrorburg (capital of Tyrinaria).
• Please Subscribe to Our Channel: The incentive comics to encourage people to vote for them on Buzzcomics.
• Please Wake Up: In #1130, in the background, Mr. Scruffy is trying to rouse an unconscious Belkar. By doing so, the cat activates Belkar's "protection from evil" clasp, countering the vampire's domination and waking him up from the pain, allowing him to attack the High Priest of Hel.
• Plot Armor: Being based on RPG rules, more plot-important characters tend to be higher-level and therefore tougher. Then-nameless Red Shirt Daigo actually manages to overcome a fatal injury simply by revealing his name.
• Plummet Perspective:
  • In "Silencing Descent", we have a downward perspective as Belkar is falling down the mountain sporting the Godsmoot Church, with the valley faaar away below. Belkar happens to survive, though, since — as we learn later — he owns a feather fall item.
  • "End of Overtime": The building where the Dwarf Council of Elders is held is surrounded by a deep chasm. When the Order of the Stick and their dwarf allies fight for its access, the ramp created by Durkon with a Wall of Stone spell is broken by the giant Death Worm. This leaves Sigdi Thundershield clinging one-armed to the ledge while Kandro struggles with the monster and Hoskin reaches for her. We get one panel showing the apparently bottomless pit, with some rocks and Sigdi's axe falling down.
• Point That Somewhere Else: During Elan's first encounter with Tarquin, the latter bends Elan's rapier away from his face with the tip of a finger.
• Pokémon Speak: "TEEVO!"
• Poke the Poodle: In the Dragon Magazine comics, The Temple of the Shrouded Overlord believe that the Ancient Overlord will bring about a thousand year reign of darkness. To honor this despicable plan, they make a big deal out of forcibly extinguishing street lamps.
  Goblin Priest: The eternal night begins NOW!
• Polar Opposite Twins: Elan and Nale.
• Police Are Useless: Subverted in the Tinkertown arc. When Haley and Bandana are attacked by Crystal as a golem, the town's defense force shows up and initially makes things worse by zapping Crystal with a lightning gun (which heals and powers up golems). After that little flub they become competent and effective at assisting Haley and Bandana.
• Politeness Judo: In "Hole in the Wall", Elan almost succeeds in getting an enemy to move aside for him just by asking politely — the enemy in question starts to comply just on reflex.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Malack versus Durkon — at least that's how Malack seems to see it. Really, his attempts to find a "compromise" are selfish at best, and Durkon is infuriated by his assumption of the moral high ground when the dwarf had just caught him in the act of trying to turn his teammate into a vampire.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Literally. If Celia had explained that magic was required to break her talisman and summon her, Roy's death could have been avoided altogether. She assumed everyone could shoot lightning from their fingers.
  • Lampshaded (of course) and defied in a later strip, where Elan specifically tells Haley the whole story about Therkla, despite the fact that bardic tradition demands he "withhold it all so that at some later point, you can accidentally learn an incomplete version and jump to all the wrong conclusions, thus leading to entertaining dramatic conflict later in our relationship."
  • Girard Draketooth concealed the location of his gate from everybody and told them it was at a random spot in the desert, as explained in this strip. It really bites him in the butt when he failed to foresee that people who weren't Soon Kim might go looking for the Gate.
  • In "Cold Blooded", it's almost literal.
  • Vaarsuvius had a lot of opportunities to talk to Roy about the things they did and learned while Roy was dead. The planet inside the rift, for example, or Vaarsuvius' debt to the fiends. Either might have prevented the situation in "Two Paths". Unfortunately, Vaarsuvius was ashamed of the latter, and as to the former, the elf assumed Roy wouldn't believe him since it was their familiar, Blackwing, who saw it, and Roy pretended to believe that Blackwing was nothing but an Imaginary Friend as an excuse to mock him.
  • Durkon is so honorable, he certainly would have understood being exiled if they had simply told him the reason, i.e. a prophecy that he would bring destruction the next time he returns home. Instead, they make up an excuse about him being sent on a diplomatic mission and throw him out without even allowing him to say goodbye to his mother, leading him to bitterly curse them. It's this event that drives Vampire Durkon to destroy the Dwarven homeland.
  • Serini Toormuck was so dead-set on not speaking to the Order that they refused to reply to Vaarsuvius's sending spells at all — which only resulted in further attempts by the Order to try and reach them. As Vaarsuvius eventually pointed out, had the other replied in the first place, the later sending spells could have been stopped.
• Porn Stash:
  • How V ascertains a dragon's adolescence.
  • Elan's mother has a secret collection of Julio Scoundrél pictures in her bedside drawer.
• Potty Emergency: "The Most Important Quest".
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: One or two of Tarquin's magic items.
  Elan: Yeah right. Like I would use your crazy evil ring that you probably, like, tortured somebody to death or something to give it magic.
  Tarquin: Now, that is quite enough, young man. I am frankly offended that you would even suggest I would do such a thing to — wait, who do you consider a "somebody"?
  Elan: Anybody!
  Tarquin: Fine, fine, I'll keep the ring, then.
• Power Nullifier: While inside their lair, Sunny the Beholder wears a special contact lens on their central eye to neutralize the Anti-Magic beam and thus not affect the magic items around. The tricky part is to put the lens on the eye through Mind over Matter without the beam neutralizing the telekinesis.
• The Power of Legacy: O-Chul takes responsibility for the destruction of Soon's gate to prevent further tarnishing of Miko's legacy.
• The Power of Love: Elan telling Haley, "I believe in you," provides her with a circumstance bonus on her Open Locks roll sufficient to open a difficult lock, allowing the party to (momentarily) escape the Azure City prison.
• Power Perversion Potential:
  • Haley takes advantage of V's invisibility sphere to grope Elan.
    Haley: I have 8 ranks in Use Rope!
    Belkar: Kinky.
    Haley: Shut up.
  • It's heavily implied that Sabine's shapeshifting finds its uses in her relationship with Nale... but then, she's a succubus, it comes with the territory.
• Powers via Possession: Sort of; the Soul Splice leaves the host in control.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • In Start of Darkness, Xykon refuses to do any villainous scheme involving deflowering virgins. Because it's like giving a guy who doesn't know carpentry a hammer and expecting him to build you a house.
  • Belkar, after one of his shoulder demons convinces him that saving Hinjo's life will work out better for him in the long run than letting him be killed by an assassin.
  • Tarquin is The Man Behind the Man and plans on remaining so as long as he's able, and he is ruthless in his goals and means, but is Genre Savvy enough to try and help his son. (Mostly since his goal is to rule like a king, then get immortalized in story form when his son offs him for being a tyrant.) And if Xykon flattens the world... well, there would be nothing left to rule, now would there?
  • Tarquin's teammates also display this. When he asks them to throw into a fight to kill most of the Order (in order to motivate Elan), they refuse because they don't think satisfying his personal "story" is worth their time, or the lives of the good soldiers he's already throwing away.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • Xykon using "Shit." in Start of Darkness.
  • When Haley is stuck speaking in cryptograms, Miko tells her the gods have cursed her for her greed. Her response is a single four-letter word and a dirty look. Since she has no other lines in that strip, it's impossible to decode what she said — could be as innocent as "Ouch" or "Darn" — but it seems likely it was something rather more abrasive.
  • "Thog says, fudge the police!"
• Precursor Heroes: The Order of the Scribble saved the world by sealing the Snarl with their gates before the events of the story.
• Pregnant Badass: Kazumi more than holds her own against an entire squad of ninjas. And provides the page image in the process.
• Prehensile Tail: Malack uses his to grapple (warning: spoilers) during his fight with Durkon, simultaneously revealing that he's a Snake Person rather than a Lizardfolk.
• Prematurely Bald:
  • Durkon has been bald since he was fifteen years old.
  • Eugene Greenhilt lost his hair as a young man, and his son Roy shaved his to "beat genetics to the punch".
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  • Belkar to a goblin mook:
    Belkar: I got a riddle for you. What's green and black, squeals like a pig, and has two pieces of steel where its lungs used to be? [stab] You.
  • Unnamed cleric to Old Blind Pete (encouraged by Belkar):
    Cleric of Loki: Maybe we ought to start calling you... Brainy Pete.
  • Lampshaded when Haley is about to kill Bozzok. She gives a rather boring one-liner ("End of the road for you."), but Belkar interferes:
    Belkar: WAIT!
    Haley: Ugh, what?
    Belkar: Don't you think you should make some kickass one liner before you finish him off? You know, Arnie style?
    Haley: Oh yeah, right. I forgot.
  • Elan delivers one to Kubota after the latter killed Therkla, though Kubota surrenders before Elan can actually kill him:
    Elan: You were her captain... now you're going down with her ship.
  • Redcloak gives the Resistance one of these, right before he wipes them out completely.
  • In strip #906, Nale gets one by nonchalantly commenting on the weather. It must be seen to be understood.
    Nale: Beautiful day, don't you think? Not a cloud in the sky.
  • Tarquin, just like his sons, gets one: "As you wish, son."
• Pressure Plate: A staple of the traps encountered by the Order. Vaarsuvius falls victim to a nasty one in "Lack of Foresight".
• Previously on…: All of the print versions of the story arcs (barring Dungeon Crawlin' Fools, for the obvious reason of it being the very first book) contain a recap of the previous book's events, sometimes being a departure from the comic's usual narrative format.
  • No Cure for the Paladin Blues's recap involves Elan explaining what happened via a finger puppet show.
  • War and XPs's recap has Vaarsuvius verbosely discussing the events of the last book with chalkboard drawings.
  • Don't Split the Party's recap involves a parody of Masterpiece Theatre, changing genres nearly every panel.
  • Blood Runs in the Family's recap involves Haley and Blackwing using an easel and watercolor-esque drawings.
  • Utterly Dwarfed's recap involves the High Priest of Hel explaining what happened last by portraying the characters as simplistically-drawn apparitions.

• Primitive Clubs: Dimwitted ogres with wooden clubs and Hulk Speak make an early appearance in a Dungeon Crawl. Elan duplicates both when he magically disguises himself as an ogre later, even though he's facing an ogre with more advanced weapons.
• Prison Rape: Talked about and implied.
  Thog: thog too pretty for jail.
• Product Placement: Of the comic's own latest product, no less.
• Prompting Nudge: Celia once disguises as a half-fiendish necromancer to trick hobgoblins guards, with Haley and Belkar pretending to be corpses. However, the guards get suspicious and demand she demonstrates her necromancy. When Belkar doesn't initially respond to "Darkblood Gloomgloom" pronouncing a fake incantation, Celia smacks him.
  Celia as Darkblood Gloomgloom: I said, "ARISE, dead halfling corpse that is right in front of me, and take a semblance of life!" NOW!
  Belkar as undead: OW! OK, OK, I'm arising already.
• Pronoun Trouble: When talking about Vaarsuvius, others intentionally construct sentences to avoid pronouns, or use the nickname "V" in places where one would expect "he" or "she". V does get referred to by various genders, but Word of the Giant is that that's what the person believes. Taken even further with the brief look at V's family — V's mate is only ever referred to as such, never "husband" or "wife" — who refer to V exclusively as "Other Parent" as translated from Elven.
• Prophecy Twist: After a twist with Belkar's prophecy of "drawing his last breath" was disproved, we get a new twist for another prophecy: How will Durkon go home? Posthumously. Now he's a vampire.
• Proportional Aging: Elves, which has been the source of several jokes. According to V, the biggest downside of an elven lifespan? Twenty years in diapers.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Invoked by Elan, when a dinosaur intervenes at the right time to prevent the grisly death of two of their rivals, while chomping several unnamed guards.
  Elan: Hooray, the people whose names we know are saved!
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: According to Redcloak, the hobgoblins are an evil-tinted version of this trope with a soldier-race stripe, and they have many of the trappings: Their society places heavy emphasis on their military, Redcloak becomes the new Supreme Leader via Klingon Promotion and in the build-up to the Siege of Azure City, many unnamed hobgoblins express excitement at the chance to fight the humans as well as the chance to invade a city and grind it under their heel. Deconstructed when Redcloak realizes mid-battle that he's taking advantage of their warlikeness by treating them as expendable reserves, and resolves to fight more tactically to protect a race he has responsibility over.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Redcloak commands a group of undead to kill each other once they have Outlived Their Usefulness.

• Puff of Logic:
  • ""Didn't we leave our horses behind at the inn we blew up when Miko captured us?".
  • Attempted by Vaarsuvius in "Immaterial Components", when the wizard uses their Common Sense (caps included) to aid in the Banishment of an enormous devil which is in clear violation of the Square-Cube Law. Doesn't work.
• Pulling the Rug Out: Tarquin's teammate does this with a flying rug. To steal the rug, of course.
• Pull The Trigger Provocation:
  • In one strip, Haley gets cornered in a basement by the members of her former thieves' guild, under orders to kill her. She starts talking about how difficult it's going to be knowing the names of all the former friends and comrades she's going to fight... but when she sees Toby, who runs the guild's dog-fighting ring, she remembers that most of the people in the guild are assholes, stops feeling guilty about hurting them and sinks two arrows into his chest.
  • When Roy gets into a fight with the High Priest of Hel, the vampire attempts to demoralize Roy with an underhanded taunt about the accident that killed his baby brother Eric. This convinces Roy that the vampire isn't actually Durkon, but a monster that has hijacked their corpse, and he starts fighting more fiercely as a result.
• Pummeling the Corpse: Crystal easily kills Bozzok by punching clean through his chest, but continues to beat his dead body in retaliation for the torture he put her through.
• Pun:
  • Elan's prestige class depends on puns for power. Naturally, the ones he comes up with later in battle fall into the incredibly lame variety.
  • This also serves as lots of the jokes cracked by the Demon-roaches.
  • Strip #418 is just full of them.
  • "... This is a cart of gophers, isn't it?"
  • "Protecting my brain still constitutes self-defense."
  • They had theurge for a snack!
• Pun-Based Title:
  • Four of the six books published so far. On the Origin of PCs (Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species), Start of Darkness (Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness), No Cure for the Paladin Blues (the song, "Ain't No Cure for the Summertime Blues") and War and XPs (Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace).
  • Many strip titles also fall under this trope, but a special award has to go to "Clever-Blasting God-Stoppers."
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  • YOU! BROKE! MY! SWORD!!
  • Thor. Smiled. Upon. Ye.
• The Puppet Cuts His Strings:
  • Lord Shojo, the supreme lord of Azure City, pretends to be an incompetent ruler who talks to his pet cat, but is quite privy to the machinations of the various nobles and political factions.
    Shojo: I have found it easier to let them believe that I am senile and easily swayed. When I rule in their favor, they assume that they controlled me. When I rule against them, they assume that one of their rival nobles controlled me. I can make the decisions I feel are necessary without worrying about being killed over them.
  • Attempted by Lord Tyrinar the Bloody, the previous puppet ruler of the (not-yet-called) Empire of Blood. He tried to make changes that riled up Miron and Tarquin, the puppetmasters who put him on the throne, including a more democratic form of government. Unfortunately that meant he was of little worth to them, and thus he was deposed (and eaten) after a short 11-month reign.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Both Elan and Sunny use this trick simultaneously on Lien after asking her if now they're all friends. Apparently, even a paladin cannot resist eleven puppy-dog eyes at the same time. Yes, Sunny is a beholder with height eyestalks. With the central eye and Elan's pair, that's eleven.
  O-Chul: There may be those that would shame you for failing to resist eleven puppy dog eyes, but I stand not among them.
• Purgatory and Limbo: Played With: the Lawful Good heaven is shown to have a Fluffy Cloud Heaven — like entry area where the newly deceased wait in line to be checked out by the Celestial Bureaucracy to see if they qualify to be admitted to Heaven proper. Player Characters, however, can optionally just wait there until they are resurrected/reincarnated.
• Pyrrhic Victory: V beats Zz'dtri, but Z plane shifts them into the Semi-Elemental Plane of Ranch Dressing as a last resort.

Q

• Queer Colors: invoked One of the CafePress T-shirt designs has Vaarsuvius (who was confirmed by Word of Gay to be genderqueer) attacking a troll with Prismatic Spray, which shows itself as various colors of the rainbow. The description has this to say:
  Just an ordinary picture of a wizard defeating a monster with a high level spell. No additional symbolism here, nope.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad:
  • The Linear Guild, who are also Evil Counterparts.
  • The three Xykon decoys fulfill this role during the battle of Azure City.
• Quit Your Whining: Belkar says this to Roy while Roy is seriously considering retreating after Durkon is vampirized by Malack.

R

• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Directly invoked by Elan in #1230, as he describes the Early-Installment Weirdness of the early comics, calling the order "a ragtag bunch of Unlikely Heroes with unresolved issues who didn't see eye-to-eye".
• Rainbow Pimp Gear: Defied Trope. There is a Running Gag early on that Haley is in possession of a powerful pair of magical Boots of Speed, but refuses to wear them because they're lime green. Later on she gets a tailor to dye them to match the rest of her outfit, but they still glow green when their effect is activated.
• Rash Promise:
  • In the prequel Start of Darkness, it's revealed that Eugene Greenhilt, after witnessing the murder of his teacher Fyron by Xykon, got incredibly drunk and swore a magical Blood Oath that he would not rest until Xykon was destroyed. Since he later casually decided to ignore the vow and then died with it unfulfilled, he's now Barred from the Afterlife and must rely on his son Roy to fulfill it in his stead. In contrast, since Roy did actively work to fulfill the oath, the angels let him into the Lawful Good heaven after Xykon kills him.
  • When Dvalin, the God-king of the dwarves, was still mortal, he swore an oath that he would always consult the Dwarven Council of Clans before making any decision that affects all the dwarves, and to obey their will no matter what. As a god, he considers himself still bound by that oath, and won't even vote to prevent the destruction of the planet without first checking it's OK with them. When such a vote is convened by the gods, the Arc Villain plans to mind-control the dwarves into supporting the world's destruction, which would mean Dvalin would have no choice but to go along with it.
• Reaching Between the Lines: Not only can Tiamat call you on five different lines at once, you also have to worry about fire, lightning, gas, cold and acid coming out of the receiver.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Roy to Miko, Vaarsuvius to both Miko and Belkar at the same time, Redcloak to Miko, and Hinjo to Miko (she really gets a lot of these, doesn't she?). Even Xykon to Miko!
  • Elan gives one to V in #596, by conjuring an illusion of Belkar congratulating V on the elf's actions.
  • Xykon delivered a particularly nasty one to Vaarsuvius on the nature of true power. In general, this is Xykon's speciality, and he even mentions he makes a habit of giving such speeches to "learned wizards" like V.
  • And in #830, Redcloak to Tsukiko.
  • In #881, we get Belkar giving one to Roy.
  • Subverted in #500. Roy's about to launch into one towards his father, when he suddenly has an epiphany and decides that his father isn't worth it, since if everything he's been through hasn't made him want to be a better man then a few insults from Roy won't do it.
  • In #906 Nale gives a brutal one while killing Malack.
  • The shortest one in the comic, yet no less accurate:
    Julio Scoundrèl: I think that's half your problem, T. You always think everything is about you!
  • Grubwiggler gives a nasty one to Bozzok when Crystal turns on the latter, and finishes, "Farewell, Bozzok. You were never as clever as you thought you were", teleporting away as Crystal pounds Bozzok into a smear on the floor.
  • The High Priest of Hel gives a lot of these, but this one to Durkon is particularly brutal.
  • Minrah to Redcloak when the latter ignores Durkon's offer that gets him what he wants for the sake of the plan he's been working on for decades, even after learning that following it would not only get all the goblins in the world killed, but that the Dark One may not even survive to make it to the next world.
  • Serini Toormuck delivers a number of biting zingers to O-Chul and Lien (not having a very high opinion of paladins in general) but saves the most brutal verbal beatdown for last when she points out that the various good guys have tried to stop Xykon from capturing the gates four times and the only result has been four destroyed gates- and with the fate of the world hanging on the survival of the last gate, she doesn't trust any of them to protect it any more.
    Serini: You fools had four shots to try and stop Xykon and earn your preferred set of outcomes. You did squat all with it. Now we're on the brink of oblivion, thanks to you. Sorry, no fifth chances on Aunt Serini's watch.
• Rebel Leader:
  • The paladin Thanh is "nominated" to lead the resistance in Azure City. The position originally belongs to Haley, until she and Belkar leave in order to resurrect Roy.
  • In the Empire of Blood arc, Hero of Another Story Amun-Zora plays this role. A large part of Elan's character development involves him realizing that it can't be him (whatever traditional storytelling tropes might demand), because the Order's existing quest to stop Xykon and Save the World is more important than defeating his small-fry Evil Overlord father.
• Recap Episode: Elan creates one for strip #864 because everyone might need a refresher after a 3-month hiatus.
• Recurring Extra: The bandana-wearing member of the Sapphire Guard who goes unnamed but still shows up frequently, being one of the few paladins not affected by Xykon's symbol of insanity, one of the last of the ghost-martyrs left standing, and he's seen climbing the mountain to the afterlife alongside Roy.

• Red Herring: An odd example. One wouldn't expect Belkar chuckling "We keep overcoming plot obstacles at this pace, we'll be killing Xykon in five strips!" to be a red herring. However, the next strip, Dark V declares they're going to kill Xykon right now. Belkar exclaims "I was only kidding when I said we'd be killing Xykon in five strips! You can't take everything I say in the last panel seriously!" Dark V doesn't, though they come close, with Xykon defeating them five strips after Belkar's boast.
• Red Shirt: Played with, subverted, lampshaded, and played straight, sometimes within mere strips of one another. Redcloak, as hinted by his name, was originally supposed to be one, before being more heavily developed.
• Red Shirt Army: Azure City's army, and most of the Sapphire Guard. (Except for members whose names are known.)
• Reflexive Response: Haley gets to play with Tarquin's arrow-catching reflexes by firing two arrows toward his head while he's hanging on the railing of the Mechane. He does snatch both out of instinct, but doing so makes him lose his grip on the side of the ship.
• Reforged Blade: The hereditary Greenhilt Sword, which is broken by Xykon during their first confrontation. Reforged with Starmetal, it's now a +5 Sword, with extra bonuses and neat glowy effects against Undead.
• Reforged into a Minion:
  • Subverted, as a jab at fan speculation, with Miko. Tsukiko gives a monologue about her intent to do this with the next body she finds... and then changes her mind when the first one she finds is in two pieces.
  • Malack attempts to turn Belkar into a vampire, but he is saved by a timely intervention from Durkon. Malack then proceeds to turn Durkon into a vampire instead; however, after Malack's destruction Durkon rejoins the Order.
• Refuge in Audacity: With the help of a Potion of Glibness (which adds 30 points to her already substantial Bluff skill), Haley basically uses lying to bend reality according to her will.
  Haley: You don't see us.
  Guard 1: Huh, must be a trick of the light.
  Haley: You don't work here anymore.
  Guard 2: Crap! How am I gonna pay my mortgage?!
  Haley: You are actually a yellow-footed rock wallaby.
  Guard 3: Screw this guard stuff, then. I'm gonna go find a wizard to polymorph me back.
• Remembered I Could Fly: Belkar picks a good moment to remember he has the Animal Empathy skill.
• Remembered Too Late: Roy asked the Oracle a question, and then realizes his question was poorly worded, and worse, that he will forget even that the question was poorly worded, due to a memory spell on the oracle's home.
• Remember the New Guy?: An inversion. When Vaarsuvius's raven begins accompanying the Order on their missions regularly, V tries to explain to the group that the raven has been there all along, but only "appeared" when he was needed. The others, not remembering the few occasions when the bird has helped, don't believe V. This an inversion because, instead of the characters remembering someone the audience has never met, the characters don't remember someone the audience has full knowledge of.
• The Remnant: An uncommon heroic example. The Sapphire Guard, once one of the most powerful forces for good in the world, has been reduced to Hinjo, Lien, and O-Chul.
• Resemblance Reveal: Tarquin when he takes his mask off and is shown to look like Elan, because he is his father.
• Residual Self-Image:
  • Roy discovers that everyone in the afterlife Lawful Good invoked plane looks like an ideal version of themselves. His father looks the same as he did when he died, an old man, because he always was a Grumpy Old Man at heart, even when he was young. His mother, however, looks young and hot, because she never stopped thinking of herself as a 19-year-old looker.
  • Durkon in the Dwarven afterlife looks like he did before being vampirified. His true self not only is lacking the teeth and pasty skin of a vampire, he's also wearing his usual armor (the vampire was destroyed wearing robes) and his beard is at full length (the vampire's got shortened by a slash of Roy's sword).
• Resignations Not Accepted: The Greysky City Thieves' Guild doesn't take kindly to Haley quitting.
  Hank: No-one leaves, except in a casket.
  Thief: Vampire thieves can't even leave in one of those!
• La Résistance: Best called just that, since they argue over the name. Moot point, after Redcloak's wipes them out.
• Resistant to Magic:
  • Whenever Zz'dtri — a drow with natural spell resistance — turns up, life gets harder for Vaarsuvius.
    Vaarsuvius: It's almost as if the universe is trying to deliberately force some kind of arbitrary equality between those of us who can reshape matter with our thoughts and those who cannot.
  • Kraagor's Tomb features one case of spell resistance turning detrimental for its possessor. Serini's stasis-trap method of keeping the monsters ready normally keeps them unconscious as well as unmoving. The Red Dragon Calder has enough spell resistance to stop the former but not the latter, resulting in a few decades of And I Must Scream.
• Restart the World:
  • Downplayed. One possible outcome of The Dark One's plan is for him to remake the world with goblins as equals to the other races, but it's his backup plan if his main one doesn't work.
  • Played straight with Hel.
  • In "To Remember Them By", Thor reveals that the gods have already done this an unfathomable number of times since the Snarl's imprisonment. No world they have ever created has managed to hold the Snarl, and all of them have wound up getting obliterated and abandoned before a new one is made. The OotS world is just the last in a very, VERY long line of attempts.
• Resurrection Gambit:
  • Gannji and Enor are forced to kill each other in a gladiator fight. Gannji's escape plan involves letting Enor kill him, cut off his tail, escape from the arena on his own, then use the tail to get Gannji resurrected. According to Gannji, nobody will question the tail-cutting part, because Enor is part ogre and taking a Battle Trophy is a normal thing for them.
  • In the prequel Start of Darkness, Lirian traps Redcloak and Xykon in a prison and inflicts them with a virus that disables Xykon's magical abilities. In order to escape, Redcloak hatches a plan to kill Xykon and resurrect him as a lich, getting around the actions of the virus as it doesn't work on the undead.
• Resurrection Sickness: Standard for D&D, being raised from the dead costs a level, as mentioned by the Oracle. Roy also experiences some trouble walking right after his own resurrection, his first attempt resulting in a faceplant, since he'd lost the habit of using his legs to move on the Material Plane.
• Retirony:
  • Celia wonders if she should quit her job right before Zz'dtri turns her into stone. She gets better.
  • Also happens at one point in Cliffport. Right as the CPPD chief is complaining he's getting too old for this (he really should have known better), Nale comes along and kills him before he finishes his sentence.
  • Lampshaded when Elan warns O-Chul not to announce that he's retiring tomorrow.
• Retroactive Wish: In "Hey, It Was Worth a Shot", Roy wishes someone could fly them out of here. Cue Celia the turned-to-stone sylph falling from the ceiling right before him. Haley's reaction is fitting for a Rogue.
  Haley: I really wish I had a bajillion gold pieces!!
• Revealing Cover-Up: The dwarven council, upon hearing that they were being given a vote to determine whether the world was to be destroyed, mistakenly believed that they were being given a test by the gods and that the right answer was to agree to allow it. They had already noticed that a vampire was dominating some of the council but decided to worry about that later. It was only when they noticed that all of the vampire-dominated dwarves voted in favor of the world's destruction that they started to realize something was amiss, and after Durkon prevented the vote from concluding, it's now much less likely they'll vote in favor the second time through.
• Revenge by Proxy: Months after the party kills a young evil black dragon, the dragon's mother hunts down and subdues one of them. But rather than killing Vaarsuvius, she expresses her intention to take it out on V's children, instead:
  Mother Dragon: After I am done speaking, I am going to teleport directly there, and then I will eat them alive. Slowly. Feet-first. I will then bind their souls to me with two necromantic scrolls that I acquired for this purpose. And I will disappear. I will leave this plane of existence, and you will never find me. I tell you all of this because it is not enough for me to simply kill you. You have taken my baby from me. I demand that you suffer the full measure of pain that I feel. As a parent, I am sure you understand.
• Reverse Psychology:
  • Xykon uses it early in the comic, to lure the adventurers into touching Dorukan's Gate. And it works.
    Xykon: See? Never bet against the gullibility of the good guys, Redcloack.
    Redcloak: I had no idea you had put so many skill ranks in Reverse Psychology.
    MitD: Wait, what gate?
  • Roy manages to convince his father to help scrying the mortal realm from the afterlife... by refusing to beg him or even to get angry about his unwillingness. Eugene even calls it "reverse psychology" at one point... but he still falls for it. It's unintentional on Roy's part; he really no longer wanted his dad's help at that point. It's absolutely brilliant, too. Only a minute or two after Eugene tells Roy to screw off and go back the mountain to cry to his mother, he's scrying for him.
    Eugene Greenhilt: Listen to me, young man, you will stand there and watch as I scry for you and like it, because I am your father!
    Roy Greenhilt: You do know that doesn't make any sense, right?
  • In "Bird Brained", Blackwing, Vaarsuvius's familiar, deduces that his own advice is important, since Qarr offers to stop Zz'dtri from killing Vaarsuvius if Blackwing lets the imp kill him.
  • In "Credits and Deductions", V inverts it, deducing from Qarr's words what he wants, and then doing the opposite.
• Revive Kills Zombie: As per D&D rules, heal and related spells damage undead creatures, while inflict wounds and related spells heal them.
• Revolving Door Revolution: The default state of the Western Continent. Everyone is constantly fighting over the livable territory, with some new "hotshot general" showing up every year or so, only to get ousted as quickly as those before them. Tarquin, upon experiencing this for himself, realized his team could take advantage of it by acting as The Man in Front of the Man to whoever happens to be "in power" at the moment.
• Rewatch Bonus:
  • Rereading the Blood Runs in the Family story arc of the comic after The Reveal that Malack is a vampire seriously changes the meaning of some conversations, especially when he's speaking about having children. Or it can get hilarious, like with the "bloodwart tea".
  • Durkon's conversation with Belkar in #1151 reveals that Durkon had been feeding very specific memories to the High Priest of Hel on purpose — the memories that were Durkon's "tipping points" to Character Development. An idea he'd first had with an earlier conversation between his vampire self and Belkar in #957. Rereading the Utterly Dwarfed arc with this in mind makes this very apparent. Even the "trolling" memories, like the food poisoning and the workplace orientation seminar, were carefully chosen for this specific purpose.
  • #1202: This exchange takes on a whole new context after realizing both Durkon and Minrah had decided to defy Roy and speak to Redcloak on their own.
    Minrah: You sure you're ready for this?
    Durkon: Gotta do wha we gotta do, right?
• Ridiculously Small Wings: As shown in strip #754 "Maybe She Ate a Zeppelin", the Empress of Blood is capable of flight in spite of being morbidly obese by dragon standards and having tiny wings. Elan, Tarquin and Vaarsuvius all lampshade how ridiculous this is.
• Riding into the Sunset: Toward the end of Book 5, the Mechane, carrying the Order of the Stick, is shown flying into the sunset.
• Right Behind Me: After Vaarsuvius openly rejoices at Miko's apparent demise...
  Vaarsuvius: She is, naturally, directly behind me.
  Miko: Naturally.
• Right-Hand Cat: Lord Shojo pretends to consult his cat, "Mr. Scruffy", as part of his pretense of senility. An inversion in any case, since Shojo is a good guy. Of course, Mr. Scruffy later appears to have become a genuine Right-Hand Cat to the Heroic Comedic Sociopath Belkar.
• Right Makes Might: Hilariously lampshaded and subverted when Belkar attacks Malack and is certain he will win because "guys spouting corny lines like 'I have someone worth fighting for' always win for some reason", or something to that effect. Malack proceeds to incapacitate him with no effort.
• Right Place, Right Time, Wrong Reason: When Vaarsuvius asks the Oracle how to obtain "ultimate arcane power", this is the answer given almost word-for-word. V sells a timeshare on their soul to three fiends in exchange for a temporary epic-level power boost. Although the stated motive was to save their family, V later admits that the only reason they did it was because they didn't want to ask anyone for help, and suffers (and will yet suffer) the consequences. The prophecy is fulfilled exactly as given.
• Ring of Power:
  • Vaarsuvius' Ring of Wizardry.
  • Belkar's Ring of Jumping +20.
  • Tarquin's Rings of Regeneration and True Seeing.
  • Tsukiko has a ring protecting her from energy drains, an obvious safeguard for one dealing regularly with wights. It doesn't save her, though, after Redcloak takes it away.
• The Rival: Crystal the assassin for Haley. She's clearly not the smartest pickle in the jar, but dramatic conventions demand that Crystal at least match to Haley's experience level — and they both know it.
  Haley: ... she's a personal rival. She's always gonna be the same level as I am when we meet, if not higher.
  [cutaway panel; Crystal is playing cards when a "DING!" appears overhead]
  Crystal: Sweet! Starshine gained another level!
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Redcloak views the conquest of Azure City as one against the paladins for destroying his village and killing his parents and mentor.
• Roc Birds: At one point, a drunken wizard teleports the Order into a roc's nest. Fortunately (for the rest of the party), the roc eats the wizard first, becomes drunk itself, and passes out.
• Rock Beats Laser: In "Fun While It Lasted", when Xykon's superb dispelling doesn't end Vaarsuvius's Soul Splice, one of the souls boasts that "Even epic magic cannot break our—", only to be cut off when the lich effectively ends the splice with the surgical application of a giant fragment of masonry to the Squishy Wizard.
• Rock–Paper–Scissors: Alluded with two strip titles — "Paper Beats Rock" and "It Does Beat Scissors".
• Rocky Roll Call: "Plotus Interruptus"
  Samantha: Dad!
  Sam's father: Samantha!
  Elan: Haley!
  Haley: Elan!
  Belkar: Hot chick!
• Role-Playing Game 'Verse: The Stickverse is an original world, but is stated from the start to be based on Dungeons & Dragons.
• Rotating Arcs: Used to an extent, with a minimum of a dozen strips at a time focusing on the Order itself or one of their enemy groups. However, this trope is most apparent during the Don't Split the Party arc, where (as the name implies) the Order is split, following the conclusion of the previous arc — there's Roy hanging out in the afterlife; Haley and Belkar leading La Résistance in Azure City, before leaving with Celia to try and resurrect Roy; Durkon, Vaarsuvius, and Elan in the refugee fleet dealing with Daimyo Kubota's scheming; and on top of that, there's Team Evil solidifying their hold on Azure City.
• Rouge Angles of Satin:
  • In On the Origin of PCs, Roy comments about Haley's class on her resume (i.e. character sheet) being misspelled as "Rouge".
  • Lampshaded/parodied in the title of strip #711, "Rouge's Guild". Haley, due to a miscommunication, joins the "Sisterhood of Aton", thinking it's the local Rogue's Guild because a "tough-looking chick" in a bar told her it's full of thieves. It turns out they're a cosmetics company and the "thieves" comment was a reference to their prices.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: invoked With D&D 3.5 rules (more or less), and most of the characters are fully aware of the mechanics — some more than others, of course.
• Rule of Cool: invoked Durkon needs to destroy a group of trees whose only weakness is sonic damage, so he uses a control weather scroll to summon a thunderstorm which shatters the trees with the noise of the thunderclap. Thor thinks this is such an awesome idea that he bends the rules of reality to make sure it works, much to the annoyance of his Planetar assistant. Furthermore, if certain D&D rules stop the story from having certain particularly awesome moments, then they will intentionally be ignored. As lampshaded by Word of the Giant himself, The Order of the Stick is only inspired by the 3.5 edition of D&D, not explicitly set in the 3.5 edition of D&D.
• Rule of Drama: Beautifully averted when Elan decides to be honest with Haley, despite the drama that could potentially unravel, because their relationship is worth more to him than that. And generally speaking, if D&D rules would get in the way of the story's more dramatic moments, then they will be ignored.
• Rule of Funny: As a general principle, the series runs on Broad Strokes D&D rules unless the story or the jokes require otherwise.
  • Lampshaded in the title "Don't Question the Color of the Bag"; a joke in the strip has Roy's usually useless Bag of Tricks unexpectedly materialise a rhinoceros, which lands on top of him. (In the game, there are two differently colored Bags of Tricks, one of which spawns small rodents, and the other larger animals, rhinos included.)
  • The major characters have no explicitly stated levels, stats or ability sets (other than rare exceptions, like Elan's 18 in Charisma or V's 18 in Intelligence) because that would restrict the jokes. Their stats can and have been guessed based on their actions in the comic, though.
• Rule of Three:
  • The Empires of Blood, Sweat and Tears.
  • The adventure game has treasures that each character favors. One of the items for Belkar is a kidney from a victim. There are three — the third has Belkar cooing, "Ooh, this one's still warm!"
• Runic Magic: The dwarves use faux-runic engravings on stone walls or floors to create permanent Protective Charms on the Temple of Firmament and the Clan Elders' council chamber.
• Running Gag: So many examples. Just a scant few include:
  • Elan's dubiously helpful bard songs, literally saying "Dun dun dun!" to highlight moments of dramatic tension (a habit both Roy and Tarquin have picked up on), and his belief that being naked makes you invisible.
  • Flumphs conveniently cushioning people's landings... or not.
  • Xykon not remembering Roy or his dad, much to Roy's continual fury.
  • The two annoying lawyers. Furthermore, there was once even a rare Flumph/Lawyer reversal.
  • Roy making a reference to the "Trouser Titan," and another character commenting "You call it the...?"
  • The Monster in the Darkness' constant confusion about the Gates.
  • Durkon and all dwarves having a fervent hatred/fear of trees.
  • V's creative application of explosive runes (with people only getting to read them right before they literally blow up in the reader's face), ambiguous sex, and the frequent Lampshade Hanging regarding them being genderqueer.
  • Various characters (such as his father, sister, and Belkar) like to roast Roy over having gone to Fighter College.
    Minrah: [to Belkar] Thanks for coming and asking me about spells and stuff. I don't think Roy really knows what to do with me yet.
    Belkar: [dismissively] Yeah, but Roy needed to go to college to figure out what to do with a sword.
  • Redcloak using Elemental Embodiments based after the atomic elements of the periodic table (i.e., him summoning Titanium Elementals and a Chlorine Elemental during the Battle of Azure City).
  • Daigo "saving" his last name so as to make sure that he won't get Killed Off for Real due to being a Mauve Shirt.
  • The (not-so) practical implications of sending spells. Hey, you try getting everything across in exactly 25 words!
  • While it first started with Roy, many times someone will have to exasperatedly scream "NOT THE POINT!" whenever someone else gets Sidetracked by the Analogy.
  • The entire species of kobolds being Belkar's personal archnemesis. Belkar even lampshades it at one point, noting how "...the whole kobold-head-into-an-object thing is sort of a running gag with me."
  • "Get it off! Get it off!" — thrice:
    • A goblin with Belkar.
    • Tsukiko with Mr. Scruffy.
    • Sabine with an illusory celestial tree sloth.
  • Twice already Roy got attacked and silenced with someone yelling at him "STOP TALKING". First one was courtesy of Miko, the second one was from Thog. Later in the same fight, he gets in on it himself.
  • The title of the strip is almost always the definition of a word prominent in the punchline or a reference to the final panel.
• Run the Gauntlet: The true nature of Kraagor's Tomb. Vaarsuvius deduces that to get to the final dungeon where the Gate is hidden, one has to reach the end of each and every tunnel of the labyrinthine cave system, rather than finding the correct one.
  Roy: Of course! Kraagor wasn't a rogue, he was a barbarian! It's not a shell game, it's a gauntlet!
• Russian Reversal: The title for one of the comics is "In Azure City, Shark Jumps You!"

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