The Order of the Stick

There's a theory running around, I believe, that at some point the two represented the cyclical struggle of summer and winter, and Loki's involvement more or less got inserted in the Eddic version.

There's another story (in the Gesta Danorum) where Balder's sort of a demigod, Hother's mortal, and the two are rivals in love, war, and politics. Well, definitely war and politics — in that version, instead of being married to him, Nanna turns Balder down flat.

Good call. Looked that up before and there's an incident where "Hothorius" is in some weird wintery land. And I also thought about the duality aspect. Although, Balder is a bad guy in that version, so Rich isn't using it completely either.

Otherwise, maybe it's a "Winter Is Coming" joke?

edited 24th Aug '15 5:48:01 AM by Hodor2

If Rich wants to justify the choice he could use that story although it probably did start out as a Game Of Thrones reference.

There are a lot of interpretations where Hoder is god of winter (except skiing—Ul, as god of games, gets that one). Specifically, he's often referred to as "god of everything dark and cold."

Basically, like a lot of pagan religions, there are tons of figures who sorta take turns being confusingly attributed as being god of one thing or another because there was never an official religious canon so much as a bunch of tribal gods brought together under one roof and with different oral traditions attributing different meanings to the same characters.

What's the trope for non-deployable head priest?

Imagine if the pope had vast magical powers, he still wouldn't be crawling around in dungeons all day. He's old and has a day job. For the right cause he'd certainly remove some curses, apply some blessings and do some divining, but he ain't gonna go with you.

There would be some difference if you got to be the pope by years of killing things in the dungeons in the first place.

You mean that's not how it works?

I totally believe Pope Frank would. Pope Benedict? No.

Gives a strange concept for a setting where high priests are 20-somethings who'd be NFL superstars in our world (heck, just recast dead NFL players in the modern fantasy setting of 30 years ago). The churches are run by old guys who are a bit put off by answering to these jocks, but that's way off topic here.

RE the Hoder conversation, I remembered a while back someone asked Burlew if he was a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire/ Game of Thrones (I think they might have wondered if a plot point or dialogue was inspired by it)- his answer was basically that he found the whole thing too dark and depressing for his liking and so hadn't read/watched it.

So, unless he changed his mind since then, the Hoder/Hodor thing is probably unintentional.

It's possible he might have just picked up the reference somewhere.

I mean, Hoder is a real god.

This wouldn't even be a problem if people didn't try to oversimplify things as "God of X" in the first place. I mean, you've got the might god G, known for doing epic feats A, B, and C, and is related to gods H and I in such-and-such way, worshiped by this particular group of people as their patron deity. Where exactly does that become "God of Cuttlefish"? Nowhere, that's where. Just because he has the cuttlefish blade, forged in the deep by the seadwarves, doesn't mean he's suddenly all and only about cuttlefish.

No more than the Abrahamic god is the god of hating shellfish.

edited 25th Aug '15 12:40:06 AM by Clarste

"Hoder is a god of winter because "winter is coming" asoiaf joke and it has a hodor" was really way out in the WMG territories anyway.

edited 25th Aug '15 4:05:02 AM by Adannor

He might have picked up the idea of Hodr being the winter god from another source where Hoder is the god of cold and darkness.

edited 25th Aug '15 4:15:58 AM by tricksterson

It's not impossible that Rich takes advantage of pop culture references whenever such doesnt interfere with his real plot.

edited 25th Aug '15 6:30:56 AM by DeMarquis

That Rick Burlew, always so tricky in how he uses references!

He's nothing like Rich Burlew, who's completely on the up-and-up about it.

Fixed

I realized the other day that I had committed a gross oversight by forgetting to buy Blood Runs in the Family, so I ordered it. I got it today and ... man, that preface by Durkon is just loaded with dramatic irony, isn't it?

Argh, I got a pre-order e-mail for it nearly a year ago and I still haven't ordered it.

I hope that's still in print when I'm ready to order it.

Strip 1000 Oh Roy, that denial.

edited 27th Aug '15 8:23:14 PM by blkwhtrbbt

That last panel is amazing.

edited 27th Aug '15 8:23:23 PM by lrrose

Holy crap.

...So is it safe to assume this is what that prophecy that got Durkon kicked out of his homeland was about?