The Order of the Stick

Is Thor truly sober, as in haven't had a drink in a day or a while (like since the Godsmoot), or has he only had a drink to calm his nerves instead of bing drinking.

So hold on. Are the characters actually stick figures or is that just artistic license? I always assumed the latter but I feel like this scene doesn't make physical sense if that's the case.

Forget sober. Thor has ears.

The art style is literal. Characters comment on when the art style changes. They know their world functions like a comic book.

I figured those were gags but I guess not.

Wow, that is waaaaaay bigger than Thor has ever been depicted before. Dayum.

Holy bajeebus. That's amazing. I'm totally hooked, now: I need to hear what Thor has to say.

I just hope they don't have a conversation from the top of his boot.

@Kostya Jokes have been made in-universe before about how no one has noses, and possibly something about hands.

Edit: Found one example.

Edited by Ulysses21 on Aug 10th 2018 at 2:11:15 PM

The next strip is totally going to end with a comment about please moving to a position where they don't have to have a conversation with Thor's Holy Codpiece.

I love that reveal (although I totally missed it until it was pointed out). That's No Moon as a subversion of Fluffy Cloud Heaven? Troperiffic.

Edited by johnnye on Aug 10th 2018 at 3:08:54 PM

Yeah, tropes galore. Although Thor is a god; he can have a conversation in any manner he pleases. He's probably just doing this for effect, because he's a showoff.

Are they setting up something where Durkon is going to be sent back by Thor as some kind of positive-energy undead? (And maybe forfeit his afterlife to do so, or something? It definitely sounds like whatever Thor has to say involves some bad news.)

Also, am I alone in being very concerned by that line about Durkon getting mixed up between his memories and the vampire's?

...hmm, I wonder if the To Win Without Fighting approach to defeating the vampire means he's technically still in there and Durkon can't get into Valhalla.

Durkon died fighting Malack.

I think Thor is just going to explain what's up with the Snarl World.

And/or the rest of the bet with Hel.

Either way, boy am I glad these updates are coming at such a quick pace, because these cliffhangers would be torture.

I feel like this is probably an okay spot for a cliffhanger. If Rich is about to do some heavy exposition it would be best to pause here until all the strips are done. Then he can release them over a short period of time.

Edited by Kostya on Aug 10th 2018 at 11:06:27 AM

Maybe the next page will cut to O'chal up at the north pole.

Yeah, I figure that the thing Thor is glad to hear is evidence that Durkon already knows about the Snarl, meaning that Thor doesn't need to break whatever agreement the gods have in order to discuss Snarl-related matters.

Actually, Thor wants to ask Durkon about the possibility of Banjo joining the Northern Pantheon, since Durkon can be an envoy to speak with Elan.

Well, I guess I was right about that fluffy-cloud heaven not looking like fluffy clouds in a blue sky.

I liked the bit about writing Thor's name in stars and hearts in your notebook.

I think the thing about Durkon getting Greg's memories makes sense. He transformed Greg into himself, creating essentially two copies of the same soul, but with different memories. They then fused together when they died, so Durkon ends up with copies of Greg's unique thoughts/memories. Agnostic about whether this is the natural outcome or some kind of special thing Thor did.

Also: a more basic and imminent test of whether/how Hilgya is Evil is if she heals the Order back up. Having achieved her goal of killing Durkon, she has no real reason except dwarven decency to help them. Unless, of course, Belkar threatens her into it, but she can probably beat him one on one.

Edited by naturalironist on Aug 10th 2018 at 12:58:18 PM

She got any mind control prepared? In actual combat, he's far more dangerous than he has any right to be, even injured.

Alright. Time for some exposition!

Maybe we'll learn some stuff about the Snarl that we didn't know yet. There are still a lot of mysteries.

I’m guessing this might be the part where we learn some of the things that was left out of the Sapphire Guard’s lore.