The Order of the Stick

Except we have independent backup for the "worlds within worlds" part. Seems more like a Mad Oracle scenario.

Thor obviously doesn't completely dismiss everything Odin says: "was that a thing you foresaw, or not?" implies either one is a possibility.

Yeah. We can assume that some of what Odin has done and said before (exiling Durkon and the whole worlds within worlds thing) was him on a good day, because it's narratively appropriate.

And Durkon seems to be in a good mood. I suppose if you believe everything has a point and a reason, then even if something happened for a bad reason, it's still better than thinking it happened for no reason at all.

I'm aware. I was saying it did have meaning.

Edited by LSBK on Oct 29th 2018 at 6:59:08 AM

I love how Roy was precisely on the money that Durkon would've been glad to kick himself out of Dwarven society.

I'm gonna second the Mad Oracle bit. He's being cryptic as heck, but there's definitely some good stuff hidden in the gibberish. That is, if any of it is gibberish.

"Spindles wind the string forward, but not back" seems like an obvious metaphor for the concept of Time, but can also refer to how the damage the Snarl does can not be undone.

"Hoops have no end, until suddenly they do" also seems very relevant, considering the plot is suddenly all about breaking cycles since recently.

Edited by Kayeka on Oct 29th 2018 at 1:02:50 PM

Odin reminds me of a line in Witches Abroad, describing a psychic who's rarely interacting with the present as "having a detached retina in her Second Sight".

Edited by sgamer82 on Oct 29th 2018 at 6:10:26 AM

I wonder how many of us here don't get the floppy line.

I skipped over it but upon reread I got the joke. Dammit I guess I'm one of the old ones.

It occurs to me that what we're seeing here is probably similar to what the current world is doing to Hel- Odin probably wasn't getting a proper supply of worship in the previous world.

That probably factors in, but I think it's mostly that the gods are literally shaped by belief.

How their followers see them can actually change their attributes. Thor joked about it last strip saying he used to a redhead. And apparently it takes a while to do any damage done.

Edited by LSBK on Oct 29th 2018 at 7:52:17 AM

I got the floppy joke too... does that make me old?

No older than Odin.

...you're not wrong.

Was it a floppy disk reference or something?

LSBK confirmed for young'un

Basically, floppy disks were what computers used before CDs and hard drives were the thing, and so, you'd boot up your computer after inserting a floppy disk containing the operating system into it. Thus, removing this floppy disk while using the computer would be not dissimilar to pulling out your computer's hard drive as you're surfing the web, except it's way easier to remove the floppy disk back then compared to these days willfully opening up your computer and pulling out the wire.

Edited by VutherA on Oct 29th 2018 at 9:23:49 AM

I think so.

It would make sense.

That reminds me of how Durkon reacted to being told that he would return to the Dwarven lands "posthumously". He has some... weird values.

Was that also back when floppy disk were actually floppy? Because when I was a kid the name always confused me.

Yeah, when I was a kid floppy disks were 3 1/2 inches square- basically the "Save" icon that nobody knows the meaning of anymore.

My brother actually asked me what the save icon was a while ago. I felt so ancient that day...

It has never once occurred to me what that icon is meant to be. I know what floppies are too. That's interesting.

Floppy disks are always floppy. The 3.5" ones just have hard plastic shells; there's a floppy magnetic disc inside it.

I didn't know that, but I do remember the time before they got put in those plastic shells.

The whole belief thing affecting Odin's sanity probably cuts both ways; I suspect the reason Thor is more on the ball than he used to be is that Dwarven belief has made Thor more responsible.

Sure, except that it seems to take centuries for worshipers’ beliefs to change a god, and we’ve seen Thor engaging in drunken shenanigans mere months ago.

I’m just happy my Odin theory panned out so precisely, and I love the explanation here—Mad Oracle Odin nicely pairs Chessmaster Odin with “Aw, but I like puppets” Odin.