The Order of the Stick

Yeah, people seem to be reacting to the idea that she's "joining the party" in some fancy formal way, like she suddenly has to be treated as just as much a main character as Durkon or Roy, but this isn't the first time the Order has worked with NP Cs on their quest, and it won't be the last. It doesn't mean anything more than the Azure paladins helping out too, imo. She just happens to be someone who knows of the threat and wants to help out.

She's not signing a contract to be part of the Order of the Stick in perpetuity.

Edited by Clarste on Sep 17th 2019 at 4:52:32 AM

She did beat that one vampire. She must have a lot of levels in Fighter.

Eh, I'm totally fine with Minrah but those are kind of a false equivalence.

Her "induction" is treated as far more formal than anyone else they've tooled around with. Now, part of this is how underqualified she is, but Roy trying to stop her and her rebuking him is way more than "and we're going to be on your ship for a while." I don't necessarily think she's going to be in the Order either, but it's definitely a step up from "ally of the day."

Also, count me in with the "I hope we don't find out what she's going to do." It's her business and more practically, it creates more of an air that there's a world and characters with lives if we know they have interactions that we don't get to see. Creates the illusion they exist when they're not on panel, you know?

Edited by Larkmarn on Sep 17th 2019 at 9:52:58 AM

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This is definitely being treated like she's legit joining the party for realsies. The title of the page is even "+1". Which made way more sense once I realized that was actually the title. Page 1180, episode "+1".

First time I read it, i thought it was page 1180+1 and I was terribly confused by why Rich would format it like that.

But I'm down for having Minrah along. Honestly, I'm surprised it's taken this long to add a new party member. Rich has been trying to put another woman on the team since as far back as Miko Miyazaki's introduction! Miko was also supposed to legit join the party for realsies but in practice, she wound up being way too toxic of a character for that to ever work out.

Minrah is a vast improvement over the alternative.

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I still wish O-Chul could join, but he can’t as long as Belkar’s around.

O-chul and Lien will play an important role in the last book, but I doubt they will become actual party members.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

Yeah, this strip confirmed that Minrah is a high-tier secondary character, but that doesn't mean she got promoted to main cast. Which is fine because, honestly, I find her kind of boring.

That said, I'm utterly ready and hyped for this train to start the last leg of its trip towards the grand finale.

Given that she says she has to tell things to some people, the twist might be that she's polyamorous.

Edited by Sivartis on Sep 17th 2019 at 1:49:35 AM

♭What.

maybe its just telling her mom and dad that shell be gone for awhile

But she implied it was something she'd been putting off, didn't she?

Writer, or something. And... a button? 🖲️

Paying her rent, perhaps? Would suck to get home after an adventure to find out to you'd been evicted!

Edited by Arha on Sep 17th 2019 at 4:10:43 AM

I suspect that Minrah‘s secret is deliberately undefined, Rich may not actually have a specific thing decided upon, it serves its main purpose (showing Thor’s inclusivity and kindness) regardless of what it is, I kinda like the idea of it remaining a blank slate for people forced to hide part of themselves to project onto.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

The issue with Minrah is the timing of it. The heroes are heading into the big final battle with the enemies they've been facing since the very beginning: it's exactly when you don't want an underdeveloped newbie to pull focus. Especially coming off of two arcs in a row where the twist was that the order were largely irrelevant to the conflict, so you really want their final chance to shine to pay off.

Plus, Minrah's boring. If it were Bandana, O-Chul and Lien, or heck even Hilgya it would be more obvious what they add to the group.

She wants to tell her friends, family, and possibly significant other that she loves them very much.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Sep 17th 2019 at 4:19:20 AM

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Minrah's secret is that she loves trees.

I see. So she is telling her parents she is running away to be an arborist. Got it.

Writer, or something. And... a button? 🖲️

Looking back I really like how Minrah plays with the expectations of how NPCs function. At first she doesn't even seem like a Mauve Shirt: just a named but semi-identityless local with a sharp tongue but a fleeting role that ends in death. The strip has had dozens of those. Hundreds maybe.

Then when Durkon dies, we meet her again. And at first it seems like more part of the setting: "here's what another NPC does in this extraordinary situation, for flavor." We've gotten that before as well. And even when she joins Durkon to learn about things from Thor, it just feels like a brief Watson situation in having a character who doesn't know anything about anything there to give shocked, Audience Surrogate reactions to things. And then it looks like she moves on, her narrative role fulfilled.

But then she turns back. And what's more, she has reasons for turning back - ones that have always been there, but which we're trained to think she shouldn't act on because she's not a protagonist.

That, not now, was the moment it became clear she was sticking around after this arc. Because with her role in the arc expended, yet her not just continuing to be around but choosing to continue to be around, there's the character agency that makes these things persistent.

I love when OOTS does this - explores what it's like to be a monster race, or forced to fit into a specific narrative role, or - in this case - an NPC. This isn't the first time - far from it, in fact - that Rich has used a character to call out both the heroes and the audience for assuming that minor characters shouldn't a stake in what's going on around them or motivations that matter, especially in situations where they would have just as much reason to be invested. Stuff like this are one of the primary reasons his world feels so alive.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Sep 17th 2019 at 8:01:34 AM

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

I feel like a lot of Oo TS books have these great female characters who are introduced as potential seventh rangers only be be semi disposed of afterwards.

Miko, Celia, Thelka, Bandana, Hylga and Minrah.

I'm glad finally one of them is explicitly sticking around as a party member for a second book.

I kind of half expect Minrah and Bandana to enjoy a pair the spares ending if they don't die. Not that I think Minnah's secret is that she's simply sapphic, though her conflict does read to me as queer coding.

Also, headcanom about Bandana: her birth name is Anna, everyone called her Banned Anna after she got banned from a number of establishments and the nick name just got contracted. Her choice of clothing is purely coincidental.

Edited by Whowho on Sep 18th 2019 at 10:26:55 AM

I love that headcanon But Bandana’s given name has already been revealed

I'm on the side of the idea that Minrah's "secret" is undefined, like V's gender, and will stay that way. It makes the whole thing more interesting and less preachy.

Explicitly acknowledging the existence of LGBT people is "preachy"?

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

”Preachy” how?

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.

Because everything that doesn't explicitly confirms to traditional societal norms is preachy now, haven't you heard?

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Sep 18th 2019 at 3:18:32 PM

Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.

Why is it immediately the headcanon of everyone that she is LGBT? That secret of her can be anything. Probably, but not necessarily, it is related to some love interest, but that still says nothing about her sexual orientation.

I'm in the camp of those who think that it won't be revealed, ever. It just shows that she has personal life besides being an adventurer.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

Probably because "that secret of yours you're ashamed of but is actually perfectly fine in the eyes of a benevolent god" is something that resonates with a lot of LGBT people. And, to be honest, because she has a look that fits into the Butch Lesbian stereotype.