The Order of the Stick

Also, V is likely to be busy, and so might not have time to look into questions of an academic nature.

I think Julia won't be offering anything other than a new perspective to look at their current problems.

Edited by Kayeka on Feb 27th 2020 at 2:06:15 PM

"How good is her school's library" becomes the next question.

Also, she can communicate with Roy but how would Roy tell her to look up something they need to know now and not before?

Edited by fredhot16 on Feb 27th 2020 at 5:11:30 AM

If they need to know something about Conjuration or Necromancy, V might not be able to help, those being V's barred schools. That might be something Julia could help with.

Edited by shigmiya64 on Feb 27th 2020 at 2:32:28 PM

Perhaps it's the difference between specialist and generalist knowledge. V knows a lot about one particular subject but very little about anything else while Julia may lack V's depth of knowledge about blowing stuff up but knows a wide range of other things. I think it's obvious V never studied liches, for example, but Julia might have run across them in her studies even if she only knows the basics. The party doesn't need to know how to become a lich, they just need to know how to kill one.

Also, Julia might be necessary when the IFCC decide to call in their time with V.

Necessary for what? It doesn't sound like Roy will be able to call on her on demand, and it's not like she's physically there to help with anything.

Durkon can cast regular Sending, can't he?

"Hey it's Roy, call me back.

PS since I have nineteen words left, you're an ugly moron with a big butt and your butt smells"

"Stop smelling your sister's butt, that's only okay in anime."

So Rich said that a character with only one prior appearance would have a major role in this last book. With Julia back in the picture, anyone else think that character is going to be one of her school friends?

What friend could possibly be of importance? Did they even have names?

I mean. I was assuming the relatively minor character who suddenly has a role in this book was Julia herself.

IIRC the original statement was that it would be a character who had only appeared on one page prior. Julia exceeds that by an entire side quest.

I really want to know who in the world it is. Like I assume this is a proper character(as in they have a name and defined appearance) and not just some glorified extra that's effectively soldier #1 in strip #whatever. However the list of named characters that only showed up in literally one strip and could possibly have relevance is slim.

Do you ever think Rich is lying to throw us off the trail, given that he knows every single character in every single strip is ruthlessly catalogued by the fans?

I feel like Rich is the kind of guy who would mislead the audience, but in such a way that we as the audience wouldn’t realize it at all until the strip is concluded.

Maybe by stretching the definition of appearance or something but I doubt he's flat out lying. Like I could see it being a character that never appeared outside of a flashback or depiction of them. I can't see it being someone that showed up more than once and he's just lying.

I can see it being someone who showed up more than once...because Burlew forgot they had multiple appearances. Over a thousand pages of comic to go through does lend itself to the possibility of some previous detail slipping through the cracks.

One of the elemental guardians from the first dungeon?

If Julia’s going to play some kind of mission control role, it’s plausible her classmates could help out; they’re all in wizard school together and would theoretically be equally helpful in the role.

Whoever it ends up being, the official forums have that thread that counts character appearances, so Rich could simply look them up in that thread. Unless characters need some minimum number of appearances before they start to get counted, if he said they’ve only appeared once before, he’s probably right.

Edited by shigmiya64 on Mar 3rd 2020 at 12:45:18 PM

...How many times have V's kids appeared?

I was going to mention .... V's life mate, but Inkyrus (that was the name right) was in two or three strips actually).

The kids are in at least four. Their first appearance when the dragon threatens them, the destruction of the home, Darth V arriving to save the day, and the aftermath of the Familicide spell. I also doubt they could be allies given they're toddlers.

I’m going with Orange Voice from the last panel of the previous book as my guess for the new character with a major role.

Sure, it’s obvious, but ...it’s obvious. Why look farther for minor characters with one appearance in the whole comic when you’ve already got a clear candidate?

I’d expect Rich to simply check the character appearance thread before making a comment about appearance numbers, so I could see him getting it wrong because the thread had it recorded wrong, but not deliberately lying.

Why make a big fanfare of this mystery character being significant when no one would even know who it is?