Moments when a piece of entertainment completely lost you.

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 6:38 pm

Shrapnel, try zooming out and/or scrolling up/down on that black screen. Maybe a close button will become visible. If that doesn't work, right click somewhere on the transparent black screen, click Inspect Element on the menu and then press delete. That worked for me on some other site that had this sort of screen.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 7:08 pm

you can find clickable elements by hitting tab, too.

CapnTthePirateG · Post by **CapnTthePirateG** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 11:20 pm

Ok let's talk order of the stick again.

So this entire fight scene between Roy and Durkula resolved nothing, It concluded nothing, it didn't advance the plot, it was a complete waste of our time. For actual months.

NOW we have another bullshit plot where the last demigod refuses to vote to consign the world to oblivion unless the dwarven clans meet. So, more bullshit filler which we will need to take another 2 weeks to update.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE DUMB!

So evil Durkon made some vamp minions so they could steal the teleport orb. Their master plan is to go teleport over to the dwarven elders and vampire dominate them into voting to blow up the world.

Now, this is super dumb because
a) A DC 15 Sense Motive check reveals domination
b) Dominated people have little swirly eyes. Now, normally I'd write this off as an art convention, but we know the characters can see cartoon eyes because Haley asked if Dead Roy had little Xs in his.
c) The elders need to get up in front of an actual god and vote. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure a god can make a DC 15 sense motive check fairly easily, if he misses the swirly eyes or aura of enchantment magic.

So to recap: We have spent literally months watching a meaningless fight that solved nothing and did not advance the main plot, only to have the villains reveal an even dumber master plan and MORE time wasting bullshit.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 11:28 pm

Watch how the dwarf god either doesn't notice the swirly eyes/make the DC 15 sense motive check, OR notices, but says something to the effect of "dominated or no, I must act on the will of the council."

The best part of this entire sub-arc was Belkar climbing back up the mountain. The second best part was the familiars/animal companions trying to stop the vampire dwarf minion.

Everything else has been shit.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 12:09 am

Hopefully this is the part where Roy decides to notice that his sword isn't living and kills Durkula by throwing it. Or failing that, since it pulled out "green light that does agg damage to vampires" he finds a way to also pull out Dispel Magic.

Or one of the priests hears the vampires talk, goes "The fuck with this!" and murders them. Anything other than dragging this bullshit another panel.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 12:16 am

Omegonthesane wrote:Or one of the priests hears the vampires talk, goes "The fuck with this!" and murders them. Anything other than dragging this bullshit another panel.

Seriously, where the fuck is the option where one of the high level clerics in the room says "How about, we aren't idiots so we tossed down a bunch of (apparently invisible) Dimensional Locks over the last 5 days, you know, since we were going to hold a conclave, and not be fucking idiots and let any CR 3 Devil show up to watch, and since we knew that in case of a tiebreaker we would have to interdict the place."

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 12:19 am

Seriously, the priest of Loki should just say "oh look, another godly mess to clean up" and shank Durkon and his minion.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 9:53 am

Kaelik wrote:
Omegonthesane wrote:Or one of the priests hears the vampires talk, goes "The fuck with this!" and murders them. Anything other than dragging this bullshit another panel.
Seriously, where the fuck is the option where one of the high level clerics in the room says "How about, we aren't idiots so we tossed down a bunch of (apparently invisible) Dimensional Locks over the last 5 days, you know, since we were going to hold a conclave, and not be fucking idiots and let any CR 3 Devil show up to watch, and since we knew that in case of a tiebreaker we would have to interdict the place."

Shame Rich is on record as not being able to handle working around the rules. I lost all faith in his willingness to even use the rules as inspiration when he did his public rant about how True Resurrection is a complete and unstoppable story-breaker because you can't possibly soulcraft your enemies to permanently kill them or cast Soul Bind to keep them as a sentient paperweight that is beyond the reach of rez* or turn them into stone forever so they are not literally dead and thus not a valid target for any sort of rez.

* Xykon has already done this. More than once.

Prak wrote:Seriously, the priest of Loki should just say "oh look, another godly mess to clean up" and shank Durkon and his minion.

They should now, definitely - the excuse that none of the priests wanted any of the other priests to interfere directly with the vote was enough to let them not join in Roy VS Durkula when it was a matter of letting Hel's legal-by-RAW vote count, but they all just overheard Durkula's plan to directly interfere with another god's vote.

Alternately Odin could go "Deified dorf king as the king of the dorf gods I hereby override your oath and command you to vote to not destroy the world release you from your oath and allow you to vote with your conscience" but that's the kind of thing I'd expect of a last second author's saving throw rather than the actual plot.

CapnTthePirateG · Post by **CapnTthePirateG** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 6:17 am

So Rich is apparently promising to handle this - all the reasons this plan won't work, etc in another comic.

The GiTP forums don't actually seem happy with this storyline for once.

I miss Xykon and Redcloak.

maglag · Post by **maglag** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 8:23 am

So, the whole dwarf council can be dominated by a couple vampires, and they have zero counter measures against that?
...

How the fuck do GITP dwarves choose their elders for the council? Are they all low-will fighters? Are all the half-competent clerics sent to exile?

And don't hope for Xykon and Redcloak anytime soon, the author himself revealed that they won't really do anything for the next year or two.

Mechalich · Post by **Mechalich** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 4:59 pm

CaptthePirateG wrote:So this entire fight scene between Roy and Durkula resolved nothing, It concluded nothing, it didn't advance the plot, it was a complete waste of our time. For actual months.

This part is the most annoying to me. Bad plots happen, but a complete failure to recognize the amount of real time that is progressing is impossibly frustrating. I mean if Durkula or Roy had died, or even if the vote had been formally disrupted somehow that would have provided a justification, but Durkula could seriously have just cast anti-life shell from the start and saved everyone all that time.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Thu Dec 24, 2015 5:29 am

It was a character development piece for Roy. He's no longer quite such a trusting idiot, though he retains his unquenchable optimism.

It showed us the magic he's got again, or his sword's got, or whatever. It's a pretty standard play for the Evil dudes in the GitP universe, because they all explicitly exist only to be the bad guy in the story and ultimately be thwarted by the protagonists (limited by the irony of Roy being the one to destroy all the gates and end the world, thus him needing character dev arcs to teach him not to).

So Durkula had to go for the over-the-top world-ending plot and had to reveal it to the protagonists in a way that lets them intervene. This is D&D, after all, if you don't tell Roy what deeply flawed terrors you're planning, how is he supposed to be the one to stop you, rather than just some random NPC doing it?

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Dec 24, 2015 2:13 pm

I can't help but feel that Roy could have become less of a trusting idiot in a shorter arc that wasn't entirely pointless.

Hell, you could have maintained the same plot by just having Durkon use a minion to steal the orb while they were in town before the moot. Roy finds out, actually puts two and two together because contrary to evidence, writing, and stereotypes, he isn't an idiot, kills the minion and confronts Durkon, who leaves, using a second minion to grab the sphere while he distracts Roy with a much shorter fight.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 2:18 am

If he moved the plot along like that, it'd be finished already, and he'd have to get a real job.

See also Girl Genius, spent two years telling us about a day in the Castle, then a day telling us about the two years that passed after that because Agatha skipped them. Stories, they go at the pace they go at.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 2:28 am

Except Phil Foglio is both a good artist and a good a writer. Burlew pretty much just makes an occasional funny that is sort of based on D&D rules.

.... Why the fuck do we still read OOTS?

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 2:42 am

I've been wondering that for a while. I think I actually liked it better when it was a straight gaming comic about random dungeon-delving before the current metaplot takeover...and it's outlived its edition.

Wiseman · Post by **Wiseman** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 2:43 am

Because other gaming comics are either shit, or good but dead.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 2:45 am

There is that. Nodwick is finished; Dork Tower is moribund; Knights of the Dinner Table...still around, actually, but I haven't been following as close as I used to.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 2:53 am

Full Frontal Nerdity is still current, and good, but it's short, and about a group, rather than being about a game

Mistborn · Post by **Mistborn** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 3:16 am

At this point the only reason anyone still follows OotS is they've followed it for years and they want to see the ending goddamnit.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 3:56 am

Lord Mistborn wrote:At this point the only reason anyone still follows OotS is they've followed it for years and they want to see the ending goddamnit.

This is the only reason I kept up with Naruto and keep up with Bleach.

But I bailed on OoTs after the Therkla incident. I thought about it and realized that the things I'd enjoyed about the comic had gone away, and not been honed like in, say, Dragonball Z Abridged.

So I stopped reading.

Count Arioch the 28th · Fri Dec 25, 2015 9:37 pm

I can't hate on someone for trying to make some cash without sounding hypocritical, but OotS lost my interest sometime during Sapphire City (shortly after the second book ended, more or less). It just seems like the story is aimless and wandering at this point.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Dec 27, 2015 6:07 pm

Sicario. Everything that happens after the "main character" sees the rubber band in her hotel room.

Really seemed like they didn't have a third act. Like, at all. The main character who we've seen having near bullet time reflexes becomes a whiny crazy person who never accomplishes anything again. Also she points guns at people and punches people who she has no intention of fighting, let alone killing. She's a total loose cannon for no damn reason. She's whining about procedure not being followed or something, but what the hell procedures is she supposed to be upholding? What line is she supposed to be even trying to draw at that point?

The movie has a strong first act. Very strong. And the second act is mostly just establishing that you understand how super fucked the cartel war in Juarez is. And um... they sort of run out of plot at that point? Like, I have no idea why the main character even goes to the tunnel in the first place, since she apparently had no intention of actually doing anything to help or prevent anything from happening. And having a temper tantrum in the middle of the fucking desert next to a bunch of black ops people who no longer need her alive... I genuinely don't understand why or how she was even supposed to get back alive after that.

Nothing really happens. There's no character development. The back end of the movie is replaced with the main character flapping her arms and going "Waaaah!" in a totally unprofessional and dangerously insane fashion.

Not impressed.

-Username17

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Mon Dec 28, 2015 10:42 pm

Some hack once called Sicario the Apocalypse Now! of the drug war and it almost ruined my afternoon.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 8:15 am

motherfuckers are putting roman reigns in the fucking royal rumble again