The Index of the Giant's Comments VI―Making Dogma from Zapped Bananas

[Jasdoif]

Spoiler: Story, Plot, and Characters

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General Information
Elan Hasn't Told his Mother about Nale's Death(#2) "I don't think he would have had the opportunity to do so yet."	#1208	2020/07/31
The "Official" Elan Song Tune(#6) "I think of it as being similar to Row, Row, Row Your Boat, except with four rows and an extra repeat at the end, like: Row, row, row, row your boat, your boat-boat."	#1201	2020/04/30
The End of House Kubota(#4) "...the house was probably disbanded and his remaining assets seized by Hinjo to be used setting up the town seen in the first story of Good Deeds Gone Unpunished."	#1201	2020/04/30
Protection from Law is Illegal in Many Places	#969	2014/12/01
There will be seven books (from the main online comic)	#910	2013/08/15
Dragon Continuity The Dragon Magazine strips and Gygax magazine strips exist in a separate continuity from the OOTS strips.	#863	2012/11/25
Some Thoughts on Visuals and Story People get invested in the story, not the art, of a comic.	#838	2012/02/18
More Prequels? The total number of planned prequel stories is "pretty much fixed"; at least one more as of 09/16/2015.	#804	2011/09/01
Not everything needs a backstory Not everything needs a backstory, or even has an interesting one worth telling.	#729	2010/06/23

Vampirism
Thrall-Durkon was Like Malack's Puppet(#18) "...the thrall merely took on the personality that Malack wanted it to have....Vampire Durkon, as we later got to know him, was inside Durkon's mind that whole time absorbing memories but having no (or very limited) control over the body's outside actions".	#1193	2020/03/01
Coffin-less Vampires Immediately Turn to Dust When "Killed"	#1131	2018/07/31
Why Most Vampires Don't Get Overwhelmed by Their Host's Memories And why HPoH did.	#1130	2018/07/28
HPoH Didn't Exist Before Durkon Was Vampirized Though he arrived "with certain knowledge, like language and whatever Hel told it to do as she was shoving it in there."	#1112	2018/02/13
The Nature of Vampirism "...a negative energy consciousness created in the shape of your own worst impulses, stuffed into your dead body to animate it."	#1112	2018/02/13
Durkon Can't Show HPoH Fake Memories	#1009	2015/10/19
Malack Chose to Worship Nergal And "shaman" is a descriptive term, not a non-cleric class.	#949	2014/04/19
There is Only One Way that Vampirism Works And nothing that happens with vampires can be assumed to work for other undead. Also, knowledge of how vampirization works is rare, even among clerics.	#949	2014/04/18
Vampires Have Free Will	#949	2014/04/18

The Gates and their History
On the Snarl and the Dark One's Plan for the Gate Details about the Snarl's role as an implement of mutually assured destruction.	#1185	2019/11/10
About Girard's Double Bluff About Girard's double bluff to protect the Gate.	#895	2013/06/21
Soon's Castle Soon built the castle, but did not build Azure City.	#804	2011/09/01
Soon's Gem and Gate Details about Soon's rift and how it is protected. The gate/rift could not be moved. You can shift a gate to another plane, but not another place on this plane.	#801	2011/08/21

Familicide
Familicide How Familicide works. More here.	#879	2012/03/07

Calendars, Dates, Maps
Death of Old Age in OOTS "Eugene literally died of old age. When a person reaches a certain age, the gods roll dice to see what his or her maximum lifespan is going to be, and when the person hits 12:01 on that birthday, they keel over dead from no apparent cause."	#933	2013/12/06
Map of the Western Continent It is constantly changing.	#746	2010/09/12
OOTS Age Range Intended to be early to mid 20s. Durkon is the "dwarf equivalent" of this age range, in his 50s.	#732	2010/07/02
Chronology & Timeline Anything that states a numbered, dated year references the Northern calendar. The Oracle uses the Southern calendar. Further details on timeframe of Belkar's death prophecy included. Some time references in the strip (like the deva's chart) should not be taken too literally.	#725	2010/05/26

Culture, Religion and the Afterlife
On the Dwarven Textile Industry(#12) "Keeping in mind that I am absolutely 100% inventing this answer on the spot...."	#1260	2022/06/22
On Dwarves, Death, and Dishonor Dwarves know they go to Hel if they die dishonorably, and their culture takes this into account: All dwarves learn how to fight, and consistently living honorably is a solution, even if they die in a normally nonviolent role.	#1004	2015/09/15
The Afterlife Isn't Important to OOTS It's only important that the characters find living preferable to it.	#998	2015/08/17
Spiritual Progress in the Afterlife The afterlife leads down a path of "letting go" of life, including an inability to learn new things.	#998	2015/08/16
The Soul Economy Spirits produce Soul PowerTM in life, which is collected in the afterlife.	#998	2015/08/16
The Purpose of the Godsmoot It's a neutral meeting ground for the gods, who don't meet in person across pantheons anymore. More here, on both Godsmoots in general and the one in the comic in particular.	#998	2015/08/13
How Non-Theistic Religions Work in OOTS More on the Giant's view for D&D in general here and here.	#995	2015/08/01
On Elven and Goblin Deities The Elves worship Western gods in addition to their own. The goblins worshipped no one prior to the ascension of the Dark One.	#978	2015/03/19
Elven Government and Political Relations with the Outside World Why did the elves help Azure City yet not try to stop Tarquin's tyranny? More here	#915	2013/08/29
Class Systems and Careers Also, FYI, Durkon isn't "white."	#882	2013/04/08
Nergal and Undeath Nergal is not against undeath. Malack just doesn't like using the undead as cannon fodder.	#870	2013/02/21
The Rise of the Dark One Spoiler: Start of Darkness Show The other gods lost their one shot to gang up on him and kill him. The Dark One has since been building his power.	#864	2013/01/04
Religions and Deities in OOTS World Background details on who worships whom, and on Thor, Hel, and the Twelve Gods. See also here(#4) ("...the vast majority of citizens of Azure City, Miko included, worship all twelve gods as a single pantheon") and here(#11) ("Functionally speaking, the Twelve Gods are all True Neutral....their alignment is pulled in all directions at once by different believers projecting their own morals onto them, and they end up in the middle somewhere.")	#848	2012/04/11
SoD Paladins & Miko's Fall Spoiler: Start of Darkness Show Only the crayon pages are narrative by Redcloak. Not every event is necessarily "seen." Certain scenes are largely shown from Redcloak's perspective. Details of why the paladins who killed Redcloak's people may or may not have fallen, why it doesn't matter, and how showing it would have cheapened the effect of Miko's fall later.	#706	2010/03/15
On Evil Characters and Resurrection Evil characters are not discouraged / prohibited from raising the dead in OOTSverse. Spoiler: Start of Darkness Show Right-Eye's family wasn't raised because Redcloak doesn't control Team Evil's finances to pay for resurrection, Xykon does.	#566	2008/06/15

Reading Too Much Into It
On Breaking the Fourth Wall(#6) "Anyone in the comic could theoretically do it...."	#1277	2023/03/10
On the Overestimated State of Goblin Civilization(#9) "If you wanted to hand out an award for Most Improved Civilization relative to their starting point, sure, maybe the goblins would rate well by that measure, but otherwise they're objectively worse off."	#1260	2022/06/22
There Have Already Been More Than Nine Sides in the Comic(#8) "This is one of those things that I think has been maybe taken a little bit too literally, as if there are exactly nine factions involved."	#1232	2021/04/27
The Colors of the Council of Clan Barriers Are Not a Portal Reference "I've never played Portal and forgot it existed until you just pointed it out."	#1157	2019/03/01
About the Lizardfolk Prostitute in #676 It was a joke about then-recent 4th Edition D&D's Dragonborn art. "It is not a trans gender individual at all (because it is a cis-female)...."	#1143	2018/10/09
Repeated Strip Titles are Accidental See also here(#4) ("...reusing titles...is not symbolic of any deep connection between the strips...").	#1088	2017/08/04
HPoH Made a Tactical Error in #1009 Durkon "showed him Roy telling him the story about what happened with Eric. That's it."	#1009	2015/10/19
The Comic (not) Commenting on D&D Playstyles "There is more important thematic ground in this world for me to cover than whether or not people powergame."	#995	2015/07/30
Earth isn't in the Rift "Earth will never show up."	#945	2014/02/15
On Blackwing, Rifts, and Memory	#944	2014/02/10
Is Thog Mentally Handicapped? No, he is not. See also here (on why a mentally handicapped character will not be portrayed)	#935	2013/12/30
Malack's Chamber Plans This was intended to use the imagery of factory farming, not the Holocaust. Malack plans to create a vampire ruling class.	#875	2013/03/01
Malack's Vampirism and LGBT Malack's condition is not an allegory for LGBT.	#875	2013/03/01
Belkar's Jokes Belkar making a joke about something does not make it so.	#786	2011/04/11
Current Politics There are no references to current politics in the strip beyond those which readers invent themselves.	#732	2010/07/02
TV Tropes The Giant is aware it exists. No, he doesn't use it for ideas or reference it in any way in the comic.	#705	2010/03/04
Hidden Meanings Not everything in the comic has one.	#667	2009/06/02

Spoiler: Character Development and Backstory

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Note: For character stats and items, see the D&D rules section.

The Order of the Stick
On the Flashback in 623(#1) "...it's intended to be a memory."	#1208	2020/07/31
On the Expansion of Blackwing's Role(#10) "Blackwing provided someone who would already know everything that had happened and could serve as V's confidant...And second, I felt like the moment when Blackwing popped into existence to carry Xykon's phylactery was the pinnacle of that particular running joke." Also, Mr. Scruffy's role was "planned out before Shojo was even killed."	#1201	2020/04/30
Vaarsuvius is Genderqueer(#6) But "not talking about gender is just culturally part of being an elf". See also here(#8) ("Even though I played it for laughs at times during the early days, I always tried to make it so that V themselves was never the butt of the joke....").	#1193	2020/03/01
We're Not Likely to Learn More about Belkar's Family(#7)	#1193	2020/03/01
On Haley, Honesty and History "...She literally says she is going to miss being honest with Crystal."	#981	2015/04/28
OOTS were Originally Going to Wander the Dungeon Forever Which changed partly for the joke potential in towns and wilderness.	#980	2015/04/26
The Main Cast were Devised for Joke Potential "Silly jokes for Elan, angry jokes for Belkar, sarcasm for Roy, etc."	#980	2015/04/26
Haley is Bisexual	#972	2015/01/13
Belkar Turned Down the Gnome Merchant in #969 "Whether or not it would be immoral for Belkar to go on the date is...less important than how Belkar feels about going on the date." Also discusses Haley's morals.	#969	2014/12/01
Haley's Decision to Stop Using Gendered Insults It's growth of her character. She's been trying to be a better person since being with Elan.	#959	2014/07/31
Why V Didn't Kill Laurin Character growth: V is learning not to kill "from a purely consequentialist viewpoint."	#935	2013/12/20
Belkar and Bloodfeast Belkar's concerns about 'Bloodfeast' were part of his character development, not an effort to make V look bad.	#932	2013/11/20
The Dream Runes Elan's victory as character development. Also, Nale was the only LG member affected by the runes.	#893	2013/06/11
V is a Vegetarian	#891	2013/06/03
What Belkar Saw What Belkar saw while affected by the dream runes.	#890	2013/05/25
V's Children The Giant made them adopted to leave open the possibility that V/Inkyrius are gay or lesbian.	#882	2013/04/09
Haley's Leadership A greedy self-centered rogue becomes leader. Belkar and Haley are the only one's who questioned her leadership skills during the Azure City Resistance.	#882	2013/04/07
Durkon and Malack's Breakup Durkon reacts not only to Malack's vampirism, but to his alliance with the Linear Guild. He knows that Malack does not know Belkar isn't innocent.	#872	2013/02/26
Parental Problems Parents are in the story only to introduce conflict. That fathers are included and mothers are absent for the human characters is simply a coincidence. See also here(#7) on the latter point ("...there's just not much more to it than poor planning and unexamined influences.")	#815	2011/11/18

Vector Legion
🍌Elan and Nale are Tarquin's Only Children(#8) "...Tarquin would have been highly aware of the fact that multiple children means multiple heirs...a potential threat to him."	#1291	2023/11/30
Malack's "'Snakey' Lower Half" Was Not Intentionally a Secret(#7) "The thing is, there is a slightly different type of 'snake person' in D&D that's one of those monsters that has been trademarked, so it was better to gloss over that detail in dialogue."	#1201	2020/04/30
The Inspiration for Tarquin was Elan See also here(#2) ("It was fun to think about how to turn Elan's obsession with stories into something menacing....")	#980	2015/04/26
Tarquin's Adventuring Party is Named "Vector Legion"	#945	2014/02/17
Drama and Breaking a Character "Drama is all about taking characters and pushing them until they break, one way or the other. If a character can't be broken, then they have no place as a main character in a story." More here.	#934	2013/12/08
Malack is not Paranoid	#906	2013/07/30

Other Characters
On the Surprise of Sangwaan's (Re)death Scene(#6) "...I had absolutely no plans to ever address the character or her demise again....But...I surprised myself by finding more depth there."	#1260	2022/06/22
How Dragons Run in OOTS(#6) "...I would assume something like a larger dog or even a cat."	#1232	2021/04/27
Minrah Isn't a "Main Cast" Character(#4) "Minrah is traveling with the team and helping them out, but she is not a member of the main cast, which is and has always been numbered at six."	#1208	2020/07/31
On Nale's Focus on Malack(#11) "....Nale likely hated (the Vector Legion) equally but spent more effort planning Malack's death because Malack was harder to kill."	#1208	2020/07/31
There is no "Better" Possibility for What MitD ( ) Is(#3) "It's not a guessing game I added to the strip just for extracurricular fun and games, it's part of the story. There's no answer that's better than what he is because everything written for the last 15 years has been written with that answer in mind."	#1208	2020/07/31
On Loki and (Dis)honesty "...because his followers believe he is incapable of honesty, he actually is incapable of honesty (except to Thor)." Also, "honesty" is distinct from "not lying": "If Loki tells the truth in the cause of trickery, he is still not being honest."	#1177	2019/08/26
The Mutable Nature of the Gods "...the fact that the gods are the way they are now does not preclude them having existed in some other form in the past—one that we might not have thought of as 'gods' ."	#1177	2019/08/26
On Hinjo and Miko Spoiler: How the Paladin Got His Scar Show "Cousin" is an informal term of address, they aren't legally related.	#1122	2018/05/21
On Hilgya and Her Husband Ivan "...their marriage was never consummated and he probably was completely unaware that she was forced into it..."	#999	2015/08/20
About Thirden He made an effort to improve his diction over the years, and "Squeaky" is a nickname about his singing voice.	#991	2015/06/22
Bozzok and Crystal's Falling Out Bozzok told Crystal she couldn't think for herself; Crystal proved otherwise.	#981	2015/04/29
Miko and Kilkil Developed Differently than Planned	#980	2015/04/26
O-Chul Offset His Low Charisma with Social Skill	#980	2015/04/25
The MitD ( ) Reveal is a Crucial Part of the Story And we will actually get an answer(#3) to what he is.	#980	2015/04/24
The Secret Society of the Sapphire Guard A subset of the Twelve Gods' clerics and paladins; Every member had some cleric or paladin levels.	#980	2015/04/24
Hel Has No Living Worshippers "That means literally not one single living person, ever."	#962	2014/09/11
On Julio rescuing Tarquin's Brides-to-be Julio rescued the potential brides from Tarquin before their weddings, not after. Spoiler: Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tails Show Virginia is one of the rescued brides-to-be.	#932	2013/11/21
Kubota and Hinjo Why Kubota still wanted to kill Hinjo after the other nobles had given up.	#891	2013/06/09
The Azurite Nobles and Hinjo The nobles thought they could save their own skins from Xykon with Hinjo out of the way.	#891	2013/06/06
Scrying in the Desert It was Zz'dtri who scryed on the Order after they found Girard's illusion.	#870	2013/02/18
Miko's Popularity Miko's story was not "cut short" because of fan opinions - it was precisely the length intended. The Giant does not make storytelling decisions based on finances.	#863	2012/12/18
Miko and Shojo Shojo was the "tape" that held Miko's character together for so long. He was responsible for much in Miko that was good/positive.	#815	2011/11/18
V's Splices There won't be a prequel book about them, and the Giant hasn't developed a backstory for them; not even deciding if they're from previous versions of the world(#20).	#801	2011/08/21
Sarah Met Eugene When She Was Nineteen	#650	2009/05/02
Miko's Unchanging Role "Everything from the point where Miko drags the Order to Azure City in chains in #251 is more-or-less exactly what was always going to happen, with only some tone changed."	#559	2008/05/29
Miko's Blade Blood-Bathing Comment in #120 "...she's under the impression that some clearly evil force like a giant demon or something is responsible, so the speech there is mostly grandstanding. Once she sees Durkon explains they are not evil, the bloodlust backs away."	#285	2006/02/23