The Order of the Stick/Tropes D-F

Tropes A-C | Tropes D-F | Tropes G-I | Tropes J-L | Tropes M-O | Tropes P-R | Tropes S-U | Tropes V-Z

The Order of the Stick provides examples of the following tropes:
"Roy: (probably -- he's invisible) ... You're lucky attacking ends the spell, or I would smack the crap out of all of you."
 * Da Chief: The Chief, of Cliffport fame.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: Xykon; Daimyo Kubota; Tarquin
 * Tarquin probably takes the cake by issuing manuals intended to ensure that his soldiers are equally savvy. This amounts to instructions on how to avoid a Bavarian Fire Drill, not having keys on overly obvious rings and not being fooled by strange sounds, among other things.
 * Even worse, he understands that even if he dies, he will be a legend and that the audience always loves the villains more. His scheme gets a triumphant speech explaining a continent-wide Evil Plan that involves repeatedly establishing La Résistance and the Evil Empire and letting the empire get "overthrown". He figures the Evil Empire must exist if heroic adventurers do, so why shouldn't he be the one ruling it?
 * Also sometimes Vaarsuvius
 * Dark Action Girl: Sabine; Tsukiko; Crystal; Samantha... Haley notes a pattern of her fighting "airborne tramps."
 * Darker and Edgier
 * Not that the comic is exactly "light and fluffy", but prequel book Start of Darkness is significantly darker than the online comic's average tone.
 * Things have gotten a turn for the dark starting around comic #823.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Invoked by Belkar after Haley assumes that V's new black robes, glowing eyes, and evil whispers mean that s/he's turned evil. Belkar, too, is convinced of that, but defends Vaarsuvius with this argument just to mess with everyone's heads.
 * Darkness Von Gothickname
 * When she was a gloomy goth teenager, Haley called herself Dark Mistress Shadowgale.
 * When Celia disguises herself as an evil necromancer, she uses the name Darkblood Gloomgloom.
 * Deader Than Dead: The fate of everyone killed by the Snarl.
 * Dead Guy Puppet: Lord Shojo does this, in order to make a point that it's the heroes' fault the corpse is dead. To be fair, he's planning to bring the dude back to life.
 * The Dead Have Eyes
 * Deadpan Snarker: Most of the characters fall into this at some point, but Roy took extra points in this skill. Vaarsuvius comes only second to Roy in the snark, and being The Spock he's even more deadpan. And V's raven familiar seems to take after his wizard. On the villain's side, Redcloak is no slouch either.
 * Death Is Cheap: Not literally; coming Back From the Dead is actually rather expensive. But price aside, it's usually not all that difficult, except when the plot requires it to be, as in 's case, or in special situations like being killed by the Snarl or dying of old age. This is Lampshaded to the extent that a character calling for reinforcements (Haley in Old Blind Pete's cellar) suggests they bring the wherewithal to resurrect her and her friends. Also, you can apparently do the old "challenge Death to a game for your life" thing. And you can pick Wet T-Shirt Contest as your game.
 * Deceased Fall Guy Gambit
 * Kubota announces his intention to do this to Therkla. V, of course,.
 * Deconstructed Trope
 * Miko, as she develops, touches on what a Lawful Stupid Knight Templar would be like realistically.
 * Start of Darkness deconstructs the hell out of the assumptions underpinning D&D as a whole, particularly Always Chaotic Evil.
 * Token Evil Teammate is also deconstructed with Belkar, showing why a mostly good party would put up with someone like him.
 * Defied Trope
 * Carrying the Antidote in "Another Choice".
 * Not to mention Good Is Dumb, repeatedly.
 * Roy defies the Dumb Muscle human-fighter.
 * Deity of Humanoid Origin: Both the Dark One and the elven gods were once ordinary mortals who ascended.
 * Deliberately Monochrome
 * The prequel books are fully in greyscale. According to the author, this is to give them a "nostalgic" feeling, since these are the "home movie" of the OotS characters. Which is mostly a joking explanation -- the primary reason being costs.
 * Dwarven Darkvision.
 * The Fiends' hypothetic scenario.
 * Delicious Fruit Pies: From "Proof That I Am Deeply Disturbed.
 * Denouement: Several examples at the end of the Don't Split the Party arc, starting from around "But Seriously, She Won't".
 * Depth Deception: In "A Matter of Perspective", the starmetal appears huge at first but is really smaller than a fist.
 * Description Cut: "Thog like breaking stuff."
 * Destructive Saviours: Dorukan's Dungeon, the Weary Travelers Inn and Tavern, Azure City... few places seem to survive contact with the Order of the Stick.
 * Deus Ex Machina
 * During the siege of Azure City, Roy beheads Xykon's undead dragon. The head crushes a Death Knight that is overwhelming Vaarsuvius; V later complains that it was a lame "deus ex machina".
 * When V cast Familicide on an ancient black dragon in "If They Pull a Knife... ", the first victim is a black dragon currently battling against a pair of adventurers -- who are left wondering just what the heck caused their opponent to inexplicably drop dead in front of them.
 * The MitD plays this role in "The Path of Least Expectation", teleporting Vaarsuvius and O-chul to safety.
 * Did Mom Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?
 * Didn't We Use This Joke Already?
 * Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?
 * O-Chul and MitD.
 * Also
 * Disaster Dominoes: The well-oiled machine bit from the On the Origin of PCs book.
 * Discreet Drink Disposal: Durkon with the bloodwart tea.
 * Disintegrator Ray: The Disintegrate spell. A favorite of Vaarsuvius; also used by Redcloak and Xykon.
 * Disposing of a Body
 * Redcloak is thorough.
 * Vaarsuvius as well, using the aforementioned Disintegrator Ray.
 * Disproportionate Retribution
 * This is the main motto of Nale and the Linear Guild, even mentioned on their business cards.
 * Vaarsuvius. Ancient Black Dragon. "Familicide!"
 * Tiamat is promised five good dragons dead for every black dragon killed by V.
 * General Tarquin offers to give the pair of bounty hunters 8,000 gp for their trouble in accidentally bringing in Elan instead of Nale. Gannji then demands 50,000 instead because he has a thermal detonator (which is actually a soup can -- he was just keeping up a Running Gag). Tarquin then "misplaces" some court paperwork, leaving the bounty hunters sentenced to die in the arena for attempting to extort him.
 * Distracting Disambiguation
 * The Ditz
 * Elan, when he's not The Fool, or both simultaneously.
 * Thog
 * Celia has her moments, explained in part by her status as an Outsider and therefore someone not familiar with the customs of the Material Plane. She's also from the Elemental Plane of Air, making her an "airhead".
 * Crystal. She once asks a blind ex-rogue (one whom she had blinded, no less) if he has seen who she's looking for.
 * Diving Save
 * Played straight in "Change of Direction".
 * Subverted in "Neutralize Elf" -- Haley pushes Elan out of the way of a poisoned bolt, only to have it hit V.
 * Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Yeah, yeah, we know V's But damn was it powerful, damn did it look awesome, and damn it if comic #639 didn't vicariously satisfy every major revenge fantasy the readers have ever had. In fact, the entire Soul Splice arc did wonders for V's character depth and popularity, regardless of any evil things V did in the storyline. Antihero-esque lust for power combined with insufferable snarking and heroic desperation? PSL Webcomics page, here we come!
 * Dope Slap
 * In the prequel book On the Origins of PCs, after a fair warning to Vaarsuvius (who was getting annoying), Haley performs a "Sneak Attack Upside the Head".
 * Nale dope-slaps his twin brother Elan in this strip. Apparently, that's a reflex from early childhood.
 * Strip #89 features a rare aversion of the dope-slap.
 * Strip #89 features a rare aversion of the dope-slap.

"Tarquin: It's weird, no matter how many people he kills, the audience still thinks he's lovable."
 * Double Entendre
 * About... say... nine of them in "It's a Type of Boat" alone, complete with Lampshade Hanging from the last line in the strip as well as the title.
 * Also, the hotel room scene in "Double Your Entendre, Double Your Fun".
 * And the scene between Roy, Belkar, and Tarquin in "Slash Attack".
 * Downer Ending
 * Start of Darkness
 * The Azure City arc
 * Down the Drain: "Obligatory Sewer-Themed Labyrinth."
 * Draco in Leather Pants: Given a Take That in "A Vexation or Irritation".

"Belkar: Duck.
 * Dracolich: Xykon rides an undead silver dragon.
 * Drama-Preserving Handicap
 * As Roy points out here, the Order is usually at some disadvantage when they fight their Evil Counterparts. Despite Roy's caution, it happens again when Vaarsuvius gets himself incapacitated by a trap right before the Linear Guild attacks.
 * Ultra-powerful soul-spliced Vaarsuvius is literally the most powerful mage to have ever existed...as long as he/she holds on to the splices. Good thing one of them slips away BEFORE the elf goes to fight the Big Bad, Xykon, or else the series would have ended in a curb stomp.
 * Dramatic Curtain Toss: Somewhat parodied in strip #701.
 * Dramatic Necklace Removal: O-Chul to Redcloak.
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: The gladiator warden, who is very Genre Savvy about his role and all of the tropes associated with a Gladiator Games plot.
 * Drool Hello: Although it's not technically drool in "Good to the Last Drip" (just salt water from the ocean), it's still Vaarsuvius's first clue that a monster has approached from behind.
 * Duck: In this comic.

Duck.

Duck.

GOOSE!"

"Roy: Hey gnome! There are two ways this can go down: the easy way or the hard way.
 * Due to the Dead
 * Dumb Blonde: Invoked in Start of Darkness.
 * Dumb Is Good
 * Elan may be the only straight example in the comic.
 * While he's not an example, the widespread belief in this trope is one of the main reasons why Thog is the subject of Draco in Leather Pants.
 * Inverted Trope with Belkar, who briefly becomes a much nicer person when his Wisdom is boosted.
 * Dungeon Bypass
 * Early in the comic, the Order uses a service stairwell to skip 2 levels of the Dungeon of Dorukan.
 * Invoked again in comics #649-651, where Haley breaks through the Fourth Wall for a spell component and Vaarsuvius teleports directly into Xykon's throne room.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: Invoked and Subverted in this strip.
 * Eastern Zodiac: The Twelve Gods of the South.
 * The Easy Way or the Hard Way
 * In Cliffport City:

Leeky: Druids always pick the hard way; it encourages natural selection."

"Redcloak: I mean, fire shouldn't even count. It's a chemical reaction!
 * Later, the final pages of the second confrontation between Roy and Xykon are titled "We Can Do This the Easy Way..."
 * Efficient Displacement: The Monster in the Darkness "lightly" hits Miko and Windstriker out of a tower, leaving two holes, one human-shaped and one horse-shaped, in the wall.
 * Elemental Embodiment
 * Parodied when Redcloak gets his hands on a modern periodic table and starts summoning elemental spirits based on Titanium, Chlorine, and Osmium.

Vaarsuvius: Does he not know that the classical elements are classics for a reason??"

"Vaarsuvius: Not surprisingly, ethical concerns cannot overcome the siren's lure of a triceratops ride."
 * It gets weirder: Embodiments of salad dressing, apparently the native inhabitants of the Semi-Elemental Plane of Ranch Dressing.
 * Elfeminate: A large part of the reason Varsuvius and kin get stuck with the Ambiguous Gender gag.
 * Enigmatic Empowering Entity: Two of these. Both are of the scam artist kind, but different kinds of scams.
 * An Angel "of pure Good and Law" clears the heroes' names, making them innocent of a very serious crime in the eyes of an order of paladins. However, the trial is just a Sham Ceremony, and the "angel" is just a manipulative ghost disguised as an angel.
 * The evil trio who tempts V takes on the role of Enigmatic Empowering Entities, but subverts the role to snare the wizard. V is manipulated into accepting a price s/he doesn't understand and is tricked to believe that s/he has an excuse to let her more destructive tendencies run wild without accepting true responsibility for the havoc. Also, the power they give is tainted and fatally flawed in itself, not at all what V had imagined "Ultimate Arcane Power" to be.
 * Episode Zero the Beginning: One of the Start of Darkness issues.
 * Equal Opportunity Evil: The Lawful Evil Empire of Blood employs humans, lizardfolks and kobolds indiscriminately, from the lowliest foot soldiers or slave drivers to the upper echelons of society, including the Empress' main counselors (with a human general, a lizardfolk high priest and a winged-kobold chancellor).
 * Escalating Brawl: The argument between Roy, Gannji and Enor ends up in a serious pub brawl.
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones
 * is an amoral sociopath, but he deeply loves.
 * Redcloak loved his brother
 * Sabine may be an evil personification of pure lust, but her relationship with Nale is quite solid.
 * Even Evil Has Standards
 * Belkar won't let anyone hurt Mr. Scruffy.
 * There are also things so horrible, that not even Nale is willing to consider.
 * Xykon is known to mock Redcloak for having standards about whom they can crush and how much evil they can do in their efforts to conquer the world and bring equality to goblinkind.
 * Although even Xykon do have some small standards -- namely, he's not a "disgusting biophiliac" and is squicked by Tsukiko's crackfic-worthy fantasies.
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Monster in the Darkness; the Oracle of Sunken Valley; the Chief; the Rookie
 * Everything's Better with Dinosaurs
 * Elan dreams of being transformed into an "Elanosaurus rex".
 * The Empire of Blood is shown to use dinosaurs as mounts.

"Lee: Don't be silly, why would we want the lich to win?
 * There's an Allosaurus which feeds on gladiators who've lost in the arena.
 * Blackwing prefers to think of himself as a "super-advanced flying stealth dinosaur".
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Many characters, especially Xykon and Nale.
 * Evil Counterpart: The Linear Guild's main purpose, this is actually mentioned in-universe when The Order of the Stick and the Linear Guild first meet.
 * Roy/Thog.
 * Elan/Nale
 * Haley/Sabine
 * Belkar/Yikyik.
 * Vaarsuvius/Zz'dtri
 * Durkon/Hilgya
 * Evil Is Not a Toy
 * was already aware of this, chose to ignore it, and is likely to pay some consequences in the next plot arc.
 * As revealed in the Start of Darkness prequel, Redcloak's plan, hatched by the god of goblinoids, the Dark One, to
 * Similarly, in Start of Darkness, Redcloak learns the hard way that Xykon is not a toy, or even a tool.
 * Evil Is One Big Happy Family: Even though it's the Trope Namer, subverted constantly. Evil characters don't care about the alignment of other characters, only whether or not they will help or hinder them in achieving their goals.

Qarr: Because we're evil?

Cedrik: And that makes us all one big happy family? Screw that!"


 * Note that the IFCC, despite defying the trope in the above quote, also play it completely straight, since their long-term goal is to forge a truce which will unite the warring fiends in an alliance against the forces of Good.

"Xykon: I like you this way. It's like we have a grumpy pirate on the team."
 * Evilly Affable
 * Xykon. Redcloak even lampshades it in a conversation with a hobgoblin goon.
 * Tarquin is so affable that a few people think that even after kicking a few dogs he's only True Neutral.
 * The Giant seems to enjoy playing with the Evilly Affable trope in general: Redcloak averts it, both before and after his My God, What Have I Done? (before it, he doesn't bother to show the slightest concern for the hobgoblins, and after he genuinely does care about them), and Miko inverts it via Good Is Not Nice.
 * Evil Power Vacuum: Averted; Celia convinces Haley not to kill Bozzok, leader of Greysky's thieves guild, in order to stop a power vacuum being created.
 * Evil Sorcerer
 * Xykon;
 * Nale, Elan's twin brother, who multiclassed as fighter/rogue/sorcerer specializing in enchantments (instead of being a bard like Elan);
 * Samantha, the spoiled sorceress daughter of the leader of the bandits of Wooden Forest;
 * Tsukiko, the evil mystic theurge (technically she is both a divine and arcane caster);
 * Qarr the Imp;
 * Jephton the Unholy, the sorcerer-archmage used for Vaarsuvius's soul splice.
 * Exact Words
 * Hieronymus Grubbwiggler promises he's not creating undead -- wich flesh and bone golems are not under D&D rules.
 * O-Chul employs this in order to Never Speak Ill of the Dead in "Or Mention That He's Getting Too Old for This".
 * Exactly What I Aimed At: Haley, throwing her distinctive knife into a wanted poster instead of the one holding it.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Test of the Heart.
 * Excuse Me While I Multitask
 * Xykon conducts a job interview while storming the Azure City castle.
 * In the hypothetical scenario the archfiends suggest to Vaarsuvius instead of accepting their offer, V's master Aarindarius is shown defeating a powerful dragon while reading a book, not even bothering to look in its direction.
 * Exotic Entree: The banquet that holds in his honor. Poor Elan, not being the sort to enjoy such dishes, loses his appetite rather quickly.
 * Exposition Fairy: The title of strip #532.
 * The Extremist Was Right
 * Redcloak:
 * Eyepatch After Time Skip: Elan parodies the trope.
 * Eyepatch of Power
 * Right-Eye in Start of Darkness;
 * Right-Eye in Start of Darkness;

"Hobgoblin cleric: *sniff* I think... I think there's something in my eye.
 * Eye Scream
 * "Smite -- Evil."
 * Not to forget:


 * SPLORTCH!* AAAH!

Belkar: Got it out for you."

"Elan: Excuse me, huddled masses! Pardon me! PC coming through! PC coming--"
 * Roy giving Thog a faceful of broken glass. *keeysh!* "RRAWWRR!!"
 * Face Death with Dignity:
 * Face Doodling: Elan and Belkar do it to Roy when he's paralyzed by a poison trap.
 * Face Heel Turn: Averted in "The Power of Immediate Gratification", where Belkar, of all people, gives up the chance to join a cause that'll let him do all the killing he wants. Admittedly, Belkar leaves something to be desired as a "face", but the other side is even worse, so....
 * Faceless Masses: Sometimes used, especially in Azure City, on Hinjo's Junk, during the parade in Bleedingham, and in the Empire of Blood's arena. Lampshaded, naturally:

"Xykon: Hey, Redcloak, we really had a shot at the prize there, didn't we?
 * Face Palm: "The Great Roy Greenhilt & Everybody Else Facepalm Count"
 * Fake High: In "Madness", a being from the Lower Planes explains why Vaarsuvius (under the effects of a "soul splice") appears to have shifted more towards Evil on the character-alignment scale by presenting a college-university analogy: "It's like if you were at a party where someone has been drinking beer that they didn't know was non-alcoholic: They might seem drunk anyway, just because they were expecting it."
 * False-Flag Operation:
 * Family-Unfriendly Death
 * gets torn in half.
 * gets torn into much smaller pieces from the inside.
 * gets disemboweled by a housecat.
 * get Imploded by Redcloak; gets ripped in half by a diabolic being. All in one convenient comic!
 * Famous Last Words
 * "Goodbye... Redcloak."
 * "The combo is perfect, I'm telling you. As long as I move back 15 feet every--"
 * "It appears... not everyone... agrees with your analysis." . Also from him: "Everything I did, I did for my people."
 * "You'll never take this city while I'm alive, monster!"
 * "Maybe if I--" *SPLAT*
 * "I regret to report than I am no longer fit for duty... Supreme Leader..."
 * Xykon and Redcloak.

Redcloak: Yeah, we did."

"Durkon: Uh... wait. Aren't ye gonna, y'know, kill the kobold first?
 * "I--I can live with that..."
 * "I'll take my chances... that the Afterlife... won't have any punishment worse... than not being with you..."
 * "Now come along, bring me to your master so we can begin the Trial of the Century."
 * "No! No! You... You Monster!"
 * "Why don't... you love... me?"
 * Fandom Nod: Many, including Miko (not) becoming a Death Knight.
 * Fangs Are Evil
 * Fan Service: Lampshaded during Haley's bath sequence in On the Origin of PCs.
 * Fantastic Nature Reserve: The room filled with outdated monsters in Dorukan's dungeon.
 * Fantastic Racism
 * Basically Redcloak's motivation both ways. His family was slaughtered because paladins don't consider his kind to have the right to exist, so he blames all humans for the actions of that group and kills them freely.
 * Classism: Wizards in general and Vaarsuvius in particular seem to look down on the other magic-using classes. Sorcerers are usually the targets, but being called a warlock is a dire insult.
 * Far East: (Or Far South, as the case may be.) Azure City would be a Fantasy Counterpart Culture for Japan, if it were at all consistent. Instead, names like "Miko Miyazaki" stand side by side with names like "O-Chul", and the people worship the Twelve Gods, the animals from the Chinese zodiac. This, naturally, is a pastiche of D&D's Oriental mishmash settings, most specifically the Oriental Adventures Sourcebook.
 * Fastball Special
 * Well, "Tetherball Special", anyhow. That one's even called "Wolverine, Eat Your Heart Out".
 * Also, what happens when you sit on Durkon's head as he casts Thor's Might.
 * Fast Forward Mechanic: Invoked in "Time is On My Side".
 * Fatal Flaw
 * The Pride and inability to admit that his/her magic can't do everything of Vaarsuvius, as pointed out by the fiends in #634. See also here: "Mistakes were made all around, but the important thing is that this needless conflict is now over WITHOUT the loser's entire family line getting totally eradicated. So, you know. Progress."
 * On the Origin of PCs has Roy claiming that belief in the complete supremacy of arcane magic is a common flaw among spellcasters.
 * Thinking he knows more about a situation than he actually does is Roy's Fatal Flaw. If Roy had known from the very beginning, . In a Too Clever by Half moment, he also believed he had outsmarted the Oracle when the latter was more than happy to just tell him which Gate Xykon was headed towards next. Later, he dismissed the Celestial's warnings about  because he thought she was talking about Belkar.
 * Fate Worse Than Death
 * , and.
 * A slightly more humorous example: after willingly being abused and used as a weapon by Belkar in order to not be destroyed, the head of the "Eye of Fear and Flame" (one of Xykon's three decoys) finally draws the line when the latter announces his intentions to eventually use him as an "emergency chamber pot".
 * Another humorous example: Kobold Kitty Litter.

V & Belkar: No."

"Belkar: Here's an idea: Let's never do this again.
 * Faux Horrific: Elan is appalled at the terrible choreography of the opening act of the gladiator games.
 * Faux Yay: "Slash Attack" -- by Belkar and Roy, after seeing Tarquin's face for the first time, to explain their surprise as they recognized Elan's traits on him.
 * Favouritism Flip Flop: Inverted in "The Prisoner Dilemma".
 * Fetch Quest: Begins the second arc. Subject to lots of lampshading (but of course).
 * Filler Strips: Lampshaded.
 * Final Solution: Vaarsuvius's partner and children are threatened by a vengeful dragon. Fueled by demonic and devilish magic, Vaarsuvius finds a solution to the problem:
 * Fire-Forged Friends: Blackwing resents being Vaarsuvius's familiar, due to V's neglectful behaviour towards him for most of the comic. But when they're forced to work together in an attempt to destroy Xykon, they put aside their differences and learn mutual respect for one another.
 * Five-Man Band: The title group.
 * The Hero: Roy
 * The Lancer: Haley
 * The Big Guy: Durkon
 * The Smart Guy/Girl: Vaarsuvius
 * The Heart: Elan
 * Sixth Ranger: Belkar (pun intended)
 * Flashback Nightmare: "Running Away"
 * Fluffy Cloud Heaven: The coexistent demiplane from which the Upper Planes denizens come to watch mortals. Eugene is stuck there because of his Unfinished Business.
 * Flynning: The fight between Elan and is full of it.
 * Follow the Leader: Several webcomics openly copy OotS's premise and art style.
 * Keychain of Creation is probably the best-known of those.
 * Anti-HEROES openly describes itself as such.
 * The Way of the Metagamer
 * Murphy's Law
 * Our Little Adventure uses the same basic setup, though the art style puts it a bit apart.
 * Force Versus Discipline: Sorcerers (force) vs. wizards (discipline).
 * Foreshadowing
 * After defeating a Black Dragon, the party realizes he was just an underling of the real guardian of the cave. The real guardian of the cave? Plus, the Black Dragon in the cave mentions  while talking to V. For extra fun, read V's dialogue in strip #338. Spoilers, ahoy!
 * Plus #572, specifically when the Oracle tells Roy why he wants him gone.
 * Also an extremely subtle one in #600. See what Eric is playing with?
 * Haley's evil twin gibe could be seen as this or as a Call Back.
 * "Only the honor of a paladin is unbreakable -- even by death itself."
 * Nale says, "This disguise won't work forever. Except maybe for the halfling."
 * Look over here. Now look over here.
 * "Then I will die, but not today."
 * A minor one, but look at the hair belonging to the new aspect of Haley's personality in strip #319. Now go to any strips between #610 and #752 involving the party.
 * "I hoped really, really hard, and he still didn't escape!"
 * "Do you need, like, 200-foot tall flaming letters or something?"
 * The Oracle saying Roy and Elan are late for a pair of family reunions.
 * Nale accusing Tarquin of killing his wife, when Tarquin thought it was Nale hints something went very wrong.  Then strip #843 happens and explains it all for us.
 * Girard Draketooth isn't just your basic fantasy Awesome McCoolname.
 * Forging Scene: Appears with the reforging of Roy's greatsword intercut with shots of other characters preparing for the upcoming story arc. Also notable in that it's one of the few forging scenes in fiction that feature a female smith.
 * For Inconvenience Press One: "Hello! And Welcome to ThorPrayer TM ."
 * Fourth Wall: Broken, smashed, and plowed under by a steamroller.
 * Fourth Wall Mail Slot
 * The Order does one in "Mail Call" and later in "The Return of Mail Call".

Haley: Yeah, like we're never gonna need filler again. Dream on, shorty."

"Belkar: Wait, he can pronounce "stratosphere" but not "the"?"
 * A pair of expendable hobgoblins then take over in "Son of Mail Call".
 * Fox News: Referenced briefly as the horrible method Gnomes get information, it looks like Burlew is taking a shot at the news outlet... until the panel cuts away to a bunch of gnomes listening to an actual fox, red, white-tipped tail, yipping noises and everything. Let's face it, if you got all your news from a small furry animal, some things would slip through the cracks.
 * Friendly War: We have
 * Funetik Aksent: Durkon, lampshaded.

"Vaarsuvius: And yet I see no reason why I still need ye. You."
 * It's contagious.


 * And persistent.
 * Funny Background Event: Panel 4 of "It's Where the Cool Kids Swim". Look at the text of the "Safety a Close Second!" poster.
 * Fun with Acronyms: The Book of Odad