The Order of the Stick/Tropes P-Z

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Tropes A-F | Tropes G-O | Tropes P-Z

Tropes used in The Order of the Stick include:

P

  • Paint It Black: This happens at least three times in the comic. Vaarsuvius and Miko each receive one of these, while Belkar gets an inversion when given a temporary Wisdom boost. The title of the strip which has Vaarsuvius' transformation actually references the song/trope title as well, as V's robe is, in fact, painted black.
  • Parody Magic Spell: The Harry Potter parody character uses "Stopus Badguyus!" when trying to repel Thog.
  • Pass the Popcorn

Belkar: Do you think I have time to get popcorn??

Redcloak: Don't go anywhere, I've still got a coconut custard that has "siege engine disposition" written all over it.

  • Pietà Plagiarism: Therkla's death.
  • Pinball Projectile: Lucky shot variant, subverted.
  • Pirate Girl: Given the choice between pirate and ninja, Haley declares this suited her better.
  • Pixellation
    • Humorously used to hide the genitals of naked characters (mostly Elan). Because, you know, stick figures...
    • Used in a flashback in one of the prequel books. Eugene casts an illusion spell, which pixilates the frame. His teacher Fyron decides it's time to teach him about image resolution.
  • Placebo Eureka Moment: Seen in "It's Battlicious!", where Redcloak gets the idea to distribute his soldiers for The Siege of Azure City from Xykon's "March up the walls and blast away" attitude.
  • Playing with a Trope: Hoooooo boy.
  • Please Select New City Name
    • After nearly one year of occupation by the hobgoblins, Azure City is renamed Gobbotopia City.
    • Names of towns and countries change regularly in the volatile Western Continent. For example, Bleedingham (capital of the Empire of Blood) was formerly known as Terrorburg (capital of Tyrinaria).
  • Please Vote for Our Comic: The incentive comics to encourage people to vote for them on Buzzcomics.
  • Point That Somewhere Else: During Elan's first encounter with General Tarquin, the latter bends Elan's silver rapier away from his face with the tip of a finger.
  • Pokémon-Speak: "TEEVO!"
  • Poor Communication Kills
    • Literally. If Celia had explained that magic was required to break her talisman and summon her, Roy's death could have been avoided altogether. She assumed everyone could shoot lightning from their fingers.
    • Lampshaded (of course) and Defied Trope in a later strip, where Elan specifically tells Haley the whole story about Therkla, despite the fact that bardic tradition demands he "withhold it all so that at some later point, you can accidentally learn an incomplete version and jump to all the wrong conclusions, thus leading to entertaining dramatic conflict later in our relationship."
    • Girard Draketooth concealed the location of his gate from everybody and told them it was at a random spot in the desert, as explained in this strip. It really bites him in the butt when he failed to foresee that people who weren't Soon Kim might go looking for the Gate.
    • In "Cold Blooded", it's almost literal.
  • Porn Stash: Draconic porn stash.
  • Powered by a Forsaken Child: One or two of Tarquin's magic items.

Elan: Yeah right. Like I would use your crazy evil ring that you probably, like, tortured somebody to death or something to give it magic.
Tarquin: Now, that is quite enough, young man. I am frankly offended that you would even suggest I would do such a thing to-- Wait, who do you consider a "somebody"?
Elan: Anybody!
Tarquin: Fine, fine, I'll keep the ring then.

  • The Power of Legacy: O-Chul allows himself to be blamed for the destruction of Soon's gate to prevent further tarnishing of Miko's legacy.
  • The Power of Love: Elan telling Haley, "I believe in you," provides her with a circumstance bonus on her Open Locks roll sufficient to open a difficult lock, allowing the party to (momentarily) escape the Azure City prison.
  • Power Perversion Potential
    • Haley takes advantage of V's invisibility sphere to grope Elan.

Haley: I have 8 ranks in Use Rope!
Belkar: Kinky.
Haley: Shut up.

    • To say nothing of Sabine's shapeshifting and her relationship with Nale.
  • Powers Via Possession: Sort of; the Soul Splice leaves the host in control.
  • Pragmatic Villainy
    • In Start of Darkness, Xykon refuses to do any villainous scheme involving deflowering virgins. Because it's like giving a guy who doesn't know carpentry a hammer and expecting him to build you a house.
    • Belkar, amazingly enough, manages an instance of this, after one of his shoulder demons convinces him that saving Hinjo's life will work out better for him in the long run than letting him be killed by an assassin.
    • Tarquin is The Man Behind the Man, plans on defacto ruling till he gets too old, in such a manner that no one realizes he controls a massive amount of resources, is ruthless in his goals and means, but is Genre Savvy enough to try and help his son. (Mostly since his goal is to rule like a king, then get immortalized in story form when his son offs him for being a tyrant.) And if Xykon flattens the world... well, there would be nothing left to rule, now would there? The sad part? Before he showed up, many more people where dying horribly due to constant chaotic warfare. His plan, while ruthless and underhanded as hell, will probably save many lives. He knows this and thinks it will add another layer to the "story" if Elan realizes this and has to cope with it when he decides what to do about Tarquin.
  • Precision F-Strike
    • Xykon using "Shit." in Start of Darkness.
    • And "Nuts." when he finds that "the Oracle is OUT".
  • Precursor Heroes: The Order of the Scribble
  • Prematurely Bald
    • Durkon has been bald since he was fifteen years old.
    • Eugene Greenhilt lost his hair as a young man, and his son Roy shaved his to "beat genetics to the punch".
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Redcloak gives the Resistance one of these, right before he wipes them out completely.
  • Pressure Plate: A stapple of the traps encoutered by the Order. Vaarsuvius falls victim to a nasty one in "Lack of Foresight".
  • Pride: Vaarsuvius; Daimyo Kubota; Nale to some degree, and a few others.
  • Pronoun Trouble: When talking about Vaarsuvius, others intentionally construct sentences to avoid pronouns, or use the nickname "V" in places where one would expect "he" or "she". V does get referred to by various genders, but Word of the Giant is that that's what the person believes. Taken even further with the brief look at V's mate and children, who refer to V exclusively as "Other Parent" as translated from Elven.
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality: Lampshaded by Elan, when a dinosaur intervenes at the right time to prevent the grisly death of two of their rivals, while chomping several unnamed guards.

Elan: Hooray, the people whose names we know are saved!

Q

R

  • Ravens and Crows
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Roy to Miko, Vaarsuvius to both Miko and Belkar at the same time, Redcloak to Miko, and Hinjo to Miko (she really gets a lot of these, doesn't she?). Xykon delivered a particularly nasty one to Vaarsuvius on the nature of true power. In general, this is Xykon's specialty. And in #830, Redcloak to Tsukiko.
  • Recursive Reality: Possibly. Inside the rift, there is a planet. What is on the planet is unknown. Common theories are that it's the original world supposedly destroyed by the Snarl, it's the Snarl itself, it's a new planet created by the Snarl, and many other theories. In the fourth book's commentary, Rich Burlew Josses the idea that it's our Earth.
  • Red Shirt: Played with, subverted, lampshaded, and played straight, sometimes within mere strips of one another. Redcloak, as hinted by his name, was originally supposed to be one, before being more heavily developed.
  • Redshirt Army: Azure City's army, and most of the Sapphire Guard. Except for members whose names are known.
  • Redemption Equals Death
    • Subverted with Miko.
    • Played tragically straight with Therkla.
  • Reference Overdosed
  • Reforged Blade: The hereditary Greenhilt Sword, which got broken by Xykon during their first confrontation. Reforged with Starmetal, it's now a Plus Five Sword, with extra bonuses and neat glowy effects against Undead.
  • Refuge in Audacity: With the help of a Potion of Glibness (which adds 30 points to her already substantial Bluff skill), Haley basically uses lying to bend reality according to her will.

Haley: You don't see us.
Guard 1: Huh, must be a trick of the light.
Haley: You don't work here anymore.
Guard 2: Crap! How am I gonna pay my mortgage?!
Haley: You are actually a yellow-footed rock wallaby.
Guard 3: Screw this guard stuff, then. I'm gonna go find a wizard to polymorph me back.

Xykon: See? Never bet against the gullibility of the good guys, Redcloack.
Redcloak: I had no idea you had put so many skill ranks in Reverse Psychology.
MitD: Wait, what gate?

    • Roy manages to convince his father to help scrying the mortal realm from the afterlife... by renouncing to beg him or even to get angry about his refusal. Eugene even calls it "reverse psychology" at one point... but he still falls for it. It's unintentional on Roy's part; he really no longer wanted his dad's help at that point. It's absolutely brilliant, too. Only a minute or two after Eugene tells Roy to screw off and go back the mountain to cry to his mother, he's scrying for him.

Eugene Greenhilt: Listen to me, young man, you will stand there and watch as I scry for you and like it, because I am your father!
Roy Greenhilt: You do know that doesn't make any sense, right?

Vaarsuvius: She is, naturally, directly behind me.
Miko: Naturally.

  • Right-Hand-Cat: Mr. Scruffy to Lord Shojo. And later, to Belkar.
  • Right Place, Right Time, Wrong Reason: When Vaarsuvius asks the Oracle how to obtain "ultimate arcane power", this is the answer given almost word-for-word. V sells a timeshare on his/her soul to three fiends in exchange for a temporary epic-level power boost. Although the stated motive was to save his/her family, V later admits that the only reason s/he did it was because s/he didn't want to ask anyone for help, and suffers (and will yet suffer) the consequences. The prophecy is fulfilled exactly as given.
  • Ring of Power
    • Vaarsuvius' Ring of Wizardry;
    • Belkar's Ring of Jumping +20;
    • Tarquin's Rings of Regeneration and True Seeing;
    • Tsukiko has a ring protecting her from energy drains, an obvious safeguard for one dealing regularly with wights. It didn't save her, though.
  • The Rival: Crystal the Assassin for Haley. She's clearly not the smartest pickle in the jar, but dramatic conventions demand that Crystal at least matched to Haley's experience level -- and they both know it.

Haley: ...she's a personal rival. She's ALWAYS gonna be the same level as I am when we meet, if not higher.
(cutaway panel; Crystal is playing cards when a "DING!" appears overhead)
Crystal: Sweet! Starshine gained another level!

Samantha: Dad!
Sam's father: Samantha!
Elan: Haley!
Haley: Elan!
Belkar: Hot chick!

  • Role Playing Game Verse: It's based on D&D 3.5, and most of the characters are fully aware of the mechanics—some more than others, of course.
  • Rouge Angles of Satin
    • In On the Origin of PCs, Roy comments about Haley's class on her resume (i.e. character sheet) being misspelled as "Rouge".
    • Lampshaded/parodied in strip #711 when Haley, due to a misreading, joins the "Sisterhood of Aton", the local Rouge's Guild.
  • RPG Mechanics Verse
  • Rule of Cool: Durkon needs to destroy a group of trees whose only weakness is sonic damage, so he uses a control weather scroll to summon a thunderstorm which shatters the trees with the noise of the thunderclap. Thor thinks this is such an awesome idea that he bends the rules of reality to make sure it works, much to the annoyance of his Planetar assistant.
  • Rule of Drama: Beautifully averted when Elan decides to be honest with Haley because their relationship is worth more to him than that.
  • Rule of Funny
    • The major characters have no explicitly stated levels, stats or ability sets (other than rare exceptions, like Elan's 18 in Charisma or V's 18 in Intelligence) because that would restrict the jokes. Their stats can and have been guessed based on their actions in the comic, though.
    • "She can FLY???"
  • Rule of Three: The Empires of Blood, Sweat and Tears.
  • Running Gags
    • Banjo;
    • Elan's bard songs;
    • V's creative application of explosive runes;
    • Daigo's last name;
    • "MAD!" is V's favorite way to end a rant.
    • The fact that no-one seems to know V's true gender. The author goes to ridiculous lengths to keep it hidden. In the arc where the Black Dragon attacks V's family, the children ask V's mate the following question in elvish:

Elf Child: Parent? When is Other Parent coming home?

    • People falling on the flumphs. It's subverted, then lampshaded, when Roy dies from a several-hundred-foot drop. It is also parodied in strips #526, #695, and most gloriously in #805.
    • Durkon never has the spell the party needs from him prepared when they need it.
    • Also Durkon's fear of trees.
    • Hobgoblins and gouda.

Haley: --and then Elan and I knock on the front door dressed as wandering cheese sellers.
Elan: Everyone knows hobgoblins can't resist a fine gouda.

    • The Monster in the Darnkess not knowing about any gates... ever. No matter what.
    • "... the whole kobold-head-into-an-object thing is sort of a running gag with me."
    • The 25-word limit on Sending spells. Used to hilarious effect in "Brief and to the Point".
    • Haley and Roy making bets for 10 gold.
    • The title of the strip is a definition of a word prominent in the punchline.

S

Female Thief: Screw this! I've only got 14 hit points!

  • Sdrawkcab Name
    • Nale and Elan, of course. This causes problems whenever Elan tries to avoid getting blamed for Nale's actions; people don't tend to buy the argument, "My evil twin with a name that resembles mine did it."
    • Also Roy and another single-class fighter, Yor. Roy takes pains to avoid the Dumb Muscle stereotype, favoring skill over simple pummeling, whereas Yor plays it straight and milks it for all it's worth.
  • Self-Deprecation
    • "That's such a cliché, even for this comic!"
    • Start of Darkness has two prefaces. One by the author who laments that the story ends with the bad guys winning (it's a prequel, foregone conclusion) and the other by Miko, who says, despite never having read the story, that because Evil creatures are presented as being more than just their alignment and don't get punished in the end, the author must be a depraved monster himself.
    • The preface for On the Origin of PCs has Redcloak calling the punny title "dreadful".
    • "They'll let any old hack write a sourcebook these days." Rich created an Acidborn Shark as part of a D&D sourcebook called Dungeonscape.
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The one given to Belkar. To wit: he wanted to know if he would end up causing the death of any of the following: Roy, Miko, Miko's horse, Vaarsuvius or the Oracle himself. The answer is "Yes", because, as we see later, if he didn't get to kill any of the first four, that was all it took for Belkar to kill the Oracle out of pure annoyance.
    It should be pointed out that Belkar did contribute indirectly to some of those deaths: he lends Roy the Ring of Jumping that precedes his fall and contributes to Miko's Face Heel Turn, which in turn led to Windstriker being permanently trapped in the Celestial Realm which is totally comparable to death. V has escaped thus far. Of course, because the keyword in those involvements is "indirect", Belkar gets ticked off, and...
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Vaarsuvius, such as in "A Walk in the Park". In On the Origin of PCs, we have this exchange between Vaarsuvius and Roy:

Vaarsuvius: Bah!! You are clearly only hiring me because I intimidated you intellectually, to the point where your masculine pride requires you to establish your dominance over my superior mind.
Roy: Maybe. Or maybe I'm hiring you because I require the creation of a managed spherical energy release with a thermal signature no less than 1850° Kelvin, which can be manifested at specific X, Y, and Z coordinates from verbal cues. I require this specific temperature because it is the minimum level at which necrotized epidermis has been proven to combust and I have reason to believe that my mission will require the incapacitation of multiple post-organic hostiles.
Vaarsuvius: So... you need Fireball spells to toast the undead you expect to fight?
Roy: Did I stutter?
Vaarsuvius: A pleasure to serve under you, sir.
Roy: Welcome aboard. Now get me a new table.

Lirian: You may defeat me, you may even kill me, but you will never succeed in releasing the Snarl.
Xykon: Blah blah blah evil will never win blah blah.

Roy: I surrender...
Thog: STOP TALKING! *thud!*

  • Side Bet: During Xykon and Redcloak's invasion of the Azure City, Belkar cuts a side bet with one of the archers that Roy will be stupid enough to jump off the castle parapet to get to Xykon and his zombie dragon mount. Belkar being Belkar, he then proceeds to rig the outcome by loaning Roy his Ring of Jumping +20.
  • Siege Engines: Notably with Redcloak flinging a bunch of humans. Or Titanium Elementals.
  • Signed Up for the Dental
  • Significant Anagram: Zz'dtri; Giro
  • Single Palette Town: Azure City. Blue.
  • Single Tear
  • Small Reference Pools: Averted. Among other things, the prequel book titles Start of Darkness and On the Origin of PCs are plays on the classic book titles Heart of Darkness and On the Origin of Species. Never let it be said that Rich Burlew isn't well-read.
  • Smug Snake
    • Kubota thinks he's quite the Chessmaster, but he's far too reliant on his minions to really be effective and his plots are far too fragile under pressure.
    • Similarly, Nale isn't quite the evil genius he likes to think he is either.
    • Nor is Tsukiko even close to the perfect Mary Sue she believes to be.
  • The Smurfette Principle
    • The main group consists of four guys, one girl and Vaarsuvius. The supporting cast is somewhat more balanced.
    • The Linear guild initially had two women, thanks to Hilgya. After they lost her, the entire guild was invariably male, except for Sabine.
    • Team Evil had Tsukiko as their only female character, unless you count the zombie angels.
  • Snub By Omission: Durkon tells Hilgya that the rest of the Order are "a fine group, for humans. And an elf." Hilgya points out there's also a halfling, but Durkon left him out on purpose.
  • Sole Survivor: As of strip #827, Niu is the only surviving member of the Azure City Resistance.
  • Solomon Divorce: Elan & Nale
  • Someone's Touching My Butt: Invisibility Sphere (3 feet 9 inches)
  • Sorry, I'm Gay: Elan tries to use an alluring policewoman illusion to distract the cops. One says, "Sorry, I'm in a committed relationship," and the other, "Sorry, I'm gay."
  • Sorry That I'm Dying: A one-off character, of the Heroic Sacrifice variety.
  • Speech Bubble Censoring: Happens in a panel when Roy and Durkon yelling "NO" briefly covers Elan's Genitals.
  • Speech Bubbles: Numerous variations in their shape or color for specific characters.
    • Undead have black speech bubbles with white text. When Xykon becomes a lich in Start of Darkness and his speech bubbles change to the undead format, he comments on his dramatic, echoey voice.
    • Diverse colored speech bubbles for outsiders such as gods, celestials, infernals, and ghosts. Infernals usually have black speech bubbles with colored text inside (lampshaded with Qarr the imp, who is recognized by his red-on-black speech bubbles). Celestials have brightly colored bubbles with black text. Elemental spirits like Celia have a color related to their plane of origin.
    • Dragons and half-dragons also have colored speech bubbles linked to their species.
    • Being under some magical effect can alter the color of a character's speech bubbles, like with the Oracle doing a prophecy, Vaarsuvius under the Soul Splice, or Haley having imbibed a Potion of Glibness.
    • The shape is sometimes significant too, like with modrons having rectangular bubbles.
    • The connectors pointing to which character is speaking also give indications. They are straight when the speaker is healthy, but become irregular for a sick, stunned, drunk, confused, wounded or dying character, to represent shaky speech. Malack's are always this way, hinting of a raspy or hissy voice.
    • More classically, bubbles with dotted borders and grey text indicate whispering. Zz'dtri's bubbles always have grey text, since he's The Quiet One and never raises his voice.
    • Early in the comic, mumbling to oneself or aside comments by the characters were texts without bubbles and just a connector. But this became rarer and rarer and by now has phased out—except for the Demon-Roaches, who only ever talk this way.
  • Speech Bubbles Interruption: Sometimes.
  • Spot the Imposter: Double Subversion.
  • Start of Darkness: The Prequel print-only graphic novel Start of Darkness, detailing the backstories of Xykon and Redcloak, is the Trope Namer.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: Belkar tells this to Miko. Naturally, it comes back to bite him in the ass almost immediately.
  • Stealth Pun

{{quote:Roy: I guess my next question is, can the corpse lie? Durkon: Nay, na as such. They do tend to be a little cryptic, tho.}}

  • Stick Figure Comic: But don't let that fool you into thinking it's not a well-drawn comic. Despite the style, characters are complex enough to be easily recognized and backgrounds are lush and detailed.
  • Sticks to the Back: Roy's greatsword; Haley's longbow; Thog's greataxe. Mostly the result of the simplified art style. (Other weapons tends to simply disappear when not in use.) After the Art Evolution, Roy has straps on the back of his armor to hold the sword, although they work better than they should. Hayley's bow still sticks, though.
  • Stock Yuck: Babies for the Monster in the Darkness; squids (and babies) for O-Chul.
  • Street Smart
    • Among the Order, Haley is the most.
    • Among Azure City's resistance, Niu was singled out by Haley for having similar skills.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Nale and Elan look exactly like Tarquin, except he has grey hair (light brown when younger). Oh, and Nale having an evil goatee.
  • Stupid Evil: Almost entirely averted, particularly for a storyline with dozens of villains.
  • Stupid Good
    • Celia will not stand murder or theft regardless of the circumstances. It doesn't matter that they're a guild of thieves; you have to pay them back.
    • Notably averted by Elan, who is both stupid and good but not Stupid Good. He absolutely refuses to kill a helpless opponent however, be it his treacherous, backstabbing (literally) brother or the smug, evil aristocrat who surrenders to Elan and tells him to his face that he's doing it so he can manipulate the courts into acquitting him and embarrassing his rival.
    • Ian Starshine cannot let the opportunity to insult a tyrant pass him by, even though said tyrant is offering him the rare chance of an official pardon thanks to Roy's actions. Insulting him doesn't even offer Ian any beneficial results other than catharsis, which would probably prove less useful in the long run than no prison sentence. Although Ian noted shortly after that he didn't believe the tyrant would ever actually honour the pardon.
  • Stylistic Suck: The creator actually spends hours making the comics, and tries to find the perfect way to balance between narration and action and simplicity and stick figures. It only looks easy because he wants us to think it looks easy. There is also the time when he made a flashback sequence in the story where the art was drawn in crayon. It's still very well drawn, though.
  • Suggestive Collision: Haley tackles Elan from above to stop him from touching a magical gate—inadvertently putting the two of them in a suggestive position.
  • Super Identikit: Subverted.[context?]
  • Super Window Jump: An inherent ability of the Dashing Swordsman Prestige Class.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial
    • When Elan joins up with Roy in On the Origin of PCs, he pulls one of these, which makes Roy question his decision to let Elan in. He probably regrets this a lot later.
    • When asked, Haley's blind NPC friend said, no, he hadn't seen her.
    • The songs Elan uses to try to lead people out of the hotel to safety are full of this.

T

Tarquin: It's weird, no matter how many people he kills the audience still thinks he's lovable!

Haley: Relax, speaking is a free action.

    • Averted in #186 where V's excessive talking uses up one of the two rounds before the dragon attacks.
    • Gets almost to self-parody levels when the following conversation takes place entirely while Belkar is in mid-jump (suspended motionless for two panels):

Belkar: Would you be interested in participating in a scientific experiment I am currently conducting?
Rogue: Hey, who the hell...
Belkar: (trisects the rogue) Glad to hear it. Thank you for your part in increasing the sum of halfling knowledge.

    • Taken to ridiculous lengths yet again in strip #811. Nale, Sabine, and Elan exchange several dozen words during the first few milliseconds of Malack's arm swing.
  • Talk to the Fist
  • Teleport Interdiction
    • The Cloister spell, invented by Dorukan and used by Xykon on Azure City. It doesn't prevent teleportation from spots within its limit, but block those coming from outside. Celia uses a specific loophole Dorukan left in the spell, and Vaarsuvius break through with an epic spell granted by the Soul Splice.
    • Redcloak has his private study completely protected from teleportation, in or out, as Tsukiko untimely discovers.
  • Tempting Fate: Regularly. Too many examples to count. Often lampshaded as well.

Old Prisoner: HA! I knew I made the right call staying in prison. That Tsukiko chick is getting her ass kicked by an elemental! It's so much safer up here!
Tsukiko: SHOUT!
(cell crumbles; a slab of stone falls and crushes the old man to death)
Nale: Well, now, really, what did you expect after a line like that?

  • Theme Naming
    • Most named elves thus far have pseudo-Latin monickers ending in "-ius": Aarindarius, Inkyrius, Polozius, Vaarsuvius...
    • Most named kobolds have a twin-syllable name: Yikyik, Yokyok, Kilkil, Yukyuk. The only known exception is among the gag names from the Gladiator Games: Notseenicus, who fought Offpanelio, off-panel and unseen.
    • Lord Shojo, his nephew Hinjo, and Shojo's late father Lord Ronjo (name given in War and XPs).
    • The Empire of Blood is very big on hemo-themed names. For that matter, the three competing Empires of Blood, Sweat and Tears.
  • Theory of Narrative Causality: And they know the world works that way. Especially Elan.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Vaarsuvius disintegrated a black dragon in "Return of the Elf". Much later, the dragon's mother wants to avenge its death... but not by killing Vaarsuvius. And not just by eating V's family alive, either, but by then using a necromancy spell to bind their dead souls to itself. How does Vaarsuvius react? After agreeing to a "soul splice", Vaarsuvius not only defeats the dragon in combat, but re-animates the dragon's head just so it can watch V cast an epic necromancy spell that kills off each and every last one of the dragon's descendants -- an estimated one-quarter of the world's entire black dragon population, before disintegrating the dragon's head off to finish it off for good.
  • They Still Belong to Us Lecture: Nale almost succeeds in convincing Elan that Haley has been evil all along, but then she overcomes her mental block against speaking and tells him the truth.
  • Thieves' Guild: They practically own Greysky City.
  • Third Person Person: "thog talk like this." In fact, most orcs do; it also seems to be a class feature of barbarians (except Belkar). This is eventually lampshaded when one orc abandons a chase to attend grammar class, hoping to learn personal pronouns.
  • The Thirty-Six Stratagems: Lord Shojo is a successful example of #27.
  • This Is for Emphasis, Bitch

Haley: SNEAK ATTACK -- BITCH!

Vaarsuvius: I may be in error, but I believe the appropriate proclamation is, "Sneak Attack, bitch."]]

  • This Is Not a Drill: Haley's Self-Loathing Alter Ego, calling all hands on deck.
  • Threshold Guardians: The Tests of the Body, Mind and Heart on the way to the Oracle in the Sunken Valley.
  • Three-Fingered Hands: As stick figures, they have even less than the cartoon-standard four fingers. In #1070, Elan gives Roy a high three.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Combined with Shoot the Rope. Zig-zagged actually, because Roy chucks his broken sword at the nooses of his allies, severing V's, Elan's, and Haley's ropes but missing Belkar's... however, the sword instead kills the executioner, and he falls over dead, activating Belkar's gallows... but again, Belkar is too light for the gallows to work. Though if Roy hadn't shown up at that point, the rogues could have easily pincushioned him when they realized the noose wasn't made for halflings.
  • Thunderbolt Iron: Roy's reforged sword. But it's alloyed with it rather than made of the stuff.
  • Time Skip: When Roy is in heaven.
  • Time Stands Still
    • The Time Stop spell.
    • From the moment the IFCC steps on the island to offer Vaarsuvius a Deal with the Devil, time is stopped for the rest of the world, as they don't like to rush this kind of transaction.
  • Time to Step Up Commander
    • A panicked Haley is told to pull it together by Durkon after Roy is put out of action during the battle of Azure City, Durkon reminding her that she's Roy's second-in-command.
    • She later delivers one herself to Thanh when she leaves the Azure City resistance.
  • To Be Lawful or Good: Both Roy and Miko run into this one. Roy manages to navigate his way around it with some clever talking and genuinely Lawful Good intentions. Miko, on the other hand...
  • Token Minority: Borderline, in that half the party isn't even human, but Roy's still the only black guy. In the party at least—there's still a fairly liberal spread of skin pigmentation in the rest of the world, Azure City notwithstanding.
  • Too Dumb to Fool: Happens to Elan and Thog once in a while. Averted just as often, though.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Elan, literally. Well, he took a level in Dashing Swordsman, which is Badass with puns and Flynning. If looked at from a mechanical prospective, it becomes even more badass as it makes him the most optimized character in the party,[1] allowing all his abilities to work off a single high attribute.
  • Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Or rather, too bland.
  • Total Party Kill: With the sole exception of Niu, the Azure City Resistance was completely wiped out by Redcloak.
  • Tree Buchet: Belkar sets one off on Durkon after the dwarf had already climbed a palm tree (to fight it, of course).
  • Trivially Obvious: Tarquin to Sabine.

Tarquin: Sabine! It's been too long. You're looking lovely.
Sabine: That's a meaningless compliment to a shapechanger, Tarquin.
Tarquin: Yes, I know.

Miko: I am Miko Miyazaki, samurai of the Sapphire Guard, loyal vassal of Lord Shojo, daughter of Eyko, and paladin of the Twelve Gods of the South.
Monster in the Darkness: Neat! It must be hard to fit that on your business cards, though.

U

"Hey, Sweet Thing, wanna hold my Rod of Lordly Might? If you push the right button, it might extend!"
"Go ahead and start a solo adventure. I'll be in to join the quest when I'm done eating."

    • Also Roy's "Treasure Type O".
    • Xykon, with a modicum of ironic respect, acknowledges that O'Chul has +5 Holy Cajones.
    • Most of this page.
    • After the Last-Second Word Swap seen above, Blackwing is more than happy to make a joke about Haley's "perky round eyes".
    • Tarquin gets accused of being a Slime Mold.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight
    • Winged Girl Celia walking (and flying) around Azure City.
    • When Elan and Tarquin are discussing Tarquin's governing methods and eventually swordfighting when Elan disagrees with his father's political philosophy, the Empress of Blood is sitting nearby on her throne. There's no indication that she notices or cares about any of it.
  • Unwitting Pawn
    • Vaarsuvius, The Linear Guild, and Xykon all play prominent roles in the Fiends' ultimate plan. With the possible exception of Sabine, no-one is aware they're being used.
    • On top of that, "Tidying Up" reveals that Redcloak has been manipulating Xykon from the beginning.
  • Uriah Gambit: Cynically resorted to by General Tarquin.

Amun-Zora: I am already married!!
Tarquin: Yes, you mentioned that. To a pikeman on the... south wall, was it? I assure you that your marital status is no longer an obstacle as of around midday today.

  • Utopia Justifies the Means: When Elan calls Tarquin out for deceiving the people of the Western Continent, Tarquin reasons that his plan might someday bring an end to the wars that kill tens of thousands of people every year. Of course, it is likely that he is lying. And even if not, it's at best a side benefit to Tarquin's overall goal, obtaining power for its own sake.

V

  • Vancian Magic: Magic in the world of OotS, naturally, follows official D&D rules... though how consistent these are is a matter of opinion. Indeed, even this is lampshaded with occasional references to "third-party supplements" and "non-core spells".

Leeky Windstaff: Truly, more wizards have been laid low by the writings of Jack Vance than by any single villain.

  • Villain Pedigree: From goblins to hobgoblins as Xykon's primary Mooks.
  • Villains Out Shopping: Xykon's caught doing this multiple times. And inverted when the villains dwell on what a terrible responsibility the heroes are under—cut to them playing Parcheesi.
  • Virgin Sacrifice: Provides the page image. When the Banjo-worshiping orc tribe prepares to sacrifice Lien, she tells them that if they're looking to make a virgin sacrifice, they'd have to travel back in time to before her Junior Prom.

Shaman Vurkle: no, banjo like girl with some experience.
Chief Grukgruk: better if been around block few times.
Lien: Damn it, how does my mother keep being right about this stuff?

Nale: And finally, our team wizard, Zz'dtri.
Zz'dtri: ...
Nale: He doesn't speak much.

W

  • Wall of Text: Compare the first comics to the later ones. Also gets lampshaded and driven to extremes.
  • Wanted Poster
    • Haley has one of these as a resume, as seen in the prequel book.
    • "Nale" -- WANTED FOR MURDER, CONSPIRACY, TREASON by Empress of Blood
  • The Watson
    • All of Redcloak's disposable hobgoblin assistants.
    • The Monster in the Darkness, quite frequently, although he doesn't understand much of the explanations.
    • Qarr for the IFCC.
  • We ARE Struggling Together!: Played straight. After the hobgoblins under Xykon overrun Azure City, three resistance groups spring up. Haley leads one, but isn't working with the others, because, as she explains:

Haley: One group believes it was the evil influence of the Order of the Stick that corrupted their righteous leader, Hinjo, and led to his ruin in battle. The other group thinks that Hinjo orchestrated Shojo's assassination personally, and that anyone who worked too closely with him can't be trusted. Neither group is therefore at all keen on the idea of working with me. We've spent more time fighting them over supplies than we have battling hobgoblins.

"Hors d'oeuvre": Can I be your familiar?
Miko: No.
"Hors d'oeuvre": C'mon, it will be fun. You'll be Mysterious Cloaked Avenger, and I can be your wisecracking sidekick.
Miko: No.

Tarquin: What I'm trying to do is move beyond those ideas (of "good" and "evil") into a world where no one has any reason to fight one another. But you can't make an omelet without ruthlessly crushing dozens of eggs beneath your steel boot and then publicly disembowling the chickens that laid them as a warning to others.

Xykon: So, any ideas on how we should fight 'Stache boy, whoever he is?
Redcloak: Soon.
Xykon: I'd prefer to know now, thanks.
Redcloak: No. I mean, that's his name.

Xykon: Why won't you DIE AGAIN, you stupid friggin' ghost-things?!?

Daigo: Sir, I know it isn't really my place to say, but...

Bureaucratic Deva: With all due respect, sir, we have a system for deciding such things -- One presided over by ACTUAL beings of pure Law and Good!

Roy: You know, technically, it's now OK for me to hit a girl.

Roy: Ugh, if that's it, that is the most lame-ass prophecy in the long history of lame-ass prophecies.
Girard: Geez, you've got to be the dumbest villain EVER.

Roy: YOU BROKE MY SWORD!
Haley: You bitch! That was a +3 bow!

  • Wretched Hive: Greysky City
  • Wutai: Azure City. Characters from the Southern Lands have Far-East Asian skin coloring and names from various Asian countries. "Lien" is a Chinese name. "Miko Miyazaki", "Shojo", and "Hinjo" are Japanese. "Soon Kim" is Korean, and "Thanh" is Vietnamese.

X

  • Xanatos Gambit
    • The Dark One's, which has been pretty successful so far. If Redcloak succeeds in taking control of the Snarl, the Dark One can use this to blackmail the other gods into giving goblins a better place in the world. If the Snarl unmakes the world, the Dark One will have a hand in making the new world, where goblins will have a better place from the start. And even if the Order of the Stick stops Redcloak, Gobbotopia is doing pretty well.
    • Nale pulled off one in Cliffport. If the Order tried to rescue Julia and failed, then he would be in a position to kill them all. If they did rescue Julia, then he still would have captured Elan and been able to take his revenge on him. But, because the Order managed to rescue Julia and also realized that Nale had been trying to kidnap Elan in the confusion, they run off to rescue their teammate and give Nale the chance to switch places with Elan and attack the Order from the inside.
    • Tarquin has his adventuring buddies serve as advisors to rulers of three kingdoms. they stage invasions, revolutions, and liberations in order to unite the western continent under three super powers. And he knows that eventually, Elan's going to fight him and he will be defeated, and as long as he can accept that, he wins and he'll be part of a great story and his name will be immortalized. "If I win, I get to be a king. If I lose, I get to be a legend."
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: As shown in "The Cost of Freedom", Tarquin is also a master of this.
  • X Called. They Want Their Y Back.: "Gordium called -- they have a knot that you may want to take a look at."
  • The X of Y: The Order of the Stick
  • X on a Stick: Not that frequent, considering the title of the comic...

Thog: oooo! head-on-a-stick!
Haley: Sneak Attack on a stick, snake-face!!

Y

MitD: Mr. Stiffly! MR. STIFFLY! O-CHUL!!

Belkar: OK, elf, enough with the jokes. You got me, fair enough, now bring the ship back.
[...]
Belkar: ... Vaarsuvius?

Redcloak: Hey! You in the box! Lean all your weight to the left!
MitD: You got it! ... OK, so when you say "left," you mean--
Redcloak: I mean not this side, you idiot!
MitD: You got it!

Redcloak: No, to the left! THE LEFT, you stupid invertebrate! Grapple her from the-- Goddamn it!

Z

  • Zerg Rush: This is what happens to Azure City, utterly and totally Zerg Rushed by Xykon and Redcloak's army of 30,000 hobgoblin Mooks, plus a number of other creatures including various undead, titanium and chlorine elementals (Redcloak's knowledge of chemistry is not to be underestimated), and three decoy Xykons (a Huecuva, a Death Knight, and an "Eye of Fear and Flame"). That particular Zerg Rush was made possible by two things: first, Redcloak's Titanium Elementals ripping a gigantic hole in Azure City's walls, and second, a Death Knight of a far higher CR than any of the soldiers at the breach—including Vaarsuvius—could realistically handle. When Redcloak makes decoys, he plays for keeps.

Ghast: Sir, we finally have enough corpses to serve as a ramp for your horse.
Death Knight: THEN LET THE REAPING BEGIN!!

  1. ↑ in contrast to a group that includes a fighter with high Intelligence, a wizard who bans the most useful schools of magic while focusing on the worst and a cleric who uses healing spells instead of shutting down encounters
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