Order of the Stick

Dwarves are usually described in the D&D stuff as darker than the art usually depicts them anyway, the lighter-skinned dwarves are really the weird ones.

> i din do nothin nigger
>you're tearing me apart lisa

Top kek.

asking reasonable questions does not 'that guy' make. Pointing fingers at a person asking a question and screaming 'that guy' does, however.

because nothing shifts your phenotype towards high skin pigmentation like living under mountains for generations

>Dwarves live in isolated fortresses
>each Fortress-clan lives somewhat isolated for generations, developing somewhat distinctive physical characteristics
>eventually new fortresses are born and trade routes shift over the centuries
>populations follow prosperity, and the new holds are at the crossroads
how's that?

The correct answer is "virtue signaling."

I guess so. You see it in drow too.

Drow.

Or, like, he decided to go with a normal spread of skintones without thinking too hard about it.

Now its like real life sweden.
They were all probably sitting around waiting to collect their welfare.

Nah, here's a guide for you:

Virtue Signalling: Doing actions of no consequence to signal to your audience that you are Truly Virtuous because you can't get off otherwise.

Example:

"But why are the dwarves so 'racially diverse'???"

"The correct answer [to why the dwarves are racially diverse] is virtue signalling"

"The guy questioning diverse dwarves and the guy talkling about virtue signalling are both morons because they're actually virtue signalling"

Not an example: "Black dwarves exist without comment."

It's a main temple to Thor, who is the main deity of the dwarves in this setting, I think.

If so, seeing dwarves from across the world having gathered there for some reason or another wouldn't be all that unbelievable.
...but yeah it's totally just for racial diversity in a non-human species.
Also how confident are we only the males have beards?

Didn't the creator of this comic go a bit off the social justice deep end? And have a big spergout on the forums?

>Reddit spacing
>retarded logic

Sure is apologetic leftist in here. Go back to the containment forum

>2017
>still trying to force alt-shit buzzwords into common parlance

Yeah you flipped through a philosophy book and didn't understand a term, good for you kids.

This is the weakest insult ever

You're right, that would require them to have ever opened a book in their lives to begin with.

>implying that anything about modern racial groupings is "normal"

I'm telling your Mom you're using Veeky Forums again

>Reddit spacing
I want this meme to die.

I want

you

to

not

type

like

this

!!!!

So how soon can we expect any plot progression?

We just got done with a long winded encounter and background character development, probably so they can do cool things later like crash the ship into skellyman at the last second.

They'll probably have another location establishing travel strip, and then some landing and preparations bickering. We just had Greenhilt have another "this is useless we'll never succeed now" speech so I don't know if I expect him to wander into Durkon's killing grounds without a plan or without hope. I may be expecting a Friendship Saves the Day resolution.

best Thog

>You're tearing me apart, Lisa
Well, my sides indeed are torn apart.

In Norse mythology dwarves can be mistaken as Dokkalfar or Svartalfar (dark/black elves) and, in contrast to the fair-of-skin Lyosalfar, are quite dark skinned. You fucking kneejerk faggots don't know your lore.

>In Norse mythology dwarves can be mistaken as Dokkalfar or Svartalfar (dark/black elves) and, in contrast to the fair-of-skin Lyosalfar, are quite dark skinned. You fucking kneejerk faggots don't know your lore.

I was under the impression Dwarves were or would be lightskinned since they live underground and are traditionally depicted as such, but either way the "sentiment" of the confusion remains.

It seems unlikely that exclusive, isolated, Dwarven communities would be very ethnically diverse, not that they wouldn't be white or black, so much as they'd be one or the other.... or, like, a very inbred tone of brown.

You're applying real-world logic and understanding to a world where there are gods, vampires, orcs, and paladins. You're not wrong to be doing so, it certainly is coming from a place of "diversity," but in this case it's not for the sake of itself, it actually makes sense within the lore. Dark-skinned means a wide range of things. Pigment is generally genetic, and often is caused by multiple genes carrying pigmentation alleles across the chromosomes.

IIRC, Durkon turned down the other Paladin because she didn't follow Thor, right? These communities could be even more insular based on belief, which would make the one group of darker-skinned people possibly converts from another faith. Since we've got dark elves worshipping red-bearded fair Thor, skin color clearly doesn't matter to them in terms of actual character.

Yeah, she was a Loki worshiper.

Actually, given Loki is on the Order's side in this, any chance she'll show up?

So exactly like Bandana's heavy-handed lesbianism?

He sure did, user

>If it’s “forced” now, that’s only because I failed to include any obviously gay characters for 900+ strips and that is so completely uncool that I need to fix it NOW, not later. If that produces some rough edges, well, I guess we’ll all just have to put on our adult pants
-Rich Burlew, a man who cared deeply about LGBT representation for a couple of hours once

True, user, but Burlew doesn't care about the lore when it gets in the way of representation, since Heimdallr, described as 'whitest of the gods' (admittedly I've only found the Brittanica source thus far) is black in oots. Also, no-one would have a problem if they were all as swarthy as depicted in the stories, or had a more plausible and smaller range of skin-tones of whatever colour, but it's hard to not feel that this panorama of diversity, with the darkest dwarves explicitly stating their familial relationship to the character, is rather forced.

No, he turned her down because she was married and behaving in a dishonourable manner. IIRC, he never even mentioned Loki

Thank you, this is the best one since duet Thog

You got a problem with Idris Elba?
Because I'd give good odds it's a reference to/not bothering to look further than the most famous depiction of Heimdall in recent memory

With translation issues and such there's also possibilities "whitest" might also be interpreted as "purest" or "most noble", but that's kinda by the by.

Not saying the dwarves don't have quite a range of skin tones though, and knowing Burlew he probably did do it on purpose, but it doesn't really detract that much.
Unless societies being homogeneous/diverse is something you're constantly on the lookout for, of course.

Yeah, it was an alignment thing more than anything else - she was Chaotic (cheating) and Evil (minor case based on the god she served, but it was Nale's party), he's very Lawful (see, the whole "not returning" thing) and pretty Good.

The abandoning her husband thing was what tipped him off.
I do kind of hope she shows up

I did initially, but thought he was an excellent choice once I'd seen the film.

I never used to, but after Girl Genius's depiction of a Paris where there appears to have been some kind of ethnic cleansing, and Burlew's newfound stances, I do tend to notice these things, but only where they don't make sense to me. The Mechane crew's diversity is plausible and reasonable, since it can easily travel the world recruiting suitably greedy amoral rogues, but a huge range of skin tones in an isolated population that lives underground is not.

Oh well, maybe they're a special caste who selectively breed for camouflage in unlit tunnels

>Ethnic cleansing
I'm pretty sure it's just the Master's family who's black. He just has a very extended family.

Well there's also Aldin and his brother, who are two of the most prominent guys we see. Them and the Master + Collete are like 75% of the Parisians we spend time with

Also the lady at the entrance desk who was really hyped to meet Agatha.

this is true I'd expect to see people from all over the world around the Vatican, especially around Easter and Christmas

Perhaps that was a little strong, but look at these street scenes
girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20150601#.WXsjckHTXYU

girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20151007#.WXsjuUHTXYV

where the only pale people are the foreigners. (I'm not sure if the Foglios unintentionally made the second more amusing, or if they were being cheeky, but it is explicitly stated as being Paris's black market, which provoked a chuckle)

This isn't deeply wounding on a personal level or anything, but I get the sense that if Girl Genius gets to Africa, which I believe it's supposed to do in the future, we won't see the streets populated almost entirely by crackers.

On reflection, I wasn't entirely truthful earlier: it makes me cringe to remember it, but I was confused enough at the age of seven to ask my French teacher how she could be from France when all the art and pictures of French people I'd seen had depicted white people. She was kind enough to take it well, and told me a little about the French Empire and movement of peoples, but maybe I've had /pol/ autism from birth

Which one was duet Thog? Can you post it, please?

...

>we won't see the streets populated almost entirely by cracker
We actually might. Zeetha's tribe is from Africa IIRC.

Winner winner, chicken dinner

too

bad

jive

sucka

Of course

It's my favourite in terms of 'laugh I did not see coming', like the 'The Room' references in today's; today's thog and ones like pic related that pare down the WORDSWORDSWORDS to the most useful and funny words are better overall

Why has the final panels improved so much?

Being Durkon is suffering.

They haven't. People's real beef with OOTS was that it updated at a pace best described as 'glacial', and people were sick of waiting weeks to months between strips.

Now that they're updating every few days, suddenly all these "horrible problems" with the writing don't seem as pressing anymore.

...

>So exactly like Bandana's heavy-handed lesbianism?

I will never fucking get that non-argument. She mentions once that the spare clothes she gives Haley are her ex's. That's it. You guys are so afraid of any mention of homosexuality you probably don't even have closets at home

I'm with you, it's pretty absurd to call an offhand mention of a lez ex "pandering". There's not been any dudes making out every panel (or any panel), there's no "muh oppression" clogging up the story. I don't know the context of Rich's sperg out on forums but I imagine people accusing you of pandering for a little thing would bother me too.

Since I'm gay and male, I suppose lesbians are some of my natural foes and that could make me hypersensitive, but I have to disagree.
giantitp.com/comics/oots0959.html

can clearly be distinguished from

giantitp.com/comics/oots0387.html

for a number of reasons: Rich's rant

>Sometimes, in order to move forward, we have to stop waiting for the moment to be right, or the situation to arise organically, or whatever euphemism you want to put on the idea of maintaining the status quo because it’s easier, and just do it. If it’s “forced” now, that’s only because I failed to include any obviously gay characters for 900+ strips and that is so completely uncool that I need to fix it NOW, not later. If that produces some rough edges, well, I guess we’ll all just have to put on our adult pants and learn to live with that one solitary flaw in this otherwise pristine work of art* for the sake of inclusion.

The way it manages to cover, in the words of a forumite

>so many important themes in a single page: (i) homosexuality; (ii) weight/beauty issues ("curvy"); (iii) women that always dreamed to fit in positions of authority; (iv) the stereotype that tells that girls are either sister-like friends or enemies that tell each other gender-oriented offenses (you b****, etc); (v) the "chainmail bikini" stereotype ("bare midriff")

in a way that feels like a tract directly from the author inelegantly smashing through the fourth wall and tainting each part of the page, including the lesbianism

And, most importantly, Rich abandons one of the core premises of the entire comic, which is to be a humorous portrayal of D&D in the grossly unrealistic line, "My ex left it in the closet when we spilt". Adventurers NEVER abandon anything they can possibly sell or use. Maybe it's supposed to imply that Bandanna murdered her or something, but it looks as if Rich wanted Bandanna to have a spare set of armour, panicked about fat acceptance, then realised he could get a twofer with some representation

Plus the "Muh lady's arm!" from a pirate and thief and "I've never needed a wand!" lines

Bandana and her ex have never been even as much as suggested to be adventurers, where did you get that idea?

Don't you feel you're kind of reaching when you're suggesting making dick jokes is pushing an agenda?

>Rich's rant
>Giving a fuck about anything but the work itself

Death of the author, user.

These are fun to do.

Oh, look, the cleric of STONE couldn't in fact get past the STONE wall, because Burlew can't into consistency because he's a fucking hack who doesn't think of how a gaggle of high level clerics wouldn't prepare a third level spell between them even though they know (roughly) what the area they'll be invading is like.

>cleric of Stone

Didn't know that Stone was among Hel's domains

>Didn't know that all clerics can cast all the cleric spells even though they specifically mentioned it in the comic
>Didn't know that vampires can access their hosts memories even though we have multiple pages mentioning it.
Is your IQ in the double digits?

>Didn't know that all clerics can cast all the cleric spells even though they specifically mentioned it in the comic
That wasn't the part I was arguing.
>Didn't know that vampires can access their hosts memories even though we have multiple pages mentioning it.
That doesn't give access to another god's domains. They're clerics, not wizards.

Retard.
d20srd.org/srd/spells/stoneShape.htm

Do you remember how Durkula cast weather control? IT'S LITERALLY THE SAME EXACT FUCKING THING YOU FUCKING RETARD.

And I agree. Not having that prepared is stupid.
So is your entire argument about domains that you're trying to backpedal from now.

No, my entire argument was not about domains, which you could tell if you bothered to read the post chain, which you can't because your IQ is about 70. I never mentioned domains, this jackass did.

Brilliant, user.

Because it's absolutely outside the realm of /any/ D&D setting that a sanctified temple to a greater deity might have magical protections against the kind of bullshittery adventurers, demons, enemy priests and other such beings can pull.

It's almost like you never played a tabletop game and jump on hatedom bandwagons to make yourself feel included in something.

You're overthinking it.

>No, my entire argument was not about domains
>>Oh, look, the cleric of STONE couldn't in fact get past the STONE wall

Yeah, like that one they had the Godsmoot at! Totally well protected against say, an evil vampire killing and subverting the vote.

Knowledge!=Domains. I thought this would be obvious, but I wasn't counting on your incredible stupidity.

>having a knowledge of something makes you a cleric of that something
>a crisis assembly of pilgrims, with a meeting that was literally made a few days before by actual low-level clerics of Earth (which is mentioned in-universe) is the same as a temple used for centuries by high-level clerics

user, please stop projecting your mental insecurities onto others. If my IQ is in double digits, I'm afraid your number is predated by a minus sign.

His knowledge of stone is why he's ranting about everything.
But he doesn't have stone-based spells prepared because he didn't think he'd need them, what with being promised an easy way in and being a cleric of Hel instead of being a cleric of Earth now.
So instead of being able to just fuck with the stone, he's reduced to using all the stone-knowledge he's taken from his host and angrily berating things in frustration.

This is literally what postmodern cucks say to avoid responsibility for their products.

This is literally what contemporary libertard cucks say to demean works of authors they like because their views didn't line up with their politics, i.e. Lovecraft. So congratulations on being what you hate.

Good pick

>Appeal to consequences

Fallacy

Is their argument wrong or not, user?

>Doing actions of no consequence
Those doesn't exist. People underestimate how book burning and strife works.

Fallacy fallacy

Pointing out only the fallacy and not arguing is not much an argument.

Generally, death of an author is a used as a crutch by shit creators, mainly ones unable to accept criticism, a deflection. Some pieces of media are fine, especially if the author, you know, is actually DEAD

>The comic is clearly and obviously gay pandering, since if you dig into the forums, you can find someone saying stuff that proves me right~!

>Butchering DOTA this bad

It's literally the idea that your interpretation's can be just as valid as the author's, since the author merely defined a topic space by writing, and his interpretation of that space, yours, and mine can all be different, but no one's view is superior.

We like DOTA user, It actually allows for better criticism because otherwise the author is too strong an authority to be a dumbass.

For example, if the author says the story's about stupid shit you don't agree with, it doesn't end the conversation about an otherwise good story just because the author has the right to end all debate merely by presenting their stupid opinion.

Postmodern morons with bad opinions will still have bad opinions which they'll snootily claim are just as valid as yours, yeah, but they were gonna do that anyways, plus and the alternative is there's one (probably snooty) moron, the author, totally running the show for everyone else. Pass.

Nice post but DOTA's for morons prove me wrong, oh wait you can't because DOTA, you scrub.