Wow,
I never imagined I would see something like this in OotS, but from what I see this is a typical:
1. Someone criticizes a concept, comic, game, story etc. everyone loves including the critique
2. People respond like
-"if you do not like it do not "read it", "play it", "use it" etc.
-"if you could do better why don't you "make one", "publish one", "write one" etc.
3. The critique has to answer 1 billion ridiculous arguments to prove his point, thus making more statements that could be misinterpreted.
4. The crowd keeps the same attitude
5. Finally the critique is pissed and begins outright insulting people or thoughts
6. Victory for the resistance.
And that is why nothing IMPROVES...
Before I start making more statements let me say this:
"The OotS is the BEST story driven webcomic I have ever read, in fact it is the BEST story driven comic, I will keep reading it, and will buy the books and although I wish Rich updates every single day, I do not want the comic to end either"
Now some examples:
1. XKCD:
I used to love XKCD, now I find it revoltingly unfunny and uninteresting, this did not happen overnight but if you search through XKCD forums you would see some poor critiques, criticizing that days' comic and attacked and insulted by "Fans". Randall, seeing that people loves everything he throws at them gradually lowers quality and finally there is nothing left of the previous quality and no one understands what is wrong, not even the author.
I have similar fears for the SMBC but so far Zach has been very interesting and consistent.
2. PC GAMES especially CRPGs:
Years ago the best CRPGs were Planescape Torment, and Baldurs Gate and the like, now it is SKYRIM, why? Because you cannot criticize, if you can please compare an "item description" in Baldur's Gate 2 to the best "book" in SKYRIM and compare the storytelling quality in both. If you keep loving what someone throws at you, they will keep throwing worse stuff at you because you will keep loving it regardless.
If you do not know there is an Infinity engine modding (which is a pain) community "Spellhold Studios" and they have produced amazing content, please go to their forums and look at how they react to suggestions and criticism, they are extremely open and welcoming, which results in amazing content.
OKAY, now back to OotS and Carry2,
I am not saying that Rich is going to gradually decrease quality. BUT Carry2 is right about strip #901.
1. First of all Xykon is NOT that stupid or absent minded, the most obvious example being (From The Start of Darkness):
Spoiler
Show
His observations about Right-Eye and Redcloak
2. It would take them 2 rounds to destroy OotS (not much of a team B keeping them busy)
3. It is more plausible for Xykon to be extremely mad about the destruction of the gate and obliterate people who did that.
4. Most importantly MitD's way of making his statement etc. is seriously just poor. It is like two guys are facing eachother and:
Guy1: "There is a bear behind you!"
Guy2: "Oh, why don't I feel it then?"
Guy1: "Oh you better run, you cannot feel it because it is a bear wearing slippers, it is walking veeeery slowly but it is coming after you"
Guy2: "Oh, hmm ok I better run then"
Ok, Now let me tell you why I am criticizing that particular strip and why I think Carry2 is criticizing that strip.
We are criticizing that strip because we do not understand why Rich chose to make that strip as it is when there were probably a hundred better ways of:
-Making OotS survive
-Making Team Evil take off
-MitD demonstrating its intelligence
In the same strip. I am not saying that "I" can come up with a better way, but knowing Rich's storytelling abilities, I BELIEVE that he could have come up with a hundred better strips than #901 and #901 is below Rich's regular quality.
After someone reads through the Redcloak, Tsukiko encounter and remembers how excited they were to see how Redcloak would cover all these up and manage to trick Xykon, and how Rich ended that amazingly well, the twist at #901 is just "meh", I am sorry but it is.