Things You Never Noticed III: The Search for Spot

[chorpler]

I guess if you can miss something so obvious i can get away with not noticing till strip 881 that Belkar actually has hair, and has had since strip 1. I just never noticed it before.

Hey, it's okay, I also didn't really realize it until a month or so ago, when my pre-painted Belkar-and-Mr.-Scruffy miniatures came in the mail and I was admiring the precision it must have taken for Maya Morland to have painted all those little raised dots on his head the right color, and suddenly I thought "Hey ... does he really have hair like this in the comic? Even in the back?" And sure enough... (last panel)

[Tragak]

Well, considering that was, like, the whole point of the joke the second time around...

Well, this isn't "Things Nobody Ever Noticed Ever And Read All (how many pages are in this thread trilogy?) Pages Before Saying Anything"

Also, Sabine didn't think of Nale as a spellcaster anymore than Roy thought of Elan as one, and Sabine technically had every right to think that the Celestial Tree Sloth was real considering that Summon Monster is a Bard Spell, and might not be sure that Not-Nale didn't take it at some point.

[IsmAsm]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0025.html

Is is just me, or is V peeking in the last panel?

[oppyu]

Haley and Isamu were hiding in a crate labelled 'Imported from Greysky City', before Greysky City was mentioned in-comic. It was in bonus material though.

[chorpler]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0025.html

Is is just me, or is V peeking in the last panel?

It's difficult to see in the online version of the comic, but in the printed version in Dungeon Crawlin' Fools, it's clearer that both of Vaarsuvius's eyes are drawn as a "closed eye" line rather than as an "open eye" dot or even as a "partly opened eye" line-and-dot.

[chorpler]

I have reread through the comic from the start to the latest strip on multiple occasions, in both book form and online. Only during my most recent read through did I noticed that panel 5 of strip 528 is different depending on which medium you are reading (in the online version, Roy says he wishes he could look through the archive, in the print version Roy wishes he could read through the previous books)

I never noticed that one before, but I did notice the differences between several strips in Dungeon Crawlin' Fools and the online version. (I mean, differences in addition to the ubiquitous replacing of the wavy border lines with straight lines.) Such as the Mind Flayer strips, where the term "Mind Flayer" was completely removed from the printed book, replaced by "Brain Eater" and "brain-eating aberration," presumably because the Giant was worried more about Jones and Rodriguez coming to visit him in real life if he used a trademarked term in a book he was selling for real money.

And then there's this strip where Roy says "which is cool" instead of "which is kinda cool," and Durkon mishears it as "A lich's ghoul?!?" instead of "A lich is binding ghouls?!?" I'm not sure why this one changed -- perhaps he just felt that mistaking "cool" for "ghouls" was too implausible and he needed to change it so they were both singular?

Any other differences in the books and online versions?

Oh, one thing that I never noticed until I read the books was that the Monster in the Dark's pink umbrella has normal Hello Kitty faces on it. In the online version, the resolution wasn't good enough for me to quite tell, and I thought they were fanged demonic versions of Hello Kitty. In the print version, though, I could see that it's just a normal face with a triangle mouth and whiskers. Ha!

[The Linker]

He's also in the process of realizing he did his last saving throw in the duel wrong, and should have survived.

It's always possible a 22 still wasn't enough.

[IsmAsm]

It's difficult to see in the online version of the comic, but in the printed version in Dungeon Crawlin' Fools, it's clearer that both of Vaarsuvius's eyes are drawn as a "closed eye" line rather than as an "open eye" dot or even as a "partly opened eye" line-and-dot.

Thanks for clearing that up. I don't have the print versions of anything but the prequels.

[Kaulguard]

This one kinda freaked me out. Not only was Roy dead for 222 strips, but the strip where he came back to life was posted 2 years, 2 months, and 2 days after the strip where he died. HAD to be unintentional, but still cool.

[Gift Jeraff]

Haley is smirking at Kitty's demise.

Durkon's previous Linear counterpart also refers to creatures he had "awakened" as "children" and "brothers."

[ORione]

Two things.

First, back in strip 112:
"Y'know, I've destroyed entire towns, and the most I got from the surviving families were a few snarky comments."

Maybe...
(SoD Spoilers)

Spoiler

Show

... one of the families he's talking about is Right-Eye's. Redcloak's certainly given Xykon some snarky comments, and I bet Right-Eye did, too.

Second, check out what Malack says in the second panel of 764. Naturally, at the time I thought "the right person" meant someone to be his children's mother. Now I'm thinking he meant someone to become his "child". And the special bond would be the bond between master and thrall.

[Bedinsis]

In #672 it is established that Durkon is going to research the mass death ward spell (which later caused his untimely demise at Malack's hands).

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Redcloak has a painting of The Dark One hanging behind the desk in his study.

[AngryHobbit]

Redcloak has a painting of The Dark One hanging behind the desk in his study.

Interesting... And Dark One's altar is never seen (unlike Malack's altar to Nergal).
I didn't notice that Nergal sounds like Nurgle from W40K

[mr. Tentacles]

This has probably been mentioned before, but in #521 Tsukiko is afraid of the wight's touch. Later, in #830 she has a ring protecting her from the same touch. Of course she could've gotten the ring between these strips, but as far as I know this isn't shown.

[ORione]

Check out the seventh panel here and the fifth panel here. Like father, like son.

[Kurald Galain]

This has probably been mentioned before, but in #521 Tsukiko is afraid of the wight's touch. Later, in #830 she has a ring protecting her from the same touch. Of course she could've gotten the ring between these strips, but as far as I know this isn't shown.

It isn't shown, but clearly Tsukiko was frustrated in the earlier situation and bougth the ring to fix it.

Similarly, Elan needs a silver rapier here, and has bought one later. You can tell by the color.

[monkeyslinger]

In 852 one of the reasons Roy suspects "Thog" is really someone else is because he used a second-person pronoun, but the real Thog uses one here and here.

[The Linker]

It isn't shown, but clearly Tsukiko was frustrated in the earlier situation and bougth the ring to fix it.

Similarly, Elan needs a silver rapier here, and has bought one later. You can tell by the color.

Ehh, Mr. Scruffy's limbs and tail changed color from black to white between appearances too. I think Rich has just shifted how he draws thin things.

Well I guess it's possible Mr. Scruffy lost his limbs in the castle explosion and got awesome silver prosthetics.

[Bedinsis]

One fact that might be significant for the future (but probably not):
There is a ninja that apparently survived the battle with Kubota(second page, fifth panel).

[ellindsey]

Ehh, Mr. Scruffy's limbs and tail changed color from black to white between appearances too. I think Rich has just shifted how he draws thin things.

True, but Elan specifically refers to it as a silver rapier in panel 9.

[MoonCat]

True, but Elan specifically refers to it as a silver rapier in panel 9.

That's because of the song being parodied is Maxwell's Siver Hammer.

[oppyu]

The description of Belkar as a 'tiny firebreathing avatar of Death.'

[AngryHobbit]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0518.html

Haley is thrown off-panel

I didnt notice it even when I saw the obvious hint in next comic

[Hurkyl]

The following just dawned on me.

We've already seen that the oracle is quite willing to put up with death if it means he gets to deliver bad news or pull one over on the client. And death is barely even an inconvenience for him! And he has little trouble acquiring the means to deal with any other inconvenience that may wind up facing.

And yet, not only does he remark that Xykon's scary, he even made sure to be gone when Xykon came for a consultation.

It strikes me that this means the oracle knows that, if the oracle gave him his usual attitude, Xykon would inflict something more permanent than death on him.

[The Linker]

True dat. He'd probably burn his down house down and then keep him alive, torturing him for information.

Yeah... staying away from his is probably the best plan.

[Procyonpi]

This has probably been mentioned before, but in #521 Tsukiko is afraid of the wight's touch. Later, in #830 she has a ring protecting her from the same touch. Of course she could've gotten the ring between these strips, but as far as I know this isn't shown.

Considering her... tastes, I'm surprised she didn't take care of that problem earlier. Although I suppose she might have previously had such a ring thaw was confiscated by azure city.

[Toper]

Check out the seventh panel here and the fifth panel here. Like father, like son.

Ha! That is an awesome find.

Zz'dtri in disguise is still conspicuously laconic.

[Haleth]

In the first panel of this comic, how is the MitD holding up the bucket? Could it be some form of telekinesis? Otherwise at least some of the appendage its using to hold up the bucket would show.

[Keeper of Starlight]

In the first panel of this comic, how is the MitD holding up the bucket? Could it be some form of telekinesis? Otherwise at least some of the appendage its using to hold up the bucket would show.

There's a six-thread forum all about what MITD might be, and it includes opinions on what this is. Quite a few people, myself included, think it was just artistic decision, while others insist that MITD must be psionic. I don't think anyone will ever agree.

I never noticed the voices going "KILL!" in the last panel.