OOTS Kickstarter Bonus PDFs: The Discussion Thread *Unmarked spoilers*

[Anarion]

You know, I thought the opening plea not to be haunted by the ghost of William Shakespeare was just a quick joke. Then I read the story and its merciless puns and I've got to wonder just how many psychics Rich Burlew has on call to keep that ghost away.

In all seriousness, it was completely awesome. I absolutely love the gender swapping. We knew it was coming for over a year at this point, but it nevertheless proved to be amazing as a serious commentary on gender roles mixed in with all the fun and humor.

Looks like V is a Guy.

Ha! You think V's assigned character role could possibly used as conclusive evidence of his/her assigned gender? Such naivete, my friend.

[CoffeeIncluded]

You know, I was thinking about it, and one of Tarquin's running gags in this story is that he's

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pretty wrong-genre-savvy.

Perhaps this has relevance to the main comic and how Elan will take him down?

[JackRackham]

Man, suicide is HARD in d&d. Those d4s just don't do the trick.

[Shale]

He shows it in the main comic too - he's convinced that the story revolves around him and Elan and Nale (just like Ian, who imagines an ongoing game of cat-and-mouse between him and Tarquin in which Haley is merely a pawn - and Roy less than that). The main difference is that in Haleo And Julelan, the story really is about Elan, so he's somewhat less wrong.

[Zombimode]

This is probably as good as an OotS story without can possibly get. Very nice read

I liked how Haleo was *exiled*

[CoffeeIncluded]

He shows it in the main comic too - he's convinced that the story revolves around him and Elan and Nale (just like Ian, who imagines an ongoing game of cat-and-mouse between him and Tarquin in which Haley is merely a pawn - and Roy less than that). The main difference is that in Haleo And Julelan, the story really is about Elan, so he's somewhat less wrong.

Absolutely! It's just that here we see the wrong genre savviness taken to completion, while that hasn't quite happened yet in the main comic.

[SarahV]

I just want to say:

Tchklgrkickt Q. Mrcchnkonson.

Except that I can't.

Because I'm still laughing.

I don't think you can say it even after you stop laughing.

[Peanut Gallery]

Prolly just me, but Tarquin completely scene steals the entire story every time he walks on panel. Not that I'm complaining I love that dude. Hi-freaking-larious. And my fuzzy heart did beat faster when I saw Therkla, though it did also falter when I realized there was no way there would be a happy ending for her. Sucks to be me. Do Miko fans feel this way?

Hamlet is still my favorite but this one comes in at close 2nd. Shakespeare, amirite?

[oball]

Man, suicide is HARD in d&d. Those d4s just don't do the trick.

Couldn't you coup de grace yourself and deliberately fail your Fortitude save? Or can you only choose to fail spell-related saving throws?

[M.A.D]

I'm gonna have to look up Shakespeare's original after this :D

[The Giant]

Loved it! Bit odd to see dead people without Xs in their eyes, but I suppose that would have spoiled the final reveal somewhat...

I actually went back and forth with that several times. The main problem was that I couldn't put X's in Haley's eyes after she drank the poison if she was still alive, and if she was the only one who didn't get X's when she "died" it would be immediately obvious that I was changing the ending. So I just took them out of the whole thing.

I thought it might be jarring to long-time readers, but since it's consistent within that story, it would already be established by the time we got to the end scene.

Also, Jones is looking (seemingly) at Rodriguez with...consternation? Annoyance? Jealousy? This greatly strengthens my theory that they are gay. If that's correct, and they are a couple, I like that they work together.

Jones is not gay. He just hates fun.

[Advance Strat..]

I loved it! Can't wait to show this to my sibling who's really into shakespeare and make them laugh/weep at it. :D

Only odd thing to me was, it looks like page 12 is lighter then the rest of the pages for some reason. Anyone else have it like that? Trying to figure out if that's on purpose.

[Grey Watcher]

This was all kinds of hilarious. The last panel is fantastic.

A lot of the character assignments made me laugh, but I almost fell out of my chair at Nurse Banjo.

Also, who is that wearing a crown and standing behind the stairs? He looks... strange.

Also, is it bad that after seeing Elan try to make his story about Roy so many times, all I could think of was "Guy Love" from Scrubs?

[SavageWombat]

Jones is not gay. He just hates fun.

That's what Bert claims too. Or at least the version from Avenue Q.

[Grey Watcher]

Yue.......

The moon spirit is a gentle loving lady! She rules the sky with compassion... and lunar goodness!

[Anarion]

Couldn't you coup de grace yourself and deliberately fail your Fortitude save? Or can you only choose to fail spell-related saving throws?

Are you helpless against yourself?

I actually went back and forth with that several times. The main problem was that I couldn't put X's in Haley's eyes after she drank the poison if she was still alive, and if she was the only one who didn't get X's when she "died" it would be immediately obvious that I was changing the ending. So I just took them out of the whole thing.

I thought it might be jarring to long-time readers, but since it's consistent within that story, it would already be established by the time we got to the end scene.

It was slightly jarring for Nale's death because I spent the remainder of the story right up to Haley in the tomb worrying about whether he was actually dead. However, once that was cleared up and the ending was done, it became very clear.

Also, for what it's worth, I was convinced you had changed the ending the moment I read "quasi-tragic" in the title.

Also, who is that wearing a crown and standing behind the stairs? He looks... strange.

You mean the Ice King from Adventure Time?

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[Grey Watcher]

It was slightly jarring for Nale's death because I spent the remainder of the story right up to Haley in the tomb worrying about whether he was actually dead. However, once that was cleared up and the ending was done, it became very clear.

Also, for what it's worth, I was convinced you had changed the ending the moment I read "quasi-tragic" in the title.

I guess I glossed over the quasi-tragic line, but I was convinced Nale was dead when Sabine started talking about bringing him back as a vampire.

You mean the Ice King from Adventure Time?

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OK, that's who he's dressed as, but who from the comic is it? Perusal of earlier posts leads me to believe it's one of the Glass Shards that menaced Sir Thumb. Further proof of the inherent wickedness of the House of Tarquin that they would treat such vile villains as honored guests!

[oball]

Are you helpless against yourself?

A helpless opponent is someone who is bound, sleeping, paralyzed, unconscious, or otherwise at your mercy.

I'd say you count as being at your own mercy, since you can do whatever you want to yourself and you are the only person who can stop you.

[The Giant]

OK, that's who he's dressed as, but who from the comic is it?

He's not anyone else, he's just there as himself as part of the "other two parties" Tarquin says he conquered. Same with a few other not-masqueraded villain characters hidden around the scene.

[Vinsfeld]

OK, that's who he's dressed as, but who from the comic is it? Perusal of earlier posts leads me to believe it's one of the Glass Shards that menaced Sir Thumb. Further proof of the inherent wickedness of the House of Tarquin that they would treat such vile villains as honored guests!

That's what I think too. It makes no sense to put the Ice King (wherever he's from). It would make a lot more sense to put one of the Glass Shards.

[The Giant]

"Making sense" is not really high on the list of comedy criteria.

[JessmanCA]

I laughed a bit too much at "seems logical to thog."

hahaha, brilliant line. T-shirt worthy?

[Zea mays]

That's what I think too. It makes no sense to put the Ice King (wherever he's from). It would make a lot more sense to put one of the Glass Shards.

The Ice King is from a fantastic show called Adventure Time and seeing him hanging out at Tarquin's bash was glorious.

[Grey Watcher]

"Making sense" is not really high on the list of comedy criteria.

Oh, next thing you'll be telling me that Fruit Pie the Sorcerer was a random gag and not an early peek at the true villain of the entire comic!

The Ice King is from a fantastic show called Adventure Time and seeing him hanging out at Tarquin's bash was glorious.

So I've heard. I suppose I should break down and give it a shot already, since everyone I've encountered who watches it seems intent on falling down in ecstasy at the mere mention of it. Then again, I never did get into either Firefly or My Little Pony: Franchise MiningFriendship is Magic. (I'm enough in the loop, at least, that I did think, "He kinda looks like that king from that Adventure Time show.)

[Soylent Dave]

Excellent stuff - it's not easy to do an R&J parody without treading over old ground (there've been so many versions of it now!), but this was superb.

Loved Nurse Banjo, and Elan's pineapple costume.

(if Baron Pineapple doesn't dress like that, he should)

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Does Haley have a tattoo in the main continuity?

[Xianthe]

Android also seems to have issues with the zip - my tablet didn't even ask me for a password, it just showed me an empty archive and then spat out an error message when I hit "extract."

No one else has reported that one, and I don't have any Android gadgets, so I can't really be of much help. I would recommend trying a third party un-archiving app, if you can find one that's free. Alternately, you could move it to a full computer, unzip it, and then move it back.

If anyone else reports a problem and then a fix to it, I'll let you know. If it goes a day or two and you just can't get it open no matter what you try, PM me your email and I'll use an alternate method.

I used AndroZip on my tablet to unzip it. Note that when I tried to open the zip from download, it gave me the error I suspect you [Shale] got. But when I went into AndroZip and opened the archive from inside the program, it gave me a prompt to enter the password and it worked fine from there.

[Anarion]

Oh, next thing you'll be telling me that Fruit Pie the Sorcerer was a random gag and not an early peek at the true villain of the entire comic!

He's not because Fruit Pie is simply a mind slave of that Vampire Snail. Who, by the way, is alive and well, with only his astral duplicate having suffered any harm.

So I've heard. I suppose I should break down and give it a shot already, since everyone I've encountered who watches it seems intent on falling down in ecstasy at the mere mention of it. Then again, I never did get into either Firefly or My Little Pony: Franchise MiningFriendship is Magic. (I'm enough in the loop, at least, that I did think, "He kinda looks like that king from that Adventure Time show.)

I wouldn't go all that out of your way. I think the Pony/Adventure Time demographic overlap is fairly large, so I'm not sure you'll like Adventure Time. The tone of the shows is different, with Adventure Time being zany and insane while Pony is magical and sincere, but they both get most of their appeal from character interactions in their engaging world.

[Toper]

Ha! You think V's assigned character role could possibly used as conclusive evidence of his/her assigned gender? Such naivete, my friend.

It's a Guy Fawkes mask that he's carrying, although the actual reference is to V For Vendetta. Jokes explained!

This was very enjoyable. I read it with the play alongside, scene by scene; doing it that way helped me appreciate the quotes and references. It follows the play very closely! On the other hand the pacing probably suffered a bit due to my reading back and forth, and also it turned out I was enjoying the play more than the PDF (the play is pretty amazing), so I might not recommend that for the first reading.

I loved the masquerade ball, including Tarquin's sudden decision to segue into the Pointer Sisters, although his and Ian's shticks got old pretty fast. The pineapple was adorable. I liked V's Queen Mab very much. The Nurse was deeply weird. I think it was a great decision to use minor OOTS characters as extras, I very much enjoyed seeing each one.

By and large, I didn't think this was one of the Giant's stronger works, though. I think tying himself that closely to the existing plot was a problem -- what I love about OOTS is its great strength in characterization, its stunning plot developments that nonetheless make complete sense in retrospect, and its amazing sense of humor. But only the latter really came through in this story; the characters retained just some superficial characteristics (Haley is greedy, Elan is dumb). Maybe I liked the Hamlet parody better because it felt more parodic and less like it was trying to also retell the entire story. That said, I should probably read Haleo again straight through before I form a strong opinion.

[Porthos]

He's not anyone else, he's just there as himself as part of the "other two parties" Tarquin says he conquered. Same with a few other not-masqueraded villain characters hidden around the scene.

OK, Rich. I admit it. You got me. I completely missed the cameo of Stanley the Tool and Wanda Firebaugh.

It's funny. I was looking at that earlier and something was telling me: This looks important. But why? And that is a funny weapon he has with him. But I came up blank.

It wasn't until this comment sunk in my head that it caused me to stare at the masqurade scene.

Then. BAM. Of course.

I almost literally slapped my forhead in a D'oh! Moment. So obvious in retrospect.

Well played, Giant. Well played indeed.

[Salty]

Absolutely brilliant. This comic made me all kinds of happy. It's all very impressive, and it makes me want to see plenty more.

Plus, Roy Quixote. That made me laugh so hard, and I wanted to read it so badly.