Number of Character Appearances V

[Fawkes]

Some of the smilies went offline. I've re-uploaded them.

Also, thanks to Nimrod's Son, we have smilies for the rest of the recurring characters.

[Nimrod's Son]

I can't take credit for the Shadowdancer or Zombie Dragon; they were up long before I started making any. No idea who originally posted them, though.

[Yendor]

I can't take credit for the Shadowdancer or Zombie Dragon; they were up long before I started making any. No idea who originally posted them, though.

Those are mine, as are the other ones that went offline. Looks like my ImageShack account disappeared.

Anyway:

1011: Durkon, Hel (as proxy), High Priest of Baldur, High Priestess of Freya, High Priest of Hel, High Priestess of Odin, High Priestess of Skadi, High Priest of Sunna, High Priestess of Thor, Roy

[Fawkes]

1012's a big one.

High Priestess of Sif, High Priestess of Frigg, High Priest of Mani, High Priestess of Balder, Hel (+1), Loki, Roy (+1), High Priestess of Helmod (+1), High Priestess of Freya, High Priestess of Thor, High Priestess of Odin, Durkon (as vampire), High Priest of Hel, Bandana, Vaarsuvius, Haley, Elan, Gontor Hammerfell (as vampire), Blackwing, Lil' Whiskers, Scruffy, Bloodfeast

First appearances (to be counted later):
High Priest of Surtur, High Priestess of Sigrun, High Priest of Bragi, High Priestess of Iounn, High Priest of Thrym, dwarf in the blue hat

[Gift Jeraff]

#1012:
Bandana, Blackwing, Bloodfeast (as lizard), Bragi, Elan the Bard, Durkon Thundershield (as vampire), Gontor Hammerfell (as vampire; as gaseous form) (+1), Haley Starshine, Hel (as proxy) +1), Hermod (+1), High Priest of Hel, High Priestess of Freya, High Priestess of Hermod (possessed) (+1), High Priestess of Odin (possessed), High Priestess of Thor, Iounn, Little Whiskers, Loki (as proxy), Mr. Scruffy, Odin, Roy Greenhilt (+1), Sigrun, Surtur, Thrym, Vaarsuvius

[Fawkes]

Anyone seen martianmister lately?

[137beth]

She hasn't posted in 17 days. How long do we wait before someone else starts a new thread?
Or rather, how long do we wait before we start voting on who will curate a new thread?

[ti'esar]

She hasn't posted in 17 days. How long do we wait before someone else starts a new thread?
Or rather, how long do we wait before we start voting on who will curate a new thread?

Her profile says last active on November 8. Still, that's over a week.

[Fawkes]

Is there a precedence for the curator of a curated thread to just vanish?

[Flame of Anor]

Some have gone missing for a while (I don't quite remember who; maybe RMS Oceanic?), but I don't recall a time where they didn't come back.

[Emanick]

I seem to remember an (unofficial, at the time) curator having vanished waaaaay back, perhaps over five years ago. (My memory may or may not be making that up.) It was a couple of months before anyone made a new thread.

I think we should wait for martianmister to be gone for at least a month - perhaps more - before doing anything. After that, it seems fair to make a new thread.

Actually, I'd be happy to make one myself if martianmister does end up having vanished for good. I've been tracking my own list of character appearances for many moons - using a slightly different methodology, which of course I wouldn't use for this thread - so I can pretty much guarantee that I won't suddenly lose interest and drop by the wayside. (Not to suggest that our esteemed thread leader has done that, of course. I have no idea what's going on in her life, and she probably has a good reason for not having been active of late.)

[Flame of Anor]

using a slightly different methodology, which of course I wouldn't use for this thread

If it comes to that, you could at least put it up for a vote and see if we like it better.

[Fawkes]

Some have gone missing for a while (I don't quite remember who; maybe RMS Oceanic?), but I don't recall a time where they didn't come back.

Yeah, I don't think we should be too hasty.

[137beth]

Agreed, we should wait a bit longer.

If we do end up needing a new thread, and there are more than one person who are interested in curating the new thread, I'd be happy to run a voting thread to determine the new curator (I won't make the rules needlessly complicated, don't worry)

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Agreed, we should wait a bit longer.

If we do end up needing a new thread, and there are more than one person who are interested in curating the new thread, I'd be happy to run a voting thread to determine the new curator (I won't make the rules needlessly complicated, don't worry)

FWIW, last time the mods preferred to manage the selection process themselves. Of course, past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results and other YMMV disclaimers.

GW

[Emanick]

If it comes to that, you could at least put it up for a vote and see if we like it better.

FWIW, the main difference between this thread and my methodology is that I rank characters by the total number of pages of any kind they've appeared on, whether they're in the first page of a strip, a later page of the same strip, or in a bonus comic. I also count every appearance of the High Priest of Hel as both an appearance of him and one of Durkon, which I don't believe martianmister does.

[Fawkes]

I also count every appearance of the High Priest of Hel as both an appearance of him and one of Durkon, which I don't believe martianmister does.

Wait, I thought we were doing that.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Wait, I thought we were doing that.

Agreed. While I'm not sure I fully agree with the method (or even claim to fully understand it), I do believe that an appearance of HPoH counts as a appearance of the (corpse of) Durkon. Presumably, when all we see is the inside of their head, they count as separate entities, but I don't think when that happens we have ever not seen both of them anyway.

Grey Wolf

[Emanick]

Wait, I thought we were doing that.

Way back in the #940s or so, I believe there was some argument about whether or not we should do that. Most people, predictably enough, were in favor of it, but martianmister, if memory serves, wanted to only count the HPoH as having an appearance when he actually spoke, under the theory that it was still Durkon's body and not the HPoH's. I think she's been tracking things that way ever since, although it's quite possible that she may have changed her mind in the meantime without me noticing.

Edit: Yeah, the first post has the HPoH as appearing on only 55 total pages (counting 7 appearances on extra pages of multi-page comics). According to my records, the HPoH has appeared in 90 total pages, which is way too big of a difference to be accounted for by martianmister's absence since #1,008, a mistake on my part, or really anything else besides a significant difference in methodologies.

[Bird]

I remember that--yes, I think the HPoH was only being counted if he spoke. (Or if he appeared in brain-spirit form, I'm guessing, but he probably always talks when in that form anyway.) I think this approach was linked back to this language from the FAQ about what counts as an appearance (emphasis supplied):

Any likeness of the character being visible (so elan's appearance on nale's blueprint counts, and belkar's self-portrait in blood counts) and any dialog from a character, even if "off-panel" or invisible (so the strip where the party is in the invisibility sphere counts for each of the main characters)

I was one of those who argued in vain that this system is a bit incoherent in the HPoH's case. My feeling is that the HPoH is just as 'there' when he scratches his beard as when he says something out loud, so all appearances of the vampire should count for both Durkon & the HPoH. (I recognize that going back to change the count at this point could be a Whole Thing, though.)

[Flame of Anor]

I agree with you guys that it should always count for both of them.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I was one of those who argued in vain that this system is a bit incoherent in the HPoH's case. My feeling is that the HPoH is just as 'there' when he scratches his beard as when he says something out loud, so all appearances of the vampire should count for both Durkon & the HPoH. (I recognize that going back to change the count at this point could be a Whole Thing, though.)

With the benefit of hindsight, I'd say that the HPoH first appearance was with Malack's death (before that, it was Durkon's corpse and Malack's Thrall... which I suppose logically means we should have Malack's entry as "Malack the Vampire and the corpse of long-forgotten lizardman shaman", to indicate the dual nature of every vampire). It would not be that hard to go back to HPoH's first appearance and recount.

Grey Wolf

[Gift Jeraff]

Why is Malack's thrall a separate entity?

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Why is Malack's thrall a separate entity?

Because I am not entirely sure that when Durkon was enthralled, the HPoH spirit was already in his body (he doesn't act anything like HPoH, after all). Given that all vampire spirits are is a dark-energy personality filling up and taking control of a corpse, I think the toddler-like servile Thrall should count as a separate individual.

However, that is my own personal view. What this thread really needs is a voting system to determine what consensus is. I really thought we were at the very least counting HPoH every time Durkon's corpse was moving around (even if I didn't quite agree with that myself), because that is what I felt was the consensus - and I was very wrong about that.

Grey Wolf

[littlebum2002]

Because I am not entirely sure that when Durkon was enthralled, the HPoH spirit was already in his body (he doesn't act anything like HPoH, after all). Given that all vampire spirits are is a dark-energy personality filling up and taking control of a corpse, I think the toddler-like servile Thrall should count as a separate individual.

However, that is my own personal view. What this thread really needs is a voting system to determine what consensus is. I really thought we were at the very least counting HPoH every time Durkon's corpse was moving around (even if I didn't quite agree with that myself), because that is what I felt was the consensus - and I was very wrong about that.

Grey Wolf

Either way, it should be consistent, and now it isn't. Right now the HPoH's "first appearance" is given as Strip #907, However, if we are not considering him a separate individual from the thrall, it should be #878

If we want to keep his first appearance at #907 then we need a separate count for the thrall.

[Gift Jeraff]

Nah, I don't want a voting system. I'm ok with the thread curator making the calls. The "true" Durkula tally (including thrall and non-speaking) was technically being tallied in the alterations section (Vampire Durkon).

[martianmister]

Sorry for waiting you all! I've been busy with school-work and some other things.

[martianmister]

#1006 confirms that the OotS spelling of Hel's giant pet wolf is "Garm", not "Garmr".

Done.

Just a thought... since we count voices as appearances, shouldn't Barry White get a cameo for his singing in the last panel of this strip?

Done.

[martianmister]

So... was that a no on the "Dwarf Tossers", then?

There was no need to be so hostile and and aggressive about it.

I will admit though, martianmister, I am a wee bit disappointed you didn't respond to my last two posts. If you don't want to change it for one reason or another, that's fine. I'd just like it if you were open about it. No one likes to feel ignored.

Sorry for the wait, I was busy with school and work. About "dwarf tossers", I personally prefer simple and "straightforward" names, it's makes it easier to indexing them and finding them. So, that's all.

[martianmister]

A pretty easy one this time, but I'll use this as an excuse to thank martianmister on behalf of the (mostly) silent majority for maintaining this very cool thread. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for your appreciation.

There's a character in a bonus strip from BRitF called Milkdudeicus who isn't listed in the "bonus content" section.

Done.