The Stick Awards II: Second Edition (Best of the Thousand) [THE FINALS!]

[Porthos]

Welcome to The Stick Awards II: Second Edition!

The Stick Awards are handed out to the best strips of all time as chosen by our fellow Playgrounders.

The time has come to finally conclude The Stick Awards II as we are now at the Finals for The Best of the Thousand Tournament! Now we decide which strip will stand alone, apart from all the others. Or at least the first thousand.

For full details about the Stick Awards, and any questions about them, please check out the main thread here.

To read more about the original Stick Awards, created by Nazzo, the 102nd, please read his thread here.

To vote in this thread, simply state which comic of the four listed is your favorite. Bolding the number of the comic (Like this) helps it stand out.

Voting, which only lasts five days during the Best of the Thousand Tournament will close on November 1st, 4pm EST. Any votes made after that will NOT count toward the totals.

The winner of this strip will be crowned the champion of the Stick Awards II.

In the second semi-final, 830 - Tidying Up finally and swiftly dealt with the strips that had been holding it back for so long. Now, here at the end, it is going to make its move to avenge all the slights and degradations it has suffered throughout its existence as it moves on to the Finals of this entire tournament.

Meanwhile, 367 - Innocent Man not only notched up 'nother victory, it not failed to not advance and in so doing kept ahold of Wild Card Slot #1.

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, 763 - Plotting Something lay lurking in the shadows. The time for speeches and grand pronouncements was long since past. Instead it quietly sipped its drink and and strode into the Finals to meet its destiny by winning Wild Card Slot #2.

1000 became 100. 100 became 10. Now there can be only one. Our Gathering has come and it is time to claim the Prize. Will the winner here be the Best The Order of the Stick Comic of All Time?

Perhaps. Perhaps not. But it will be indisputable that whatever comic triumphs here will have bested all others when the chips were down. And for that, it will more than deserve its moment in the sun.

So now, it's hour come round at last, it is time to vote in the very last.....

................THE STICK AWARDS II:
BEST OF THE THOUSAND TOURNAMENT
...............(THE FINALS!)

367 - Innocent Man
464 - Not for Everyone
763 - Plotting Something
830 - Tidying Up

[Mordae]

After all the agonizing decisions from the semis, this one is surprisingly easy for me. Only one of these four has relevance to the plot enough to make it worthy of the Best of the First Thousand.

830.

[dmc91356]

Yup, what he said. 830

[Gift Jeraff]

Screw your dramatic deaths and Troper Tales-tier monologue.

#367

[ChristianSt]

Out of this selection I can rather easily vote for 830 - Tidying Up. Not sure if I would picked it up as favourite strip overall, but certainly one pretty memorable strip and certainly not to shabby to take the crown. (Not that the other one are bad per se - but I think they can't really match what 830 brings to the table.)

[Bird]

Huh. Familicide didn't make it. I never thought the page I'd vote for would be from the first half, but evidently, that's what's going to happen. 830 is tempting--it's a fine page--but I can't get over how much I prefer 832. To me, the tension of that final Redcloak/Xykon moment has it all over the relatively straightforward Redcloak/Tsukiko relationship.

For me, it's 464.

Not sure how much more I have to say about these pages at this point, but the tonal ambivalence in Soon's dialogue does it for me. He wasn't (and isn't) the most developed OotS character, but that the Giant convincingly allows him to hit a variety of emotional notes within one page (disapproval, anger, pensiveness, encouragement) is a nice trick of writing.

Oh, and the composition of the penultimate panel, with the fading Soon between the two bisected Miko pieces and above the scrap of her cloak, is pretty sharp.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

Well, I have to admit that this wasn't the final round I was expecting. Oh well, I guess that's what happens when all the strips you like are clustered together. I think my final vote will be for #464!

Also, huge thanks to Porthos for running this almost perfectly punctually for two years!

[Sylian]

830 is probably one of the best strips in the whole comic. It deserves to win.

[Domino Quartz]

As always, #830. While there are story arcs that I like better, I can't think of an individual strip that I like better than #830. Once again, it was satisfying to see Tsukiko get what was coming to her.

[Emanick]

I'm just going to quote myself from the last thread, because I think I explained my support for 763: Plotting Something there well enough, and there's no sense in writing the same thing out in two different ways.

More than any other strip The Giant has written, it constitutes a unique contribution to literature, IMO. I've seen bits of Tarquin's speech cited around the Internet, even in places that have little to no cultural connection with this community.

"The end of what, Son? The story? There is no end, just the point where storytellers stops talking."

That strip is real Literature, with a capital L. Literature in the classic sense, where only the greatest bits of the written word get to count. It'll be worth reading a century from now. Probably a millennium from now, too, unless by that point we're all just hyperintelligent brains-in-a-jar who tell algorithm jokes to pass the ages.

[The gF]

I already made my arguments for both 464 and 830, which leaves me with a tough choice!

464 is just lovely-- a righteous send-off for a well-meaning person who allowed her flaws to consume her. Soon's musings on redemption and the importance of having the audacity to question oneself are so quintessentially Rich Burlew, I have a hard time picking anything else.

At the other end, in 830, a surprisingly well-adjusted person who KNOWS that she wants to do horrible things to people, and is just fine with that (and although she has some creepy obsessions, they're played more for laughs than Miko's are by comparison) is gruesomely put down as the endlessly toiling minion, Evil but not without purpose-- a purpose that some might even consider noble, certainly from Redcloak's own perspective-- finally steps up and makes it clear that no matter what Xykon may think, Redcloak himself is the ultimate villain. A comeuppance, and an escalation of the plot in a way few other strips have managed, not to mention the casual way Redcloak effortlessly asserts dominance over Tsukiko's own creations and turns them on her.

But... man, Soon's speech. I have to give it to 464.

[Tentreto]

This is gonna be hard...I personally wanted 550 in this, but anyways...
367 is a great character piece for Elen, and is where he begins to define himself as more than a bard, but I feel it lacks the impact of other scenes.
464 is a good piece, and is a possibility
763 is another characterisation for Elen, but similarly to 367, I won't vote for it.
830 is possibly the great reveal for Redcloaks scheming, and is a powerful piece

I just noticed that these were all essentially conversations between two people..hmm.

Anyway, my choice in this final is 464

[Rakoa]

It can't be anything but 763.

[unbeliever536]

I'd like to have 464 acknowledged as the best of its 500; it's better than its competitors by a pretty big margin.
.
But 830 is the clear king of this bunch.

[antipodeF]

Huh. 1000 and 999 didn't make it? I might be confused as to how this works..... well anyway, I vote for 464.

[Emperordaniel]

#0464 Not for Everyone wins my final vote.

[137beth]

Wow, this is quite possibly the toughest vote so far. I'll have to sleep on this decision....

[thatSeniorGuy]

So after 2 years and 5 months, we're finally here, at the end of all things the final countdown the final round. I just want to say a huge thanks to Porthos for arranging this, and for sticking (pun not intended) around to see it to the end.

That said, I think the last round persuaded me that 830 will see it enemies crushed, especially if they were stupid enough to come up against it.

[Arvedui]

830 it is, then.

[Bluepaw]

Here's to you guys -- and the best story ever. #763.

[Gilphon]

Even though I voted against it before, I'm going to have to give it to 464 this time. 367 is a better representative of the first half, but, well, at the end of the day, it turns out 464 was the strongest emotional note.

[Laurana]

I would like to vote for Elan, but although 387 is one of my absolute favourites in the whole comic, 367 definitely is not. I don't even find it funny, and I don't see the character development that others see in there, yet.

Among those, I'm voting for 763. Tarquin at his best, and a great, great speech.

Even though 830 is a very powerful strip, I find it really disappointing that it wins the whole tournament, what with being about a confrontation between two villains, one of which is minor and the other only shadowily main (and if 464 somehow manages it, it's even more disappointing).

Anyway, this has been great, even though I only recently joined, and I'd like to profusely thank Porthos for running the thing, and smoothly too. Rock on, elf buddy! (random quotations inc.)

[nogall]

367. at the end of the day, OOTS is still a "com(ed)ic" comic strip and the best of 1000 should honor this.

thanks Porthos for the great ride!

[declinator]

Among this line-up, my vote goes with Redcloak and 830.

[breathandpaper]

763 please! If not, I hope at least Miko wins over Redcloak.=P

[Vargtass]

I vote for 464. The Giant's skill comes through in allowing for a tragic moment, evoking pity for an antagonistic former paladin, out of reach of redemption ...

[littlebum2002]

367, first time this comic really hit us in the feels

[zql]

This one is easy: #830

[Euclidodese]

It's between 367 and 830 for me... Erm... 367. Yes... No. 830... No. 367. No. Yes... 367. 367. Yep. Nope. Nope, 830. Final answer: 830.

[FLHerne]

Last time I voted for #830. It's the most plot-relevant, it's got the most impact, contrasting Redcloak and Tsukiko's opposing views on the undead is interesting.

But darkness and philosophising isn't a good representation of OOTS as a whole - there's no humour, none of the protagonists. If you showed someone (only) #830 as the best OOTS strip, they'd get a very different impression from the reality.

I'll vote for #763 - the speech is Evil, but also perfectly fitted to Elan's ideas from the very early strips, and quite funny. It's an important bit of character development for him, and Tarquin on his own is one of the best characters.