# Order of the Stick General Discussion Thread (Open Spoilers and Speculation) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2009, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096 "2009-02-02T07:39:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 83
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1641 "2009-06-10T04:59:18Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Hey! That’s MY pet theory! > > (Seriously - I’ve mentioned it several times this thread. To be precise, I’m pretty sure he’s Zeus.) [I think you may be right](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0651.html). Dad was BIG (almost TITANic, one might say). The demon cockroach offers an opinion that Dad probably ate babies…Chronos swallowed the gods as they were born. ---
**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1642 "2009-06-10T05:16:14Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > [I think you may be right](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0651.html). Dad was BIG (almost TITANic, one might say). The demon cockroach offers an opinion that Dad probably ate babies…Chronos swallowed the gods as they were born. But how does that fit with him being a circus freak in Start of Darkness? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1643 "2009-06-10T05:20:21Z")
Maybe he still hasn’t fully healed from whatever hideous wounds the Snarl gave him. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1644 "2009-06-10T05:33:27Z")
Slander, slander, all of it! Seriously, this neatly skewers a whole umbrella-full of theories about the Creature. It’s definitely not any variant on the Tarrasque, nor Godzilla’s son, nor a Grue, nor Rock, nor a lot of other things. What exactly has that kind of ability, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1645 "2009-06-10T05:40:21Z")
It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t the first time the Creature in the Darkness has wished for something, and gotten it. He wanted stew, in Start of Darkness, and got it … every day for five years. ---
**Author:** ![Thalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f475e1/32.png) [@Thalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thalion)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1646 "2009-06-10T05:45:47Z")
Damn! No way anyone could have seen that coming. Rich just has a bag of holding crammed full of surprises, doesn’t he? I have never seen Xykon so pissed! He normally seems so above (or below) everything going on around him, but this one really got under his, um, cloak. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1647 "2009-06-10T06:07:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Slander, slander, all of it! > Seriously, this neatly skewers a whole umbrella-full of theories about the Creature. It’s definitely not any variant on the Tarrasque, nor Godzilla’s son, nor a Grue, nor Rock, nor a lot of other things. What exactly has that kind of ability, anyway? Essentially, what the Creature did was instinctively alter reality to fit its needs. Who else but a god can do that? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1648 "2009-06-10T06:16:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Essentially, what the Creature did was instinctively alter reality to fit its needs. Who else but a god can do that? Any Charisma-based spellcaster, or anything with spell-like abilities. Plus plenty of non-D&D creatures. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1649 "2009-06-10T06:52:07Z")
Is that a standard spell? Or something completely different. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1650 "2009-06-10T06:57:40Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Essentially, what the Creature did was instinctively alter reality to fit its needs. Who else but a god can do that? Someone on the official forums says that in _Start of Darkness_, there were hunters that recognized what it was. Makes it a LITTLE less likely that the monster is a god, in my mind, but still possible. Man, Xykon. IS. PISSED. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1651 "2009-06-10T07:12:14Z")
He’s got an army of hobgoblins to search the sewers. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1652 "2009-06-10T07:22:52Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > [I think you may be right](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0651.html). Dad was BIG (almost TITANic, one might say). The demon cockroach offers an opinion that Dad probably ate babies…Chronos swallowed the gods as they were born. You know what else was big, and ate a lot of things? The Snarl. Which is strangely quiescent despite this giant rift being opened over Azure City. This has been remarked on by at least one character: when the rifts were first found by Soon and Lirian, the Snarl was regularly striking out through them, killing anything it could get its… uh… appendages? on. Now there’s this great honking hole in the cosmos, with gaggles of guards and prisoners and liches and raven familiars hanging out right next to it, and the Snarl isn’t doing anything to them. And when Blackwing looked in the rift, it saw something unexpected, but we don’t know what. Lastly, remember the early running gag about the creature [not being able to remember the gates,](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0096.html) even while it was in the middle of a conversation about the gates? I’m wondering if that’s related to the Snarl’s [inability to understand the nature of its prison.](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0275.html) My guess is the CitD is the Snarl, or some sort of offspring thereof. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1653 "2009-06-10T07:31:05Z")
Can’t be the Snarl. Rich has said, according to many folks at his forums, that the MitD is something in the D&D universe – not something he made up, like the Snarl. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1654 "2009-06-10T07:45:56Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Any Charisma-based spellcaster, or anything with spell-like abilities. But he didn’t cast a spell, unless there’s a spell I don’t know of called “Escape”. And no monster I ever heard of can teleport others as an innate abiity - especially such a powerful variation of Teleport. If, in the next strip, we see V and O-Chul teleported back to the Order, we’ll know that we’re talking about a Miracle-level power: a Teleport where the caster hasn’t even \*heard \*of the location, let alone seen it. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1655 "2009-06-10T07:52:20Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > [I think you may be right](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0651.html). Dad was BIG (almost TITANic, one might say). The demon cockroach offers an opinion that Dad probably ate babies…Chronos swallowed the gods as they were born. [Cronus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronus), not [Chronos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronos). Two different entities. Who says that the MITD is responsible for V & O vanishing? We know that he can’t make things happen by [hoping really hard](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0543.html). My guess - Qarr flew to to V’s old mentor, who cast a summoning spell to rescue them. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1656 "2009-06-10T07:58:28Z")
I find it significant that he couldn’t make O-Chul escape _until O-Chul wanted to escape._ That sounds like wish-granting ability to me. ---
**Author:** ![shantih](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1657 "2009-06-10T08:39:39Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Man, that makes me like, 0 for 50 bajillion. I am not a Rich Burlew mind reader. Ditto! What I find astounding is that, in rereading OotS, everything makes perfect sense – every plot development and twist is based in logic and character. But guessing what’s about to happen next? I have rarely been even close, and even when I am, there’s something big that completely escaped me. I keep saying it, but it never gets less true: ohboyohboyohboyohboy, I can’t wait to see the next strip! ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1658 "2009-06-10T09:07:49Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > We know that he can’t make things happen by [hoping really hard](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0543.html). That is what’s known as “foreshadowing.” > [@Fish](#): > > I find it significant that he couldn’t make O-Chul escape _until O-Chul wanted to escape._ That sounds like wish-granting ability to me. O-chul, after all, \*believes \*in him. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1659 "2009-06-10T09:20:47Z")
Well I am changing my guess about the CITD to Abomination. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096/1660 "2009-06-10T09:21:31Z")
> [@Lightray](#): > > What epic spellcaster would invent a block-scrying spell that freely allows your enemies to scry out your floorplans even if they can’t pick up what creatures you’ve stocked in your obligatory dungeon? One that had filled said floorplan with Gelatinous Cubes? Nothing says “Go away” like getting telefragged by a man-eating acidic blob. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096.md?page=82) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/order-of-the-stick-general-discussion-thread-open-spoilers-and-speculation/484096.md?page=84)