(If you’re not up to the Oracle’s prophecy referenced in the title, don’t read any further. Seriously. Also, I don’t have spell check on this computer, so disregard any blatantly wrong words).
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Okay, so what do you think will happen with Belkar?
Rich Burlew being Rich Burlew, it’s entirely possible that Belkar will die, stay dead, and have nothing to do with any further plotline. But pretending that we’re not dealing with an author who loves subverting dramatic conventions and messing with hi fans’ heads, what will happen?
My scenario: Belkar dies in an inadvertant heroic sacrifice. He is then raised as an intelligent undead by Team Evil. Blaming the Order for his death, Belkar is happy to work with other Evil characters, and becomes Xykon’s ultimate threat to disobedient minions (“Now you listen to what I say, or I’ll turn you over to Belkar here. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?”)
Further speculation: Xykon underestimates Belkar- after all, who’s the terrible lich king here? At the very end of the final showdown, when Xykon is just about to take control of the Snarl, he tries to order Belkar to do something he’d rather not do. Belkar gets angry and breaks Xykon into little tiny pieces. Probably uses his skull for a hat, too (a step up from kobolds).
I expect a heroic death after all his time pretending to be a decent group member actually makes him into a decent group member. Probably while taking out V who is obviously going to turn bad or be controlled by the bad guys.
Yeah, I agree with DigitalC. All of the build-up to the three ‘D’ thingees getting time to take over V (but only a few minutes???) seems to indicate an upcoming crisis.
I think they call this ‘fore-shadowing’ but I might be mistaken.
Rich has made it as clear as he possibly can that Belkar is going to die and stay dead, period, end of story. Not only is he going to draw his last breath ever, should savor his next birthday cake, and shouldn’t worry about his IRA, he’s also not long for this world. While the undead don’t breathe and might or might not have IRAs, they are in this world.
There’s a theory that Belkar is not going to die. The whole basis of believing he will die is the Oracle said so. The theory is that the Oracle may have lied.
The Oracle can see the future. He could see that the Order was going to kick Belkar out. And he could see that without Belkar they were going to fail in their quest and the Snarl would be let loose and destroy everything in the universe, including the Oracle.
So the Oracle told Roy that Belkar was going to die and then “forgot” to erase his memory. By doing so, he caused the Order to believe Belkar was going to die soon so there was no need to kick him out of the group.
I don’t think “not long for this world” is as restrictive as “never going to breath again”. Somehow it feels more like an expression- he’s going to kick the bucket, buy the farm, lshuffle off this mortal coil- than a literalism. A bit more open than “he’s going to take his last breath ever”.
I think I’ve spotted clues in the comic that show his future plans.
If I’m right this will be a BIG spoiler.
[spoiler] The Order shall be transported back in time.
Belkar discovers a way to make pineapples explode on impact. He lives out the rest of his life as Baron Pineapple. He lives up to the present day, in the comic, before dying of natural causes at a ripe old age.
Meanwhile, Haley and Elan marry and raise a son named Girard. [/spoiler]
