No, Tarquin = Tarquin. There’s even an evil son.
And The Tarquin/Julio dynamic isn’t so much on the Good vs evil axis, as they are Mortally opposed on the law/Chaos axis. More of a Smokey and the Bandit thing than Gandalf vs the Balrog.
Hey, arriving at the right time and place for the dramatic Scene is a literal class feature of Dashing Swordsmen. It’s a power, kind of like the Force. As demonstrated here in panels 18+.
Yeah, those have got to be million to one odds right there!
Guilty on the thieving and robbing charges, as well damaging some of the city defenses which left the city more vulnerable to the goblin attack, but it does not appear than the his alchemist’s fire attack killed any soldiers. Also, they were attacking him with deadly force, so “innocent” is a stretch.
It blows my mind that Julio Scoundrel is one of the more memorable supporting characters in this whole comic strip, but this is only the fifth comic he’s appeared it. He’s quite well written.
And, really, Elan’s girlfriend and love of his life is an admitted thief and robber so drawing the line at his surrogate father is closing the barn doors a little too late.
I’ll grant the soldier’s didn’t actually die (so, I’ll reduce that to attempted murder :D) .
But as far as the soldiers attacking him, I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to kill a cop even if the cop it’s trying to apprehend you - EVEN if the LEO is using deadly force to do so.
Although, as Jophiel mentions, Elan doesn’t seem to think “non-criminal” is a point in someone’s favor when considering the appropriateness of a relationship with them. Although he does see that theft is bad, given his IOUs for stuff when breaking out of jail.
It wasn’t attempted murder either - he bombed the siege engines, not the crew. Besides, alchemist’s fire doesn’t do enough damage to kill a commoner, let alone a soldier.
On the other hand, he’s planning on stealing a diet coke when he meets Julio which is a pretty casual attitude to take towards property rights.
I suppose, in a world where you have classes and levels, there’s a certain “legitimacy” to a capital-T Thief stealing things even if you’re not happy if they steal your stuff. It’s just part of the package with useful adventuring skills like picking locks, disarming traps, climbing walls, sneak attacks, etc. I don’t know how modern editions run it but bards started as a sort of thief subclass (you started a thief before choosing to become a bard) so none of this would be really shocking to Elan or unusual for a bard like Julio.
You’d think his being a Bard would be a bit of a hint 
Bards are their own class now, but tellingly enough they can’t be lawful. Or, well, they can *become *lawful (and won’t lose the power of Rock the way a Paladin would) but then they can’t gain Bard levels any more long as they are.
Somebody needs to give Tarquin a copy of Don’t Split the Party so he can read what happens to the group when Roy’s not around.
A hint that, with their mastery of narrative structure, they should be ruling the entire cosmos by now?
So is this page describing the Dashing Swordsman prestige class characteristics considered OOTS canon, or just something some fanboy made up (or perhaps both!) ?
Just fanboy wanking, unfortunately.
With a surprise twist like this that almost all of us missed seeing, I’m really looking forward to about 3 or 4 days in strip time, which will be what, the year 2021 our time:D for the reveal of The Monster in the Dark. Rich will have to really flabbergast us.
As the classic Golden Girls joke went:
The MITD turns out to be the Snail. Remember, you heard it here first.
This does seem to be the longest “day” in terms of number of strips:
Current day: 835-930 (and ongoing)
600-671 - The day Vaarsuvius did the Soul Splice and Roy was resurrected.
418-492 - The day Azure City was conquered and Roy died.