Damn. Tarquin is a meta-gamer.
The last ten minutes is usually sucky, so that really isn’t a bad point in the plan. 
Let’s see… he referenced Star Wars, Phantom of the Paradise…who lost an eye to his father when confronting him early?
Well, in Teen Titans, Rose Wilson (aka Ravager) plucked out her eye to prove to her father Slade (aka Deathstroke) that she was just like him. Not QUITE what we’re looking for, though…
I think the burn on the face is a reference to Zuko, from Avatar: The Last Airbender, though of course that’s Elan’s reference, not Tarq’s.
Which half is that? I’ve always pictured the alignment grid with Good on the left and Chaos on the top, but everyone seems to set it up differently.
Personally, I think that Tarquin was too smart for his own good in this strip. Had he just kept his mouth shut, then things would have gone as he described, Elan would have eventually defeated him, and he’d have his long reign and perpetual fame. As it is, though, by declaring such a situation a victory for himself, now the inevitable defeat of evil must logically also involve a rapiering of that part of his plans, too. I’m guessing that he gets eaten by the Empress, which would move him from the Awesome Villain category into the Hoist by his Own Petard category, legendary only as a bad example for others to avoid.
Elan is already acquainted with wearing an eyepatch. But that was so long ago, I doubt it was foreshadowing of him losing an eye to Tarquin.
Standard (and by standard I mean I have never seen it illustrated any other way) is to have Lawful, Neutral, Chaos going left to right, and Good, Neutral, Evil going top to bottom.
Yup. I don’t know what this new 4th ed LawfulGood-to-ChaoticEvil pyramid thing that I’ve heard about is, but it’s no way to run a cosmology, dammit…
Something in me is wondering about glasses of the red liquid Taquin was drinking.
A little Sangre de Toro, perhaps?
I just pulled out my old copy of Chainmail. Law on the left, Neutral in the middle, Chaos on the right. And, of course, there’s none of this newfangled “Good & Evil” nonsense… .
Remember, Elan’s going to get a Happy Ending.
Think maybe he can redeem his dad?
Only if the Empress is about to eat him. Then Tarquin will come to the Light, grab the Empress, raise her over his head and…
be crushed to death by her enormous bulk.
Good lord. Tarquin is a perfect foil to Elan; he uses the same careful meta-analysis of dramatic structure to reach the exact opposite conclusion. Nicely done.
Or Haley knows massage techniques.
But others are trying to seize the Snarl for reasons that would interfere with his plans. Tarquin might want the Snarl just to prevent others from using it against him.
And, as I’ve already noted, the only thing we know about Tarquin’s plans is what Tarquin said. It’s clear he’s easily capable to telling Elan a complete line of lies if that’s what works to complete some other plan.
Anyone wants to take a stab as to what they are discussing about in the background?
Stabbing probably did come up.
And puns, too.
". . . I’m not going to repeat the conversation we all just had. . . "
snerk
Nicely done.