Who is the “about time somebody brought you to justice” guy? I’m sure I’m missing something obvious and recent, but what beef does he have with Belkar? Did the Belkster steal his bread?
I think Belkar stole everyone’s bread.
And the page was loading slowly for me, so I had a few moments to contemplate the title. I figured it was a pun on “lead”, but I couldn’t figure out how that could work into the strip. Heh.
steals his friend’s bread here
confrontation here
Thanks! I figured it was something like that. It’s weird, I started reading this strip maybe 10 weeks ago, sitting down and reading all the archive over 2-3 weeks. Now that we get 1-3 strips a week, I don’t recall what happened 30 strips ago (that was forever ago!), but can recall most of the much older material fairly readily since I got all the callbacks and inside jokes all at once over several sittings. So I recognized the Miko Miyazaki lead-sheet reference in this strip immediately, but not the one about bread stealing from some guy much more recently.
BTW, I like the Scooby-Doo callout in this one.
Good strip. I’ve always loved that lead sheet.
Will Belkar easily and predictably best Random NPC #2893 or is there any chance this guy more than meets the eye?
A straightforward kill would be boring. So, either he’ll be more formidable than he seems, or Belkar will decide to play to the crowd and do something extravagantly nasty. In the latter case, probably involving a scene where Elan looks on in horror while Tarquin goes “Ooooo!”
Also kicks sand in his face here
I think Mr. Justice is there simply to be the polar opposite to Belkar. A lawful do-gooder full of righteous indignation is his perfect opponent/foil.
Ah, yes. Good old Miko. I’d managed to forget about her. Damn you.
Belkar’s gonna play to the crowd, and Tarquin will want to recruit him. Belkar will give this some serious consideration, especially if he learns about the Evil Feast that was laid out earlier. Belkar will not be able to resist Evil Gourmet Food, and he won’t even try to do so.
Tarquin might indeed try to recruit him. But Belkar won’t consider it. His fake character growth causes him to at least pretend loyalty to the rest of the order.
It’s a whole thing.
Tarquin has already tried to recruit him and Roy
Maybe. But Roy is planning to join Tarquin, going undercover to find out more about Girard, so Belker would join to do the same. As long as Belkar is following Roy’s plan, There’s no disloyalty issues whatever. Although he’d have to pretend to not pretend he’s pretending loyalty to the Order.
I’ve been thinking: figuring in-story time has always been a bit tricky, but aren’t we beginning to approach seven weeks from this strip?
There’s an error in your link, an extra quote mark. Corrected in the quote.
As you note, it can be hard to follow the timeline. But re-reading some old strips I did find this mention in 702 - it’s been at least forty-six weeks since the fall of Azure City.
I don’t think so. I figure the timeline like this:
They set off the next morning. The island is only a short distance from the Western continent, so the journey didn’t take long. They sailed, arrived, did their shopping, and set out across the desert all in a day.
The following day, they encountered slavers, and caught the worm. The rest of the journey was quick. All done the same day.
They spent 6 days searching for the gate, before finding Girard’s trap. Then they travelled 4 days to the nearest city. The rest of the story since then took only 4 days.
So, its been about 16 days, maybe 3 weeks tops. We aren’t at the time limit yet.
Of course that doesn’t mean that he will die exactly at the limit. He could die anytime.
And, of course, nothing says he has to stay dead. I’m sure someone will resurrect him eventually.
The Oracle predicted that he would shortly draw his last breath EVER.
Zombie? Lich?
There are always ways. 
He’s not long for this world and he’ll draw his last breath ever. It’s possible that his remains will be plane-shifted to Celestia and he’ll be reanimated as a zombie there, or something absurd like that, but the Oracle (and through him, the Giant) has told us pretty much in as unambiguous terms as possible that he’s going to die and stay dead, period.