“Belkar” will breathe his last because he’s going to change his name to Rakleb the White and become a gnome illusionist.
What? It could happen…
Just for the sake of love I should point out that I said ‘Damn you Alessan!’ because you beat me to the punch with an identical idea. I hadn’t seen your reply when I typed mine.
I hate being long-winded.
But not really.
No, really.
And that’s why I should always read the edit line.
I still subscribe to the theory that Belkar’s imminent death may not be real. The theory is that the Oracle lied because he foresaw that believing Belkar was going to die moved the Order down the path of saving the world.
If the dream-Shojo was anything more than a hallucination he might be part of this manipulation.
I think Durkon and Vaarsuvius, on the other hand, will be dead before the story’s end. I think Durkon will be the first member of the Order to die. And I think Belkar will somehow be involved in Vaarsuvius’ death.
Something that Belkar has already done, before strip #567, will be the cause of V’s death, in Oracle logic.
It seems out of character for the Oracle to phrase his prophecy clearly, so I think you’re right that Belkar’s imminent “death” isn’t real. However, I really doubt it’s an out-and-out lie, so I think there’s a surprise waiting in the wings.
As a bit of speculation, On the Origin if PCs has some background history on every character except for Belkar. Burlew gives a plausible-sounding reason for that, but I wonder if it’s just that: plausible-sounding. We don’t really know anything about Belkar’s background. And that makes me wonder: when Belkar says exactly what he is in the first place, a SEXY SHOELESS GOD OF WAR, what if he’s being exactly, precisely, literal? After all, there’s at least one missing god of war…
Also, consider this early comic, where Belkar’s alignment is clearly credited to his absurdly low Wisdom score. I don’t think it’s so much that Belkar is inherently evil, it’s just that he’s so self-centered and unobservant that he’s never really considered that other people are actually people. Once he started “pretending” to be a team player, he has to start paying attention to what other people thought and felt, if only to know how to manipulate them. Except, now that he’s noticing it, it’s starting to affect him.
Alternatively, he got sick of missing so many Spot checks, and put some points into Wisdom during his last couple stat increases, and this is an unintended side effect.
The Oracle always made a big point out of not giving away free information. It was highly out of character for him to tell Roy that Belkar was going to die and let Roy remember it.
I’m going to assume that the Order of the Stick will eventually succeed in their quest and have a direct hand in defeating the Snarl and saving the universe. The Oracle would know all this already and as a part of the universe would be in favor of this.
But maybe he also saw that Belkar was a necessary part of this. Perhaps Belkar does something truly evil that turns out to be vitally important. (Let’s say as a hypothetical that Belkar kills Celia and her death turns out to be necessary to defeating the Snarl.)
The Oracle knows that if he says nothing, Roy will drop Belkar from the group because he’s becoming a liability. He can’t tell Roy the truth - keep Belkar around so he can kill your girlfriend - because Roy wouldn’t listen to that. So he tells Roy a lie that will accomplish his purpose - don’t worry about how Belkar is acting because he’s going to die soon anyway.
There’s another theory on that subject too.
We already know that Belkar isn’t just going to be made into an undead. In addition to saying that he’ll draw his last breath, the Oracle also says that he’s not long for this world. I’m not sure how, in a D&D world with things like resurrection spells, the Oracle could have been any clearer that he’s going to be really for real dead and gone and stay that way.
The whole last breath ever thing is interesting. Don’t you breath in the afterworlds too? He will have to be zapped out of existence totally.
Well, we did see another world inside the Snarl. Or the bird did. Maybe Belkar heads to that one, whatever it is.
Nope. When Roy was in heaven, he was explicitly stated to not have any bodily functions. If his heart doesn’t beat, his lungs probably don’t pump, either.
Although, one thing that might make a difference is that Belkar killed the Oracle, so I wouldn’t put it past the Oracle to be carrying a grudge so that he makes an exception to his no-free-information policy.
The Oracle made it clear he’d be killed again. He wasn’t happy about it but it was an acceptable cost of doing business. (Although you have to wonder why he wouldn’t just turn away customers he knew were going to end up killing him.)
And I don’t see how telling Roy that Belkar is going to die would be any revenge against Belkar anyway.
Prophecy made is prophecy done. If he knows they’re going to kill him, then he also knows that trying to turn them away won’t do any good. Maybe he does try sometimes, just like he tried to put Belkar off with lame explanations as to how he “caused” various deaths. It just doesn’t do him any good–they end up killing him anyway. He doesn’t seem to have much in the way of defenses, really.
New strip #785
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0785.html
Sometimes Burlew’s lack of visual perspective makes things confusing…for a good 40 seconds, I thought the spear stuck in the air, on some kind of magical shield or something. It finally dawned on me that it actually stuck in the wall behind him.
What’s WBL?
Wealth By Level.
Based on my handy table, that probably puts them at Level 9 (ignoring ECL).
A wall which was damaged by the spear – damage which will require repair – repair which will cost money.
Better figure that into your calculations there, lackey-of-Tarquin.