Belkar, IMHO, has been a hard CG for a while now, and he’s edging toward CG.
My guess: when he’ dies, Thor will be there to welcome him to Valhalla, where he can fight, drink and party for all eternity.
Alessan, was that first one supposed to be CN (Chaotic Neutral)?
A big step. While it was shown in an understated way, this strip was probably as big a turning point as Durkon’s revival.
I’m guessing Vaarsuvius. We’ve seen that Durkon argues with V over the differences in their respective philosophies of life.
You might well be right; Durkon doesn’t know about V’s deal with the Three and his conversation with Roy, does he?
Belkar might be Chaotic Neutral, and he’s certainly more Good now than he used to be, but he’s not Good. Consider, for instance, that his primary entertainment is still killing. He might be OK with restricting himself to only killings that Roy approves of, but enjoying killing for its own sake really isn’t a Good attitude.
Yup.
I guess we are getting close to his death.
Shouldn’t be more than a week or so. The Godsmoot was on the Solstice, and the New Year should be something like eight or nine days later. Which should still probably take Burlew the next book to cover.
I liked Chronos’s take on the death prophecy, which was, paraphrasing from memory, that Burlew would subvert our expectations for it by following it exactly. And that would take place near the end of the final story.
I forget, what’s Word of God for Shojo’s alignment? I vaguely remember CG, but CN wouldn’t surprise me that much. We know from Belkar’s illusion sequence in the Pyramid that he’d like nothing better than to hang out with Shojo, probably for all time. Odds he can shift his afterlife fate that far? I still think Death’s Lil Helper is CE—the Pro Evil clasp still burns him—but maybe he’s closer to CN now than he thinks?
Everyone knows that Chaotic Neutral is just CE that the DM will let you play at the table 
I don’t think so. But Vaarsuvius is generally neutral on alignment issues; V just seeks knowledge and power and is indifferent to the morality of obtaining them.
Somebody like Durkon, who is firmly committed to good, might find a person who is committed to evil less distasteful than a person who doesn’t think good and evil are important concepts.
I’m sticking with my long-standing prediction that Belkar won’t die before there’s a confrontation with Roy. Roy has known about the prophecy of Belkar’s death for months (or whatever amount of time it’s been in story) but has chosen to keep using Belkar without warning him. That’s pretty far from good.
There’s been way too much foreshadowing for there not to be a pay-off. At some point, Roy will have to answer for this. The most obvious way will be for Belkar to find out and confront Roy over his callous disregard for Belkar’s life.
<Snipped to cover the first question, specifically.>
I don’t know if Burlew has canonically established Shojo’s alignment, but Belkar believes that it’s Chaotic Good, where he gets to spend the afterlife sipping single-malt Scotch and smoking cigars rolled out of badly-worded legal documents.
As far as Belkar’s illusion sequence, it could be argued that that vision was as much Mr. Scruffy’s as it was Belkar’s.
On that note, what other as-yet-unresolved plot lines are there?
I’m not talking the obvious stuff like defeating Hel and Xykon. Those plots are being worked on. I’m talking plotlines that Burlew has brought up and then put aside for later resolution.
- The aforementioned issue of Roy keeping the prophecy of Belkar’s death secret.
- Haley’s background.
- The confrontation between Xykon and Redcloak. Presumably with the MitD’s attack on Redcloak.
- Sabine’s return to seek revenge for Nale.
- The Holey Brotherhood?
What’s unresolved about Haley’s background?
I really think The Holey Brotherhood was just a throwaway gag in The Order of the Scribble’s backstory, and that they were defeated by Soon’s party, which put up a gate despite their objections.
V and the Directors, obviously. Well, I say “obviously” but it’s not a top line event like Xykon/Hel where the party is actively doing it. More like it’s a thing you know if going to have to happen regardless of the party.
Some people might say the Sphinx pox although I saw that as a strip gag and not an actual plot point.
Whatever plan the Three Fiends have, which was covered by Jophiel’s point immediately above. What’s going to happen with Gobbotopia. What, if anything, is Tarquin’s group going to do vis a vis the Order and the main plot. What is the world in the rift.
Oh, what is V going to do about atoning for killing off 30% of black dragon-kind?
Maybe the whole ‘her dad and Amun-Zora going to get vengeance on Tarquin?’ Though I could see that ending up the same way Burlew tidied up the whole ‘Resistance’ storyline.
And I give you his friendship with Malack.
Doesn’t Belkar already sort of know? I vaguely remember Roy and Haley accidentally spilling the news in front of Belkar and Belkar acted like he was blowing it off? It wouldn’t surprise me if, in the middle of Roy having a dramatic moment with telling Belkar the bad news, that Belkar reveals he knew about the prophecy all along.
But if there’s a dramatic confrontation, for what purpose do you think Burlew would use the scene? To motivate Belkar in making whatever heroic sacrifice we think will be in the climax of the next book? To give Belkar an opportunity to show forgiveness? Maybe make Belkar realize how bad it is to use people in that way?
I agree with you, I think a revelation like that’s coming. I’m just curious what we think Burlew would do with a scene like that.