Doubtful. It’s not like the conclave was expecting a specific individual to show up to speak for Hel. A guy shows us, say’s he Durkon of Hel. Later, it turns out he’s really Dave of Hel. Who cares? It’s the “of Hel” part that matters.
At this point, it’s hard for me to see how getting the other high priests involved would be dramatically effective. Earlier, the story could have been, “Durkula has nobody, Roy is a leader.” But now the story is between the two characters. Belkar MIGHT step in to lend a hand, but I don’t think a deus ex cathedra ending is going to work.
I don’t know why you felt the need to “spoiler” that. At any rate, it was confirmed by Word of Giant on the second page of the GitP forum discussion. Just to show how many people post without reading the thread there, there’s been several dozen posts subsequent to the Giant’s post asking or speculating about it.
Belkar is currently Shroedinger’s Halfling, neither alive nor dead. Eventually his wave function will be collapsed.
My guess is that his wounds don’t show up well under the green light, but they’re still there.
He’s fighting Thog inside that box.
I’m pretty sure you waited a couple of days to post this just to get my hopes up that there was an early update :mad::p:D
Thog and Belkar are such beloved characters, despite being psychopaths, that I really wonder if Rich is going to bow to fan pressure and find a way to keep them around. I hope not, because narratively I think the story is stronger with permadeath, and a resurrection sequence has already been done, but I wouldn’t blame him for it either.
At the very least give us a supplemental story about the adventures of Thog and Belkar in the afterlife.
If we wanted to read that thread, we would. Instead we prefer to read and speculate over here.
Sometimes things like confirmed facts get in the way of a good kibbitz.
Nothing happened to Belkar today that should be enough to kill him. He doesn’t need to be raised yet.
I have a hard time believing that Belkar’s long-anticipated death will happen off-screen. So he’s not dead yet.
No body, no murder. That’s the rule for comics and the police both.
Kibbitz away. They’re still people unsatisfied with the WoG over there and still discussing it. Why should this forum be any different.
In fact, he’s feeling better.
See, I think that would be the fitting way for Belkar to die. He’s gone on a slow painful journey towards having a bare minimum of empathy for others and a vestigial concern for something other than his own selfish ends or immediate needs. In his last battle, rather than being a Sexy Shoeless God of War who killed weaker enemies for the love of the slaughter, he fought a hopeless struggle alone and unwitnessed against a much stronger opponent in order to protect his friends. He lost without so much as getting a warning out. Dying unseen after a doomed and futile attempt to do the right thing is exactly the kind of bullshit that Evil Belkar would have mocked do-gooders for - it’s a fitting end to his journey that that becomes his fate.
You’re lawful evil, aren’t you?
I’m not saying that something like this wouldn’t be dramatically appropriate. It’s just that a warrior of this level, it takes a heck of a lot more than a few wolf bites and a fall off a mountain to kill them.
Lawful Neutral on this, I think. What happens, happens but I prefer it to be fitting.
That’s why I’m rooting for Durkon rather than Belkar to play a role (somehow) in Durkula’s defeat - it makes for a strong resolution to the focus on his backstory and his great moment of spiritual crisis.
On a meta-level we know (because the Giant has said so) that Durkon is going to be a vampire for a while yet.
Anyway, it now looks like Roy has the immediate matter well in hand.
Sure, but he said that months ago and it’s taken this long to get this far. Heck, at the current strip rate, this fight might not be resolved before December.
“Durkon will be a vampire for years.” - WoG (Speculated)
“That would be 2.4 hours in-strip time, of course.” - WoG (Internal Infernal monologue)
Although Stanislaus makes a good point. Having Belkar die that way would be very…fitting. JMS-level writing, in fact.
“No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame–for one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.”
JMS ? Jesus his Motherfucking Self ?
J. Michael Straczynski. The quote is from Babylon 5.