Theory Thread: Vaarsuvius is going to die

[Niley]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0567.html - a pretty famous strip. The Oracle gets killed after explaining why Belkar's prophecy/prophecies had come true. But for a long time, the line 'And as for the elf-' remained a mystery. I think I have a solution to that.

Vaarsuvius sent h** Greater Animal Messengers to Haley. But Belkar killed the birds and cooked them, thus preventing them from passing the message from V. We already know V was obsessed with contacting Haley by then, and that event even deepened that obsession - which eventually caused V to leave the Order of the Stick.
Now, does anyone else think that Vaarsuvius will die pretty soon because of no protection from the side of Durkon, Elan and others? Maybe (s)he'll personally try to find Haley in Greysky and be killed by the thieves.
Post your thoughts.

[zyphyr]

Given V's penchant for destructive magic, it is highly likely that a confrontation between V and the now reduced ranks of the Thieves Guild would result in a large scale Urban Renewal project combined with a serious uptick in business for the local funerary industry.

In other words, lots of dead rogues and burnt down buildings.

[Dogmantra]

For all we know, the Oracle's sentence may have finished "He/She is the only one who escapes". Or something like that. In fact, the Oracle knew that Belkar was going to kill him (see strip 571 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0571.html)) so he may have used that line to try to distract Belkar, as if the Oracle was going to reveal V's sex or something.

Perhaps v will be killed, but he certainly has the attitude of a defensive and persistent sort of person. I mean, killing Kubota just to avoid something that would take time away from his attempts to contact Haley, I don't think V would let something as trivial as death bother him...

[Assassin89]

V is going to die at a maximum age of 350 + 4d% years or sooner depending on circumstances

The same idea also applies to most characters in the comic, but varies depending on race

[[TS] Shadow]

I think he means "dies within the couse of the comic." And it's pretty darn likely.

[MickJay]

I think it's quite likely he'll die very soon after obtaining the ultimate power he wanted, perhaps as another result of saying the four words that will have got him said power. The "ultimate" meaning "the last" in Oracle's answer seems quite probable to me.

[Rotipher]

IIRC, we don't know who killed those enchanted birds. Haley could well have shot them out of the air, not giving them the chance to land and pass along their message.

[Kaytara]

IIRC, we don't know who killed those enchanted birds. Haley could well have shot them out of the air, not giving them the chance to land and pass along their message.

Not quite. While it's pretty obvious Haley is the one who shot them, since we see her arrows lying down near a bird's feather - she later says to Belkar "If you see any more of those birds, let me know." Thus, apparently Belkar was the one who pointed out the birds to her, which makes the logic valid.

[David Argall]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0567.html - a pretty famous strip. The Oracle gets killed after explaining why Belkar's prophecy/prophecies had come true. But for a long time, the line 'And as for the elf-' remained a mystery. I think I have a solution to that.
The solution is rather clear.
The Oracle suggests Roy, a case of sharp practice, but correct.
The Oracle offers Miko, which has some validity, but is incorrect.
The Orace tries Miko's horse, and we throw the case out of court with barely a look.
So when we get to "As for the elf", the meaning is clear. There is no case that won't provoke laughter. You are looking for meaning where there is none.


Now, does anyone else think that Vaarsuvius will die pretty soon because of no protection from the side of Durkon, Elan and others?
We have Durkon and Belkar already scheduled for the chop, not to mention Roy being dead at the moment. So in that sense, another dying is not unreasonable. But there is such a thing as "enough is enough." We don't need more deaths in the party.
At the moment, V seems scheduled for a chapter on moral values, selling a soul to the devil, etc sort of thing. That will keep her alive for some time. And there is a lot of story utility to having an evil member of the party. Since Belkar is scheduled for removal, it looks like V will take that role over, which again argues for his survival for a long time, at least as the strip measures time.

[Kaytara]

David, as I said in another thread, your point argues that there would be no logical link between Belkar's actions and whatever might happen to V. I agree with that. But the lack of a legitimate causal link doesn't mean there isn't anything to link to, i.e. it doesn't mean that Vaarsuvius won't die. If we assume that the Oracle was trying to further convince Belkar of yet another way that his prophecy has already been fulfilled (which seems likely, even though something like "And as for the elf, you're out of luck there" is technically possible), then obviously he was next going to refer to something sinister that would happen to V. It doesn't matter that the causal link between said event and Belkar's actions likely would've been ridiculous; the event is still there.

I do agree, however, that Vaarsuvius is currently involved in too important a personal arc to just die off. But what will come after that arc could very well be something unpleasant that the Oracle was going to refer to.

[Berserk Monk]

Yes, V, a high level wizard with spells that could nuke the crap out of most creatures is going to die. Likewise Belkar is going to die. Dorkon is going to die. Roy going to die again. A giant celestrial demon frog is gonna jump out of nowhere and rip his face off so he's double dead, and the order will need twice as many diamonds. Haley's gonna die firing an arrow at Sabine who falls on Nale and causes the Linear Guild to explode and she gets caught in the blast. Elan's gonna die trying to think up a pun while fighting a cardboard box golem only to be devoured by dire fleas. The MitD is gonna die when he devours Red Cloak and chokes to death on Xykon's phylactery which gets shattered. As for the rest of the characters, O-Chul blasts them all to Hell because he's Chuck Norris.

There, the comics over. Now go outside and get some fresh air.

[Zevox]

I do think it possible V will die during the course of the comic. As-is, however, we know far too little to say anything for certain. At the least we know she has to acquire "complete and total ultimate arcane power" before kicking the bucket, unless she resurrected or something.

I don't think it'll happen anytime soon, though. Her current arc has really only just begun, and we've much left to see with where her addled wits will take her, and what it will take to get her reunited with the Order. Certainly if she dies I expect Belkar's death will occur before hers, and quite possibly Durkon's also if he dies.

Zevox

[Rotipher]

Not quite. While it's pretty obvious Haley is the one who shot them, since we see her arrows lying down near a bird's feather - she later says to Belkar "If you see any more of those birds, let me know." Thus, apparently Belkar was the one who pointed out the birds to her, which makes the logic valid.

But since when has Belkar ever beaten Haley on a Spot check? :smallwink:

[Illven]

But since when has Belkar ever beaten Haley on a Spot check? :smallwink:

Maybe Belker's luck on spot checks is changeing he did find Mr.Scrrffy when no one else did

[xyzzy]

While I don't think Vaarsuvius is necessarily going to die (as pointed out, the Oracle never said (s)he was going to die), the bird theory is just about convoluted enough to be the "reason" for any death that may occur. In fact, any explanation for Vaarsuvius' death being caused by Belkar that isn't convoluted would be rather disappointing.

[Nerdanel]

It is possible that Vaarsuvius had already started the process of killing himself by the time the Oracle was starting to talk about him, and as a contrived consequency of Belkar pointing out the birds, too. V may have been a lich for some time now and the rest of the world hasn't caught on yet, save for the Oracle.

Becoming a lich takes 120 days and based on the progress of Kazumi's pregnancy V had enough time to lichify himself between Orc Island and Pit Fiend Island, a timespan during which Kazumi changed from not being visibly pregnant to being obviously close to giving birth.

[Ronan]

If they were all cheesy predictions... I guess Belkar himself was not guilty for this, which has already started a chain of events

This (Last Panel)
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0596.html

Ended up causing this (Second page, Second Panel)
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0599.html

And the last one caused something. We don't know what, but I guess nothing little will come out of this, but I can be wrong (see comic #600 for reference)

So... any thoughts?

By the way... Durkon dying? I missed this one. Where did it start?

[MadScientistMat]

It was an "or" question - logically, Belkar only has to cause the death of one of the characters for the Oracle's answer to be 100% true. And Belkar already stabbed the Oracle to death. V doesn't need to die to for the Oracle's predictions to come true.

[Surfing HalfOrc]

I'm in the camp that says V is heading towards lichdom hirself. Qarr made it clear that he was going to make some sort of offer to V, and the only thing V wants is more power. Since V doesn't care (at the moment) one whit for anything but finding Haley, is could be an easy sell... V the lich with Qarr as a familiar, would make a very tough opponant for Belkar to try to kill.

Meh... It's a stretch, but so are 90% of the theories on this subject. :smallwink:

[Zevox]

I'm in the camp that says V is heading towards lichdom hirself. Qarr made it clear that he was going to make some sort of offer to V, and the only thing V wants is more power. Since V doesn't care (at the moment) one whit for anything but finding Haley, is could be an easy sell... V the lich with Qarr as a familiar, would make a very tough opponant for Belkar to try to kill.

Meh... It's a stretch, but so are 90% of the theories on this subject. :smallwink:
...but how on earth does becoming a Lich benefit V? The main reason most spellcasters do so is to become immortal as far as age goes, but V is an Elf, she's has plenty of time left to live. She'd gain a few stat boosts, DR, and resistances, sure, but none of that would really help her in her search for Haley, and it would come at a huge cost. A good chunk of xp would be down the drain, and it would take a ton of cash to fashion the phylactery, cash she probably doesn't have given how she stormed away spontaneously. Worst of all is the level adjustment, which would greatly slow down the rate at which she gains levels. Not to mention the complications it would cause when she finally does meet back up with the Order, and with her mate...

Really, I know V isn't thinking clearly, but she'd have to be pretty close to bat-**** insane to turn herself into a Lich at this point in her life. And honestly, I don't see why Quarr would want her to, either. It's not like it would benefit him in any way.

Sorry, I know you said that was a stretch, but this particular theory really irks me, because it makes no sense whatsoever.

Zevox