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primarch359
2013-09-03, 03:15 AM
I just realized that Tarquin will DIE soon.

He wont get to build up for years.

Hes not something that Elan will come back too later.

He is someone who will be crushed when the inter fiend cooperation commission will come bursting in with V and Nale. Hes not getting out of this one. I'm sure his soul will be well guarded in hell. Perhaps he even works for the IFCC down there.

BlackGrail
2013-09-03, 04:49 AM
Geez, what's whit all "Die! Die!!! DIE TARQUIN WHEN WILL YOU DIE I HATE YOU OH SO MUCH FOR KILLING NALE WHO WAS THE BEST CHAR EVER EVER EEEVER AND IS TOTALLY NOT DEAD AND IS COMING BACK FOR SURE I KNOW IT I KNOW IT AND IF I WISH IT REALLY HARD IT'LL COME TRUE YOU'LL SEE!!!" people on this forum?

TRH
2013-09-03, 04:51 AM
Geez, what's whit all "Die! Die!!! DIE TARQUIN WHEN WILL YOU DIE I HATE YOU OH SO MUCH FOR KILLING NALE WHO WAS THE BEST CHAR EVER EVER EEEVER AND IS TOTALLY NOT DEAD AND IS COMING BACK FOR SURE I KNOW IT I KNOW IT AND IF I WISH IT REALLY HARD IT'LL COME TRUE YOU'LL SEE!!!" people on this forum?

Who knows, maybe they think he killed someone or something. :smallannoyed:

Seriously, lay off the Caps lock, will you?

BlackGrail
2013-09-03, 04:55 AM
He didn't, he is an imaginary character.

WindStruck
2013-09-03, 04:59 AM
Who and what army is going to kill Tarquin? :smallconfused:

TRH
2013-09-03, 05:08 AM
Who and what army is going to kill Tarquin? :smallconfused:

Something. I don't know for sure, but I've learned not to question the way that important characters in this comic tend to act especially stupid or hubristic right before they get whacked. It's happened with Miko, Kubota, Tsukiko, and Nale, in the most conservative reading, and Tarquin's practically become a self-parody in the last few strips. This is just too overt to be a coincidence, and while it could be a subversion, that would basically be bending one of the basic motifs of the comic for Tarquin's sake, which seems very, very wrong.

As for specifics, my first guess is that Tarquin gets killed by Laurin or Miron for some reason, but that's only because they can. It'll likely become clearer soon.

Morthis
2013-09-03, 06:47 AM
He didn't, he is an imaginary character.

If you find it strange to talk about fictional characters as if they could actually exist, I have to wonder what you're doing in this part of the forums, since that's pretty much what this whole section is about.

Kish
2013-09-03, 07:22 AM
There is something horrifically meta-ironical about responding to having it slammed home that Tarquin is a villain and will not be playing the role of cavalry for the Order, with, "He'll get slaughtered when the three ARCHFIENDS come in to play the role of cavalry for the Order!"

Roland Itiative
2013-09-03, 07:45 AM
Why would the IFCC even care? Sure, he killed one of their pawns, but that's just what Nale was to them, a pawn. And not a particularly effective one, at that.

Sabine will certainly want revenge, but I find it unlikely the IFCC will support her in that.

TRH
2013-09-03, 07:48 AM
Why would the IFCC even care? Sure, he killed one of their pawns, but that's just what Nale was to them, a pawn. And not a particularly effective one, at that.

Sabine will certainly want revenge, but I find it unlikely the IFCC will support her in that.

They seem to have some vague interest in the Order not dying, but we still know very, very little of what they do want, so yeah, not folks to rely on.

Chuikov
2013-09-03, 08:08 AM
I wouldn't rule out the possibility of Tarquin dying horribly in some way soon, if only because Xykon and Team Evil have really had the spotlight stolen from them ever since he showed up, villainy-wise. The best way to start giving it back would be for Tarquin to have a quick, brutal and extremely final realization that, no, he is not the Big Bad of the comic, but merely a side quest villain.

Tiiba
2013-09-03, 08:55 AM
Tarquin will be forced to abdicate, go to prison, and die from an infectious disease in a cheap hospital.

Astroturtle
2013-09-03, 09:00 AM
Geez, what's whit all "Die! Die!!! DIE TARQUIN

I dunno. Maybe its all the evil. Maybe its the revelation of the years of systematic child abuse Nale went though. Maybe its because Tarquin is going f'ing insane.

I wonder if the IFC would trade Tarquin for Nale? And since Belkar is about to kick it, I wonder if the Order would accept Nale for their evil murderer position when it becomes open.

Also, I hope Tarquin will pay attention to the dissertation V's index finger has prepared on his misbehavior.

HerbieRAI
2013-09-03, 09:06 AM
I'd put my money on V coming back into play with some IFCC buffs to help.

I'm under the belief that the IFCC want the gates destroyed for an unknown reason, and the best way to do that is have the Order and Xykon fight for the last gate. The Order does not have a quick way to get to the last gate right now, unless the IFCC buff V back to get teleport. V will probably not have an option but take the deal since the alternitive is letting the order be destroyed and him trying to solo the last gate and Xykon.

Harbinger
2013-09-03, 09:43 AM
I actually think your theory is very plausible, minus the Nale part. The IFCC does have a vested interest in the Order not dying, so it would make sense for them to send V back, possibly with Sabine. Although, she DID smash their TV, so it's likely that they don't know what's happening. I don't think Tarquin will die right now though, even if V does come to save the Order's butts.

Sunken Valley
2013-09-03, 09:47 AM
Ian stabs him in the back.

Olinser
2013-09-03, 09:58 AM
Who and what army is going to kill Tarquin? :smallconfused:

If I had to guess? Ian Starshine and a rebel army he's been gathering while the Order was heading the canyon and hanging out in the Ziggurat (how many other cities like the city of Doom were 'liberated' by one of the three empires and would not exactly be thrilled to find out they'd been played). Honestly, Tarquin doesn't have a huge amount of troops around that crater - and any army doesn't actually have to WIN against them, they just have to distract them long enough for the OOTS to beat feet out of there.

Tarquin seems to have completely gone off the deep end in the last couple comics.

He is now engaging in exactly the ostentatious, scenery-chewing villainy that he spent decades avoiding. He shows up at the head of an army and is poised to essentially publicly execute a group of high-level heroes?

How exactly does he expect this to turn out? Elan meekly accepts the deaths of his party and quietly leaves to go save the world before coming back to engage in a nice little fight with Tarquin? COME ON TARQUIN, I know that you're smarter than this!

Seriously, when was the last time executing the Hero's friends in front of him turned out well?

I very much agree - Tarquin is going to go down hard very soon.

Rakoa
2013-09-03, 10:08 AM
Tarquin is standing there. Then all of a sudden: Haley, Sabine, Ian, and ressurected Nale leap from the next panel over and BACKSTAB TARQUIN ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

Kish
2013-09-03, 10:11 AM
Tarquin is standing there. Then all of a sudden: Haley, Sabine, Ian, and ressurected Nale leap from the next panel over and BACKSTAB TARQUIN ALL AT THE SAME TIME!
Tarquin has a big back.

JSSheridan
2013-09-03, 10:37 AM
Tarquin did clear up the succession nicely for us, so if he does die here, Elan gets his rooms.

Taelas
2013-09-03, 10:54 AM
If I had to guess? Ian Starshine and a rebel army he's been gathering while the Order was heading the canyon and hanging out in the Ziggurat (how many other cities like the city of Doom were 'liberated' by one of the three empires and would not exactly be thrilled to find out they'd been played). Honestly, Tarquin doesn't have a huge amount of troops around that crater - and any army doesn't actually have to WIN against them, they just have to distract them long enough for the OOTS to beat feet out of there.

Tarquin seems to have completely gone off the deep end in the last couple comics.

He is now engaging in exactly the ostentatious, scenery-chewing villainy that he spent decades avoiding. He shows up at the head of an army and is poised to essentially publicly execute a group of high-level heroes?

How exactly does he expect this to turn out? Elan meekly accepts the deaths of his party and quietly leaves to go save the world before coming back to engage in a nice little fight with Tarquin? COME ON TARQUIN, I know that you're smarter than this!

Seriously, when was the last time executing the Hero's friends in front of him turned out well?

I very much agree - Tarquin is going to go down hard very soon.

You're entirely missing the point.

Tarquin wants to be taken down hard. If you think he was lying to Elan, I suggest you re-evaluate everything Tarquin has done, because it all seems to serve this end perfectly.

He sees it as essentially fulfilling his ultimate purpose: making him the villain in one of the greatest stories ever told.

To Tarquin, Roy isn't a hero. He's Elan's mentor -- the Obi-Wan to Elan's Luke. Tarquin himself, in this delusion, is Darth Vader.

He acknowledges the greater threat of the other villain, but ultimately, Star Wars wasn't about defeating the Emperor... it was about Darth Vader versus Luke Skywalker.

What Tarquin doesn't realize is that he's actually fulfilling another role in the narrative. One more similar to his Star Wars namesake.

Who just told the crew of the Death Star that "you may fire, when ready".

If Ian does show up with a rebel army, it'd require a really good explanation as to how he knew where Tarquin and the Order are. But I like the idea, only I don't think it'd end with the OotS escaping. I think it'd end with the death of Tarquin.

Shatteredtower
2013-09-03, 11:02 AM
Tarquin's standing at the edge of a crater--a pit in the desert, if you will. I seem to recall that ending badly for some other powerful enemy as he ordered his forces to kill several of the heroes, a group that also considered their current situation a significant detour on the way to fighting a more important villain for even larger stakes.

Now I'm not saying Star Wars, but... Star Wars.

Reddish Mage
2013-09-03, 12:07 PM
Yep, at this point Tarquin is deader than Dragon magazine which, as only we know, will never rise again because the OOTS took him in SSnD.

The only question is how. What did Elan plan with Durkon that will help at this point?

quasit
2013-09-03, 12:18 PM
Tarquin is standing there. Then all of a sudden: Haley, Sabine, Ian, and ressurected Nale leap from the next panel over and BACKSTAB TARQUIN ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

"...You too, son?"

BaronOfHell
2013-09-03, 12:21 PM
Please illuminate the Star Wars references for those who haven't seen the movies. I'm thinking about the guy who stands at the crater and the guy who ordered "you may fire, when ready".

Thanks in advance.

TRH
2013-09-03, 12:39 PM
Please illuminate the Star Wars references for those who haven't seen the movies. I'm thinking about the guy who stands at the crater and the guy who ordered "you may fire, when ready".

Thanks in advance.

I could, but...you've got more important things to do at the moment. Like turning in your geek card, posthaste.

BaronOfHell
2013-09-03, 12:42 PM
Aww, that's alright, I guess. :smallfrown:

Olinser
2013-09-03, 12:52 PM
Please illuminate the Star Wars references for those who haven't seen the movies. I'm thinking about the guy who stands at the crater and the guy who ordered "you may fire, when ready".

Thanks in advance.

Return of the Jedi. Jabba the hut and his goons getting ready to throw Luke and Han into the crater where the Sarlacc is.

Spoiler alert - it doesn't end well for Jabba.

WindStruck
2013-09-03, 01:14 PM
Oh I know what will happen.

Tarquin will be bludgeoned to death with his own father of the year plaque. By thog. Off panel. Because he hadn't had ice cream for so long.

BaronOfHell
2013-09-03, 01:23 PM
Thank you. :-)

Shred-Bot
2013-09-03, 01:26 PM
Tarquin is standing there. Then all of a sudden: Haley, Sabine, Ian, and ressurected Nale leap from the next panel over and BACKSTAB TARQUIN ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

Don't forget Gannji, Enor, Geoff and Tarquin's heretofore unmentioned twin brother Niuqrat! Twins run in families, after all.

primarch359
2013-09-03, 03:47 PM
You're entirely missing the point.

Tarquin wants to be taken down hard. If you think he was lying to Elan, I suggest you re-evaluate everything Tarquin has done, because it all seems to serve this end perfectly.

He sees it as essentially fulfilling his ultimate purpose: making him the villain in one of the greatest stories ever told.



There is still the afterlife to have more purpose. But i doubt hell go the revolving door route maybe more, "Hey lets conquer a plane of hell."

EvilJames
2013-09-03, 03:51 PM
He didn't, he is an imaginary character.

Then why would you care if people want him dead?

Where do people think Ian is going to get a rebel army? It takes time to build those and he didn't have one before he was locked up and he had no success in building one while locked up. Ian Starshine is in all likelihood deep in hiding, possibly laying the groundwork for a rebellion, but there is no way he's got one ready yet.

FredMSloniker
2013-09-03, 04:01 PM
I don't want Tarquin to die.

I want him to be erased.

At the end of the day, I want no one to even remember he existed. I want every speck of his legacy to be anonymized if it can't be obliterated. When he dies, whether it be five minutes or fifty years from now, I want him to die knowing that he has completely and utterly failed.

Someone else in the thread has already suggested comparing him to Tarkin from Star Wars. Me? I want him to be Ozymandias. And not the one who completed his plans 35 minutes ago.

Jiggs
2013-09-03, 04:05 PM
Tarquin dying here would make kind of sense (so the OotS could focus on their quest again)
Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't. I am not sure and will let myself be surprised as I was in the latest strips.
Personally I don't see it since he has an army with him, is a skilled fighter and propably also has some magic items on him that give him an upper hand in most of things.
I agree with whoever said he has a blind spot for Elan. This I a weakness and since I find it hard to predict Elan's reaction at the moment (or what Haley might do)
Anyway half of the Order need saving (again) and since I don't see ending their song (exept Belkar's which has been announced long time in advance) I would suppose someone or something will save their butts.

infomatic
2013-09-03, 04:09 PM
While there's a chance for some big twist that'll wind up closing this book with Tarquin dead, my money's on him staying around a while, if only to fill the shoes of Nale. (A role that, if Tarquin ever realized he was playing it, would likely kill him of shame.)

He could easily make it to the final book, staging an effort to seize control of the final gate, as a proper villain would.

He won't get the death that he wants, however, any more than Miko did. Letting Elan kill him, or even Roy, would be too much of a validation of his worldview.

My five-cent guess is that he's done in not by Elan or Roy but by another secondary character, as befits a secondary villain. Ian could do it, or Hinjo or — most likely — Sabine. In my dreams, though, it's Julio Scoundél.

SincroFashad
2013-09-03, 04:12 PM
To answer the other Star Wars character reference, Grand Moff Tarkin was the administrator of the Death Star from Ep. IV. He gives the order to fire on the rebel base about 5 seconds before the station blows up. After, mind you, he was informed by an underling that there was a danger to the station from the rebel attack in progress and chose not to evacuate because that would be ridiculous.

-Sinc

TRH
2013-09-03, 04:17 PM
The way I see it, the only thing that could save Tarquin this arc is this: Bozzok's also alive. Really, there's very, very little narrative reason for Bozzok to have been spared way, way back. He had no real character, only a tangential connection to the plot even back then, and his stay of execution was justified by one of the very few things in OOTS that I'd be willing to call a Deus ex Machina. Still, the half-orc does provide one important thing; he's one last obstacle for Haley to overcome after Xykon is done with. Between that and V's redemption arc, we already have good reason to think there will be a considerable amount of story left after the Gate quest is over. Tarquin can still survive for after the main event, following those same Scouring of the Shire-esque lines.

Still, the guy seems pretty determined to overstep his bounds, and that's just suicidal in this story. I still consider him a dead man walking.

denthor
2013-09-03, 04:17 PM
Tarquin is standing there. Then all of a sudden: Haley, Sabine, Ian, and ressurected Nale leap from the next panel over and BACKSTAB TARQUIN ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

Et tu brutus?

TRH
2013-09-03, 04:19 PM
Et tu brutus?

Brute, dammit. When you address someone by name, you use the Vocative!