Why Tarquin Will Fail

[ReaderAt2046]

So this morning, my Pastor was preaching a sermon about truth, and he started out by drawing the analogy to the importance of accurate intelligence in a war. So that got me thinking about intelligence in war, so that led me to realize: Tarquin will fall because of his delusions about Elan.

Think about it: What is Tarquin's biggest asset? Strategic and tactical intelligence. He always knows what's going on, always has a plan, and that plan is always perfect for the situation. Until now.

Tarquin believes that he is the main villain and Elan is the main hero, and that belief has blinded him to what is really going on. He has forfeited the perfect intelligence and perfect planning that was his greatest strength, and as a result of that his reactions are becoming increasingly inappropriate to the situation. Like many tyrants, he will fall by his own folly, as he throws more and more of his attention to trying to counter a threat that doesn't exist.

[AKA_Bait]

Think about it: What is Tarquin's biggest asset? Strategic and tactical intelligence. He always knows what's going on, always has a plan, and that plan is always perfect for the situation. Until now.

I actually think Tarquin's biggest asset is his obviously very high level adventuring party. He just hasn't really needed to use it to nearly its full potential yet as the planning you mentioned has kept it from being necessary.

[FlawedParadigm]

I thought mentioning real world religions was a no-no in these parts.

[RubySky]

I thought mentioning real world religions was a no-no in these parts.

It was just in passing, I'm sure it's no big deal.

On topic, I bet that Tarquin's fall will be due to his own arrogance. Hopefully Elan pulls it off just right so that no one ever remembers him again.

[Chuikov]

I'll actually be very interested to see how the Giant handles Tarquin's eventual downfall. Tarquin himself has laid out why the traditional approach of being taken down by our heroes won't be satisfying: like the man says, the last few minutes may suck, but hey, he's already had decades of getting to be a ruthless overlord, and after he's taken down by the heroes he'll get to live in stories as a legend.

One could point out to him, of course, that this is a world with a verifiable underworld for eternally punishing evil people for their wickedness, making his few decades of getting to be the man seem not worth it at all in the long run, but I don't think that's how this comic handles things.

I think the seeds for giving him a satisfactory downfall do indeed lie in his misunderstanding of his role. In some way, he's going to die in an undignified manner, realizing in his last moments that he's not at all destined to be the legendary Big Bad of Elan's epic, but rather that's he just another villain-of-the-moment along the lines of Kubota, destined to be overshadowed by Xykon. I think that would hurt a lot worse than just killing him.

[Arkhosia]

I would not be surprised if he got kicked out via revolt (led by Elan in this case): it's what they did to the roman king Tarquin, who was probably the namesake of the character.

[TRH]

My money's on infighting within his team: the super-Linear Guild we've just watched fall apart before our eyes had the same problems, and Team Evil is certain to suffer similarly before long, what with Redcloak and Xykon's differing objectives. It also deals with the question of Tarquin's larger team, who collectively would give TE a run for their money all together, and are clearly way out of the Order's league at the moment. And of course getting offed by his own teammates would be a plenty humiliating end for Tarquin, so there's no need to worry about him going out with a smile or anything.

[homeosapiens]

My money's on infighting within his team: the super-Linear Guild we've just watched fall apart before our eyes had the same problems, and Team Evil is certain to suffer similarly before long, what with Redcloak and Xykon's differing objectives. It also deals with the question of Tarquin's larger team, who collectively would give TE a run for their money all together, and are clearly way out of the Order's league at the moment. And of course getting offed by his own teammates would be a plenty humiliating end for Tarquin, so there's no need to worry about him going out with a smile or anything.

For that to come to be there would be a seriously good monologue from Haley needed. About how Tarquin is using everybody, them too. Still it doesn't seem he treats them wrongly - might not work. It might work however if she brought up that he was willing to let Malaks death slide if Nale didn't refuse to be his pawn. That might lead to them thinking - we are just pawns for you. If we die you are going to be like " huh, need to find a new guy".

But i doubt anybody heard that talk.