Belkar's Family? Maybe we'll see them soon?

[SgtFrog]

Okay, so with the latest strip (#947), we've seen at least one family member for ALL of the Order of the Stick...except for Belkar. We've seen Roy's father, mother, grandfather, younger sister, and younger brother. Haley's father, mother (it was only for one panel, in a flashback), and I think her uncle (was Geoff Ian's brother? I can't remember). Vaarsuvius' spouse and adopted children, Elan's father, mother, and twin brother. And now Durkon's mother. (I hope I didn't forget anybody).

So...Belkar's family, if we ever see them...what will they be like?

[Codex]

God, I hope not.

[Keltest]

If they are even remotely like Belkar im giving them at least a 72% chance that they did something dumb and got killed. A lot.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

Okay, so with the latest strip (#947), we've seen at least one family member for ALL of the Order of the Stick...except for Belkar. We've seen Roy's father, mother, grandfather, younger sister, and younger brother. Haley's father, mother (it was only for one panel, in a flashback), and I think her uncle (was Geoff Ian's brother? I can't remember). Vaarsuvius' spouse and adopted children, Elan's father, mother, and twin brother. And now Durkon's mother. (I hope I didn't forget anybody).

So...Belkar's family, if we ever see them...what will they be like?

You left out Aunt Ivy, who was Ian's sister. Geoff is her husband. Then, there is also their son, Jimmy. Haley also has a cousin, who's name I don't remember. As for Belkar's family, I don't think they'll ever show up. All the other family members were mentioned relatively early on in the comic's run, whereas we have almost never heard Belkar even mention his family. If we do see them, I feel that they would be something like Belkar; he must have gotten his mindset from somewhere.

[17arkOracle]

I believe the Giant has said he doesn't really plan to go into Belkar's backstory. Giving him a tragic backstory would make Belkar unfunny (his random violence having a psuedo-psychological reason rather than for the lulz), and a more light-hearted backstory would both kind of beg the question to why Belkar is the way he is and not serve much purpose in the narrative.

(This was a while ago, though. I suppose with Belkar's character development with Bloodfeast, it'd be a lot easier to see his parents being caring to him while still being evil enough to be both funny and explain Belkar. Still might be hard to justify narratively, though.)

[Everyl]

It's been established that Belkar doesn't think highly (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0125.html) of his home village. It's not clear if his family is included in that, though.

Belkar has also mentioned one family member, Aunt Judy (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0165.html). Judging from what reminded him of her, it sounds like she, at the very least, has (or had) a lot in common with him.

As far as I can recall, those are the only references to Belkar's pre-adventuring background in the online comics. While I'd be interested in learning more about his history, I wouldn't be surprised if it's never explored, for the reasons that others have already mentioned in this thread.

[Loreweaver15]

I still think that Rich is misdirecting us, and Belkar is related to Serini.

[Jasdoif]

I believe the Giant has said he doesn't really plan to go into Belkar's backstory. Giving him a tragic backstory would make Belkar unfunny....He did. I had to dig through my books to find it, but he said that in the introduction for On the Origin of PCs.

[SgtFrog]

Okay, so we may never see Belkar's family. But I think it'd be hilarious if his parents were completely peaceful and only had an inkling of what their son is up to. They know he's a ranger, and he's with an adventuring party, but that's about it. They support his career choices, but don't really know about his hilariously violent tendencies. Here's something I thought up about the OotS and their families.

Antagonistic Similar: Elan and his father.

Antagonistic Opposite: Roy and his father.

Supportive Similar: Haley and her father.

Supportive Opposite(???): Belkar and his (currently unseen/unknown) parents?

[Aolbain]

Don't bet on it.

[Smolder]

I suspect that Belkar's family is pushing up daisies next to Malack's lizardfolk tribe, and for similar reasons...

[Kornaki]

If you really want to force the relationships to fit those four categories V's spouse was supportive opposite.

[ORione]

Rich has said (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?222955-Disappointing-Fathers-and-Saintly-Mothers-in-OOTS/page2&p=12240501#post12240501) that he doesn't want to get into the nonhuman characters' parents. I would be surprised if he introduced Belkar's parents. Then again, I was surprised that he introduced Durkon's mother.

[CatgirlTheCrazy]

It should be noted that every time an OotS family member has appeared, their appearance met both of the following criteria:

1) Their appearance furthered the story in some way. (e.g.: Eugene's appearances kicked off the whole plot, the attack on Inkyrius fueled the Darth V storyline, Tarquin was an arc villain, Julia's kidnapping set off the chain of events that led to Elan becoming a Dashing Swordsman and hooking up with Haley, etc.)

2) They provide boatloads of character development. (Shouldn't need to provide examples here).

So I think Belkar's family won't appear unless their appearance does those two things. However, it's not clear how Belkar's family could provide character development without giving him at least a semi-tragic backstory, which the Giant has said he wants to avoid. There's also not an obvious reason why they would be relevant to the plot either. So I think it's unlikely they will appear.

One possible exception I can envision: we get a brief flashback of young Belkar's parents taking him on Baby's First Killing Spree or something, and bonding as a family.

[ooOoo]

There was also mention of "Grandma Bitterleaf" in #689 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0689.html).

[Rogar Demonblud]

Belkar has also mentioned one family member, Aunt Judy (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0165.html). Judging from what reminded him of her, it sounds like she, at the very least, has (or had) a lot in common with him.

I half suspect 'Aunt Judy' is a reference to Judy Garland and The Wizard of Oz, just because the Giant does things like that. I'm still surprised he didn't work in a few BSG references with the Azurite refugee fleet in Book 4.

[Mighty]

It's been established that Belkar doesn't think highly (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0125.html) of his home village. It's not clear if his family is included in that, though.

You know what they say about prophets and their home town :smalltongue:

[MagicalMeat]

While I don't expect it, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Belkar or someone Belkar knows already has met Serini. Belkar was just never paying attention when the Order mentioned her. :smallbiggrin:

[kivzirrum]

I hope not, mostly for the reason that Rich said he wouldn't want to back in the OtOoPCs day. Besides, it doesn't seem like his family has much relevance to his life now.

Then again, I would have said the same about Durkon, and this comic has a way of doing things I thought wouldn't work and then making them wonderful. So, I guess what I'm saying is, I have no idea!

[Rogar Demonblud]

Okay, wild speculation here, so bear with me.

Serini is Grandma Bitterleaf.

After the family had her locked away in a 'senior care facility', they chucked her junk into a couple boxes in the attic.

Xykon tracks the diary here and kills the village off (for the lulz, mainly).

Belkar finds out about the above and becomes deeply committed to the Quest. Not to avenge his village. Because the boney b*****d stole his kills.

[Chessecakeman]

We also know his mother taught him how to make some spices that would give him a +2 circumstance to his cooking skill. Either that or he swapped it from her. (476 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0476.html))

So we have mention of a grandmother, a mother, and a town.