Book 2 – Page 47

[danhaas]

Disrespecting conventions is not a problem if you win. Check the Allied war crimes during WW2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_war ... rld_War_II

[Selexor]

Re: Honour:

I think it more likely that at some point, Parson is going to be directly questioned about his "Dishonourable" tactics - by Tramennis, or Charlie, or Jillian, or Sizemore, even Stanley himself. Whoever it is will put the direct question to him of how he can justify his methods. And I think if it does happen, Parson will be giving another lesson in lateral thinking, or perhaps more simply, practical thinking.

Honourable actions, conventions, traditions... they're all just fancy ways of saying "rules". And a rule, in any shape or form, exists to make people equal within the bounds of these rules. This would be a lovely idea if it were anything approaching remotely possible, but unfortunately there is no such thing as an equal or "fair" fight. Gobwin Knob broke the concept of a fair fight by mass-decrypting every unit they kill. The RCC2 broke the basic concept of a "One-on-one" fight by making it a battle of several sides against one. Faq broke another convention, this one previously considered a fundamental law of Erfworld, by forcing Gobwin Knob to end their turn early, using a tactic that King Slately had never even heard of in all his thousands of turns.
If an honourable fight is to take your opponent on fair an equal terms, then nobody has ever fought a truly fair fight before - in the history of Erfworld or Earth - because the entire point of fighting is to win. And that requires you gain some advantage over your opponent, by whatever means you can. Jetstone chooses to win battles by having more soldiers and better stats; Parson simply chooses a different weapon. If anything, his is more "pure" because it's not a material advantage, it's pure skill. Right now? He's found that by following the rules, the fight is impossible to win because of the "unequal" odds against him. So he's using his weapon of choice, breaking a few of those pointles rules, and making it a proper fight again. And calling him dishonourable for it is the age-old cry of any child who's found out they're not at a certain game as they thought they were: "No faaaaaaaair, he's cheeeaaaating!"

If Parson fought fair, he'd be dead. Which, as a great man once observed, is not very much incentive for him to fight fair... is it?




Edit:

Disrespecting conventions is not a problem if you win. Check the Allied war crimes during WW2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_war ... rld_War_II

Exactly right. I forget who said it, but "Nobody asks the winner of a war if he played by the rules."

[Goshen]

Is dwagon poop flammable?

[kagato23]

If Parson fought fair, he'd be dead. Which, as a great man once observed, is not very much incentive for him to fight fair... is it?

It might even go beyond that. Consider that Parson was put into a world that is at least parallell to one he was already invisioning. The way things is working, it is more or less impossible for him to win playing by the rules. Maybe fate is literally working to create those scinarios (either because he was summoned to a side that would work that way and it's his only hope, because he expected it of this world and it's giving it to him, or possibly even because the titans fear what he could do unchecked), maybe we just break the forth wall and admit it's because Rob wouldn't be writing a very good story if Parson just had a good army and could win every fight by sending them in, but however you slice it, there is quite literally no way for Parson to win following all the rules and conventions.

If the choices are dishonorable actions, or the croaking of yourself and people you care about/are responsible for, I don't think anybody should be too surprised by which path he picks.

[Sieggy]

What I find amusing is that the first phase of Parson's plan is literally occurring under the JS Royal's noses . . . they're focused on Ossomer, and the Dwagons are below eye level, so unless the wind carries the smell of DwagonDookie up to them, their first indication of trouble will be when the roof lets go.

I also think Tremennis must be favored of the Titans, as they seem to listen to him; first, "what could possibly go wrong?", and now "I want to meet this Lord Hamster!". Somewhere, the Titans are grinning, poking each other and saying "Aha! We invoke The Rule of Toyota! You asked for it, you got it!". I certainly hope the confrontation between Parson & Tremennis is as epic as it deserves to be.

Of course, regarding the speculations about Trem & the jetpack, has anyone thought about the fact that perhaps Trem will use it to get his father safely away to another sity, and thus prevent JS from falling completely? It will most likely result in his own capture (which Plotomancy may demand), but it keeps his side alive to fight another day . . ..

One thing I'm curious about, though . . . how did Charlie know that Parson had been promoted to CWL? His promotion occurred minutes after the Kingworld spell ended the GK turn, and in terms of real time, I doubt more than a half hour has passed since then. Unless there's some Titanic Order Of Battle posted somewhere, that would mean that Charlie has an intel source really close to Stanley, as I doubt things like that are made known to your opponents . . .

[Zeku]

Charlie knew about Parson being CWL because he knows Parson's and Ansom's level. If Charlie has the recon to look at any GK field unit at all, anywhere, he knows who is the CWL based upon their bonuses.

[HandofShadows]

ROFL!!!!

If there is no roof, does that allows the Dwagons to fly inside the building? Think a moment. Parson is planning on going through the portal and fighting on foot. As maxed out on equipment as he is he would fall. But if he where with OTHER forces.........

[odoflood]

Dragon poop = digested food
Dragons = carnivores (presumably)
Therefore

Dragon crap = the digested remains of animals

If Wanda can decrypt units that have been burned by lava, can she decrypt the organic components of dragon poop?

[Selexor]

Dragon poop = digested food
Dragons = carnivores (presumably)
Therefore

Dragon crap = the digested remains of animals

If Wanda can decrypt units that have been burned by lava, can she decrypt the organic components of dragon poop?

Doubtful... even assuming the dwagons' rations count as having once been alive (considering they'd pop in food-form, like Parson's Stupid Meals), and then further assuming that they have any combat abilities at all (I can't imagine even a decrypted sheep being a good fighter, for example), Wanda can't decrypt everything. Bogroll was too far gone for her to decrypt his remains, and he only got splattered and roasted, not chomped by an acid-filled dwagon.

[Magothys]

One thing I'm curious about, though . . . how did Charlie know that Parson had been promoted to CWL? His promotion occurred minutes after the Kingworld spell ended the GK turn, and in terms of real time, I doubt more than a half hour has passed since then. Unless there's some Titanic Order Of Battle posted somewhere, that would mean that Charlie has an intel source really close to Stanley, as I doubt things like that are made known to your opponents . . .

Charlie knew about Parson being CWL because he knows Parson's and Ansom's level. If Charlie has the recon to look at any GK field unit at all, anywhere, he knows who is the CWL based upon their bonuses.

That, and it is also highly probable that Charlie can hack thinkagrams and heard Parson's discussing of GW's battle plan to Wanda.

[peteratjet]

What I find amusing is that the first phase of Parson's plan is literally occurring under the JS Royal's noses . . . they're focused on Ossomer, and the Dwagons are below eye level, so unless the wind carries the smell of DwagonDookie up to them, their first indication of trouble will be when the roof lets go.

Actually, I think they did just notice. In the penultimate frame, Tramennis has briefly lost his train of thought. Both he and King Slately are gripping the ballustrade and looking down. Ossomer is looking down and over his shoulder. Even the spear carrier mouths are drawn with little 'O's of shock. Then Tramennis finishes his sentence in the last frame "... ~lower~ than Stanley"

Yeah, they know something don't smell right.

[peteratjet]

As for the Dragon guano -

Spoiler: show

One word. Nitrates

[ShinyBrownCoat]

Is this the first time we've seen mention of the Jetstone garrison having a roof?

[ShinyBrownCoat]

What I find amusing is that the first phase of Parson's plan is literally occurring under the JS Royal's noses . . . they're focused on Ossomer, and the Dwagons are below eye level, so unless the wind carries the smell of DwagonDookie up to them, their first indication of trouble will be when the roof lets go.

I think the 2nd-to-last panel shows Ossomer and Trem both looking down and noticing what's happening to the roof already.

[badninja]

Somebody stop Tam he keeps tempting fate now even the dwagons are not liking where this is going to go. I wonder what Wanda, Jack, Sizemore, or Maggie would say about that statement. I cannot even think of how to properly respond to this comic, Rob seems to want to sent Tram from poster boy to whipping boy, by stupid out of character choices.

[zebarmy]

Long time Lurker (since the first page of the comic over at OOTS actually), but just wanted to chuck this in as I missed anyone else saying it:

Crap.

Golems.

Sizemore.

[fehler]

The roof! The roof! The roof is on...crap?

[Utoryo]

Just another quick thought: if Ossomer turns back to Jetstone, would he automatically be a heir again? I don't think we know enough about the rules to have any idea, really...

[MonteCristo]

Man... I hope the next turn cleansing cover cleaning buildings aswell... because I would not want to Spacerocks janitor right now

Long time Lurker (since the first page of the comic over at OOTS actually), but just wanted to chuck this in as I missed anyone else saying it:

Crap.

Golems.

Sizemore.

Mayhaps, though Parson's plan does not rely on it since he told Sizemore that he could stay behind

[zebarmy]

Mayhaps, though Parson's plan does not rely on it since he told Sizemore that he could stay behind

Granted, but it wouldn't be the first time Sizemore's done something he didn't want to, out of necessity