161 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 148

[Kreistor]

I wonder how many loose ends they have to talk about before his Toolness arrives. I'm really looking forward for Stanley's reaction...

Me, too. That alone is going to run several comics.

I wonder if the Spell also pushed Parson not to unnecessarily destroy a solid team asset. Parson wanted to destroy Maggie for killing Misty, but the Spell might feel this is bad for Stanley, and so prevent it.

[Mikalyaran]

Parson is in an interesting spot mentally. He is, for the first time in his life, truly getting to know himself and having his own precenceptions and misconceptions about himself stripped away. The question is now that he knows that a part of him wanted to do the things he did will he embrace that aspect of himself and take it into the core of who he is? If not what values will he do this with? Parson is now truly forging himself into a man. How will those he surrounds himself with effect that? I pray sizemore stays very close...

[Welf von Ehrwald]

I wonder if the Spell also pushed Parson not to unnecessarily destroy a solid team asset. Parson wanted to destroy Maggie for killing Misty, but the Spell might feel this is bad for Stanley, and so prevent it.

Isn't the whole page about that Parson is mainly acting on his own wants and impulses? He could have killed Maggie, rationalizing it, but deep down he isn't a murderer for revenge.

So Parson is capable of decency, but his desire to win a battle is greater than is compassion. A not very nice gnosis for him.

[The Old Hack]

Isn't the whole page about that Parson is mainly acting on his own wants and impulses? He could have killed Maggie, rationalizing it, but deep down he isn't a murderer for revenge.

I agree. His troubles appear once it develops into a win or die situation. Some part of him desires to win at any cost.

So Parson is capable of decency, but his desire to win a battle is greater than is compassion. A not very nice gnosis for him.

At least, it is greater with the thinkamancy spurring him on. He certainly wasn't summoned to be compassionate. :/

[blackcitadel9]

Parson is growing, and part of growing is facing yourself, accepting the aspects about yourself you'd rather not, and if you truly cannot accept it, then changing them instead.

I don't know why though, but I can't agree with the statement "Parson's desire to win is greater than his compassion." I wish I had a rational basis for this, or evidence to support it. It's just a gut feeling, I think Parson's compassion runs much deeper than he himself realises.

[Bobby Archer]

I don't know why though, but I can't agree with the statement "Parson's desire to win is greater than his compassion." I wish I had a rational basis for this, or evidence to support it. It's just a gut feeling, I think Parson's compassion runs much deeper than he himself realises.

I'd say that, while the battle was happening, he really wasn't considering the long-term implications of what he was doing. He really wasn't expecting to survive. After all, he was handed a no-win scenario. It wasn't until he got back from the Magic Kingdom that he really realized what he had done.

Just look at his last messages to Charlie. He's too busy playing the game to internalize what "everyone dies" really means.

[mutecebu]

Does anyone else find it ironic that Erfworld and Order Of The Stick are both exploring "What a man does when he thinks he's not responsible for his own actions"?

Erfworld is so much more interesting though...

[konmanrocks]

i just think how interesting it is that parson is going from this gamer mentality of win at any cost to the oh my god, what have i done.

[small pumpkin m]

I'd say that, while the battle was happening, he really wasn't considering the long-term implications of what he was doing. He really wasn't expecting to survive. After all, he was handed a no-win scenario. It wasn't until he got back from the Magic Kingdom that he really realized what he had done.

Just look at his last messages to Charlie. He's too busy playing the game to internalize what "everyone dies" really means.

Hey! That's the exact page where he was going to order her to break the link and break her own mind but didn't! Interesting.

Uh, everybody else already know that didn't they?

[cloudbreaker]

I wonder if Parson would have ordered Maggie to take the backlash if the magic kingdom thinkamancers hadn't taken care of it for him. (I'm guessing not).

All I know is, I think it would be awesome to see Maggie lead some troops sometime. Just 'cause.

[ang3lboy2001]

I agree, seeing Maggie lead some troops would be awesome. Perhaps, since Charlie is a master of Thinkamancy due to his Arkendish, the Archons might get a bonus from being led by a Thinkamancer. And since Ansom appeared to retain all his abilities after being decrypted (haha, does this mean that death enciphers (that is, encrypts) units? . . . could the Arkenpliers decrypt RSA?), perhaps the (at least three by my count) Archons that Wanda has decrypted will retain their casting abilities. It may simply be the way that this battle turned out, but it seems to me that casters of any kind, especially under the leadership of a creative warlord, are orders of magnitude more valuable than any other unit type.

Hmmm, getting a little long for my first post, best to cut it off there.

[teratorn]

Maggie leading units? Now that would be scary, even more if she ever gets her mind on the arkendish. The Maggie's corps... no mind is too protected, no thought can be hidden.

[Welf von Ehrwald]

Maggie leading the Archons? I begin to like that idea more and more. We know that she has access to at least one battle spell (good ol' Hoboken), and she already has the fitting dress for leading Archons. Although she is wearing a T-shirt and the archons wear shirts. And some sunlight would not be amiss for her.

[Vordrax]

Uh, everybody else already know that didn't they?

I didn't. Glad you mentioned it.

[raphfrk]

And some sunlight would not be amiss for her.

That seems to be a side effect of the linkup. Both Misty and Jack were also pale. OTOH, Sizemore and Wanda seem unaffected, so it might be a long term exposure thing.

[Morthe]

I had the feeling that Thinkamancers mostly resemble computer nerds. They do not need to go outside to do their job...

[The Old Hack]

Parson is growing, and part of growing is facing yourself, accepting the aspects about yourself you'd rather not, and if you truly cannot accept it, then changing them instead.

In very deed.

I don't know why though, but I can't agree with the statement "Parson's desire to win is greater than his compassion." I wish I had a rational basis for this, or evidence to support it. It's just a gut feeling, I think Parson's compassion runs much deeper than he himself realises.

My own feeling is that the statement "Parson's desire to win is greater than his compassion." only holds true when this side of him is augmented by the summoning spell, and hence Thinkamancy. And that some at least of Parson's inner conflict arises from the fact that his more compassionate side is struggling against the unfair advantage handed to the other part of his personality.

[Kreistor]

My own feeling is that the statement "Parson's desire to win is greater than his compassion." only holds true when this side of him is augmented by the summoning spell, and hence Thinkamancy. And that some at least of Parson's inner conflict arises from the fact that his more compassionate side is struggling against the unfair advantage handed to the other part of his personality.

Parson doesn't strike me as someone with a lot of compassion in what we see of him on earth. He's lazy, uncaring of his own appearance, an devoted only to his games. He isn't a volunteer. Someone that doesn't care for himself can't care more for others.

Parson grieves over the loss of Misty and desires justice, when the person who commited that act was under compulsion to at least cause her mental damage like what occured to Jack. Where is compassion for Maggie's situation? She is forced to choose between harming three people, including herself, equally and saving only one person from that damage while possibly killing another. That is a horrible situation. That Maggie took the easy way out may have been as much compulsion as obedience, since this way, at least Stanley has one working caster out the other side, where the alternative is none.

Parson lives in virtual issolation: that's just not consistent with anything beyond minimal compassion.

[Bobby Archer]

Isolation and disconnection from society aren't the same thing as a lack of compassion. There are plenty of people who don't have the social skills to interact with the greater part of society, this doesn't make them compassionless, just kind of lonely.

Measure a person's compassion by their actions, not their situation. Parson treats Bogroll and Sizemore as equals, despite the fact that most of Gobwin Knob - particularly Stanley - look down on them. When he encounters Misty, he tries to engage with her as a person, despite the fact that she's only been treated as a thing by everyone around him. Even after being told what a horrible idea talking to the Eyemancers individually is by Wanda, he keeps trying until he finds out that it could kill the casters. He mourns the deaths of Misty and Bogroll...

Parson's not perfect, he isn't a saint, he doesn't always act with perfect compassion, but he's demonstrated a capability for compassion that no one he's surrounded by - save Sizemore - possesses. This compassion won't always win out against his desire to win, but that's what makes the story interesting.

My $.02

[The Old Hack]

Parson doesn't strike me as someone with a lot of compassion in what we see of him on earth. He's lazy, uncaring of his own appearance, an devoted only to his games. He isn't a volunteer. Someone that doesn't care for himself can't care more for others.
<snip>
Parson lives in virtual issolation: that's just not consistent with anything beyond minimal compassion.

This is a staggering oversimplification. For one thing, it assumes that the isolation is chosen deliberately and out of disregard for the world and not caused by, say, inability to fit into society at large or imposed by social pressures. It also fails to take into account that someone in such isolation might suffer from self-image issues or even depression. In fact, compassion may even cause isolation if the person feeling it also feels unable to act upon it; together with such a sense of helplessness it might well cause the person feeling it to withdraw even deeper into his shell.

But in the right circumstances, compassion may enable a person to escape from isolation. Combined with the discovery that one may be stronger than one thought, the desire to help others can go a long way towards drawing a person out of isolation and back into contact with the world. I myself have found this to be so.