Quote Originally Posted by JazzManJim View Post
An important underlying message of this story has been "There are firm rules here in Erfworld. Those rules are important to the battle which is carrying the story presently and for which this part of the strip is named". Plenty of us are going to take that message seriously and it's going to bug us when the writer appears to be capricious about how seriously he takes it. "Speed of Plot" is fine, but if you break a rule in a game where the rules really matter, you'd better explain it really quickly.
Fair enough. I just haven't seen any game-mechanics contradictions when looking exclusively at what has been stated or unambiguously established "onscreen". Contradictions between what's onscreen and some readers' inferences, sure, but that's not a flaw in the story unless the inference in question was based on unfair misdirection. (Stipulated: the line between fair and unfair misdirection is in the eye of the beholder.)