Quote Originally Posted by tanonx View Post
...Has Parson ever factored in his own combat capabilities? I mean, a lot of the weaker units seem like things he could smash up without a problem, being a good size larger than most humanoid units.

I imagine Charlie didn't ask for specifics because they'd use up more calculations if he was wrong, even about a small factor. Not to mention it'd give his hand away. I mean, it's not as though he'd need to drive home an already obvious point.
To quote Master Yoda: "Size matters not! Judge me by my size, do you?"

To put it another way, I once saw a 10 year old black belt utterly destroy an adult greenbelt in kumite (sparring in karate, if you are unfamiliar with the term). The greenbelt was about 10 years older, a good 2+ feet taller and probably upwards of 50 pounds heavier, all of which was from height and muscle. It was all the greenbelt could do to block and evade the jumping kicks aimed at his head. The 10 year old was in total control of the situation.

Quote Originally Posted by Hectonkhyres View Post
Ok. Lets run this over. To me it looks like Parson put himself and that artifact down as bait for Charlie in what looked like an attempt to simply outbid Ansom. In reality, he was trying to get the mercman himself to come over to the dark side and try to take everything of value on both sides in a play to become the most powerful being in existence. Now, having positioned Charlie so that it looks like he is going to slit the throat of whoever wins, he can watch as both sides self annihilate in a frenzied orgy of self destruction... and he comes out smelling like a rose, possibly with both an arkentool and an absurdly defensible city under his control. And a very damaged Charlie owing him the god of all favors and dependent on him for survival now that most of his shocktroops are croaked and he has been accused of outright betraying two different allies simultaneously. And he does it smiling while a blade is practically against his throat, metaphorically speaking at least.

I'm sorry, I classify that as Magnificent Bastard material. If he pulls it off, he is a Magnificent bastard.
You seem to be assuming that Parson engineered this situation. His comments to Wanda in panel 11 of this strip indicate that he feels used, not that he tricked Charlie into coming.