Quote Originally Posted by fendrin View Post
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Yes, but where's the fun in that?

To put it another way, what you are describing is one possibility; it is simpler, but not necessarily correct. The Rule of Parsimony (a.k.a. Okham's Razor) is a human preference, not a method for establishing fact.

For that matter, we have reason to call that into question: to do so seriously challenges the idea of free will, which is one of the issues that Parson is wrangling with. If we arbitrarily decide that one possible answer is true, then we reduce his philosophical angst to a Boolean value. I don;t know about you, but that kind of ruins the comic for me.
Are you coming from the strategy gamer corner? Things like free will for units (defecting units?) are not really desired (it is usually only annoying) while the game itself is a lot of fun. Free will is something for players not for pawns and I can live with that and still have fun with the comic. I could do without Parsons angst though I'm aware that some readers are not really interested in the strategic/tactic panels and prefer the emotional part.

To me, it seems that in Erf there are no players behind the power blocks so the free will is limited to "persons" who are the rulers of a side (they have no one that they must be loyal to above them) and Parson who is from our world.