Erfworld 135 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 122

[Aquillion]

Everyone's believing that Wanda is referring to Jillian but look at Ansom's face in the 9th panel. It seems to be more of an expression of fear or great discomfort. I wouldn't think making moves on Jillian would warrant such an expression. Likely there's some big secret here and a huge twist. Something along the lines of perhaps it was Ansom who sacked Faq rather than Stanely.

I think he may simply be disgusted at her way of speaking. Ansom strikes me as the sort of person who would be disgusted, in general, by physical deformity, and Wanda's stroke-victim way of speaking would probably creep him out -- ironically, since it is (very, very indirectly) his fault.

[kynalvarus]

Re: "less than what you took from me" - I strongly doubt it's about Jillian. Something happened to get Wanda to serve Stanley, to be willing to serve him faithfully even though she wasn't popped to his faction. I'd bet it has to do with the fall of Faq, and possibly with the death of King Saline as well.

Wanda admitted long ago to being skilled in many areas of magic, but only interested in croakamancy. Why? Has she been set on revenge for a very long time?

Ansom only doesn't strike Wanda because of Sizemore's arrival with the golems. He may be horrified by her reaction to his threat, perhaps puzzled by it enough to delay a moment, but the golems arrive before he can make up his mind. He's not at all sure he can solo that many golems, plus Sizemore, plus the remaining garrison that could arrive at any moment, even with the carpet and Arkenpliers. Therefore, he retreats, justifying it as he goes.

As far as rules, Ansom is on his own turn, has move left, and has control of GK airspace. Klog 13 doesn't say that airspace can't attack courtyard, only that it can't attack dungeon. Flying units in the airspace can attack the tower directly, while ground units have to breach the wall and enter the courtyard before they can attack the tower.

[Aquillion]

One other note -- if you look at Wanda's hand, it looks like she was trying to reach for the Arkenpliers even while incapacitated (it's stretched out right towards where they fell.) Make of that what you will.

EDIT: Also, regarding the theories that Ansom is responsible for the fall of Faq -- remember, its last message to Jillian it fell was a frantic report about an overflight of Dwagons. Ansom seems unlikely to be capable of managing that, and having it just be some random wild dwagons seems like somewhat excessive misdirection. Additionally, Ansom had no unusual reaction on hearing about Jillian's backstory -- he showed no sign of recognizing Faq at all. He doesn't seem like the sort to go to such lengths to deceive Jillian, at least.

He might be responsible for something terrible, but I can't see him actually knowing about it, or realizing what he did.

[BossMuro]

Wow, I've just started reading this comic, and I'm amazed at how much Ansom hate there is in these forums. I mean, if you don't like him as a character that's one thing, but give him a little credit. Getting saved by Charlie isn't plot armor, it's not a deus ex machina, it's plan B. He had clearly already read the contract, and didn't hesitate to take the deal when it became nessicary. And charging the walls wasn't some stupid, boneheaded move that should've killed him. It was arguably the only thing to do, even if it was personally reckless. Attacking through the tunnels failed horribly the first time, and after the moblins had (presumably) been moved back down into the tunnels, it would be suicide. Waiting a few turns would give Parson plenty of time to do all sorts of horrible things.

The only reason it didn't work is because of whatever connection wanda has to the Arkenpliers. Without that, a fight with the resident knight in shining armour on one side, and a drained caster backed up with a handful of uncroaked on the other would have been more or less equal.

And the fact that he bas back on his feet right after his fall while Wanda almost died is simple: Ansom beats the crap out of people for a living, and Wanda, badass as she is, doesn't(unless they're tied down, of course).

Oh, and I loved the "Gabba gabba hey!" That one must be a punk rock golem.

[Elm]

As you all might recall, Ansom's quote on the characters page is "If the plan does not plan for problems outside the plan, then it isn't a plan at all." Having a prepared agreement with Charlie, even one subject to amendment, is a perfectly in-character thing for Ansom to do.

Plus, from a plot perspective, having Wanda kill, or even capture, Ansom wouldn't have worked real well - with the RCC hanging by a thread, Ansom going down like that would likely break the siege, leaving Parson without an immediate opportunity to do anything meaningful with his painstakingly introduced chekhov's gun sword.

[Aquillion]

As you all might recall, Ansom's quote on the characters page is "If the plan does not plan for problems outside the plan, then it isn't a plan at all." Having a prepared agreement with Charlie, even one subject to amendment, is a perfectly in-character thing for Ansom to do.

Plus, from a plot perspective, having Wanda kill, or even capture, Ansom wouldn't have worked real well - with the RCC hanging by a thread, Ansom going down like that would likely break the siege, leaving Parson without an immediate opportunity to do anything meaningful with his painstakingly introduced chekhov's gun sword.

Well, there would still have been Charlie to deal with. But yes, it would have been a massively anticlimatic ending to Ansom's storyline thus far.

[Devoured_Dude]

Of course Charlie would want the pliers in the hands of relatively foolish leader (Ansom) rather than a brilliant tactician (Parson). Charlie wants Parson as an underling, not as an equal or possible competitor.

[SteveMB]

1. Parson needs to put that sword to use. Eat unstated giant commander.
2. Is Ansom begining to doubt? In this recent comic he avoids touching Wanda with the arkenpilers. Is it a. because of the golems, b. because of his stated reason (he's need on the walls) or c. because he know that that would be a bad idea. Facial expression in panel nine, plus the fact that he knows Stanley was attuned says c. to me.

Relevance? "My will is the Titan's will," he says, just before his beat down. If he's doubting that...

For some time, I've suspected that Ansom's underlying motivation, going even beyond what he kinda sorta let slip in his conversation with Vinny, is determination to prove that he (being a proper royal) is favored by the Titans and that Stanley the Worm is not... because, deep down, he harbors doubts stemming from the apparent opposite verdict of the Arkentools.

I think that, whether or not Wanda actually wanted Ansom to touch her with the Arkenpliers because she thought she'd attune to them, Ansom believed that Wanda thought so, and that she might be right. In effect, Wanda was daring him to put the matter to the test, and see if the Arkentools rendered yet another thumbs-down to Ansom's worldview.

And Ansom simply wasn't willing to risk that. And he flew away, a flimsy rationalization on his lips.

[dr pepper]

Seems wrong that Ansom could remount his carpet and retrieve the pliers with no further risk.

[Stormthorn]

Actually, I think that's a really interesting point.

Note that Erfworld has no concept of children and, therefore, no concept of parenting. You can have a mentor, and even be the heir to someone's throne, but you pop fully formed - you're not reared by anyone.

That also means there are no brothers, or sisters, or cousins, or anything, except in the *metaphorical* sense. There's no true family, not literally.

This does really interesting things to morality! When you kill someone, for example, you may be killing someone's friend or even lover, but you KNOW you're not killing anyone's mom or dad. There are no orphans.

Are you really sure about your assessment of who was harmed more, Ansom or Wanda?

This also makes croakmancers the closest thing to a parent int his world. A leader makes a unit out of resources (so he is more of a craftsman). Its a functioning person but from the necromancer (or croakmancer) POV its just a proto-unit. It has all the parts to be raised under the necromancers control but the necromancer needs to act for it to actualy happen.

Warlord creates unit from whats lying around (resources) and the unit dies. Croakmancer uses her magic (something personal with drawn directly from her own energy) and uncroaks it. The unit is its own mother and the croakmancer is the father.

So Wanda has more right to care about her uncroaked being destroyed than Stan does about his men dying. So its probably a bad idea for him to throw "those were my men" in her face as he fights against them now that they are uncroaked.

[headhoncho]

Seems wrong that Ansom could remount his carpet and retrieve the pliers with no further risk.

Yup. I'm with the several others who think these past two strips have been among the worst. The airspace-borders-courtyard inconsistency is also jarring and lame.

The authors have asked us to trust that they have a well-thought out ruleset behind the story. When you have inconsistencies pop up like these, without any exposition or explanation (and in fact, directly contrary to past exposition), trust is forced to become suspension of disbelief, which becomes more and more difficult over time.

And what a worthless horde of undead on the walls, by the way.

EDIT: And wow, Ansom sure fended off that horde of undead, and got his carpet, and whooshed down to Wanda pretty darn quick! Sure makes those poor undead unipegataurs and archon seem like turtles, what with their eternity to move the short distance that it took Ansom to survive a fall off his carpet to the top of the wall.

[Fafnir13]

Charlie took his turn during this current day at dawn, before GK (though he ended his turn without attacking). His next turn would begin at the same time the following day, again before Parson. It's possible Charlie's new alliance with Jetstone will cause him to act on Jetstone's turn, but in that case he should be able to move his Archons now, which he clearly cannot. So I'm assuming he's still acting on his own initiative

He cannot move this turn because all move drops to zero at the end of your turn. He'll be locked in with the Jetstone's next turn which is a darn good thing as it will allow Parson one more action before anyone can kill him. If the Archons still moved before him, the comic would end with GK getting wiped out. Not exactly the ending I was looking forward to, so I'm glad that the ever so clever authors were able to set things up this way.
Speaking of clever authors, nice to get some good foreshadowing in on the Arkenpliers attuning with Wanda. I know it's been the assumption of the forums for quite some time, but anyone reading in a vacuum would probably be hard pressed to come up with it before this little confrontation. We've gotten quite the tantalizing taste of it, but it really is too soon for such a thing to happen. Boop's got to hit the fan before you pull the big guns out.

[Revenancer]

Is it just me, or does the "touch me" line seem to scream that Wanda knows exactly how the pliers work and knows they will to attune to her? If she was suicidal or baiting him she would have said "hit me".

Also agree that the constant hitting Parson in his balls with a plot hammer is getting really tedious. The guy started off with every disadvantage imaginable, and yet there hasn't been a single way in which he's been allowed to stage a comeback without being slapped down. No one is interested in or impressed by the story of an army 25 times the size of its opponent winning.

[Aquillion]

And Ansom simply wasn't willing to risk that. And he flew away, a flimsy rationalization on his lips.

Not quite. He didn't react, really (beyond his expression) until after Sizemore and the golems arrived. At that point, touching Wanda with the pliers was no longer a viable or sane option even if he'd wanted to.

And to all the people who think this is just a return to status quo -- as I pointed out in the last page's thread, Parson was completely screwed regardless unless he could do something about Charlie. There were no other turns between this turn and Charlie's. Charlie only offered to delay the attack for one turn, out of (so he said) curiosity. If Charlie had not allied with Ansom just now, Parson would have been screwed, regardless of anything else that happened.

That alone is a fairly major development. It is now possible for Stanley to get back before Charlie's next turn; before, it wasn't.

[Boneyard]

I think that, whether or not Wanda actually wanted Ansom to touch her with the Arkenpliers because she thought she'd attune to them, Ansom believed that Wanda thought so, and that she might be right. In effect, Wanda was daring him to put the matter to the test, and see if the Arkentools rendered yet another thumbs-down to Ansom's worldview.

And Ansom simply wasn't willing to risk that. And he flew away, a flimsy rationalization on his lips.

I think you are right on the money.

[Altima]

Wouldn't it be funny if the Arkentools were (semi)sentient and Ansom's Arkenpliers protested rather...forcefully at being removed from a potential attuner?

[Justyn]

Wouldn't it be funny if the Arkentools were (semi)sentient and Ansom's Arkenpliers protested rather...forcefully at being removed from a potential attuner?

Doesn't the cast page imply that the Arkenhammer is sentient?

[Whispri]

But Vinny's bats couldn't make it from GK to the ambush point (which is why he mentioned bats, and then the Warlord said they had plenty, basically). They're fliers, but can't be used as mounts, apparently.

According to leading theory, the RCC started the whole war of aggression because Stanley is, simply, not a royal. They've already hit all of Stanley's other cities. The fact that Ansom is going to take GK no matter what shouldn't surprise you.

Well, that's because Wanda will have crushed his skull with the Arkenpliers. I admire your brutal eagerness to see Ansom's corpse flung around like a beach ball, but come on, children read this thing. Plus corpses disappear after a day, so there's only so many Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball-style tournaments you can hold.

He had eight with him after meeting Wanda. Eight bats that shouldn't have been able to reach the ambush site in two turns let alone one. And yet there they were. Therefore I suggest that Vinni carried them. We actually see the Translyvyto Warlords unleashing bats like drones from a mothership.

Did I say I was surprised?

He could be taken alive and flung in the pit, and if croaked it doesn't have to be any more brutal than all the other croakings. Plus he could have escaped without being able to recapture the Pliers.

That's not entirely fair. First of all, he calls Wanda a 'demoness'. Given her getup and the high probability that he's never seen her before, it's entirely possible that he actually thinks she is one (and while we don't know to what extent 'to what measure is a non-human' applies, it probably applies at least a little bit.)

Second, it's perfectly reasonable for him to assume that she helped kill his men (and, in fact, Parson ordered her down there to assist near the end.) He could even, quite reasonably, assume that she is the one that killed Webinar personally.

Third, only reason she was using non-lethal force was because he happened to be worth more alive than dead at the moment. It would be perfectly reasonable (and in line, in fact, with both Gobwin Knob's reputation and much of its reality) for him to assume that they only wanted to capture him so they could interrogate him, torture him to death, and uncroak him to serve on their side in a more relaxed setting.

Fourth, there's no way to tell for sure if he heard the orders he gave her units. He could quite reasonably assume, given the situation, that she was attempting to kill him.

Fifth, she gives a massive bonus to all the undead on the walls while she's operational. His own team thinks his life is in some danger, even with the carpet; Charlie might protect him, but there's still a risk he could die before next turn. If he croaks Wanda now, it would be a massive advantage for his side, and could save the lives of many of his men; if he attempted to capture her and failed, all of those deaths would be the result of his sentimentality.

I wouldn't say that Ansom is really the shining beacon of honor and morality he thinks he is. But calling what he's doing here, on the battlefield, "responding to non-lethal force with attempted murder" just because Wanda's tactical considerations led her to try and capture instead of croak is grossly unfair. Wanda's own statements make it fairly clear that if the situation were different, she would have gladly attempted to croak him.

I am not entirely sure about that. We don't know very much about Wanda's motivations; they could, in fact, be an elaborate effort to get back at Ansom for something in the past.

But if it's just about Jillian, that would at least answer the people who don't think Wanda really loves her.

The colour of her armour has no impact on alignment. If Ansom murders people on the basis of the type of clothing they wear then he's even more spit worthy than I've been giving him credit. And even if he did think that, it still doesn't justify murdering enemy wounded.

Casters are rarely sent into battle, and even if he thinks she was involved in the actual croaking part of the occasion, he knows damn well she can't disobey orders. And it wouldn't be justification for murdering enemy wounded even if she had been involved.

A bold statement. What makes you think she isn't taking him prisoner just because she could? Note the only person Wanda is known to have tortured is Jillian, a girl who liked it and who Ansom knows wasn't traumatised by being captured and interrogated repeatedly. They only need a corpse for uncroaking and the corpses can be prevented from fading by having them moved. Things he thinks they might have done to him as he judges them by his own low standards are no justification for murdering the incapacitated.

Their weapons were locked together when she gave the order to 'Disarm and Dismount'. And he was able to recognise the Warlord who thumped him so I really have to say that he's faster on the uptake than you give him credit. Plus Ansom was armed and dangerous, Wanda is wounded, helpless and poor hearing is no justification for murdering her.

She does not give a bonus to the undead on the walls as they are not part of her stack. Furthermore even if she was leading them, that would have changed if he had taken her prisoner which he could easily have done. So, no, it does not give him justifaction for murdering her.

She is incapacitated, dying, unable to fight back. He could easily have taken her prisoner. And yet he made his murderous intent clear. It doesn't really matter how hard you try and find excuses for his escalation of force, there's simply no getting away from the fact that he was openly planning to murder someone who was completely at his mercy. And while it's clear that she doesn't like him one little bit, it's also clear that she was trying to take him alive and he couldn't prevent it without screaming "Chhhhhhaaaaaaaarrrrlllieeeee!!!!!"

Are you in with the Ansom at Faq theory then? Or do you have something else in mind?

True dat.

EDIT: Also, regarding the theories that Ansom is responsible for the fall of Faq -- remember, its last message to Jillian it fell was a frantic report about an overflight of Dwagons. Ansom seems unlikely to be capable of managing that, and having it just be some random wild dwagons seems like somewhat excessive misdirection. Additionally, Ansom had no unusual reaction on hearing about Jillian's backstory -- he showed no sign of recognizing Faq at all. He doesn't seem like the sort to go to such lengths to deceive Jillian, at least.

He might be responsible for something terrible, but I can't see him actually knowing about it, or realizing what he did.

Something else then, you realise that Ansom has repeatedly hired people with mind controlling magic at their disposal? As I said upthread, all it takes is one spell on Jillian and Ansom not knowing that Stanley knows where Faq is located. I certainly wouldn't call it impossible.

And to all the people who think this is just a return to status quo -- as I pointed out in the last page's thread, Parson was completely screwed regardless unless he could do something about Charlie. There were no other turns between this turn and Charlie's. Charlie only offered to delay the attack for one turn, out of (so he said) curiosity. If Charlie had not allied with Ansom just now, Parson would have been screwed, regardless of anything else that happened.

That alone is a fairly major development. It is now possible for Stanley to get back before Charlie's next turn; before, it wasn't.

Charlie could have allied with the RCC without Ansom bouncing back to his carpet, recapturing the Pliers and heading back to the walls as if nothing had happened.

It's possible he's already back, the Dwagons with the lowest move are the ones least likely to have survived the ambush after all. And there is cloud cover.

Wow, I've just started reading this comic, and I'm amazed at how much Ansom hate there is in these forums. I mean, if you don't like him as a character that's one thing, but give him a little credit. Getting saved by Charlie isn't plot armor, it's not a deus ex machina, it's plan B. He had clearly already read the contract, and didn't hesitate to take the deal when it became nessicary. And charging the walls wasn't some stupid, boneheaded move that should've killed him. It was arguably the only thing to do, even if it was personally reckless. Attacking through the tunnels failed horribly the first time, and after the moblins had (presumably) been moved back down into the tunnels, it would be suicide. Waiting a few turns would give Parson plenty of time to do all sorts of horrible things.

The only reason it didn't work is because of whatever connection wanda has to the Arkenpliers. Without that, a fight with the resident knight in shining armour on one side, and a drained caster backed up with a handful of uncroaked on the other would have been more or less equal.

And the fact that he bas back on his feet right after his fall while Wanda almost died is simple: Ansom beats the crap out of people for a living, and Wanda, badass as she is, doesn't(unless they're tied down, of course).

Oh, and I loved the "Gabba gabba hey!" That one must be a punk rock golem.

All the other RCC Warlords expected him to die and quickly.

Wanda was following Parson's orders, and he couldn't have known the Arkenpliers would perv at her rather than fight (if they did of course, Ansom may just be a bad loser on top of everything else). Ergo she was the best choice to staffhead the charge against Ansom. And he has hundreds of people at his disposal, a number of whom are listed as being high level.

He survived because Wanda ordered him captured not killed, and because time bent in his favour (Parson barely had time to swear before Ansom was diving on the Arkenpliers!). Note that Manpower went down to a single crossbow bolt, and he fought for a living as well.

[Nerd_Paladin]

Perhaps the inconsistencies with timing and speed of movement can be reconciled by considering that there are very specific (but not known to we readers) rules about how/when people in Erfworld can move. We know that Ansom has a huge amount of move, perhaps there's something about being a Warlord that accounts for his improbable speed, particularly during his turn.

I must confess puzzlement at how people can so loathe Ansom while at the same time expressing fondness for a characters like Wanda, whose hobbies (that we've seen) include murder, torture, rape, and various psychic tricks that have no technical definition but can pretty firmly be filed under the list of "Worst things you can do to another person" (to say nothing of all the zombie-making). What's Ansom's big crime? Bad attitude? Being pompous? Strange set of standards, that's for sure.

[Miklus]

I think that, whether or not Wanda actually wanted Ansom to touch her with the Arkenpliers because she thought she'd attune to them, Ansom believed that Wanda thought so, and that she might be right. In effect, Wanda was daring him to put the matter to the test, and see if the Arkentools rendered yet another thumbs-down to Ansom's worldview.

And Ansom simply wasn't willing to risk that. And he flew away, a flimsy rationalization on his lips.

My thoughts exactly. Ansom said "what have you done to them" when she disarmed him. Ansom knows that Wanda is better attuned to the pliers than he is. He is starting to doubt himself. This could end badly in many ways.

The "less than what you took from me" - line has me puzzled too. Probably she means Jillian. Ansom is not really aware of Jillian and Wanda's little "thing", is he? A bit of a kick in the knickers, that.

Some people suggested that it was Ansom who razed FAQ. But we know that it was attacked by dwagons. And Stanley ended up with all the casters. Five in all, if I can count. Ansom might still be somehow responsible, or he could just have let it happen, Pearl Habour style.

Is it also possible she means the pliers? Did she have them at one point? That would explain how she knows so much about them. Maybe she put Stanley up to this whole quest-for-the-Arkentools just to get them back? I would not be the least bit surpised to learn that Wanda is the brains behind it all.

[Whispri]

Do we know there were Dwagons involved? Sure Jillian says she got a panicked Thinkagram about Dwagons, but were they really the cause of Faq's fall? Is the Arkenhammer the only way of acquiring Dwagons? Is Jillians mind her own? Could Ansom have hired Charlie to send out a fake distress call? Only Wanda and Jack have the Croatan eyes, so that's likely all Stanley got as far as Faq's Casters are concerned. And I note that if anyone could escape a falling City, it's a Foolamancer.

Perhaps the inconsistencies with timing and speed of movement can be reconciled by considering that there are very specific (but not known to we readers) rules about how/when people in Erfworld can move. We know that Ansom has a huge amount of move, perhaps there's something about being a Warlord that accounts for his improbable speed, particularly during his turn.

I must confess puzzlement at how people can so loathe Ansom while at the same time expressing fondness for a characters like Wanda, whose hobbies (that we've seen) include murder, torture, rape, and various psychic tricks that have no technical definition but can pretty firmly be filed under the list of "Worst things you can do to another person" (to say nothing of all the zombie-making). What's Ansom's big crime? Bad attitude? Being pompous? Strange set of standards, that's for sure.

Webinar was a Warlord too.

The only person she's 'tortured' liked it, the only people she's killed were about to fly off and Croak her Overlord, and she is bound to said Overlord by far tighter restrictions than a mere suggestion spell thanks to natural Thinkamancy, so it's not as if she had much choice in any of this. Plus she gave Bogroll his dream job just like that. As for Ansom, he's a violent thug who's sent men to fight and die 'cause he didn't like how Saline IV chose his heir. Plus he's rather keen on things like sacking defenceless cities and murdering defenceless people and he'd have gotten away with it if it wasn't for the Big Damn Heroes.

[ishnar]

Plus he's rather keen on things like sacking defenceless cities and murdering defenceless people and he'd have gotten away with it if it wasn't for the Big Damn Heroes.

Don't confuse defenseless with insufficient defense. So far we've no news of anyone attacking a defenseless city. Even FAQ had defenses.

[Whispri]

Don't confuse defenseless with insufficient defense. So far we've no news of anyone attacking a defenseless city. Even FAQ had defenses.

I was referring to his plan to attack Gobwin Knob after Stanley was dead and the City became neutral. He referred to this as "Helpless Barbarism".

[ishnar]

I was referring to his pan to attack Gobwin Knob after Stanley was dead and the City became neutral. He referred to this as "Helpless Barbarism".

It's a bit of a misnomer though. Technically, the city is still defensible, they just lose all initative and retreat is not an option.

[Whispri]

It's a bit of a misnomer though. Technically, the city is still defensible, they just lose all initative and retreat is not an option.

They also lose the ability to heal. No turns after all. So hit and run attacks can eat them away with no or minimal losses and not a booping thing can be done about it. More importantly, and this is really my point, they can't take any hostile action. They would be rendered harmless.

[ReccaSquirrel]

Until Parson starts using that sword of his, he's going to keep seeing defeat.

[RedMike512]

Wanda is clearly "bad" but interesting and, at least to some, a likable character. Ansom is clearly "good", but not so interesting, and to most, an unlikable character. That's part of what makes this comic interesting. Unfortunately, it also makes it painful when Ansom gets away.

I'll echo the previous comments about wishing the comic moved a little faster. I feel like we've been in the same place (situation wise) for a long time.

[Varthonai]

Could Ansom have hired Charlie to send out a fake distress call?

Oh I really hope it's not a cliché like that.

Erfworld's really interesting to me because it uses really subtle, underhanded means to make you dislike the "heroes"... it makes guys like Ansom into pompous, arrogant, and overconfident macho snobs, which are things you'd expect from a hero anyway. It makes you find your own reasons to hate the good guys.

Sort of like Wanda's suggestion spell, now that I think about it.

But that would all be broken if we found out that Ansom had done something explicitly fraudulent and corrupt. We'd have a legitimate reason to hate him for going to war with Stanley instead of having a general, quiet, almost subliminal sense of loathing against his very existence. It wouldn't be half as cool.

[Shua]

Very interesting indeed. The look on Ansoms face told it all. I think we have our answer regarding the pliers and Wanda.

~ Shua

[SteveMB]

Yup. I'm with the several others who think these past two strips have been among the worst. The airspace-borders-courtyard inconsistency

Courtyard? The action isn't anywhere near the courtyard (the area inside the inner wall). They're in the outer wall zone (which includes the area between the outer and inner wall, which an enemy must control to assail the courtyard) or in airspace.