Is There Anyone Else Here ...

[grinner666]

... whose first reaction to "if you refuse an order, the spell which summoned you will end your existence forever. You must serve your lord's will and desires. Forever." would be to take the little beeyotch's head in your hands and twist it off? If only to see if the end of "your lord's" existence ended your servitude to him?

Honestly, I think I would. Even if it killed me, it would at least end my slavery to an obvious cretin.

[grinner666]

I ask only because the latest strip (#23) makes me even more eager to see Stanley's head twisted off. Call it a character flaw ...

[Brat-t]

I rather like Stanley, from a comic perspective at least, and the requirement that the Warlord want to come mitigates the whole slavery scenario. He wants to be there, would have chosen it in a snap. I think he'll be pretty happy following Stanley's orders....by the letter, not the intent.

[Erk]

And that would be a phenomenally stupid reaction when there is a powerful sorceress who serves the guy standing right in front of you. I'd assume she might want to or have to protect him, and wouldn't exactly go for the head twisting.

[MinusInnocence]

I don't get what's wrong with Stanley... I think it's awesome that his ego is inversely proportionate to his height. If Wanda could find some way to make him even shorter maybe his sheer force of will could have won the war already.

[The_Old_Fox]

I would likewise be upset with the prospect of eternal servitude to the Tool. However, I would most likely wet my pants in fear and disbelief and then pass out so I would say that Parson handled things well given the situation.

[Radar]

I would likewise be upset with the prospect of eternal servitude to the Tool. However, I would most likely wet my pants in fear and disbelief and then pass out so I would say that Parson handled things well given the situation.

And by easily giving Stanley the title of the Tool, he settled ballance of power on his favor - or just messured Stanley's intelligence, what goes for the same.

[Indon]

I suspect Parson will just wait until Stanley gives the order, "Do whatever you want from now on!" without realizing the ramifications.

[Earendill]

Parsons is smart enough to exploit the cracks in the system to his advantage (or mostly to make fun of Stanley) - See the "tool" incident and more recently, in strip 23, the "laughing out loud - but it sure looked like a joke :) " part...I strongly suspect he laughed at Stanley's on purpose, turning him and his grandiosity into a joke.

He will find his way out...you can be sure of that. He just need to find out the rules of the game in order to exploit their flaws - he did it twice so far.

[Om]

Why would Parson want to find a way out? Sure, no doubt he's not happy at being a "tool" of Stanley but what's the alternative? Parson must be delighted to actually be a warlord.

[Weezer]

It seems to be Parsons dream to actually be IN a gaming world, not just playing it. I don't think he will care about the cost, whether it be servitude to the Tool or some other evil torture, he is far more invested in his games that real life.

[Erk]

Yes, given Parson's attitude before, I think he is having the time of his life. I mean, he is in the service of a stupid, funny, but powerful lord. He is in a medieval world where the rules of turn based strategy apply. He has a hot sorceress and an army at his command and there is a military emergency, something he has always wanted to control.

Yeah, I'mma be trying to get out of that soon.... riiiiiight. Maybe when the novelty wears off he will try outsmarting Stanley... I have no doubt so far that he could slip out of Stanley's grasp like a trout escaping a drunken sloth.

[Darth Paradox]

And if Parson did indeed have a stroke, or is in a dream or something, there's no point in not playing along. It's the reality he perceives, so he might as well act as if it were actually true reality. Parson's never had trouble adapting to a fantasy world before, I don't think.

[Ezlo]

Yeah, Stanley gets that reaction from me sometimes as well. Although when he fell for the tool joke I did feel a bit sorry for him. Soon enough he'll be under Parson's control instead of the other way around.

[Sisqui]

Well, The Tool did specifically say he didn't want a morale case....... Maybe Parson's ability to cope with the situation without killing Stanley was part of the binding?

[Setra]

The problem being, while Stanley may die, Parson would apparently cease to exist.

No soul, no afterlive, no heaven, no anything.

Totally not worth it.

[Silverlocke980]

My biggest problem with Stanley- and I'm one of the people who dislike him- is that he's an unabridged, incompetent jerk. On the other hand, this makes the fact that Parson is working for him utterly, almost unspeakably hilarious, and my opinion on the short little bugger may change over time. After all, he might be like Xykon- a jerk in truth, but with a Charisma score that could shatter mountains.

Heck, just writing that sentence makes me feel better about him already!

[mikeejimbo]

The problem being, while Stanley may die, Parson would apparently cease to exist.

No soul, no afterlive, no heaven, no anything.

Totally not worth it.

Well, we don't know that, possibly he'd just be ejected back into his own world.

But still, that distinct possibility exists, so I'd have to say that no, I would certainly not make my first action killing him. Although, given how much bigger I am, the thought would cross my mind and I'd save it for an emergency.

[Bilgore]

Of course, from what we've seen of Stanley so far, it's etirely likely he'll make some decision that will leave him out of cotact with Parso, or even dead--and Parson isn't act against orders if he isn't receiving any.

[grinner666]

I'll say this up front: there have been quite a few very rational arguments for why Parson should not twist the Tool's head off. I can't argue with any of them.

But my question wasn't "should Parson do this," but rather, "wouldn't this be your first reaction?"

Here's the thing: if Parson WERE to twist Tool-Boy's head off (Heh. I think I'm gonna call him that from now on) he would almost certainly die, either at the hands of the Summoning spell (though I'm not certain of that ... killing the Tool without orders to the contrary isn't necessarily disobeying him) or at Wanda's (again, not a certainty. I'm fairly certain she holds Tool-Boy in as little regard as Parson does). I think Parson understands these factors.

But my question was: wouldn't you want to try it, if only to see what would happen? Given that Tool-Boy is such an annoying tw*t and you're thinking it's just an hallucination anyway?

[Erk]

Frankly, no... even in my imaginary worlds I don't go randomly twisting peoples' heads off because they annoy me. I am not a head-twisting sort of guy.

[The Shadow]

The thought would occur to me, yes. I'm not a violent person, but the slavery bit really grates.

I almost certainly wouldn't act on the impulse, though. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the binding contains a 'no-assault' clause. And I don't know if Stanley could disband me by just thinking about it or not. I'm not interested in dying a futile death.

In short, my reaction would be 'Need more data'. I'm pretty sure that's Parson's game now too, though he's bolder at pushing the limits than I would be.