102 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 92

[Lolindir]

Name-speculation-mode!

His name might just be rapunselstick-thingie... don't know, I'm Dutch...
sizeMore (add More Size to Gobwin Knob?), Maggie, Misty, Wanda
So, a W is the opposite of M (Mario-Wario). Wanda is from another faction, and has the opposite kind of letter as the rest. If the foolamancer is also from another faction, it might have another starting letter (Or also a W if he's from FAQ)

You bring up a fascinating point.
Maybe Wanda had more than one suggestion spell going on. She has demonstrated she can ignore Stanley’s orders both for a good reasons and for very bad reasons. Why is it not possible she was manipulating Stanley just like she has been manipulating Jillian. Maggie’s assessment of Wanda’s skills at defending her own mind against the backlash of such a spell breaking could be way off base it was just two such spells snapping back to back that did Wanda in

She might have done so when she had to stop Stanley to enter Parsons 'control room', when the latter was about to pull of the Dwagon-Donut-stunt. With a suggestion spell, she might be able to calm Stanley down enough to NOT outburst and fire Parson!

'nother point: Maggie said she never LEARNED the foolamancer's name. This means units cán learn... (Okay, this point is worthless...)

[lamguin]

Any reason Stanley can't simply get the Foolamancer's name by checking his stat block?

1: Plot. If he could just look at him and see his name, what would be the point of even mentioning all this?

2: A Foolamancer, even a broken one, likely has some innate method of hiding his stats.

3: It makes Wanda that much more important to bring back, thus ensuring that she'll stay down until the critical moment (see my previous post).

4: Because name guessing games are fun (see Rumplestiltskin).

5: Why are there five of these?

6: Please god, somebody stop me.

7: Halp!

8: Tin-Foil Hat time. I bet his name is ... *dramatic pause* ... SALINE V! The real heir of the old king! There's likely some rule stating that 'mancers can't rule, so Saline IV's wish for an heir got booped up. So he picked Stanley, his most successful warlord.

[Lolindir]

Also, if Ansom starts distrusting Jillian now, (Going around GK, getting captured a lot), he might not even send her after Stanley! He might think she just wants to meet her new boss. Also remember she stated that 'she is free to choose her friends' and stuff... She also said she 'hated' Stanley, which would be the best decoy, so everything now adds up AGAINST her, even if she wants to be good...

[SteveMB]

2: A Foolamancer, even a broken one, likely has some innate method of hiding his stats.

Or maybe his stat display is booped up because of his condition.

Or maybe his actual name (as displayed in the stat block) is one Stanley doesn't like, and he won't accept it.

[PePe QuiCoSE]

IMO he's stats just show "Foolamancer", since that's what everyone calls him.
Bogroll doesn't have another calling, so that what appears in his stats. Same as Misty and Maggie. Remember, Misty said "Name? Just "Lookamancer" now. Was called Misty", which could imply that her stat could have previously shown Misty (Lookamancer) and now was just Lookamancer.

That could also be tied to why people make such a fuzz about titles.

edit: quote

[Taross]

IMO he's stats just show "Foolamancer", since that's what everyone calls him.
Bogroll doesn't have another calling, so that what appears in his stats. Same as Misty and Maggie. Remember, Misty said "Name? Just "Lookamancer" now. Was called Misty", which could imply that her stat could have previously shown Misty (Lookamancer) and now was just Lookamancer.

That could also be tied to why people make such a fuzz about titles.

edit: quote

All that just makes me imagine that people like Stanley and Ansom have this Final Fantasy style naming screen pop up when they meet someone.

Name your warlord:
PARS<
LORD HAMSTER OK<

[Calemyr]

When it comes to the foolamancer's name, my money is on Feste. You don't get much more maliciously silly than him. Well... perhaps Puck...

I agree that Stanley's call was very well timed. Not only does this add credence to his claims (giving the impression that the overworked thinkamancer was too tired to finish one last message), but the incomplete nature of that last sentence is going to stick in Ansom's mind like a splinter.

The whole "Ewps" thing makes him look either stupid (he does look like a twoll after all) or confident. Either way is good, as Parson can play him like a harp in the first case or watch as he becomes excessively paranoid in the latter. Between being outmanuevered in the Dwagon Donut gambit and witnessing Ansom's little outburst, the coalition is going to be acting at least a little funny around Ansom already. If Ansom starts buying the paranoia, he could single handedly end the coalition himself. It's amazing how quickly a leader can go from "champion of the downtrodden" to "self-righteous, war-hungry prick" in the eye of the world...

Oh, and that's one more sublte push to get Ansom to attack through the tunnels. I wonder how long it will be before Vinny manages to convince Ansom that it's a trap. I just don't see the Vin-man buying it.

[fendrin]

Except Vinny wasn't in on this call. only Ansom can see it. Think about it like a telephone. You only get half the conversation. For instance, when Stanley calls Maggie, Parson only hears what Maggie says.

Speaking of which...

How exactly did Stanley call Maggie???

Unless he can order her to call him even when she is out of ear-shot, and she (via natural thinkamancy) knows, and is compelled to obey? Ansom needs the hats, but that could be because he was communicating with a non-thinkamancer.

That kind of 'spooky action at a distance' is essentially what happens when you play a TBS game, so it is thematically appropriate, but it also does add a huge level of significance that needs to be accounted for when speculating. For instance, Stanley could disband parson et al regardless of whether or not he is at GK...

[Ptorquemada]

I think it's possible that Ansom may think what happened is what actually did happen: Stanley interrupted the call. Except intentionally, as in "My warlord is revealing we have allies in the coalition! Cut the thinkagram! Cut it NOW!"

He can't think Stanley would let one of his units make an important call like that unsupervised. Nobody could possibly be that dumb! So ... Stanley didn't want him to know this ... and that means what the troll was saying is TRUE ... and he cut it JUST before that moron of a warlord told him exactly whom to suspect!

Stanley MAY have just done the most useful thing he could possibly have done by interrupting at that moment. Parson thinks Ansom was buying it up to that point, and having the thinkagram cut off doesn't really hurt its credibility for the reasons given above.

[Frictional]

Quick, marginally off-topic question: Was Jillian ever really Suggestion-spelled by Wanda? I had never thought that until I read the forums; I always thought it looked like there was just a long history of friendship (probably more) between Wanda and Jillian, and Wanda was using that friendship to get all sorts of things out of Jillian, and when Jillian betrayed her it was more of a total shock to Wanda that she would betray her, rather than a suggestion spell being broken. Did I miss some big piece of evidence that 100% lets us know that it was a spell? All the comic chars talk like it is, but they don't know the 'special' relationship between Jillian and Wanda.
Anyway.
So we see what is possibly the true side of Ansom, in the last comic and this one. What's it that people say... "You want to see the true side of someone, watch how they treat their subordinates, rather than their superiors." Something like that. Ansom is straight up furious at these affronts to his royal right to rule, and all the other coalition leaders around are seeing a side they probably don't see too often. Leads me to wonder which ones are going to put up with it, knew about it and already put up with it, and which are going to say screw it, I aint followin you. Especially if Ansom, with doubts as to their loyalty cause of Parson's thinkagram, starts to accuse people and became tyrannical and suspicious of everyone.

[Oslecamo]

I admire Lord Hamster's willingness to go to the end.

If it was me, I would be now negotiating the surrender terms, saying Stanley forced us to fight under the menace of the dwagons. And then I would spend the next years secretly building an army and then conquer everything hehe.

Meh Hamster is playing big risk big reward. Ansom seems to be highly pissed off. It's possible that he'll know change to berseker mode and waste units, untill the other coalition leaders decide he's no longer fit to lead them, and everybody leave because Gobwin Knob just isn't worth the effort. And then Hasmter can start rebuilding his army.

Men, I really expect Hamster to rise to big things in this story. Altough it will probably take some real life years for it to happen, at this pace.

[SteveMB]

Quick, marginally off-topic question: Was Jillian ever really Suggestion-spelled by Wanda? I had never thought that until I read the forums; I always thought it looked like there was just a long history of friendship (probably more) between Wanda and Jillian, and Wanda was using that friendship to get all sorts of things out of Jillian, and when Jillian betrayed her it was more of a total shock to Wanda that she would betray her, rather than a suggestion spell being broken. Did I miss some big piece of evidence that 100% lets us know that it was a spell? All the comic chars talk like it is, but they don't know the 'special' relationship between Jillian and Wanda.

We know that she cast some kind of spell before the interrogation session, but that apparently wore off at dawn (and hit Jillian with some incapacitating aftereffects, but less severely than what happened to Wanda or the two backlashed Eyemancers). If what happened to Wanda was just an emotional breakdown rather than spell backlash -- well, apparently the two states resemble each other so closely that a specialist Thinkamancer can't tell them apart or notice anything odd when she expected the latter and found the former.

Interesting theory, but I'm still going to have to fall back on the maxim that "Occam's Razor" isn't a tool in Wanda's interrogation kit.

Anyway.
So we see what is possibly the true side of Ansom, in the last comic and this one. What's it that people say... "You want to see the true side of someone, watch how they treat their subordinates, rather than their superiors." Something like that. Ansom is straight up furious at these affronts to his royal right to rule, and all the other coalition leaders around are seeing a side they probably don't see too often. Leads me to wonder which ones are going to put up with it, knew about it and already put up with it, and which are going to say screw it, I aint followin you. Especially if Ansom, with doubts as to their loyalty cause of Parson's thinkagram, starts to accuse people and became tyrannical and suspicious of everyone.

The bluff, by itself, on one step above "Your shoe's untied". However, if Parson can pull off another tactical trick that puts Ansom in a bind, and he has the option of explaining the debacle by:

1) I'm not really smarter, stronger, or more morally fit
2) The Titans are not on my side in this war, or
3) My allies stabbed me in the back

...well, Door #3 is going to look awfully tempting.

[Nolan]

Ok, we have to remember that the creatures on Parson's side are usually the stereotypical "Bad guys" and that Parson himself has called Stanley's side on of the bad guys.

Its a common "bad guy" tactic to have an inside man or double agents, this suspicion is further enhanced because Ansom wants to believe that he's fighting against a pure evil, unatural force, so he's going to always assume the worst about his enemies.

Especially as it plays to the sterotype that Ansom himself is living by, for the message to be cut off actually will work to further Lord Hamster's cause as it leaves Ansom unsure of the information Parson is letting "slip"

This will then cause him to interrogate his own people if they have had any dealings with Lord Hamster, which they will of course deny.

And the more they deny, the more Ansom will be paranoid of someone being on Parson's side, because thats what he believes the "bad guys" would do.

On a side note, to further the suspicion, vampires are usually on the evil alignment of things, and there's such a person who works exceptionally hard to show loyalty to Ansom, this could in fact be the person Ansom suspects the most because of the highly visible loyalty Vinnie has shown.

P.S. First post

[Tarnace]

Im not usually a big fan of this toon, usually only reading it after being unable to find a new order of the stick toon. Recently I took a few weeks off of web toons to fly to a remote part in asia were internet wasn't that common (or good when it was). Since my return I flipped through the issues of erf that I missed and I realized that I didnt have any problems about the new comics. They were inviting, drew in the reader, and have lots of good ideas and character reactions - I actually liked the last few toons...I'm almost impressed. I hope you keep this up (while mentaly killing any ideas of having blogs return soon, we are "up to date enough" thank you).

[Emo Samurai]

the Fool's name should be April. Quite appropriate for the past date
Oh, and note that the Maggie calls Stanley directly Tool and not Lord or Overlord. I guess that's natural Thinkamancy since she was not present when Stanley accepted his higher calling, and i doubt that he had told everyone about his new title.
Though it would be too good to be true, Vinnie has been the first one to question Ansom about the royalty thing and the attune(ment?) to the arkentools. If by chance Ansom starts doubting Vinnie... well, he loses so far his greatest advisor and is going to fall for the trap this time.

Refer to page 71, panel 6.

[SteveMB]

Refer to page 71, panel 6.

Er... I'm not sure what Manpower's head going SPUT! has to do with the topic. Did you mean to point to something else?

[PePe QuiCoSE]

yes, he only responded to

Oh, and note that the Maggie calls Stanley directly Tool and not Lord or Overlord. I guess that's natural Thinkamancy since she was not present when Stanley accepted his higher calling, and i doubt that he had told everyone about his new title.

I really hadn't noticed that he was called Tool in front of the Trio, though i doubt that such a thing of a change of title would be caught up just by listening to it. Either way, it's not really important.

[Prowl]

The color scheme lends me to speculate whether he is the Foolamancer formerly known as "Prince".

Which then brings us back into the context of the comic, and ask: Prince of what, exactly?

[Twisted Otaku]

The color scheme lends me to speculate whether he is the Foolamancer formerly known as "Prince".

Which then brings us back into the context of the comic, and ask: Prince of what, exactly?

perhaps the kingdom that stanley took over? or , as it has been speculated, another caster from the kingom of FAQ

[Proteus]

The Foolamancer formerly known as Prnice, eh?

8: Tin-Foil Hat time. I bet his name is ... *dramatic pause* ... SALINE V! The real heir of the old king! There's likely some rule stating that 'mancers can't rule, so Saline IV's wish for an heir got booped up. So he picked Stanley, his most successful warlord.

Its so crazy it just might work!

[teratorn]

perhaps the kingdom that stanley took over? or , as it has been speculated, another caster from the kingom of FAQ

He does look like the guy close to Wanda in FAQ.

[Kaeledra]

I think the Foolamancer's name is "Billy" As in William (Billy) Shakespeare. I know it doesn't really relate to Maggie and Misty, but it would make sense with all the stuff he spouts off.

[TheWombat]

I think that if the foolamancer's name isn't April, then it should be Puck.

[DeathQuaker]

My random Shakespeare guess for the Foolamancer's name is "Touchstone."

"All the world's a game, and the men and women merely players..."

Agh, it's getting interesting. Can't wait to see what happens next.... agh the suspense! Why do I read?

[Zienth]

Anyone remember Jack Nicholson's character (Randle Patrick McMurphy) from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"? Look familiar? I think the Foolamancer's name is either Jack or Randle. I think Randle sounds more Erfish.

Zienth

[SteveMB]

Hmmm... I see three possible ways for Ansom to respond to this gambit:

1. Ignore it: Total fail for Parson, and it even takes the edge off his earlier success at pushing Ansom's hot buttons (it's easier to just ignore someone who comes across as an idiot).

2. Mull it over without mentioning it to anybody: This avoids the obvious risks of fracturing the Coalition, but creates more subtle and insidious ones if Ansom can't let go of suspicion.

3. Air it openly: Obviously, everybody else will deny being in communication with the enemy, but they'd say that in any case. The worst case for Parson is that everybody quickly agrees that it's a bluff. The best case for Parson is that accusations fly back and forth, probably with several fingers pointed at Jillian (which I'm sure would go over really well with Ansom).

[Morchaint]

dont usually post in this webcomic thing, but I couldnt help it when I laughed my boop off, at the gilligan/starscream comment. gotta be the right age group to fully laugh at all of it. Foolamancers name? recnamaloof.

[PePe QuiCoSE]

Thing is, Parson admitted that it was a bluff immediately when Ansom said it, the following bluff is what really gets Ansom: "Others are thinking it over". If Ansom plans to be open about it, he might be the one to put the doubt in his allies about royalty, the arkentools and who they attune to.
Really, i hope this puts distance between Vinnie and Ansom. While the first time Vinnie advice Ansom, it was to get Jillian back (to whom he has some suspicion). The second time, his advice was not good and was Ansom personal gamble that saved his keister. And again, Vinnie has been the only one to "see the writing in the wall" (don't know if that's a reference to something). I think again it's too good to be true (Parson does not get lucky shot in this game ) but it's quite plausible.
Ansom might not be open to all of the Coalition about this thinkagram, but surely he will be to the people close to him, like Jillian and Vinnie.

edit: btw, both last strips ended with a cut away to Stanley... not if that has any meaning or even worth mentioning.

[Runolfr]

I'm liking "Tom" for the name of the Foolamancer. Is anyone else familiar with the phrase "Tom Foolery"?

[kilmor]

perhaps the kingdom that stanley took over? or , as it has been speculated, another caster from the kingom of FAQ

Jillian specifically says 'they had a good Foolamancer' in her FAQ flashback. So probably Wanda and Jillian are the only two that know his name. Fun times ahead!