Wanda's Mindset & The Original Scrubbed Ambush Plan

[SteveMB]

Spun off the "Parson's lucky boop up, and the road to victory" thread -- my reply to Wender started veering off in a direction that IMO calls for a new thread:

Right. Wanda's flaw as a strategist is on full display in the pages leading up to that exchange: Her need for control translates into a need for certainty. Jillian will not do this or that, she says. One of the things that speaks to Parson's ability as a commander is that absolutes are not in his vocabulary. His mathamancy device allows him to run a simulation and come out with a number, but this would not even be useful if he was not always aware that he was playing the odds, that the events he considered unlikely could in fact happen and he'd have to be ready when they did.

That's a good point -- people with a strong need to be in control don't deal with uncertainty very well (or, more likely, people who don't deal with uncertainty very well feel a need to abolish it by forcing the world into line).

There's a somewhat relevant exchange in the planning session for the original ambush attempt:

Parson: What if [Ansom] doesn't take the bait?
Wanda: He has always been predictable in this matter.

Note that while Wanda expresses confidence that Ansom will take the bait, she does so indirectly, and is certainly not as insistent about it as she was in declaring that Jillian would not seek out or attack the wounded dwagons.

The obvious difference is that Wanda didn't directly manipulate Ansom; her only influence over his behavior is setting Jillian out as bait in the expectation that he'll respond as usual. Perhaps she hedges her bets a bit because she's uncomfortable not having more control over that element of the plan -- note that she refers to the scheme as "Parson's plan", though a close reading indicates otherwise:

Parson: So, you're saying we release the prisoner near the incursion group....
[The context makes it rather clear to me that "you're" refers to Wanda.]

If so, the caution was prudent; Ansom did not prove as "predictable" as advertised. When we next see Parson, he is "just trying to imagine how that could have gone any worse", suggesting that he took the brunt of the Tool's irritation when Ansom's failure to show up (and possibly also the arrival of the Archons) nixed the plan.

Expanding a bit on Wanda's comments:

Wanda: Tool, if Parson's plan works, we will croak or capture the coalition leader, plus the prisoner, and any other warlords they have taken along.
Wanda: He has always been predictable in this matter. But even if [Jillian] lives, she is worth more to us out in the field than in our dungeon.

The most obvious interpretation is that Wanda was being utterly cold and cynical, indifferent to whether Jillian lives or dies and quite prepared for it to be the latter if the plan succeeded. Quite a contrast to her later "No." and "Please." in response to Parson's order to "Croak, not capture" her!

This could merely be the difference between a potential future threat to Jillian and a certain immediate one. Or it could be that Wanda was being somewhat disingenuous (I'm shocked, shocked!) while selling the plan to the Tool (who probably really does hate Jillian for croaking his dwagons). I'm inclined toward the latter, since Wanda's latter reaction strikes me as a bit too simple and straightforward to be anything but genuine, and I doubt that her feelings have undergone some profound change over the day or so separating the two scenes.

[Thes Hunter]

I think you have articulated my thoughts on the whole Wanda thing quite well. I believe that Wanda is more emotionally attached to Jillian than she would care to admit.

I believe this led her to assess Jillian's actions incorrectly, and why she was so certain that Jillian would not attack.

[Wender]

I'm glad you picked up on that. :)

Echoing Thes Hunter, I don't think Wanda ever seriously believed that Jillian was in danger until now. Capture was always an option, made more attractive by her habit of charging recklessly into battle. "Even if she lives" is just Wanda pretending at sangfroid she doesn't really have.

Since Wanda isn't stupid, I wonder if she didn't know that this would in fact happen. Jillian is the only doll in her collection that isn't undead, and there is a very real reason why a control freak would prefer the undead in the general case. But everyone needs company, and Jillian has been the closest thing to a friend or even a peer that Wanda has had for... well, for we don't have any idea how long.

So what are we left with now? If the wolfish-smile theorists are correct, Wanda may be vindicated. If not, Wanda may have just lost the only thing that allowed her to maintain her long-suffering patience and the only question is whether she bends or maintains her iron self-control until she breaks.

We may have some ironic foreshadowing to work with: If she laughs, look out.

[jindra34]

We may have some ironic foreshadowing to work with: If she laughs, look out.

Well her smile scares parson itself so i would hate to see who her laugh would scare.

[SteveMB]

So what are we left with now? If the wolfish-smile theorists are correct, Wanda may be vindicated. If not, Wanda may have just lost the only thing that allowed her to maintain her long-suffering patience and the only question is whether she bends or maintains her iron self-control until she breaks.

I think the wolfish-smile theory is an extreme reach, so let's look at the "if not" option.

Right now, her stock with the Tool is in the cesspit. Less obvious, but perhaps more significant in the long run, Parson is standing up to her (first in insisting that Sizemore get his say after Wanda tried to shout him down, then in rejecting her request to take Jillian alive -- note that he asks the Tool for backup only after Wanda repeats the request, and that the second request is more soft-spoken than the first).

The fact that she did say "Please" may be an indication that she might bend rather than break.

We may have some ironic foreshadowing to work with: If she laughs, look out.

One of her listed weaknesses is "Sense of Humor". She occasionally shows a certain droll wit, but it's often ambiguous whether or not this is intentional on her part (the likeliest candidate for a deliberate witticism is the "small army" line -- it may be significant that it was directed at Jillian while she was in "caretaker/comforter" mode).

[Hell Puppi]

I do believe Wanda cares for Jillian more than she might admit.

This is, however, a question of whether wanda cares for her because she may be valuable in an escape plan, or just because she cares.
I'm rather hoping it's because wanda does actually care that she found someone she can actually talk to (which possibly makes jillian breaking the bonds even more serious, if indeed she has), but I still think it could go either way.

[Wender]

I think the wolfish-smile theory is an extreme reach, so let's look at the "if not" option.

I'm with you, but I'm also a completist, so I had to give the wolfish-smile theorists their due.

One of her listed weaknesses is "Sense of Humor". She occasionally shows a certain droll wit, but it's often ambiguous whether or not this is intentional on her part (the likeliest candidate for a deliberate witticism is the "small army" line -- it may be significant that it was directed at Jillian while she was in "caretaker/comforter" mode).

Right. So if she laughs, it's not a ha-ha-funny laugh, it's a signal that she is either about to snap, or that she already has. The kind of laugh you laugh when the alternative is to break down into a blubbering wreck. I could see it, too. Wanda can bend tactically, or she would be completely unable to work with Stanley, but that's just another form of control. What happens when she sees events spiraling completely out of her control? effective command of Gobwin Knob (with Stanley as a proxy, if an unreliable proxy) out of her control? Jillian out of her control?

That could be ugly indeed.

[Rumex]

The latest strip really points this up, actually. Wanda looks... broken.

I feel sorry for her.