Elan, the man with the plan?

[goodyarn]

Elan's LAST big plan just came to fruition like 10 strips ago and saved the party.

Now, he's got another one that... look, even if it doesn't work, it's good enough to turn Ian Starshine's attitude towards him from contempt to genuine admiration.

And Elan used to be such a bumbling fool! Remember the Illithid replying "No, I'm cool" at the chance to eat Elan's brains? (STILL one of my favorite strips, btw.)

Why the change? We are close to the story's climax. Stakes are so much higher. The ability to see the structure behind the story is a mighty power indeed.

Before Tarquin, this was sort of a joke. An Elan joke. And then an Elan-vs.-Nale joke. And then it saved Haley, and that was sweet, but still more romantic comedy than anything serious.

Tarquin showed us that it could be more. He entered with an homage to Darth Vader and Empire Strikes Back. He was storytelling made power.

But Tarquin was flawed. And Elan bested him in fair combat. Elan told a better story, a story good enough to inspire Scoundrel, another master of the storytelling art, to defy death and come to Elan's aid.

Elan is becoming a master.

(And interestingly, Elan succeeded at the test that V failed: to swallow his pride and reach out to his mentor for help. But I think that's another topic.)

[Duck999]

Don't forget that the plan with Julio Scoundrel was only thought of because it makes a good story. The whole evil father figure, good father figure thing. His plan seemed to be creatednas a backup, and also to make the story dramatic. He is a bard after all.

[Trillium]

If it works, Ian will think that the plan failing was Elan's plan all along and would hate him even more. It's Ian Starshine we're talking here. I'm surprised why he even believed Elan's plan.

[Cerussite]

If the plan works, Tarquin loses. If it doesn't, Ian will probably die. It's a win-win situation.

[xroads]

If the plan works, Tarquin loses. If it doesn't, Ian will probably die. It's a win-win situation.

Lol! Somehow I don't think Elan will look at it the same way.

[rbetieh]

Even Murdock came up with a few good plans for the A-Team...

[Winthur]

Even Murdock came up with a few good plans for the A-Team...

Murdock was just pretending to be insane though, while Elan just is stupid.

[Kish]

(And interestingly, Elan succeeded at the test that V failed: to swallow his pride and reach out to his mentor for help. But I think that's another topic.)
Elan's pride has never been a large mouthful. Remember back when Vaarsuvius was explaining why s/he yelled at Elan with "How would you feel if I mocked the bards?" and Elan's reply was, "I'd probably laugh"?

[Rift_Wolf]

Elan's always known how the story should play out; Julio taught him to use that to his advantages, Tarquin taught him when to break the rules. He's also had plenty of chances to learn about Tarquin's scheme and notice weak spots. If you think about how much he's witnessed in terms of Tarquin's party (and its strengths/weaknesses), his plan could just be a list of Tarquin's inventory and Laurin's spells, and that'd be invaluable.

I think it' also clever how Elan has a view of the bigger picture, even though on a smaller scale his battle prowess is still negligible. Sort of like Bastila from KOTOR.

[DavidBV]

Elan always was genre-savvy, from the very time he made the Order of the Stick come together by telling Roy how adventurers are recruited. His low intellect was always there, but it has nothing to do with it.

Don't expect him to solve the main plot out of genre-savvyness, Tarquin's main weapon and drive was Stories, and only through that same weapon he could be defeated; Xykon and Redcloak are different, they don't care about the story, just about winning, and the Gates-Snarl is too much of an unorthodox plot for Elan to be solved out of familiarity with the genre. I believe this arc was Elan's biggest achievement regarding his story expertise.