The right four words, at the right time, for all the wrong reasons.

[Teapot Salty]

Hey guys. So in rereading the comic, I realized, V said: "I...I must succeed" When (s)he agreed to the soul splice, and achieved total arcane power, however brief it was. Was that V acheiving total power as the oracle predicted or will it be something else, do you guys think. Four words were spoken at the right time, but for all the wrong reasons? The motives were good, but maybe V had a deeper, more "wrong" reason for it. Long story short, do you guys think that the soul splice was the "total arcane power" that V asked about or no? And as always, go nuts.

[Amaril]

Yeah, this is what the prophecy meant. This was explicitly confirmed by Rich in Don't Split the Party.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

From the commentary in DStP: "In this chapter, that prophecy is revealed...," this chapter referring to the chapter with the Soul Splice. There are other comments confirming how it was the event predicted by the prophecy.

[Teapot Salty]

Cool, but for all the wrong reasons? Saving your family is a wrong reason?

[SaintRidley]

Cool, but for all the wrong reasons? Saving your family is a wrong reason?

Saving the family wasn't the reason. If it had been, then V wouldn't have chosen the splice. V's need to do it alone, through the might of arcane magic - that was the reason. And it was so very much the wrong one.

[Amaril]

Cool, but for all the wrong reasons? Saving your family is a wrong reason?

But the thing is, V wasn't doing it to save xir family, not really. I mean, V tried to convince xirself and everyone else that that was why, but really, V did what V did because V couldn't stand the idea of xir magic being unable to solve a problem. The fiends presented the alternate solution involving suicide, which would have ultimately meant handing the problem over to V's old master, but V couldn't accept it because that would mean xir magic wasn't infallible. This was also covered in the commentary by Rich, he did a better job of explaining it.

If you've watched Breaking Bad, it's a lot like when Walt decided to start cooking meth. Sure, he claims he was doing it to provide for his family, but everyone knows it was really because he wanted one last chance to show everybody how smart he was and how he could do it better than anyone else before he died.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

Once more, from the commentary: "As for the wrong reasons, Vaarsuvius chose to accept the fiends' deal in order to preserve his/her belief in the unrivaled strength of arcane magic..."

[Porthos]

Also, "all the wrong reasons" is something of a colloquialism. :smallsmile: It doesn't mean that literally every reason you did something was wrong. But it does mean that main reason(s) you do something were wrong.

Was part of the reason to save his family? Of course. That was the trigger of it all. But far more important to V was showing that magic would solve the problem. And not just any old magic, but HIS magic. This was foreshadowed by literally dozens of strips that showed V grappling (badly) with his own perceived inadequacy when it came to magic.

In a way it was the classical Greek Tragedy. A hero, seeking to do something right, is undone by their own faults.

Thankfully for V, Rich, unlike the authors of most Greek Plays, seems to be allowing V the chance to face his own inner demons and perhaps even conquer them.

[Killer Angel]

...and don't forget that, drunk with power, V. didn't stop there. After saving his (?) family, V. was put in front of a second choice, and in the end he (?) prolonged the splice, thus losing them.