Things you never noticed II: I never noticed the first thread

[Holy_Knight]

Yeah. It makes sense that the Giant would show Elan using it in order for him to not have about ten threads pop up over the next few books saying Elan is an idiot who endangered others by learning a spell he didn't need for "sentimental" reasons and therefore is evil for hurting his friends by proxy.

Haha, I remember those arguments. I always liked that he made that spell choice from a character perspective anyway, but it didn't really register with me the first time that he was actually using it now.

This might have been touched on already, I didn't realize it on the first or second readings. In this strip, Elan and Tarquin are having their debate over winning and losing. It suddenly occurred to me that this mirrors Roy's last debate/conversation with Xykon, who offered to let Roy go and come back to fight again. Roy objects, citing all of the people that Xykon will kill in the intervening time, and attacks. Only to die.

Elan makes the same objection to Tarquin, but chooses to run away.

To me, that was a test of both their character. As LG, Roy did the right thing, but for CG Elan, it's a bit more... ambiguous. Thoughts?

I noticed that too, and I actually think they both made the right choices. Roy knew that he had to try to stop Xykon to have any chance of saving the Azurites (among others) who would otherwise die at Xykon's hand. Taking Xykon up on his offer would have ensured their deaths, so he had to try to fight.

When Elan takes up Tarquin's offer on the other hand, the situation is slightly different. Once Elan discovers that he can't defeat Tarquin, the best chance he had of saving the people that Tarquin threatens was indeed to retreat and regroup, and unlike at Azure City, there were no immediate casualties to be prevented by Elan forcing a fight that he couldn't win. The fact that his first thought after running away is to find Haley to get help in finding a way to defeat his father shows that his heart was in the right place.

So, I'd say Roy and Elan were both doing what they had to in order to have the best chance of protecting people from evil--in Roy's case, backing down had no chance of protecting anyone, but in Elan's case, it's continuing to fight that would have sabotaged future efforts to save people.