Penelope Starshine

[eusticepious]

No, he doesn't. I have no clue where you're getting that. In that panel he says that he's trying to fulfill Mia's dying wish by using his skills for something better than looting rich folk.

He never says or implies that his family was threatened in any way by Tarquin up until Tarquin threw him in prison, at which point Tarquin became a direct and obvious threat to the "Ian Starshine" part of Ian Starshine's family.

Kish, sorry if I am reading too much into things for your tastes. I am an amateur at this, but an enthusiastic one. One thing that makes me think Ian feels his family is threatened in some way is Ian's sense of urgency, as Bozok relates, when describing Ian going to the western continent. In reading panel 3 of 772, I put the emphasis on what do you think I am doing "in this crappy desert". Why would Ian focus on cleaning up a random desert in the Western continent instead of Greysky City if he wants to fulfill Mia's wish? Why did he rush off there when he was in the midst of cleaning up Greysky City by reforming its thieves guild? Haley tried to foment rebellion in Azure city, but that related to her quest and she was already there, with Ian its the opposite.

There is no reason to consider Tarquin's saying "my fifth wife--who was not a redhead--" unreliable, except for wanting it to be unreliable.

-Fair point Kish. The point I am making is minimal: a relationship between Haley and Tarquin's wives is hinted at. Does fifth wife mean fifth wife? Probably, but not necessarily. That is all that anyone is saying. It is not definitive by any stretch.

Divinations failed to discover the location of either of them, but did discover Orrin Draketooth's real name. There is no reason here to presume divination magic was more effective on Orrin than on Penelope's daughter.

-Penelope learned something about Orrin but nothing (that's been revealed) about her daughter. That's all I am claiming. I find some significance in that. Maybe the only significance is that divination revealed a false name when it was present. I do not know enough about how divination works. I thought protections from divination would be equally applicable to both Orrin and the girl, but I don't know.

You greatly overestimate Elan's emotional investment in Tarquin. Yes, his father being evil makes him sad. He's promised a happy ending to this story, not a life with no sad moments from now on.

-I do not think Elan would consider killing Tarquin a happy ending, and my estimation of him is pretty well-founded. Remember he rescued Nale in 68 even after being stabbed. The good son redeeming the evil father would also go along with the star-wars reference in the Nale-Tarquin plot. Toppling Tarquin's empire is important to Elan, defeating Tarquin himself... I am surprised you find it an overstatement that Elan would find it distasteful to kill Tarquin.