Smashing Axe
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2011
- Messages
- 2,835
I see a number of problems with A, and A2 in particular.
1) I find it strange that Smashing Axe, the same person who warned us against trustin Bai Jiutian, votes for the choice that hinges on BJ supporting us against the interests of his own sect. He made his unwillingness to openly involve Huashan quite clear. If he steps down at any given moment, Miazhou alone will not be enough to convince people.
2) The choice clearly mentions potential violence. Given that Lingshu is a goody-two shoes, I can't see her maintaining her resolve if people start getting seriously hurt. She might concede for the benefit of the sect - even now BJ only managed to convince her by mentioning that Sanjiao will run the sect into the ground (though of course she might not have listened to a word of what he was saying).
3) If at any given point she loses confidence, you will have to intervene on her behalf or back away and write the whole adventure off as a loss. And intervening in front of all the masters is probably not a good idea. Bai Jiutian can probably support Lingshu openly, but he can't support you. Unless you make sure that people can't fight properly, you risk being overrun.
I see that people want to make the sects fight each other, but you might be requiring far too much from Bai Jiutian, and relying on his support. I have to remind people that asking a person to do something that goes against their interests or beliefs is not a guaranteed success, as evidenced by the Sword Saint when we asked him to intervene on the behalf of the Fire Cult.
AB>CB>BA
I must warn against trusting BJ here. I'm fairly sure he has his own agenda that goes beyond the obvious "I really like the girl". I reckon BJ is seeking a political alliance with Qingcheng, so he plans to disrupt the wedding himself. If we go along with what BJ suggests, if we take the obvious route in the upcoming decisions, we're going to be made into BJ's patsy. He's going to use us thoroughly. We can't let him gain an advantage, but neither can we allow Songfeng to be married to the Qingcheng head.
So what we need to do instead is set BJ up in a position where we can betray him. We should aim to humiliate BJ and the Qingcheng head both. So Songfeng won't marry either of the men. We should incorporate a scheme within the scheme we incorporate with BJ, and minimise personal risk while putting the brunt on our temporary ally.
We need to out Theseus Theseus here bros.
How is this contrary to what I want? If he backs out, he loses face with Songfeng and we can try a different tact. While I still don't trust BJ, I also have reason to believe he's not that good of an actor, and the information we have been supplied is at least partially genuine, in which case a full fledged betrayal in this instance is unlikely. The number of supporters is an unknown element, but it definitely has a lot of potential, at the possible cost of returning to the status quo. The benefit of B and C are much more questionable. Songfeng eventually reclaims her power? She goes and marries BJ, Huashan has another ally. C just humiliates one Machiavellian guy who we now know pretty surely is not allied with Huashan.
I have no problem with potential violence, especially if we can pit orthodox against orthodox. If somehow Songfeng decides to concede, we don't lose too much by just running away. I doubt she will be able to intervene however once fists start fighting
See above. It's not a guaranteed success. But it also has the greatest potential payoff, with little cost. It's the best option compared to the alternatives, which are themselves subject to a lot of ifs and maybes.