Senko wrote:
normalphil wrote:
Senko wrote:
Occam's razor also works if you assume a monk smart enough not to get into a fight with (a) an elf and (b) people who are actually beating your companions when your job is to observe and report.
Having Anita (or anyone, for that matter) consider during the planning stages of the operation that there was a significant chance that Warrel's team could be wiped out is a far-fetched assumption right there. We've seen two opinions given by Monks about elves, and they aren't the least bit intimidated by them. You can't start far-fetched and then proceed simply. You're already in the realm of the unlikely.
(Also, at the end of the fight Jon and Sarine were
blown. The match could have been won for the monks if they had a half-dead cripple that could drag himself up to Sarine and throttle her. Or a ten-year old to chuck rocks at them. It was that bad.)
Hmmmmmm I think your mistaking my post the one you quoted was i think pointing out that a simple explanation would also account for the monk observing and being smart enough to come back for instructions before killing an elf and possibly starting a war.
The theoretical existence of the monk in question relates to my first post and is not farfetched when you consider that this was a test for Jon's sister to see if she could stay loyal and kill her brother. If she failed then suddenly instead of 2 monks vs 1 wraith (easy victory) its 1 monk (who's already been shown to be overconfident and gotten chewed out for getting hit when he shouldn't have) vs 1 possibly better monk and a wraith. In which case it would make sense to have a 3rd hidden master watching and ready to step in and kill/capture the girl while the 2nd monk finishes off the wraith.
However Sarine even weakened as she is is an elf and being intimidated by a single elf alone and killing her when it could potentiallly start a war with ALL the elves is a different matter especially if you don't know their strength. You'd already have seen that she has a few tricks up her sleave and yes you can kill her but do the other elves know about this? how would they react to the killing of one of their own? Can the villiage stand up to the potential consequences? I know I'd want to get instructions on how to proceed from my superiors in that situation.
But the question will be asked, "Why is one of our rangers mucked up with an assasination attempt against a country we aren't at war with??" Time-Ninjas or no, some people KNOW that it was a hit, and seeing an elf turn up during it will make people wonder.
If the elves find out about it at all. So far Rangers have shown almost no overhead or chain-of-command while in the field, and if someone burned her body or otherwise hid it, no one would guess that she's dead at all.
On the other hand, Jon was well enough to get right back on his feet without healing, and I think he still had one bullet left in his revolver, but somehow I doubt a time-ninja, after seeing what Sarine and Jon pulled off would not, unless he was Chris level stupid, play it lax and easy like Warrel did. Time-shift, dead Jon. Another time jump and finish off Sarine. Its not like Warrel showed any reason NOT to kidnap or kill Sarine.