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Insane N_B, Blaze and Peragrine are all also going to be in SA so far as I am aware. You know, the security of thedude's dungeons is really awful. :P Also JDI. [...]
Perhaps he has his own secret estate where those dear to him,such as little Ogel, lives out thier lives, away from Vladek's enemies... (Family would be dear to someone like Vladek, I think...He retains honor, but his own version, I always thought. This is why he decides to duel the P.E., but without magic, in P.D....? )Â
Having his own private estate, or secret base AWAY from thedude could make more sense from this Point Of View. . .
I don't think Vladek has much (if any) honor. After all, he deceived King Mattthias into thinking that he was his loyal advisor before taking advantage of Matthias's trust to murder the queen. That's not very honorable. :P However, I do agree that family would be dear to Vladek, thought not in the way that family is dear to you or me. He's fine if his children go through pain and suffering, as long as it makes them stronger, better villians. He views his family as his "legacy," which is why he wants them to succeed. He doesn't care much about his children's personal goals if those goals don't match up with his. If his children's goals do match with his, however, he is willing to sacrifice his own wellbeing for theirs.
If we do decide to give Vladek powers (which we totally should, by the way :P), then he would have dueled P.E. without powers in order to keep his powers a secret. He knew that if the P.E. used magic, he would have no choice but to use magic to combat him, so he challenged the P.E. to a duel without magic.
Speaking of the Vladek vs Peculiar Enchanter duel, I have some questions about we will characterize Vladek. In the V vs P.E. duel, Vladek seemed to rely heavily on brute strenght to carry him through the battle. His skill with the sword was matched by the Peculiar Enchanter's skill. It was even implied that the P.E.'s skill surpassed Vladek's, because Vladek relied on his strenth to defeat P.E., while the P.E. relied purely on skill and intelligent use of his surroundings. P.E. angered V into making rash desisions, such as charging into the mirrors and getting glass cuts and stuff.
However, this doesn't seem to match with how Talmid and fffffplayer characterized Vladek in other AMs. Vladek is pacient (I mean, you'd have to be in order to serve under an imbecile like thedude). If he was able to remain calm and collected whenever thedude order him to make a sandwhich or some other demeaning request, I don't see how insults would be able to break his calm demeanor. Also, in my own headcannon, I've always thought that Vladek could easily beat any non-founder memeber of KotOS in a swordfight. N_B, Stirling, P.E., etc. would be quickly vanquished in a sword duel. Only the founders could put up a fight, and even then they would have a tough time doing it.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying diminish the awesomeness of Inside the Mirror Halls. There was nothing wrong with how Vladek was characterized in Inside the Mirror halls. Since we hadn't flushed out Vladek's character at that time, it was up to fffffplayer to decide how to characterize Vladek. Just because I would prefer a different characterization of Vladek doesn't mean its a better one. This is simply a matter of coming to a decision. Do we want to use the characterization for Vladek from Inside the Mirror Halls (strong yet imprecise), or do we want to use the one I layed out above (precise and manupulative).