Bob & the Nevernever: Did Jim make another error, or drop a clue?

[g33k]

A Grandmaster uses skill and tactics to beat a regular player, no that isn't cheating.. But not true of the Fae, they cannot lie, yet use loopholes to get out of a bargain...

Except that "loopholes" &c are the "skill and tactics" of contracts & bargains.

Not "fair" but also not "cheating."

[Mira]

Except that "loopholes" &c are the "skill and tactics" of contracts & bargains.

Not "fair" but also not "cheating."

 That depends on whether you understand what not fair means up front...  Holding back information on contracts is cheating...

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Nope it’s up to you to do your due diligence.

[g33k]

  That depends on whether you understand what not fair means up front...  Holding back information on contracts is cheating...

Actively hiding information, preventing the other party from finding it... that'd be cheating.

As CT says, though, mortals mostly just don't "do their due diligence."
Faeries mostly *do.*

But for comparison:  look how often early-book Harry outmaneuvers Toot, binding him to service.  Usually it was played for laughs, but more-or-less exactly the same kind of unfair bargaining Harry got into with Mab, but it usually went the other way, with Harry being the one outmaneuvered.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

A Faerie would read the Apple Terms of Service before agreeing to them.

[Mira]

But for comparison:  look how often early-book Harry outmaneuvers Toot, binding him to service.  Usually it was played for laughs, but more-or-less exactly the same kind of unfair bargaining Harry got into with Mab, but it usually went the other way, with Harry being the one outmaneuvered.

 But in the end Harry didn't cheat Toot, he and his "men" get well paid in pizza for their service.  Harry also forced the White Court to free a lot of Wee Folk.  Yes, the drop of blood put on the bread that Toot didn't know about bound him to Harry, which was cheating, but since then Harry has been more than fair with him.

[g33k]

But in the end Harry didn't cheat Toot, he and his "men" get well paid in pizza for their service.  Harry also forced the White Court to free a lot of Wee Folk.  Yes, the drop of blood put on the bread that Toot didn't know about bound him to Harry, which was cheating, but since then Harry has been more than fair with him .

But in the end Mab didn't cheat Harry, he got well paid in Power for his service.  Since then, Mab has been more than fair with him _{(by her standards)}.
 

Again:  the blood wasn't "cheating," Toot was just too-hasty in taking the treat.  If he had looked on all sides of it, he'd have seen the blood.

[g33k]

A Faerie would read the Apple Terms of Service before agreeing to them.

Toot sure wouldn't!

Mab would read them... engage with them... likely end up with a controlling interest in Apple.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Toot when we first saw him was literally a child, now he is the equivalent of a hormonal 13 year old. He would ignore the terms of service and go straight onto the internet to browse pizza.

[Mira]

Toot when we first saw him was literally a child, now he is the equivalent of a hormonal 13 year old. He would ignore the terms of service and go straight onto the internet to browse pizza.

I don't think Toot was at all like a hormonal 13 year old.  The Wee Folk have been treated like children by the other Fae and abused by them because they never realized their own power as a group.  Mab called them the lowest, Harry opened their eyes to the fact that they can fight as a group.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

He has grown, in Storm Front he was a child, but his story arc has seen him grow as an individual, he has found love and when we last see him his is developing empathy, and dealing with more adult concepts. His arc isn’t finished. Lacuna was always more mature and a better reader, she would look at the Apple logo and immediately be wary. Someone had taken the bite of an apple and had not brushed their teeth. Obviously not to be trusted.

[Mira]

He has grown, in Storm Front he was a child, but his story arc has seen him grow as an individual, he has found love and when we last see him his is developing empathy, and dealing with more adult concepts. His arc isn’t finished. Lacuna was always more mature and a better reader, she would look at the Apple logo and immediately be wary. Someone had taken the bite of an apple and had not brushed their teeth. Obviously not to be trusted.

Not a child, he has grown in knowledge and power and physically grown along with it.  A child physically grows whether or not he gains in knowledge or power, had Toot not decided to work with Harry he would have remained the size he was when we first meet him.

[g33k]

Perhaps the skull protects AND limits Bob? Perhaps it makes it impossible for him to go into body mode.

This seems possible:  maybe Etienne enchanted the skull with an intrinsic "order" that Bob is never to summon ectoplasmic sunscreen, nor to ever communicate this to anyone.

So everytime Bob comes out of his skull, there's a "Rule 0" that applies, in addition to whatever orders & constraints the current skull-owner applies to the current mission.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

The skull almost certainly sets limits on Bob in the skull, it outside? Whoever holds the skull controls Bob, but outside? Harry is always clear I giving Bob commands when allowed to leave the skull (Bob try’s to subvert them if unclearly phrased such as to investigate girls dorms etc.). But outside of the skull the control overBob definitely weakens, Bob was able to both break free of Cowl’s control outside of his skull and control the Ectoplasmic body of Sue in Dead best. Cowl although familiar with Bob and the skull, he clearly wasn’t fully aware of Bob’s boundaries.

The only issue is Bob summoning ectoplasm from the Never Never.either he can’t in the skull, or summoning would allow him to be tracked. Bob wanted a backup Sanctum from Harry, the obvious conclusion is that it gives him additional freedom. He is still bitching about it in The Law despite having the run of the Castle and internet access.

[g33k]

Whoever holds the skull controls Bob, but outside? Harry is always clear I giving Bob commands when allowed to leave the skull (Bob try’s to subvert them if unclearly phrased such as to investigate girls dorms etc.)
...

It's pretty clear that the skull-owner's "upon-leaving-skull" instructions are entirely binding:  almost dead, Harry managed to say that the conversation (with Evil Bob) was over, and that pre-defined end-state immediately forced EB back into the skull.

I agree that we haven't seen anything about what limits the skull itself might place upon Bob.

But -- hypothetically -- a fundamental set of orders to "seek or accept no other refuge from the Dawn" and "always return to the skull" would seem like some basic controls to have in place, alongside the basic "abide by the orders and restrictions placed by the owner of the skull, each time you're allowed out" framework.