Rich Morris' Comics - YAFGC and The ComixBlog

All right, bets go here. Who is she, what is she, and will she and Arachne be the next hot item in Black Mountain?

Elizabeth and Mary as rivaling queens...

Ooooh, i hadn't caught that. Hope Mah'ri does better that her (possible) inspiration.

I can't help thinking of the Roman agent Convolvulus/Detritus in the Asterix story.

I think her ''kindness'' is very cleverly played out to cause trouble. She cannot be that much of a doormat given her race.

Originally, I was thinking she was there to represent the 'smart evil' POV. Now, I'm not so sure. What she's doing is very quickly undercutting dear sis at every opportunity.

I wonder what she thinks of her sister.

It seems to me that what Mahr'I is doing is avoiding the dysfunctional overt power plays that characterize stereotypical Drow politics. By playing herself off against the more traditional Alzaer'Bith, Mahr'I comes off as being sincere and genuine. Which, incidentally, is the best way to rob someone blind. It's hard to run a confidence game when the mark is immediately and intelligently suspicious of you.

Of course, this only works because Alzaer'Bith isn't flexible enough to alter her strategy. Her baked-in "bad cop" routine is the very key to Mahr'I's success. Were Marh'I to try and work her routine on someone who was familiar with the Drow, but without other Drow around, she'd immediately raise suspicions.

Marh'I is the sort who wins because people don't realize that she's playing the game. They're too busy watching the obvious players.

Hmm Just had a thought about her - This is new queen were talking about here...?

What if she was under some sort of mind control spell...?

We know Lewie can use mind control on people as seen in that other story with him... What would he be interested in having a new drow queen...?

Or this one who occupies now late Charlotte's body...

I think Mah'ri is simply what she seems to be: a conniving, clever, subtle and ambitious drow. Queenie would have noticed it if someone was posessing or mind controlling her sister: she found her exactly as she expected her to be.
Having said that, Mah'ri gets seems more sensual, more beautiful than before. Interesting.

ah ok Im worried about Glon now though... (off to his thread...)

Oooh! o_o Brilliant observation! I never even spotted that. ;

Ok, just this: Mah'ri is clever but she is obviously making mistakes out of her evilness. Take Anancy's flashback: she did not need to play Anancy against Nephilia, she got Nephilia taken down another way. And she did not have to alienate everyone who she had taken as an ally at the eve of the war: goblins, elves etc could be at her side now, or at least playing neutral, instead of being eager to help Maula against the woman who deceived them. Too evil for her own good?

It's true that Mahr'i didn't need to use Anancy to take out Nephilia. But the result was that Neph was gone and Anancy was her terrified servant.