Character Development: Onni

[JoB]

By the way, how did Torbjörn and Siv meet Trond and/or Taru to arrange this expedition?  I don't believe I've ever read a fic about that.

There actually is a canon explanation on page 138, except that it doesn't explain how they got to know Taru beforehand.

[lwise]

There actually is a canon explanation on page 138, except that it doesn't explain how they got to know Taru beforehand.

I had forgotten that.  But that panel is kind of odd, really.  It seems more likely to me that they would have known Trond rather than Taru.  We know from Emil (p 180) that Norwegian troll-hunters go to Sweden sometimes, so Trond might have come with them.  From Emil's conversation with Tuuri while they were in Mora makes it seem like he doesn't know about Finland, as if he hadn't talked to Taru at all.  And it doesn't seem like Taru knows that much about Sweden, given her answers to Tuuri (though she might have been having fun in those answers).

Edited to add: On page 107, Torbjörn tells Taru in Icelandic that he will translate for her if they have to speak Swedish.  She doesn't even speak Swedish; why would she know the Västerströms?

[Jitter]

Mora is a very international place, so it seems to be within the realm of  :reynir:possibility that they did. Maybe Siv’s lab had some cooperation with the Finnish army, samples for example? But I agree ”as luck would have it” very much looks like “as dictated by the plot and no need to elaborate”. Which is fine until the fans stat Thinking About It (don’t get me wrong, I love the speculations!)

Also we haven’t really seen any of the normal life anywhere but rural Icelandi and especially not in Mora. Those panels look like everyday life is surprisingly like ours? As if it’s a normal thing to just hang with your international friends(?) even though the difficulty of traveling must make it actually very rare. Only people who are there for a reason are going to risk the trip. With no internet or similar, they had to be in the same place to get acquainted, and now (p 138) they are in the same place again!

Lwise, I agree with you that Onni would have been able to do ”scouting” from inside the cattank. He couldn’t possibly have survived his little trek in Finland if he didn’t have a reasonable range. Lalli needs to concentrate especially if the grosslings are stationary and “quiet” , but like you say, Onni is a lot more powerful so his grossling radar most probably is too. It’s possible he would have been able to dodge everything Lalli did, but not necessarily as Lalli also looked for routes where the tank can fir and that can support its weight.

Maybe some mages have a knack for feeling the environment (seems Lalli may given his certainty that the collapses bridge will hold) but there is no indication that Onni would. Mayne he does? No, actually, in Joensuu they had to go around in pairs to find a suitable pit. Seems like this wouldn’t have been necessary if Onni could fully scout out with his mind? Then again, maybe it was too dangerous with the Kade around?

In any case Onni definitely would have been an extremely important member of the original expedition! As it was, he saved their collective asses every though he wasn’t there. Had he been, they probably wouldn’t have been in the situation with Sleipnope and the horde in the first place? But the question still is how Taru and Trond would have sold a mage to the Västerstöms

As for Taru being duplicitous, I won’t put anything beyond her. Beyond any of the organisers. They specifically went looking for vulnerable people to recruit to a suicide mission, and chose their own family to do it!

[lwise]

As for Taru being duplicitous, I won’t put anything beyond her. Beyond any of the organisers. They specifically went looking for vulnerable people to recruit to a suicide mission, and chose their own family to do it!

It was rather "all in the family", wasn't it?  Except for Mikkel.  He really stands out as the only one with no apparent links to the organizers.

But, for all the catastrophizing, this doesn't seem like a suicide mission initially.  If the bridge had not been destroyed, they would have tooled around for a couple of weeks and then gone home.  Looking at what actually happened in the first couple of weeks, it seems like they wouldn't have had too much trouble.  There were the trolls in the first building and the dog-beast, but otherwise not a lot of danger.  (Of course, I don't know exactly how long they tooled around before hitting the ghosts, but it was time enough for the kitten to grow up some.)

In terms of family connections:

Trond may have genuinely thought that Sigrun could handle whatever the Silent World threw at her.  He was right, too.  To defeat her took an infection, which would have been treated properly if they'd gone home as expected, and ghosts, whose existence no one suspected.

I don't think Taru chose the Hotakainens because of the family connection.  When Lalli shows up at the pier, Tuuri tells him to meet their new boss, Taru, and adds that "We're actually related to her!"  Taru says, "Not closely related, but sure."  Tuuri didn't say, "Remember she used to visit us when we first came to Keuruu" or something like that, so I think it's just coincidence, and a measure of how small the surviving Finnish population really is, that the best mage Taru could find (Onni) was her second cousin once removed.  Certainly there's nothing in the interactions of Taru and the Hotakainens that would have been any different if they'd been unrelated.

Finally there's the Västerströms, and yes, they specifically went looking for vulnerable people and they recruited Emil, who seems to be Torbjörn's only relative outside his brother (or is he ...?) and his children.  Depending on your view of Torbjörn and Siv, this may be because they cynically didn't care if Emil died and figured they'd get his share if he did, or else Torbjörn didn't think this was a suicide mission (and I don't think it realistically looked like one), and he wanted his nephew to get a share of the wealth he expected.

[dmeck7755]

I always thought of Onni's magic more of a protective type.  HE did not seem to be able to find grosslings or beasts (he needed Turri to find him one in ADVII)

Though Onni definitely is powerful.  He seems to be able to work with the gods.  He summoned Kokko and was able to convince the swan to let him "borrow" Tuuri.  Those are some significant skills. 

Even though he probably never left the base, I am sure the protective magic he wrought was very powerful.  You wont need to leave for that. 

[lwise]

I always thought of Onni's magic more of a protective type.  HE did not seem to be able to find grosslings or beasts (he needed Turri to find him one in ADVII)

Though Onni definitely is powerful.  He seems to be able to work with the gods.  He summoned Kokko and was able to convince the swan to let him "borrow" Tuuri.  Those are some significant skills. 

Even though he probably never left the base, I am sure the protective magic he wrought was very powerful.  You wont need to leave for that.

All good points.  Onni is very powerful.

Regarding his needing Tuuri to find a troll: it may be that he can sense trolls, but he doesn't know how big they are physically, nor how well armed or armored they are.  So he could kill a troll remotely (he has to be able to, since he survived for a while before he "borrowed" Tuuri), but he needed Tuuri to find one small enough for him to spear and carry off for his stupid prank.

Honestly, if I were to rewrite Adventure II from scratch, I'd omit that stupid prank entirely.  It's childish and absurd, and all it could realistically do is confirm to the team that he was nearby.

[dmeck7755]

All good points.  Onni is very powerful.

Regarding his needing Tuuri to find a troll: it may be that he can sense trolls, but he doesn't know how big they are physically, nor how well armed or armored they are.  So he could kill a troll remotely (he has to be able to, since he survived for a while before he "borrowed" Tuuri), but he needed Tuuri to find one small enough for him to spear and carry off for his stupid prank.

Honestly, if I were to rewrite Adventure II from scratch, I'd omit that stupid prank entirely.  It's childish and absurd, and all it could realistically do is confirm to the team that he was nearby.

That true, though in my head canon, I think mages have different skills and abilities, that some know the trolls are close and can hear them and feel them (Like Lalli and Ensi can). 

Your story with Väinö (which I love), highlight this.

[lwise]

Your story with Väinö (which I love), highlight this.

Ah, thank you so much!  It may seem like I've forgotten about Väinö, but really I am trying to finish the story.  The next chapter is half done already.  Also Väinö is a secondary character in "Eyes of Owls", which I also have not forgotten.

[Jitter]

Based on how Lalli warns Emil about the dark voices, it’s my understanding that all Finnish mages can hear them. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they would know where the trolls are, only that there are some within a range that can be quite large, Lalli states that all of them must learn to shut out the voices very early on.

It is specifically stated that Onni hasn’t left the compound in Keuruu for many years. Again we don’t learn much about the life there, but it would seem like something that many people know. You know Onni, he’s great and so powerful but he never goes out the gates, like ever! So it could be something Taru knows just because of having lived there (which I assume she has, being of Finnish military).

Another headcanon of mine is that the Finnish mages are ”charged” from their own land spirits, which would mean Onni was at a great disadvantage when operating from Sweden. And that reaching further to Denmark would add another complication. But, if (and, probably, when) the fire eagle was actually Kokko and not a fireball spell shaped like an eagle, the appearance taking place in Denmark would not depend on Onni’s power. Nevertheless it’s my impression he’s even more powerful than ”able to smite a horde” when in his own environment. Maybe so that he could wreak similar havoc and not pass out

[LooNEY_DAC]

Honestly, if I were to rewrite Adventure II from scratch, I'd omit that stupid prank entirely.  It's childish and absurd, and all it could realistically do is confirm to the team that he was nearby.

It's childish and absurd, and it's there to show how disordered Onni's thinking has become after all he's gone through, so it has a definite story purpose.

[lwise]

It's childish and absurd, and it's there to show how disordered Onni's thinking has become after all he's gone through, so it has a definite story purpose.

Well, I guess so.  Except it seems like he straightens up and flies right instantly after he meets the others.  I'd think that he'd still be very childish and his thinking would still be disordered.

[Róisín]

Dunno how it is in the Minnaverse, but in our world Australia the Nungkari (Ngunkerrie and various other spellings depending on where they come from) Aboriginal healing mages who come down to Nungkuwarrin yunti and other clinics in Adelaide from the APY Lands and other outback places to look after the Aboriginal population of Adelaide can’t be too long away from their Land before their power runs down and they have to go back to replenish it. There are ways around this; I know one man who has a stone from his Land that he uses to establish a link home, and a couple of other nungkari who regularly travel to a farm in the Adelaide Hills where the Kookaburra Songline is near the surface and easy to tap into. But the power has to come from somewhere.