What if Mentor and Morcar (Zargon) are the same person?

[Sjeng]

WAY before my time I'm afraid

[knightkrawler]

Of course, the Marvel Winter Special muddies the waters by showing Morcar/Zargon as a hooded blue-skinned fellow. I propose to deal with the problem thusly: Not canon.:

Look at how thoroughly "Mentor's" red cloak covers all areas that otherwise would show "Morcar's" blue skin and undergamrments.
Then look at how thoroughly "Morcar's" green hood covers all his face including a hypothetical beard, the lights of magic making his eyes appear red.
All it takes is a change of robes and - we're talking schizophrenia here - of mood and temper.

I propose to deal with the problem thusly: not really not canon...

[Daedalus]

How many of us remember the film entitled "The Vikings" Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine, et al, wasn't (Sir) Ragnar one of the Vikings How did he get into Heroquest This film also inspired my famous Runes Dice, rolled when Morcar has no underlings on the board, just to keep young Puck on his toes.

Good call, Ken. I only remember seeing part of the film (half?) back in the 80's on TV. My favorite scene was when Kirk Douglas' character Einar commanded his axe-throwers at great loss to create a ladder up the drawbridge of the Northumbrian castle that the vikings assaulted. I was amazed when he lept over the moat and scaled the drawbridge axe by axe, thus gaining the walls where he quickly truimphed and opened the gate. That was the stuff of legends, man.



A quick wiki-check reveals that the Ragnar character played by Ernest Borgnine was adapted from Ragnar Lodbrok of the Lay of Kraka, a skaldic poem from the 12th century. I imagine Stephen Baker borrowed the name Ragnar from the movie character, as he certainly had the opportunity to see the film.

[chaoticprime]

I spent some time recently going over all the text and graphics from all of HeroQuest, including the sticker book and the comic book.

Bad news, Americans.

"Hello, my name is Mentor."

I don't like it at all, but that's how it is. The intention in the original UK design of the game clearly indicates this, and that is corroborated in the tie-in comic book. The NA version's altered-graphics made this distinction a nebulous affair. The sticker book is just wrong, as are probably numerous other publications.
The portrait on the character cards clearly indicates a speaking humanoid narrating in the third-person the details on the card, in-character. That's that.

Then who is Morcar/Zagor? The player playing him. He's faceless in the comic book (though his ripped physique rules him out as a gamer) for that reason. Maybe its possible even that the name change from Morcar to Zagor was because of the audience change. Something similar to why an American will never get to play the Doctor or James Bond, even though British have now played Superman, Spiderman and Batman.

The strongest first-degree evidence from the NA game is that the guy on the game screen looks like an evil bastard commanding an army of evil monsters. Graphics usually depict exactly what they mean. In the UK Morcar's face literally accompanies his advisement of the rules. In the US version he looked like Christopher Lee, while in the UK he was really more of a John Pertwee. Maybe they're two different people that dress alike? Maybe they're father and son?

Sh!t to think about.

[Count Von Bruno]

Isnt Zargon the ruler of the universe, according to scientology? (apologies to any scientoligists on the board, if any)

Morcar is definitely the better name, though he gets sissified monsters-I vote Zargon.

All hail Zargon!

[knightkrawler]

I still think, Morcar/Zargon is Mentor's evil personality, and the whole HQ reality with this one evil person pulling the strings of all evil forces is completely made up by his mind. Delusions of grandeur and schizophrenia right there for you.

[Count Von Bruno]

Sounds about right to me, there is something definitely a bit "iffy" about Mentor-that's for sure.

I'll bet he is the kind of guy that does a number 2 in the handbasin, "discovers" it and then leads an inquisition to find the culprit

[Sjeng]

Indulge me...

I've always assumed that the big scary-looking wizard in the red robes, shown on the game screen, is Morcar/Zargon. (The bazillion monsters he's directing forward kinda give it away.)

Meanwhile, I always thought Mentor was the wizardly fellow shown poring over a book (Loretome?) in that little window on the European Heroes' character cards.

Believe it or not, it's taken me twenty years to notice that they're identical.

Now, I reckon the real explanation for this is simply that both pictures show Morcar/Zargon, and that there's no picture of Mentor. Possibly the little picture on the character cards was removed from the North American version so nobody would mistake it for Mentor.

HOWEVER... just for fun ... what if Mentor and Morcar are the same person? A case of split personalities? Curious, don't you think, that Mentor's Loretome seems to know all about Morcar's schemes, yet neither seems capable of truly defeating the other?

What if Mentor leads a double life as Morcar and neither of them realises it? What if all that Morcar backstory Mentor tells the heroes in the first questbook is nothing but lies and/or fantasies he's built up to protect himself from the horrifying truth? It wasn't his apprentice who 'saw magic as a shortcut to power'. It was himself. Dun dun dunnnn...

Hey look! the same epiphany that sparked the whole discussion

It's the same damn guy.

[torilen]

I would like to ask something:
Why is everyone here at the inn so intent on making mentor and morcar the same person??
This is not the first time this debate has come up. Why does everyone seem to NEED them
to be the same person?
It's not like mentor is cruel to his followers or sends them to their deaths unnecessarily. So
why does he have to have an evil split-personality?

I could understand it if you were try to look at it like Palpatine from Star Wars, where he seems
all nice and good at the start, and then turns evil when he finally gets full power. But come on...
really?

Why?

[knightkrawler]

You don't seem to understand the matter (schizophrenia as pewrceived by a layman) at hand.
Even if Mentor is just a part of a split personality, he's a full person in his own right all the same.
It doesn't make him evil because he is not intentionally Morcar in his freetime.
"Can't get a freakin' blowjob... Ah well, let's blow up the Empire, shall we?"
Like... Mentor is EXTREMELY "good", Morcar EXTREMELY bad. Where do you have that in mentally sane real people?

I know this is a game for 10-yr olds, but for me the game and its background are texts to be read and interpreted in case I want to, and this M&M 1 Person *lemony goodness* came to mind instinctively.

That all and merging the topics, however, are beside the point chaoticprime made: that that picture on the Evil Wizard player's screen shows Mentor.
My point now is: It's both Mentor and Morcar.

Question on the sideline: Whoever has described or even seen Morcar?