Are you referring to the taming of wild beasts? That’s what Stanley does with Dwagons all the time.
Jillian also tamed a feral dwagon in her text-backstory, and Vinny tamed a feral bat once too. So it’s not just magical Tool-assisted taming. In all three nonmagical cases, the method was the same: Feed it and hope for the best.
It is probably significant that it was a non-Naval unit with Leadership that ended up taming the double eagle.
Speaking of Jillian, another on-time update today.
I think that only units with Leadership can tame ferals, period. At least, all the times we’ve seen it happen, it’s been with a commander unit, though then again, commander units are the only ones that can really be well-rounded characters in this world (remember that casters are technically commanders).
As for Forecastle being a non-seafarer, I think that’s only significant because a seafarer would be too superstitious to try it. Forecastle’s value is in the fresh perspective he brings to things. His enemy side (can’t remember their names) might have realized that themselves, or they might be working from a vague prophecy that says something like that a non-seafarer will turn the tide of the sea war, and trying to be the ones to capitalize on it.
The fresh perspective can’t be the only reason having a non-seafarer is helping the enemy side’s ships survive though right? I mean the way the situation was set up just made it seem like it should be something more… rule based than that.
Today’s update is somewhat confusing: is Stanley actually getting glammed up with KISS to go off and do something without consulting Parson, or is that just an illustration of what Parson is describing to Jack? Either is equally possible, and no clue as to which we’re supposed to interpret it as.
It is confusing. My guess is Stanley might be getting ready to defend from an air assault because Parson warned him to in the epilogue of Book 2. Rulers typically defer to the Chief warlord in decisions about war, and even though Stanley and Parson don’t share the best relationship, I think it’s improved enough that he wouldn’t go haring off to attack Jillian without consulting Parson first.
ETA: But, like you said, it’s confusing. It’s possible that is exactly what he’s doing.