Or it’s a joke about having sex on the money.
Did everyone else pick up on “three fingered discount”? I almost missed that one.
I think it’s because Kubota is a megalomaniac. It’s not enough for his minions to simply serve him, they have to be absolutely, unquestionably loyal to him. Once he perceived that it was possible for her to be suborned, he had to put her in a position to unambiguously choose which side she was on. If she chose Kubota, not only would it demonstrate her loyalty, her guilt over killing Elan would give him an extra handle on her - not unlike what Xyklon did to Red-Cloak back in Start of Darkness. And if she chose to side with Elan, then she’s proven herself unreliable: if she’ll turn sides now, she could just as easily turn sides later.
Kubota also felt himself to be pretty much untouchable by the party or Hinjo, so I don’t think he particularly cared if losing Therkla now would set him back, because I don’t think he was really capable of conceiving that he might not eventually get everything he wanted. He also wasn’t capable of considering the PCs as anything other than their archetypes. They’re the good guys, so they’re going to have to play by the rules, and Kubota’s title and political power made him untouchable inside of the rules. He didn’t consider that one of the party members might be sliding into a major alignment crisis, and wouldn’t care about the rules anymore. The idea that one of the Order might just straight up murder him and dump his carcass (or whatever remained thereof) overboard never occurred to him.
Incidentally, it may be worth noting that Tarquin seems to be making the same sort of assumption about Elan. He’s expecting that Elan, being a bard, will follow the script he’s laid out, because it makes such a good story. If Elan acts out of character, though, Tarquin may not have an adequate contingency plan. On the other hand, compared to Tarquin, Kubota was a second-stringer, so Tarquin may serve as an example of how to run this sort of scheme correctly, as contrasted with Kubota’s efforts.
But that wouldn’t have required the our money vs your money set-up.
Kubota was a second stringer (Burlew himself has said this) but he wasn’t a fool. He never assumed things would follow his plans. So I figured he would consider the possibility that Therkla might use her ninja assassin skills against him. So why take that unnecessary risk?
And even if he was certain he could outplot Therkla regardless of what she tried to do, there was still the undeniable possibility that she would fail the test and turn against him. If she did, he would lose her services even if he wasn’t directly threatened by her.
So from Kubota’s point of view, the better plan was the one I described above. All if required was ruthlessness and deceit - two qualities we knew Kubota had plenty of. He should have told Therkla he was letting her have Elan and then arrnaged to have Elan killed. That would have suborned Therkla’s love for Elan into Kubota’s service. He would have gotten everything he wanted and risked nothing.
Rather a bit off the central topic, I have a question: I’m looking for Burlew’s written commentary on the strips in the War and XPs volume, which is horribly expensive (300$!) right now. I’ve failed to find anyone with a copy locally, so I’m wondering if there might be some helpful person around here willing to scan those pages and send them? I can get all the other volumes for an okay price (possibly not Origin of PCs, but that remains to be seen), but War and XPs is utterly impossible…
I must have missed something. When did Haley learn that Tarquin had her dad?
Look at Elan’s face in the second-last panel of 758, when Elan’s dad mentions that one country. Elan knows that’s where Haley’s dad was being held captive.
Tarquin mentioned “Tyrania” to Elan as being one of his former shill nations, Hayley has already told Elan that her Dad is being imprisoned in Tyrania. Elan must have told Haley in the last strip.
And he says “Tyrinaria?? Did you just say, ‘Tyrinaria’??” in 759.
All of the books are available on ookoodook for under $35.
Thanks guys.
Unless they’re out of stock.
For some reason, the “three-finger discount” really gets to me. Of course, in the OOTSverse, a “five-finger discount” would make no sense.
Wouldn’t having money coming beneath their love be a bit uncomfortable? I mean, not that I’d know anything about it, but having sex on a pile of money sounds like you’d get coins wedged in some uncomfortable places at the very least.
Also- if there’s gold underneath her, and Elan on top of her, would that count as a three-way? 
I think that she would be completely and totally satisfied in that case, no matter how uncomfortable she was physically.
Behold! The real reason paper money was invented!
I don’t think he was a fool, just overconfident and vain. From his point of view, finding out if Therkla would turn on him was not an unnecessary risk. While Kubota is no fool, his goals are not wholly rational. He’s driven by ambition and a desire to control. The idea that Terkla might disobey him - that he might not wholly control her - is intolerable to him. He has to find out if she’s entirely his, and if she’s not, he has to destroy her. This decision is not the result of a dispassionate cost/benefit analysis, but is the inevitable result of the neurosis that define him.
You’d hope so, wouldn’t you. But they’re not.
Those last two panels are gold. GOLD. So unexpected, yet so completely logical.
I realize Tarquin is all evil and all, but I think I’m madly in love.
He’s like an Anti-Bard. He fully recognizes all of the same Dramatic Requirements that Elan does, but he manages to subvert them all to help him hold power.