Can characters with the terror icons go insane?

By Squark Games, in CoC Rules Discussion

Can the following happen in CoC LCG?

The situation:

1. It is my opponent's turn. I have Cthulhu in play. She has Scotophobia and Hastur in play.

2. My opponent uses the Action on the Scotophobia card on my Cthulhu card..

3. The Action on Scotophobia says
"Action: Until the end of the phase, each character controlled by and opponent loses all its printed @ (Terror)icons."

4. My Cthulhu card then loses all its Terror icons.

5. I am not able to play any Actions.

6. He then plays the Action on his Hastur card: Action: Pay 3 to choose a character. That character goes insane."

7. He chooses my Cthulhu card to go insane.

Now, the question is: can the Cthulhu card (which had two Terror icons printed on it and has since lost these icons due to the Scotophobia Action) be chosen to go insane?

I would say yes, but the following rules from the CoC LCG rulebook make this conclusion not clear cut:

Rule 1 : The Golden Rule on page 3, which says "If the rules text of a card contradicts the text of the rulebook, the rules of the card take precedence (with a few exceptions, as listed in the rules). "

Rule 2 : The text on Page 9 of the CoC LCG rulebook on Terror Struggle says:" Important Exception : Characters that have a terror icon or the Willpower keyword can never (regardless of card effects) go insane for any reason, nor may such a character be chosen to go insane. Thus if all the losing player's characters (at that story) possess the Terror icon, then losing the Terror struggle has no effect on that player." BUT does this important exception refer to the outcome of Terror Struggles only?

What is the consensus on these apparently contradicting rules?
Can Cthulhu (and all characters with Terror icons be chosen to go insane as per the game situation shown above?

cthulhu doesnt have any terror icons after scotophobia, so hastur can drive him insane. the rules do say characters with terror icons cant go insane....but when scotophobia is played they dont have any terror icons so the rule isnt being bent or anything like that.

edit: about the card effects thing, its about cards that say character goes insane and the like. like small price to pay.

-- Agency --
Small Price to Pay
------------------
Type : Event
Cost : 1
Subtype :
Game Text: Action: Choose a character you control and a character an opponent controls. Choose one of those characters to go insane, then wound the other character.

you couldnt choose and make a character go insane with a terror icon, even if you wanted to. other cards have the pay something to make something go insane and if it has a terror icon it will not go insane no matter what.

but scotophobia removes terror icons so the rule protecting against going insane doesnt apply.

Indeed. The rules refer to "terror icons" not "printed terror icons", so once you chip 'm off, you can drive Cthulhu insane. Too much normality isn't healthy for The Great Priest... ;)

Thanks for your replies. It's the bold phrase in the Important Exception that puzzled me : Characters that have a terror icon or the Willpower keyword can never (regardless of card effects) go insane for any reason.

But its all clear now.