OK, so I've always been confused by this ever since "consolidation of power" from westeros ed.

It is possible to kneel characters already knelt, or to stand characters who are already standing. What, again, is the simple way to logic through different situations?

such as:

can I target a knelt character with "you've killed the wrong dwarf" to give it a power?

can I target a standing shadows character with "kingdom of shadows"?

can I stand a stood character to pay the cost of "to be a kraken"?

yes

yes

no

you have to be able to fulfill a cost. You can always have an affect happen even if the affect is just a 'duplicate' think of paying 1 gold for an attachment that gives a military icon. You have to pay the 1 gold, but you can give it to a character w/ a military icon and then they have two.

Actually, I don't think Lars read all of the cards in question, but he's on the right track. Things to remember when it comes to standing/kneeling a character that is already standing/kneeling:

1) If you are dealing with an effect that targets a character, pay attention to what it says to "choose." If it says "choose and kneel a character," you are perfectly welcome to choose a character that is already kneeling. If it says "choose a standing character and kneel it," you have to choose a character that is not already kneeling. (Pretty straightforward.)

2) If you DO use an effect that says "choose and kneel a character" on a character that is already knelt, the effect is considered to have resolved unsuccessfully. Said another way, the effect didn't make anything kneel, even though the target was legal. That means, as Lars said, you cannot Respond to a character being knelt (or anything else that looks at the kneel as a prerequisite).

Applied to each of the three specific cards you asked about:

1. You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf. Answer: No, effectively (It does not say you have to choose a standing character to kneel, but because it is worded as " then , that character claims 1 power...," the kneel must be successful before claiming the power can resolve - see the FAQ regarding effects that use the word "then.") - This is the one I think Lars didn't read. If he'd remembered the "then," he'd have said the same thing.

2. Kingdom of Shadows. Answer: Yes. (It does not say you have to choose a kneeling character, so you can choose to stand a character that is already standing - but nothing happens. Which could be good is your opponent is the only one who controls Shadows characters.)

3. To Be a Kraken. Answer: No. (As Lars says; if a character does not go from kneeling to standing, you have not paid the cost. If you have not paid the cost, you cannot have the effect. Look at it this way; if you could "stand" a Greyjoy character that was already standing in order to pay the cost for this event, you'd be able to continually kneel a single Iron Island's Fiefdom that was already knelt to keep reducing the cost of all your Greyjoy characters to 0.)

Long and short: Unless target restrictions specify a kneeling or standing character, you are allowed to TRY to stand a standing character or kneel a kneeling character. But you will always FAIL in the attempt. If you fail, you haven't paid the cost, nor do you get to do anything after a "then" in an effect.

~I swear, Sithlord. We explain this to you once every 3-6 months, don't we?

silly then but i see the need for it more with The Gift etc then i do with Killed the wrong dwarf (I think i have trouble w/ dwarf becuase there is an actual targt unlike the gift which I've seen used to draw a card wihtout playing a night watch charcater [which you should not have been able to do and can no longer do via FAQ)

the always fail thing is why Nate changed To be a droagon/stag right? as he didn't want them to be able to fail?

Lars said:

No. He actually WANTED them to fail more often.

The problem with "To Be a Dragon/Stag" was that it was too easy to stand a (kneeling) character for cost and let the effect fizzle. Essentially, the events served double duty as the recursion effect they were written for, and as an auto in-House standing effect for any character. In fact, I saw them used far more often as standing effects than as recursion effects. The other 4 "To Be a..." events don't have that luxury (since they have targets and/or play restrictions). So the change was probably more about balance than anything related to standing a standing character, etc.

The same result on those events could have been achieved by adding to word "choose" to the effects, making the recursed card a target.