Hey guys, I'm trying to figure something out and my head is about to implode. Could you please give me a hand?

Lord of Light, Protect Us
[Neutral Event]
Response: Kneel an Asshai character to choose a character that just triggered its ability. Cancel the effects of that ability. Then, if you control at least 3 Asshai characters, you may return the chosen character to its owner's hand.

Let's say I have Robert Baratheon with a duplicate. Somehow he is going to die but I decide to discard the duplicate to save him. Then, my opponent plays Lord or Light, Protect us to cancel my saving Robert from being killed and decides to send him to my hand (he controls 5 Asshai characters).

What happens with Robert? The killing effect was the original source of trouble but I cannot save Robert... should he die? Or should he go to my hand since he never entered the "moribund:dead pile" state in the first place? This is making me crazy.

Thanks for your insight.

Saving with a dupe is not a character ability, so your opponent cannot use that event to cancel it.

If you have a character like Maester Aemon, who can kneel to save himself, then I think it'd be like this: Lord of Light is a cancel response, so it would resolve completely in step 2 of the action window. He would die in step 3 when the kill action resolves, but he already became moribund in step 2 with the destination "hand". So he'd go back to your hand. But of course why would your opponent choose to send him back to your hand if he could just let him die after cancelling the save.

Saturnine said:

Are you sure about that? (Not that I'm completely sure it's not like that, but rather interested.)

The FAQ states that:

Using a duplicate to save a character from
being killed or discarded is considered to be
a gained triggered "Response:" action. Thus,
it is treated as a triggered effect and may
be canceled, but because it is gained (and
therefore an ability of the card attempting to
use the response), a character who is "immune
to triggered effects" can be saved by using a
duplicate, as a card cannot be immune to its
own abilities.

...and why wouldn't a gained Response NOT be a character ability?

Hmmm. I forgot about that passage in the FAQ. I had assumed the duplicate gains the "Reponse:", not the character. But that passage seems to suggest otherwise.

In which case I think things work as I explained in my second response. If the opponent chooses to return that character to hand, it would not be successfully killed.

Why would the opponent get to decide? Please explain, I don't follow your reasoning. Are you suggesting that there's a conflict of effects? Then it would be up to the First Player, wouldn't it? I'm lost right now.

Saturnine said:

BTW, that would be my reasoning too (excluding the part where your opponent chooses anything).

eloooooooi said:

So the cancel happens, and as part of the cancel, the person who played the event can send Robert back to hand (they don't have to). If they do, Robert is "moribund:back to hand" when the kill effect would resolve to make him "moribund:dead."

I'm not entirely sure why you opponent would decide to send your character back to hand instead of letting him die, but it is possible for him to do it. You (Robert's controller) have no say in it.

Crystal clear. Thank you!