Lars
5kings damphair (response: After an opponent's character is saved, discard that character from play.)

triggering off ITE LP Viserys Targaryen (Response: save Viserys Targaryen from being killed or discarded, then return him to his owner's hand.)

does the return to hand happen before damphair would get to respond?

ktom
Of course. Drawn out, it looks like this:

Step 1 - Initiate: Viserys is slated to die.
Step 2 - Save/Cancel: Viserys triggers his ability to save himself, then (as part of resolving this effect), he is returned to the owner's hand (and enters a "moribund:return to hand" state).
Step 3 - Resolve: Kill effect does not get Viserys since he was saved.
Step 4 - Passives (to triggering the kill, saving Viserys, or returning Viserys to hand).
Step 5 - Responses: This is where Damphair could trigger.
Step 6 - End: Viserys is removed from play and put into hand.

So, since the "return to hand" is part of the save, it resolves completely when that effect is triggered (in Step 2). Damphair - as a standard, non-save/cancel Response - must wait until Step 5. By that time, since Viserys is already moribund, it is actually illegal for Damphair to try to knock him out of play a second time.

Moral of this long story: you cannot trigger a Response in the middle of resolving another effect, even one that uses the "then" templating.

Lars
thanks.

as an aside if the return to hand wasn't there would it be an never ending loop if each player choose it to be?

ktom
Yes.

In fact, depending on who gets to trigger their Response first, you could create a similar infinite loop with Wendamyr, Saltwater Scholar and Damphair in a mirror match.