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[RT] [HF]A Practical Guide to Evil - Ch 48: Threes
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Author: u/MoralRelativity *
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URL: https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2016/12/14/chapter-48-threes/
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Score: 25
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Created: 2016-12-14T05:37:47
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Comments:
u/AurelianoTampa [+9] (13 hours later)
Hot damn! An excellent chapter; one that delivered an uncomfortable combination of long-awaited justice and stomach-churning cruelty.
And as always, I feel like Catherine has probably overlooked something and am waiting for the other shoe to drop. She herself said she was waiting for Creation to retaliate against her and I feel the same. Some things that drew my attention:
“You’ll surrender the standard controlling your demon to Apprentice before a bell has passed.”
Granted, Apprentice is the most knowledgeable mage in Catherine's camp. But he's also one that is quite possibly corrupted by the very same demon whose banner her now gets to take into his possession. This seems like it was not a great idea on Catherine's part until she's SURE that he is not corrupted. Warlock's OK on the matter was suspect, to say the least.
I am skeptical about Masego's intercession on Fasili's behalf for the exact same reason.
“After the war, I will petition to be granted governorship of Liesse,” she said. “You will support this petition in court.”
Heiress is a Name; she is now going to become a governor of a part of Callow. Catherine just finished a ritual where the Angels agreed that she should be the ruler of Callow. Now, who would be a good person to inherit the country if the ruler is, say, removed from power? A governor might be a key choice as an Heiress...
Apprentice could, say, rot off your eyes. He did it to the Bumbling Conjurer’s face in Summerholm. Nasty as all Hells to look at, let me tell you.
Maybe I am missing something, but why wouldn't Catherine do exactly this to Heiress?? She had no problem methodically breaking many of the bones in her body; why not pursue some eye melting too?
Another round of threats was exchanged, but with Aisha whispering more diplomacy in my ear I eventually got what I wanted. Oaths were given on both sides, the exact wording already prepared by Masego.
Well, this sparks my curiosity...
I’m not a monster, Akua.
I'm not so sure that's true any more. Black has no problem accepting that he is a monster. But Catherine seems to deny that she has become one. Despite her talk about refusing to betray her friends and soldiers, I think she still see herself as doing good. That's not the same as being Good, but it feels like a self-deception - one that could be exploited eventually and may prompt her to abandon Evil (and thus her soldiers). A person who methodically tortures someone, rips out souls, and gives control of a city of her countrymen over to an extremely evil creature like Heiress is exactly the kind of person I'd describe as a monster.
u/MoralRelativity [+3] (19 hours later)
long-awaited justice and stomach-churning cruelty
Or perhaps "stomach-churning justice and long-awaited cruelty" depending on your perspective. :)
Great point about Masego's potential corruption. You make a compelling case. Perhaps Catherine will end up having to use that exploding amulet she gave Masego.
u/NotAHeroYet [+2] City of Angles Municipal Government (16 hours later)
I'm not so sure that's true any more.
Every one of those flaws except for one were guilty of active participation in a plot to murder 1000 allies, and set as many demons on a city. (Not to mention servants of someone who set a corruption demon on a captured city for political reasons alone.) It may be monstrous, but it doesn't make you a monster, not when the only other options are worse.
The only compromise that I see as truly monstrous, rather than just brutality of necessity, is the support of Heiress, and I can't blame her too much for that. She has her own plots at hand, to mitigate the damage, and it really could have been do that or die.
Well, and letting the Heroic equivalent of Heiress go on the day she became squire, rather than slitting his throat and mutilating the corpse, but that didn't seem quite as evil at the time... Which really isn't saying much.
But he's also one that is quite possibly corrupted by the very same demon whose banner her now gets to take into his possession.
I never believed that, I assumed the delay was, quite simply, from the fact that when your child has grown up with your devil lover, it's a little harder to check for a demonic corruption.
u/AurelianoTampa [+1] (a day later)
It may be monstrous, but it doesn't make you a monster, not when the only other options are worse.
How many monstrous acts must be committed before we decide the person is a monster?
My thinking is that Catherine did not need to break every bone possible in Akua's body. Akua has been trained to withstand torture; obviously she doesn't enjoy it, but it's not going to make her see the error of her ways or intimidate her into submission. Catherine's goal was not just to sideline Heiress for a matter of weeks while she recovered, but to exact revenge upon her as brutally as possible.
So it seems to me that that brutality did not serve a purpose; honestly, Catherine revealing the murder of her follower to Heiress was probably much more hurtful than broken bones. Catherine's physical assault of Heiress came across not as necessary, but as Catherine finally having a chance to unleash her anger at her foe when she was unable to defend herself or resist. That Heiress is also a monster doesn't excuse Catherine sinking to that level.
That was my take on it, at least. And really, there is an argument to be made that the brutal assault of a defenseless foe in front of a group of soldiers who were to be murdered DID serve a purpose. I doubt any of the Gallowborne felt anything but justification as they watched Heiress being beaten and broken. And it probably reinforced their loyalty to their commander. But justification is not justice, and assaulting with a defenseless prisoner is something a monster does.
I never believed that, I assumed the delay was, quite simply, from the fact that when your child has grown up with your devil lover, it's a little harder to check for a demonic corruption.
If Catherine herself had never remarked on (as she has, several times), I would be inclined to agree. The fact that it has come up more than once in the story though makes me think that it's foreshadowing, a la Chekhov's gun. We'll see!
u/NotAHeroYet [+1] City of Angles Municipal Government (a day later)
My thinking is that Catherine did not need to break every bone possible in Akua's body. Akua has been trained to withstand torture; obviously she doesn't enjoy it, but it's not going to make her see the error of her ways or intimidate her into submission. Catherine's goal was not just to sideline Heiress for a matter of weeks while she recovered, but to exact revenge upon her as brutally as possible.
Now, see, I see that, but it also inflicts costs. Both priests, and mages can heal broken bones, and each bone broken is a little more time out of combat functionality, even if Heiress can afford to mend them. If she only broke, say, heiress' limbs, that might be fixable in a minute amount of time.
I didn't see any unnecessary brutality involved in breaking each and every bone in her body, and that felt potentially worth doing. Paranoid precautions that may come off as needlessly cruel, but I can see them as precautions. Each bone broken is a little less likely that a mage can fix her up in advance of the deadline, after all. I know bones can be fixed, but each one broken leaves her a little less able to get back in the fight sooner, and/or leaves her in worse shape when she's able to re-enter the fight.
The cruelty to Heiress' minions... actually was monstrous, I suppose. It's easy to fall into the trap of seeing minions as an extension of that person, and it's a dangerous trap to fall into. I can't begrudge their deaths to Catherine, but it is something I wouldn't be comfortable with from an actual hero.
How many monstrous acts must be committed before we decide the person is a monster?
For me, the answer to that is "Does it protect anyone?" and "Do they actually deserve that?". So brutally breaking every bone of, say, Juniper in book one would be obviously monstrous, but breaking heiress' minion's hand in book one offended me more than this entire fiasco.
She's always been a monster, and I don't really see her as having gotten much worse, here. It's escalation of scale, not type, and it's not a problematic escalation, even. She's realized Heiress will keep escalating until she wins, and showing mercy just leaves Heiress in better shape for the next battle.
She held back because she didn't get this before, but her options are to lose, or to match, or to die. It's when she's needlessly brutal that'll really scare me.
If Catherine herself had never remarked on (as she has, several times), I would be inclined to agree.
I only saw the one piece of evidence? Where did you see others, if it's not rude to ask?
u/Keyoak [+2] (3 days later)
Catherine sees her more monstrous acts as the most optimal actions shes aware of to achieve her utility functions surrounding the fate of callow. To her the ends are worth the means and "justifications only matter to the just". She doesn't claim to be good, she does however claim to be effective.
u/NotAHeroYet [+1] City of Angles Municipal Government (3 days later)
Exactly. She hasn't become a different beast, she's just discovered mercy doesn't pay. She's discovered that heiress isn't going to hold back just because she's holding back, and so she stopped holding back. No mercy, no sparing individuals, just... winning, without holding back.
But what she does to heiress isn't inherently who she is. It's a turn towards the monstrous, but it's not the entire path. And she was always a monster, deep inside. Just like William was. Just like every named we've met, with the possible exception of Conjurer and Thief.
u/CeruleanTresses [+2] (a day later)
Catherine just finished a ritual where the Angels agreed that she should be the ruler of Callow. Now, who would be a good person to inherit the country if the ruler is, say, removed from power? A governor might be a key choice as an Heiress...
I believe that Catherine rejected the offer of becoming Queen of Callow. It wasn't the angels "agreeing" that she should rule Callow, but a trap to get her to trade the name of Squire for a heroic Name. Had she accepted, I think she would have become an agent of contrition like William was. Since Catherine rejected the offer, I don't think it's possible for Heiress to inherit the position from her.
u/NotAHeroYet [+3] City of Angles Municipal Government (5 minutes later)
So the pattern of three must have broken when the name Squire was taken from Catherine- or later, when Squire was led to her death at the hands of an Nameless individual due to Heiress' machinations.
Or something's going to turn up from Akua's plots to ruin Catherine's day as badly as Akua's has been.
Maybe I'm giving too much credibility to the patterns, though. It's easy to believe in rules like that, but the harder you try to abuse something as faint as "victory, draw, defeat", the easier it is to break it.
Actually, can anyone else model their approximation of the pattern's points as of this point?
u/Murska1FIN [+2] (15 hours later)
I read the part where Cat mentioned one of her Aspects being lost being admission that she had been defeated at Marchford by Heiress, where the Heiress had thought it was a tie at most.
u/MoralRelativity [+1] (an hour later)
I'm not keeping score. But my feeling is that the rule of three with William is done and so is Akua.
u/NotAHeroYet [+2] City of Angles Municipal Government (10 hours later)
My feeling is it probably is, but the problem with heiress is... just when I think she's been crushed, she comes back and does something to hurt Catherine just as bad. So I'm falling into paranoia, because everything is going too well, and the uncivil wars don't really feel like they should have started yet.
Anything that would really earn that name is probably up ahead, and it's not pretty, whatever it is.
u/AurelianoTampa [+3] (13 hours later)
So I'm falling into paranoia, because everything is going too well, and the uncivil wars don't really feel like they should have started yet.
Paranoia? As Catherine muses in this chapter:
It wasn’t paranoia if you were dealing with Praesi.
I get the same feeling as you - something is going to happen and it won't be pretty.
u/NotAHeroYet [+2] City of Angles Municipal Government (16 hours later)
Until it's been vindicated, it's still paranoia. The suspicion that they're up to something isn't paranoia, but any specific plot, is, I think. That the next attack will be from the constantly foreshadowed pattern is paranoia as well.
u/MoralRelativity [+2] (19 hours later)
Yep, somethings definitely going to go wrong. Very soon.
u/NotAHeroYet [+3] City of Angles Municipal Government (20 hours later)
The question is whether the pattern has anything to do with it, or if that's something that no longer seriously threatens Catherine. There's so many different routes problems could come from. Apprentice probably wasn't corrupted by the demon, and I suspect that his devil father isn't any more of a problem, but... he still might be tempted to dabble in things he shouldn't- such as attempting to kill it.
I wouldn't be surprised if heiress has the other half of the set of missing demons, too. I really hope she doesn't, and I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out she doesn't, but the fact that the Absence demon was mentioned as missing is worrying, no matter how ironic it was.
u/MoralRelativity [+1] (21 hours later)
I'd forgotten about that.
u/NotAHeroYet [+3] City of Angles Municipal Government (a day later)
My point exactly. For anything else, such weak foreshadowing would be a clue that it's probably not going to bite our protagonists soon, but for an absence demon... no such luck. Perfect paranoia fuel, of course.
On the other hand, it would also be fitting for the demon to have been killed and there just be an absence of information on its demise.
On the bright side, if heiress lets it out, there's a 50-50 chance that'll be the point where she goes the path of the lone swordsman. Three attempted atrocities, and then she dies.
u/Keyoak [+2] (3 days later)
William won his third battle as he was "fated" to do so. As he didn't press his advantage in disposing of her soul. And this allowed her a chance to begin a new pattern. One in which she didn't leave him half dead to begin a new instance of the rule of three. One in which a "rule of 1" left him dead and disposed of.
Heiress is a little less cut and dry to me. It can be argued Akua "won" their second engagement in the imperial court/mock battles. As neither side suffered major setbacks and Catherine used the opportunity to profit from the interaction (alliance with Jupiter) i can it being cosmically declared as a draw. But possibly a win for Akua for bring it to occcur in the first place.
The situation on the Blessed Isle is a win for Catherine in my eyes
Matchford was a win for heiress due to men and aspect loss on Catherine's
And latest engagement Catherine was ultimately forced onto a "even" 3/3 trade with Akua. So draw, or possible win due to return of aspect.
u/katreus [+1] (16 hours later)
Childer's assumption of the Squire name (briefly) was Heiress' win, no? It was her plan to weaken Catherine and hopefully buy enough time for Heiress to deal with the angel + TLS.
u/MultipartiteMind [+2] (2 days later)
(The protagonist's violence-tinged hints of perverse sexual lust towards Akua always warm the cockles of my heart.)
u/Gypsyhunter [+1] (3 days later)
Does anyone know how to download at least book one as a pdf or epub, I'm going on a long flight tomorrow and would like to re-read the guide on the way