Pavel Young's and Lord Burdette's options

PeterZ wrote:Young was a worthless fool that hated Honor enough to die to kill her. His only chance at killing her was to cheat and to cheat in a duel was to die. He should have remained true to his cowardly nature and declined the challenge move to the Solarian League and worked to achieve killing Honor from afar. Instead he chose his most immediate opportunity to kill Honor by accepting the challenge and the option of cheating to kill her. He chose to die in the hope, forlorn as it was, to take her with him. What a fool.

cthia wrote:Woulda Shoulda Coulda
What were some of the options of Pavel Young and Steadholder Burdette?

I've included PeterZ's take on Pavel Young.

I think Burdette should have sought a courtroom battle.

cthia wrote:I think Burdette shoulda sought a courtroom battle.

I do not dispute the facts this harlot claims, nor do I regret any of my acts! I say only that I neither desired nor ordered Reverend Hanks' death, and that no man can prove against me, for I never even knew he would be present. But yes—yes, My Lords!—I did each and every other thing this foreign-born whore claims, and I would do them again—do them a thousand times again!—before I let an infidel fornicator and this traitor who calls himself Protector pollute and poison a world sacred to God!

Joat42 wrote:Pavel had some choices, but not one of them palatable. He could have run off to the Solarian League, but I doubt his father would have approved which meant disownment or cut off from the family fortune. Declining the challenge would probably end up with the same result, and regardless which option to avoid the duel he would bring dishonor on the family name.

I guess that accepting gave him a small chance to kill Honor.

Why did Pavel Young accept the duel? May 2009

Pavel, the political figure, had no choice. Had he not accepted, he would no longer have been a political figure... period. So, yes, he could have refused, but only at the price of giving up everything he felt he had left in life. If you'll notice, he didn't exactly cover himself in steely-nerved glory when the moment came, and that was largely because his political ambition (i.e., hunger for power) had gotten him into a situation he lacked the intestinal fortitude to face up to. And remember also that he had agreed to a protocol in which he only had to face a single shot from Honor. Yes, as the moment loomed large before him he became more and more aware of his own mortality; at the moment he actually accepted her challenge, the instinctive need to preserve his position of power (and to avoid a situation in which no one in "society" would ever so much as acknowledge his existence once again) overpowered his fear that she would be able to kill him with that one shot. In the event, his nerve snapped, leading to his ignominious demise.

As for why none of Paul's family members or HH's friends challenged Denver, there were two reasons. (1) No one knew where to find him until Georgia slipped the word to Ramirez and McKeon through an intermediary, so no one could challenge him, and (2) Would you really want to be the person who challenged and killed him instead of leaving him for Honor to deal with?

Joat42 wrote:

cthia wrote:Woulda Shoulda Coulda
What were some of the options of Pavel Young and Steadholder Burdette?

I've included PeterZ's take on Pavel Young.

I think Burdette should have sought a courtroom battle.

Steadholder Burdette goal was to kill her, not discredit her. He also underestimated Honor (she was only a woman after all ) which is why he went for single combat. Going after her in court wouldn't really further his agenda at all, which was to stop the reforms.

Pavel had some choices, but not one of them palatable. He could have run off to the Solarian League, but I doubt his father would have approved which meant disownment or cut off from the family fortune. Declining the challenge would probably end up with the same result, and regardless which option to avoid the duel he would bring dishonor on the family name.

I guess that accepting gave him a small chance to kill Honor.

Duckk wrote:Pavel’s father was already dead by the time of the duel; he died because of a heart attack at the end of Pavel’s court martial.

Duckk wrote:Pavel’s father was already dead by the time of the duel; he died because of a heart attack at the end of Pavel’s court martial.

Jonathan_S wrote:But once he'd agreed, hell once he'd been challenged, to the duel he had no decent options. Once he knew Honor was trying to challenge him he should have taken a vacation out of the Star Kingdom, or at least hunkered down where nobody to get to him.
Any blow-back from ducking a challenge should be far less than refusing one, especially if he can provide an acceptable fig-leaf (for example claiming ill and receiving home treatment. I'm sure he can find/blackmail a doctor to falsely corroborate that)

But he wasn't willing to step back from personal participation in the House of Lords even to eliminate the chance of running into Honor and being challenged.