Potato wrote:munroburton wrote:It's not that far out. Indeed, one doesn't need to resort to an Eridani Edict violation to accomplish such goals.
See how the Harris government ended.
The distinction here is that cthia is proposing to kill everyone who could possibly supersede Honor or organize a provisional government. Pierre simply killed the Legislaturists. He still had full access and use of all the bureaucracies and their records, plus the full support of the Senate. In essence, Pierre simply bombed the White House; cthia is bombing the entire continent. And even in the aftermath of the attack, Pierre still had to spend a couple years hunting down loyalists - his control of the People's Republic was far from assured.
Rincewind wrote:Well, in one case you are all forgetting something is that the Star Kingdom of Manticore is not a single planet! Even if you manage to wipe out Manticore there is still Sphinx & Gryphon who would have their own dukes & whatnot who are also in line of succession. And then, even if you somehow manage to wipe out those two planets simultaneously with Manticore there is still Trevor's Star & Lynx who are considered part of the Old Star Kingdom. And that doesn't even include the Talbott Sector as Medusa is a noble & therefore would be in the line of succession, however remotely.
There will always be at least some form of government around which a rump or nation in exile could coalesce & as a lot of the RMN is still scattered around various stations it would quite a formidable naval strength... who have all got blood in their eye & no home nation anymore to be threatened with reprisals. Would you really want to piss THEM off?
I have never known fear of "pissing someone off" to be enough to deter war. War starts because one or more parties is
already "pissed off."
The MAlign were so pissed off that they began a centuries long plan centuries ago to get even with Beowulf and the establishment - the 'Stick it to the man' plan.
Talk about holding a grudge. And, apparently, they are still pissed off.
And it is obvious that the MAlign are
not afraid of reprisals.
Besides, none of that matters Rincewind. The MAlign simply wanted to succeed where Haven didn't. They wanted to derail the government—long enough.