Theemile wrote:cthia wrote:If Theisman had been a stand up guy, he would have done the right thing and surrendered to Eloise. She then could have pardoned him later.
On second thought, that wouldn't have worked. You simply cannot open a can of worms by pardoning even a single traitor. It is why Alfredo Yu and company are forever Grayson bound.
Ummm... just who the [redacted] was Eloise the night of OSJ'S mortal departure? She was just another fleet commisar. She stood there with 2nd fleet waiting to be shoot by other SS fleet units. She was a nobody, who was best known as a OSJ yes-woman and one of the last Aprilist terrorists.
By the night of OSJ'S death, there was no one else left in charge. The Committee of Public Safety? All the members of the Committee who could take charge were already dead, as were their replacements, and their replacements. The only people left on the committee were beauracrats who knew to keep their heads down so they stayed attached to their shoulders.
By putting a bullet in OSJ'S head, Tom cut the last head from the hydra, leaving the entire government up for grabs by whoever had the will and ferocity to seize it.
I like the raw emotion in your post and its delivery. Really, I like reliving those very emotional "new beginnings" of Haven.
However, none of what you said absolves Eloise of her duty as newly elected president. Murder has no statue of limitations. Nor does treason. No one can be held above the law—lest lawlessness. Or you are no better than the lawless you replace.
It was a very patriotic thing what Theisman did, no doubt. It should have been a very personal, sacrificial gesture made of a sacrificial lamb. One of the last remaining virtuous lambs the navy had. Nevertheless, a premeditated sacrificial gesture is what it should have been, premeditatedly. Sheep, he was. Ultimately sacrificial?—should have been a matter for the courts to decide.
He may have felt it his duty. Though what happens when some idiot feels the same way regarding Eloise? Or the next? Or the next?
Now that I sit upon the throne, I must do what the throne condones.
Debating both sides of a coin can be a copper-plated Ransom.