isaac_newton wrote:
I'd point toward Amos Parnell and Eloise P in particular.
Throughout the cannon, AP is seen as a good 'soldier' and a good man. However I'd recently re-read OBS and the prologue in particular and it rather struck me that he was clearly laying out how to conquer other systems large and small for the benefit of the Peeps, knowing full well what he was delivering those populations to and showing no particular remorse or regret.
This is the topmost soldier and right at the top of the Legislaterist tree... if not him then who else could have changed things.
I know that he paid a bitter price later on, but all sides seem to highly respect him even before that was known, and I can't quite see that's right.
This is an interesting topic as I've had fleeting thoughts here and there about the perspective of the sympathetic Havenite characters on the war in general. Most of them had to have joined knowing all too well what joining the Navy meant (i.e. that they would be participating in unprovoked wars of aggression to destroy and loot other societies). After all, Haven had been doing such wars of conquest for over half a century. I've always wondered how they viewed what the Navy and their star nation were doing. I never came down on any particular side (for example "they were following orders and keeping to their oaths of loyalty to their nation" vs "they made morally bad decisions and should be undermined because of that").
isaac_newton brought up an interesting point by mentioning Parnell. Parnell made some thought-provoking comments in EoH about his and the Navy's part in the DuQuesne Plan.
"And don't shed too many tears for the old regime."
Don't worry Amos, I don't
"But the old regime was rotten, too," he went on after a moment. "If it hadn't been, Pierre couldn't have pulled this off. Hell, Commander—all of us at the top knew the system was breaking down! We just didn't know how to fix it, and so we let the rot spread further and further, and in the end, Pierre dragged us all down for the kill. But we knew exactly what we were doing when we sent you and people like you out to conquer other star systems. Don't you ever think for a moment that we didn't. And to be honest about it, I don't really regret it now...It was the only way out for us, the only game we knew, and I'd be lying if I said we didn't take a certain pride in playing it as well as we possibly could."
We never really get as in-depth a viewpoint on the Havenite MO as we do here.
