ponderings, so many ponderings

[liugan]

And here I thought I was the one who thought too much.

We are at this crossroads again, my dear writer. Do we cut our losses now, while the going is slow and there is no hope of any of your foolish desires on the way? Or do we persevere, despite knowing it would be far easier to turn back now, and never attempt this endeavour again?

You spread yourself too thin. I am merely trying to be considerate.

We must let go of one. You know this. Do I leave the decision to you, or make it myself?

Comments

[exloserspromise]

Just for the sake of argument, give me an example.

[liugan]

My brother's banishment from Asgard.

[exloserspromise]

Refresh my memory.

[As if he needs it, and as if Loki isn't miserable enough already. But this is totally important for his logic exercise, okay?]

[liugan]

[ All the misery and it is all your fault, Rogers. ]

If I had not disrupted his coronation, he would not have departed in a blind fury for Jötunheim and started the war. He would have been crowned king that day.

[exloserspromise]

What were relations like with Jotunheim before that day? A little strained?

[liugan]

A little strained would be putting it very mildly.

[exloserspromise]

So you toyed around with already volatile international relations and wound up irrevocably upsetting the balance, which I'll admit is a really stupid thing to do at best. Why were relations bad, though?

[liugan]

Centuries worth of feuds and battles culminating in a single great war that one side is still extremely bitter about.

[exloserspromise]

Are they bitter just because they were defeated, or is there more to it?

[liugan]

Defeated, with their source of power stolen.

[exloserspromise]

Let me see if I've got this so far: you and your brother each, in your own way, treated an already conquered people with contempt you must've learned early, judging by your opinion even now of their bitterness, and the incident was somehow caused entirely by your actions alone rather than being an unsurprising result of how you and your brother were raised?

[liugan]

Essentially. How we were raised was influential, but the decision to disrupt everything in the first place was mine. Who knows? I may have chosen to do so even if I was brought up as an equal son, simply because I could.

[exloserspromise]

And if you were, let's say, brought up to respect the people of Jotunheim?

[liugan]

Respect would never come in to play. They were still seen as an opposing realm that broke a peace treaty and invaded our kingdom with the express purpose of regaining possession over their source of power, and starting another war themselves. They could have been a race that earned the utmost respect from all the realms, but such an act upon any other would no doubt result in others demanding answers or blood.

Sometimes both.

[exloserspromise]

But did you guys actually leave them the means to rebuild themselves as a respectable society, or did you keep them powerless so that their only apparent choices were to remain beaten down or become the villains whenever you needed some?

[liugan]

You will have to ask the Allfather about that.

[exloserspromise]

I'll have to ask him a lot of things.

[liugan]

Do let me know how that goes.

[exloserspromise]

If I make an appointment with him and then go missing, you can probably assume I hit a sort spot.

[liugan]

I shall be waiting by the pits of Hel with a fishing pole.

[exloserspromise]

You're a real peach.