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Reasoned decisions (if you think that empire building is reasonable) without morality and empathy _are_ evil. This is how Putin operates. Also, raping and tort
by atemerev 3y ago
Reasoned decisions (if you think that empire building is reasonable) without morality and empathy _are_ evil. This is how Putin operates.
Also, raping and torturing are very "evil for the sake of evil", if you ask me.
- smogcutter 3y agoYeah, discovering Nau’s chamber of horrors is meant to strip any illusions about his motivations.
- Voultapher 3y agoBook spoilers. IIRC wasn't it the chamber/ship of someone he worked with, that he tolerated? Read it like six or seven years ago, so the details are fuzzy. The impression I kept was that he did a lot of evil stuff not because he relished the suffering he created in others, but because he didn't mind it.
- vvillena 3y agoYes, it was not his chamber, but Nau never wanted one because he kept a pet in the open.
- int_19h 3y agoIt's both. On one hand, he is aware that one of his valued subordinates "needs" to regularly murder people, and doesn't consider it an issue so long as that subordinate remains productive and is kept in check to avoid "wasting resources". But there's also a record of him personally torturing and raping one of the captives for the sake of it - which he keeps around, presumably to rewatch every now and then.
- smogcutter 3y agoThats right, I forgot about Nau’s enforcer (whose name escapes me atm). Anyway I think the point remains - after that point, the reader is meant to understand that the emergents self-serving justifications are just that.