Topher Lydon

I think I see it this way. The PM is handed the Kompromat, and decided NOT to use it. He informed CSIS about it as a potential threat. Will is assaulted, and the PM overreacted, seeing it as an attack not just on Will, but on the office of Prime Minister, he knows Will is the future, he accepted this as an inevitability. He and Will having an understanding that will would not step over the PM's body to get the big chair, and that the PM would peacefully give way when it was the right time. (Lisa felt this was a mistake, Will should have challenged earlier, but Will is loyal to a fault... another problem when the stakes are this high and everyone is sharpening knives for the feast) (Will's morality, again, a massive vulnerability in the Game of Thrones). Along comes Caleb on the News, re-framing the PM's actions to be one of fear and imprisonment. To the PM that's a betrayal after he tried to protect Will. Will is now refusing to come to 24 Sussex, as the PM framed it as a naughty school boy to the office. (Playing right into the hands of the Order.) This refusal is now a Challenge to the PM's authority. Now the gloves are off, Carter's an active threat. He's not King Joffery, he's more like Tommen, weak and reacting. (wow I am now fully invested into the GoT metaphor)

These books are a chess game. Neither side is beaten yet. There will be highs, and lows, and pieces that will be knocked off of the board. The Dark Sovereign vs The Red Bishop, winner will take all.

The first shot of a revolution, Long live the King of the North, whomever that will be when the dust settles.

That gif really sums up my morning LOL

It's funny, my person found a three-person Chess board. Red Black and White. It's gorgeous. He knows I want it. LOL (I suspect it's my xmas present)

I don't expect the PM to take it well

Chapter Twenty-five WORLD END: T-minus 153 days, 0 hours, and 0 minutes 7 RIDEAU GATE, Ottawa, Ontario The air in the Drawing Room was thick with anticipation. The sunlight, usually bright and clear through the vast windows, felt muted, casting long, dramatic shadows that mimicked the tension in the room. Lisa Sternosti, her face a mask of practiced neutrality, finished her brief and snapped her phone shut. "The car is ready. He's expecting you now." All eyes were on Wi

They want the throne, they want the fame But few survive to claim the name The cost of the crown, it bleeds the soul It burns the weak, it makes them cold I pay in silence, I pay in pain, Still I stand, and still I reign. (Forgive my dips into poetry, just seemed a moment for it)

Indeed, having a deeply flawed man standing up and doing what's right, despite his flaws, might be just what' s needed however. I don't think there's a politician alive that doesn't have some secret. Be it declining mental faculties, medical complications, moral complications/compromise, or deep seated bigotry. All of these things should cause anyone pause. Will is who he is, and he has his vulnerabilities... I don't think any of us would trust a perfect person sitting at a PM. Will, he's interesting to me. His strict morality and ethics, his diplomacy are probably his greatest strengths, but also weaknesses. Compromise and unwaivering morality can, at times, hinder a great leader. Especially in a time of war. It goes back to the King on a white horse metaphor. How long, on a muddy battlefield, can that image last?

Very true, but their goal is more layered. It attacks Will's credibility, yes. But it also attacks Will's mental health as Lisa pointed out a few chapters back. The order seek to topple the Prime Minister, push Will (via Caleb's support) then destabalize him through a multipronged attack on his sensibilities, his image, and his mental stability. Making sure to prime everything for an election. They need to remove Will from play, otherwise their Bob Hesston move is simply not going to work. And Will, for all his faults, is a deeply popular politician, entrenched, and that makes removing him really difficult for Abernathy. Sorry I like thinking this through, it helps me formulate the story and focus in on their motivations. I try to keep these thoughts strictly spoiler free, merely focused on the narrative to the point of commenting. I know what happens, true, but I like putting myself into the mind of a reader as well. It lets me feel the story out a bit better.

I find that interesting as well. There is doubt there, Paternity Fraud. The question is who, and why. We know Will's family covered it up, small towns have their scandals, and I get the impression from this stage of things that it was the Major's intention to protect his son from what he saw as a predatory action, Majella and Arthur trying to protect the family reputation from exploitation. Jenny perhaps having second thoughts about what she had done, or doubts over the whole thing. But then desperation does change things, and the intentions she had change after the reality of raising a five year old boy by herself. The Kompromat is perfectly designed because it exploits the implications of the actions. Reframing them to something sinister. It doesn't matter if Edward Rawlins is Will's son at this point, that there was some kind of tampering, a dispute that quietly went away... that's enough to cause doubt. And good intentions can always be twisted.

Will doesn't handle shock well. His history over the past series of books show it's his biggest vulnerability.

I don't go back there. The place is... not conducive to my mental health. Best to leave it behind me

She was only doing what the rest of her peers were doing. Securing a life after High School. I can open my year book and count the number of girls that used this tactic. (too damn many). And have always felt it was something that needed attention drawn to it. Too many times I heard the phrase "Can't rape the willing." as a defense.

It was a sport to some in my hometown. Of 85 people in my graduating year, only 5 got out of that town, and only two got to university. The Baby Trap snared far too many friends of mine. It's one of those institutionalized shames that went on far too long.

Chapter Twenty-five WORLD END: T-minus 154 days, 2 hours, and 0 minutes Ottawa, Ontario – On Route to Toronto The X5 glided smoothly along the highway, a silent vault cutting through the Ottawa morning traffic. West was behind the wheel, his focus sharp and disciplined. Andrew sat in the passenger seat, his left shoulder still stiff and bandaged beneath his sweater, but he was fully alert. Trailing them closely was an unmarked RCMP cruiser—a silent guardian in the cold, clear

yikes, that's desperate.

Eek that stuff'll melt yer insides out.

The continuations of Kyle's story, don't worry Steve, Lydia, and Kenny will feature. And the Muffin Man isn't losing his coffee boy yet!

Some one needs to work in that house.

I mean it's no secret. Peter's been like this ever since carter's shadow kind of defined his... attraction to West as 'I hate you, but that's what makes you hot'