Dragaera

To Reign in Hell (TRiH minor spoilers)

Jon_Lincicum at stream.com Jon_Lincicum at stream.com
Fri Jun 23 13:47:55 PDT 2006

"Scott Schultz" <scott at cjhunter.com> 
Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info
06/23/06 01:17 PM

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To Reign in Hell  (TRiH minor spoilers)




>>I would contend that even without Abdiel's shenanigans, this 
philosophical 
>>difference would have eventually caused a war between Yaweh and Satan 
>>anyway.
>
>We'll never know, of course, but I think part of the point of the story 
(and
>the poignancy of the conclusion) is that Yahweh and Satan could have 
settled
>their differences amicably if not for Abdiels "shenanigans". There's a 
point
>in the story where Satan is discussing things with Lucifer, if I remember
>correctly. Lucifer says something like "So, your job is to instruct and
>inspire, and kick people in the butt if they need it." and Satan says
>(paraphrase) "You make it sound better than Yahweh did. He sounded like 
he
>wanted me to be a spy and a tattletale." At this point Satan and 
Beelzebub
>resolve to talk to Yahweh about their misgivings and then things happen 
and
>the snowball starts rolling shortly thereafter.

>Without Abdiel's interference, Satan and Yahweh would eventually have
>discussed things over lunch and either sorted things out or Satan would 
have
>regretfully declined the job. Even when he disagreed with Yahweh, Satan
>didn't foment open rebellion. The role of leader was more or less thrust
>upon him as things went from bad to worse. Rather like many real-life
>revolutions, I imagine.

Possibly true in the specifics, I was thinking somewhat longer term.

Given the nature of the "Plan", it was going to be necessary for Yaweh to 
force the other angels to participate.

Satan, while vassiclating about whether or not this was right for much of 
the book, finally comes down on the side of "We have no right to force 
them to do this."

Thus, Satan's ideology was directly opposed to Yaweh's plan (for which 
Yaweh was willing to sacrifice everything, including his integrity). 

I don't think Abdiel's actions (or lack thereof) would have changed 
Satan's mind on this key decision. 

The only authority Yaweh could draw upon to justify forcing the other 
angels (whether or not Satan helped him or opposed him) was to claim that 
being first made him better than all the other angels. 

The inevitable result of this claim was the war between Yaweh and the 
non-cooperative angels. Perhaps Satan would have actually stayed on the 
sidelines during this conflict, but I cannot see him siding with Yaweh in 
forcing the other angels to accept Yaweh as supreme ruler of heaven 
(which, ultimately, was the sticking point that kept them from reconciling 
their differences).

Abdiel certainly accelerated things, but even on the most amicable of 
terms, the only way in which Satan and Yaweh would not be drawn into 
ideological conflict here was if all the angels in heaven were unanimous 
(or very nearly so, anyway) in their support of the plan. 

Which was, of course, never the case.

Majikjon