Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27312496-20191204190600/@comment-14909251-20191205232637

Kaitryona Acheron wrote: -We'll learn who the 'frog' is in Tyrian's allusion. One point discussed when this was previously brought up is that the members of Team WTCH all seem to not just have a twisted story, but rather Salem seems to be the key source of corruption in their inspiration's story. For Cinder, Salem took the place of the Fairy Godmother. For Watts, Salem took the place of Sherlock Holmes. With Hazel it is a little more murky, but it is more like he ended up being spared by the witch and becoming her servant. Tyrian seems more simple. Salem is the frog, but she can't be killed so nothing Tyrian did mattered.

Continuing the discussion from the previous thread:

Lord Jaric wrote: She didn’t have to kill Pyrrha, who was defenseless by that point, but she did anyways. She killed the woman who found her as well who posed no threat to her.

Sentry 616 wrote: She also Chose Weiss, a non--threat, as a taget, and then there's her smiling as civilians are fleeing for their lives.

73.Anon.52 wrote: that's hardly true in the slightest, Cinder knew damn well the death she was unleashing on the WF, Vale, Haven, and the Branwens, hell she didn't need to kill that good Samaritan in Mistral either. Cinder kills to gain power, Cinder kills because she wants to revel in the power that she has, Cinder kills to prove that she has power, She has barely killed one person we know about for self defense.

I think these kinds of responses are missing the point by applying some sort of moral absolutism to the question. Even if Cinder's life was not being immediately jeopardized, the people she killed were all threats that, if not eliminated, would represent a potential and future impediment to her efforts. Failure in her efforts may well mean death either due to dissatisfaction from Salem as with Leo or because someone opposed to Salem will eliminate her. Pyrrha and Weiss were clear threats that would need to be eliminated both in the immediate timeframe and in a future timeframe. In the case of the women who found her, the only one who was not an experienced fighter, that was a potential witness where Cinder would have reason to believe she would be pursued.

The contrast here with Tyrian is that he really is just someone who likes to kill people. It is "his nature" as his inspiration would say. None of the people he has killed are threats to him and generally they are defeneseless civilians. His pace of killing is also already a bit intense. Fair to say Tyrian is the one who is the least redeemable and the one who could most fairly be said to deserve to die. You could even argue that he is probably the only one who really has to die as he is the only one who would probably continue killing no matter what happened. Cinder is cold so far to the impact of her actions, but that does not mean she enjoys killing in itself and would go on killing without Salem. All of it is a necessary means to an end in her perspective.