Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-29684190-20191123161006/@comment-35434444-20191127164605

Yes, Jacques does deserve "what's coming to him." But unlike Shylock, I hope his retribution for stacking the system in his favour in order to support his callous and selfish motives is aborted or severely leniated so that the protagonists have the opportunity to be the bigger people and acknowledge that the sin is the enemy, not the sinner; bigotry is to be reviled, not the bigots.

Otherwise you're just another bigot.

(Of corse, if you go into the concept of bigotry deep enough, you won't find it anywhere, but that's for another time perhaps.)

To make an example of Jacques would just continue the cycle of persecution, itself reverberation of the original cycle of persecution enacted by Salem. Bigotry and tolerance are in as much of a "delicate balance" as life and death. When you fail to see that, "As long as this world turns you will walk it's face."

Whether you consider what you're doing to be right or wrong makes no difference -- and indeed Salem believes herself to be every bit as justified in her actions as Ruby.

Hate it as you will, this world needs people like Jacques -- both in terms of his skill as a businessman and his faults as an individual -- and our very rightful anger must not overstep itself.

This is the sternest test that RT will have to face -- far more than anything a critic or viewer could ever throw at them. They set themselves this challenge by writing The Lost Fable.

As much as I would like to see them succeed, no preaching or guidance on my part can   bring it about. All I've really been trying to do is create the conditions under which they might see into it themselves. (And this goes for anyone who would argue against the points I raise -- you're just as likely to help me as hinder me.)

Until it's decided one way or the other, this is going to get much worse before it gets better.