Turtledove

I don't know why I've never thought to ask this before, but why was a seven-year-old present when adults were fighting a battle to the last man? Isn't that the sort of thing a parent would want to protect a child from? Sylvia was fully prepared to swing after she murdered Kimball, and to leave her children as orphans; but she made sure they would be provided for beforehand. Mort not only didn't do that with Alec, he put Alec squarely in the line of fire. How hard would it have been to send him out to Maude's farmhouse or something?

Only answer I can offer is that Mort was so depressed he decided suicide by US Army, and wanted Alec with him. It's lame, but grieving vengeful people aren't always rational. TR 22:50, October 15, 2009 (UTC)
Sure, why not. It's a lame answer, no offense, but when HT writes unbelievably ridiculous situations, that's our only option. Turtle Fan 02:45, October 16, 2009 (UTC)
No reason for offense. I said it was lame first. TR 04:53, October 16, 2009 (UTC)
Oh, so you did. I had forgotten you had used that exact word. I seemed to think you'd said "irrational" or something. Turtle Fan 05:32, October 16, 2009 (UTC)

Unless Mort had tried to but Alec snuck back into the diner and it was too late for Mort to do anything because Grimes's unit was upon them. Sounds like something we could have observed if HT had replaced Mary with Mort instead of Pound, who could tell or show us nothing that a dozen other characters weren't already revealing. If HT had tired of Canada in spite of the Evidence!, why did he have their resistance kick up after he had given himself a way out? Why did he go back to Rosenfeld in particular? And if he had always intended to keep that story active up to that scene in TG, why did he shut down POV coverage in the town at the very moment when a POV would have had something interesting to share for the first time in ages?

*shrug* Maybe if HT decides to let someone write stories set in this TL, someone will decide the crazy adventures of Alec Pomeroy are worth exploring. TR 22:50, October 15, 2009 (UTC)
I suspect that HT wasn't interested in continuing that storyline nor with the civilian POVs but only the war stories.
Given how POVs got reassigned and moved around through DttE and TG, I see no problem there. Still, with Mary it was years of secret bomb-making scattered among "Isn't this toaster wonderful!" Tiresome. She gets booted, and more to the point the entire McGregor saga gets booted, at the very point when they finally, fnally would have had a story worth telling. Turtle Fan 23:05, October 16, 2009 (UTC)
However, he brought Grimes's unit through there so he could allude to Mort's fate to the reader. Rationality was less important than story considerations. After all, we can make up reasons for the actions after the fact. ML4E 20:38, October 16, 2009 (UTC)
Well--maybe. Having Alec taken alive after a last stand does seem more realistic than having an adult taken--If you were making a last stand, why did you yield?
Come to think of it, as I've played the scene back and reread it to confirm, we can't say with absolute certainty that Mort was killed, since we're not certain he was present at the diner; it could have been seized from him, I suppose, or he and Alec could have been taken hostage or otherwise made to be there against their will. I don't believe either of those; for one thing, then Alec should resent the rebellion, not the US Army. Turtle Fan 23:05, October 16, 2009 (UTC)
We used to come up with some interesting ones, didn't we. I think the key was not using too many of the same characters. Turtle Fan 02:45, October 16, 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, maybe that's why I never thought to ask about Alec being in the stronghold till now. DttE and TG have so many huge story flaws that it's easy to lose track of the flotsam and jetsam like this. Turtle Fan 20:57, October 15, 2009 (UTC)