Right. Talking about this question requires talking about canon!Marethyu, who is alternate!future!Josh before I get to current!Josh, because Marethyu is the one who actually did that stuff as opposed to facing the prospect of doing it. And although a lot of stuff about Marethyu is extrapolation, I think there's a lot of evidence that he really did value free will; that he believed in freedom of choice. He gave people choices almost always, even when his power would have let him choose differently. Often he knew the probable outcome of those choices, yeah -- but he didn't try to force them except in one or two instances (getting everyone back to help the twins hold off the army of anpu being the one that sticks out). He definitely far preferred to work with, if not actually revealing all his information, at least some degree of informed choice; he told people things he definitely didn't have to so that they would be able to make that kind of choice. And Abraham, his close collaborator, was of like mind -- all the messages he left were basically "you have a choice coming up and it's big, I trust you to make the right one".
Obviously there is some tension between a belief in self-determination and the careful timeline-pruning in which he found himself engaged! I think he resolved that by having faith in people making the right choices given the right circumstances in which to make them, and setting himself up to a) create those circumstances and b) make sure other people *coughISIScoughOSIRIScough* couldn't arrange circumstances to their liking. He interfered a LOT but in general he didn't compel people to do things, he taught them things or gave them things or protected them, and then left it up to them to decide what to do.
So then we turn to Josh, who is the inheritor of this whole mess. Aather has really only strengthened his belief in self-determination, but I think he will still recognize the necessity to set up circumstances that favor the results he wants. (I mean, he definitely will, otherwise he might paradox himself out of existence, but whatever, time travel is complicated.) He's not really at that point yet, but the distinction between manipulating people and manipulating circumstances is going to be important, I think. (I mean, sometimes manipulating circumstances means manipulating people...it's kind of a complicated tangle.) But basically, the way in which he operates and in which he's free to operate because of being a time-travelling death god allow him to hold both beliefs simultaneously, and his ability to do that is also a sign of a really strong...faith in people, in a way. Faith that they'll make the right decisions if he gives them the chance and the circumstances to. (Note, though, that "right decision" is slippery since history still has to happen...)
I ACTUALLY...DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH SENSE THAT MADE feel free to ask followup questions. But I am going to ask about Jill's thoughts on Narnia and Aslan.
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Right. Talking about this question requires talking about canon!Marethyu, who is alternate!future!Josh before I get to current!Josh, because Marethyu is the one who actually did that stuff as opposed to facing the prospect of doing it. And although a lot of stuff about Marethyu is extrapolation, I think there's a lot of evidence that he really did value free will; that he believed in freedom of choice. He gave people choices almost always, even when his power would have let him choose differently. Often he knew the probable outcome of those choices, yeah -- but he didn't try to force them except in one or two instances (getting everyone back to help the twins hold off the army of anpu being the one that sticks out). He definitely far preferred to work with, if not actually revealing all his information, at least some degree of informed choice; he told people things he definitely didn't have to so that they would be able to make that kind of choice. And Abraham, his close collaborator, was of like mind -- all the messages he left were basically "you have a choice coming up and it's big, I trust you to make the right one".
Obviously there is some tension between a belief in self-determination and the careful timeline-pruning in which he found himself engaged! I think he resolved that by having faith in people making the right choices given the right circumstances in which to make them, and setting himself up to a) create those circumstances and b) make sure other people *coughISIScoughOSIRIScough* couldn't arrange circumstances to their liking. He interfered a LOT but in general he didn't compel people to do things, he taught them things or gave them things or protected them, and then left it up to them to decide what to do.
So then we turn to Josh, who is the inheritor of this whole mess. Aather has really only strengthened his belief in self-determination, but I think he will still recognize the necessity to set up circumstances that favor the results he wants. (I mean, he definitely will, otherwise he might paradox himself out of existence, but whatever, time travel is complicated.) He's not really at that point yet, but the distinction between manipulating people and manipulating circumstances is going to be important, I think. (I mean, sometimes manipulating circumstances means manipulating people...it's kind of a complicated tangle.) But basically, the way in which he operates and in which he's free to operate because of being a time-travelling death god allow him to hold both beliefs simultaneously, and his ability to do that is also a sign of a really strong...faith in people, in a way. Faith that they'll make the right decisions if he gives them the chance and the circumstances to. (Note, though, that "right decision" is slippery since history still has to happen...)
I ACTUALLY...DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH SENSE THAT MADE feel free to ask followup questions. But I am going to ask about Jill's thoughts on Narnia and Aslan.