Sunday, 21 August 2022

Hans Molitor

Hans Molitor:

was born to colonial bourgeois parents on Germania;

had several years of wild adventure in space;

enlisted in the Terran Navy;

rose through the ranks by ability alone;

was a hero of the battle of Syrax;

was proclaimed Emperor by his personnel in the succession crisis;

is a shrewd, uncultured pragmatist;

leads an armada to quell the barbarians in Sector Spica;

will be succeeded by dull Dietrich, then by scheming Gerhart, although he would have preferred dead Otto.

When Flandry sees Hans glance at the picture of Otto, he almost reads the Emperor's mind: a Sherlock Homes stunt.

When we read in the Chronology that Hans is succeeded by Dietrich who is succeeded by Gerhart, we might ask, "Why do such details matter?" But every character does matter. In fact, did Gerhart murder Hans, then Dietrich?

1 comment:

S.M. Stirling said...

BTW, Hans is Septimius Severeus, more or less, and his sons are Caracalla and Geta.