[SPOILER] Plot Discussion Thread *Spoiler Alert*

[Fortigurn]

Humans were the source of the problem-so he was confronting the problem. I'm not saying it makes perfect sense (if I don't kill them, they'll die!), but giving his state of mind, it apparently made more sense than allowing them to exterminate themselves.

But the argument was that killing a small number of people now would save many millions later. So it wasn't as simple as 'People are the problem, let's kill all the people'. The argument actually really was 'Make pies now to prevent future global warfare'. And that makes absolutely no rational sense whatsoever, in any way. Not to even get started on 'Kill my children now to stop them dying in a future world war which I am now going to prevent with meat pies'.

The best job I can make of it is to read Mandus as hopelessly controlled by The Machine, in the same way that James Tilly Matthews believed he was controlled by a machine he called 'The Air Loom'. There are several explicit references to Matthews and the Air Loom, in Mandus' notes.

If this is my Bedlam, [the asylum in which Matthews was interred] and I am to be cast as Matthews, [John Tilly Matthews] then I will wear that mantle for the sake of my boys, and face whatever horrors lie beneath the altar.

I am a lobster, cracked, my circulation stagnated, [Matthews claimed the 'Air Loom' prevented circulation of the blood through a process he called 'Lobster-cracking'] my vital motions impeded.

If this machine is my air loom, [the name of the machine Matthews believed was being used to control and torment him] I am the overman.

I am the voice on the telephone, I am the butcher who skinned the Professor and beat God to death against the air loom.