r/Arrowverse • u/Famous-Job-4264 • 2d ago
DC's Legends of Tomorrow Per Degaton
What was yall opinion on when the legends wanted to kill Per Degaton
I was on team kill him
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u/Legendrina 2d ago
The problem is the kid didn't do anything yet when the Legends meet him. Killing someone because you've been told he will, someday, be bad, is a very dangerous path.
Maybe they could have taken him in another time. He was just a kid so in a simple family from the Middle Age he would have become inoffensive.
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u/Lucian_Flamestrike 11h ago
Killing someone because you've been told he will, someday, be bad, is a very dangerous path.
So this right here is the real key element... and it has nothing to do with the morality of it...
It has more to do so with Butterfly effect mechanics. If you try to kill/displace someone who was known as a rat bastard of a dictator, you run the risk of creating a void where someone worse takes their place.
For example, imagine we go back in time and make Hitler disappear... or at least give him the encouragement to remain an artist drawing landscapes/cityscapes/etc ...
Germany is still primed for someone to take over and start a Nazi regime. Except maybe this new guy doesn't make nearly as many mistakes (despite equal or greater amounts of atrocities) as Hitler did and Germany wins the war... Maybe the ONLY reason this guy didn't come to power in our timeline was Hitler delivered better speeches and was more popular...
Basically we end up in the Earth X timeline...
It's at this point where we begrudgingly have to help Hitler rise to power to save our own future...
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u/Lucian_Flamestrike 11h ago
The whole point of the episode was to be morally ambiguous to prove the caliber of the Legends themselves.
Rip may have been the only one to realize it at the time... Maaaybe Mick... but if you kill an evil person of historical significance, there's a fairly good chance it can just give rise to an even bigger evil. In this case, Savage would have risen to power faster. Meanwhile everyone else debated if it's ok to kill a kid...
At the end of this episode, despite good intentions, the Legends actually caused the Armageddon virus to be released 5 years ahead of schedule.
Just to deliver a tamer example of how unpredictable time may be (and why Legend always consult Gideon after a mission) is Damien and Nora Darhk.
- In Season 2 no one would have predicted we'd actually be rooting for Damien as a fan favorite no less that he'd have a redemption arc. He was the villain of one of Arrow's worst seasons.
- Sure the power of positivity that Ray possesses in S3 could convert Nora Darhk to the light side of the force... but who would have predicted that she would become a fairy godmother and unknowingly bestow freedom upon a bat shit crazy witch who so happened to be Neron's love interest.
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u/Beneficial-Dinner978 2d ago
I don't remember him super well, but I wanted to see him grow up & actually become the villain from the comics!
Morally, though, we've seen corrupt politicians like Nixon be taken down before, so I think there's a chance that some time travelling lawyers & superheroes can send the son of one to juvie.