[UA] Your Alex Abel.

[Gregory Paul Stolze]

At 12:39 PM 2/23/99 EST, Michael D. Mearls 97 wrote:

>This is where my Alex veers off in my weird, parallel game universe. I'm
>playing up his rage impulse a lot, I see a guy there who hates to lose and
who
>is a total control freak. I see Alex as a guy who is fanatical about himself,
>who's convinced that he and he alone knows what's good for us, and he's going
>to give us what's good for us whether we like it or not. That leaves a huge
>potential for evil, simply because no one on Earth is truly good, just as
there
>is no absolute evil. Murder, bribery, etc are all cool as long as it supports
>the cause. The cause is all that matters, the organization is bigger than any
>single human life. The morally righteous move is very, very rarely the
>expedient and effecient move.

All perfectly in keeping with the way he'll be presented.  

Another factor to consider is that one of Abel's strengths (his ability to
organize and delegate authority*) is also a weakness, because he's
surrounded himself with underlings who are both more efficient and more
ruthless than he is.  One of the lines from LGM is "Abel himself would
never order his people to lean on an enemy's family, but many of his
underlings aren't so squeamish.  Tex Chang, for example, could grease
someone's wife and then go out for ribs."

*I firmly believe that you can't micromanage success - only failure.  

-G.
1899 Phrenologist: Your son has the sloping forehead of a sexual deviant:
better put him in an asylum.
1999 Gene Therapist: Your fetus has the "date rape" gene.  Better abort.