utilitycaster answered:
Yeah but I disagree. I think the “good boy” was condescending and patronizing, but that’s par for the course for what we’ve seen of her, and I don’t see any reason why she wouldn’t honor her word and say that this counted as the remainder of Ashton’s debt. Ashton’s summation of her has always been that she’s not a good person but she keeps her promises, and that’s why they respect her. It’s actually a very simple and straightforward relationship they have, and I’m sure there’s room for things to go bad if someone, say, brings up the information that they took from Evon about her or goes poking into it, but as is? I think they’ll get their reward and Ashton will be freed from their debt and can comfortably leave town, finally, and she may pop up much further down the line what with the stolen construct and the mysterious boxes but if the party leaves things alone there won’t be any immediate complications.
If I may: a lot of people have overlaid some completely fabricated morality onto Ashton that simply doesn’t exist, and additionally fall into the trap of thinking that, because we know Ashton is a hero of this story, everyone who has caused them harm is bad and wrong, and that’s just…not correct, and I’m not sure if that’s what led you to this question, but I have a hunch it might be.
Ashton is very morally neutral. He outright mistrusts people who do things for the greater good, he’s willing to give up Fresh Cut Grass and Krook House to the Corsairs, he doesn’t really care if the Verdict get hurt and he definitely wants to win, but he doesn’t want them to die either. Like, I feel like people zeroed in on the “don’t steal copper” thing as some kind of grand sense of goodness and justice and forgot that they’re still stealing gold. There is an underlying sense of “what’s in it for me, and also what’s in it for you.”
I’ve talked about this before but Ashton is interested in people playing by the rules, but the rules…are what they are, and he doesn’t challenge or question them. Jiana plays by the rules: the Nobodies stole her property so she retaliated (and for what it’s worth the most recent episode makes it unclear if Jiana retaliated, or if the box blew up and she just happened to be present). The Nobodies play by the rules: you don’t let someone die in the street, but yeah, you get them to a point where hopefully they can figure it out themselves and then you run - exactly what Ashton’s approach was with stabilizing the Verdict. Evon sucks because he breaks the rules and said this was non-fatal when it very easily could be and because he’s using people for his own amusement. But Ashton also doesn’t totally trust Eshteross or the Green Seekers because they’re motivated by altruism. That’s the code, not some larger good or evil or even a sense of duty to one’s community. Like, what I’m saying is when Ashton says “I’d have done the same thing” regarding the Nobodies? I believe them 100%.
