[ It means that some things -- lifestyles, histories, deeds -- go beyond choice. Beyond the desire to change. They carry such an amplitude, such a terrible plangency, that they become your very nature, blotting out anything else you do. Hei may believe in the essential freedoms of choice and self-determination. He may function on a balancing act of debts repaid versus favors owed. But he knows some atrocities are so far-reaching that nothing you do will make up for them. ]
[ The most he can manage is to protect those close to him. To do everything in his power to ensure their lives aren't wasted -- or flung into the murk -- the way his own was. ]
[ At her question, he makes a small, exasperated sound, thumping the heel of his hand against the sandy floorboards. But the brief burst of irritation fades as fast as it blooms. When he speaks, his voice is both tired and gentle. ]
Have you ever seen a bunch of dead bodies after a war, Korra? Good men. Criminals. All stacked up after a battle?
[ It's not as much of a non-sequitur as it seems. There's something he needs to explain to her. Something she -- in her all-encompassing innocence, her penchant for thinking only in contrasts of black and white -- is blind to. ]
no subject
[ The most he can manage is to protect those close to him. To do everything in his power to ensure their lives aren't wasted -- or flung into the murk -- the way his own was. ]
[ At her question, he makes a small, exasperated sound, thumping the heel of his hand against the sandy floorboards. But the brief burst of irritation fades as fast as it blooms. When he speaks, his voice is both tired and gentle. ]
Have you ever seen a bunch of dead bodies after a war, Korra? Good men. Criminals. All stacked up after a battle?
[ It's not as much of a non-sequitur as it seems. There's something he needs to explain to her. Something she -- in her all-encompassing innocence, her penchant for thinking only in contrasts of black and white -- is blind to. ]