Theory: Wayne and murder under the influence of emotional allomancy

[Numuhuku]

One of the things about Wayne's backstory that always seemed amiss to me was how Wax saved him from hanging for the murder of the bookkeeper. As remorseful and broken by the crime as Wayne obviously was, it doesn't seem like that would save someone from punishment in a place like the Roughs. But the Shadow's of self prologue clearly shows Wayne traveling with Wax as a free man not too long after they met, and obviously not outlaws on the run. Obviously, there must have been some *greatly* mitigating circumstances to get Wayne off the hook (at least legally) for murder.

 

 

 

 

The mentions in Shadows of Self of how serious a crime abuse of emotional allomancy got me thinking. And something to that extent is about the only way I could see Wayne off for murder the way he did. He clearly had the criminal intent to commit armed robbery, so by most reasoning he should be held responsible for any deaths that occurred due to that criminal act. The only way I could see Wax 'rescuing' Wayne from the gallows in that situation would be if he could somehow prove that a 3rd party were the ones who had planted the criminal intent in Wayne's mind by unnatural means. This might not entirely make Wayne faultless, but it might just have been enough to keep him from being hanged.

 

 

Naturally this is mostly just speculation of course, until we get a new information about the specific incident.

 

 

 

 

[DreamEternal]

You must understand there isn't much in the way of formal law in the Roughs. Perhaps he was indeed a criminal in the run in the lands overseen by the lawman that wanted to hang him, but while he was under Wax's protection and commited no crimes, he was as good as innocent from the point of view of the Roughs, wich in pratice only means "not important enough to be worth the trouble killing".

Edited November 26, 2015 by CognitivePulsePattern

[Numuhuku]

You must understand there isn't much in the way of formal law in the Roughs. Perhaps he was indeed a criminal in the run in the lands overseen by the lawman that wanted to hang him, but while he was under Wax's protection and commited no crimes, he was as good as innocent from the point of view of the Roughs, wich in pratice only means "not important enough to be worth the trouble killing".

Except there was a trial conducted by the lawman who wanted to hang Wayne. They even brought the family of the book keeper, who was a very well regarded figure in the community. There also wasn't really any ambiguity over whether or not Wayne had physically performed the act in question. Naturally this is just speculation on my part, but I'm not seeing a whole lot of ways that Wax could have gotten Wayne out of that situation while still operating in the boundaries of a lawman.

 

 

I can't see Wax, with his initially limited reputation, being very successful in persuading the very irritated community they shouldn't hang a 'punk murderer'.

Edited November 27, 2015 by Numuhuku

[Kaymyth]

I could see Wax managing to convince Jon Deadfinger to remand him into his custody.  Wax was apprenticing under that lawkeeper at the time; presumably there would have been some precedent for Deadfinger to trust Wax's instincts.  Plus, if emotional Allomancy had been a known quantity, that would have tempered Wayne's development considerably.  He never says anything about being manipulated into it, and manifests symptoms of full-blown PTSD.

 

Now, that's not to say that the theory is completely without merit, that one of Wayne's idiot friends was a Rioter and messed with him during the job, but if it happened, Wax and Wayne don't know it.  Wayne wouldn't be carrying nearly that amount of guilt around with him if he did.

[Numuhuku]

 

I could see Wax managing to convince Jon Deadfinger to remand him into his custody.  Wax was apprenticing under that lawkeeper at the time; presumably there would have been some precedent for Deadfinger to trust Wax's instincts.  Plus, if emotional Allomancy had been a known quantity, that would have tempered Wayne's development considerably.  He never says anything about being manipulated into it, and manifests symptoms of full-blown PTSD.

 

Now, that's not to say that the theory is completely without merit, that one of Wayne's idiot friends was a Rioter and messed with him during the job, but if it happened, Wax and Wayne don't know it.  Wayne wouldn't be carrying nearly that amount of guilt around with him if he did.

Well that depends on whether you view emotional allomancy as being merely a boost to ones persuasive powers, or a more insidious form of mind control. Most of what we see in the series suggests the former, since it's extremely hard to covertly make someone do something that they didn't already have some inclination towards. As an Allomancer himself (albeit not an emotional one, but very good at psychological manipulation), Wayne might not be so likely to ascribe to popular hysteria of rioting/soothing being like mind control that absolves him of responsibility. Then there's the fact he'd still remember being the one who pulled the trigger. A conscious rationalization wouldn't really do anything to put an inherently moral person like Wayne at ease, and I think he'd consider playing up the manipulation angle cowardly.

 

 

Admittedly I don't know if this would be the best way to have had it happened. I'm just not sure that I picture the law in the roughs as being "quite" so informal that lawmen would sentence known murderers to community service.

[Blackhoof]

Perhaps Bands of Mourning will reveal the details of how Wayne got off? I think it highly likely.