Yo so I just read the backstory for West Indies SOA and like it makes total sense to me, that Hamilton would've gotten his dedication to his name from his father. I like how you turned it into an object for him to cling to as he advances through life. The thing about the man in the orphan home and Alex slitting his throat--I need to clarify though: is that based on like an actual story? (I really appreciate SOA in all of its glory and thank you so much for it.)
Oh- no, definitely not.
I needed a reason for Alex to feel beholden to his brother and his family one last time and then to forcibly separate himself, and for James to turn against him in some kind of feud that would explain why they went down such separate paths historically.
Alex committing murder in self-defense in a situation that James had put him in gave them both good points to argue. James taking the fall for it and putting the burden on Alex to get him freed did what I needed it to plot-wise. And, those tensions coming to blows let me have James bring up their mother again and establish a sort of judgement on Alex’s values so that Alex will always feel beholden to his family in some way, whether they’re dead or alive and no matter how much he hates feeling beholden to anyone.
It also established Alex’s character as being capable of dark things for his own survival and explained why religion and Hugh Knox’s patronage might’ve appealed to him at the time that it did.
