A. No, saying he stole something from God is, in fact, a big leap from saying he stole some fruit and an angel was weird and B. This is talk show host, not 60 minutes. She was chosen because she was a low brow soft core interviewer.
He said he stole an apple, that's a crime. A miniscule crime that absolutely no one will care about, because no one knows what jurisdiction it happened in. But a crime, none the less.
Ok, I know emotions may rising and hearts worn on sleeves, but this is getting into hyperbole. Humans are really,
really good at making connections and finding the pattern. So good in fact that the usual problem is finding patterns that aren't there (faces in clouds and on mars) or connections that are interesting, but ultimately untrue (conspiracy theories), not missing an elementary 'this plus this implied that' deduction.
Anyone who thinks about it for two seconds is going to come to the conclusion that the fruit and angel was sent down from heaven to make OL repent stealing has is connected to the divine, and probably one of those special fruits originating in the Garden of Eden mentioned in the bible. I mean the logic train is so freaking short it might as well be one of those short busses ridden by disabled children. Step one, angels don't appear much anymore. And when they did, it was for religious shit of import, like 'See this cute little baby in a manger I am flapping my wings around? Yeah, he's important' or 'Congratulations, you've been chosen to spread the word of God.' Even if this was exactly what OL was implying, that he took some random unimportant apple off a street vendors stand in between Heroing gigs, I don't think hardly anyone would actually believe it, because it goes against their impulse to find a connection between the two events, and because it doesn't fit the pattern they have for Angelic visitations.
And if you want to know why God would care about a fruit, well he has a book out. Maybe check it out and see it if has anything about fruit god? I mean even if you don't like reading because 'words words
words, ugh' it is right there in the beginning. Now maybe OL could have stolen some New Testament fruit, which you never learned about because you never got that far into the book, but first chapter fruit? That is some scholarship even the most 'everything I need to know about my religion, I learned from a bored housewife in sunday school as a child' type of christian has access to.
That leads you to a few likely culprits. The Fruit of Knowledge of Good & Evil, the Fruit of Life, or some other fruit with special properties from the Garden that was never mentioned by name, and useful in making an Anti-Demon weapon . Perhaps there was a Fruit of Purity or Cleanliness? Just because the interviewer didn't ask the question out loud doesn't mean people aren't making assumptions. They may not hit 100% accuracy, but will certainly come a lot closer than 'yeah, the angel wanted to be repent for taking this totally innocuous fruit I stole, it was a complete non sequitur to me and the angel was just being weird.'
Ironically, an angel confronting OL about it seems like it would protect Paul against the actual sincerely devout religious, because it is a sign God decided to deal with this himself. Once that happens, going after Paul yourself for this can make it look like you don't approve of God's handling of the situation, and are stepping in to 'correct' his oversight. And if they do get involved, OL can even truthfully say that the angel thought he used the fruit to a Good purpose, the only problem was he took it without asking.
You keep ignoring all the points about A. There being nothing anyone outside of Themiscrya can do to impede him without him retaliating x100, and B. There's nothing they can legally do to personally attack him at all. He's not a citizen of anywhere but themiscrya, who, frankly, the US needs more than they need the US. There is no government on Earth that can touch him, legally or otherwise.
Ok, with this and other comments you are starting to get all kinds of ridiculous here. It is like you are a five year old and Paul is your father. You are getting into territory where if Paul did act like with a fraction of the extreme things you are suggesting, Paul would be both acting against his agedas (which may not even be possible for him), and putting himself on the 'to do' lists of the Guardians of the 'Universe' and the Justice League. For a really miniscule gain. The scenarios you propose are even more insane than those of the poster you are responding to by an order of magnitude.
I mean, your and
@PeliusAnar's posts, taken together, read like a how to manual for how two sides could escalate Earth 16 straight into WW3, of everyone is an idiot. Except... Paul isn't one. He would be the one to blink first. Because in this OL vs the leaders of Absolutely All the Abrahamic Faiths and Nations, they may not have leverage against him personally, but they do have hostages to use against him. He sincerely want to make the world better. And some point along this path you have plotted for him, he has to decide what leads to the greater good for the greater number of people, him being able to positively influence the majority of the nations of the world to adopt policies he supports in the long term, or him being reduced to guiding singular nations to become the DC version of Latveria? A bright shining utopia for a small percentage of the world's population, while the rest of the world sees him as a cross between a serpentine tempter and a global economic destabilizer they want nothing to do with.
... look, I know this is DC and not Marvel, but the same rule of "friends don't let friends make the Hulk angry" applies.
I'm gonna admit it, I laughed.
Don't you dare fridge Fatty and Mr Tubbs and their siblings.
I had a problem with the 'Yeah, I lost all the Praxis Demons, oops!' line also.
For all the reasons already mentioned, and because it as Zoat going against the central theme of the story, what is there was a SI, who know about all the common superhero tropes, knew they were stupid, and didn't do that. The Praxis were a self replicating von-neumann horde. All you have to do to NOT lose them all if they run into something that can destroy them, is keep one or two in reserve to replenish the ranks. He added them, didn't like the implications of them being used intelligently, and did the 'oops, lost the power up' trope to revert the status quo. In a byline no less. It was a bit insulting to read actually.
