Arawn gave his oath freely to a known quantity, then broke them with the help of one of the people he was supposed to hunt.
That is actually arguable. He was clearly under long term duress when giving his oaths.
3)He could have passed the Mantle down to another Ankou.
We don't know that and, from what I understand, that's not how mantles normally work. Otherwise Molly wouldn't be a winter lady in canon.
2)Its not slavery, its recruitment. Mab is definitely applying pressure, but she isnt compelling obedience.
No, it's very much selling yourself into slavery. Like being a
janissary.
1)Thats false.
Mab does not do magical mind control, and has no use for agents without free will.
If any of this statement was true, Arawn would not have been able to accept a bribe from Kemmler, and we would not be here.
She does regular "mental reconditioning through prolonged torture", however. See Leanansidhe. And yes, extenuating circumstances, but point is, Mab is absolutely capable of brainwashing people through various means, like extended psychological and physical torture, gaslighting, threats, inducing Stockholm syndrome, etc. One also has to remember that the mantle themselves have mind-affecting effects on their users, and Lydia is a teenager. And Mab is explicitely interested in "molding her to her whims".
Look, I understand that you think Mab is necessary, and that she's a hard woman making hard decisions in a hard situation, and that ultimately she's on the side of good. I can even agree to some of it. But from everything we were told IC and OOC, Mab is very much interested in making Lydia's life miserable at least for a long time, if not forever, and the condition for stopping the misery is "being Mab's perfectly loyal servant forever". That's slavery. Mab has reasons extending well beyond Arawn and Lydia to want to make Lydia her loyal slave after publicly and visibly making her suffer. But she's still going to make her suffer.
You have a lot more faith in Solars than I do. As far as I can see the exaltations support being Classical Greek heroes, not moral paragons. Releasing the celestial exalted is basically the same as giving hundreds of random people fantastic cosmic power and hoping god can sort it out.
That's the difference in our perspective; I don't see the Solars as inherently on humanity's side just because they're human.
Empowering humanity would be good, empowering god-kings who'll break the world fighting over it wouldn't be.
As I said, I disagree. Solar exaltations go to heroes, yes. Heroes who might have tempers, who might become tyrants, but heroes who are slayers of monsters. Who will push back against the darkness, who will slay monsters and do heroic deeds. Solars are inherently human, and they are on their own side. So, yes, they are, at least in part, on humanity's side.
Also, not a hundred random people. A hundred best and brightest random people.
Also, it's notable that canon ExvsWod solar literally had "find others, save the world" told to him by the long-past spirit of Sol Invictus as he exalted, and is following that motivation. Together with his Sidereal guide to boot.
