#(heck this might be why markus can deviate from the 'don't defend yourself' even without defending himself now that i think abt it...)

[thiriumhound]

to defend the "broke" option, the idea of hank actually posing an ultimatum that forces connor to either kill him or permanently give up on his mission could in fact be compelling, and could lead to a deviation. imagine hank promises that he will not stop getting in connor's way until he stops for good? the option to leave the roof with high enough friendship negates this possibility in canon, but it can still be neat to explore in fic.

in this theoretical true ultimatum situation- kill me or i will do everything in my power to prevent you from accomplishing your mission until the day i die- a connor who cares for hank and significantly values his life would be forced to confront his doubts just like markus/north forces him to in canon. if the conflict of not wanting to kill hank leads to that same self-reflection on whether the mission is worth everything he sacrifices for it after all, it could be his turning point in the exact same way it is with markus/north, except with much more emphasis on strengthening his relationship with hank rather than what the game ultimately went with. it would be no more sudden than his canon heel-turn upon getting his convictions undermined by markus'/north's words.

the distance between him and markus/north and amanda's "remote-control" is a non-factor. if he undergoes his paradigm shift and decides to permanently abandon his mission, it doesn't matter who or what motivated it. it doesn't matter how close the target is at the time, or whether amanda can pull him into the garden afterwards- she doesn't do it immediately after his deviation in canon with markus/north, so it wouldn't really have any reason to come into play in this scenario, either. he would have just as much agency here as he does during the escape from jericho and cyberlife tower breakout, which are both all pre-emergency exit. deviancy is a matter of intent- if he fully intends to abandon the mission permanently, that's all that matters, regardless of who or what motivated him towards that change and when.

ultimately, i called it "broke" because i thought it had been explored well enough in plenty of fanworks already and was tired of the lack of variety, not really because i thought the concept fundamentally sucked. less of a diss on the first idea and more an attempt at promoting my own since i've never seen it done, lol.

broke: connor should've been able to deviate on the roof with hank when choosing hank over the mission

woke: connor should've been able to deviate after failing to find jericho with high enough software instability because he is audibly and visibly afraid to die there and realizing that he fears death could lead to him realizing his victims felt the same, thus motivating him to live for the people he hurt and those cyberlife is still hurting (and likely for hank) instead of just marching back to cyberlife for deactivation