My reply to the latest post in that discussion...
Klaus has to deal with the fact that by the very nature of the Spark -- that it inevitably concentrates the reins of power *in the hands of people who are congenitally prone to madness* -- Europa is inherently doomed to balkanization, war, and mass death. His own iron-fisted conquest of Europa is only a temporary stopgap solution, as it requires him to be alive to maintain the political stability of Europa and his /Pax Wulfenbach/ over all the other Sparks, from day to day.While he does try to do the best he can for the common people of Europa, he also dissects the brains of fellow Sparks when he gets the free time. He almost did it to Othar and he strongly implied that he had done it many times previous to that occasion.
So, what's Klaus supposed to do for a long-term strategy? What are his possible solutions here?
a) Raise and train an heir who can provide at least one more generation of stability after he dies.
He is already doing this, witness Gilgamesh. But since this is only delaying the inevitable collapse of society back into war, war, war again, not permanently preventing it, he has to try something else in addition to. Perhaps:
b) Note that since it is possible if extremely, extremely rare to have sane and stable sparks (Bill & Barry Heterodyne, himself, and Gilgamesh), to try and reproduce the conditions that created such people, notably, proper upbringing of young Sparks with careful attention paid to their psychological development.
You did notice that his 'hostages' of the various rulers of Europa are a cross-section of their brightest Spark children? And that Klaus is trying to raise them to be ethical and restrained in the use of their power, and to suppress their natural Madboy/Madgirl urges?
But even this isn't enough to be sure of success, so in addition, there's also...
c) Find out just exactly what the Spark /is/, to see if its possible to debug it.
And that is what he is doing with the research on Othar and the other Sparks you mentioned. Who are, BTW, mass murdering psychopaths all of them (yes, even the janitor with the dolls. Witness what they say about his career /before/ he was lobotomized), so I really can't find my heart bleeding for them. Sure, they're being kept alive for medical experiments, but given that they'd all have been *executed* if they weren't needed for this project, its not like Klaus is being Europa's version of Sylar here. Klaus isn't doing this because he gets his jollies eating brains. Klaus is doing this because *he is trying to find a way to cure Spark insanity*.
Because, y'know, there's only two known ways at present to stop an insane Spark on the rampage from being an insane Spark on the rampage, and that's to either kill them or lobotomize them into vegetables. Both of which Klaus has done before, and will do again as often as need be. But he doesn't actually enjoy doing it, and would love to have a less destructive alternative. Except that there isn't one. Which is why he's trying to invent one...
If somebody actually did find a way to either harmlessly remove the Spark from people who had gone totally insane with it, or even better, maybe find and debug the flaw in the Spark that produces such a strong tendency towards insanity in the first place... well, then, the world could finally come out of the Dark Ages.
As for Agatha's being on the run from the ruler of Europa, yes, she is. But she is in that situation because of her own choices, not because Klaus left her with no choice.
She didn't *have* to refuse Gilgamesh's offer. She didn't *have* to run away from Castle Wulfenbach. She didn't have to consistently misinterpret every one of Klaus' actions as 'proof' of a hostile intent he didn't have at that time, and build him up in her mind into some kind of cartoon villain desperately chasing after her. Because Klaus was hardly going to going to kill his best friend's daughter or lock her in an oubliette for life, he simply didn't want her charging around Europa kicking over the political situation out of random ignorance. Which, y'know, puts her on the same level as every other Spark prince and princess in Europa, as witness how he treats them. So again, I have no sympathy for her as regards this. No matter what she was told, the woman is supposed to have eyes and a brain... just looking at how Klaus treats the students of his 'Spark school' should have told her that he actually would have given her a fair shake.
Klaus doesn't actually become Agatha's mortal enemy until after the Other, in her body, monologues /directly into his face/ as to who she is, where he is, and what she intends. Note here that even after Klaus has received what would appear to be conclusive evidence that Agatha is the Other, he still refuses to condemn her to death without finding out for 100% certain first. This is not a villain's act here, its a hero's. Because if Klaus were an evil man, there is no way he'd have not skipped straight to "shoot on sight" the instant that Agatha appeared to be a major threat. Instead, his current decision to put her in the ground is precipitated only by the Other actually slapping him in the damn face with a slaver wasp while in Agatha's body. Hell, Klaus' current condition is due only to the fact that he actually /did/ try to act decently: had he simply had Agatha shot on sight, or napalmed the town, right now he'd be perfectly fine. But that would have involved murdering innocents, or possible innocents... and so he did not.
Sure, Klaus is out to kill her /now/ -- what other choice does he have? As far as he can possibly know, Agatha is *still* dominated by the Other, and more importantly, either Agatha /or/ the Other can /take control of Klaus' mind the next time they speak to him/. He only currently possesses freedom of action from the slaver wasp because outside of one standing order ('do not tell anyone you're wasped'), the Other didn't have time to give him commands. So Klaus is now in a position where he cannot even safely speak to Agatha without the dire, and very real, risk that he will give the Other the keys to conquering Europa on a silver platter -- not to mention making himself her mind-slave for life, a horrific fate and a half. Negotiation is thus impossible. He's got to either put Agatha down or accept that he's a dead man, and if he falls, Europa burns. *This* is how far he has to be driven before he finally tries to kill Agatha, and only then. So seriously, 'Klaus as villain' makes no sense as a theory: if he were actually the villain, Agatha wouldn't have lived remotely this long. Its only very recently that her life *hasn't* been in a position where he could snuff it out with casual effort.