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This answer mentions that David Weber had planned for Honor Harrington to perish in the Battle of Manticore, a claim which is also made on Wikipedia with a little more detail:

Weber also feels that in the later books in the series, she has more in common with Admiral Horatio Nelson than Hornblower. Weber revealed in the foreword to Storm from the Shadows that it had originally been his intent to kill her off in the Battle of Manticore, thus further echoing Nelson's death (in his greatest battle, Trafalgar) and have the emerging Mesa problem be dealt with by the next generation, specifically her children. When writing At All Costs, he decided instead to keep her alive, and move the Mesan-related events up, to be her problem.

From this it seems clear enough why he'd originally intended for her to die, as a parallel to Nelson's death while winning the battle of Trafalgar. But why did he change his mind and let her survive the Battle of Manticore? Was it due to feared backlash from fans, his own fondness for the character, practical narrative imperative, or what?

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  • Something about geese and golden eggs, I presume
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 8:19

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It appears to be the result of an in-universe timeline issue caused by the short story Fanatic written by Eric Flint.

David Weber wrote an authorial note for Storm the Shadows that addresses, among other things, the reason behind Honor not being killed off:

Unfortunately -- or fortunately, depending upon your viewpoint -- Eric Flint screwed up my original timetable when he introduced the character of Victor Cachat and asked me for an enemy which Manticoran and Havenite secret agents could agree to fight as allies, despite the fact that their star nations were at war. I suggested Manpower, which worked very well for Eric's story. But, especially when I incorporated Eric's characters into the mainstream novels, and when Eric and I decided to do Crown of Slaves, it also pulled the entire storyline forward by two or three decades. Which meant I wasn't going to have time to kill Honor off and get her children grown up before the Manpower challenge hit Manticore.

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    Too fast. Well done.
    – Jontia
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 9:32
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    I also seem to recall some discussion on Baen's Bar about this question, and there was also supposedly a bit of discussion about Mrs Weber telling David point blank you are not killing off Honor Harrington. The fans weren't too happy about the idea, either, even if her exploits were becoming a bit over-the-top...
    – Jeff Zeitlin
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 10:53

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