Let me be clearer about what I’m saying then.
“Players: there’s literally nothing we can accomplish in this upcoming scene”. This is false. There are things we can do. However, it feels like there’s one very uphill component that’s going to complicate the rest of what we want to accomplish.
“Me: actually, I believe there are legitimate interpretations of the rules as written that, in the narrative presented, give you options.” If you change what “defeat” seems to mean from what the text of the book seems to spell out, then yes. To me this is not a problem for you, but a problem with the wording of Honor-Bound, and I wish the game designers had given this more thought.
I’m going to leave this alone and see what happens Monday.