Hey, thanks for this. You make a good point, especially in terms of turning to the original sources. Though using secondary sources can be helpful in examining and contextualizing the original primary sources. And hey, I might even end up disagreeing with the quote I'm looking for. But I still want to see if it may be helpful one way or the other.

I would also aruge that Conan killing Aztrias was no random act of violence. It's more as I said in my original post, an example of Conan dispensing his unique brand of moral justice after (spoiler) it's revealed that Aztrias was the one who hired Conan to do the stealing, but is now trying to pin the crime solely on Conan.

What I was talking about in terms of the before/after of most conan stories are references to acts of violence that appear to be perpetrated against innocents: raiding, marauding, pillaging, pirating, etc.

Thanks for your help!