Commander's discretion also has its limits. Also, when you are asked to perform a duty only 8 hours after a FDP of 30 hours, it's nowhere near any limitations in the world. Or when you're asked to do 2 New York- Athens round trip with 10 hours rest between each leg because some idiot forgot that a crew visa is required to enter the US and haven't checked if the pilots were holding one, this can only happen with Air Atlanta.
I have to say that I enjoyed working one one contract: KL