Is being a pretty 15-19 year old the primary prerequisite?
I’m hesitant to give the Section 31 writers this much credit, but a recurring theme from Star Trek (especially since TNG), is the notion that people are a product of the cultures they come from, and asks the question of if they can grow beyond it.
This move showed us that Terran empire causes suffering for everyone, even for the top leaders. The system is working for nobody and yet they are all stuck within it. The system of abusing children to choose a new leader seems engineered to make sure that nobody can escape.
Georgiou, somehow, escaped. And now she’s (in her own words) “a monster with a conscious (ie: useless)” in a system that has no need for monsters. She felt useless to change the empire, and useless to do anything once she found it no longer surrounding her.
That sidesteps the question of why all of these comically evil people are okay with using this arbitrary contest to determine succession, instead of the usual route of organically murdering each other until someone emerges who is good enough at disposing of potential assassins that they keep the throne for a while?
I didn’t watch the movie, so I’m probably missing something. Did Georgiou also have to deal with a bunch of normal assassination plots after officially gaining the throne? Or are we to assume that by virtue of winning this contest, she is widely seen as too dangerous for anyone to attempt to usurp?
I think mirror Burnham and Lorka tried to depose her way back in Disco S1, but maybe I am misremembering.
I’m hung up on how utterly ridiculous the succession was portrayed.
I like Star Trek and I’m trying to find the silver lining here, but I just come up empty handed.
They did. Also, in the Guardian of Forever’s alternate timeline in season 3, mirror Burnham successfully kills Georgiou at the cost of her own life, upon which Georgiou is returned to the prime timeline.
That sidesteps the question of why all of these comically evil people are okay with using this arbitrary contest to determine succession, instead of the usual route of organically murdering each other until someone emerges who is good enough at disposing of potential assassins that they keep the throne for a while?
I’m saying they’re not ok with it, but they are trapped in the current system. It’s like, an allegory, maaan.
I didn’t watch the movie, so I’m probably missing something. Did Georgiou also have to deal with a bunch of normal assassination plots after officially gaining the throne? Or are we to assume that by virtue of winning this contest, she is widely seen as too dangerous for anyone to attempt to usurp?
Sort of the latter, which is kind of the central plot device.
The Macguffin of the story, the Godsend, was a built by Georgiou as a deterrent against anyone trying to overthrow her. She says there were always plotters and coups.
It’s very unsatisfying.
An empire overflowing with ambitious and unscrupulous climbers who have all decided to allow young Georgiou to have the crown.
Ya let’s make the unhinged evil empire very civil and obedient so our protagonist actually back into the throne instead of actively seizing it. How convenient.
Ultimately it feels like they want to have their cake and eat it too: Georgiou is the baddest bitch, but also she was just trying to survive man! She cried when she murdered her own family, under coercion and duress!
I guess I liked her better when she was bonafide evil.
I’ve always thought that the Terran Empire is inherently abusive, and that Georgiou is best used as the ultimate nature vs. nurture case study.
In that sense, I was glad to see some aspects of her younger life explored. I find this “Hunger Games”-esque concept at least more interesting than the “revenge-seeking ex-lover” part of it, which was a lot less compelling to me.
