Uroboros wrote:It's easy to understand why Sonja Hemphill is disliked.
She's quite headstrong, with very few social barriers. However, you can see how she's mellowed from House of Steel, and she did visibly split with the High Ridge government in War of Honor, despite nominally considering herself a conservative.
She's one of the most complex ancillary characters, too. She is one of those people who seems to have a strong opinion on any subject that comes her way.
As for the court in question? I have a lot of respect for her for breaking the way she did. In her case, I do not think it was entirely political pressure. I think that it was one of the few times in the series she was utterly unsure of her own opinion. She's quiet all throughout the deliberations, until she finally speaks up at the end.
At one point, she has her convictions that the Conservative Association truly shares her values. Up until this point, she had no reason to doubt this. Until she is told unequivocally to vote a certain way in the case of Young. I'll leave you to imagine how the conversation between High Ridge and Hemphill went.
And then you have Young, who is completely guilty of all charges. He's killed hundreds of officers, possibly more, by his cowardly act. His entire defense lies on a technicality. She knows this. And, she probably expects her Conservative buddies on the panel to realize this as well. Except they swallow that line, and back it to the hilt.
For one of the first times in her life, she's got to be wrong. But what could she be wrong about? You see how quiet she is during the deliberations, which is utterly unlike the headstrong, abrasive, and vocal woman we've seen (and heard about) up to this point.
And then she offers a compromise. Sonja, who is about as undiplomatic an officer as you can get, does something completely out of her character.
And, past that? We see that she makes a break with her party, slowly. She is one of the most prominent and highest ranked openly Conservative Admirals, and she criticizes the Admiralty openly, and is benched along with the rest of them, albeit voluntarily. She agrees to come back as Fourth Space Lord.
I think she made her choice on who was wrong. The Young trial was a major tipping point for her character, and I think what happened after they refused to execute him had a huge impact on her future as a character.
...I could bloody well
kiss you.
Okay, I'm mostly kidding on that, but this is the most eloquent explanation of why I love Sonja Hemphill that I've ever seen.
Hers is a somewhat abrasive personality at times, and her social skills are a bit limited. She reads to me to be the kind of person who is either intensely liked or intensely disliked; there isn't middle ground. Her character doesn't leave room for apathy.
And yes, she doesn't deal well with people, and she
definitely doesn't deal well with being unsure of herself. But look at her with Michelle Henke in
Storm From the Shadows; she
can be sweet, enthusiastic, and genuinely a pleasure to be around.
I think she's someone who responds to hostility with hostility - rather like me, in a way. If she gets the sense that someone doesn't like her for some reason, that'll put her back up and she'll be at best cool and at worst downright abrasive.
But when she's in a room with people who
like her, who respect her and are willing to listen, then she lights up like a Christmas tree, and suddenly she's this warm, wonderful, witty human being.
...I like Sonja a bit, can you tell?