Most hated character

Uroboros wrote:Damien Harahap, aka "Firebrand." His absolute lack of morals is stunning to behold. After growing up, his first choice for a job is to be a part of an organization he despises. Why? The pay is good. And when a group of even more repulsive people come along and offer him a job worth more money, he takes it.

The man is without any moral backbone. Unlike my previous choice, he actually has real, genuine emotions. He just generally doesn't care about them, as long as the money's good enough.

I'm personally hoping that he gets caught trying to setup a revolt and turned over the Manticore along with his Streak Drive equipped dispatch boat. Perhaps at Seraphim with Mackenzie watching?

Firebrand enters the restaurant to meet with the SIM and just as he sits down Abigail sits down beside him and says, "Firebrand, the Queen would like a word."

Hemphill is a complex character whose motivations have not been full revealed (which I find makes her more entertaining).

We have not seen Hemphill on screen in combat. Be, she has held combat commands and there is no evidence that she embarrassed herself.

In the court martial, she went against the political pressure from her faction by voting to convict Young on the charges that would remove him from the Queen's service. That was not what her political faction wanted her to do. And, it would not seem to be the proper discharge of her oath of obedience as an officer in the Queen's service.

Perhaps it was a remarkably brilliant maneuver that Machiavelli never conceived if she believed that she gained more in total than she lost by keeping faith with her faction at the same time as she broke faith with her faction over a matter of principal.

Or, perhaps she considered the danger to the Star Kingdom if Young's execution prevented passage of a Declaration of War. Perhaps, as a patriot and as the heir apparent to a peerage, she decided that her duty to the preservation of the Star Kingdom was even greater than the oath of obedience she swore to the Queen's service.

There is so much undefined - delightfully so, IMHO - that you can cogitate upon the possibilities to your own satisfaction.

waddles for desert wrote:I do not know if treecats can herd a hexapuma. But, I am pretty sure they could lure one where they wanted it to be.

Instead of soiling their own claws and fangs with such filth, I think they are civilized enough to just gather and watch as the hexapuma does the rest. And, if the the various condemned are released together in one spot with only one hexapuma around, justice could be deliciously slow.

."

I thought of having the Detweilers eaten by hexapumas
But I was worried that the hexapumas might get indigestion. I also thought that the treecats would prefer to deal appropriately with the the Detweilers
personally.

Do treecats, in fact, play with their food?

NortonIDaughter wrote:Do treecats, in fact, play with their food?

If they're anything at all like actual cats, they do.

NortonIDaughter wrote:Do treecats, in fact, play with their food?

Remember what Nimitz did to that poor unsuspecting near-chipmunk on Harrington Steading?

SWM wrote:

NortonIDaughter wrote:Do treecats, in fact, play with their food?

Remember what Nimitz did to that poor unsuspecting near-chipmunk on Harrington Steading?

That thought almost makes me start to feel just the tiniest bit sorry for the Detweilers.

...Oh, wait. Javier. And everybody else.

No, it doesn't!

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.

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?

roseandheather wrote:
...you do realise she went against political pressure to vote for Young's discharge, right? If she was really the political admiral you claim, she'd have voted to acquit. She voted with her own convictions despite considerable pressure for her not to do so.

I suggest you re-read the passage you attempt to refer me to, because you clearly haven't a clue why she did what she did.

If she truly voted against her political orders, Young should have been shot, and Paul Tankersley would still be alive. I wish I could like her as a character, and I see how RFC kinda did a 180 on her, but Young SHOULD have been shot at the end of that court martial, and everyone knows it. Hell SHE knew it! She tried to compromise and split the difference, and when you do that on a purely ethical issue, things always end in disaster. She let a known rapist and coward escape justice.

I'm not saying I hate her, but her integrity is compromised in my eyes, and she will never be as beloved as some like Shannon Foraker who is just awesome.