Filareta's missles -- why??

Donnachaidh wrote:

Joat42 wrote:The villain never sees him/her-self as the villain, it's just that everyone else doesn't understand his/her vision.

Gul Dukat in Star Trek Deep Space Nine is one of my favorite examples of that.

Adolf Hitler is mine.

I think the MAlign was counting on the turkeys to get a few gobbles in.

Donnachaidh wrote:

Joat42 wrote:The villain never sees him/her-self as the villain, it's just that everyone else doesn't understand his/her vision.

Gul Dukat in Star Trek Deep Space Nine is one of my favorite examples of that.

Though he's also one of a long line of characters that Hollywood decided ruthless, selfish, and with an agenda contrary to the heroes of the story wasn't bad enough. They had to make them mustache-twirling Eeevil (Winn got this treatment, too).

By the time we get to Albrecht it is no longer about "being right" or demonstrating the fact. Beowulf is to be isolated, stripped of any possible allies then destroyes. One only assumes planetary bombardment until it is a cue ball devoid of even the possibility of ever again sustaining life.

First Manticore, then the Solaran League,then Haven,then, finally, Beowulf. The point of giving Filareta those missiles was to, hopefully winnow some of the remaining RMN fleet, making it easier for Haven to finish them off. That was the stated plan. Who knew that Pritchard would pull a Harrington and show up at Trevor's Star waving a flag of truce? Albrecht and clone/child whichever certainly didn't. Which, of course scuttled that 100 year plan.

pappilon wrote:By the time we get to Albrecht it is no longer about "being right" or demonstrating the fact. Beowulf is to be isolated, stripped of any possible allies then destroyes. One only assumes planetary bombardment until it is a cue ball devoid of even the possibility of ever again sustaining life.

The MA is perfectly capable of doing that itself. It's so much more fitting if it's the SL, which Beowulf basically created, that does them in. /Twirls mustache

The really ironic thing is if the MA plan becomes known and they managed to force their "uplift" on unwilling populations when/if they eventually fail and lose it is going to cause a huge backlash vs genetic uplifting and modifications that would undo the basic victory that detwiler defacto already won. It could lead again to a huge negative impact vs genies of various sorts causing a stronger and more calcified beowulfian code because a lot of the purists are going to point and say SEE WE TOLD YOU SO and they would at some level be right.


It is just more proof that because people are terrible we can't have nice things.

kaid wrote:The really ironic thing is if the MA plan becomes known and they managed to force their "uplift" on unwilling populations when/if they eventually fail and lose it is going to cause a huge backlash vs genetic uplifting and modifications that would undo the basic victory that detwiler defacto already won. It could lead again to a huge negative impact vs genies of various sorts causing a stronger and more calcified beowulfian code because a lot of the purists are going to point and say SEE WE TOLD YOU SO and they would at some level be right.


It is just more proof that because people are terrible we can't have nice things.

One can only hope that that is the ultimate victory in the Honorverse. I like nice things, just never had any.

Dilandu wrote:One difference. Without long-range missiles, his attack would look so stupid, that even Mandarins would suspect something.

And they don't now?? They know he fired a totally unreasonable missile storm and then they learned Manticore's claims of mental control were true from the assassination of Rampanjet.

runsforcelery wrote:They are, in effect, a totalitarian state which justifies its existence by claiming to pursue a noble goal without recognizing — or, at least, admitting — that that “noble goal” has become solely a justification for its own continued existence.

They certainly wouldn't be the only organization whose purpose became the organization rather than the original objective of the organization. As the situation changes they become more and more focused on the stated goal even when that's no longer the proper objective. (For example, look at all the antidiscrimination organizations that fail to see that what they should be doing now is looking for what's really holding people back rather than becoming ever more obsessive in pursuing a fight that is for all practical purposes won.)

pappilon wrote:First Manticore, then the Solaran League,then Haven,then, finally, Beowulf. The point of giving Filareta those missiles was to, hopefully winnow some of the remaining RMN fleet, making it easier for Haven to finish them off. That was the stated plan. Who knew that Pritchard would pull a Harrington and show up at Trevor's Star waving a flag of truce? Albrecht and clone/child whichever certainly didn't. Which, of course scuttled that 100 year plan.

The only reason to bring the Havenites to the battle was to convince him of the total helplessness of the situation. They already had extreme overkill, they didn't need the Havenite forces to win.