Unification - Chapter 3 - Spoilers

[Mad Monk]

With Songa's discovery, I suspect a baby boom in about nine earth months. Given how fel works, there will be lots of pregnant ladies who can't fit in their crusader armour just when the consortium attacks.

[IdiotPaste]

I gotta say that all this "character development" has me a little worried. Fel's been strengthening the relationships that Jason has with his children, friends and family. And he's already hinted that some characters won't be appearing in future episodes. So the question is who is it going to be?

The smart money would be on Tim, after he gets Symone pregnant. Maybe an accident on the Consortium ship while he's trying to decipher their language? Or maybe he gets in the way of an assassination attempt of Jason by one of the exiles?

The other thought would be Jyslin or maybe one (or more) of his children.

Don't do it Fel! We'll need an intervention to try and talk him down from killing off some of our favorite characters.

[Hearly]

You know everyone has been caught up on the exiles for the name of it being "Unification", but what if Fel means to Imply that all the kingdoms Unify in face of the Consortium threat. and Jason becomes the Leader of the new 'UN' type government?


my 2 cents..

[ANTIcarrot]

You know everyone has been caught up on the exiles for the name of it being "Unification", but what if Fel means to Imply that all the kingdoms Unify in face of the Consortium threat. and Jason becomes the Leader of the new 'UN' type government?

Except that I get the impression that every major government has a reason to hate every other major government. And quite frankly as governments go some of them suck big hairy ones. Jason will probably not go further than trying to get them to agree that the consortium is a threat and it might be a good idea to do something about that threat. If he suggests much more than that he risks a backlash.

[dellstart]

You know everyone has been caught up on the exiles for the name of it being "Unification", but what if Fel means to Imply that all the kingdoms Unify in face of the Consortium threat. and Jason becomes the Leader of the new 'UN' type government?

Except that I get the impression that every major government has a reason to hate every other major government. And quite frankly as governments go some of them suck big hairy ones. Jason will probably not go further than trying to get them to agree that the consortium is a threat and it might be a good idea to do something about that threat. If he suggests much more than that he risks a backlash.

True true. Jason's a realist and its only the crisis that is causing all this working for the common good.That's real world Realpolitik!

[Metatrone]

Besides how boring would it be if every one got along
I've been hoping for some internal struggle to liven things up.I really thing it could be a great cloak and dagger political series if it doesn't focus exclusively on the Karinnes and got a bit POV.

[ANTIcarrot]

Besides how boring would it be if every one got along
I've been hoping for some internal struggle to liven things up.I really thing it could be a great cloak and dagger political series if it doesn't focus exclusively on the Karinnes and got a bit POV.

This is one of the reasons I harp on about Earth, it's a ready made source of character conflict. But I suspect that you'll get the same answer I got. "That's not what the story is about." Look at Fel's existing stories. They all involve a physically impressive multi-skilled non-human male character leading a motley band of mostly female non-humans to solve a major problem while the rest of the world looks on in apathetic idiocy and/or obstructs them in a number of ineffective ways. Sure there are variations, and a lot of creativity, but that's the fundamental plot he's stuck to. And good for him. It's obviously very popular.

But as a method of story writing it tends to gravitate to writing conventions like No Endor Holocaust. Such selective enforcement of consequences can make it tricky to suddenly jump into a gritty realistic subplot - like cloak and dagger politics.

[expedient]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BlakeLiberator.jpg

Kimdori Command Ship? (Blake 7 Liberator.)

[Metatrone]

Yeah, I know it's not Fel's style of writing, I just got a bit misty eyed and dreamy. I love political fantasies, they really get me going. True, he can't jump the current perspective so suddenly and drastically, but I don't really think it would be impossible either. Fel's storytelling is a bit "trough the hero's eyes", but it's not constantly introspective, the perception of the world is not affected by the character, it's kinda realistic, relatively speaking, of course. And I didn't mean in the same series necessarily. But a 10 years later with a young Rand and Kyri ould be interesting.

[dellstart]

Yeah, I know it's not Fel's style of writing, I just got a bit misty eyed and dreamy. I love political fantasies, they really get me going. True, he can't jump the current perspective so suddenly and drastically, but I don't really think it would be impossible either. Fel's storytelling is a bit "trough the hero's eyes", but it's not constantly introspective, the perception of the world is not affected by the character, it's kinda realistic, relatively speaking, of course. And I didn't mean in the same series necessarily. But a 10 years later with a young Rand and Kyri ould be interesting.

You have your work cut out for you....

[boballab]

Actually a political story set on Earth after Rann becomes Grand Duke would make sense. With Jason there would be more willingness to go along with him for some simple reasons.

1. He is Human
2. It is known on Earth that he fought against the House that oppressed humanity.
3. He was the one that changed their lives for the better.

With Rann in charge its a whole different story.

1. They know his mother is Faey.
2. He wasn't raised on Earth

By keeping his family on Karis and away from Earth Jason might, with the best of intentions, actually be setting his own son up for some difficult times. The people of Earth will know little or none about what Rann is like, how he was raised, what he believes in and his intentions for the future for Earth. Humans are just naturally distrustfull of outsiders and because of the where he was raised to Humans Rann is an outsider. This would be all it would take for some disaffected people to start raising trouble and with the edict from Jason of not allowing Faey to randomly scan people left and right they could organize. If Rann goes against that he would play right into the oppositions hands and claim he is just like Trillane and wants to make them slaves again, giving the zealots a patina of legitimacy which they could use. Then there would be the matter of who his wife is, the daughter of the Empress and the sister of the next one, and you have plenty of grist for the propaganda mill.

[Hearly]

Actually a political story set on Earth after Rann becomes Grand Duke would make sense. With Jason there would be more willingness to go along with him for some simple reasons.

1. He is Human
2. It is known on Earth that he fought against the House that oppressed humanity.
3. He was the one that changed their lives for the better.

With Rann in charge its a whole different story.

1. They know his mother is Faey.
2. He wasn't raised on Earth

By keeping his family on Karis and away from Earth Jason might, with the best of intentions, actually be setting his own son up for some difficult times. The people of Earth will know little or none about what Rann is like, how he was raised, what he believes in and his intentions for the future for Earth. Humans are just naturally distrustfull of outsiders and because of the where he was raised to Humans Rann is an outsider. This would be all it would take for some disaffected people to start raising trouble and with the edict from Jason of not allowing Faey to randomly scan people left and right they could organize. If Rann goes against that he would play right into the oppositions hands and claim he is just like Trillane and wants to make them slaves again, giving the zealots a patina of legitimacy which they could use. Then there would be the matter of who his wife is, the daughter of the Empress and the sister of the next one, and you have plenty of grist for the propaganda mill.

I don't really see that as a major problem, I mean he's what 6 years old? Once he becomes a Teen I can see Jason exposing him to Earth, Maybe have him work a farm (later teens) like the British do with there royal family, etc there is a lot of time before he becomes Grand Duke for him to be introduced to Earth, etc.

[dellstart]

Actually a political story set on Earth after Rann becomes Grand Duke would make sense. With Jason there would be more willingness to go along with him for some simple reasons.

1. He is Human
2. It is known on Earth that he fought against the House that oppressed humanity.
3. He was the one that changed their lives for the better.

With Rann in charge its a whole different story.

1. They know his mother is Faey.
2. He wasn't raised on Earth

By keeping his family on Karis and away from Earth Jason might, with the best of intentions, actually be setting his own son up for some difficult times. The people of Earth will know little or none about what Rann is like, how he was raised, what he believes in and his intentions for the future for Earth. Humans are just naturally distrustfull of outsiders and because of the where he was raised to Humans Rann is an outsider. This would be all it would take for some disaffected people to start raising trouble and with the edict from Jason of not allowing Faey to randomly scan people left and right they could organize. If Rann goes against that he would play right into the oppositions hands and claim he is just like Trillane and wants to make them slaves again, giving the zealots a patina of legitimacy which they could use. Then there would be the matter of who his wife is, the daughter of the Empress and the sister of the next one, and you have plenty of grist for the propaganda mill.

Plus he looks faey with pointed ears and facial structure , just with pink skin. mmmmm a case to be made his not 100% ours.

[boballab]

Thats the thing though, with the old British Aristocracy the lad would have been born there, raised on the estate and been educated at one of the top schools there, ie he was born british, raised British and educated British. Now what would have happened in the 1600's if a son of a British Aristocrat was raised in France and educated there? Simple really when he came back to England he would probably speak english with a french accent and which would be looked at by all the strata of British society as an outsider. His peers would not trust him since he didn't grow up as one of them. The lower classes would not trust him because he wasn't raised in the tradtions of the area and the King/Queen wouldn't trust him since they would be suspicious of anything dealing with the french. Small town America works the same way, I grew up in one after having been born and raised for the first 5 years of my life in a small city. The attitiude is if you are not born here, raised here and educated here you don't belong here and you certainly don't tell us how to run things. That would be all it would take for some whacko to start something, hell look at the skin head and white supremesist movement. It makes no sense logically but there is a enough whackos to cause problems. So by the time Rann is a teenager it would be to late. Jason is still the Grand Duke and to the humans of Earth who they look to and Rann would be to the Whackos the offspring of that alien woman and who knows what she filled his head with all those years on Karis.

[Isengrim]

There could be trouble for Rann from people that don't like Faey, but I'm not sure how interesting the story would be. Two points to consider...

1) Kiaari - If she's doing her job right she should hear about any rebellion while it is still in the planning phase.

2) The structure of the government - The Karinnes are in charge of Earth, sure, but they mostly just handle the Academy and affairs with the Empire. The UN is the one running Earth day-to-day, and even then each former nation still handles it's own local affairs. Fel said that the US government reconstituted itself after Jason took over, remember.


I figure Fel hasn't said much about what's going on on Earth because all that is happening is the normal government running stuff, which is generally boring. After all, the story has been on Earth when events of interest occurred there.