Does Deidre have a dark side?

[dacole]

Wow I have to say hydro if you ever wanted to write an actual trillogy of books I'd buy them. You captured in Godwinson's hope what I think is the true spirt of Christianity and a way I haven't either seen the believers portrayed before. Thank you!

[Slaughtergaard]

I think that all factions have both dark and light sides.
For example:

Deirdre: She is humane and hold respect for democracy, but on the other hand she puts human survival below the biosphere.
Lal: You can show him as the most humane leader, but at the same time, you can see him as a gutless humanitariam whimper that makes war for peace.
Yang: Yeah, he is a brutal despot, but at the same time he places the survival of the whole above of the individual, besides, Yang at least could never alow his people to go hungry or thirsty.
Miriam: She can be both a peaceful religious woman, but at the same time, a true Zealot when you make her get pissed off... And that's very easy.
Zakharov: His problems are his lack of ethic, since for he, the middle don't matter, just the end. But he is not a raving war monger, and hate war since it's disrupt his research.
Santiago: She is very agressive, and dangerous. I think that she is very problematic. She don't look good for me in any way.
Morgan: Yeah, he can be a peaceful industrialist, or a blood sucker executive.

[WotanAnubis]

Originally posted by Slaughtergaard Santiago: She is very agressive, and dangerous. I think that she is very problematic. She don't look good for me in any way.

My take on Santiago is that she values survival above all else. If you're not a threat, you're not a target. She wouldn't start a war with you simply out of ideology (which pretty much every other faction would).

Of course, this 'good' point of the Spartans depends on your definition of 'threat'.

[Hydro]

decole – thank you for the compliment. Unfortunately novels aren’t likely the near future. I’ve made a few pathetic attempts and it’s quite clear I am missing at least one vital bit of ability. I suggest you dig into the magnum opus Joe by the illustrious Alinestra Covelia (if you haven’t already). Vel and Googlie have a number of almost novel-length stories, too. As I recall Raging Mouse had a very involved story called the Wizard of Chiron a number of years ago.

Hydro

[NanoDingo]

"You see in this dome the intermingling of native and earth plants.
Outside, they are competitors, struggling over the trace
elements required for life. Often, one destroys the other. Here,
they are tended with care and kept well nourished. They thrive
together, and the native fungus does not unleash its terrible
defenses. As you can see, competition is unnecessary when resources
are plentiful and population growth is controlled."
-- Lady Deirdre Skye, "Planet Dreams"

That blurb, concerning Hybrid Forests, always struck me as slightly foreboding..."controlling population growth" isn't that far removed from Yang and his eugenic social experiments...

[WotanAnubis]

Originally posted by NanoDingo
That blurb, concerning Hybrid Forests, always struck me as slightly foreboding..."controlling population growth" isn't that far removed from Yang and his eugenic social experiments...

I dunno. Running a Green economy hurts your population growth and I wouldn't exactly call that eugenics.

Perhaps families are restricted to, say, one or two children and you need to file for permission to have any more.

Of course, that brings up the rather nasty thought that Talents are allowed to have huge families and Drones are not, so in that respect you might call it eugenics. But I don't think Deirdre means to create the Perfect Human Being, but rather, doesn't want the population to grow so far they're hurting Planet's native life simply by taking up space and consuming resources.

[MysticWind]

Originally posted by Sperber They all reflect certain values or motivations that are inherent in all of us and have made it the primary trait of their society. From our individual standpoint, we just judge anything that isn't our own motivation in life as "ugly".

I was going to liken that observation to the colors of Magic: the Gathering, where none are truly good or evil, but that would be too nerdy and so I won't.

Originally posted by Sperber Deidre too can be criticized by her adversaries for putting the integrity of nature before the selfish interests of the human race. She would, for instance, if she were true to that belief, not fight a viral outbreak among her population by means of modern medicine. She would probably stand by and watch how many humans, including newborns, die of the plague - until the remaining survivors have developed a natural immunity to it - which is nature's unmerciful way to push evolution forward and maintain an ecological balance.

Sorry, but I don't think so. Deidre's too touchy-feely to be an evolutionist. If anything, she'd let her population die because she does not want to be responsible for the extinction of an organism.

My take on dark/light sides:

Deirdre- Eventually, her psionic connection to Planet may possess her, and she's far weaker in will than Cha Dawn. Also, she's one of those who would rather have people die than have nature despoiled.

Lal- As in "Joe", he's a machiavellian figure who manipulates the inefficient/corrupt Planet U.N., hides behind the Charter, and is not afraid to wage war under the pretext of peace.

Yang- Meritocracies at least allow for human endeavor and advancement in living conditions.

Miriam- She could always be well-armed Amish rather than militant Inquisitor.

Zakharov- He can be completely amoral, which is neither benevolent nor malevolent.

Sanitago- She's probably isolationist at the end of the day.

Morgan- Like Zakharov (and corporations in general), he can be completely amoral and open to either or neither way.

[NanoDingo]

Originally posted by MysticWind I was going to liken that observation to the colors of Magic: the Gathering, where none are truly good or evil, but that would be too nerdy and so I won't.

I don't care what that awful Mark Rosewater says, Black will always be evil in my heart.
-

Originally posted by MysticWind Deidre's too touchy-feely to be an evolutionist. If anything, she'd let her population die because she does not want to be responsible for the extinction of an organism.

Pretty much how I feel...Deirdre's too sentimental, so hung up on "Cosmic Harmony" and trying to look selfless that she forgets that people have real needs and weaknesses that will conflict with her vision of the "natural order". Having "too many" children, for example. She's probably highly self-deceptive with respect to her own aggressions and agendas, almost as self-righteous as Miriam.