Good catch - I suppose one could say they were simply dealing in archetypes, but one could also say in the same breath that that's lazy and looks kinda bigoted...But Lal never made sense to me as XO. It seems too obvious that, to the well-educated, he was recognizable as a problematic quantity, even if it might not have been clear to them that he was a full-blown sociopath. I don't see why the U.N. would have put someone like Lal in such a position.OH - you meant YANG and your fingers forgot. Now it all makes sense. I don't disgree at all. Perhaps his hive tendencies didn't show until he got his shot to practice them on Planet? He's very capable otherwise, I do think, what with his attitude towards self discipline and self improvement.
Back on Miriam? I've been on the record as long as I've been in the community -see my Sister Miriam De-uglified thread redone on this forum- that, coming at it as a faction modder artist who's made a lot of leaderheads, Miriam is also a visual hatchet job. She's Dana Carvey's Church Lady character with red hair and an army, not coincidentally played by the least attractive-looking human being of the original seven.
Yes, Yang. Apologies for the error. Based on the fictional biography prepared by Michael Ely for the SMAC website, the psych screeners already perceived that there was something "off" about Yang. They just calculated that he was worth the risk. Still, it seems odd that they would freight Garland with a guy they knew would make an ideal mutineer.
Yes, that is fair to say about Miriam, who is every bit as much a stereotype as the beautiful Hippie or the collectivist Asian.
it's there in the source material somewhat, and you've very much underlined in RTD, that mission planning was a political circle-jerk/nightmare...And MysticWind's latest two sliiide right in with that...
Are the Society of Free Thinkers intended to be the same group as the Society of Free Thought?
I also love how the Peacekeepers can’t help but make a condescending nuisance of themselves. That criticism lies very near the heart, I think, of the conservative American critique of “pointy-headed intellectualism.” (I say that analytically, not approvingly.)
I find Zakharov’s reaction to the Landsmen interesting because I have coded him in this fiction as a recluse.
She has spent most of this story bottled up in the high mountains, and her faction as a whole gained a pronounced indifference to the fates of “mere” humans, whereas the Peacekeepers take the more evangelical approach to public health matters, but it wouldn’t be out-of-keeping with Pahlavi’s backstory to take her in that other direction.
I also love how the Peacekeepers can’t help but make a condescending nuisance of themselves. That criticism lies very near the heart, I think, of the conservative American critique of “pointy-headed intellectualism.” (I say that analytically, not approvingly.)
The Confederation of the Land's tribalist neo-primitivism is both sincere and a societal-level LARP, and ultimately it results in a familiar colonialist-native dynamic, at least when there's sharp disparities in development and tech levels between others and them. So it's pretty natural for U.N. agencies to appear as ignorantly benevolent do-gooders when confronted with the atavistic Landsmen.I find Zakharov’s reaction to the Landsmen interesting because I have coded him in this fiction as a recluse.
The Silenus Plateau is likened to Antarctica because it becomes an unlikely collaboration point between multiple factions. That's probably owing both to its physical remoteness to the respective core territories, thus allowing frontier policies that might not be in line with attitudes at home. I didn't intentionally start with this concept but it sort of emerged in the story. Hence the Human Tribe, Peacekeepers, Morganites, and I suppose the University as well all have idiosyncratic and opportunist local leadership open to mutual cooperation to exploit the region's resources. Remember that on the frontier, Zakharov isn't really in control, the specific outposts' researchers run the show. As is the case at Biotic Survey.She has spent most of this story bottled up in the high mountains, and her faction as a whole gained a pronounced indifference to the fates of “mere” humans, whereas the Peacekeepers take the more evangelical approach to public health matters, but it wouldn’t be out-of-keeping with Pahlavi’s backstory to take her in that other direction.
Maybe a simple reference grid of faction relations would be helpful for this setting when it comes to understanding the factions' general attitudes towards one another, or even whether they are in contact with one another.
Again, the setting of New Amnesty is intentional for fostering unique relationships local to the frontier, which might not be applicable in the metropoles.
Lamarckianism, the transmission of physical traits from parent to child.-Incomplete; you surely meant "the transmission of changed physical traits from parent to child." - or something better-phrased on those lines.