tlv inbox

[a_titanum]

"Leave your message, if you care to."

Comments

[artistinexile]

Favoritism? No. The Empire's tactics are brutal and, for the most part, morally abhorrent to all but those who favor strict authoritarianism or those who benefit from it.

[a_titanum]

And wouldn't those who benefit from it also favor it?

And yet you call it 'wrong'.

[artistinexile]

I believe that there are worse threats. The Empire is a lesser evil.

And I believe that only a strong military with swift authority to act can hope to unite an incredibly diverse, spread-out galaxy and protect the majority of its people.

After that threat is resolved...we shall see.

[a_titanum]

Mmmhmm. And why do you believe that?

[artistinexile]

When I was a younger soldier in the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet, I was sent out to find allies in our upcoming war.

I found the Old Republic. It was disorganized, chaotic, and suffered from infighting at the highest levels while many worlds starved. Others were preyed upon by pirates, smugglers, and slavers.

When I approached the same part of the galaxy some ten years later, I found it remarkably changed in such a short amount of time. Moreover, I was permitted a ship and a crew to cut out evil where I saw it.

The Empire is hardly a force of good; the Rebellion alone proves that much. But it is not irredeemable. It cut out a good deal of bureaucratic rot festering for generations.

[a_titanum]

'Cut out evil'?

And what exactly did they deem 'evil'?

How exactly did you decide on the state of the state of these... organized groups of people in those cases?

[artistinexile]

We would investigate first. Manned missions to governments, settlements, occasionally the groups themselves if permitted.

From there, we would calculate what was true and what was a fabrication, and act accordingly.

[he misses Vanto :(]

[a_titanum]

And how did you tabulate that?

Given this deals with moral tabulation, I want to be precise.

[artistinexile]

I will give you an example.

On one of my missions, I was called to negotiate a land dispute on the planet Cyphar, between the native Afe clan and the human colonists. The colonists were claiming they were being raided and killed by the other side.

At my request, I met with both sides, despite the scorn from our human allies. When discussing moral implications where I am a third-party and a guest, I wish to hear everyone before making a decision.

I studied the Afe clan's artwork present in their meetinghouse. They are a nonhostile force; their culture and strategy depict people who will only act if they are attacked first. They also harbor intense guilt should they kill an opponent in combat.

Knowing this, I returned to the disputed territory. The human side had been provoking the Afe clan in order to force them into a shameful retreat, so as to steal their land and, more importantly, the illegal pre-drug compound that lay underneath, unknown to the Afe people.

[a_titanum]

I'm unsurprised by your egalitarian approach and your thoroughness on this case. Did you do a sampling from a wide variety of locations? Or were your people all performing their own investigations and you provided your sampling of data to a greater whole?

[artistinexile]

There was only one location. I staked it out personally. My theory was proven correct when a band of humans attempted to encroach over the border.

[a_titanum]

...and you based all of your determination on this one set of humans?

[artistinexile]

There was only one set of humans. I do not know how to be more clear.

[a_titanum]

In that settlement, yes. You called that an example. I'm asking how many pieces of data you used to determine during the Old Republic and during the Empire the status of things.

[artistinexile]

Then I suggest you be more specific.

I do not know how to calibrate that. Our methods of data collection are likely incompatible. Suffice it to say there were a number of planets and people surveyed, including those warriors from the Old Republic themselves tasked with defending it.

[oops he ran into Anakin Skywalker who gave him a biased view WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT]

[a_titanum]

I was very specific. You gave an example, I listened, and then I asked for where that example fit in the greater narrative of your determinations. I acknowledge, however, in a discussion of such specificity that your initial read is understandable.

What number of planets versus the whole of inhabited planets?

How were those planets determined? By which I mean: were you tasked with dealing with all settlements, or all planets in a certain area, or a random selection of planets etc. etc.

How much of your data was primary source and how much of it was secondary source?

'Incompatible' is a meaningless word in regards to data collection. 'Biased' or 'cherrypicked' or 'sample size' convey useful information. Your methods might be different, and I'm more than willing to hear about them, but brushing aside how you made a decision isn't useful to determining what might need adjusting in how you make decisions, is it?

[artistinexile]

[a cold look]

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions. What, in your estimation, would have been a decent sample size of a governing body with 1.3 million planets inside of it?

How much time do you believe I had been given? Do you believe I was sent out on a fool's errand, or do you believe I should have gone missing in action in order to more thoroughly mesh out my data?


Or perhaps none of this matters at all and you will simply jump to the next topic once I have sufficiently answered your questions?

[a_titanum]

[ Hmm. ]

I was asking for numbers to gain an understanding; there is no set number nor set methodology but knowing the numbers and the methodology does bear on the determinations produced. It wasn't a judgment of you, especially as I'm well aware that you were acting in your people's interest and were not in and of yourself the sole arbiter of your people's choices.

But I find the defensiveness you're exhibiting curious.

[artistinexile]

Forgive my defensiveness. I believed it was an attack on my methods of gathering data and my ability to draw conclusions based on that.

[a_titanum]

Forgiven, though I would like to know what about my choices has made you think either that I would attack you during fact finding or that I would attack anything without fact based arguments.

And for clarification: this is fact finding. No determination has been made; I am curious about your choices, but only that.

[artistinexile]

A lengthy trial of questioning every past decision made and motivation behind it would make many defensive.

[a_titanum]

Why?

Especially given that you acknowledge your people to have specific customs and social norms. We won't get very far if you can simply brush off anything I say as "it's not like that among my people" so I'm trying to avoid that.

[artistinexile]

[silence for a time, before he decides to shift the conversation again]

Do you realize that for every answer I have given, you have asked more questions? I wonder at your satisfaction of any of my answers.

Do other inmates bear the same scrutiny as being from a people different from your own? Despite humanity's majority both in my galaxy and on this ship, I had believed most were from extraordinarily different worlds.

[a_titanum]

If I am dissatisfied with your answers, I say as such. And I believe I have done so, demonstrably, several times in such cases. If I don't say so, I am not, as I have agreed to straightforward communication with you; it wouldn't be fair to be dissatisfied and not seek to clarify or tell you as such since you could believe you had satisfied my curiousity and that sort of surprise is unpleasant.

And I don't particularly see the relevance: I am not anyone else's warden. Of course my need for understanding will be much greater in discussions with you.

[artistinexile]

When you would have these discussions with your former warden - I am assuming - did he speak of you as a representative of your people?

Did he wonder at your people's customs and traits and extrapolate those cultural norms onto your behavior?