Did Picard make the right decision with the Son'a/Baku

there's no indication that the Son'a are crazy or that they're stringing the federation along. There's every indication that they'd have kept to their part of the deal had Picard not betrayed them.

 

Yeah becuase the potential Dominion allies are going to commit suicide just for a fountain of youth that wouldn't help them against the vengeful Dominion and to be friends with a federation they don't even like. Face Ru'afo was probably going to keep the particles and kill all the Starfleet personal then go back to helping the Dominion pound the federation's face into the ground.

 

While it's obvious the Son'a weren't entirely upfront with the Feds, I don't think there's any hard evidence indicating that they wouldn't have gone through with the deal.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with regards to committing suicide. The Son'a and Feds were probably going to split the particles evenly between them.

 

The Feds were likely going to compensate the Son'a, and distribute the particles "for the greater good".

It was a business partnership from that point of view.

Of course, the Son'a (or more specifically Ruafu) were primarily looking to do to the Baku what they percieved to have been done to them. Simple revenge, inadvertantly aided by the Federation.

 

exactly. Using the "Son'a were going to betray them" or a "the process wouldn't have worked anyway" argument are both ways of avoiding the actual issues in the film by substituting arguments for which there is no evidence.

Again, the Son'a were NOT Dominion allies, they were merely selling them drugs, just as I'm sure they'd have been happy to sell weapons to the Federation. They only became Dominion allies after Picard betrayed the agreement and fought against them, at which point, why WOULDN'T they have become Dominion allies?

 

Dominion ships carpet bombing whatever planet they settles on, legion of Jem'Hadar troops over running them and slaughtering them, you know the stuff the Dominion does when they get pissy especially after the Son'a's new fed friends some of whom are probably over in Section 31 decided to make the Founders even more pissy by infecting them with a plague that was going to kill them, lets just ask the Cardassians how the Dominion taken betrayal when their near psychotic.

The fact that Ru'afo went to let's kill them all the moment things went south for him especially after his response to Picard investigating stuff was to threaten to destroy his ship the man was a bully and a psychotic man child one at that.

As opposed to your butchering Emanate Domain laws into imperialist rhetoric to suit yours.

Which they need to run their army

Until the Jem'Hadar kill them after crushing the federation or before that since depending on when the film takes place the Dominion has the federation out matched in every way that matters until the conned the Romulans into helping them.


Besides the Romulans were letting the Dominion use their space to attack the federation but they sure weren't helping the federation with anything. hell Vreenak even seemed gleeful about their emanate destruction

Not to mention the Son'a DON'T LIKE THEM so they aren't going to help them. Didn't you get that from the umpteenth time Ru'afo bitched about how much he hates how they do stuff.

why would they become federation allies even if the particle extraction had gone well?

 

Profit. Self interest.

 

What are you basing that on? The dialogue suggested that the Son'a started a rebellion to take over Ba'ku society in the past and then lost and the Ba'ku expelled them from their society. Why would they rebel if they wanted to leave the planet? So why didn't they just create a city with all the tech they want on the other side of the planet? Heck why did the Ba'ku win in the first place if they are Luddite pacifists and the Son'a were more aggressive and more technologically savvy?

The problem is the Son'a/Ba'ku past conflict is such a underdeveloped plot point, that the current Son'a/Ba'ku conflict is underdeveloped as well.

I would say the story would have made more sense if the Son'a were random evil invader with no connection to the Ba'ku, who just wanted to be immortal. That would be less convoluted.

 

They would get more profit from killing all the federation personal, taking the particles, and leaving before the federation finds out they got hosed as they would have all the particles and would have to share them.

If its before the Romulans joined that war, screwing over the federation and sucking up to the Dominion WOULD be in their self interest.

 

Then why did the Sona bring the Federation into the matter in the first place?

It makes no sense to say the Federation approached the Sona. Most likely the Sona approached the Federation Council because they knew that the Federation claimed that area of space, and the Sona wanted no long term problems with the Federation. Whatever military forces the Sona had, it would have be dwarfed by Starfleet. So the Sona couldn't just go into and remove the Federation's natural resources, and except to get away with it.

Far from the Sona getting fifty percent of the harvested particles, their side of the bargain would have been something like one or two percent. The Sona really wouldn't have needed very much for their personal use, my impression is the Sona didn't exist in large numbers.

Which makes them suppliers, not "allies."

You don't have to like people to do business with them. The Sona were perfectly willing to be business partners with the Federation, if it meant getting access to the particles around a Federation planet.

And the fact the Sona didn't do this, suggest that the Sona in someway couldn't.

 

Was becuase Picard stopped Ru'afo.

 

as long as we're just making stuff up out of the blue, I think it's good that Picard managed to persuade the Baku offscreen to give up their lifestyle of cannibalism and slavery or it would have been awkward to have been seen intervening on their behalf.

 

How is that making stuff up. Ru'afo had all the federation personal moved where the collector going off would kill them after murdering Dougherty. Then he was stopped by being beamed to the holoship by his formerly loyal right hand man who's name I forgot after Picard verbally bitchslaped his ass and then all the stuff on the Collector happened.

Seriously where do I get this over version of the movie you people are watching.

 

he did this all after Picard essentially started a WAR with the Son'a. I don't deny that stuff happened AFTER Picard's intervention, I'm saying that you can't use that to argue backwards to say Ru'afo was always going to betray the Federation.

There is NOTHING in the movie to support that, and a lot to disprove it-Ru'afo was very friendly toward Dougherty, having dinner with him, offering him the services of the Son'a skin-whatever treatment, etc. He showed patience when Data went rogue in allowing Picard to get him himself.

Ru'afo only turned decisively to violence AFTER Picard launched his little "insurrection," at which point it was a battle.

 

The Ready Room scene between Picard and Dougherty.

Admiral Dougherty: It would take ten years of normal exposure to begin to reverse their condition. Some of them won't survive that long. Besides, they don't want to live in the middle of the Briar Patch. Who would?
Jean-Luc Picard: The Ba'ku.

 

Gotta agree with sonak here. You can't say Ru'afo was always going to betray the Federation because the had the audacity to fight back. Sure he most definitely escalated things once Picard picked the fight, but by all accounts he seemed to be willing to work with Dougherty and the Federation until Picard forced the confrontation.

 

No, but I can speculate that it could happen seeing as Ru'afo threatened to blow up the Enterprise and the Son'a had no problem shooting Data just for finding the holoship, or the fact that the Riker just going to bitch at the Federation was what Ru'afo thought was enough provocation to attack the federation flagship with the intent to destroy it.

 

Picard hardly staarted a war with the Son'a unless you call making the Baku leave their village starting a war. To himn what he saw was morally wrong and he set out to try and save the Baku, so yes I'd say he did the right thing.

 

Plus really all he did was shoot some drones and hide people in caves. The Son'a were the ones who started shooting with the whole basically bombing the caves and shooting at people.

 

Ru'afo threatened to blow up the Enterprise only -after- Picard refused to release his people. The shooting Data bit for finding the holoship is a bit ambiguous as we never actually saw the events that occurred. If I had to guess it was because Data declared he was going to reveal it to everyone and compromise the whole operation. As for attacking the Enterprise, even then Ru'afo talked Dougherty into signing off on it when he had all the cards and didn't have to. Hardly the actions of a guy planning to betray the whole Federation.

Really the most villainous thing Ru'afo did the first freaking half of the movie was bleed on Picard's ready room carpet.