And how does a slave's existence mining dilithium prepare them for building a starship? That's not an unskilled labor job.
It's explicit that there are weapons factors on Remus. They have skilled slaves for the work. Just like they have skilled slaves for fighting, Shinzon being one of those. Thinking that Shinzon would not command the resources needed for building a fighting vessel goes against what is clearly stated in the movie: that those resources are on Remus.
And how can a facility large enough to build that ship be perfectly hidden from prying eyes in the literal central system of the Romulan Empire? That's like trying to build a secret aircraft carrier in Annapolis.
They built a secret battleship, the biggest in history, in Kure, middle of Hiroshima. They kept it secret by, among other things, erecting a ginormous canvas sheet over the dock!
And that was in a nation that was not completely sealed off against foreigners at the time. At the heart of the Romulan Empire, secrecy would be much simpler.
And it makes absolutely no sense for the Tal Shiar to know. First off, their most basic mission is to defend Romulus. A little assassination here or there of someone who they think is a danger to the Empire is one thing, but a public decimation of the entire government followed by a blatant coup d'etat is fundamentally bad for the Empire, even if their guy comes out on top.
The military runs Romulus, just like it ran Imperial Rome. The Emperors got nominated and died on the whim of the military; here, the Senate does. This is status quo. Why would the Tal Shiar
not protect that?
Secondly, 'their guy' is more obsessed with attacking Earth than doing anything relating to Romulus, which makes him exactly the wrong guy for the Tal Shiar (who've repeatedly shown their utter unwillingness to drag the Empire into a direct war with the Federation even when it's directly interfering with their efforts).
Until then, he's ideal for the needs of the coupsters, though. And when he finally acts on his silly obsession, the coupsters simply send two warships to kill him. It's too bad that they do such a sloppy job at it, is all.
Plus, the idea of the Remans as a scapegoat is laughable because it's blatantly obvious that they couldn't possibly have pulled it off by themselves in the first place.
That has never stopped scapegoating in Earth history. Fall guys are very useful for the national narrative.
Why would the Remans have been unable to pull it off, though? Nations like China have succumbed time and again to "peasant uprisings". The peasants often won. They never got to rule.
However, forget China. Logan previously did a movie about Rome. Romans had their share of vast slave rebellions, and sometimes those were made major political use of. Shinzon is Spartacus, simple as that. Although whether he is that by his own heroics or by sponsorship from the military that struggles against the Senate... Well, the truth is something that never would need to come out.
And Remus wasn't just 'known', it was mentioned as part of a standard pair with Romulus (long before the Dominion war). The obvious implication was that they're both vitally important to the Romulan Empire - and while there could be other potential explanations, there are none that make sense if it's literally just a slave world.
Not seeing that at all. There are two planets there. Both are part of the Romulan capital. What does it matter what specific facilities are included? Great Britain had worthless Ireland grafted to it, a backward possession where slaves toiled, and was no less Great for it.
Timo Saloniemi
