Spoilers So I guess nobody's going to mention...

But there were no officers overseeing its construction. The ship was built by Remans at Shinzon's secret base. The Romulans had no idea he was building the ship.

 

Shinzon and his Viceroy could have arranged for that to be claimed. There may have even been some Romulan officers willing to go along with the plot and help.

Shinzon's claim should probably not be taken at face value. Claiming it was all built in secret with nobody else finding out could have been posturing on his part to appear stronger and more wily. "See? We built it without our mighty Senate ever knowing!"

I doubt it. Somebody knew, and sanctioned it because they didn't know what the ship was being constructed for.

 

But that’s not what the movie states.

 

Then the movie makes no sense. Which won't be a first for Trek.

The Romulan Star Empire was a repressive police state with one of the most feared secret police organizations in the quadrant. There's no way that the ship was built without somebody powerful knowing.

 

To this day I don't know whether Remans were supposed to be native species or mutated vulcanoids. They have pointed ears and are telepathic, which would imply a relationship. But if they're that, then the look is super overdone.

 

Agreed, nothing about that film made any sense. But it is what it is, and I have to take what I saw at face value.

Sure, his Romulan cohorts probably knew, although they didn’t know it was also a Thalaron generator, which was a pretty big thing to withhold without them knowing.

 

In order for a coup to work some military aid would be necessary, generally speaking. There was also the Romulan senator who left the Thalaron device in the Senate chambers.

 

Yeah, Shinzon was posturing. There's no way it was all just him and the Remans pulling this off.

 

I've since head-canon'd that the Remans were once regular Romulans, but through the many years (centuries?) of being on that planet their DNA was changed some how and they grew to be grotesque images of what they once were.

Just like the Troglyte Miners in "The Cloud Minders" (TOS).
Though to a much greater extent.

 

Isn't their appearance supposed to be due to generations of exposure to dilithium ore radiation inside the mines and mining facilities?

 

Which, the Remans or the Troglytes?

Though Zenite was the thing affecting the Troglytes.

 

The Remans.

Though I think that the Troglytes on Ardana II were mute and had lower intelligence because of generations of exposure to zenite ore. The gas from the ore made Kirk emotionally unstable and dizzy and he was inside the mines for just a short period of time.

 

I'd forgotten that the Remans were miners also.

Anyway, that's my way of explaining their whole 'shtick'.

 

Yeah, they mined the Romulans' dilithium supply or most of it.

 

China acquired its first aircraft carrier from Ukraine when an individual created a front company in Macau who insisted it was turning the hull into a floating casino. Not to fool the Ukrainians, but the Chinese government which had refused to fund the purchase with public money.

The PLAN only changed its mind after the front company had possession of the goods in international waters and had trucked the entire blueprints to China.

It took almost 2 years to tow the hulk out of Crimea, into the Atlantic, around Africa and into Chinese waters, because Egypt doesn't let unpowered ships through the Suez Canal.

And this was the largest warship built outside of America since WW2. Big, insane shit happens sometimes.

 

It wouldn't be the first time that a narcissistic asshole exaggerated his accomplishments and took credit for other people's work..

 

Except this is a discussion about a fictional alien race, not an IRL political discussion.

 

Art imitates life, not the other way around.

 

To quote another poster here, "but that's not what the movie states".

Nothing was said about there being a lack of oversight, or the Romulans having no idea. All of that is fully open to interpretation. What we do know is that Shinzon and members of the Romulan military were in cahoots as the movie began. What we want to believe has to build on that.

There's the story about the HMCS Bonaventure not being scrapped in Taiwan in 1971, but swapped with INS Vikrant in mid-tow so that the Indians could have a functional Majestic class carrier for their war with Pakistan, instead of one that couldn't even move at combat speeds because of her well-known crippling issue of a split-open boiler. Perfectly plausible, easily concealed, and certainly "big, insane shit". Probably not true, but we really can't tell.

Timo Saloniemi