A little help understanding something...

[digger]

I'm up to date--watched the first three episodes so far. However, there's something I don't quite understand. Perhaps something was explained, and I just missed it.

Why does everyone hate the lead character--Michael--so much? And why do they blame her for starting the war with the Klingons? Yes, she wanted to fire on the Klingons. And, yes, she incapacitated her captain and gave the order to fire. But she was stopped. And everything she did after her captain stopped that attempt to fire was done under the order of the captain. So what am I missing here? Why is she blamed?

 

[Mirror Mirror]

I'm up to date--watched the first three episodes so far. However, there's something I don't quite understand. Perhaps something was explained, and I just missed it.

Why does everyone hate the lead character--Michael--so much? And why do they blame her for starting the war with the Klingons? Yes, she wanted to fire on the Klingons. And, yes, she incapacitated her captain and gave the order to fire. But she was stopped. And everything she did after her captain stopped that attempt to fire was done under the order of the captain. So what am I missing here? Why is she blamed?

She killed a klingon and Starfleet used her as a scapegoat. People, being people tie one action to another. She wanted to start a war, she attacked one klingon out of revenge and mutinied to attack them all. As far as people are concerned her mindless hate started the whole thing.

Facts have little place when people have a target to blame.

 

[mattyhugh]

She also pled guilty to all charges at her court martial. She probably wasn't guilty of all of them.

 

[Mirror Mirror]

She also pled guilty to all charges at her court martial. She probably wasn't guilty of all of them.

PTSD and extreme guilt will do that. Vulcans really should not raise emotionally damaged human children,

 

[cultcross]

The reality of something and how it is perceived are two very different things. People love a scapegoat. I get the impression Lorca gets this. As he says, context is for kings

 

[Mirror Mirror]

The reality of something and how it is perceived are two very different things. People love a scapegoat. I get the impression Lorca gets this. As he says, context is for kings

I like Lora already, he is cagey and so very dangerous.

 

[digger]

Thanks for the replies. :-)

 

[Refuge]

It's the mutiny aspect. You don't go giving your Captain a Vulcan neck pinch and expect to get away with it.

 

[mattyhugh]

PTSD and extreme guilt will do that. Vulcans really should not raise emotionally damaged human children,

The readings of self loathing are off the scales Captain.

 

[cultcross]

It's the mutiny aspect. You don't go giving your Captain a Vulcan neck pinch and expect to get away with it.

In this new Trek, apparently. Nearly every member of the TNG crew committed a court martial offence at one time or another and everything was just fine. The TOS crew stole an entire starship for their little mutiny. Grand punishment... a new ship.
Traditionally, crime and punishment in Starfleet has been very outcome orientated - if you were right, you are acquitted, even if you still did the court martialable offence. See Suspicions for an example - Crusher explicitly ignores medical ethics but her punishment disappears because she was right about the murder. Here Burnham had the misfortune of not being right, or at the very least not being able to pull off a good outcome - so she went down for it.

 

[mattyhugh]

In this new Trek, apparently. Nearly every member of the TNG crew committed a court martial offence at one time or another and everything was just fine. The TOS crew stole an entire starship for their little mutiny. Grand punishment... a new ship.
Traditionally, crime and punishment in Starfleet has been very outcome orientated - if you were right, you are acquitted, even if you still did the court martialable offence. See Suspicions for an example. Here Burnham had the misfortune of not being right, or at the very least not being able to pull off a good outcome - so she went down for it.

Not to mention with Georgiou she lost an advocate.

 

[cultcross]

Captain Georgiou

 

[mattyhugh]

Captain Georgiou

Mea Culpa. Phillipa and I were on a first name basis before the Battle of the Binary stars. I was good friends with her ex husband before the divorce. The late Captain and I did stay in touch though.

 

[Refuge]

In this new Trek, apparently. Nearly every member of the TNG crew committed a court martial offence at one time or another and everything was just fine. The TOS crew stole an entire starship for their little mutiny. Grand punishment... a new ship.
Traditionally, crime and punishment in Starfleet has been very outcome orientated - if you were right, you are acquitted, even if you still did the court martialable offence. See Suspicions for an example - Crusher explicitly ignores medical ethics but her punishment disappears because she was right about the murder. Here Burnham had the misfortune of not being right, or at the very least not being able to pull off a good outcome - so she went down for it.

Michael is more of an outcast and condensed that by a few key actions that were not Starfleet or being a team player. She gave the Klingons a martyr, violated her Captain, and was in her Captain's presence when she died.

Not a way to make friends.

 

[zar]

On one hand, you're right because her mutiny really had nothing to do with it. The other characters just focus on that, I guess because that was what she was publicly charged for.

On the other hand, she actually IS responsible for starting the war, mainly because she killed the self-proclaimed messiah T'Kuvma and made him a martyr.
She also killed the torchbearer. Yes, that was self-defense, but remember she was only supposed to do a flyby in the first place. And, I don't know if this was firmly established, but I think she may have technically invaded Klingon space here. The relay was at the edge of Federation space and the beacon was 2000 kilometers away... and T'Kuvma referred to her as a Federation interloper.

Either one of those could be considered an act of war. Arguably none of this would have happened if she would have followed orders.