I'll put on some of it on tonight. I remember everything that happened, but it's a little faded. Even though there was an ongoing storyline Episodes 1-8 all felt relatively self-contained. 9-10 was the two-parter setting up Section 31 and the final stretch of DSC S3. And then Episodes 11-13. I still -- to this day -- think they got rid of Osyraa too quickly. There are ways she could've been used in Season 4 or 5, or whatever else they might have the 32nd Century. I like this downsized Federation having the Emerald Chain as its main rival.
I liked Osyraa and I genuinely think the idea of an "Anti-Federation" could be interesting, which is where I thought they might go with the Emerald Chain, since it seemed to be a union of at least the Orions, Andorians, and others. The original intention for the Dominion was that they would be something like that, before the powers that be of DS9 decided they wanted to focus just on the Founders, Vorta, and Jem'Hadar.
To me, the most interesting scenes of
Discovery season 3 is when Osyraa basically sues for peace, and Vance tries to figure out whether it's real or a ploy.
The entire deal is an attempt to get the positive political capital of the Federation while corrupting what was left of it. And it relied on a tactic that the Federation in almost every circumstance is ready to pursue: negotiation and agreements. But Osyraa wanted peace, but peace on her terms. The Admiral knew that she wanted to pull the strings from behind-the-scenes. Also, some of the terms she lays out didn’t sound like the Emerald Chain had any intentions of fundamentally changing. She mentions anti-slavery legislation but legislation isn’t law until it’s passed, and even then having a law doesn’t exactly mean anything if the people who’re supposed to enforce are corrupt. Osyraa also said the armistice would entail a “15-year transition” for the Emerald Chain to stop violating the Prime Directive.
Osyraa herself says that people still believe in the Federation as a symbol of “hope.” The only thing that’s probably kept what’s left of it together is that belief. To make an agreement with the Emerald Chain, an organization that’s committed war crimes, condones slavery, and routinely violates Starfleet’s highest principle would undermine that faith without a public example that the Emerald Chain was willing to change and answer for their conduct.
And to me what made all of this even better is that if you start thinking about it, is there really a lot of diff between an agreement with the Emerald Chain and the Klingon Empire of the 23rd century? From what we're told and see in "Errand of Mercy," the Klingons have committed atrocities on par, but (from what we know) the Klingons didn’t have to pass anti-slavery legislation and have officials stand trial as part of the Khitomer Accords.