She had to know Shed be terrified at being essentially kidnapped.
Think it was just a unwillingness to leave a child of her own body behind?
Think it was just a unwillingness to leave a child of her own body behind?
Was AU Tasha Yar Stupid for trying to take Sela?
- Thread starter WesleysDisciple
- Start date
Whilst we don't know the extent of the differences between the two different timelines, so if we assume that much of the same happened on Turkana IV as in our reality then we already know that Tasha is a kind and caring person, who lost her own parents as a child and became the guardian for her younger sister, keeping her safe from the violence that was prevalent in the remains of their colony. When she managed to escape she tried to take Ishara with her, but her sister refused and that stayed behind, which would definitely have been a very emotional issue for her to deal with ever since. If this was how things played out, there is no way she would leave her own daughter behind, having both lost her own mother as a child and having guilt over not saving her sister years earlier.
However, if that wasn't the case for her backstory she was still Sela's mother and any good parent wouldn't leave their child behind with a man who was essentially her jailer and a rapist.
However, if that wasn't the case for her backstory she was still Sela's mother and any good parent wouldn't leave their child behind with a man who was essentially her jailer and a rapist.
Just makes me think how much they wasted Sela's character. She could have been a morally conflicted character who's always torn between aiding Picard or loyalty to the Empire.
Instead they made her just a blond Romulan.
Instead they made her just a blond Romulan.
If things had been different she could’ve been an amazing recurring character, maybe even defecting to Starfleet at some point and living on the E-D.
Or instead of Sela have the AU Tasha appear in TNG instead.
No mother would abandon her child to a father who coerced her into sexual slavery under threat of death.
Sela in my opinion seemed like she had a few doubts deep down when she said "He gave her a life a home a daughter and how did she repay him? With betrayal" I Could see ways that could have been developed.
Came here to say exactly this
^^this, x10000
Sela had one of the best character introductions in sci-fi - ever. And that was in the tail end of season 4. Then came season 5 and being a generic thug in "Redemption II" that borderlines a generic looney tunes character... then she became one outright in "Unification". Completely underused character with far more potential than what was put on paper.
That said, I still chucked with Sela's line:
Sela said:
She must have gotten special treatment to start off with commanding her own ship, but I suppose it’s not the first time someone goes from Cadet straight to Captain.
Tasha's big mistake was not stunning her daughter. In the future, that's what the stun setting is for.
Fair enough
I Feel bad for Tasha but I dont blame Sela for feeling terrified and screaming.
I Feel bad for Tasha but I dont blame Sela for feeling terrified and screaming.
Might Sela appear in 'Picard'?
It would be a waste if she didn't given all the Romulan focus and Dennis doing some work for ST:O.
The Federation Tasha Yar came from might be different from the semi utopia UFP that Sela encountered. Maybe young Sela made the decision that the Empire was much better than the loser place her mother came from.
Of course there's in-universe ways to justify why she was the person we saw on the show, but she just didn't make for a very interesting character (imho)
We don't know the details, where they lived or what kind of quality of life they had so it's near impossible to guess if she was dumb trying to get away.
At four years old Sela was just too young to understand what was going on with her parents. If the father was kind towards her then Sela likely wasn't even aware that her mother was with him by force (Tasha was likely reluctant to explain to her young child what rape was) So toddler Sela is, imho, not to blame for what happened. But I do think she would have been a more interesting character if she had found out/ realized the truth about her mother as an adult and that had resulted in friction between her and her father/The Romulan Empire as a whole. Maybe she could have been in denial about it, and Picard (and maybe Spock too) could have helped her to work through that, resulting in a deep trust between them.
I'm not saying she should have become a good girl instantly, but maybe a bit more of a wild card who sometimes helps or hinders the Enterprise Crew.
As others have pointed out, the biggest mistake Tasha made was not drugging Sela to be asleep during their escape.
I'm not saying she should have become a good girl instantly, but maybe a bit more of a wild card who sometimes helps or hinders the Enterprise Crew.
As others have pointed out, the biggest mistake Tasha made was not drugging Sela to be asleep during their escape.
The word rape gets mentioned many times. In 'Redemption 2' Sela says that the lives of the Enterprise-C crew members would be spared if Tasha would become Romulan generals consort as he had a crush on Tasha. Maybe the two kind of had a relationship and there wasn't any sexual coercion happening.
That's still rape.
Sela's father demanded that Tasha have sex with him or the Enterprise-C prisoners would be executed. That's the very definition of coercion.
And, given that these are Romulans we're dealing with here, the prisoners were probably executed anyway...if the Romulans hadn't planned all along on executing the survivors BEFORE Tasha tried to make a run for it, surely they did so AFTER.
It doesn't matter if Sela's father had a "crush" on Tasha or was genuinely attracted to her in any way. The fact remains, he demanded sexual favors from Tasha on pain of death. If that's not rape, what is?
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