Spoilers What do you think of Lorca's Arc?

[gblews]

No, I assumed nothing;

Actually, you did. You also took my quote out of context. It was a response to your description of the Emperor you saw in episode 12, when she destroyed the rebel base. You apparently assumed that the character would remain nothing but irredeemably evil from that point on. That was simply not the case. In episode 13 we saw more evil in the character, but there were other things as well. Writers do have the right to slowly reveal new things about their characters (wihin reason, which, I think this is) as the story unfolds, no?

If the goal was to present Georgiou as someone who was (even potentially) "well rounded" rather than irredeemably evil, someone with whom the viewpoint character (and thus the viewer) might actually sympathize, it seems surpassingly odd to devote all of her screen time in her first episode to conveying the exact opposite impression, and then do an about-face in the next.

My turn; are you serious? There is some rule that demands that a character must show all of his, her, or it's, personality in the character's initial appearance, and thereafter, the character can no longer display any characteristics not already shown? Where is this rule written?

As has been discussed in other threads, her narrative to Burnham of the past relationship between MU Lorca and MU Burnham seemed like a fairly blatant attempt to poison Burnham's mind against him with unconfirmable information and innuendo casting him in the worst possible light. At the very least, it was all obviously filtered through the Emperor's own resentments against two people who had turned against her, given the obvious premium she placed on personal loyalty. That Burnham (or the viewers) should be expected to take her account at face value seems, shall we say, illogical.

Burnham weighed what the Emperor told her about Lorca and compared the info with what she knew about him. She knew he had an unusual interest in her (along with the other things) she realized were giveaways to his true identity and concluded that he had lied about who he was and likely engineered Disco's entrance into his home universe.

Burnham concluded that Lorca had lied to her and based upon that knowledge she decided to trust Georgiou. Georgiou hadn't lied to Burnham up to that point, and for her, that made all the difference in the world. She was playing the percentages, a "known" quantity (Lorca, liar) against an "unknown" quantity (Phillipa, who had not lied to her up to that point).

It's easy to see, but you have to be open to seeing.

 

[lawman]

Suffice it to say we read episodes 12 and 13 in very different ways. I found their presentations of the characters glaringly inconsistent and opined that the writers were failing to communicate with one another; you apparently found them to offer a plausible "slow reveal" as the story "unfolded." I think you're being too generous.

I do agree with you about this...

Burnham concluded that Lorca had lied to her and based upon that knowledge she decided to trust Georgiou. Georgiou hadn't lied to Burnham up to that point, and for her, that made all the difference in the world.

That was clearly something episode 13 meant to convey, and it succeeded. The difference is, you apparently find it reasonable, whereas I think it makes her an incomprehensibly stupid character, badly blinded by misplaced emotions.

 

[zenophite]

To the thread's title question:

As one of the people who would have preferred his character to be a rare hard-nosed pragmatist and iconoclast within Star Fleet, I am sorely disappointed by Lorca's arc overall.

Specifically though I think the last two or three episodes felt rushed in terms of character development. He didn't seem to have a consistent portrayal at the end to me. I assume that the writers were probably going for the idea that he was so deft at manipulation that he could hide his evil inner nature for the entire time he was in the prime universe. I just don't buy that the power-mad destiny-obsessed lunatic we saw in 'What's Past Is Prologue' would have been able to pull that off like that. Not to mention the fact that it just doesn't feel consistent with who we saw up until then.