Paul and Madeline

[swatkat]

Since we were talking about harshness - are we, the Michael/Nikita fans, too harsh when it comes to Paul and Madeline? Even those of us who actually like and admire them (including myself)? We're always going on about their cruelty and how Michael or Nikita (Nikita for me *g*) would've done a better job as Operations - why is that so? Now that we know all about Oversight and Centre, wasn't what Paul and Madeline did for their own survival, just like the way Michael and Nikita fought to survive in Section? And what is the guarantee that Michael and Nikita wouldn't do the exact same things when they got the power? Your thoughts here. *g*

Nell, tell me why Nikita wouldn't fall in the same trap as Paul in order to survive.

Comments

Part I

[nell65.livejournal.com]

Corman was the poor Birkoff replacement who figured out what was going on in the Catch a Falling Star ep - the one in 'Tennessee' with the downed satalite.

I don't think the vast majority of it was capricious, in the sense of it being simply on a personal whim (although there was some of that).

I think there was enough to undermine any respect for the system.

I think it was capricious in the sense of being used against people who had committed all sorts of minor errors -- but that seems to have been built into the system.

Perhaps - but that also passes the buck from Madeline and Paul, which I'm not keen to do. Paul made a big deal about how much power he had more than once, so he can take the rap too, however much he didn't like that part. Paul was free to use and interpret the cancellation option however he wanted, and unless we posit that Center had a 'cancellation' quota he had to meet, he could choose how frequently he turned to that tool - and he choose to use it often (though I'm not sure I think he used it as often as once a week! But then, I think Section was a lot smaller than you do, I think.....).

The Sections went much, much farther than any normal military organization.

Depends on when and where you're looking, actually.

While many armies use conscripts, for example, conscripts serve for a limited amount of time, and then get discharged (when their service is up, when the war is over, etc.).

Again - that depends on time and place. And slave/conscript armies have different structures and discpline issues - but respect for officers and morale turns out to matter even in those armies.

People in Section serve for *life* and are quite literally slaves. (Can you imagine what would have happened if the draftees sent to Vietnam were told they would have to serve for life? Without the end of the tour of duty to look forward to, the mutinies would have been out of control.)

Some historians of the Vietnam era army would tell you that mutinies were nearly out of control as it was - not of the group rebellion kind, but of the simple refusal kind. That the high levels of drug and alchool use and abuse and consequent unfitness for duty were a form of mutiny, and while I'm sure the stories have grown in the telling there were enough instances of soldiers killing their own officers while 'in the field' that it kept everybody looking over their shoulders. If you think you might die before your term is up - it is a life sentence.

And other armies in other times have drafted people for MUCH longer terms. The British Army/Navy drafted for up to twenty years in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Moreover, while soldiers are ordered into situations where they are often killed, it is very rare that the army executes its own people -- this happens for treason or serious crimes.

Formally? No not often. But most militaries histories are rife with situations in which those sent into the most dangerous situations are 'pegged' for death intentionally, and the number of training and field 'accidents' which are not accidental is also high (though again, tales may make these sound more prevelant than they are). The point is, there are lots of ways to be killed, intentionally, by your superior officers without the formality of a trial proceeding. And the reasons can be petty to quite serious, but things that fall outside or beyond the legal boundaries.