Having Lorca on Discovery was almost like a social experiment. How long does it take for people to accept actions that they previously found unacceptable if those actions are put in a nice package, that package being Jason Isaacs. When Lorca first showed up on the show being shady and doing things that were very un-Starfleet, people immediately saw him for what he was. His character was criticized a lot. But as each episode went on, the character didn’t change at all but people softened up to him so much that last week there were tons of people mad that the show “suddenly” made him villainous. But the show didn’t suddenly do anything. The show treated the character the way it always has, like a shady person who’s probably worse than he lets on. Making Lorca a villain was barely a plot twist, it was just the culmination of the foreshadowing we got in every single episode.
Of all the wild impossibilities of sci-fi, surely the most egregious was this week’s episode of Star Trek Discovery, when a 50-something man was attracted to a woman his own age.
Ok, but am I the only one who really likes the idea that Spock not applying to the Vulcan Science Academy was a deliberate, calculated act of solidarity with his sister?
Because Spock’s bright, and so is Michael, but he doesn’t have Michael’s blinders, at least not about her. He knows damn well that his sister was good enough for the Vulcan Expeditionary Force, and he can probably guess why they turned her down, based on what we’ve heard about his childhood and the exclusion and bullying he endured. He might not know that Sarak had to make that decision, but he knows the reasons why that decision was forced on him, and he’s having none of it. If Michael can’t join the VEF, neither will he.
So yeah these titles are totally good place references.
So I wrote a post about Michael’s Vulcan upbrininging influencing her decision making and morality. I was tempted to add in some stuff about Captain Lorca, but its already a novel by Tumblr standards so I’ve decided to do a sepearate post for Captain Lorca.
A big fan theory for Gabriel Lorca is that he is from the mirror!verse. Peronally I am not a fan of this theory, but I don’t think it flattens him out into a villain if he is. Prime or Mirror Captain Lorca is a morally complicated man and frankly I think if he’s from the mirror verse he ithis actually makes him more complicated.
In The Original Star Trek when the prime universe crew trades places with their mirror verse counterparts the Terrans only lasted a few hours, viscous, brutal, savage and paranoid they found themselves unable to blend into our universe. Now TOS wasn’t exactly a subtle show, but regardles in spite of the very great moral difference between The Terrans and the Federation if Gabriel Lorca is from the mirror verse he’s actually gone undetected for several months. Which means if he is from the mirror verse he is actually following his own code of ethics and they aren’t so far off from the federation that anyone except someone who knows him very well did not realize the difference.
Gabriel Lorca is manipulative and he pushes people, he studies them and determines the ideal way to appeal to their natures so that they do what he wants, even if it is at great personal cost. What he doesn’t do is lie to people to get them to do things and he doesn’t actually bully them instead he tailors an individual appeal to the listener and approaches them accordingly. You may not like it, but its good leadership.
And so far we have not seen him motivated by petty or selfish actions, he pushed Stamets to make 144 jumps to break the Klingon cloak. Now if you imagine him as some devious mastermind you’re thinking this was done so Stamets would have an incomplete jump and they’d end up in another universe, except wait a minute once Stamets completed the number of jumps necessary for the Klingon cloak Lorca assumed they would head back to starbase whatever # by old fashioned warp. Stamets volunters to do one more jump and Lorca is suprised. There is no conversation here Stamets simply says he’ll complete one more jump.
If you rewatch the scene it’s clear Lorca has no idea what is going to happen.
Ofc even if I make the arugement that Lorca did not a mastermind the accident in an attempt to return to the universe from which he sprung his treament of Katrina Cornwell is indefensible, right? While I agree that his casual dismissal of her fate is horrible, its exactly what i would expcet from someone in the mirrorverse who has made up their mind to not be as utterly terrible as the people around him. It’s opportunistic, it’s ruthless and we wonder how he could so cool to someone he called a friend, and slept with the night before, but by mirrorverse standards in which he would have probably just arranged her assisation it would be considered weakness and mercy, the sign of someone without a taste for killing.
I’m not saying he is a good guy, I’m saying if he is from the mirror verse by the standards with which he would have been raised and lived he’s medium person.
Also known as morally and ambigous and given how utterly ruthless the mirrorverse it is it shows a certain amount of cleverness and intestinal fortitude to go your own way and follow your own code.
I still doubt he is from the mirrorverse or if he is I don’t think he has any real desire to go back. I don’t think he was delaying when they were on the Shenzhou, I think he rightly guessed that they might not have all the information that they needed from the record they could acces.
Gabriel Lorca, medium person, maybe he can join Chidi Anagonye’s ethics lessons.
I don’t entirely agree with the conclusions here, but I like the cut of OP’s jib.
shealwaysreads 