Ли Парду о Росомахах

[DeJaVu]

My bad - I posted this in the Writer's Lounge and assumed everyone could read it.



My “Final” Word on the Betrayal of Ideals. Okay, not really final. I reserve the right to whine a little more after this. Not final. More like, “near final-ish.”

# # #

Wow…is it over yet? Whew! Cough! What’s all that smoke? Where are my beloved Wolverines? What's that smell? Uh oh...

Okay, it’s done. Like or hate it, the truth behind the Wolverines demise is now known. As a writer in this universe since Ronald Reagan was President; I have loved doing this story because it spawned a lot of discussion, debate, accusations and recriminations. It is pleasing that people are so passionate about the universe.

For me, this was a hell of a neat ride. I’m now understanding why no one tackled this before. People took a few scant lines out of sourcebooks and in their minds, created a whole mythos around the Wolverines. I came in and trampled their little flowers.

At the same time, I have been totally amazed at the things people have posted in regards to the story…enough to warrant me to say a few words about them before I disappear for a few months.

A handful of “loud voices” have ripped apart the story because:
- It totally rewrote the history of what happened to Clan Wolverine.
- It portrayed Nicholas as slightly, well, nuts.
- Betrayal “attributed all technological innovations the Clans ever made as being discovered by the Wolverines.”
- The story says that the Wolverines were responsible for the innovations in the Clan breeding program.
- The Wolverines are projected as “white knights,” and the rest of the Clans are “evil.”

I have also been accused of being the other gunman on the grassy knoll, the guy that started the Cold War, the man responsible for Star Trek’s cancellation, and dressing up as Stefan Amaris in drag last Halloween. I will pass on comments along these lines.

I don’t honestly feel I owe these critics an explanation. But, simply because it will toss some fuel on the fire and is bound to give more than one of the loud-mouths an ulcer – I will present my stance on all of this. Call it ego – call it being mean, I had to have some fun.

In terms of rewriting history – I plead, “guilty with an explanation your honor.” I provided a degree of clarity that was not present in the sourcebooks. This degree of clarity changes the perception of that material or places it in question. “Yes, I did that your honor – with malice.”

There is not a BattleTech or MechWarrior fiction writer out there that totally confines himself to the sourcebook material. If we did, the fiction for the universe would suck. Also, let’s look at the “historical perspective” (remember, if you didn’t know, this is a fictional universe) behind all of this:

The holy sourcebooks tell us that the Wolverines made a bid for independence because of a dispute over a Brian Cache. They defied the other 19 clans and rushed out of the Grand Council Chambers, guns drawn, threatening Nicholas and the other leaders personally. Somehow they escape or are allowed to go free. When pressed to fight, they unleashed a single nuclear weapon on the Snow Raven capital. They then fought an epic struggle in the Clan homeworlds but some of them may have escaped. Tossed in, some colorful sidebar stories regarding love affairs, threats on Nicholas’s wife, etc..

Okay, time to pick this scab until it bleeds. Allow me to question the premises in the original sourcebook material. Why would you, as the leader of a Clan, make such a big deal over a Brian Cache? Would a Cache really be worth a war with the other Clans? You would wage war because your father served in the unit whose gear in the Cache? Does anyone think that Nicholas or the other Clans were going to allow the Wolverines independence? How do you make that work, an independent society in the middle of Clan society? Does it make sense to think that McEvedy could draw a weapon on her peers without igniting an all-out war? If you went to war, would you nuke a city full of civilians rather than a military target? If you were outnumbered 19 to 1, wouldn’t you open up the arsenals and nuke everyone at once? And if you did, to what end? Why just go after the Snow Ravens? Would you really dig in to slug it out with them in the homeworlds?

Okay, none of this works without some additional fiction to fill in some fairly large gaps in logic. Admit it. You may have thought it did all of these years, but it didn’t. And don’t try that crap of, “you just don’t understand the Clans.” No matter what, if the story was going to be told there were gaps that had to be filled in.

So now you know why I went down the path I did. No matter what, I never felt that the little tid bits were, on their own, strong enough justification for a bid for Wolverine independence.

I didn’t limit myself to just writing about what was in the sourcebook material. I nuked Great Hope for example. Some people howled, like babies, “that isn’t in the sourcebooks.” Duh. Look at three paragraphs earlier, a lot of the known facts don’t necessarily add up to the extermination of the Wolverines. The lack of sourcebook references doesn’t mean that events didn’t happen.

Try another perspective on this. Look at the events on 9/11. The entire focus of the media each year on the anniversary is on the twin towers. The Pentagon attack is barely mentioned. In a few years, it will hardly be a footnote to the entire terrorist attack. In the centuries of Clan society, it is easy to see that the nuking of Dehdra Duh-n would be all that is remembered.

Did I rewrite history? Yes – er, no. In Betrayal, a Brian Cache was one of the key incidents that led to a Wolverine bid for independence. The incident in the Grand Council chambers didn’t happen – but the dialogue did. Check the text of her key conversations. The Clans themselves created the fake little holodrama to provide a good justification for their total war on the Wolverine scourge. Dehdra Dun was nuked – and it wouldn’t have happened if the Wolverines hadn’t jumped into the middle of the fight. Technically, they contributed to the disaster there and from the Clans perspective – they were guilty of doing it. Were there battles in Clanspace? Oh, yes. So what was it that actually changed again? Some dates were off – I’ll give you that – but realistically, it is the same story, just turned on its side.

I contend that if I had written the story ONLY based on the sourcebooks materials there would be fans out there crying, “that doesn’t make sense!” I’ll error on the side of “damned if I do.”

Did Betrayal make Nicholas appear as a nut-job? Clanners – I hate to break it to you – Nicholas WAS somewhat nuts. For God’s sake, I even strongly hinted that he was brain-damaged in the Wolf Clan Sourcebook. Hello McFly! No one builds a society like the Clans without having a bolt or two loose in the old noggin. I know this rubs some people wrong but ultimately it does not make Nicholas any less of a great man. If you read the German novels that Randall wrote you will learn that he was quite a whack-job and political schemer willing to sacrifice other people for his cause. He was a visionary but let’s be honest, you don’t create something along the lines of The Clans without being out there a little bit. Nicholas = Great Man but at the same time, Nicholas = not-right-in-the-head-dude.

The Wolverines were responsible for all of the Clan’s technological innovations attributed to the Golden Century – NOT! Betrayal does not say that. I introduced the forerunner of the Clan PPC. That’s it. One thing. One little bit of technology that is most likely lost in all of the fighting.

I tossed in a new Mech – the Mercury II. I never once said it had Omni technology. Not once. You fans did that. I tossed in the Coyote reference to recovering the ‘Mech just because it further stoked this fire. Yes, my switch was set to “evil” that night. If you’re asking me one way or another, was the Mercury II an Omni prototype my response is, “no comment.”

I was accused on some web site, I forget which one, of giving the Wolverines advanced genetics. In the story, it is said that the Wolverines were having a winning streak in many of their combat trials. At no time did I say that was because the Wolverines had better iron womb technologies. The Wolverines simply won a lot, unlike the Lions or the Redskins this season.

The Wolverines were white knights? Hmm. Well, I did have them destroy a Ghost Bear genetics repository. I did have a scientist contaminate a group of Ghost Bear warriors genes with Wolverine genes – leading to a mass suicide. Did you miss the part where I defiled the Great Kerensky’s tomb and blew up the Grand Council chambers? Yeah, real white knight stuff here. Real goody-two-shoes.

In doing this story I wanted to portray McEvedy as creating a self-fulfilling prophesy. Her chaffing against the Clans forces actions which cause her to react in a way that provokes the Clans to react in a way that force her to react – in the end – leading to the very demise she had hoped to avoid.

Hallis? I felt sorry for him. Slowly drawn in on a course of events he cannot fully control, it was sad. He demonstrated the best qualities of the Clans. He assumed the mantle of leadership and continued on, against the odds. For a while, it seemed he almost was going to make it too.

The Ghost Bear Warriors being tainted with the Wolverines – I liked that especially. Wow. There was impact far beyond the Nicholas years. The Clans were going to have to pay a price at some point for what they did. The Ghost Bears bore the brunt of this. Now, did I torture the Ghost Bears because some of the self-proclaimed experts out there happened to be Ghost Bear supporters? Naa. The Ghost Bears in the end of the saga were penned well over a year ago. Yes, I’m petty, but not that petty.

Why pick on the Widowmakers? Well, I picked them because dealing with a Clan that’s not around any more is easier (one) and their genetic material would be dispersed over time (two) in case the powers that be bring the Wolverine offspring into play again.

So, where does this leave the Wolverines? Were they the Minnesota Tribe or some other splinter group out in the Periphery? No comment. Besides, you all have fertile imaginations; go nuts with your speculation(s). For me, I’m going to crack open a beer and smile. One piece of history has been filled out. You guys got a ride through a period we knew little about, the early Clan years. Everyone wanted to know the details of the Wolverines. There – boom, you got it.

The final word for you folks is this, imagine what the Wolverines could have morphed into. Imagine the fury their future generations would have in regards to the Clans. And pity any Wolverine that ever is encountered by a Ghost Bear. But that assumes there are survivors…doesn’t it? Heh, heh, heh…

Kudos to Randall and Loren who kept the faith, and to the guys in continuity who rightfully wanted to kill me but held off until the end. Special thanks to the Battlecorps subscribers who stayed on to the end of the saga.

[Stan]

Да уж... Парду просто выпорол всех бешенных фанов-консерваторов... Хотелось бы обсудить его комменты с теми, кто уже прочитал Betrayal of Ideals в оригинале. К ним и вопрос: И что вы думаете по поводу вышенаписанного???

[Siberian-troll]

Мое мнение?
Оно здесь:
http://www.classicbattletech.ru/phpBB2/ ... php?t=5582

Сыро. Мало. Рвано.

Должно было бы быть эпичнее. Гораздо.
Хотя... черт возьми - хорошо!

Такие вкусные моменты имеются.

She opened her mouth when suddenly the air between her unit and the Jaguars became filled with brilliant, blue light. The sounds was more like a cracking of lightning only a thousand times louder, even from within the cockpit of her ’Mech. The beam or beams was blinding, even with the dampers in the ferroglas cockpit. A second later another barrage appeared, lightning from the sky that devoured an acre at a time. She heard a scream on the broad-band channel—not from one of her people. What is this? What is happening? Another few seconds and she would have been in that light. Light? No. Orbital bombardment. She smiled.
As suddenly as it hit, the barrage stopped. Everything was burned to carbon. The fallen form of Thomlinson’s BattleMech looked like a charred tree stump more than a war machine. The same could be said of the Flashman and two other Jaguar BattleMechs. The other Smoke Jaguars were falling back in a full retreat. Trish was stunned. What happened?
Her comm unit came to life. “This is the McKenna’s Pride to Wolverine force on Strana Mechty. Dropship is in route to extract you. Move out to the plains and prepare for immediate departure.” The voice was that of saKhan Franklin Hallis.
“McKenna’s Pride?” she replied stunned. Of all the ships, this one was one she had not expected. “You stole the General’s flag¬ship of the Exodus? My God, Franklin, it is the Pride.” Now it made sense. She had witnessed an orbital bombardment from the aging battleship that had remained in orbit over Strana Mechty. Franklin must have overpowered the honor guard and seized the ship. The Clans frowned on the use of warships to fight honorable battles on the ground. Good thing we are no longer Clan.
“Stolen? Negative Star Captain,” Hallis came back. “We overpowered the guard and are using it to cover your withdrawal. We are not taking the Pride, but leaving her here. I simply borrowed it for a little while.”
“This will not go over well with the Grand Council.”
There was a pause. “Then what I do next will go over with them even less.”

Franklin paused at the glass-topped coffin of the Great General and looked at his face. “Your son is an evil man, General. He has caused the deaths of innocents. Nicholas is selling my people out to simply hold onto his power. Forgive me General, but he will be made to pay. I am sorry, but you would do the same thing if you were in my shoes—I know it.”
He pivoted in mid-air and pushed away. In the pit of his stomach he knew that the battles of the Wolverine Clan had just started.

[Kane]

Сыро. Мало. Рвано.

+1
К сожалению, каждая эпоха худлита к БТ вбирает в себя основные тенденции массовой культуры своего времени. Мануалы давали и дают поле для индивидуальных интерпретаций происшедших событий, подстегивают фантазию. Худлит, во многих случаях, наоборот ограничивает, сужает и... как в этом случае сводит до уровня бразильских мыльных опер. Культурный уровень фиктивных БТ-политиков, руководителей комментировать просто жалко. А "американизированная" версия черного и белого не просто нитью - канатом проходит сквозь книгу и "послесловие" автора.
Лично я предпочитаю поэтому тот массив БТ л-ры, который максимально отходит от политической области и переходит в сферу экшн - там хотя бы так смеяться сквозь слезы не хочеться.