Harriere wrote:
CHEL: This is the day that was prophesied. The day our lore foretold. They will come from the sky to destroy us. They will burn the stars to light their way. We must be prepared.
He relates the prophecy to the new aliens, arriving in the aftermath of the Galactic War.
But doesn't he go on to say something like "hunt the strangers down and kill them?"
Of course, it's possible that he cited it every time some aliens turned up (we know the Mellanbys had visitors, such as Justin), but his people might have got a bit sceptical after a while.
Would they? People can be very stupid, and if he took a "See-- we got rid of those ones but the next ones could kill us" line, wouldn't it have kept them in a nervous and easily controlled state? And the prophecy keeps being partly fulfilled, because the outsiders who do turn up don't do anything to show they're not unfriendly, and the Mellanbys (Mellanbies?)keep shooting them.
(It's interesting that we *never* see the prophecy fulfilled - traditionally, these things do come to pass
Really? ISTM the best prophecies are the ones that *never* get fulfilled, so that people are always waiting for something that never comes.
, so perhaps Servalan decided to launch a revenge attack to teach them how to be polite to visiting dignitaries.)
Think she'd bother?
I'm sure the Sarrans would always have been very wary of alien arrivals, but that doesn't mean they couldn't have had preliminary negotiations when Hal arrived (and if that was 20 years ago, he might have negotiated with Chel's predecessor).
They don't negotiate with the people out of the capsules.
If they did, it would seem that the
negotiations broke down, reinforcing the fear of aliens and undermining anyone supporting a more conciliatory policy. At this point, they might have concluded that the Mellanbys were the vanguard of the aliens who would destroy them, but if they really thought they were so dangerous I can't believe it would have taken 20 years to eliminate them, if only by starving them out.
The Mellanbys have the advantage in terms of technology. The Sarrans couldn't find the escape hatch, either.
Checking the script again, Dayna says the Sarrans were a problem when her father first arrived, but now leave them alone. This could undermine my thesis, but I'm still prepared to argue for (a) preliminary negotiation (b) breakdown (c) intense skirmishing (d) stalemate (e) leaving each other alone, as Sarrans decide there's no immediate sign of their world being destroyed.
But then, why didn't Dayna say "Father said we got along well with them when we first arrived, but now they just attack us?" And why do the Mellanbies treat them like animals to be conditioned or killed?
Jenny
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