#thesis please

[sunfalls]

i don't want the ghorman project. i've thought it through all night, and i don't want it

[contentment-of-cats]

The garage-built jack-job sub and capital H Hubris

Y'all are going to get sick of me.

So, there's this post on OceanGate's site. Read it.

Now, from the top.

Come over here, you dumbfuck. Oh, forgot. You're on the ship, too, and most likely dead.

Lets look at this part first:

Most major marine operators require that chartered vessels are “classed” by an independent group such as the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), DNV/GL, Lloyd’s Register, or one of the many others. These groups have assembled very detailed standards for classing everything from oil tankers to auxiliary ship equipment like Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs). Many of these standards are based on industry practice or covered by regulations such as reserve buoyancy, the number of life rafts, the types of materials that can be used on a hull, etc. Classing assures ship owners, insurers, and regulators that vessels are designed, constructed and inspected to accepted standards.(1) Classing may be effective at filtering out unsatisfactory designers and builders, but the established standards do little to weed out subpar vessel operators – because classing agencies only focus on validating the physical vessel. They do not ensure that operators adhere to proper operating procedures and decision-making processes – two areas that are much more important for mitigating risks at sea. The vast majority of marine (and aviation) accidents are a result of operator error, not mechanical failure(2). As a result, simply focusing on classing the vessel does not address the operational risks. Maintaining high-level operational safety requires constant, committed effort and a focused corporate culture – two things that OceanGate takes very seriously and that are not assessed during classification.

*deep breath*

(1) Assuring regulators, buyers, and insurers that a vessel is fit for purpose means that a vessel is constructed in a manner generally accepted as safe.

(2) If you accept that the majority of marine and aviation accidents are operator error, then one can also argue that operators during those accidents are operating a vehicle recognized as safe in an unsafe manner.

Draw your own conclusions.

[sunfalls]

[sunfalls]

while both dedra and syril have a preoccupation with order i think they differ in why they want order and that's what ultimately causes their ideals to diverge even if they seem perfectly aligned at first

dedra will support a genocide—will demand that genocide—if she believes it ultimately preserves order because she views order as something which itself supports control. for her, control is the end goal and maintaining order is important but subordinate to that. we see throughout the series that she expresses a displeasure at inefficiency ("I don't like wasting time") and as luthen puts it disgust at the state of the galaxy. i think she holds the view that society needs a leash around its neck to keep it from harming itself and sees the empire as something that has appropriately collared and chained the galaxy to keep it from devolving into some baser state of violence (and if we're getting into headcanon territory this has to do with growing up in an extremely chaotic situation under the republic until [in her eyes] the empire rose to fix it). she's a bootlicker that fully believes in the necessity of the boot kicking people when they're down because that enforcement of order keeps others in line. her fatal mistake is thinking that her rank protects her from being stepped on too. she knows what the empire is and fully loves it anyway because it represents safety from freedom, which she sees as an inherently violent and uncontrolled state

and that's where syril differs. for syril, order is prized for its own sake. i think the shot of him straightening that stupid fondue fork on the plate before dinner exemplifies the difference between them even if i also think i’m probably reading way too much into it lmfao. for dedra, order serves control but doesn't have to be perfect to fulfill its ultimate purpose. for syril, it must be perfect—order is its own reward, its own goal. everything will be right with the galaxy if everyone just does things the way they’re supposed to and follows the rules, because the rules are inherently just and correct and therefore anyone who violates them deserves to be put down (except when it's him and dedra doing it For The Greater Good because that's different. obviously). syril does not see the empire for what it is because he really truly believes it upholds Truth and Justice in the form of law and order. and that is where the divide between them ultimately stems from. on ghorman syril is eventually confronted—blindsided—by an injustice so massive and so intentional and so clearly attributable to this monolith he worships, utterly counter to the fundamental bedrock of belief in the righteousness of the empire he has built his entire life around, that he genuinely cannot process it

like, the ghorman front tries to get him on their side by saying “emperor palpatine has no idea what [the isb is doing] in his name" and obviously syril does not care about that in the slightest lol but also, like, i do think he believes in that sentiment on a wider scale. the emperor and others of the highest imperial echelons simply don’t see the inefficiency, the way good men die at the hands of criminals like cassian andor and nobody does anything about it, the way violations of the law occur everywhere, every day with nobody to care or attempt to fix them. and thus it’s syril’s job to help Restore Proper Order in a broken system.

and THIS. this divide is why dedra's saying never mind all the innocent people i'm about to give the order to be massacred, we're going home, we will be rewarded, this was planned long before we got here. i don't think she realizes that she's talking past him at that point. i think she was expecting him to be most hurt by the betrayal to him as an individual who didn't get to be in on the real plan, not have his core belief system blown to smithereens along with the people and planet. because she thinks their ideals are more aligned than they are. she thinks he'll be able to justify a genocide with For The Empire, For The Greater Good, For Ultimate Control the way she is and doesn't understand that syril's beliefs are just misaligned enough for this to serve as his breaking point

[sunfalls]

the bix interrogation scene in s1 goes crazy because i don’t know if we ever see dedra happier or having more fun than she is in that moment. it informs so much of her character in my eyes of what her priorities are and what gets her out of bed in the morning and where she finds joy in life. she is so twisted and nasty and i love her dearly

[sunfalls]

now playing: andor — the complete keero cut

season 1

season 2

so @i-was-a-raider dragged me & keero cut s2 across the finish line. not only did she cut the entire ghorman massacre like a pro but she performed actual magic on all the little mistakes i made in cutting the other episodes & made sure there was actual narrative continuity where i forgot it. this wouldn’t have gotten finished without her and i cannot express just how grateful i am that she took the WIP i had and dead sprinted to the finish line with it. 100000/10, thank you thank you thank you, & any remaining weirdness in the cut is my fault.

[sunfalls]

oh another thing that hurts but hits me just right in the narratively satisfying part of my brain is the way that dedra is such an asset to the empire and yet they throw her away. you don’t do that to someone who will wholly devote themselves to your cause no matter what you put that person through. especially not someone that brilliant. it’s such a waste of talent and a perfect example of the empire’s values and the way its existence is unabashedly about exercising control over others to hurt them even if it’s to the system’s own detriment

[sunfalls]

now playing: the keero cut (season 1)

have mercy on my novice editing abilities when you hit the ferrix sections please lmfao <3 feel free to share/download/use for whatever purposes you wish — let me know if you like it!