Zoe & Regular Army
POSTED BY: Charlotte
UPDATED: Saturday, September 15, 2007 09:31
VIEWED: 6754
PAGE 1 of 2
In the original script for the BDM (as well as elsewhere but I can't remember where), Zoe mentions that she, as well as her parents, was regular army. I don't think she means Alliance regular army but I'm a little confused as to what army she served in. Before the war, did each non-Alliance planet have their own army or what? Were the non-Alliance planets united in some fashion to have an army?
I'm totally ignorant about military matters and appreciate any input. Thanks!
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I would hazard a guess that Zoe was as you say a member of an independent planet's army before the war. After the war started there was probably some unified command structure (kinda like NATO) set up to coordinate the various armies of the independents but there is no solid evidence for this.
David
'Geeks can't admit that anything worthwhile was invented before 1981. Soon, "making cocoa" will be called "milk hacking."' - Lore Sjoberg
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Could be she was part of some local force. I get the notion that she isn't from a core planet, but that may have been a factor of where parents were stationed and doesn't preclude her from serving in a core planet's army. Even if she was she could of resigned after the war started and joined the independents. For instance, Robert E. Lee was part of the US Army before the Civil War.
Makes me wonder about the war for unification. I know the parallel is supposed to be the US Civil War, but I can't help asking the question "How can it be a Civil War if the planets weren't united in the first place?"
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I keep coming back to the Civil War but my military history is so sketchy and I'm too lazy to research this myself.
Could be that the outer planets may have each had their own "National Guard" type of force. When war became imminent each planet merged their forces.
One hitch with this scenario is that if regular army is limited to an individual planet and Zoe's parents were regular army and she was born vesselside (which I'm assuming to be a military vessel?) why would there be military presence in space?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Civil War usually occurs after political secession.
In the US Civil War, the Southern States left the Federation and created a Confederation.
Which has led me to believe that at a point in time all the planets were part of the Alliance?
Which doesn't make any sense because the outer planets don't seem to have any political representation. The relationship of the Alliance controlled core planets and the less inhabitated outer planets is more of an Imperalistic political model rather a Federation or Confederation. Unwanted Alliance presence (an occupation) would lead to a Revolution (Britian and the colonies) rather than a Civil War.
And where would that leave Zoe... Alliance Army and then an Independent or Revolutionary Army?
Anyone else having trouble with this?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Makes sense to me.
Charlotte makes a good point, she could have been born on a vessel.
Maybe she spent so much of her life traveling the outer planets as a child and then as a young soldier they're what she came to see as home... more than a core planet.
Kind of sad a lot of story here and we can only speculate.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Charlotte:
I keep coming back to the Civil War but my military history is so sketchy and I'm too lazy to research this myself.
Could be that the outer planets may have each had their own "National Guard" type of force. When war became imminent each planet merged their forces.
One hitch with this scenario is that if regular army is limited to an individual planet and Zoe's parents were regular army and she was born vesselside (which I'm assuming to be a military vessel?) why would there be military presence in space?
I've some how gotten the notion that each Independent planet or moon had a militia type organization sort of like the National Guard or the units that came together by town or region during the Revolution. They would have had to band together to be effective fighting units and face the Alliance.
Also, Zoe could also have been born on one of the large vessels like the Dortmunder. It did have a nursery. It was mentioned in "Bushwacked".
http://fireflyfaninnc.livejournal.com/
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Serenity OVC states that the Central Planets Military Council looked to expand the Alliance onto every planet, and was promptly met by resistance, 'more than half volunteers'. Which indicates to me that some planets had a military of their own.
Maybe a better analogy would be the collapse of the Roman Empire. Certain units posted to the edge of Empire, recruiting locally and finding they have more in common with the locals that with the central command...that could work.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Platonist:
Civil War usually occurs after political secession.
In the US Civil War, the Southern States left the Federation and created a Confederation.
Which has led me to believe that at a point in time all the planets were part of the Alliance?
Which doesn't make any sense because the outer planets don't seem to have any political representation. The relationship of the Alliance controlled core planets and the less inhabitated outer planets is more of an Imperalistic political model rather a Federation or Confederation. Unwanted Alliance presence (an occupation) would lead to a Revolution (Britian and the colonies) rather than a Civil War.
And where would that leave Zoe... Alliance Army and then an Independent or Revolutionary Army?
Anyone else having trouble with this?
well... the civil war doesn't really hold up - you're right - but it's such a deep well to actually explore that it's worth using elements of it - in the show, fics, discussions etc.
i think the American War of Independence is a useful model - though the out come was very different!
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
well the idea of regular armies could also add to the list reasons why the alliance launched the war
some of the more developed independent colonies may of built up a professional armed forces inorder to protect their interest. Naturally they may of been a series of small scale or even all out war between the colonies (as each planet is like a country so they'd have a small army or militia). So the allaince may see these colonial wars as a threat to themselves as well as the settlers so they add it to the list to launch their war.
and the rest is history
----------------
That was when i found out my pants were on fire, and that's my Courageous story.
[url] http://www.myspace.com/blindoutlaw [/url]
- Jimmy the Blindoutlaw
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME