I hate to drag this thread...back on topic(?) concerning the likelihood of Caldari-Gallente relations, but as a Historian in RL (focus on Europe/Central Asia), every little detail about how the CCP PF team has developed both the Caldari and the Gallente domestic political situations as well as the war+diplomacy makes me so fucking excited. They can do so much with what they have right now. And, if you'll allow me, I'll turn your attentions away from Cops vs Yarrbears for just a moment so that I can nerdgush a bit.
The idea of the situation — as it is NOW — turning into at least a temporary situation of Squid/Frog lovefesting is really not nearly as impossible as the RP community seems to think.
Public Opinion (oh boy I could write a book on Public Opinion — and I just might) is extremely fickle. Just as an example: the Matari reaction to their vaunted Ray of Matar getting capped at that Gallente/Matar event, and the RSS sent blundering into their best friends' turf? While all the RPers I've spoken to have wondered what the fuck CCP is smoking, I see it quite differently.
Basing off the RL historical record, this sounds completely plausible as a way for the Shakor government to keep the Midularist Sebbies from accusing his regime of benefiting from/not caring about her possible death. She IS, after all, still a powerful enemy to the Sanmatar's agenda, and he will benefit from her death(assuming her successor is less of a force of nature than she is). (In this hypothetical, Shakor would want to present an outraged, impassioned reaction: sending the RSS over the border as a token gesture of blind grief/anger— the Fed (and, as it happened, DED) says no predictably, so at that critical moment the RSS is not given the Pew-Pew go-ahead and returns. Shakor can now return to hurfing and blurfing without sparking hostilities with his primary ally, while enjoying tacit support from both the Sebbies and his traditional allies. The Fed will forgive it for now — because they need Matari support not just abroad, but also inside the Federation; how much of the Matari people live in the Fed these days? — and once this evil dude is brought to full, public justice, everyone will pretend like the RSS didn't do anything and once the fuss has settled down, all the repercussions will play out quietly in diplomatic concessions. Politics!)
This happens quite a bit in RL — US-Pakistan relations are FULL of it currently, France-Britain were doing this all the time Pre-WWI (mostly over colonies) and Pre-WWII, despite fully relying on each other to make sure each new German Reich didn't get too powerful, and oh godChina/neighbors at all times. Public Opinion becomes easily changed and manipulated with each new outrage and perceived betrayal/scandal the moment fast-travelling news becomes wide-spread.
But to return to Gallente-Caldari relations (and to explain why the above is important!), the Caldari are led by a Strong Man. Strong Men™ are not a historically good choice for leadership: they abhor anointing strong, competent, and influential successors (when they choose any at all) for fear of coups, leading to very limited political legacies. They tend to rule not from being the best choice, or by true, grassroots popular support, but rather because their cult of personality (and most do have one) has convinced everyone less powerful than them that they DO have popular support or are currently unassailable. Generally, they excel most not in administration or policy, but rather in making sure that nobody can properly organize against them.
Because of this, Strong Men have proven to be really easy to kick out of power with minimal loyalist fuss.
Case in point: Mid-1930's: German Generals travel to London and France, asking the Brits and the French to invade Germany. Yes, you read that right. The theory these Generals had was that if France (boasting the largest army at the time) and Britain (reputedly the finest Navy) invaded, the weak, pre-Škoda Wehrmacht would fall back, the German public would lose faith in Hitler's bombastic declarations of German strength, and Hitler's regime would collapse in the face of failure. The dissenting Generals would then assume power, negotiate peace, and Germany would return to a sort of 1920s situation again, which they evidently had much preferred. (Why the Brits and the French did not take them up on this plan has been the subject of several books by several scholars, written with gritted teeth and much exasperation. The Generals, on the other hand, would try to repeatedly assassinate Hitler during the course of the war.)
I bring this case up in particular because Heth is not in the unassailable position of power that he had when he first took power, raping female CEOs and whateverelseTGonzalezdreamtup. He now has to deal with a practically rogue Ishukone, and the sense I have been getting is that the other mega's are constantly looking for opportunities to passive-aggressively snub his agenda. They could easily take the place of the German Generals, asking the Gallente to provide that added push, while they use their infrastructure to spam the airwaves with messages of how Heth has cocked the situation up horribly, and just look at how his mishandling of the situation has let the Gallente invade once again, oh woe is me we ought to kick him out and replace him, with, say, that nice fellow from [InsertMegaHere]. I mean, shit, the Megas actually own the Caldari people as literal human resources. They've got opportunities the German conservatives couldn't have dreamt of.
Public Opinion is really that easy in the age of ubiquitous news agencies - people frequently assume that a foreign invasion is an instant unifier of divided peoples, but this is most definitely not the case. Time and time again, a sudden, seemingly-unstoppable invasion can turn initially fiery resistance into total demoralization and leader-blaming. For fucks sake, look at Nullsec. It's so common out there that we've even given this phenomenon a catchy name: the Failure Cascade. Because player alliances are built on their own public opinion, and that is exactly what breaks them.
People Make Politics
There is, however, the other side. Because even as the Public might be chomping at the bit to go to war/depose their leader/unfriend the Gallente on Facebook over a terrorist, when push comes to riotshove, it still comes down to the powerbrokers, the executive politicians, and the diplomats. And when these sorts of egotists enter the room, history teaches us that all the things we'd want our leaders to base their foreign relations on — equitable trade, sensible guidelines for aggression, the best possible national situation — go right the fuck out the window. It becomes a very, very personal game, with easy, no-brainer type deals falling through because two personalities clashed and someones jimmies got rustled. Someone's ego was bruised, someone suspected the foreign diplomat of stealing their pen — whatever.
And so, even while the Megas could depose Heth with Gallente support, restore peace, trade, and coldly-polite relations, it still comes down to the people in charge. Roden is a War President, brought in when the last guy let the Public down. He's got Blaque, the conservative nationalist heading up the secret police. These are liabilities in the Diplomatic corps. I don't know enough about the personalities of the Mega CEOs to comment, but I suspect that while Ishukone would be all over this sort of idea in a heartbeat (and maybe NOH?), the other CEO's may be a bit less than tolerant of having dinner with the Gallente.
TL;DR:
If you want to believe that the Megas are tired of having to bow and scrape to Heth, and are capable of talking amongst themselves to agree to some sort of conspiracy for a coup, and if you are willing to consider that the Gallente might allow themselves to breathe the same air as the Caldari for a few hours, then yes, there is a distinct opportunity for collaboration and cessation of hostilities.
In my opinion, both of these are very real possibilities in the current political climate, despite initial hesitations brought on by each politician's personal ideologue.
And furthermore, given the apparent canon influence that certain loyalist pilots and corps have in the Caldari/Gallente arena...Yeah, you chaps and chapesses can probably open some doors and ears.
Also, if you sped past all that and just read the TL;DR, don't you dare argue with this post. It will not end well.
And there are so many other options, I might add. CCP wont do anything for the time being, because why would they ditch Faction War? But, RP-wise, the ever-present Incursions, and the constant looming, quiet disapproval of CONCORD adds some amazing domestic and foreign pressures that makes me really, really hope that the PF staff have some diplomatic and political historians on hand for inspiration.
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Topic: Bedfellows With Enemies? (Gallente/Caldari Discussion) (Read 7735 times)