Thrakkath and Revenge

M

Miracynonyx100

Swabbie
Banned
Okay... I got a question.

Why doesn't Thrakkath want to kill the Emperor? He had his dad dishonorably excecuted. Chris Blair simply blew the Dreadnought up that his dad was in charge of...

That I've never quite grasped


V. Kent
 
Pretty sure he would like to, though I'm sure he knew the Emperor might be ready for some underhanded attempt. He probably judged it to be the better move to win the Emperor's favor by crushing the humans and presenting the earth as a gift. After all, there was now one less obstacle in the way while he waited his turn for the throne.
 
Another reason is that if the Emperor died without giving Thrakhath his blessing in public as heir-apparent to the throne, Thrakhath would have MUCH more difficulty in consolidating his power and winning over the support of the noble clans--he needed them to see him as legitimate.
 
There's probably a realization on Thraky's part that his father gambled big, and basically lost and deserved what he got. That said, the main reason his gamble failed was Blair, hence Blair's the center of his vengeance.

From a cultural standpoint the Kilrathi are probably used to executions for negligence, and the fact that the admiral didn't actually die with his ship probably made the whole execution that much more likely.
 
I would agree that Thrakhath does not hold any grudge against his grandfather for executing his father but acknowledges it as necessary and just. It's the Kilrathi way.

Thrakhath is the one who is appalled by Khasra's and Jukaga's treason attempts.
 
Assassination was a new concept for Kilrathi, introduced towards the end of the war by those less "noble" than Thrakhath. He seems to have considered it beneath him (in Fleet Action), and not part of how court politics work. Thrakhath knew he didn't have to wait long - the Emperor mentions in the WC3 novel that he doesn't expect to live out the year because of his age.

Blair did destroy the dreadnaught and Thrakhath did issue his famous 'vow' over that incident... but at the same time it's hard to gauge exactly what any of that means, since it was *also* (and perhaps primarily) part of his Ralgha/overlay plot.

Thrakhath does have plenty of other reasons to dislike Blair, though - Blair shot him down in combat, Blair disrupted *his* running of the Sivar-Eshrad at Firekka, Blair helped destroy his flagship at Dolos, etc. He was, afterall, spoken of in royal circles as 'the human pilot who has caused us so much trouble' by 2656.
 
Thrakhath doesn;t seem to have a probelm with disobeying the Emperor's direct orders when he feels like it though. In Fleet Action the Emperor tells Thrakhath that he wants to hold the Sivar-Eshrad on Earth before he dies and Thrakhath orders the fleet to render Earh uninhabitable despite that order.
 
Miracynonyx100 said:
Okay... I got a question.

Why doesn't Thrakkath want to kill the Emperor? He had his dad dishonorably excecuted. Chris Blair simply blew the Dreadnought up that his dad was in charge of...

That I've never quite grasped


V. Kent
Click to expand...

I thought he allowed Thak's father to live with the disgrace? In any case, if you notice, Thrak seemed to have a much greater sense of honor (at least in WC2). He could have killed Hobbes and Paladin, but he didn't. He still felt some loyalty to Hobbes as being "the only one of his relatives who hadn't tried to kill him." (Now that I think about it, being the sleeper spy probably explains Hobbes). But I agree with the consensus around here: Assasination was the domain of lesser clans. Thrakath placed himself above such action.
 
I thought he allowed Thak's father to live with the disgrace?
Click to expand...

Oooooh - this only happens in the The Secret Missions SNES... and only then if you play it on 'Rookie' instead of 'Ace'.

(Thrakhath's father's name was Gilkarg.)
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Oooooh - this only happens in the The Secret Missions SNES... and only then if you play it on 'Rookie' instead of 'Ace'.

(Thrakhath's father's name was Gilkarg.)
Click to expand...

Grrrr... thats it, where's that add on download to KS, the SNES will make me look like a fool no more!!! :p
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Oooooh - this only happens in the The Secret Missions SNES... and only then if you play it on 'Rookie' instead of 'Ace'.

(Thrakhath's father's name was Gilkarg.)
Click to expand...

Hey, that's nice, I never knew. An odd but funny reward for the players who take the harder road. :)

frostytheplebe said:
Grrrr... thats it, where's that add on download to KS, the SNES will make me look like a fool no more!!! :p
Click to expand...

You don't look like a fool, I think it's very interesting to see how others experienced it on consoles.
 
The way I see it, I don't know how Thrak escaped his father's fate. Gilkarg was executed over the loss of a dreadnought.

Thrakhath, on the other hand, had a Sivar-Eshrad gone fubar - with the Kilrathi suffering terrible losses in the prossess. After this, he promised to delivery Earth to the Emperor and failed, at the same time failing to prevent the Ghorah Khar rebels to free their system and join Confed. Then, after delaying all of his war plans by 10 years due to the loss of his stealth fighter technology (a loss that he was to blame also), he proceeded to fail to use those fighters to good effect, instead losing the Enigma Sector to Confed - and being defeated in combat, while he was at it.

And he managed to maintain his position as Heir through all of this, while his father was executed over the loss of a dreadnought and a single fleet.
 
You certainly have a point but maybe the Emperor - at this stage of the war - thought he no other viable option as an heir. Khasra certainly was not to be trusted and IIRC, Thrakhath was the only child left from the Emperor's son, the other cousins being children of the Emperor's sister. Maybe Thrakhath was the only one he trusted.
 
And he managed to maintain his position as Heir through all of this, while his father was executed over the loss of a dreadnought and a single fleet.
Click to expand...

Remember that Gilkarg didn't just lose a fleet: he failed to win a war. He promised the Emperor that he was going to defeat the humans with a fast, crushing blow... in 2634. What he actually delivered was twenty years of incredibly heavy losses suffered for a practical stalemate. Unlike Thrakhath, Gilkarg had a burden of responsibility for how and why the war was being fought in the first place - his son was just tasked with trying to make good on his mistakes.

(We also saw that the Emperor didn't always get the full picture of what was happening on the front lines from Thrakhath, in the Special Operations stories...)
 
The bitter irony is that it was the Emperor's own decision, after being intimidated by the fierceness of the Confed counter-attack, to not follow up that initial attack with the push to Earth that would win them the war in 2634.

And even without that, Gilkarg's plan was considered the greatest victory in the history of the Empire. I find it difficult for it to be viewed in a bad light by the Kilrathi, even after 20 years of stalemate.
 
The attack plan itself wasn't all that brilliant... The simple reality that the Confederation was completely unprepared and the cats had a new weapon played more of a role than the genius of Gilkarg. And of course the fact that there is stalemate 20 years after the attack indicates that it wasn't all that *effective* in the first place....

As far as the ability of the Kilrathi to push to Earth after McAuliffe: sure the Kilrathi had struck a pretty strong opening blow. However, I think its pretty obvious we weren't yet beaten. Driving to Earth at that point would have been way too risky, especially given the way that we showed the cats we weren't going to just lay down and die.
 
I do agree with you. But the enormous size of the territory the Kilrathi grabbed with that attack is what made it their "greatest victory ever", and possibly what gave then the edge they held over Confed for most of the war.

Also, it's moot to blame Gilkarg alone by the war. They're the sons of Kilrah, for crying out loud! Until then, they had hunted, battled and enslaved every sentient thing that had been unlucky enough to be in their reach. Confed was next in line, sooner of later and that openning move could have been gone way worse for the Kilrathi.

All things considered, maybe a 20-year stalemate was the best they could ever had hoped for.
 
Sycrusian said:
I do agree with you. But the enormous size of the territory the Kilrathi grabbed with that attack is what made it their "greatest victory ever", and possibly what gave then the edge they held over Confed for most of the war.
Click to expand...

I'm not arguing how great of a victory it was or wasn't for the cats. I'm simply stating that Gilkarg's leadership wasn't the root cause of it being such a great victory. The complete lack of preparation on the part of Confed coupled with the innovation of the shield penetrating torpedo were far more important.

It should be noted though that while McAuliffe certainly went in the cats favor, it certainly didn't achieve the kind of one punch knockout the cats were looking for. As a result, they got dragged into several decades of war with the end result that their homeworld was bombed. As such, I suspect if we could ask post war cats what they thought of the victory at McAuliffe, they might not think it was such a "great" victory.

Sycrusian said:
Also, it's moot to blame Gilkarg alone by the war. They're the sons of Kilrah, for crying out loud! Until then, they had hunted, battled and enslaved every sentient thing that had been unlucky enough to be in their reach. Confed was next in line, sooner of later and that openning move could have been gone way worse for the Kilrathi.
Click to expand...

Nobody blamed Gilkarg for the fact that the Kilrathi Empire once again went to war. He is being blamed for squandering the upper hand. The Confederation fleet was largely destroyed after McAuliffe, and while the Kilrathi had been temporarily driven off, they still had a huge advantage. Gilkarg pissed all that away, and as a result, the Kilrathi had been in war for 20 years locked in a stalemate.


Sycrusian said:
All things considered, maybe a 20-year stalemate was the best they could ever had hoped for.
Click to expand...

Nah.
 
Stefano-M said:
I'm not arguing how great of a victory it was or wasn't for the cats. I'm simply stating that Gilkarg's leadership wasn't the root cause of it being such a great victory. The complete lack of preparation on the part of Confed coupled with the innovation of the shield penetrating torpedo were far more important.
Click to expand...

It really doesn't matter who really deserves the credit for the victory. Gilkarg planed and commanded the attack. The glory was his to take.

Stefano-M said:
It should be noted though that while McAuliffe certainly went in the cats favor, it certainly didn't achieve the kind of one punch knockout the cats were looking for. As a result, they got dragged into several decades of war with the end result that their homeworld was bombed. As such, I suspect if we could ask post war cats what they thought of the victory at McAuliffe, they might not think it was such a "great" victory.
Click to expand...

What post war cats could say about the war in hindsight woudn't weight on a decision taken 20 years into the war... :rolleyes:

Stefano-M said:
Nobody blamed Gilkarg for the fact that the Kilrathi Empire once again went to war. He is being blamed for squandering the upper hand. The Confederation fleet was largely destroyed after McAuliffe, and while the Kilrathi had been temporarily driven off, they still had a huge advantage. Gilkarg pissed all that away, and as a result, the Kilrathi had been in war for 20 years locked in a stalemate.
Click to expand...

Then, the blame should go to the Emperor. It was the Emperor who ordered Gilkarg to stand down and not press the advantage in McAuliffe's aftermath. That was exactly what Confed needed to get back on its feet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top