Kilrathi motivations

Mad Cow said:
Assuming the Kilrathi Empire was a totalitarian state, which is shaky considering the constant unrest of the clans, I always thought the Kilrathi leadership kept the Empire at war in order to preserve the social stratification of the Empire.

The same principle is used in "1984," where Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia were constantly at war with each other in order to focus the hate of the middle and lower classes outward (this was already mentioned previously). Thus keeping the 'out' classes from rebelling and reorganizing the society's social stratification.

I always looked at the honor code and the dedication to Sivar as tools of the elites, means to an end if you will. The Kilrathi elites fostered a system of xenophobia and fanatical obedience to reinforce their position at the top of the pecking order.


Okay, I'll go back to my Marx and Weber now.
Click to expand...

I don't think you can project Marx onto an alien race. To do so would be to grossly misunderstand a completely alien culture.
 
I'm not sure Marx fully understoof the underlying nature of mankind, but then, who does?

The honor code is, in my opinion, less the tool of the elites than a formerly necessary and perhaps 'good' institution perverted by those same elites. Their religion is very bloody, but we only ever see one interpratation of it. It is possible, though not likely, the Cult of Sivar is more akin to Islan in some ways, in that a few radicalists pervert a noble, good faith, and in the process deceive millions (billions, in the case of the Kilrathi) into believing someone is their enemy because it is the god's will.

The Kilrathi can be interpreted so many different ways that it's hard to make a call. I'm not really sure how I feel about them. I guess 'possibly noble warriors perveted onto the wrong path' fits the bill.
 
In AS, the scene with the young Jukaga, his father's friend (forgot his name) and abraham, they talk about the motives behind the kilrathi people. It's really good for understanding the major differences between the two species (abraham shows how adept humans can be in more deeply studying their enemy).

It makes it much clearer why Jukaga is the way he is in both ER and FA towards the human race...
 
The Kilrathi remind me of feudal Japan. There is a central governing body (the emperor) that rules over many independant states (clans). And like feudal Japan, the Kilrathi are made up of many warriors who believe that dishonor is worthy of a dishonorable death, and that honor is found on the battlefield.

The one aspect I would have liked to see about the Kilrathi is their spiritual practices. Do they meditate before a battle? Do wives and children mourn their passing on the battlefield?

Or maybe they're more like Klingons... they just walk around trying to arm wrestle other races to show who's the strongest. That kind of makes more sense, given Sivar's prophecies. Hmm... I guess I was wrong about the Japanese thing. Damn, and I had such a good rant going.
 
It's a toss-up I suppose. I came to my explanation of it mainly because I view a lot of things from a class warfare perspective. I'm not communist or anything, just a bored Poli Sci student.

I'd like to see another novel written focusing on the Kilrathi's internal society. I would like to think they aren't as one-dimensional as Star Trek Klingons*.


* - Not meant as a slight against Star Trek or Klingons. Just my opinion which could (and probably is) wrong. :)
 
No, that's actually a good point... and I'm glad that I'm not the only one that raised it in this thread (see my first post, I believe). However, there's a fair bit of Klingon in feudal Japan, as samurai often challenged each other for honor, but not always to the death. It's entirely possible that such exists in the Kilrathi psyche, but we don't see anything like that to my knowledge.

And they had at least some spiritual practices or else the Cult of Sivar would not have been nearly so important. More information would definitely have been useful, though, and very interesting.

EDIT: Too slow, this is directed at Saturneye, not Mad Cow(?).

You raised an interesting point yourself, Mad Cow. I liked it, and most of this thread has been... intellectually stimulating.
 
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