Nicely done. I will say that, historically and canonically, the application of the Prime Directive is so uneven. First, it didn't apply to any space-faring civilization, then it did apply, but not to Federation members. Then it does apply to Federation members, which makes no sense since Earth is also a Federation member, but we're seeing the stories from the perspective of human Starfleet officers... ugh. I think in this case, Chester gets a huge pass since she's likely in another universe in their distant past (a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away, indeed).
I love how well Yoda's OSV meter of English is used, here. It's a real thing in language because if you listen to Yoda's speech in other languages (watching Star Wars in Spanish, for example), he switches up the subject-object-verb construction to sound alien in /every/ language that the story's translated in (watch Clone Wars in Czech or French). I really think it can be a technical trial for any writer. I have a similar verbal tic with one of my characters, where he uses strings of adjectives to stall for time as he thinks about how to translate what he wants to say in Federation Standard. Chester's universal translator must be working hard to translate Yoda-speak! :)
You have neatly encapsulated several hours of screeching frustration on my part. The Prime Directive is SO inconsistent! The absolute nature of it made sense for non-spacefaring civilizations, so you don't accidentally come over all imperialist, but less so for the spacefaring ones. From a meta perspective the Prime Directive is whatever the writers need it to be to most effectively increase drama, but of course that's ragingly unhelpful to a Starfleet officer trapped in another galaxy intent on dragging her into their dramas...
Kem, our third author, is a linguistics nerd, and it's to them we owe all of Yoda's speech. The stuff that's correct, that is. The stuff that's incorrect would probably be me. Chester's universal translator is probably getting quite some help from Chester herself, who's used to doing the mental gymnastics necessary for going between Standard and Mandarin at home (Mandarin word order is the bane of my existence).
As always, thank you for your thoughtful and thorough comments!
Comment on Where Angels Fear To Tread
LordMcCoveyCove on Chapter 4 Fri 22 Sep 2023 12:48AM UTC
Last Edited Fri 22 Sep 2023 12:51AM UTC
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SevereAnnoyance on Chapter 4 Fri 22 Sep 2023 01:54AM UTC
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