Marack Drock, on 25 December 2013 - 07:58 AM, said:
woops I forgot that it was the other way around with Victor silly me. As for Katherine, she had a spine. Victor was a spineless *****. I know she killed her mom (not directly the assassin was the Dancing Joker) and she is -parden my french- a *****, but she would have kept the commonwealth together. Victor didn't have the brains to keep the commonwealth in tact even if he tried. Katherine had the Cunning and intelligence to do so. Not to mention if Victor had just given her the thrown instead of acting like a competent leader (which he was not and never woudl be) then his mother wouldn't have been killed and civil war wouldn't have started (unless Davion loyalists decided to declare war). When you see how much more influence Katherine had instead of Victor is was amazing. Federated Suns was filled with her supporters, and 3/4 of all the Lyran Commonwealth was too. Victor only managed to regain power because he had enough relatives and support from Mercenaries to help him.
"Katrina" was a despot, plain and simple. She literally manipulated and murdered her way to power, and had no qualms about killing people for petty reasons. (Arranging for Omi Kurita to be killed just because Victor thrice denied her the first lord's throne was extremely petty.) Her rule was also illegal under Commonwealth law (to become the first prince, the candidate must have no less than five years of military service, and she had none.) The only way she was able to hold power in the Lyran half of the commonwealth was because she had surrounded herself with sycophants and social generals. Most of the intelligent Lyran commanders either sided with Victor in the civil war, realizing that she was fighting to hold power for herself, not to protect her people, or like Adam Steiner declared their neutrality and pulled their troops out of the war altogether.
Victor certainly has flaws, but he always had the best interests of the whole Federated Commonwealth in mind. He had returned from the Clan Homeworlds to find his sister had usurped his throne. As the commanding General of the SLDF, he could have chosen to declare war and reclaim his throne then and there, he did not however because he had just returned from some brutal battles in the clan homeworlds and was tired of war. He was also aware of how brutal civil war could be, and how much the people would suffer as a consequence. A good leader is one who is selfless and willing to place his people's needs before his own. Victor knew his sister was selfish, and considered the people a means to an end to gaining more power for herself. While he started out poorly in terms of political savvy, he got wiser in that regard, and he successfully thwarted Katherine's ambitions for the title of First Lord no less than three times by using her own tricks against her. He actively tried to avoid going down the path of war until Katherine killed their youngest brother Arthur. (who may or may not have survived and become a certain Exarch btw) Even after he won the fedcom Civil war, Victor shocked everyone by publicly abdicating his throne, and leaving both halves in the care of his surviving siblings.
Of the two, Victor is clearly the better person, the one who understood the obligations of the ruler of a nation, despite being flawed and the fluff suggests that he may have become a good Archon-Prince after learning from his early mistakes. Katherine never understood the consequences of power, and like most dictators, she was prepared to let the Commonwealth burn down around her in order to keep it.
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