Opinions on Michael Eddington

[Emperor Norton]

I will be discussing spoilers on the Eddington story arc, but I assume it is fair given a twenty year old show. I thought of this because of this quote, and fridge logic thought on it:

"You'd be surprised. People don't enter Starfleet to become commanders. Or admirals, for that matter. It's the captain's chair everyone has their eye on. That's what I wanted when I joined up, but you don't get to be a captain wearing a gold uniform."

And that was the seed of his character arc. However, Sisko started out in engineering, was made first officer and put in the command division by Leyton on the USS Okinawa, and he became commander/captain of Deep Space Nine. Michael Eddington is a rather complicated character. He started off as the loyal Starfleet officer, before becoming a Maquis. Eddington thought of himself as a romantic hero, and of the Federation as something insidious. Sisko thought of him as having betrayed his oath and betraying the principles and people he had dedicated himself to, as well as Sisko himself. And he saw Sisko as his great adversary. Eddington died in a way a romantic hero would, fighting a lost cause to allow his friends and family and even his enemy to make it out alive. So what are your opinions on the character of Michael Eddington?

 

[Emperor Norton]

Personally, I do not care for him. Not to say he was not written well, but I do not care for the character as a person in the universe of Star Trek. Given that quote I mentioned, he is hypocritical. I see him as someone who wanted to cast himself as a romantic hero and play out a make believe story for himself, with himself in the role of hero, and all the while with a smug look on his face and tone in his voice. The Federation is a great enemy, and Sisko is his grand rival, but it feels like a teenager who wants to rebel and makes himself believe in whatever will give him the chance to play a role. And in doing so, regardless of the merits of the Maquis, he betrayed everything and everyone so he could live out a story book character. If it were another time, it would have been something else besides the Maquis, and some other entity cast as his enemy other than the Federation and Sisko. Regardless of the justice or merits of the cause, it feels like it rings hollow from Eddington. Even if he did the right things or helped people, it was for all the wrong reasons.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Eddington was a narcissist and a jackass.

 

[Emperor Norton]

Eddington was a narcissist and a jackass.

I think the entire Maquis leadership was like that. I agree with the maquis and disagree with the Federation as entities in the conflict. But I find the maquis leadership arrogant, irrational and self righteous and the Starfleet officers engaged in the conflict the complete opposite. The only episode where I empathized with the people in the maquis was the TNG episode with Ro.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Eddington put himself before the cause. I sympathize with Ro or Hudson more than I do Eddington. Their betrayal of Starfleet was driven by emotion for others, not self-romanticizing.

 

[Sakonna]

I didn't know Eddington was so disliked! I think his arc is excellent, another one of DS9's great explorations of moral ambiguity. I love the way he spends two seasons as a filler character, coming and going just enough so that you don't completely forget his existence, before suddenly popping out of the background as this highly complex revolutionary and/or traitor.

His speech to Sisko about how the Federation is worse than the Borg might even be one of my favorite scenes from the whole series. It's such a sharply written, exhilarating confrontation, and Eddington's position is so completely fleshed out.

I love this from the Memory Alpha entry on Eddington:

Indeed, after Eddington's final appearance in "Blaze of Glory", many fans were not sure how morally righteous he had been. This degree of uncertainty was even shared by Ira Steven Behr, who conceded, "I still haven't figured him out. Do we like him? Do you not like him? Was he good? Bad? I'm not sure."

I'm with Behr. I felt similarly after my recent rewatch of the series -- I loved the arc as drama, but beyond that I didn't know if I saw Eddington as a good or bad guy at the end of it.

 

[Kor]

I always found Eddington rather irritating.

Kor

 

[Voth commando1]

I liked he and Odo had he remained a security officer they would have developed quite the working relationship.

The whole Maquis thing about being the romantic hero well I'm not sure, him joining the Maquis is fine, the whole I have to play out a story in RL was stupid.

For his opinions of the federation yes it's sensible and reasonable what he's saying.

I have always been somewhat sympathetic to the Maquis and from Eddington describes sympathies toward the Maquis in the federation aren't responded to well.

And his main point is clear the Maquis aren't a threat to the federation they are a big blow to the whole idea that the federation is amazing and everybody should and will join.

There an existential threat to the federation's psyche the idea that "we are superior and those cardassians, romulans, and Klingons need only be coaxed into accepting their rightful place on the council." The Maquis are a big blow to that sort of thinking.

He's also right about Sisko Sisko isn't threatened by the Maquis and the cardassian-Bajoran politics aside don't matter to Benjamin that much. Sisko is driven up the madhouse by Eddington just another gold shirted security officer betraying HIM, fooling HIM, it's not about "The Uniform" as it is Sisko can't accept being taken by anybody.

Eddington seems like the guy that could have crushed the Cardassians and forged a new state-a society of ex federation colonists-Bajoran, Bolian, Human, Vulcan, Andorian and whoever else who grow their own food, defend their homes and schools, care about each other and make a life for themselves kicking the cardassians balls in the process.

 

[Emperor Norton]

Here's my thing. It's not the lyrics, it's the music. The words he says are all well and good, but it is how he says them and his intent in saying them. He feels like a phony to me. He feels like someone who just joined something to feel different, and says the party line without understanding what it means or having a full appreciation for it's depth.

And that's the pity of it for the average maquis. Because the civilians in the DMZ, whether maquis or not, do suffer abuse and are in danger and are threatened by the Cardassians. And the Cardassians fund a secret war against them. So they have a just cause. And they believe in their cause. And it feels to me like the Starfleet officers turned maquis who take the leadership positions of the maquis are really in it for themselves and what thrill or meaning it gives them than for the cause and the people. It feels like people raised in utopia who are spoiled and want to lash out, like a hipster from the upper middle class who moves to Brooklyn to be one of the people. Eddington isn't the common man, oppressed and abused and in danger. He's a tourist with a phaser.

 

[Voth commando1]

Here's my thing. It's not the lyrics, it's the music. The words he says are all well and good, but it is how he says them and his intent in saying them. He feels like a phony to me. He feels like someone who just joined something to feel different, and says the party line without understanding what it means or having a full appreciation for it's depth.

And that's the pity of it for the average maquis. Because the civilians in the DMZ, whether maquis or not, do suffer abuse and are in danger and are threatened by the Cardassians. And the Cardassians fund a secret war against them. So they have a just cause. And they believe in their cause. And it feels to me like the Starfleet officers turned maquis who take the leadership positions of the maquis are really in it for themselves and what thrill or meaning it gives them than for the cause and the people. It feels like people raised in utopia who are spoiled and want to lash out, like a hipster from the upper middle class who moves to Brooklyn to be one of the people. Eddington isn't the common man, oppressed and abused and in danger. He's a tourist with a phaser.

That's rather unfair he did marry a Maquis woman though, talked about growing his own food and genuinely seems to hold to his principles.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'll tell you why I can't sympathize with the Maquis (even the ones who aren't assholes):

- They talk about "defending their homes" and all that, but in the Federation (where there is a near-infinite amount of living space), the question of what exactly is your home, kind of loses its meaning. Especially when the home you live in can be re-created in precise detail on any number of planets.

- As anyone who's seen TNG's "Journey's End" knows, it was the Maquis' (or the colonists who would one day become them) IDEA to live in the DMZ in the first place! This doesn't excuse the Cardassians' later treatment of them of course, but it puts the lie to the concept that the Federation just up and abandoned them.

- The Maquis also forget exactly why that treaty was signed in the first place. Without that treaty, there would be war with Cardassia. Is that what they want? (People like Eddington did, apparently, because of his evident racial hatred towards the entire Cardassian species, but still...) Which is more important: a few hundred colonists get to keep their dirt, or the entire Federation is spared from war with the Cardassians? The principle of "the greatest good for the greatest number" must apply here.

Because the civilians in the DMZ, whether maquis or not

This assumes that there was an "or not" in the first place...

It's a good point, actually. I wonder if there were any colonists in the DMZ who refused to join the "glorious revolutionary cause" and if so, how were they treated by the cadre as a result of this. Somehow I doubt the Maquis would take lightly to rejection.

the Maquis aren't a threat to the federation

Tell that to the crews of the Malinche and Defiant...yeah, yeah, I know, the Maquis would reply "But they came after us!" And my response to that would be, "Because you deserved it!"

they are a big blow to the whole idea that the federation is amazing and everybody should and will join.

Despite what Eddingdumbass might claim, the Federation is not like the Borg...no one is ever forced to join. But the Federation has the absolute right to make its case, so to speak - to point out the benefits that a world will realize if it DOES join. The ultimate choice is up TO that world, though. That alone makes the Federation completely un-Borglike.

(And as for Eddingshit's claim that "No one leaves the Federation"? That is also a lie. Worlds have left the Federation before, and no one went to war over it.)

 

[Voth commando1]

I'll tell you why I can't sympathize with the Maquis (even the ones who aren't assholes):

- They talk about "defending their homes" and all that, but in the Federation (where there is a near-infinite amount of living space), the question of what exactly is your home, kind of loses its meaning. Especially when the home you live in can be re-created in precise detail on any number of planets.

- As anyone who's seen TNG's "Journey's End" knows, it was the Maquis' (or the colonists who would one day become them) IDEA to live in the DMZ in the first place! This doesn't excuse the Cardassians' later treatment of them of course, but it puts the lie to the concept that the Federation just up and abandoned them.

- The Maquis also forget exactly why that treaty was signed in the first place. Without that treaty, there would be war with Cardassia. Is that what they want? (People like Eddington did, apparently, because of his evident racial hatred towards the entire Cardassian species, but still...) Which is more important: a few hundred colonists get to keep their dirt, or the entire Federation is spared from war with the Cardassians? The principle of "the greatest good for the greatest number" must apply here.

If your going to condemn Eddington condemn Kira who states she hated "living with them" for 20 years.

There's living space on earth. Why do people fight for their homes today? Because they built something there. Whether it be traditions, memories, pride and honor. Families, sacred shrines homes are people's most precious assets.

The greatest good for the greatest number? Had the federation broken the cardassians earlier the Dominion would have lacked an alpha Quadrant base.

I've heard the Maquis called the human beings that didn't deserve to make it in the 24th century why? Because they had a cause, quirks and principles that didn't align with almighty Starfleet.

As for the Cardassians they were an aggressive and duplicitous empire brutal, cruel and devious. We the viewers only see the effects of Cardassian imperialism on Bajor but they are called an Empire after all and they have no doubt exterminated other people's within their borders.

The Maquis were noble because they were the underdogs fighting the bad guys from light cruisers, and transport shuttles. They were for the most part principled individuals-Lon Suder and the scientist who brainwashed Tuvok being exceptions.

Viva la Maquis!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

If your going to condemn Eddington condemn Kira who states she hated "living with them" for 20 years.

Kira gets a free pass, because she was fighting to free her entire world from the Cardassians. Unlike the Maquis colonists, the Bajorans didn't have a ready made escape route.

And also because Kira wasn't a narcissistic piece of crap. At least she had the common decency to regret some of the things she did.

They were for the most part principled individuals-Lon Suder and the scientist who brainwashed Tuvok being exceptions.

Well, I'll give you this much - at least you do acknowledge that there ARE exceptions.

 

[Voth commando1]

Kira gets a free pass, because she was fighting to free her entire world from the Cardassians. Unlike the Maquis colonists, the Bajorans didn't have a ready made escape route.

And also because Kira wasn't a narcissistic piece of crap. At least she had the common decency to regret some of the things she did.



Well, I'll give you this much - at least you do acknowledge that there ARE exceptions.

Kira not narcissistic? Have you seen Crossover? The woman has quite a trace of self-importance and phoniness every time she speaks the mirror universe shows hw she would be in charge I swear.

O'Brien was prejudiced as well and honestly Eddington sort of seems like the guy you can crack a joke around and then when the times are necessary he'll inspire you to follow him come whatever end.

 

[DonIago]

I hardly think it's fair to use MU Kira as an analysis of Primeverse Kira beyond to say that we perhaps see aspects of who she could be under very different circumstances.

Eddington inspired a whole bunch of people to follow him right off a cliff.

If the Maquis really had been fighting just to protect their homes I maybe could have sympathized with them, but I agree with Mr. Laser Beam that the whole notion of getting attached to your home is fairly ridiculous in an age of replicators and generally unlimited resources (pre-Dominion War, at least).

They didn't stop there though. Thanks to the "inspiring" Eddington, they began attacking Starfleet vessels and entire planets, going well beyond any notion of self-defense. Sisko nailed it when he said that Eddington's actions proved that the Maquis had become a clear and present danger to Federation security.

And I do find it galling that as much as the Maquis claim they just want to live their lives in peace, they're apparently not above risking precipitating a war that would cost thousands if not millions of lives in order to secure said peace.

If the Maquis really wanted to be left alone in peace they should have packed up and settled somewhere that, y'know, wasn't next door to a known hostile race. Crazy-ass logic, I know.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The only way to do that is to start blowing up stars.

 

[LJones41]

I thought Michael Eddington was a very well written character. He had one line about the Federation that I found very interesting. He compared the Federation to the Borg, claiming that both had similar traits.

 

[Guy Gardener]

He played games well.

Even when the the heroes where announcing how they outwitted him, it's only because that's what he wanted to happen, inside the structure of the Le Mis frame work that he had laid out for Ben.

Sisko was his #####.

If Eddington had had a little more manpower or a little more time, things would have been very different... In The Visitor Timeline, there was no Dominion War? 'Pretty sure there wasn't. So that might have been a good timeline to watch on to see Eddington shine.

 

[Voth commando1]

I always imagined an alternate timeline where Eddington smashes the Cardassians and forms a Maquis state.

Eddington has the fortitude, the philosophical depth, the combat experience, and the sincerity to lead men and women into battle or to outwit or over will diplomats at the negotiating table.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Eddington is the Maquis equivalent of Donald Trump.

There, I said it.