[Media] Controversy Surrounds Book on Donnel Udina

Controversy Surrounds Book on Donnel Udina

Michael Pierson, Interstellar Standard

Thomas Gottlieb, a historian and author at the University of Constant in Eden Prime, has come under fire in regards to his biography of former human councilor Donnel Udina.

Veil of Power: The Rise and Fall of Donnel Udina covers the disgraced councilor’s latter political life, from his tenure as ambassador to the Citadel prior to humanity’s invitation to the Council to his Councilorship during the early months of the Reaper War. Udina, who collaborated with the now-defunct Cerberus organization in organizing a coup d’etat aimed to overthrow the Council, was killed by Commander Shepard as C-Sec routed the terrorist organization from the station.

Gottlieb has insisted that his work in no way is intended to glorify or revise Udina’s reputation. “As a historian, I feel that there are lessons to be learned from Udina’s fall from grace,” he said in a statement to the Interstellar Standard. “His ambition. His desire to advance humanity’s standing. How his desperation to liberate Earth drove him into the arms of Cerberus. I know there are many who were hurt by the consequences of his actions, and I in no way intend to justify them. But I feel there needs to be a record set...There is still much we do not know. Was he indoctrinated? Was he coerced by Cerberus, or did he do this by his own free will? This book was made so that perhaps we can understand what drove a man like him to commit such an act.”

Publisher Reliquary-Press has issued a similar statement, saying that “It is a book on perhaps the most controversial figure in human history. It is one we feel deserves to be told so that the galaxy can understand the context”.

Others were not so pleased. C-Sec Sergeant Tyrix Cavan, who assisted in the defense of the station during the coup, said “I’ve heard all the excuses: ‘Udina did it to save Earth.’ ‘He snapped.’ ‘You need to know the context.’ All the excuses people made for him, including the guy who wrote this book, I can care less about. All I need to know is the fact that lot of good men and women in C-Sec died that day, people I had served with the force for years. And it was all because of him.”

We are new to this extranet site. And we have one thing to say about Donnel Udina.

He had an accent, from what we have heard, that was stupid. Shepard did not.

Therefore, he was evil, and everyone else with weird accents are evil. Quid pro quo.

Except the creators. They are good.

And, per usual, Old Donny still manages to piss people off beyond the grave.

It's like the Reapers decided, "hey, we need a person whose sole reason in life is to anger people, that'll teach 'em organics".

I don't think we can blame the Reapers for Udina entirely. Guy was aggravating before the whole Coup attempt.

I simply cannot understand why so much vitriol is showered upon Udina, speaking pre-Cerberus.

Complicity in the coup notwithstanding, he was a qualified and capable ambassador-cum-councillor. I know the standard operating procedure is to suck off the undead vagina of Anita Goyle until our tongues turn numb, but Udina performed ably as a successor. On his watch, humanity gained its first Spectre - some obscure junior officer called Commander Shepard, I believe - and then achieved a seat on the Council. He was adamant enough to uphold human interests and maintain the Alliance in the spotlight without being so obstinate as to alienate the Council in the process.

Were it not for his uncharacteristically suicidal decision to tag-team with a terrorist, I believe that Udina would be remembered somewhat fondly.

Some people can't deal with anything but binary interpretations.

You're either a good guy or a bad guy.

Continuing from this, I would also like to point out that most of the measures that kept the Systems Alliance afloat and running (and paying the paychecks) were through the acts of Mr. Udina. Secondly, many of his earliest orders are still somewhat in place and helped provide much of the basis for some of the legalities of today's provisional government.

As much credit as we like to give to Shepard, Anderson, and Hackett it was Udina who really kept the Systems Alliance from totally falling apart in the aftermath of the invasion. Sure, those who knew him always implied the man was a bit of a stickler, but a man comparable to the worst dictators and villains of history?

He's nowhere close.

I apologize for the implications of my post - I had no intention to put his character as comparable to the likes of the extreme worst the galaxy offers. It was a poor word choice on my behalf. I was merely intending to show that there is no reason for a villain of any degree should be spared a biography.

And he is a medial villain, at the very least. Regardless of what his administration had done, it was still Udina who played a pivotal role in the Cerberus invasion of the station, severely weakening the police force, and nearly succeeded in assassinating the rest of the Council. And that is not mentioning the thousands of destroyed or scarred lives, and the millions of credits in destroyed property.

Perhaps is no Hitler or Nadi, but he is certainly not at the bottom of the scale.

A lot of people seem to be working under the assumption that the Citadel Coup attempt was entirely Udina's fault. If only he hadn't sold everyone out, everyone who died in the attacks would still be alive.

This is not true. Cerberus had several plans to invade the Citadel and neutralize the Council, and undoubtedly developed more after I left. While Udina's betrayal may have made their coup attempt easier, it was not critical. Cerberus wanted to take over the Citadel, so there was going to be an attack regardless of the circumstances.

I'd like to point out that I am not of the opinion that this book should not have been published, these statements were made as an explanation for why the controversy is there, illogical as it is. I have already stated so previously.

The point is that you explained wrongly, genius.

I personally view Udina as a neutral figure, again, the knowledge of Cerberus' indoctrination is something we only know of in hindsight and from a human perspective his actions were understandable - though wrong. I think the reason why people view Anderson, Hackett, etc as heroes is because they're easier to cast into a positive light; veterans of warfare who struggled to keep humanity alive. Politicians, on the flipside, have something of a stigma associated with them for being overly bureaucratic and selfish with few exceptions. To play Devil's Advocate; a soldier is generally seen as heroic and thus has an image that they can maintain or exploit, a politician however is distrusted and thus can either do what they feel is right or struggle to maintain a fragile positive image that can be shattered quite easily.