Shold the Mirror Universe be Evil?

[Silverbullet]

Should the Mirror Universe be Evil? NO. If a good person peers in to a mirror a good person will peer out. If an Evil person peers in an Evil person will peer out. A mirror just reflects what it is shown. You cannot hold a Cat to a mirror and expect to see a Dog in it. People think that a mirror reverses things. It does not it reflects what is there. Two persons standing one behind the other will raise the same hand on the same side if asked to raise the left or right hand. However, writing is static so it still reads from left to right if one turns arouund. It is how you see the writing that is reversed not the writing.

If the writers had said a reverse universe then thhose who were good would be Evil and those who were Evil would be good. As in the RU Good and Evil are mixed.

Howver, if the writers had said an Evil Universe then everything in it would be Evil.

A mirror Universe can have good and bad and be just like the RU. Not all evil. An Evil Universe is the only one which would have all Evil. Not a MIrror Universe.

Or at least that is how I see it

[justTripn]

I am pretty sure that the Star Trek convention is that everyone and everything is evil in the Mirror universe. Of course some characters in the mirror universe can be less evil than others and I prefer MU stories where there is a little respite from the pure evil once in a while. The Mirror Universe is a ridiculous concept, but kind of fun to write and read, I guess . . . I don't totally get it.

[Misplaced]

Personally I see the MU as a reflection on what humanity could have been in Trek had events on Earth gone differently.

And really, I think the "Mirror, Mirror" episode in TOS that started all of this wasn't meant to be more than entertainment.

If you go with the theory that every decision, every event creates a new universe (like that TNG episode that I can't remember the name of) not all alternate universes would be inherently evil or good.

I think that it's the circumstances that create people sometimes. In my MU fics, not everyone is evil, per se, but they are forced to do evil things in order to survive. *shrug*

And to each their own. Not everyone loves the fluffy hopefulness that is TNG or the darkness of the MU.

[honeybee]

I think the idea that everyone in the MU is evil is bunk. Nor is it a purely evil place, as we've seen idealistic, rebel movements in all three manifestations. It's just a world where fascism triumphed over the democratic ideas of the RU.

Bashir and O'brien aren't evil in the DS9 MU, nor is Jake's mother. And Spock, while tougher and more ruthless, has a sense of ethics and identity as a Vulcan and as a scientist. MU Hoshi seems devoted to Forrest, and only turns on Archer after Forrest's death. T'Pol is willing to sacrifice herself for the good of other Vulcans and she seems fascinated by the Federation, as well as showing some remorse for what she did to Tucker. If she was evil, why would she bother any of that? She would save herself, do what she has to do to survive.

Manny Coto and Mike Sussman both have said the MU is not about evil twins. It's about our RU characters, had they been born in a tougher, harsher world. They are all colder, more buttoned up. Violence, torture and slavery is normal to them - but nuance comes through in most all the MU characters - with the possible exception of Reed who seems sociopathic.

And, if everyone was evil, Archer wouldn't have to worry about knowledge of the Federation corrupting everyone, would he? There's good in people, it's just buried. I'm sure they are all capable of things their RU counterparts wouldn't dream of, but they have layers.

Btw, Linda, I definitely think your MU story is an MU story, and lovely one at that. I like the idea of TnT reaching out to one another, despite the ugliness of the world they live in (and what she did).

[Linda]

Thanks, Misplaced.

I did write a nasty character MU short story awhile back but it left me feeling it was incomplete or that it was just nasty for the sake of nasty which to me was hollow characterization. With this latest story, I felt there had to be more behind these characters than nasty or they wouldn't seem any way real. And I wanted to give good reasons for human extreme aggressiveness. This all started with my fascination of how Gary Graham gave Soval two very different personalities in the RU and the MU.

Now I want to see how other writers play in the MU!

[WarpGirl]

I think it depends on whether you believe that people can be absolutely evil or not. And personally, I have to say that I don't give a hang what Coto and Sussman say about anything.

The MU as I understand it is a universe where Humanity chose a different course. That's it. Their morals, their views of "right" and "wrong" are completely different than the RU. Now that makes life very hard for the entire universe in most cases... But do the people in that universe automatically consider it evil? Who can say? So frankly I don't think that the people of the MU are automatically evil, just because their entire way of life demands behavior which in the RU would be considered immoral.

That said I loved Linda's MU but I really think it is a kinder MU than the one we saw on TV in ENT. That's not bad at all.