I hadn't caught the two years addition between the episodes, but it seems that the amount of attention he paid to the timeline is symptomatic of the amount of care he put in to some other parts of the books.
Sorry my responses are a bit all of the place, but I did get really excited when you said that Sejanus would have been a much better parallel for Durla, as in my own Trilogy rewrite fanfic I've made a very big point that my re-imagination of Durla is based on Sejanus. I also rewrote the Drakh effect on Centauri Prime to more closely resemble the Roman proscriptions under Sulla or Tiberius, ie that any nobles that came too close to finding out the Drakh secret suddenly find themselves up on treason charges, and in this version Durla is the one who manages the fallout in order to better hide their existence and also uses the opportunity to kill off some of his own personal enemies. Bah, but I'm rambling, this is not the place for fanfic discussion. Still, what a terrible shame that Peter David didn't take the time to make Drakh transformation of Centauri Prime resemble something other than a very poor and transparent Fascist parallel. There were so many other points in history that would have been more fitting with the Centauri national character, and which are not quite so overused.
As I've said before, the Centauri Hitler Youth made me scream with frustration when I first encountered them, and my poor bf can attest to the many hours I spent chewing off his ear over this outrage. As if the Lords and Ladies of Centauri society would allow their children to join such an organization! As if the Centauri themselves would have any interest in a Fascist society, becoming faceless soldiers in service of another man's glory, be it the Emperor or Durla, men who in their eyes are hardly worthy of playing secretary to some of the great Houses, let alone serving as Emperor.
*Sigh* Sorry, this post has gotten away from me. Honestly the opening of Book 1 isn't that bad. I am loving the discussion too, thank you for organizing this read-through, Ruuger!
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Sorry my responses are a bit all of the place, but I did get really excited when you said that Sejanus would have been a much better parallel for Durla, as in my own Trilogy rewrite fanfic I've made a very big point that my re-imagination of Durla is based on Sejanus. I also rewrote the Drakh effect on Centauri Prime to more closely resemble the Roman proscriptions under Sulla or Tiberius, ie that any nobles that came too close to finding out the Drakh secret suddenly find themselves up on treason charges, and in this version Durla is the one who manages the fallout in order to better hide their existence and also uses the opportunity to kill off some of his own personal enemies. Bah, but I'm rambling, this is not the place for fanfic discussion. Still, what a terrible shame that Peter David didn't take the time to make Drakh transformation of Centauri Prime resemble something other than a very poor and transparent Fascist parallel. There were so many other points in history that would have been more fitting with the Centauri national character, and which are not quite so overused.
As I've said before, the Centauri Hitler Youth made me scream with frustration when I first encountered them, and my poor bf can attest to the many hours I spent chewing off his ear over this outrage. As if the Lords and Ladies of Centauri society would allow their children to join such an organization! As if the Centauri themselves would have any interest in a Fascist society, becoming faceless soldiers in service of another man's glory, be it the Emperor or Durla, men who in their eyes are hardly worthy of playing secretary to some of the great Houses, let alone serving as Emperor.
*Sigh* Sorry, this post has gotten away from me. Honestly the opening of Book 1 isn't that bad. I am loving the discussion too, thank you for organizing this read-through, Ruuger!