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#but it always STRUCK me how absolutely desperate the PC must sound if they chose to make that broadcast asking theron to come back
sunderedazem · 1 year
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How did Corrian handle Theron’s betrayal?
>:3c
Corrain doesn't handle Theron's betrayal well, but it's not entirely his fault. Making it worse, he can sense that it is not a true betrayal, even if he doesn't know what actually is going on, and there's a LOT stressing him out besides his husband Pulling Some Shit.
See, Corrain is fuckoff powerful in the Force, right? But that gift tends to present itself in a few specific ways, one being powerful visions of the future. And right around this point in time, not only is he preparing to take the throne of and actually lead Zakuul while simultaneously trying to democratize their government to some extent, and mediate peace talks between the Sith Empire (which is afterwards divided in half when Malgus escapes with a bunch of pissed off Sith and creates the True Sith Empire and promptly starts a semi-civil-war) and the Republic....but he's also having a series of strong, really-mindfucky visions and for the first time he cannot tell what the Force is trying to guide him toward. Not that his visions are ever clear, of course - they tend to be very metaphorical and only show him little snippets of actual moments of the future - but when Vitiate/Valkorion was his opponent he thought he understood them. Now he doesn't have a clue what they mean, only that something is coming and whatever it is, it's entirely possible it will be worse than Vitiate eating planets.
So, with this kind of Ominous Portent hanging over his head combined with the galactipolicital situation and his own impending coronation and the additional fact that he can sense that not everything is as it seems with Theron and that betrayal...he just doesn't have *any* idea of what's really going on and he's scared. He knows something awful is coming but he doesn't know what it is or how to stop it and he THOUGHT it was Valkorion but he's still having the visions and even worse, the visions seem to be guiding him toward this Awful Thing.
And then Theron crashes the train on Umbara. Corrain can tell something's off the entire time and he's desperate to stop it and the visions from coming to pass but he doesn't know how - and so when Theron turns on him, it breaks him. Visibly. He loses control - and with a strength in the Force like he has, that means a lot of accidental Force Lightning. And, well. He shorts out the control panel on the train as it's accelerating. So it...doesn't stop accelerating. None of them notice until Theron takes off on the speeder stored for his getaway and is horrified to realize that the warning lights are blaring and the sabotaged electromagnetic train pulsars have already been set to blow. This means when the train crashes, Corrain (being a self-sacrificing idiot) tries to break Lana's fall at the cost of protecting himself, and is nearly killed on impact. Lana has to carry him to safety and arrange a medical transport, and he spends a few days in a kolto tank, recovering.
This accidental assassination almost-success has the dual effect of shattering both Theron and Lana, and making the Order of Zildrog FAR more trusting of Theron. It also means 95% of the Alliance, Vaylin and Arcann now included, are furious with Theron. (Keep in mind - the three of them are 'secretly' married at this point, which of course means the entire galaxy knows lmao). And this also means that when Corrain gets on air, about a week later, he's all but begging Theron to come home (because he can sense this wasn't a true betrayal but he doesn't know why it's happening), and pretty much everyone that knows him thinks it's the desperate, delusional plea of a heartbroken man. He also prevents the Chiss Ascendancy from shooting down Theron's ship on Copero with anti-spacecraft guns when they offer to do so. Even Lana only half-believes that he's actually been able to sense Theron's intentions, and it's only because she's generally sensed the same thing - only, she's keeping quiet and levelheaded about it, because she once did something similar to Theron on Rishi, and she knows he'd have clued them in if he were able. (If he were thinking straight about the situation, Corrain would be doing the same. He is not thinking straight. He is terrified because he is an unwilling Oracle for disaster and now THIS is happening-)
This obstinate inability to believe in Theron's betrayal ends up making it somewhat more difficult for the Alliance later, when my Canon Divergence happens with the remainder of the Zildrog arc (i.e. Zildrog isn't the Gravestone wtf bioware). Because sure, Corrain was objectively correct about Theron's betrayal - but now there's doubt about whether that was certainty born out of genuine objectivity, or wilfull blindness to a potentially devastating truth? (Answer: both tbh)
So when he starts having terrifying visions about [redacted], the leaders in the Republic and Empire pay mostly lip service to his warnings and calls for genuine peace and reform and go back to skirmishing. And then, of course, disaster strikes and his credibility comes back in full, but that's another story.
Thank you for the ask!!!!! I'm sorry it took so long to answer.
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