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HH

In Reply To
Anime Jason 
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Member Since: Sun Sep 12, 2004
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Subj: Re: Decisions decisions...
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 04:48:43 pm EDT
Reply Subj: Re: Decisions decisions...
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 11:29:51 am EDT (Viewed 335 times)


> > > They're trusted to solve problems so the govt doesn't have to get involved. If the govt does get involved, they have to assume it's something the LL can't handle, and they'd go heavy handed.
> > Trusted by whom? Clearly not by elected officials.
> Trusted by someone. Otherwise the LL would be forbidden by law to do anything until they're given orders by the government or the U.N. Every adventure would end with a government or U.N. hearing on who should go to jail.

No, what they've got is a remit, which comes with authority and oversight. It's the same way a police department has leeway to investigate within a framework of laws and rules and under scrutiny to ensure they stick to them. The LL get a lot of leeway in terms of procedures and practices, access to official data, back-up and support from civil personnel; in exchange there are limits to what they can do and how they do it.

One of them is in terms of the judicial process - they're not allowed to just execute a prisoner or to hold them without trial without a legal order. Otherwise they're just thugs. I imagine other limitations like reasonable suspicion to conduct search and avoidance of civilian casualties where possible also exist.

> But since that doesn't happen, that also means if the LL can't handle something, the govt automatically sees that as so dangerous that they have to use everything they have, that it's too late for subtlety or negotiation. It's time to "nuke the bastards".

There seems to be a specialist niche that the LL get used for, around overt metahuman threats. Other agencies like SPUD and the OPS and the FMRC do espionage and regulatory stuff and mop-up and lots more. Most of those others have much more structured remits than the Legion and have far more strings attached to them, and therefore get more government trust.

To put it another way, which would you prefer to have investigating a major crime, the feds or some privately owned unaccountable security company?

> And Yuki's method isn't all that complicated. It's simply a matter of seeking someone who sees a bigger picture than she sees herself. Since Lara is used to interacting with cosmic beings, she has learned to see a *very* big picture. That, and Lara also remembers the Moderator saga, in which the Moderator came to power specifically to unseat and replace the cosmic beings of the Parodyverse. Which makes her wonder exactly why.

Good questions.