If I am right, the Concordat has been behaving consistently since its inception; no flanderisation.
That is correct.
If you are right, the Concordat has only recently changed, and there is no retconning or flanderisation then either.
No, my point was that they are flanderized
on this board, not in the sourcebooks. The sourcebooks are in my eyes still pointing out that the Concordat completely went to the crappers with Shraplen's clique and even Thomas eventually had most of the populace against him.
This board, however, has adopted the eternally slobbering and paranoid Calderon as a mascot to the point where even the second post of this thread (which was about Thomas' children's lack of longevity) amounts to "lol, Davionsdidit".
Also, can I take you not actually adressing my quotes as conceding that I am correct after all?
P. 46, FM: P- "The Taurian Defence Force, activated in 2360, was designed to answer the menace posed by the nearby House Davion. Though they remained unnoticed by the Federated Suns, the Calderon family knew they could escape notice only so long."
Ah, yes, here we are going somewhere. This quote is - taken in isolation - an indication of not only paranoia, but also precognition, considering the first contact with the FedSun military came years later.
However, let's take a step back and look at Periphery 1st edition, which in this case has not been overwritten by anything (AFAIK), where the whole reason for the formation of the TDF is elaborated on.
In July 2357, Reynard Davion (...) announced his intention to scrap the Acala Pact, a mutual nonagression treaty, that he had negotiated with the neighboring Tikonov Union and Sarna Supremacy in 2355. That same year, a Davion strike force overran the Sarna garrison on the border world of Bell, (...) capturing over 15,000 civilans. (...) The Sarna garrison was transported as cheap labor to the Davion world of Tentativa, which was located near Richard Calderon's Concordat. In 2360, a Taurian explorer, Tracy Ashton Pendleton, accidentally discovered the missing Bellites (...) Acting on her own initative, Pendleton organized a revolt of the captive workers (...) This incident sent shockwaves throughout the Concordat.(...) With the aid of the Bell survivers (... Richard) began to construct the Concordat's first warships and to recruit the Taurians' first standing army.
So, to sum it up: the TDF was founded after one Taurian explorer busted Reynard Davion's forced labor camp, which was set up after he tossed out a non-agression treaty with his immediate neighbours and attacked the Sarna Supremacy, forcing several thousand civilans into slavery. Without provocation.
I'm not sure how you think this is supposed to show paranoia, especially since Reynard Davion's forces
did attack the Concordat later, which actually proved Richard Calderon
right.
With regards to the Capellan invasion, in the words of Samantha herself on p. 47: "Morals are one thing. Survival is everything."
That's supposed to show what exactly? That the Liaos have a right to invade what they consider weak targets? Wouldn't it make sense to prepare against an attack?
Samantha surely ran as far as others but settling in a system with a very defensive asteroid belt is a bit hyper vigilant (expecting attacks when nobody else knows where you are). Especially when just getting there costs you 8 of your colony ships.
Where's the 8 from? Periphery 1st edition says 2, and FM:P doesn't say anything.
But I think that the Taurian people are far more paranoid than their rulers have been.
Considering that Thomas had almost the entire Concordat against him at the end, to the point where there were at least two coup attempts, and Shraplen was in the mid to late term of his reign heavily opposed, I disagree.
It was only after Shraplen took power that the mood slowly began to shift (with the Urukhai attack and - I assume - WoB meddling) and the Taurians went rabid only after they thought the Davions lobbed asteroids on their capital - which they in fact
did have evidence for, except that the WoB expertly faked it.
