That part of the discussion is getting stale. As long as the only argument the nay-sayers can bring forward is "author fiat" there is no need for discussion as that can be ignored. But I´m quite happy to see that there´re seemingly more people around who´re up for a challange than those who whine.
Now, please, can we go on discussing the possible loot (yea, that´s low, can´t help it)nice equipment in this TRO?
Ok, can´t help but answering that either:
That fixation is quite understandable. Blame the media, if you want to, but whole swaths of the population are being schooled to react to certain qualities of a faction and identify them as good, heroic, going hand in hand with a glorified version of their self-image. It´s like a set of hard-coded tropes or memes coming into action here: This are the good guys. They´re bright, nice, beatiful people with a moral compas and superior motives. They must act, not react and bring sunshine to the world. This also excludes talking about the cost of that outlook, in money as well as in lives taken, et al. Going an a crusade for "good" and proving that moral superiority is a high point and very essential to those folk that want to be part of that action.
I'd call it way older than modern media. Just look at sports team fans. A good team often has a lot more fans than a bad team. An awful lot of people want to back a winner. And a lot more people while it doesn't neccesarily need to be the absolute winner, don't want to back a loser.
While a lot of people are annoyed by the ones that bitch about it. I much prefer them to the ones that do outright quit or change sides because their faction of choice is now in a much weaker position. Whether they do it quietly or with a great big declaration first doesn't really matter.
As far as I'm concerned people are allowed to bitch about it and the ones treating said bitching as a deathly sin are significantly worse for the fandom.
That is if they attack the character of the bitching fans themselves. Attacking misconceptions or faulty facts that lead them to that position is fine with me.
On a more in universe note:
As far as I'm concerned the Fedsuns have had one spectacular victory followed by a couple of big setbacks to undo the absolutely biggest gains (in BT there is very much such a thing as too big to succeed for a faction). And the rest of the time they've merely done middle of the road. Whenever a big event is coming along we're assured to be hit, but it's rarely the worst or the least hit. We *MIGHT* have gotten off the easiest in the Jihad. I am frankly not sure exactly how to divvy up the damage. I know the FWL were by far the worst hit, but beyond that I don't really know.
Generally right in the middle when it comes to success/failure, with the always precent saving grace that we get to participate in virtually all the big events. Major draw for somebody like me who wants action.
So. We've not been losing since 3030, but we've not really been winning either. We don't seem to always end up in a dominant position. Just prior to the Jihad I'd say the undisputed winner of 3050 to 3067 was the Free Worlds League. Who then proceeded to get crotchkicked so hard they flew to pieces.
And as long as we're around for the next fight and not rendered irrellevant I'm fine with that. Sure I'll entertain the occasional AU with the FedCom never falling (In Character: "I blame lousy ungrateful Lyrans" :P), but I think every fan has the occasional power fantasy with their faction.
The Capellans take second place, but I admit that this was more rebuilding after the previous crotchkicking rather than going from a decent position to pretty much in position to be dominant over all of the IS (Just LOOK at that warship fleet!) if not for certain friends of Toasters everywhere.
I don't like the capellans, I think the way their recovery was written made their victories look cheap. And the changes the faction underwent through Xin Sheng made the faction significantly less likeable. And takes on them in some recent fiction is downright grating. But I will admit that assuming they are a guaranteed faction they were too small to fail. That they couldn't take real setbacks anymore so if they were to be protected from wipeout/irrellevancy they pretty much couldn't lose anymore.
Now though that excuse/protection is gone and I hope to see them get a crotchkicking preferrably on par with what the FWL got. >:D
