Been thinking about and hearing reaction to the #StarTrekDiscovery episode “Su’Kal” and the revelation about the cause of The Burn. Things could change, but our understanding right now is that the Burn was caused by emotional trauma suffered by Su’Kal who is in tune with...(1)

the radiation of the Verubin Nebula and the dilithium within. And I’ve seen folks be disappointed that the answer wasn’t bigger than that. But I kind of think it is. The Burn was caused by one Kelpien, but it was facilitated by the neglect of the Federation. (2)

We’ve seen several indications of this throughout the season. The Federation was getting desperate as dilithium became sparse. It drove Ni’Var to withdraw from the Federation, who pushed them too hard on their alternative propulsion system. (3)

And then Su’Kal’s ship, which was on assignment to investigate a possible dilithium nursery, crashed and was stranded. Their distress signal was picked up by a Federation ship who never arrived (presumably destroyed by the nebula.) But the Federation never went looking for... (4)

the crashed ship. They could have saved millions of lives if they had. So I don’t think this story is about one distressed radioactive kid. I think it’s about a Federation that forgot in its desperation to find new sources of dilithium that individual lives are important too. (5)

Su’Kal didn’t cause The Burn. The Federation did.

Summarized best: https://twitter.com/djvoltz1701/status/1343728627024875520