When have I ever said that?
See? The SI story actually made you feel a certain way about one of its characters, from the very start, whereas the Consular story.....doesn't.
You're right about learning a lot of history and such, and that's fine, and I'm glad you enjoyed it, but there is still some very basic story-telling techniques that are missed. The content of a story is only a fraction of a story, how you tell that story is just as important.