it was ambiguous, did it really exist? Was it just one crazy guy?

This was never credible, and was never how it was presented in DS9.

Even in "Inquisition", Sloan had two other guys standing next to him, and an entire starship at his disposal. Starfleet Command covered for him at the end - something that was noted by the DS9 senior staff.

In subsequent episodes, Admiral Ross acknowledged their existence, and Bashir worked out what he believed to be the bare minimum number of operatives required to create the morphogenic virus (73).

Later, we saw them working for the United Earth Starfleet in the ENT era.

The only suggestion that it's just "once crazy guy" comes from Koval, who then helps Sloan fake his death and is revealed to be a S31 asset in the very next scene.

So no, that's not really something Discovery changed. People have had to wilfully ignore the DS9 episodes to buy into that theory.

the characters that we built and the rapport that we had with each other was amazing

I have to admit, I thought Alok was a pretty interesting character. Sam Richardson was also very charismatic as Quasi, though he didn't have much to do. And Young Garrett was okay, too.

I wouldn't mind seeing any of those characters pop up again, with a better story.

It’s a good distinction to make that the characters were much more interesting than the story we saw.

I looked at a list of characters and I rank 4/7 of them as interesting, but sadly half of those were killed off

Space Hitler:

Space Common:

Quasi:

Zeph 🪦:

Garrett:

Fuzz 🪦:

Melle 🪦:

Let's cancel a TV show we just shot several episodes of and edit it into a movie!!

it was ambiguous, did it really exist? Was it just one crazy guy?

This was never credible, and was never how it was presented in DS9.

Even in "Inquisition", Sloan had two other guys standing next to him, and an entire starship at his disposal. Starfleet Command covered for him at the end - something that was noted by the DS9 senior staff.

In subsequent episodes, Admiral Ross acknowledged their existence, and Bashir worked out what he believed to be the bare minimum number of operatives required to create the morphogenic virus (73).

Later, we saw them working for the United Earth Starfleet in the ENT era.

The only suggestion that it's just "once crazy guy" comes from Koval, who then helps Sloan fake his death and is revealed to be a S31 asset in the very next scene.

So no, that's not really something Discovery changed. People have had to wilfully ignore the DS9 episodes to buy into that theory.

Yeah, way to focus on one part of the comment. Is it possible that Sloan just blackmailed or forced all those others into following his orders? Yes. Plausible? Eh...
Still, the point is the mistery, the ambiguity. Barely anyone knows they exist, Sisko, an experienced commander, didn't know about them. The bigger they make them, the more unbelievable that becomes.

Its total bullshit to place a dystopian organisation so close to the center of a utopian society. It basically calls the whole society into question.

Nah. DS9 made a big point of showing people doing bad things to accomplish good goals, while always questioning if those were actually good. Nothing about Section 31 is worse than what Sisko does in "In the Pale Moonlight" for example. And after so much about the Tal Shiar, the Obsidian Order, and the actual conspiracies within Starfleet (see STVI, the season finale of TNG season 1, The Pegasus, and Insurrection), Section 31 is not a far stretch at all.

"Yeah, way to focus on one part of the comment."

Yes, people are allowed to do that.

Understatement of the century

And yet oddly enough that is not the issue with the Section 31 movie

This headline is a quote out of context that is being used to imply an admission.

I don’t mind the inference that the movie wasn’t what Yeoh had hoped it might be, but the headline is a misrepresentation of what she said.

What Yeoh actually said is:

Every time I finish a movie or something, I always think, ‘I could have done better,’ so it’s nothing new. That’s how you always have to think to improve yourself and to hopefully be better the next time.

My partner and I seem to be among the relatively few longtime fans who found the S31 film a blast. I still have to wonder though what we might have got if Kim and Lippoldt had been able to run the show that they originally conceived before Paramount added a male non-Asian action flick show runner ‘for experience’. The episode they wrote for Georgiou in S3 of Discovery was excellent and they have been successful writing on Sweet Tooth for seasons 2&3 since they moved on from Trek..