Conclusion
If Starfleet Academy keeps up that theme, Charles Vance might end up acting as a sort of counterbalance to the Badmiral trope: a strict, occasionally irate superior whose compromises are intended to uphold Federation values rather than undermine them.
It feels less like a tease and more like an admission that Trek has always employed admirals to push the moral limits of the series by leaving the door open for a potential villain turn while consistently reiterating Fehr's faith in Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau.
The difference now is that the most interesting move might not be to corrupt Vance, but to keep him principled and see whether the next generation of cadets can live up to the standard he’s still trying to hold.
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