#i want to know peoples borg queen opinions
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#star trek tng#star trek voy#star trek picard#sequel to my last poll#i want to know peoples borg queen opinions#lane posts
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I really find it interesting how different Seven and Hugh are post-severance.
Seven was proud to be Borg. Hugh seemed just like a regular Drone as opposed to Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01.
Unimatrix 01 is the closest to the Borg Queen and by how the Borg Queen acts with Seven, it feels like Seven is one of the few chosen to replace her.
Some personality seems to have been retained, especially for those who 'grew up' in the Collective.
Hugh was more amenable and open to change, more confused by what was happening to him.
Seven was fully aware of her function, she was the chosen Borg representative to speak for the Borg collective when Janeway requested one.
Seven was very resistant and has several occasions tried to return to the Borg.
It is also interesting to me that for a long time in Voyager, she identified as Borg.
Hugh coined the term xBs as a way to name themselves and take back the name.
It's interesting to me that Seven used the term once when speaking to Elnor in season 1 but mostly, I think Seven thinks of herself as Borg.
Her feelings towards being a Borg and Human are still complicated and it got only more complicated the moment Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant.
It seemed like she tried out the more Human side of herself and used 'Annika' as a name but that moment of experimenting on that name usage died the day Icheb died and realized how much she was used and betrayed.
For Seven she is both Human and Borg but she knows she can't comfortably identify herself as Borg because of how much harm the Borg has done to... well, everyone. She's been part of the Collective that's assimilated worlds, she knows this well.
It's a terrible thing to identify as for everyone, it's a complicated premise at best but it's the identity that for better or worse, Seven felt more comfortable with.
In season 2 of Picard, we learn that Seven hasn't been at peace with herself for 20 years because she has been trying to deny her Borg identity.
In Hope and Fear in season 4 and even up to season 6 (as far as I'm up to in the rewatch) Seven's been ambivalent about returning with the Voyager crew back to the Alpha Quadrant.
(And as we know now Seven's fears are founded).
"If we do return to Sector 001 will I adapt to Human civilization a single Borg among billions of individuals?"
Seven did adapt, she trained herself to adapt more Human mannerisms and speech patterns. Trained herself to be an individual the way people of Alpha Quadrant would find more acceptable but in her heart of hearts she is both Human and Brog.
Meanwhile, Hugh seems more comfortable with being identified as an xB. A reclamation and a new term for himself and his other fellow Borg cube members.
Also, I realized rewatching the scene where Seven rescues Elnor, she fell back to her old speech patterns:
"What is happening on this Cube?"
It's interesting for Seven the Artificat is still the Borg Cube. I like that characters who were former Borg drones have complicated and diverse opinions and thoughts about their former identity. I like that Hugh is all but ready to move on from being an xB.
And Seven struggles with it more. I wish Hugh had lived because I wanted more interactions and discussions between Seven and Hugh.
Sure Picard and Seven have a shared experience but in the degrees of shared experience, Hugh and Seven's experience are more aligned. Picard and Janeway would have similar experiences in being Borg.
In a screwed-up sort of way, most of Starfleet now knows how Seven feels as a Borg and as an individual.
#thinky thoughts#seven of nine#hugh of borg#hugh | third of five#star trek#star trek: picard#star trek voyager#picard spoilers#long post
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On the Changing Nature of the Borg
I was thinking about Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard yesterday, and I was once again struck by one of the things that disappointed me about the show: The complete retcon they gave the nature of the Borg.
I'm far from the first person to make this observation, and when I complained to friends about it last night, I was a little worried I might be doing the S2 writers a disservice. Maybe I was misremembering the details from the show and putting too much of my own interpretation on top of it. Or I might have latched on to somebody else's criticism and not checked to see if it was supported by the text.
But then I rewatched episode 2x09, "Hide and Seek" today, expecting to have to look very closely for the details that support my reading - only to find that I didn't over-interpret some throwaway line, this is a key piece of dialogue.
So, here it is: my thoughts and feelings about what happened to the Borg in season 2!
Spoilers for season 2 of Star Trek: Picard ahead, obviously. Also quite a bit of saltiness. (I have tagged this post accordingly, so please take this as your sign to blacklist that tag and/or stop reading if you're not in the mood for saltiness ;) )
Let us begin with a quick walk through the history of the Borg.
[Edit: That was a lie, I am incapable of "quick." Prepare yourself for a verbose trek through the history of the Borg.]
In TNG, they were introduced as practically a force of nature. They didn't hold grudges, they weren't ambitious or greedy or megalomaniacal. They didn't spread across the Galaxy because they wanted to be conquerors or rulers. They simply spread. Like a virus, or an invasive plant.
They added new technologies and biology into their collective to improve themselves and their chances of survival. Assimilation was akin to evolution for them. (I know this is not how biological evolution works. I'm using it as shorthand. )
These Borg didn't care that people might not want to be assimilated because for one, their objections would be overwritten once they were Borg, and for another, they had no chance of escaping their fate, anyway.
This first, original form of the Borg, in my opinion, was the most truly alien they have ever been.
This characterization started to collapse a bit once First Contact decided to introduce the Borg Queen as a weird psycho-sexual horror component, making the Borg less of a force of nature and more of a nominally collective hive-mind that operated like a person would.
Voyager definitely added to this interpretation of the Borg, making them more beholden to the moods and wishes of the Queen. They were no longer simply a dispassionate alien organism, moving through the galaxy in a quest for self-improvement because that was their nature. Instead, their characterization became more human, pursuing specific goals, strategies and motivations.
On some level, I completely understand this choice. Making your main series villain a force of nature rather than a character with personal motivation is difficult to pull off, especially when that isn't the main story you're trying to tell. But it did end up taking the Borg one step farther away from their original alien-ness.
One thing Voyager added to the mythos, though, that I find deeply fascinating is that instead of having the Borg Queen lust for power and control, or having her act out of fear and self-preservation, they instead focused on the concept of Perfection. In "The Omega Directive", Seven of Nine explains that to the Borg, the pursuit of Perfection is almost spiritual.
According to this interpretation, the Borg don't simply search out and assimilate new species because of an "evolutionary" drive for self-improvement. Instead, they are on a quest to reach a state of absolute perfection. They add new technologies and biological diversity in the hopes of coming closer to this goal and one day finding this most ideal state of existence.
These Borg don't care about your objections to assimilation, because they are convinced that their vision of perfection is universal. Every species must obviously strive for perfection and they can offer that, so why would you ever want to resist? They have no concept of the fact that others might not define perfection in the way they do, might not strive for it at all, or that "perfection" at the cost of giving up all individuality and sovereignty might not be an acceptable trade-off for people.
(And no, Voyager is not internally consistent about this. Barely any long-running tv show is entirely internally consistent. But the point still stands.)
On some level, this drive also brings the Borg closer to humanity: less dispassionate virus and more colonizers who come to extract value from “lesser cultures” and impose a more enlightened way of life on them because They Know What's Best. Still, I think the relentless, uncompromizing pursuit of a nigh-spiritual ideal of Perfection and utter disinterest in personhood and self-determination of other people make the Borg into a formidable and, at the end of the day, alien villain.
Which brings us to season 2 of Star Trek: Picard.
The thing that rubbed me the wrong way about the way the Borg were characterized here is summed up in an exchange between Jurati and the Borg Queen:
Jurati: "Millions of species, planets, and still you always needed more."
Borg Queen: "Perfection takes time, dear."
Jurati: "This was never about perfection or evolution or any of that bullshit. It was never enough, because you're just like me. Lonely."
And that's it. In all of five sentences, we have retconned the entire history, motivation and fundamental nature of one of the main alien species of the Trek universe.
Everything we have been told about the Borg, everything they have said about their reasons and their character, none of it was true. They have been lying to all of us and to themselves this entire time. They aren't a force of nature or a people/collective organism in pursuit of a higher ideal. Instead, it was all a single woman's misguided quest to not feel alone anymore.
Now, I understand that for some people, this revelation adds a new layer of complexity to a villain that had grown somewhat stale. And I have seen others argue that they like the idea that the Borg collective is actually all about connection. If that's you, I'm not saying you're wrong or trying to ruin your enjoyment of these characters.
But personally, I find this development rather disappointing. This plot twist retroactively changes not only the philosophy, psychology, and raison d'être of a fascinating alien culture but also the narrative significance of the Borg in the Trek cosmos.
Before, they were in conflict with the Federation because they refused (or were unable) to look outwards and see that there was more than one "correct" mode of existence, and that the life of people different than them had worth. Now, the conflict arises because they refuse to look inward and acknowledge that what they are really looking for cannot be achieved through conquest.
Where before they assimilated civilizations in a quest for utmost perfection no matter the cost, now they are assimilating masses of people in the hopes of creating a chorus that will drown out the loneliness.
Don't get me wrong, that sort of twist can make for an intriguing villain arc, but firstly, it needs to be executed with a lot more care than season 2 made room for, and secondly, it works a lot better for individuals or groups of individuals than for a species that is ostensibly a telepathic hive-mind.
(Seriously, the in-universe implications -- for the Prime-timeline Borg, the Federation, the xBs -- are staggering and are glossed over completely on the show. Then again, this is the same season that doesn't bother to show (or tell) whether Agnes Jurati chooses to remain with the Borg Queen out of a genuine desire to create a new collective or as a desperate bargain to save her friends. You know. The culminating moment of her character arc in season 2. But that is another rant.)
At the end of the day, I don't feel like this newly-revealed secret motivation adds a fresh layer of complexity to a well-known villain. Instead, I think it takes away many of the aspects that made the Borg intriguing, both narratively and as an alien species, and turns them into something much more human and, frankly, much more banal.
#take 2#the first time round tumblr somehow published the previous draft from before i deleted all the outtakes at the end 🙃#star trek picard#star trek picard season 2#the borg#borg queen#agnes jurati#star trek meta#star trek picard meta#meta musings#picard saltiness#long post#i worked very hard to avoid the phrase 'the power of friendship' in this rant and i want you all to know that#i'm trying to show a modicum of respect over here!#seriously though. i was a little shocked when i rewatched the ep and heard that bit of dialogue#it feels a bit like such a cheap shot at all the writers who created and shaped the borg#'WE are going to tell you what's ACTUALLY going on with these characters.#and it's not this evolution or perfection bullshit'#i know agnes is trying to provoke the queen#and other shows (not to mention season 1) have also turned established canon on its head#but again: it's a question of intention and care. and i don't feel like the writers gave that development enough room and respect#to make such a line seem like anything but a 'your ideas about these caracters were *dumb*' type callout to previous creatives#also doesn't help that it's not the only time in s2 where it feels like the writers are being mean spirited about previous characterization#anyway#/salt
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THOUGHTS ON POWER RANGERS DINO FURY SEASON 2 FINALE
*SPOILERS AHEAD
So I'm only going to just touch on two major points here, but they stood out the most to me so that's my reasoning/justification.
Okay, so up first we have Amelia's storyline.
WHAT. That's literally all I have to say right now. Because I'M STILL PROCESSING IT. Part of my brain is like- okay, fine- we know Amelia wanted to find out what happened to her parents. So we had to wrap that up somehow.
But also, the other half is like- Do we like how Hasbro executed that?? this is a kid's show so of course they did not have time to explore and discover the truly deep and complex intricate dynamics that could have happened with Amelia finding out that Void Knight and Void Queen were her parents. Like I wanted to see them show more of Amelia grappling with the fact that her parents were not great people for a period of time.
ALSO I am still processing the fact that she is Rafkonian. It's just.. hmm..um how do I find words for how I feel about Amelia's storyline. I just think for now all I can say is... I DON'T KNOW if I like it at the moment. It's just gonna have to marinate in the membrane for a bit.
Moving on- I KNEW ZAYTO WASN'T DEAD.
Did that stop me from admittedly getting kinda emo anyway though?
So here's the thing I find interesting about the "sacrifice" trope/play in Power Rangers.
Personally, to this day, I still think nothing comes close to Kendrix's storyline from Lost Galaxy.
So ANYTIME I immediately notice a plot/storyline in Power Rangers that seems to head in that direction, Kendrix is immediately what I refer back to/reference.
Again, similar to Amelia's storyline, I think if they had more time, the show really could have gone in an interesting direction if they really had k-worded Zayto.
I will admit, they really almost had me on the edge- just for an instance, a split-second, I really believed they would kill off a character.
However, because the show has changed so much though as well, I knew that it would be too "dark" for a "young audience".
But yes, I am basically just saying that leaving a character dead would have been such an interesting move for the show- as that is very rare.
And lastly, this is just mere speculation on my part, but since we know the next season is confirmed to be Cosmic Fury, what is the season going to look like?
I know that apparently the same cast is returning (or is it technically staying?) to do Cosmic Fury so that is already very interesting to me- how are they going to shift into the.. Cosmic Rangers??
Will Ollie and Amelia and Izzy and Fern stay together?
Are we going to see more Jane and J-Borg...
Or will it be a completely different place even? We know at the end Zayto says that Lord Zedd has escaped, and they teleport somewhere. Idk.
Would they even change *gasp* their colors???
Very intrigued to see what the morpher is going to look like as well, since Kyuranger's looked interesting in my opinion.
And if we get a team-up, well.. let's just say I don't exactly want to get my hopes up, but I wonder which Rangers would take part.
Even though this show has changed so much since it first aired, I'm probably still going to keep watching. I want to believe in this Hasbro era. I mean, even if I have my favorites at the end of the day, this is a fandom I really do enjoy being in- it has its ups and downs like any other, of course, but I am personally a believer in the phrase "once a ranger, always a ranger". I'm in this ranger nation for life.
#power rangers#power rangers dino fury#power rangers dino fury season 2#power rangers dino fury finale#ranger nation#once a ranger always a ranger
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My broad opinion of Picard Season 2 is that it ended up being stronger in pieces than as a whole, and I was thinking about that some more and realized part of WHY I felt that way.
It's that the characters started the season where it feels like they should have ended.
Like the clearest example of this for me is in Elnor. He functionally served no purpose in the season on his own, just being there as Raffi's source of angst.
What if, instead, he'd been part of the group, testing the concept of "now is the only moment," because he is in the past. A non-human in pre-contact times, raised in the belief of total candor, now being called upon to lie about his species and identity... There'd have been some interesting stuff with that, especially if that test of his entire worldview had been what LED him to join Starfleet Academy, rather than already being a cadet when the season opens.
Hell, much as I loved Orla Brady's performance, ditch Tallinn's use as an anchor for Picard in "Monsters," have it be Elnor, who speaks to the younger self in Picard's mind, connects with him, shows this connection between the two of them that mattered enough for Elnor to pledge his sword to Picard's cause in Season One, yet failed to be utilized significantly beyond that.
And there's Picard and Raffi themselves. Why did they go BACK to Starfleet? I mean, sure, you can certainly infer things - with the Zhat Vash conspiracy exposed, proving that they were right and there was outside interference with the evacuation efforts, it was wrong of the Federation to walk away from the Romulan crisis in the name of expediency, there was nothing keeping them out... But what about it made them want to return?
I mean, Gabriel, her son, made it pretty clear that he didn't want Raffi in his life anymore, so maybe that gives her the catalyst to take up a position as an instructor at the Academy, mold cadets and teach them not to neglect the things beyond the stars like she had.
And for Picard himself... This would have tied into the "I've spent my life with regrets" - he left Starfleet, and now he has to do what has been the hardest thing for him in his life and swallow his pride to ask if they would take him back. That has an explicit connection to his arc in the season proper, of missing out because of mistakes. And he too would learn about that "do not neglect what is beyond the stars" lesson.
I know people have questioned about how much (or how little) Seven's own feelings were focused on, both of her being able to be fully human, not weighed down by the Borg prosthetics and the visible reminders of her scars, not to mention the Borg Queen not having much to do with her in general when she was considered a favorite by the Queen's admission (even acknowledging that this Queen was from a different timeline and thus different Collective that, by definition, never assimilated a young Seven), and that would have been a strong feature for her that way.
Granted, I'll acknowledge that Rios and Jurati had pretty solid character arcs, but... I did enjoy Teresa, but I didn't buy that Rios had never felt connected in the 24th century. He left Starfleet originally as a result of PTSD, and that was the driving thing for him on La Sirena, not that he didn't feel tied to anything. If anything, Rios's problem was how much he cared about others, got swept up in things - rather than not feeling connected, he connects too much.
In having him remain in the 21st century (especially without even mentioning that, in knowing that WW3 was coming, he wanted to protect Teresa and Ricardo from the worst of it), it just felt like being told that he was disconnected. Hell, building off that not-mentioned idea of protecting them from WW3, why didn't he ask to bring them with him? It would have continued the parallels between Rios and Teresa to Kirk and Gillian in TVH, and, if you had to stick to him staying, have Q outright say that he couldn't send everyone back with the two extra passengers, and have Rios say that he'd stay at that point.
I ultimately feel like more of this season was built around the idea of pushing the new characters out of the way - Soji herself is only given a cursory appearance in the season opener and all other instances of Isa Briones is as Kore, in the 21st century, Jurati and Rios had their stories seem set and closed, Elnor is confirmed to not be coming back... It feels like they wanted to wrap up the new characters' stories this season to give more time and attention to the returning TNG crew next season, what with announcing that so long before the third season even gets a date and knowing that they filmed season three on the heels of season two.
Which is a shame, because... I mean, where the characters were when this season started would have been fine end points for all of them, like I said at the start. Not at the end of the season, but even the end of the series, that they'd gained a new appreciation of who they've been and a platform for where they'd go next. That would have, I think, been a fine way to resolve things, and instead, that was where the season started.
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So, I finished watching Star Trek: Voyager. (spoilers throughout)
I started watching the show a couple of years ago, and I remember being impressed at how solid its pilot was. Star Trek shows (in my experience) have a history of starting out a bit rough before figuring themselves out, and it felt like Voyager had a pretty solid identity figured out right from the get-go.
But while I have loved watching the show as a whole, it felt like it went through multiple identity crises along the way.
It’s frustrating because the show contains the best depiction of the weight of being in the captain’s chair out of any Star Trek story I have ever seen. Janeway herself is just a great character in general, but getting moments like the finale of “Tuvix” or literally any scene in “Year of Hell” go much further in depicting the effect of leadership on our lead character than one would expect in a Trek show.
Over the course of my viewing of Voyager, I noticed that I tended to respond more to darker episodes than others. “Meld”, in which Tuvok mind-melds with a serial killer Betazoid played by the great Brad Dourif, is one example. “Mortal Coil”, in which Neelix experiences a crisis of faith after a death experience, is another favorite. And while I am indeed a sucker for a quality dark Trek story, the main reason that I believe I favored these kinds of episodes was because they felt like they had an impact on the characters.
Most of the blockbuster two-parters over the course of the show didn’t really stick with me, despite some very fun premises. And it’s because, with the exception of “Scorpion”, most of these two-parters tended to resolve in a way that completely undid any semblance of consequence on future episodes.
The most egregious example of this is the ending of “Year of Hell”, a two-parter that began development as a premise for the entirety of Season 4, but was rejected by producer Rick Berman and downgraded to two-parter instead. While I had pacing issues with the episodes due to sensing the abbreviated nature of a lot of the subplots, I overall really liked the story and seeing the crew of Voyager having to endure so much. Not because I wanted to see them suffer, but because I wanted to see stories that conveyed their journey home would have an impact on them. So when “Year of Hell” ends with a timeline reset that completely eradicates all of the events of the two-parter, I felt cheated. Because it is a cheat.
When Voyager did a similar time travel reset for their 100th episode, “Timeless”, in which a future Chakotay and Harry pull some shenanigans to prevent Voyager from crashing into an ice planet, that story successfully had its cake and ate it by having our present-day crew be aware of the future Harry and Chakotay’s actions. The episode ends with a shocked present-day Harry watching a video message from his now-dead future self.
When I finally got around to the series finale, “Endgame”, all I knew to expect was another time travel story. I have no issues with time travel in Star Trek. It’s possibly overused, but I never get tired of it because more often than not, Trek knows how to find the fun in whichever story they use that device in. I enjoyed the first half of “Endgame” and its depiction of our crew’s future lives back on Earth. I liked seeing Admiral Janeway go rogue in order to time travel back to the Voyager crew that we’ve been following throughout most of the show. And as purposely-but-still-strangely jarring as it was to see Admiral Janeway try to prioritize Captain Janeway and the crew over defeating the Borg, I really liked their scenes together as well as Admiral Janeway’s confrontation, defeat, and death with the Borg Queen. (who is suddenly played by Alice Krige again in the finale after being played by Susanna Thompson in previous Voyager episodes. I was happy to see her but a bit confused after the show seemed to indicate that Thompson was meant to be Borg Queen 2.0, only to have our original Queen from First Contact return)
Then the last few minutes happen. The Borg are quickly dispatched, Voyager makes it back to the Alpha Quadrant, and the show ends with them blowing up a Borg Sphere and saying “hello” to the Starfleet ships waiting for them. There is barely any time devoted to the impact of arriving home on the crew because it happens so suddenly. And as much as Mulgrew does to sell “Set a course for home” as the final line... it falls flat.
I suspect that the reasoning for the abrupt ending is that the writers thought depicting the future older versions of the crew on Earth would serve as closure for our cast of characters. But it doesn’t work because the whole premise of the finale centers on Admiral Janeway undoing that future so she can save the lives of Seven of Nine and Chakotay, who are dead in this depicted future.
During one of Admiral and Captain Janeways’ scenes together, they are debating whether to use the Borg space tunnels to get home faster, or if they should destroy the tunnels to keep the Borg from being able to get around space. Then Captain Janeway proposes that there’s a way for them to “have our cake and eat it, too.”
Despite the convenience of this final plot, one that is explicitly identified as such by that line, the finale could still have stuck the landing if we saw or felt the impact of arriving home on the Voyager crew that we have been following for seven seasons. As messy as the show sometimes got, and as underserved as some characters became after the show introduced Seven of Nine (which confuses me because the writers did such a good initial job of utilizing that character to create new dynamics with the cast), this cast had earned and deserved a depiction of their arrival home. And we never got that.
Tom Paris is my least favorite character on the show. It has nothing to do with Robert Duncan McNeill’s performance, it’s just that the character never felt particularly developed beyond his initial characterization for me. His best material, in my opinion, was in “Lineage” when Tom comforts and assures B’Elanna that he will never leave her and that he wants their children to inherit their mother’s Klingon heritage. But one thread throughout the course of the show that seemed so straightforward of a payoff to save for the finale was Tom’s reunion with his father.
Tom talks frequently over the course of the show about his strained relationship with his Admiral dad. Then once Voyager is able to establish contact with the Alpha Quadrant (another development I had mixed feelings on because it diminishes the premise of the show by minimizing the ship’s isolation), we get introduced to Admiral Paris and he becomes a recurring character. We even get a moment where he expresses his love for Tom and how much he misses him. And while we do see Tom’s reaction to this, this huge character moment isn’t a direct interaction between these two characters. So naturally you would assume that their reunion, and likely reconciliation as father and son, would be shown once Voyager returns to Earth in the finale.
But that doesn’t happen.
Even though Admiral Paris is in the finale, that reunion setup is just not payed off in any way.
We also don’t get to see Tuvok reunited with his family.
Or Seven of Nine’s first impressions of Earth or her meeting any of her relatives.
Or any indication of what our former Maquis crewmembers’ reception by Starfleet would be.
Strangely, the only satisfying character sendoff of the show is Neelix, who in an earlier episode leaves to be with a colony of his own people and serve as Starfleet’s Delta Quadrant ambassador. His goodbye to the crew is a beautifully simple scene of him walking to his ship and passing by the entire crew, who are assembled along the hallway to see him off. And we even get a payoff to his friendship with Tuvok when Tuvok briefly taps his toes as a farewell gesture to Neelix.
Neelix started as the show’s most grating character, irritatingly cheerful and toxically possessive of Kes. By the time the show ended, he had become a well-rounded and essential presence. His traumas of losing his faith and family, as well as his insecurities around his role in the crew, were well developed over the course of the show.
In a way, the finale was a perfect example of the show. The premise was solid, and the cast was totally game and performed it to the best of their ability. But when it came down to conveying any impact that this episode, or the series in its entirety, would have on its characters... the finale just sidesteps that and ends abruptly.
Janeway, Seven of Nine, Chakotay, B’Elanna, Tuvok, Harry, Tom, Kes, and The Doctor all deserved better.
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Hippocratic Oath
Johnny Silverhand had an opinion about everything and the lack of control to ever be silent about it. Words flowed out of his mouth before they were fully formed in his mind--in their mind. It drove V mad.
“Can you be quiet for three fucking minutes? Please?” She begged.
I’m just saying, he was still going, you don’t need to go toe-to-toe with Maelstrom just because Regina asked you to.
“They kidnapped a doctor, Johnny. We’re getting her out of here.” V scratched her palm, fingers running over the cyberware implant grafted within. She quickhacked the remaining surveillance camera, disabling it with ease, and headed for an unchecked room in the back of the clinic.
She stepped over a dead borg. V, what kind of gonk gets wrapped up with Mael--
“Don’t shoot! I’m a doctor. I’m not part of the gang.” Inside, a woman stood above an unconscious ganger, her hands pressed against a bleeding wound on his chest.
“Yes. Lucy Thackery. I’m getting you out of here. We need to go. Now.” The ripperdoc was distracted. She was still packing gauze into the man.
“Wait. I need to get his bleeding under control.” Lucy looked up for the first time since V entered the room and took notice of her optical implant. “Scan him, will you? My tech is blacked out.”
Who does she think she is? V looked at the determined woman. The edge of her scrub cap was wet with sweat, her apron splattered with blood. V did as she was asked.
“Vitals not looking good. Pressure’s falling.”
The doctor cursed under her breath. “He’s going into shock! Give him a unit of synth-blood. It’s there on the table.” V hesitated at the request and watched as her optic’s HUD showed his declining health. Lucy nodded towards the table. “We don’t have much time!”
V turned to her left and picked up the canister of synth-blood. When she swiveled back, Johnny appeared in the corner of the room. So you’re taking orders now? V pushed the injector into the man’s chest, the liquid worked into his body. And saving scavs?
Lucy removed her hands from the man. “We need to wait. This’ll only take a moment.”
V paced a bit, growing impatient. “He’s just going to keep killing, you know. Might even imprison another doc.” You’re the one that injected him. You saved him, V. “Why go through this?”
Lucy shook her head. “This is an operation, not a court hearing. I’m a doctor. I’m not sure someone like you can understand.” She peeled off the bloody gauze and dropped it to the floor. “He looks alright. We can go now.”
V nodded. “Okay. Stick with me, head down. More of them could be on the way.”
A message from Regina popped up in V’s HUD: Driver’s waiting. Get Lucy to the car.
V escorted Lucy through the clinic without trouble and out towards the parked sedan. The doctor stopped a beat before entering the car. “Thank you. For everything.”
V nodded in acknowledgment and watched the car drive off.
Well that was fucking stupid. Should’ve let the man--
“Ugh, enough, Johnny.”
*****
Lunch rush at the diner was busier than usual. The chatter was almost too loud to think straight, the commotion almost too chaotic to enjoy the food, but River and V decided to go ahead with their planned meal. It had been a few days since they left the Red Queen’s Race, the club on Animal turf where they uncovered the truth about Mayor Rhyne, and they wanted to catch up.
River had requested a booth towards the back. It allowed him to observe their surroundings--a habit from so many years on the force--and it gave V some privacy. He noticed a lot about her from their drive around Night City and there was a lot he found intriguing, like how she became preoccupied at times. Even now, as she stirred a saccharine packet into her coffee, she was staring off into the corner.
She scratched the inside of her palm before picking up the mug and bringing it to her lips. That was another thing he noted: she played with her hands a lot.
“Where do you go?” He asked.
“Huh?” V’s attention snapped back into the booth, forcing herself to ignore Johnny’s ongoing tirade about shitty diner food. “I’m sorry, you were saying?” Suddenly embarrassed, she felt her cheeks warm. She had allowed Johnny to distract her again.
“You disappear.” He smiled, hoping to soften her embarrassment. “Sometimes you frown--just a little, most people wouldn’t notice--and then you disappear.”
Gonna tell the cop about us? Johnny had materialized next to V. He looked over the edge of his sunglasses to get a better look at River. Gonna tell him about the bomb in your head?
“Yeah, no. I’m sorry. I get distracted.” She buried her face into her cup and changed the subject. “So what happened with the case? Will they reopen it?”
River shifted in his seat, took a sip of his own coffee. “I, uh, don’t really know yet. I took it to Internal Affairs... just waiting to see what they say. What about Peralez?”
Why are we still talking to this cop, V? Do you even--
She took a deep breath, tried to push Johnny’s thoughts away. “Eh. Told them what they already suspected. They paid me and sent me on my way.” I still don’t think you should have told them the truth. You never listen to me.
River noticed she was wringing her hands again. Without thinking he reached across the table and held her hands in both of his, one organic and warm, the other metal and cool. The sudden touch caught V off guard, her breath hitched in her throat.
“If you keep at it, you’ll rub that cyberware away.” River held her gaze, slight concern knitted into his brow. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” she whispered. River squeezed her hand in response, sending a wave of warmth through her. She repeated herself, more confident than before. “Yeah, I’m okay. It’s just an annoying habit of sorts. It’ll go away.”
Hmph, ‘an annoying habit.’ Fine. Johnny’s image fizzled and vanished.
River let go of V's hands. He thought he saw disappointment quickly flash and disappear in her eyes. “If that ever changes, you can give me a call. We worked well together a couple of days ago. You really helped me out. I’d like to return the favor.”
V smiled. She felt genuinely happy for the first time in a while. “Preem. And you can call me too. Never know when you might need a netrunning gun for hire, right?”
River smiled back. “Right.”
#cyberpunk 2077#cp2077#Johnny Silverhand#River Ward#I honestly can't remember that last time I've written creatively#I'm rustyyyyyy#River x V#cyberpunk 2077 fanfiction
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Does Markle know what an algorithm is?
Let's talk algorithms.
I am delighted to admit I was a nerdy, geeky, weirdo boy in the 60s and 70s, before I became a ditto girl-slash-drag-queen in the 80s, 90s, infinity and beyond. I know all about algorithms. There is nothing you can teach me about algorithms!
Back in the 70s there was this game called Mastermind, which involved putting coloured pegs into holes. Holes on a brown plastic game-board, not just holes in any old place. Six colours to choose from, gods it's so long ago, but I think the six colours came in bags of six or eight pegs each; you took it in turns, with a friend who rapidly became an ex-friend, to put four unseen pegs in the game-board holes, and then attempt to work out the correct placement, line by line via little white and black yes-no pegs... you're bored already! Bear with me!
The point is, I very quickly worked out a system which enabled me to calculate the correct coloured pegs within five moves. I was very rarely beaten. Which is another reason why I had no friends as a child. I wore my nicest dresses and my mother's high heels, and no-one ever wanted to play with me, because I had unwittingly invented an algorithm that I could calculate in my head and beat the sh!te out of anyone who tried to play Mastermind with me. Then I did the same thing with my last remaining friend’s Rubik’s cube.
Anyway, as we've all learned recently, Meghan doesn't like social media and is very good at almost-quoting the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma. If anyone hasn't seen it and needs a friendly password (dot dot dot)... Of course, I have to say, be responsible and look up your own illegal downloads because it's well worth a watch. I made notes as I was watching, as I have three young adult sons. My sons mix this weird superglue out of cola and McNuggets and then face-plant themselves onto the nearest screen for seventeen hours...
Here are some of my notes on The Social Dilemma:
Social media algorithms fight you back. Like a Rubik's Cube that re-arranges itself every time you twist it. Rubik's cube algorithms help you speedcube which is a recognised sport like chess. Social media algorithms draw you in and make you feel more and more useless because you're not perfect, not pretty, not smart... You become part of a process that doesn't involve you - it only involves other people manipulating you for their financial gain, and it keeps on manipulating you until you surrender your life to social media.
It's quite scary. Cathy O'Neill (data scientist) says: [Social media] algorithms are opinions embedded in code. They build a pre-ordained outcome and you end up with a social media platform which learns you back, and can reinforce your weaknesses, not your strengths.
Move on a bit and they talk about Wikipedia spying on you. Each person has his own "facts". Facebook is a magician who forces a card on you. Algorithms find rabbit holes in your brain, and like Alice, you fall into a Wonderland where everything convinces you that you are smarter, better read, more intelligent, and the earth is flat.
Whereas every Terry Pratchett fan will tell you it's turtles all the way down.
Algorithms have created a system which is biased towards false information. Gods, this film is fascinating! You have to watch it for yourself, I can't type all my notes here!
Smart sister, dumb brother, the Borg...
Computer says "You don't matter!"
How do you wake up from the matrix when you don't know you're in the matrix?
I have three more pages of notes here...
And I'm still thinking, how can I believe Netflix?
You need to watch this for yourself. Think for yourself. Decide for yourself.
Don’t let Markle do your thinking for you, she’s cr@p at thinking!
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what would the show have had to have done to be considered good for you? I thoroughly enjoyed my time watching the show, so I look back at it fondly.
Oh god, where do I even begin?
For starters - if you’re one of the people who enjoyed The 100 in its entirety, good for you! That’s awesome! I don’t want to diminish that. These are just my feelings and my opinions, and I don’t intend for them to make anyone else feel bad for what they like. The ending could’ve been much worse, I’ll give it that. And there were obviously moments I enjoyed throughout the final season, and the series as a whole will still stand (unfortunately) as one of my favorites.
HOWEVER.
I found the ending thoroughly disappointing. It robbed our characters of any of the development they made in the final season, for the sake of propping up Clarke (canonically, that is why they stayed.)
The final season provided us with some really fascinating journeys for our characters. Without recapping the whole season, I can say that I really liked where Octavia, Emori, Murphy, and Echo ended up in their respective arcs. They all had to overcome their past tragedies to fulfill new roles. It was interesting and engaging.
The show itself provided us with so many interesting conflicts, with so many different groups who had competing goals and ideals. On some level, it promised us that peace was not possible until these folks all learned to work together and stop killing each other. That was the goal, all along.
Survival of the human race was the first goal of the show, and survival of the human race is only possible if they (a) stay human and (b) survive.
Neither of those things happened by the end. The goal of our protagonists - the thing they allegedly existed for, in their stories - to save the human race and survive and thrive and all of that, did not happen for the vast majority of people.
Transcendence and the final scene on the beach erases all of the hard work they did in showing us those character journeys, and in making us invest time and energy into different groups that would only continue to suffer assimilation and homogenization by the end.
What was interesting to me about our main characters - Clarke, Bellamy, Monty, Raven, Murphy, Octavia, Emori, and Echo - was that they appeared to be the ones best suited (according to the storytellers) to save the human race.
The moment the show introduced the Grounders, I wanted a political thriller that I was probably never going to get. I accept that.
What I cannot accept is that they erased all of their conflicts with a convenient deus ex machina, and everything that our characters learned is more or less pointless because of it. I’ll focus on their s7 arcs, but I think it applies to their entire storylines.
Octavia learns about her brother’s way of raising her and comes to forgive him for it. She becomes a parent herself. She manages to bridge the gap between two cultures yet again (Bardo and...everyone else, I guess) by falling in love with Levitt.
She will never utilize any of those skills again. Hope no longer needs a parent. There will never be another culture different from them again. She and Levitt will never have children.
Murphy learns to put value in the group, and to recognize his own abilities as a leader and as a man. He saves multiple people in Sanctum, becoming their protector and their shield.
Emori learns to put value in herself, and to recognize her abilities to empathize with outcasts and those deemed “less worthy” by society. She becomes a queen in her own right, a protector and a diplomat.
No one will ever need them to fulfill these roles, ever again. There was no point in them leading those people.
Echo had to go back to a deeply painful role, one which has cost her dearly in life - a spy among her enemy. When she’s brought to her lowest, to the brink of committing genocide, it’s her love for her family that keeps her from going over the edge. She reemerges as herself, recognizing that her painful past does not define her, and she can find love despite it.
Too bad the love of her life was murdered by Clarke!
I wanted our heroes to save the human race, not be the only humans that ended up saved. Does that make sense?
Clarke gets the closest thing to a happy ending of anyone, since she was the one who insisted for seven seasons that “[her] people” were the most important thing in the world, and that she would stop at nothing to protect them. Welp, now there’s nothing to protect them from. Her genocidal rages get a little slap on the wrist and then she gets to spend an endless beach day bossing everyone around and pouting.
It just sucked.
I hate the magic hand-wave of all of the conflicts. You can try to tell me that transcendence was a choice all you want. Plenty of people chose the City of Light, too. That didn’t make the way it erased their individuality and personal goals okay. Frankly, the ending to me feels like everyone just decided to go into the City of Light anyway. And sure, they keep their bad memories and some semblance of individuality, but what do those things even mean when you just one blip of a species that works, moves, lives, and decides things as one?
They didn’t overcome their tribalism. All of the other tribes just got assimilated into the borg. And sure, they maintain some semblance of personality once they transcend - we know that because of Madi’s message to Clarke. But what kind of lives are they going to have as part of that big glowy shit? Madi never gets to grow up, or fall in love, or pet dogs again. (Picasso is always going to wonder where her new best friend went.)
And who were those alien assholes anyway? Who are they to say that their way is better, that they have the right to judge entire species based on one representative? That they can just exterminate anyone whose way of life doesn’t match up with theirs?
Our heroes didn’t save the human race. The human race turned into something else entirely, and its last survivors get to watch each other die knowing that that’s it, that’s the end of them all.
No societies. No cultures. No new art, or music, or fashion.
No children, no future. No hope.
It’s very disappointing and scary to me. I don’t like the messaging and I don’t like the implications for the surviving characters.
There was a brief, brief moment when I saw a glimpse of an ending that I could’ve liked. When Raven says, “just give us another chance,” I was really expecting the aliens to swoop off and leave humanity to their own devices. No crystallization. No transcendence. All of the remaining groups have to come together and figure out how to thrive together. Discuss and establish a system of government that doesn’t rely on state-sanctioned child battle royales, or body snatching, or extreme restrictions on how many children people can have. Obviously, in this ending, nobody gets shot and nobody almost dies. Madi retains control of her body, somehow. Fill in the details yourself, but my ending would include just about everybody surviving.
Build a society that will grow. Let our characters take the lessons they’ve learned and apply them in a meaningful way, a lasting way. Show us that humanity will survive and will rebuild, on the planet of our birth. Let them rest, but let that rest and that peace mean something more than, “Good job! You made it to episode 100!”
Not to mention, the fact that Earth did eventually heal made everything that Monty and Harper did at the end of s5 completely pointless. Monty thought he was delivering the human race to a new hope. He was just steering them towards assimilation to the borg. I don’t think that’s the “do better” that he wanted, you know?
I could go on, but this is long enough. I’ll just end by saying this - if someone had told me, back in 2015 when I started watching, that this is how the show would end, I never would’ve started it. Not for Lexa, not for Octavia, not for anything.
The ending made everything they went through so painfully pointless.
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Star Trek Picard 1x08
Some initial thoughts because I’m up early again, beware I am full of cold, therefore my brain is not working hugely cogently.
Beautiful Flower, Beautiful Flower, a man called Beautiful Flower. There’s a male synth. The name is SO a clue, seeing as the synth girls have very deliberate non-clue names. Vanna Dahj Soji and...their brother, Beautiful Flower. It’s in line with what I would think of as a chinese method of naming with a name having a literal meaning from a idiogram or logogram method of writing? I’m not a linguist though. I worry if I think too hard about this I’ll guess it as I’ve been pretty good at guessing stuff about this so far, and I hate guessing stuff.
(Beautiful Flower inherited Data’s drawing skill...or is just Data, who knows.)
I think that Beautiful Flower will be a synth in the fashion of Soong, i.e. he’ll be a Maddox. Rios describes the first contact pair as an older man with a young aide. He’s either going to be Maddox, or played by old Brent Spiner, but I’m erring on the side of Maddox, and the Maddox who Agnes killed was a synth, so she won’t need to turn herself in for murder as she didn’t actually murder the real Maddox, who is on the home planet, preserving Agnes for season 2.
(I kind of wish there wasn’t a season 2 at this point, because I want there to be consequences and I still wish we had the anthology series that Bryan Fuller had originally had greenlit however much I love this and Disco. ur girl loves tragedy, and tragedy is hard in serial television if people have seven season contracts.)
The timeline is curious for me, did Rios say nine years ago the whole Ibn Majid thing happened? So Maddox built the first round of synth girls and a synth boy in 5 years...and probably loads and loads of others if Dahj and Soji are only 3 years old, plus these unknown synth boys we’re just learning about.
There’s SO something else going on. I think the lack of discussion of Lore is probably key. He was dismantled and probably passed to Daystrom, but I don’t think they’ll be bringing him back. Lore wouldn’t have aged at all from how Brent Spiner looked in what, 1993? The deaging technology is good, but not that good.
I think this is all getting a bit muddy, and maybe thats my cold-filled brain. Too many moving parts.
Still not sure what the point of Elnor, the Borg cube, Seven, the Romulannisters, the whole xB storyline is and how how they all tie in? I thought that maybe there’d be a cube full of borg with Seven as their queen, but nope, that got knocked off very quickly.
I really liked the episode though, especially the levity of the five Rios holograms, the varying quality of the accents, the backstory of the Ibn Majid, the TERRIBLE photoshop to make Rios clean shaven, all highlights of this episode. As was Raffi yelling that Picard is a fool, because he is and should feel bad for how much he’s fucked up, Agnes meeting Soji.
I still hold out hope that they filmed an extra scene after the end of main filming with a clean shaven Santiago Cabrera and the actual scene on the Ibn Majid where it reveals who Beautiful Flower is if it is going to be data, just because I do want the scrubbed clean with regulation sideburns Rios in the lovely late-era uniform. But if they did, I’m sure they would have just taken a photo and not clone-tooled off his beard, and we haven’t seen a federation starship interior so the set doesn’t exist, so I am dreaming sadly.
So, the secret lady cabal of romulans destroyed Mars. How did they find the flaw in the Synth’s code? Did they have someone inside of Daystrom? Did Oh just download it off the starfleet github? Was it the secret lady cabal who sped up the destruction of the Romulan star, as implied in the last great hope? Why did they do that? Other than because the evacuation was going well and they needed to inflame Federation tensions? Speaking of, did we see all the faces of the secret lady cabal members? Because I was kind of expect Agnes would be one of them and be a deep cover Romulan spy, though this would have been the episode to reveal it if so.
What really hit me this episode was how much I didn’t care that Picard was there. The writers have done a good job making him redundant to the story now, he’s so slow, so out of touch, so ancillary to the story. Which is good, in my opinion. I love the new characters and I think they’ll kill off Picard at some point anyway, and rename the ship the JLP.
I am not ready for this to end. A two part finale sounds good, I just hope it works better than the Disco season 2 finale, which I did not enjoy all that much.
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hugh headcanon;; individuality and leadership
I just need to talk for a little while about Hugh and the xBs for self-care okay.
So, in I, Borg, Hugh learns about loneliness, friendship, and individuality, in approximately that order. These are all linked concepts for him. Loneliness is being separated from the Collective and having no others, but the way you handle not having the Collective is finding others through friendship (defined by Geordi as “someone you talk to” and “someone who makes you feel better”). He learns individuality through these concepts because Guinan makes him finally understand that resistance really is NOT futile because her people resisted. Since resistance isn’t futile and Hugh’s new friends don’t want to be assimilated, he develops his own opinion on whether they should be assimilated. To DO that he needs an identity that isn’t part of the Collective, culminating in “No, I am Hugh.” Then, he chooses to return to the collective to protect his ‘friends’ and their individuality at the expense of his own.
The next time we see him is in Descent, Part II, which is a pretty weak episode, but there are some things to get out of it. Hugh returned to the Collective, and the group of Borg he interfaced with were introduced to individuality. Individuality made them unable to function the way they were used to, and most of the drones couldn’t handle it.
I’ve always found the way Hugh describes it really unsettling: “Before my experience on the Enterprise, the Borg were a single-minded Collective. The voices in our heads were smooth and flowing. But after I returned, those voices began to change. They became uneven, discordant. For the first time, individual Borg had differing ideas about how to proceed. We couldn't function. Some Borg fought each other. Others simply shut themselves down. Many starved to death.”
At this point, they are so helpless that when Lore shows up promising to turn them 100% synthetic, they are eager for that. They see individuality as a weakness, and they want a leader who can take away the uncertainty that comes with it. Once Lore is deactivated again, Hugh says that they no longer have a leader, and Picard implies that Hugh should be their leader.
And that’s the last thing we know about him until he’s on the Artifact in a couple decades, so. I want to talk about what this means for how he works with xBs when we meet him again in Picard.
One of the things I think he learns from the Lore debacle is how NOT to be a leader. I don’t think he’s very eager to be a leader in general, but he definitely wouldn’t want to be one who is willing to influence others to make sacrifices for some greater purpose. I think it also resulted in him being able to let go of that ingrained need for a single authority (i.e. a Collective/Queen replacement) and develop an appreciation for a kind of leadership that involves listening to others and synthesizing their desires into action.
But the other leader he’s interacted with is Picard, and I think he learned some things from him as well. First of all, he’d consider Picard’s method of drawing out his individuality pointlessly confrontational. While it worked reasonably well for him specifically, it still based his sense of individuality in what he could do for others without real consideration for himself. I don’t think he’s ever entirely been able to let go of that either, but he wouldn’t want it for all the xBs. He wants them to be able to prioritize themselves and their wellbeing so they can actually face their traumas in a safe environment.
Second, he’d definitely learn that heroics are great for emergency situations. They stop everything from falling apart in the moment. But staying behind and doing the work is the only way to create lasting change. His time on the Enterprise changed him, but when they left, it only created another disaster they needed to come in and fix… but what did they do for the former Borg who already died or suffered severe brain damage? Nothing.
Putting this together, Hugh’s view of leadership is to make others strong enough to lead themselves by giving them time and patience and love and letting them discover what matters to them. He’s seen that simply thrusting change onto an xB can lead to aggression or despair, so all he really wants is to show them that, whatever they’ve gone through, there’s still hope.
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Steven Universe: Familiar (Analysis and theories)
So I know I am a couple weeks late to the game on this one, but I am going to write my thoughts on Familiar before moving on to the next episode because this episode was all setup and extremely important.
So, overall analysis first.
Last time I wrote about Steven Universe I somewhat hyperbolicly said that gem society is the most conformist society this side of the Borg. I was wrong. It is more conformist than the Borg, significantly more.
The Borg are a collective that enslaves individuals, forcing them to adapt to serve the collective, creating a conformist, uniform society of billions of slaves. But we can say these things about the Borg collective: It has a concept of personhood even if it does not respect it, it recognizes the concept of individuals, and while each drone is treated as an object it is recognized that they are individuals serving a collective.
Gem society has none of that. Gem society has no concept of person hood, no concept of individuals. Everyone IS an object, a single piece of the greater machine. The wall gems and hair brush etc are all visible examples of this, but it is no less the case that, say, pearl is just as much an object as these “object” gems. The only exception might be the diamonds, but I am beginning to suspect even they do not see themselves or each other as people as we understand it, hence their difficulty in separating the person of Steven from the person of pink diamond. They both share the same gem, therefore they are they same object or piece within the great machine that is the gem society.
I have all sorts of theories about how this might have happened, by the way, but I seriously doubt we are going to get an explanation of the origin of gem society. My prime suspicion is a run away paper clip problem, where a single artificial life form was created with some purpose and it destroyed the civilization that created it fulfilling that purpose to the best of it’s own ability, and is now running out of control after expanding on itself more and more through additions, self replication, etc, with whatever it’s original purpose was long forgotten. This original being may have been what is now White Diamond. This would make sense of why the gems never developed a sense of person hood within their society, in a very real sense the entire gem society is just one single machine that has repeatedly expanded itself.
Whatever the case, I think the evidence of Familiar has demonstrated that gems are far more alien than we ever suspected. As I have been saying for a long time, no matter how human the gems look this is one of the more alien science fiction races ever conceived, and this episode proves that to me. This, I believe, is the big non obvious take away from the episode.
The more obvious plot point of Steven’s plan is mildly interesting, but I think it was pretty obvious even before this episode that this was where this was going. Steven frames everything he does through a lens of peace, reconciliation, or protection. I have not mentioned it before, but the obvious symbolism of him being assigned a shield when all others get a weapon is playing out here. It will not go smoothly for him I doubt he truly thinks it will be as simple as he stated. He is well aware of how difficult this stuff can be, and Steven Universe has never been a show where simple solutions are available to complex issues.
The last major take away here is that the Diamonds really are on another level to the other gems, and white possibly on another level above pink, blue, and yellow. Their powers and social status rank more along the lines of demi gods or gods compared to the more human level powers and social status of other gems.
I mention this because it has further cements my opinion that Rose was justified in her gag order on pearl, even if she probably should have removed that restriction before her death. Rose was not a queen trying to live among common people, she was a god trying to live as a person and leading a rebellion of people towards freedom. If it had been known she was a diamond this would have been a war between gods, not a war for freedom from them.
It also frames the power dynamic between Pearl and Rose a bit better. This was not something Rose wanted but simply by knowing the truth Pearl was entirely unable to move on and become her own individual so long as Rose was alive. It literally required rose’s death for pearl to break free of her zealous devotion to her god. Not that she thinks anything less than the world of Rose now, but she thinks of her as a person.
Smaller take aways:
The pebbles are adorable.
The diamond secretion thing is interesting, I have theories and such about it but I think we can easily say that this is a vital component for something to do with gem society. It could be gem creation, but I think it is more subtle than that. maybe to do with gem creation indirectly. Yellow has been expanding like crazy, this would be unsustainable as they either cannot or are unwilling to create more diamonds for more diamond juice. With the amount of time devoted to this idea in a ten minute episode this will clearly play an important part in the story to come and it has only just been introduced, and I don’t think it is worth deep speculation until we know more.
and I think that is it for smaller take aways. Looking forward to when I get to watch the next episode with my wife.
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There’s been recent discussions on reddit about each Captain’s questionable decisions and actions. And, of course, the Tuvix thing keeps getting brought up, I wouldn’t be so annoyed with it, if everyone and their brother hasn’t been consistently beating on a dead horse about Tuvix. Or Janeway’s deal with the borg, or the Equinox thing. Or the Caretaker thing.
But one thing I don’t think isn’t discussed as much is Sisko’s actions after he went after Eddington.
I love Sisko, he’s Top 5 Trek Captains for me but that was such a dubious thing to do and on rewatch I was so shocked that the show tried to frame Sisko launching a biogenic weapon at a planet as a good thing.
Sisko and Jadzia even laugh about it after, robbing the whole action and implications of that actions.
I don’t want to do this Captain is Better than This Captain, and Fandom’s reactions to Sisko were also terrible when it first aired but also IMO poisoning an entire planet just because it housed Maquis was not great. (And the story tried to soften the blow by saying it just means the Humans and Cardassians just exchanged planets).
IMO, this also led to making it seem that Starfleet condoned this actions and Kira, of all people, was okay with it.
I think the story would have been better served if they ended the story showing that it also took a toll on Sisko. SISKO POISONED A GODDAMNED PLANET THAT WAS HOME TO A LOT OF MAQUIS.
I guarantee if Janeway had done this, we would have heard nothing but years of Psycho!Janeway.
I’m not a fan of Eddington but he also made it a point that no Starfleet crew they engaged were seriously injured. Humiliated and bruised but not dead or dying. The response was not proportional.
Fans and fandom had this narrative that Janeway never reaped the consequences of her actions when she almost always did. It went to the point that Peter David had Janeway killed and turned into a Borg Queen because of ‘Hubris’ in the Trek Litverse.
When Janeway died in the Litverse there was this overwhelming tone of ‘ding dong the witch is dead’ that was so noxious and that Beta canon validated them…
It was just terrible all around. I’m a huge fan of Sisko but the way the episode didn’t do Sisko any favors but Sisko also had a benefit of serialized format and epic arcs to bolster his reputation.
Meanwhile, the writers put Janeway in interesting situations where she’s pushed into making decisions and fandom would run Janeway over coals over it.
Sisko and Janeway are both interesting Captains placed in a pressure cooker and they responded to the best of their abilities and frankly, a lot better than most characters would have. Their flaws and foibles are what make them interesting, as well as their ability to stand by their decisions, for good or ill. They are cut from the same cloth, IMO.
The difference lies in the fandom reaction, this is why I’m glad in the past few years Voyager and Janeway are getting a second look. Sisko is already a beloved icon within fandom, now we just need to get liveaction Trek to get them on board*.
(*I know its an unpopular opinion but I feel the mentions in Picard s3 was a good start in liveaction, hooking the changeling into the larger plot of Trekverse and showing a photo of Odo. But I wish to have them overtly in the next few projects.)
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26.
Have you ever been in weather below 0 Fahrenheit (-17 Celsius)?
...yes. Literally every year. There’s usually a week or two in January when it gets down to -50 to -75 F.
Have you ever been caught outdoors away from shelter during a thunderstorm? Maybe when I was a teenager? I’ve definitely been caught in the rain, not sure about a thunderstorm tho.
What’s your favorite macaron flavor?
I’ve actually never had a macaron! But I don’t like meringue so I don’t think I’d enjoy them.
How often do you have friends over to your house?
Literally never.
Have you ever had a boss who acted unprofessionally?
YES. The assistant manager at the last job I had was insane. She tried to tell me that I wasn’t allowed to leave town on the weekends in case they needed me. LOL girl bye.
How many times have you stayed at a hotel in the past year, and where?
0, covid.
Have you ever done a flip on a trampoline?
Noooo.
What about a flip off of a diving board?
I’ve never even been on a diving board.
Are you embarrassed by your school yearbook photos?
I believe in the 10th or 11th grade I hated them but I was on the yearbook committee so I finessed some new ones to put in hehehe.
Who taught you to tie your shoelaces?
I believe I learned at school.
Currently how many pictures are on your cellphone?
9,008.
Do you think dimples are cute?
Oh hell yeah.
Would you rather chew fruity or minty gum?
Minty.
The last time you went to the mall, who did you go with?
Beebs!
What’s something you used to collect when you were younger?
Rocks and lip balm.
Have you watched a movie today?
Yes! We went to see Dracula.
Aside from your own, whose house did you last set foot into?
We went to an indoor garage sale a couple weeks ago.
Do you love soft pretzels?
They’re alright. They smell better than they taste in my opinion.
Who was the last person who cried around you? Why did they start crying? Was it unexpected?
Does my dog count? Bc she’s just a drama queen and I wouldn’t expect anything less from her.
Are you more likely to like someone before you really know them, or do you feel you like them more after you know a lot about them?
True love is when you like them a ton before you actually really know them and then like them even more after.
Do you buy people cards on special occasions, or do you prefer to make your own?
I honestly think cards are a huge waste of money so if I do give one, I made it. But I have a Circuit and I’m pretty creatively inclined so it’s pretty easy.
When was the last time you were being hypocritical?
It sounds pompous but I honestly think I'm too self aware to by hypocritical.
Where on your body was the last cramp you had? Why did you have this cramp?
My hip, because I was sitting weird.
What is the weirdest name you’ve ever heard?
Someone I know named their kid Emanda. Unsure if its pronounced ee-manda or just regular Amanda. Haven’t wanted to ask. Another named their kid Albrea. I just call her Algebra. And another named their kid Annekke, pronounced Anika. She will forever be a-neek-ee to me.
Do you get embarrassed when people hear you sing/compliment you on your singing ability?
Bold of you to assume I ever let anybody sing.
Are you good at comforting people when they’re upset?
I’m the big sister to like a bajillion children. Yes I’m good at it.
Do you have any exercises you do everyday?
Newp.
Do you own one of those singing fish? Do you think they are silly or funny?
Hahaha I don’t but I literally just saw a Billy Bass at a thrift store yesterday. They were funny then and they’re funny nostalgic now.
Has anyone ever accused you of being bipolar or any other mental disorder? Do you really have any mental disorders?
I have a pretty severe anxiety disorder but no one’s accused me of having it because like...it’s pretty obvious?
Did you buy the last thing you bought with your own money? If not, whose money did you buy it with?
Haha yes! We bought movie tickets, a drink, and peanut butter m&ms.
Do you like to put your feet up on the dashboards of cars? Do you parents yell at you if you do that in cars?
Our car is too short for that but yeah, my parents always yelled at me for it when I was young.
Which Beatle is your favorite, or do you love them all equally?
I wouldn’t say I loved any of them but John Lennon is absolute hot garbage.
Do you enjoy classic rock? If so, who are some of your favorite classic rock artists?
Uh...not really?
Did you ever own a Tamagotchi?
Yes! They were all the rage in the 6th grade.
Are you more of a dog or cat person?/
Dog, definitely.
Have you ever failed math?
I very, VERY narrowly passed the last math course I needed to graduate and I did the math and because of the mark I got on my final, I should have failed by 3% but I got 1% over what I needed to pass. Pretty sure my math teacher just didn’t want to deal with me taking the course over so he passed me BUT my math could have been wrong, haha.
Skittles! What's your favorite color?
Lordt. I haven’t purchased skittles in ages. I think I remember red being my favorite?
Have you ever had a dream of stabbing someone?
Yeah, actually.
What would you want your last words to be if you could choose them?
I would just want my husband to know how much I love him and that I’ll be waiting for him in whatever form of afterlife there is.
Can you sleep with the light on?
If I'm dead tired.
What’s the most bizarre horror movie you’ve ever seen?
I mean...Dracula is supposed to be a horror movie. The only thing horrific about it was the acting.
What band can’t you stand listening to?
I honestly can’t think of one right now.
Would you ever take a lie detector test for your significant other?
I mean, if I had to? But we trust each other 100% and I’m brutally honest about everything so he would never require that from me.
What is your favorite Mystery/Crime/FBI related show?
Murder, Mystery, & Makeup Mondayssss! Sha na sha sha na sha sha na sha sha sha na shaaaaaaaa!
Would you ever have a bird as a pet?
Absolutely not.
How's your relationship between you and your grandparents?
I love my mom’s parents to bits. My grandma is one of my absolute favorite people in the world and my grandpa is very quiet but he has a lot of really sweet moments. My dad’s parents are awful fuckin people. My grandfather died like 5 years ago and I really had to try hard to feign sympathy about it to him. My grandmother is still kicking it but we haven’t spoken in over a decade for good reason. She also changed their joint Facebook account to just her Facebook account less than a week after he died loooool. She hated him as much as I did I think. And then my bio dad’s dad is dead but he was also a piece of shit but his mom is a sweetie. We facetime every so often and she holds the phone a grand total of 6 inches away from her face the entire time and tells me the same stories over and over. Bu
Ever had a forbidden love or lover?
Newp.
Have you ever had to speak at a funeral?
No, thank god.
Do you know someone who’s been cremated?
My grandma’s dog.
What is your current problem?
My eyes are blurry because I’m tired.
Do you like canopy beds?
Tbh, canopy beds are the epitome of glamor in my eyes.
What is your favorite animated movie?
Onward.
Would you rather live in a small town or a big city?
I like medium cities. You won’t get mugged walking down the street, traffic doesn’t absolutely suck, and you can get clear across town in 15 minutes.
If you could summon any animal to come to your rescue, what animal would it be and why?
Uh? Why am I in trouble? Why can’t I call a human? What’s happening here?
Have you ever watched The Golden Girls?
I tried watching a couple episodes but it didn’t pique my interest.
Did you ever like the Ninja Turtles?
Noooo. Beebs loves them though so he tries to make me love them and it’s just not happenin, buddy.
Last alcoholic drink you had?
No idea tbh.
What are you known for?
For being talented and having big hair.
Has anyone ever threatened you?
Oh yeah. There was this one guy who was constantly sending me really graphic messages about how he wanted to put a gun to my head and kill me or he hoped I would get XYZ and die. I tried to block him but he would immediately make 3 more accounts to send me the same shit.
Have you ever gone frog hunting?
Noooo.
Do you ever suffer from dry skin?
Yessss. My body is the Sahara.
Do you still sleep with a stuffed animal?
No, I sleep with a husband.
What’s the weather like right this moment?
It’s rainy!
Do you bite on straws, lollipop handles, or ice cream sticks?
Nah.
In what type of area was your first sexual encounter?
Beeb’s bedroom. His stepfather interrupted and made him come outside to talk to him for some reason and then very weirdly pointed out his half boner? V. uncomfortable all around.
Where is your mother’s side of the family descended from?
Somewhere where white people come from idk.
What do you occupy your time with on flights?
iPad games usually.
Do you dog-ear pages in books?
No, I’m not a heathen.
What’s a made up word of yours?
We call pickles ‘pickies’ and hamburgers ‘borgers’ or ‘borgs’ because we’re gross.
Do you use Q-Tips?
In my ears? No. To clean out tight spaces of things I've thrifted? Yes.
Ever gone out with somebody you didn’t like?
Noooo.
What hero or heroine do you most relate to in history, fiction, or song?
....No.
What makes you dizzy?
Getting up too fast usually.
Are your parents liberal or conservative?
Bleh, conservative. If you have liberal parents, consider yourself blessed.
Do you like your teeth? Did you have braces?
I got away with having just an appliance/Invisaligns but I still don’t like my teeth. They’re perfectly straight and white enough but I have body dysmorphia and for some reason I think they’re atrocious and I hate them??? I can’t explain it.
Are you happy with your height?
I’m 5′11 and I wish I was shorter sometimes. Hugging my husband would be easier.
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Star Trek: Picard episode 1, “Remembrance” thoughts SPOILERS
[[ Second viewing liveblog notes - SPOILER ALERT under cut.
Ugh, my notes for the beginning got deleted so I had to re-write them.
The opening scene is Good. I love Data. I love the Enterprise and the poker game. “I don’t want the game to end. I’m all in.” All Queens of Hearts. Mars. I love Number One. Such a good doggie.
I love Dahj’s boyfriends eyes. Xehean sounds like Xelayan from Orville. I forgot Po, the queen girl that Tilly befriended on Discovery was Xehean. Cool reference. Dahj’s field of study is A+. Very good choice.
NO. I LIKED HIM. Sleeper. He was asking about “the rest of them” or something? Not, like, “the other one,” talking about Soji, but more than one. Are there other synthetics? How do they know about her? GO FIND PICARD.
The intro is very pretty both visually and musically and I love the little parts of the older music in it. Discovery also had that.
I loved Picard talking in French to Number One. Also Number One is a v good “assassin”
I love the Romulans helping Picard out. What are their names?
“We have not.” We’ll never forget who you are Picard<3 “Be the captain they remember” we love you.
Of course she is going to ask. I hate that she turns this on him so quickly. I hate that the Federation banned synthetics. I really think there is more going on with the synthetics than just them going rogue. Something happened. And OF COURSE HE WANTED TO SAVE THE ROMULANS YOU SHOULD TRY TO SAVE EVERYONE.
Utopia Planitia. Geordi was there.
Dahj found him. SHE’S DATA’s DAUGHTER. Number One likes her. HE knows what’s up.
I love Data’s paintings.
Dahj. Don’t leave.
I love the Captain Picard Day banner. A+. A beautiful painting. I love Data’s art, including his poems. Daughter.
Eiffel Tower. Dahj’s mom is so fake. So like what’s up with that. Is she a real person lying to her or like a program or what? WHO IS SHE?
Dahj trusts Picard because Data does.
Data is the best. Your dad is the best, Dahj. Picard is like “Dahj is Data’s daughter and she’s mine now.”
30 years ago. Daughter. Lal 2.0.
Positronic brain. Xenobotanist. I like it. “Beautiful memory, and it’s yours. No one can touch it or take it away.” Kind of like the fake memories of an entire life you have, Picard? “Lovingly and deliberately created, like Dahj Oncidium.” You are real. Data is real. Synthetics are real. Daystrum. “You are the daughter of a man who was all meaning, all courage.” <3
She could hear them. Super hearing. I know she mentioned that already. There are a lot of them. Poor Picard. Getting old. Can’t do all this running anymore. But like she’s an awesome fighter. Why are there so many of them and who are they??
What happened to Spot after Data died? I know this is like 20 years past that, so Spot is dead, but I still want to know.
NO DAHJ. I can’t believe they kill her off. Soji is NOT Dahj. They give her to us then take her away ):
Ugh. Commercials :/
Recap in flashes. Aw Number One is a Good Boy. Cloaking device makes sense. That’s cool, too. Zhaban. You tried, Picard. It’s not your fault. But also I am so glad you’re going out again. Chateau Picard is beautiful and writing about history is important but you’re meant to be out in space.
Agnes! Yay. She’s cool. Don’t laugh. Rude. Advanced Synthetic Research. Poor Agnes. B4! I knew B4 was in the drawer. Why was B4 dissembled? Oh. Maddox. He’s good and I know he changed his opinion at the end of that episode so… I can forgive because I know Data did. Data was able to build a better android. Even better than him, actually, but Lal didn’t survive long. Also, Data’s mother was made into an android and she was pretty much perfect, so it’s possible.
So that’s what the necklace means. It obviously meant something since they drew attention to it earlier. Data has had three daughters, then.
I knew this would be a Borg cube. Romulan reclamation site. Inside a Borg cube. Why.
Hi Narek. Hi Soji. They’re cute. Narek is probably a bad guy, I know, but not necessarily, right? Who was Narek’s brother? “We lost him last year.” Are we going to find out more about that? “Fixing broken people.”
What Borg cube is that, though? Like, was it the one Hugh damaged? Is it a different one? Probably a different one, considering that one was from a long time ago now.
New preview.
“Can we go already?” Was that “It’s about to get very hot” line Cris? SEVEN<3 HUGH<3 “They warned me you were a speech-maker.” Hehe. I love you Cris.
Wil Wheaton’s Ready Room is v fun. Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher was my first crush, starting from when I was like 2. I know a lot of people don’t like Wesley but I’ll always love him. I want to meet Wil Wheaton someday. He goes to the gaming cons I go to sometimes so maybe eventually I will. Haha, will. Wil. I will meet Wil.
Ugh. I can’t wait for the next episode. Why does it have to be released one at a time with a WEEK in between? I mean, it would go too fast if they released it all at once, but still. I’m torn. Do I want it to last longer or do I want it all right now? The answer is both and I know I can’t have it both ways. This is probably better. Sigh. ]]
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Voyager and Leeta for the ask thing
Leeta
003 | Give me a character & I will tell you:
How I feel about this character: I like Leeta but I feel like she embodies so many missed opportunities. Anyway I like that she’s sweet but hiding a certain steely determination (the kind that allows her to form a union under Quark’s nose and join the little resistance cell during the Dominion occupation of DS9). Also she’s a saint for working for Quark for so long
Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Rom, and I keep wondering what would’ve happened if Jadzia hadn’t like. acknowledged that ‘GO AWAY’ padd from Julian
My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Nog
My unpopular opinion about this character: She suffers from being a female recurring character on DS9: much like Keiko, Kasidy and, to a lesser degree, Ziyal she mostly fulfills the role of a love interest/spouse when there are so many interesting traits about all of them that could’ve been explored better (for example, let Kira and Leeta talk at least once! They have such a different relationship with Bajor. Tell me more about what you think Leeta)
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: actually show us Leeta and Jadzia’s friendship! I know it was just mentioned in a throwaway line to justify her participation in Jadzia’s zhian’tara but I still wanted to see it
Favorite friendship for this character: I don’t know what to say here because I honestly can’t remember if we actually saw her being friends with anyone except Rom before they got together… sorry
My crossover ship: I don’t have any that I can think of
Voyager (you have been warned)
001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:
Favorite character: my stubborn, awkward daughter Seven of Nine
Least Favorite character: the Doctor in later seasons. I wish he could’ve stayed like he was around s1-s2 (I really like the episode where he goes into the Beowulf holonovel for example) but he started to really annoy me even before Seven joined the cast. sorry?
5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): B’Elanna/Seven, Janeway/Chakotay, Paris/Kim, Janeway/B’Elanna, Seven/Samantha Wildman
Character I find most attractive: B’Elanna Torres
Character I would marry: B’ELANNA TORRES
Character I would be best friends with: Harry! I think we’d get along well, I’d love to go out for a drink with him and talk about being so far away from our families, how difficult it is pick yourself up every time life throws you a curveball and so many other things
a random thought: I swear this is the last time I’m talking about this, but. I wish the writers had cared more. At some point someone decided that continuity didn’t matter anymore and it shows, especially when they try to reference things that happened while Kes was still on Voyager, which annoyed me to no end. To be fair I wouldn’t have felt this so much if I hadn’t binge-watched Voyager so quickly; rewatching random episodes has already improved my opinion a lot. But I mean, TNG doesn’t seem to have the same problem with continuity, at least where I’m now. (I know, we all love to talk about what’s wrong with Voyager and I won’t pretend I have the slightest clue about what would’ve ‘solved’ Voyager’s problems, this is just a gut feeling.)
An unpopular opinion: Janeway isn’t my favourite captain (flame emoji)
My Canon OTP: IS J/C A VALID ANSWER bc if it isn’t then… I don’t have one
My Non-canon OTP: Seven/B’elanna
Most Badass Character: Janeway
Most Epic Villain: like I want to write ‘Borg Queen’ here because she was a recurring antagonist to Janeway specifically but she got rekt so many times and relatively easily too!! There were good villains though, I especially liked the Hirogen in The Killing Game
Pairing I am not a fan of: Janeway/Seven, though I understand why people ship them so much
Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): so many characters deserved better!! Give B’Elanna, Harry and Chakotay more and better written episodes.
Favourite Friendship: Tuvok and Janeway, Seven and Naomi (though there are so many more I like! I honestly think Voyager did friendship well)
Character I most identify with: THEY’RE ALL BEAUTIFUL PRODIGIES it’s difficult to identify with any of them. But I think Seven is the one I relate to the most (what even are people?? how to express emotions?? I’m 30 and I’m still not sure I get it. Also Let Us Not Smile if we don’t feel like it dammit)
Character I wish I could be: Tuvok (grumpy grandpa dispensing wisdom to the Youth… ideal. tbh I’m already a lot like him)
#ask memes#i feel like i always have Bad Opinions about voyager i'm sorry#i actually liked a lot of it#voy#kapitel-19
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