#seven can still be dating raffi
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Dream Star Trek series pitch:
Episodic wildlife documentary series called Wildman's Wild Universe. Older Samantha Wildman and adult Naomi (who went into life sciences like her mom, doing some sort of environmental science) host it. Every episode features a new sci-fi animal and little slice-of-life zoological adventures. It's all low stakes adventures, bright colors, and fun animal puppets as far as the eye can see. I guess they can use green-screen effects for the animals, but ideally it would mostly be little muppets. Minor interpersonal conflicts and occasionally someone gets treed by a Hengrauggi and the rest of the film crew has to lure it away. No planets or ships get exploded (but a little science vessel does sure get into a tight spot every episode), and no alien animals are harmed in filming.
Characters and episodes under the cut:
Every so often even Seven guest stars and hangs out. One episode she introduces the Wildmans to her cool new girlfriend and then they all observe a pterosaur flock on Betazed.
Other Voyager characters show up every so often. Obviously Tuvok appears in the Vulcan wildlife episode, where his children also show up and they all help the Wildmans solve a poaching mystery. But also the fucking nobody Voyager crew get to show up sometimes, because I love them. Tal Celes and Billy Telfer guest star on the episode where the Wildmans look for giant glacial shrimp on Andoria (they were helping navigate the experimental watercraft) and their sub gets trapped and they all have to figure out how to free it.
Other episodes include (season 1 has a big emphasis on extinction and conservation efforts, culminating in the season finale):
Targs on Qo'noS, and the difference between wild and domesticated targs. There's a Klingon Jackson Galaxy-esque figure advocating for better targs understanding and ownership.
An update on the whale situation on Earth.
An episode about thylacines: "thought extinct until a small pack was located in 2038" Samantha says ecstatically. We have to have some hope what with world war III and all.
Touring an animal rehabilitation center on Ktaris. Greskrendtregk appears in this one. Canonical Ktaris appearance. Canonical Greskrendtregk appearance! Everyone clap for Greskrendtregk!
The Wildmans observe some Corvan gilvos & talk about their miraculous return from the brink of extinction after being relocated to Brentalia. The gilvos look just as shitty as they do when Riker's holding them in his arms at the end of New Ground & I laugh heartily at them.
Talking about the dangers of introducing non-native animals to new planets. The featured animals on the planet look suspiciously like banana slugs. Weird. How’d they get there? Who could have done this? (Hoshi Sato. It’s not stated in show...but we all know its Hoshi Sato and Sluggo who have done this)
This is obviously all inspired by my childhood love of the Kratts’ Creatures tv show, so there should be just a little fucking animated guy in the in-universe episodes as the “kid fact explainer” character like Ttark on Kratts’ Creatures. Torn between it being a flotter hologram, a Neelix hologram explaining the food chain, or a Dr. Phlox hologram presenting on fauna & medicine in little animated asides. Maybe all 3.
However!
As one of my biggest complaints is New Trek’s over-reliance on legacy characters, we do also get new characters:
New betazoid character as the super nervous cameraman on his first job out of Betazed Polytechnic. He’s kind of scared of animals, and has never left Betazed before, but is determined to overcome his fears!
Nausicaan expert on xenomegafauna & she's super enthused about space megatherium and lunar terror birds.
Aforementioned Klingon with Jackson Galaxy vibes.
Romulan ichthyologist, who was responsible for evacuating a viable population of Romulan pupfish from Romulus before it exploded. They seem very grumpy and aloof but it is a farce! They love fish and their friends. They are holding them at a distance but sometimes the facade drops.
It’s a mini Starfleet crew, for a science vessel of like, 9.
Season Finale is yet another time-travel Janeway showing up, ready to wreck this timeline to get Voyager home like 3 years faster. Samantha has to give a rousing Star Trek™ speech. Maybe Janeway could get the Voyager home faster by unraveling this timeline. Maybe that would spare them all some suffering. Maybe this timeline was doomed from the start. But Samantha knows that in this timeline, her daughter gets to the alpha quadrant alive and that they are still together, and who knows what Janeway’s new timeline will hold. And also! In this timeline the Bolian green-bellied moth was brought back from the brink of extinction after decades successful conservation efforts, and that also makes this timeline worth fighting for.
#star trek#samantha wildman#naomi wildman#tal celes#billy telfer#seven of nine#tuvok#this would give us the tuvok and daughter solve a mystery episode that was maybe planned for voyager and then scrapped#in my heart of hearts and the fanfic version of voyager than only lives in my head lieutenant stadi the betazoid from the pilot lives#and her and seven reconnect post-voyager drift apart#and theyre dating#seven can still be dating raffi#seven can have 100 girlfriends#i want a scifi series that's just like...worldbuilding the series#heres the fauna#and would you believe it the flora too!#beautiful vistas and some of them are maybe not even california#tell me what happened to the gilvos#I don not care about the prestige tv sprawling action scenes#i want updates on the throwaway alien animals from 30 years ago!
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How Picard should end.
The very probable end of The Next Generation is coming and with it the beginning of the end of the first phase of the revival of Star Trek that began with Discovery. Here's what I'm thinking about.
As I write this, the final episodes of Season Three, the series, and perhaps even this sub-franchise are coming into view. I refer to it as a sub-franchise because I think that Picard as a series has a storytelling approach and a set of themes that it has explored that overlap with Discovery but also has its own identity.
Because of the age of many of the principal characters, there has been a strong theme of having to adjust with grace and empathy to a world radically changed from what was normal and comfortable to you, having to acknowledge your complicity in the faults you find in this world, and of repairing relationships that have been harmed.
Immersing myself in where Picard has been as a series, even just the first four episodes to date, has given me a strong sense of what it is that Picard is about and thus some strong, but not pugnaciously held opinions on how it should end. The failure to do any of the following will not “ruin” the series for me, although the alternatives better be really well done.
For the first time of the CBS era, I actually really feel strongly that my own aesthetics could be defied and I will still really enjoy the outcome. For example I despise the trope that Jack Crusher represents but the trope has been so superbly executed that I’m almost annoyed at how completely I’m in his corner.
Speaking of Jack Crusher….
I would strongly prefer he not be written off as a space god or killed. For one, this is just Wesley’s arc duplicated. For two, while “NuTrek” is doing a great job at moderating the setting’s default posture that transhumanism is bad, it feels too cliche and even cheap in a way for him to vanish into the aether. Let him live, as a mortal, trying to do right by all of the people who fought and died for him not because he was a space god, but because it was right.
We’ve had three seasons of intense focus on the deeds of mortal and fallible individuals struggling to know what is right in a morally complicated universe, taking huge risks, and even sacrificing stability, family, love, peace, sobriety, and even their own lives: don’t end this with space magic. Don’t do another “space magic makes it all better so nobody really ever had skin in the game” ending.
Speaking of Wesley, having the two meet would provide a nice bit of closure for Beverly. It would bookend nicely with her line about already having lost one son to the same stars that call Jean luc.
Seven of Nine & Raffi
On again or off again, just pick a lane and make them handle it like adults.
As I’ve said before, I see two equally valid paths for Seven assuming it's handled properly. Seven can remain in Starfleet, her acceptance earned and her merits recognized by all but especially by Shaw. Ideally were this to be the case, I think I would like to see her take up Picard’s mantle of mentor to misfits.
There isn’t a character who is better positioned narratively in this series to become the person who sees something in people that others don’t and can find ways to take the round hole that is Starfleet and make it a square hole for the people who need it.
Or she can walk away and reclaim her full autonomy. Go back to the Fenris Rangers or go into Starfleet Intelligence.
As for Raffi, the past two seasons have intensely focused on the work the character was doing to first recover from addiction and then reclaim her mental health and with that the ability to have relationships without either her need to chase mysteries or the desire for control alienating those around her. It's time for Raffi’s work to be seen by others and to be supported.
In the first season it was entirely fair for her son to refuse contact: she was too much a creature of her substance abuse and her obsessiveness. Now? Cut her some slack and let her show that she’s mastered the thing that makes her the hero no one is prepared to recognize that they need until it's too late but also makes her the villain in her own life.
I would merrily support a Worf & Raffi spy action buddy cop series. Seven, Jack, Laris, and anyone else unaccounted for who is not really a good fit for traditional ship service can come too if they want. A Star Trek answer to Firefly or The Expanse would be incredibly fascinating with good writing. Given the way Star Trek Picard has been critiquing the limits of institutional power in dealing with the unknown or morally complicated situations, I think the time is right.
Perhaps this could be the Section 31 series instead of a 23rd century era one. Just have the Guardian of Forever send Georgiou to where she’s needed rather than where she belongs. She’d be a great foil for Zen Worf and the morally flexible but not that morally flexible Raffi.
Section 31 are bad guys, full stop.
Speaking of Section 31, either confirm that Section 31 has been disbanded and formally disavowed or that it had its Church Committee hearings and been folded back into Starfleet Intelligence with strong oversight and strong guard rails. Putting Worf and Raffi front and center in it would afford an opportunity to show that it is possible to address existential threats to the Federation without genocide or the intervention of space gods.
It's really only been after seeing Discovery recycle the same deus ex ending, only worse, that I have come to realize that the way Deep Space Nine finished the Dominion War arc really, really rubs me the wrong way. My list of things that I think are completely antithetical to the core assumptions of Star Trek is not long, but the Federation being saved not once, but twice by attempted genocide is definitely on that list.
Don’t get me wrong, Deep Space Nine is probably the most overall well executed series from the point of view of nearly every aspect of the show being consistently competent, but falling back on Section 31 to save the Federation? Not a fan of that.
Romance
I am not on the Bev/JL train. It had its time. For all the ways that Star Trek Picard has been in conversation with critiques of TNG’s very 1990s “end of history” worldview, one thing that was superbly managed was the idea that Beverly and Jean luc could try out a romance, realize it doesn’t work, and then be content with a strong bond that doesn’t need to express itself romantically. It was incredibly, shockingly mature for a 1990s drama.
This show did not kill off Zhabon and an ancestor of Laris for Laris to be killed off or to politely step aside.
Maybe Bev is happy being unpartnered. How about them apples? Maybe a senior woman is perfectly self actualized on her own and can take or leave romance.
This is probably one of the looming plot resolutions I am the most likely to be actually angered by if it doesn’t go the way I would prefer and it isn’t handled extremely well.
Once again, do not fridge Laris to make room for Beverly.
That would easily make my list of the top five most appalling creative decisions of this show and this is coming from someone who has invested quite a bit of effort into defending and rationalizing its other controversial decisions. Having her step aside with her life and dignity is less distasteful but still frustrating.
The Federation and Shaw
Follow through with the overall theme from season one that institutions solve big problems but rules are not there to follow mindlessly. Conscience matters as does doing the right thing even when you are fearful.
It may not be fair to ask 500 people to risk their lives for four people who have deliberately chosen to put themselves in harm’s way on a fool’s errand, but then when does it become fair? Does it have to be 501 lives on the line to be worth 500? How morally virtuous do the victims need to be?
Smaller, more nimble actors don’t have to make these trades. The Mugato in the room is the Maquis. They could easily have provoked war but they did also provide a means by which Federation citizens who wanted their autonomy could contest Cardassian oppression without exposing the Federation to the specter of war if the Federation failed to ensure their well being.
Also when and if a bad call is made out of anger, fear, or incomplete knowledge of the situation, how the consequences of that decision are addressed matter.
The Federation abandoned the Romulans. As did Picard himself. Picard accepted responsibility in Season One. The Federation extended its protection over Maddox & Soong’s Synth colony but there’s no mention of any peacekeeping or humanitarian efforts for Romulans who have rejected “the old ways.”
Finally, Shaw has his reasons and this series has been nothing if not incredibly nuanced in how it invokes trauma and uses it in a way to explain but not justify the behavior of characters. A theme I have thought about a lot in the context of Captain Marvel is the way that coping mechanisms for trauma often encourage self reliance and aloofness to the extreme. In Shaw’s own words “at some point asshole became a substitute for charm.” I would argue that the final stage of healing would be to become a team player who is capable of forging authentic relationships built on mutual trust and respect.
Now I do think this is coming in the form of a sincere working relationship with Seven but I would prefer it be extended beyond Seven. For Shaw to accept Seven as Seven is a good start but everyone is capable of accepting “one of the good ones.” Some sort of broader recognition that it's on him to swallow his terror and rage, it's not on every single XB to prove they’re not going to assimilate him.
Other characters / elements
BBEG: (Big Bad Evil Guy) I don’t know that I’m necessarily hoping for anything or anyone in particular. Armus would be cool. He’s one of the last entities on the board with an axe to grind who could conceivably be a credible menace to Changelings and shares some of their mercurial nature.
The alien parasites would be neat as well. That that has long gone unresolved is a longstanding gripe but I feel like the time may have passed. Thematically the Changelings have more or less eaten their lunch when it comes to replacing people and intricate conspiracies. At this point, I think it would be just as well to retcon the infiltrators as having been an early effort by the Changelings to infiltrate other societies without exposing themselves to danger. The Founders certainly have the genetic engineering acumen to design a parasite species.
Elnor: at least mention him as existing, if not give the character some proper closure. Show him thriving in Starfleet and having a good relationship with Picard and Raffi as mentors and surrogate parents, explicitly connect Picard’s experiences with Elnor as a child and his effort to repair his relationship with Elnor as having been a practice run for Jack and the recognition that Jean luc would not have been his father as a parent.
Or show him choosing to leave Starfleet for the Rangers or even just to lead a quiet life of study and meditation. That’s cool too.
Jiurati: if the big bad is the Borg or related to them somehow, it would be cool to see Jiurati’s faction sweep in to help defeat them. Otherwise maybe one more reference would be nice.
The Admiral Janeway cameo is long overdue.
It would be nice for Worf to mention Alexander and Jadzia. Perhaps in the context of giving advice to Raffi on love, life, pursuing rapprochement after being an absentee parent, and living with the knowledge that your life choices place partners in existential danger. It would be a great way to cement their dualistic role this season rather than having Raffi be Worf’s sidekick.
Don’t fridge Tuvok. Find him safely.
Oh yeah, there's also JL himself.
We don't need to have Picard die on screen (again.) As far as I'm concerned Logan is all I'll ever need for Patrick Stewart death scenes. Its just too hard to contemplate. I consider the character of Picard to be a father figure and I'd kind of just prefer that he gets to be happy. I'd like for him to get good with Elnor and Jack.
"I tried so very hard to belong to this place."
Maybe pass the vineyard on as a national park that is Picard in name only. We all know his real home is in the stars. Putting him to work leading a Romulan humanitarian NGO that relies on his Starfleet contacts and credibility is I think the perfect bookend to how the series began with his despair over the Federation's failure and the ongoing interrogation of whether Starfleet is the only legitimate or appropriate entity for solving problems in the universe.
#star trek picard#picard season 3#predictions#picard finale#series wishlists#dystopia#star trek ethics
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If trek had Wanted to play it that way, they could have had Seven try and do a reclamation of the name Annika Hansen.
What we’ve been shown up until now, through all of stp to date, is that they Don’t want that.
Seven at first wanted to be called Seven because like, that’s her Name right? And the Voyager crew accepted this. It’s what she wishes to be called and she’s one of the crew. Seven whom doesn’t know how to be human doesn’t want to be called Annika because all she knows is Seven. She might as well have picked a random name out of a hat rather than Annika, she’d relate to the words the same.
The seven we see in STP decades later in S1 is still going by Seven. There is a hint that, maybe, she’d tried to go by Annika because the evil ex girlfriend calls her this. All of our main characters call her Seven. We can’t know is whatshername was being cruel, or if Seven had genuinely tried out going by Annika, but I like to think that she asked her to call her Annika.
Because she totally betrayed Seven and tore her child apart, piece by piece, to steal his borg implants. She did not see Icheb, she saw an xb to make a profit off of. It’s breathtakingly cruel what was done to both Seven and Icheb here, but if you consider that maybe Seven asked her to call her Annika because she wanted to be known by her human name at this point in the timeline, and that the woman she asked to do it then kidnapped her son who is just like her and dissected him alive just because he’s Borg. It adds a whole other layer of utter horror to it.
Seven tried to be Annika but was reminded in the most brutal way possible that actually? She’s still Seven of Nine.
Flashforward to S2 of STP, Seven is Still being looked down upon and treated cruelly because she’s an XB. And one morning she wakes up in a strange bed, in a strange room, and looks in the mirror and she’s... Not Borg. She’s confused, has no idea what’s going on, and some guy she’s never met walks in calling her Annika and she finds out she’s Married to this guy. She later learns that she’s President Annika Hansen of the confederation of planets, and that this woman is an oblique monster. Once again, she is Annika, and once again, she has no idea who Annika Is.
But once they go back in time and she’s still Human, and she meets people who aren’t scared of her and aren’t cruel, she can be friendly and happy in groups of strangers. Nobody’s forcing her to be some stranger under the name Annika, but she’s Not Borg either. She’s thriving. She’s happy she’s ‘ordinary’.
But everything happens that season, and I have no urge to do a full season rewrite but it culminates in Raffi pointing out to Seven that whether she’s borg or human or both, she’s extraordinary. Seven may not know or may dislike who she is, but damn, Raffi loves this woman. She openly wonders who Seven would be if she just sat still and stopped running from the borg parts of herself and just existed and moved forwards as that person.
Raffi, in short, does the absolute opposite of the evil child murdering ex. She’s not reducing Seven to her implants, or pretending they don’t exist, she’s saying all of these things are her and asking her to embrace the woman standing there as much as she has. Cuz Raffi loves her, and she wants seven to love herself, too.
And Seven, monumentally, says she’s okay with the implants. Okay with the borg. That there was a reclamation all on its own. It wasn’t seven not knowing being anything But borg, and it wasn’t Seven ignoring all the parts of her that are borg, it was her embracing that she’s two things at once that makes one person.
This is the part in the story where Seven properly accepts her borg side. In theory, this would be when Seven becomes more than just a name she’s had for as long as she remembers and something she’s actually embraced.
Except. She joins starfleet. Gets assigned to a captain who refuses to let her be who she wants to be. Him stifling her in the command structure is just a real time demonstration of him trying to crush her identity. She’s not allowed to do what she wants in the command structure (though, this at least, she did know she was signing up for), but she’s not even allowed to be referred to by her preferred name. He Insists she go by the name she has no recollection of using properly in her youth, the name she wore as an evil dictator. She doesn’t have a Choice on how to self determinate.
If the first two seasons were a mission of self discovery and the finding of self worth as she is, then this is the challenge to her newfound convictions. Shaw is, to be frank, a massive jerk who is overstepping his bounds by 8 miles thinking he can choose which names his crew are allowed to have, but narratively I guess his appearance as Seven’s personal test of conviction makes sense. That it’s being shown through her now being Forced to be known as her human name as she’s finally properly accepted her borg side is just a bit of a kick in the teeth.
Seven has no positive associations with this name. To her it’s hiding as a small child, crouched in terror under a table, as the borg approach her to take her. To her Annika is the person she never got to be. She’s the evil president of a totalitarian regime. She’s the woman who got Icheb killed.
This story with Seven was never about her accepting Annika, it was Always about her learning to let her go.
It was always about her embracing Seven instead.
Now she is being forced to toe a line and be somebody she’s not. Seven rebelling against Shaw is not just because he’s a massive jerk, it’s in self defence of who she IS.
And i’m kind of curious as to how this one will end.
#that picard one#picard spoilers#i Always have seven if nine feelings 😭#and hey#maybe one day she'll want to unpack the annika baggage#but rn all that this story is saying is#'we're deadnaming this woman to show this man is a jackass'#and i am taking it as such
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I really did love a lot about Picard S3 E2. Seven manipulating Captain Shaw... he treats her so badly, refusing to call her by the name she has chosen and been known as for the past twenty-eight years, but she has his number.
And the moment when Beverly and Jean-Luc's eyes meet, finally...
I have shipped them since before I knew what shipping was.
And Worf! (though that means that Raffi's handler while speaking with a female voice last week was not actually female so... bechdel test? ...)
I love Raffi and I'm so happy she's still here and still having development of her character. And that the greater good means she has to sacrifice her relationship with her family... I hope that that can be mended at some stage.
But I have issues >_> further ramblings below.
All right so (dates etc are all from Memory Alpha):
Jean Luc Picard was born in 2305 and the action in the Picard seasons takes place in 2401 making him 96.
Beverly was born in 2324 making her 77.
(This is really strange to me because the age gap between the actors is 9 years, which they look like on screen, but Patrick Stewart is playing a character 10 years older than himself for some reason, possibly just because someone put that on a display in an episode of tng once, so the actual age gap between the two characters is 19 years? I don't like how the age gap affects where they were in their lives with respect to him falling for her and being Wesley's father's best friend, although it does go back to TNG; I think I just don't believe in it. Anyway.)
Nemesis took place in 2379, making that 22 years prior to the action in Picard.
So. Beverly had Jean Luc's child around 20 to 22 years ago when she was 57, and even though he's about 21 he already has four different aliases and an impressive rap-sheet?
PLEASE may there have been some alien shenanigans that made all this possible?! I am quite happy to think that by then a 57 year old having a child is possible, and maybe Beverly didn't think she was going to get pregnant and then didn't want an abortion, but it's still kind of weird to me.
And Jack doesn't look 21 to me, and the actor who plays him is 34. Has there been some accelerated growth something happening here? Could that explain his English accent that feels so natural, not like sometimes where it feels like American English being spoken in an English accent?
I do like that Jack is a little shit, he definitely takes after his dad in character. I just... why doesn't he sound like his mother?
And... I can kind of see Beverly trying to cut people off for the greater good, but I'm still struggling to believe that Troi would be okay with being cut off. I feel like she'd have made people go after her? I want to think that's what Troi is like. And if Beverly told Troi the truth and Troi agreed with her... better be some pretty damn impressive truth tbh.
#picard#star trek picard#picard spoilers#star trek picard spoilers#musings of the girl from outer space#ramblings of the girl from outer space
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Discreetly dating long distance makes sense for saffi but if they only meet up in the final episode it would be such a let down. Because they can be discreet and still show that they’ve been in contact but that’s not what they’re doing at all. That interview also gave me broke up vibes but I think they’d have mentioned it early on if that was the case? I really don’t know though.
I'll caveat this that i haven't seen 3x4 yet, not that I'm expecting any Saffi content in what looks like an action heavy ep.
Literally the only thing we have to go on about the status of their relationship is Raffi's line in (I think) 3x01 while she's undercover about how her girlfriend left her. So either she was lying to create a good sob story for her cover, or she and Seven aren't together anymore. I find it SO weird that we have nothing else to go on!! And then you couple it with the absence of any promo materials teasing them as a couple, the apologetic tone of Jeri and Michelle in interviews ("we promise the fans they'll always love each other!!") and it adds up to not looking good.
I don't think they'll be apart until the final ep. Given Raffi is now tied to Worf's story, I assume she'll join the rest of the gang when he does, which I'm predicting will be mid season. Terry Matalas has said that 3x04 marks the end of the first chapter of this season, so presumably the middle episodes are the legacy characters (and Raffi) assembling and then the back half of the season will be them all on a mission together. So we may actually get Seven and Raffi together for a number of episodes. It's just whether their relationship will be acknowledged or swept under the carpet that concerns me!!
#hang in their anonymoose#hopefully we'll find out what's going on soon#seven x raffi#saffi#star trek picard
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Episode 9: Hide and Seek
This ep did surprise me with its choices while also feeling very planned and I can appreciate that.
Bet you're really wishing you'd chosen something normal for this date now, rios. Maybe a movie or dinner or something...
Ooh I see what they're doing. Parallels with the childhood flashbacks. Nice.
Yeah none of you have a chance here. Borgs gonna borg
Oh yeah I keep forgetting that this version of the BQ was actually defeated and captured
OK this is corny but WOO LET'S GO ELNOOORRRR LET'S GET READY READY LET'S GET READY TO ROMULAN
I am still unimpressed by this child actor and I feel kind of mean for it
Raffi, Cris and JL unarmed and suffering in this fight lol
Oh wait this?? What??? Is rios going to end up trapped involuntarily?????
Soong turns up and everyone has a collective "ugh this guy" reaction. Even the ones who don't know him
Raffi and seven finding themselves in a stealth level of a platform game
What if we throat stabbed your trauma together? Just you and me
Tallinn is like, now is the time for some therapy
I know it was sort of implied before but I appreciate the confirmation that JANEWAY went to bat for seven because there's no way that EVERYONE on Voyager didn't vouch for her
So, I've just started S2 of Russian Doll and both these shows have this theme of having a mother with mental health troubles that ended up really negatively affecting the protagonist's life and yeah they're very different takes on it but wow. This is so heavy
Idk maybe tell people your plan seven. Idk it seems like a good idea
Ooh right OK wall borg
So, the effects look bad to me sorry. And the callous way they're just like "Oh, those 21st century humans are all dead now whatever" is weird butttttt........ it is on brand for seven to do something so blunt with these guys I'll say that
Agnes is like "my superpower is depression"
"Finally, the semblance of a point."
Agnes sees the borg and is like "I can change him"
But also... OK so is this a revision of the anti communist vibes of the OG borg??? An attempt to show the pros of collectivism??? I don't know but I'm going to interpret it as that. Especially as soong is like tech bro silicon capitalism personified
RIOS OHHH
Damn. This jl is all too heavy and dark for me to do a running commentary on it right now. Fuck
Raffi recognising the time and place for a pep talk
Right so two Renées. I assume the meaning is that there needs to be two timelines? One with Agnes bq and then the normal one?
I can see how this could come together. Overall the series has faltered considerably but I'm still game for the finale. Let's goooo
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Eaglemoss’ Sirena Booklet
I woke up this morning to an excited message from @regionalpancake, telling me her Eaglemoss model of La Sirena has arrived! I’m still waiting for mine (oh to live in a country where mail gets delivered on Sundays :D), but Regionalpancake was kind enough to send me pictures of the booklet that comes with the model, and there is some fascinating information in there!
Most of the booklet consists of an interview with Mark Yang about the process of designing Sirena, illustrated with many early sketches and models. It’s essentially an extended version of the article published on startrek.com, that I discussed earlier (here and here).
However, there are a few new insights.
According to this, La Sirena is 85.57m long (US people: I’m afraid you’ll have to do your own conversions ;9). I’m assuming that’s at the longest point, meaning the full extent of the nacelles. I’ve done a few rough measurements and calculations and this would give us a size of ~32m for the length of the set, bridge to back wall, which roughly meshes with my estimates so far.
I’ll have to sit down and do some more drawing and measuring once I have the booklet and model in front of me, though at the moment, I still suspect that the set is slightly bigger than what the 3D model actually allows for.
The launch date is also interesting. Production designer Todd Cherniawsky has mentioned in an interview that Sirena is maybe fifty years old, but that estimate was apparently rather low. ST: Picard begins in the second half of 2399 (around harvest time, i.e. autumn, in southern France). Even if the ship launched at the very end of the 23rd century, that still makes her at least 99 years old. Apparently, Captain Rios’s faible for antiques extends to his starship.
[Transcription: "La Sirena was a mid-sized vessel, designed to be operated by a crew of half-a-dozen or so.”]
If Sirena’s intended crew complement was six people, that would explain the need for an extended holographic crew when it’s being piloted by one person alone. Or at least it explains the need for an additional mechanic and one or two people to help out at the helm, but as the EHH tells Picard, the basic installation comes with five holograms.
I’m still not entirely sure how accommodations for half a dozen people are supposed to fit on the ship, given the size of cabins we have seen so far. We know that Rios retrofitted the spacious quarters, so the previous living arrangements might have been more compact, but that still leaves us with the question of where the additional quarters will go once there are seven people staying more or less permanently on the ship after the end of season 1. I’m very curious to see whether we’ll get some hints about this in season 2.
One thing that really struck me looking at this front and back view is just how high the main body of the ship sits above the ground. When Sirena crashes on Coppelius, she ends up buried pretty deep, so it’s not as glaringly obvious, but by my (admittedly very rough) estimation, the cargo doors (centre back of the ship) are around 5m off the ground. That seems too big a distance to cover with a normal loading ramp
In an earlier design stage, the warp nacelles were more sloped and sitting higher to begin with (the wings connecting them to the main body of the ship are horizontal across the top, rather than sloping down as in the final version). Additionally, the concept art below makes me wonder, whether in this design, the nacelles might also have been attached more flexibly and able to fold up a little to bring the rest of the ship closer to the ground:
In the final version that made it to screen, it certainly looks like the transition from the body of the ship to the nacelles is rigid and seamless, so I think it’s unlikely that the nacelles can be folded outwards when landing. However, this is future technology, so nothing is impossible.
If the nacelles are indeed rigid, I would imagine that spaceports will have landing pads that accommodate a setup like Sirena’s, similar to loading docks in warehouses nowadays.
There is another bit of concept art from the same stage of design, showing the front of the ship:
[Transcription: “At one point the idea was that Picard would board Rios’s ship at a spaceport, so Yang produced this concept showing him approaching it. The idea was to show the scale of the ship and to communicate the idea that Picard was in a very different situation to the one we were used to.]
What stands out to me here (apart from the “AC” logo near the wing, probably for “Araña Cosmica”, Sirena’s name in early drafts) is that this early design has an access hatch under the bridge.
It’s not entirely clear whether this decision survived into the final model. We know there is some accessible space under the bridge, and presumably some of it is dedicated to phaser banks, since the few times we see Sirena use phasers, the emitters are located in the nose of the ship.
(NB: as mentioned before, Yang has said that there are additional, more powerful weapons in the impulse engine pods at the sides of the ship, but we have yet to see those in action.)
But it’s possible some version of the front access hatch still exists in the current design. The only glimpse we get of the structures under the bridge comes from a cross section of the computer model that is briefly shown on screen in the blu-ray/DVD bonus feature Set Me Up:
Clearly, that part of the ship isn’t fully modelled, since there is a steep drop right behind the door and something poking through the floor in the middle of the space that I’m not sure is entirely intentional. (If you have any ideas about what is happening there, please do let me know!)
Then again, this model doesn’t quite correspond one to one to the final set design anyway (it has the entry to the holodeck where Raffi and Rios’ quarters should be), so it might be an earlier design stage as well.
In general, I like the idea of an additional hatch under the bridge, since otherwise the only access point (and presumably airlock) we know about are the cargo doors at the back of the ship. (On Coppelius, the crew exit through the panorama windows which were clearly not designed for this purpose and only become usable after the crash.) A ship the size of Sirena should probably have one or two redundancies if access to the main doors is blocked.
All in all, the booklet has a ton of beauty shots of La Sirena from all angles (and finally lit properly), so once my own model arrives and I can get some nice scans, I’ll probably spam those here.
Thanks again to Regionalpancake for the preview!
#star trek picard#la sirena#cristobal rios#holo squad#sirena model#eaglemoss#design#mark yang#sirena's history#crew quarters#exterior#space under the bridge#engines#size calculations#inconsistencies#long post#MY GOD SHE IS SO PRETTY!!!#I cannot wait to hold this model in my hand#i'll probably spend hours gazing at her longingly#i'm also utterly thrilled the model was released a full six weeks earlier than originally announced#i hope this wasn't just a fluke and my model will arrive soon
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Picard In Review
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR PICARD SEASON ONE
Okay, so having seen S1 of Picard twice now and with several additional months of reflection, I’m fairly certain of what worked, what didn’t work, and what I want to see in S2.
Things That I Immediately Knew Were Great
The characters working closely with Picard! Raffi, Rios, and Elnor are all so good, and each bring something special to the table
Giving Seven such amazing character growth that is both a dramatic departure from Voyager while also still making sense. Big hallelujah chorus moment here.
Addressing the Prime universe aftermath of the Romulan disaster set up in AOS. This has always felt unresolved to me, so I loved to see it.
Bringing back HUGH and talking about ex-Bs. Such good worldbuilding :’)
Soji and Dahj being androids without realizing and and slowly (in the case of Soji) finding out the truth was great. The mom AI that puts them to sleep? Stupendous. That scene where Soji is carbon dating all her stuff and panicking? Super good.
The holograms. Look. I love holograms already, but whoever decided that there should be one for every task on the ship and that they should all be played by Santiago Cabrera with a different personality and accent is a genius. I want to kiss every single Rios hologram on the cheek. And the fact that each hologram also holds a fragments of his trauma? A H H !
The Qowat Milat: VERY cool. Good for the ST Universe, good for making romulans 3-dimensional, good for ME because I got to see ROMULAN WARRIOR NUNS.
Riker and Troi. A beautiful, if sad landscape that I could escape into during the plot and action of S1. Many lovely moments with their little family.
The humor! People really fixate on the gloominess of Picard, but it has so many funny moments.
The hugs: IDK why there were SO MANY HUGS in Picard but I was so greatful for every single one.
Things I knew immediately that I hated
Narek and Narissa. Annoying, gross, and the writing made me feel like I was supposed to sympathize with them or something? No. Just gross and annoying.
The Costumes. With a few notable exceptions, everyone just had on the most boring basic-ass clothes imaginable. It’s the FUTURE Babey. Let me see a sequin. Did they just blow their costume budget on “Stardust City Rag” or something?
Killing off Dahj. :/ I get why they did it, but I would have liked to see some fun twin sister android moments on screen and we were robbed of that.
Killing of Hugh. Why? Just why? Why bring back one of the most beloved guest stars, have Jonothan del Arco kick ass all over again, and then just let him die? We live in a post Joss Whedon and GOT universe. Society has progressed past the need to kill off a fan favorite for shock value.
Things I grew to enjoy:
The “old man coming to terms with his trials and triumphs and fighting against defeatism” was good. Sir Patrick Stewart, I love you.
Having a small ship working outside of starfleet is a cool change and a good set-up.
The locations, Freecloud in particular.
Things I grew to dislike:
Jurati. This is the fault of the writers, not Alison Pill, who’s super talented. Such a shame. They really just gave her a plot arc that makes me not want to look at her face anymore, yikes.
Kind of related to the last one, but the relationship between Rios and Jurati? Not feeling it.
The entire AI/Zhat Vash plot in general. (whoops). Like, it was so interesting to start with, but by the last two episodes I wasn’t really emotionally invested anymore.
I would have thought that a planet of soong androids would have been cooler?
What I want in Season 2
The end of Season 1 was a great jumping off place. We have a great little ensemble of rebels on a tiny little ship and they could go and do anything! So I hope to god they go and do things that are fun and interesting to watch!
No more Narek <3
Gently write out Jurati, or make her a guest instead of a regular. I feel bad for saying it, but I honestly just don’t want her taking away screentime from characters I actually like and am invested in.
Don’t just make Seven/Raffi happen, make it happen in a way that feels real and interesting.
Just more character development for our core group. Like I said, they’re my favorite part, so I don’t want to have to beg for scraps all season. Just give us a Raffi episode. Give us a Rios episode. Give us an Elnor episode.
I want to know more about the holograms. Both the specific ones in the ship as well as hologram rights in the 25th century. Yes, this is a niche trekkie interest of mine, don’t @ me.
Unbury Hugh (I can dream, okay?)
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Favorite part of the interviews and a song for all?
ivy: "*he keeps a small polite smile, silently gesturing to the refreshments available as he asks* how have you been finding angeles and the palace, ivy?
*/king doof-ael,/ the title her friend alba had dubbed him with, though she couldn't possibly off that as another name. even if it was interesting, it's only when raphael sits that she notices one of the imposing figures standing a ways behind him. /the divergent man/. seven. he was here? now???"
alaska ("and I walked off an old me/oh me, oh my I thought it was a dream/so it seemed/and now breathe deep, I'm inhaling/you and I, there's air in-between/leave me be, I'm exhaling/you and I, there's air in-between")
meredith: "*he keeps a smile at her* I believe I do prefer celebrations inside, though, knowing how hot it can get in the afternoon here in angeles.
*she feels a bit insensitive when he answers because it's such a huge "duh" moment and she kind of just didn't think about it before she made the comment about all the parties. but she can just add it to her mounting list of little mistakes. she grimaces and nods, murmuring* right, sorry, of course. *she shifts again, reminding herself that she needs to focus more* it's um... colder in northern angeles too. at least where I grew up *she breathes in a sigh because somehow she's turned this into a conversation about the weather, which she feels like is what you do when you're stuck in a waiting room with a stranger and even if that's what the interviews could be likened to she was hoping it wouldn't be like that. she squirms a bit more and honestly a bit of desperation is setting in and meredith unclasps her purse, finally looking down so she can see what she's doing. she hesitates a moment, then reaches a hand inside and pulls out an assorted bag of gummy bears, which she pilfered from the pantry the night before. she quickly closes the purse again, then her hands go to the bag as she opens it, the bag makes that loud plastic crinkly sound. meredith finally looks up at him again and gives him a weak smile, holding up the bag between them, with the opening facing his way* would you like some? *her eyes dart to sam and the cameras, then back to him* it has all the flavors, I think"
good as it gets ("just leave it up to me, to be sad in paradise/I got a good heart but f*ck it for the art/had a good life, I could never really see that/got so bad, lookin' for love in the trash/if I had it, I wouldn't know how to keep it/well, maybe i'm a mess/and maybe I'm depressed/and maybe I'll just find out who I am and I won't like who it is/and I'm a wreck"
diana: "*he shakes his head at her question, not dismissive at all but offering only this* I'm not the cooking or baking type. reading, you could say, is a hobby of mine - basic as it sounds. *he knows it's probably not enough as an answers so he also adds this* podcasts are a good alternative too if I'm moving around on vehicles *he leans back, putting his elbow on his arm rest as he thinks about the baking thing but wanting to confirm his guess he asks* if you don't mind me going back to the cupcakes, were they in celebration of something?
*she shakes her head when he calls his hobby basic* it's not basic at all. I love reading, honestly, it's a luxury to be able to pick up a book on any topic and learn about something new */especially when you never got a formal education past high school/. she thinks it but doesn't say it out loud*"
blind ("but you're a little like me, same type/cancels every date night/stays home, never leaves/just can't find the energy/I stay pretty numb/never fell for anyone/you seem similar/always end up getting hurt/I haven't felt a thing this year/and I'm only tryna be sincere")
dahlia: *elevator music*
alassie: "*he shakes his head at her question, unsure also of how she's approaching this either but he lifts a shoulder up* not exactly, since it was accidentally spilled on me. it's a shame, however, that I don't have the time to change until a few interviews after this. *he waits for her to take a seat properly, gesturing to the seat again* I do ask for your patience to look beyond that for the next five minutes of your time.
*she raises her eyebrows at his gestures, and settles a little more in her current position by crossing her legs. all his fuss over his jacket makes her want to roll her eyes, and she says sarcastically* I'm not sure I can. *she looks towards the camera crew, sounding more polite as she addresses them* can anyone bring us gin? and a dry cloth?"
entertainer ("you thought you had me, didn't you?/when you lied to my face, I could see the truth/every step of the way I knew/how you fooled me, boo/guess you didn’t know that/you were my favorite entertainer/I'd watch you, I'd laugh, I would fuck with you/don’t you take me for a fool/in this game, I own the rules")
ramona: "*he presses his lips together at her last statement, a wry smile on his lips* nothing that the palace laundry couldn't handle. though, it was my lucky shity that got stained.
*she quickly gives him a more sympathetic smile, replying in an almost joking tone* I hope that wasn't an omen for the rest of the day"
meet me at our spot ("i'm not getting younger/but when I'm older/I'll be so much stronger/I'll stay up for longer/meet me at our spot/caught a vibe/baby, are you coming for the ride?/I just wanna look into your eyes/I just wanna stay for the night, night, night")
rhea: "maybe you'll get to work into developing the shows themselves in the artistic team side now *he tilts his head* I'm sorry that you don't get to perform anymore.
*she waves the apology off* developing shows looks like fun - you get some more creativity. *this is what she had rehearsed for. random fact, something near embarrassing, to make her memorable - not something her mother ever said, but something guy of all people had suggested. she leans in with a sly smile* this sounds incredibly nerdy, but I- well, someone I know back home and I- started work on this musical about aliens"
honey ("'cause I'm a beautiful wreck/a colorful mess, but I'm funny/oh, I'm a heartbreak vet/with a stone-cold neck, yeah, I'm charmin'/all the pretty girls in the world/but I'm in this space with you/colored out the lines/I came to find, my fire was fate with you")
cornelia: "I still think invitations are a nice touch, if not the tiny umbrellas stuck on the cherries of the black forest cake. *he bobs his head at the mention of her friends, curious about them* did your friends get to send you off the other day?
*she chuckles because of his words* the tiny umbrellas /are/ a great detail. I didn't know those were something I needed in my life."
like real people do ("I knew that look dear/eyes always seeking/was there in someone/that dug long ago/so I will not ask you/why you were creeping/in some sad way I already know/I will not ask you where you came from/I will not ask you and neither would you")
kaden: "*he thanks her for the coffee, holding it with both of his hands for a bit to let it cool* my previous shirt and jacket have seen better days, and this is a new set of saucers and cups but thankfully not many other casualties *he shakes his head, lifting his mug up* I'd prefer to be drinking coffee or wine rather than have it accidentally on my shirt.
*she finishes to serve her own cup* a thrilling morning you're describing. *she looks up from under her lashes, still amused apparently* perhaps getting rid of the small talk would be for the best."
slow burn ("born in a hurry, always late/haven't been early since '88/texas is hot, I can be cold/grandma cried when I pierced my nose/good in a glass, good on green/good when you're puttin' your hands all over me/I'm alright with a slow burn/takin' my time, let the world turn/I'm gonna do it my way, it'll be alright")
andreia: "*should she look closely, there are coffee stains on the place setting of the coffee table while raffy is in a different shirt and jacket thanks to the wine incident earlier. around them, there are still cameras going off around them, documentation crew really going at it. still, raffy's standing tall with his hands clasped in front of him as she approaches, only offering her his hand when she's close enough to him so he can guide her to her seat. he tries to give her a small smile despite being tired* lady andreia, thank you so much for waiting. my name is raphael, it's a pleasure to meet you.
*being outside all day, with the sun being bright, has not been /ideal/ for andreia, but she's trying her best to ignore the budding headache. she takes his hand when she reaches him, but keeps her other hand in her pocket for the time being, and gives him a small smile in return* just andreia is fine. it's nice to meet you. *once the handshake is done, she takes the other hand out of her pocket, and smiles a little sheepishly before explaining* in iberia, it's rude to show up to someone's house without a gift to give the host *she holds out her hand and in it is a small origami corgi* I know it's not much, but... *she shrugs a little, still with the same sheepish smile*"
valerie ("well, sometimes I go out by myself/and I look across the water/snd I think of all the things of what you're doing/in my head I paint a picture/since I've come home/well, my body's been a mess/and I miss your ginger hair/and the way you like to dress/oh, won't you come on over?/stop making a fool out of me/why don't you come on over, valerie?")
arely: ??????????????
suzy: "*he waits for her to take a seat before taking his own, making a gesture for plato to follow like the besets boy he is and he stays by raffy's feet* he gets mad when he feels underdressed for an event. *he nods at her response to the food, understanding of her wanting to save space for dinner, but is very pleased to hear that she likes the food. he glances at the table, looking for his recommendation and gestures to a green tea bag* I believe some hot green tea would be nice before dinner. cleanses the palate too. *he tilts his head* any favorites from the selection of food earlier?
*she raises her eyebrows, surprised since she tried to dress up bom several times but she ultimately hated being dressed, even if it's a simple bow. she turns her attention to plato and looks down at him* a true gentlepup I see"
505 ("not shy of a spark/the knife twists at the thought that I should fall short of the mark/frightened by the bite, though it's no harsher than the bark/the middle of adventure, such a perfect place to start")
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about to just start inventing picard episodes
star trek picard episode whatever “Electric Sheep”: Cris, Raffi, and the gang beam down to pick up supplies for malfunctioning holograms. Soji and Geordi conduct an experiment on lucid dreaming. (geordi’s here because i love him and the experiment they’re doing is ‘if soji puts enough parts of her brain in sleep mode can she or geordi talk to a remnant of her dad in there’ and the result is ‘yes and there are seventeen individual lines of dialogue that will have you bawling like a baby’. then they have to pilot la sirena out of a contested patch of space together because they accidentally let her drift while they were doing weird science and everybody else is planetside having wacky market haggling shenanigans and emmett & enoch are still not online. do they sit in The Correct Spots On The Bridge? brother, it’s the only reason the scene exists)
star trek picard episode whatever 2 electric boogaloo “Dinner and a Holonovel”: Raffi and Seven go on their first official date. Meanwhile, La Sirena receives a coded message from one of Raffi’s mysterious contacts. (in this one Raf and Sev get dressed up but they’re both sort of uncomfortable doing so and they try to have a date but neither of them are enjoying themselves trying to be normal, because Raf’s an old reprobate who’s definitely forgotten how to Have Fun With Others and Sev never learned because it wasn’t relevant to her interests. but then they wind up in some trouble(maybe they deliberately seek it out sort of unconsciously bc they’re bored) and it becomes a fun bar fight date that they really enjoy. everybody else is playing twenty questions trying to figure out this weirdly-encoded message for her bc she’s busy. they come back all bruised and grinning and the whole gang looks up at them with this half-decoded message and is like what kind of life do you lead).
star trek picard episode whatever 2 the sequel “Dr. and Mr. Smith”: Raffi’s contact has asked the crew for their help in a...discreet political matter. (it’s a reverse heist episode starring everyone’s two favorite sort-of-semi-retired-?-spies (if we are spies no we are not. yes we are. no <3). julian and raffi have a very good rapport and sev and garak don’t understand each other AT ALL. yes they are together in this one. no i dont think we need much backstory on when or how it happened i will leave that to the experts and their fucking youtube plays. keep up the good work. what are they reverse-stealing? idk yet it’s just a vehicle for character dynamics anyway).
star trek picard episode we cry a lot “The Daughters”: Soji confronts her legacy when an old friend of her fathers hails La Sirena, eager to repay a debt. (although to be honest, when is our sweet girl NOT confronting her legacy? that bitch is all legacy; she’s got legacy frankly oozing out of her positronic pores. this is partly a story about soji, but it takes a while to get there. first it’s the story of Sarge, who had an imaginary friend when she was six...
she can’t pinpoint exactly when she came up with him, and she doesn’t even remember what she named him - but she knows it happened sometime around the evacuations, and when they all moved back home and the world started growing again - lush and fast from the rich volcanic soil - she used to spend hours playing around with her birthday-gift radio set, ‘talking’ to her imaginary friend. of course, she never got actual replies, but as she aged out of the phase she retained an interest in radio and communications, and her parents indulged it and bought her more and better equipment, enrolled her in science programs, fed her curiosity. until one day as a young adult doing a school project on theoretical outer space transmissions, she arrived at a theory which (she later describes it as a CLICK, like something is settling into place in her brain) could account for the existence of extraterrestrial life, just out of reach. and perhaps, she posits in her presentation, the reason no aliens had yet contacted her world had little to do with them not being there and much to do with them choosing not to respond. the goal, she concluded, was to continue reaching out - to close the gap. she wrapped up the presentation with a nod to nostalgia. “And maybe someday, those friends will be imaginary no more.”
she wins an award for the project, and begins work in her chosen field that’s extremely rewarding, but it is still years before she reaches her second conclusion: the logical leap that if future alien contact was not only possible but likely, her imaginary friend might have been a real person after all. she brings this idea up with her mother one night over dinner, and her mother is somewhat alarmed - what do you mean you think you were talking to aliens, you couldn’t do that on a child’s transmitter kit, adults??? adult aliens? what are you saying they said to you? - but she can’t answer. she doesn’t have clear memories of that time, only an unshakeable conviction that the life she may have contacted is closer than anyone could possibly imagine. and so she starts a new project. she digs out the old childhood kit, fiddles with the dials, finds the frequency she used to tune it to. in her mind’s eye there’s the impression of a clear, frank voice, but no words. she tunes her own, more modern and complex instruments, to the same frequency, and keeps listening.
one day, she hears something. this time, she doesn’t talk first. the next few months are a whirlwind of information-gathering. there are people out there. whole societies. she pieces together the basics of what she’ll eventually learn is the prime directive; enough ships pass by the atmosphere of her world that she’s able to form a working conclusion as to why the come close but never hail. they know we’re down here, she thinks, they just think we’re not ready.
and maybe they don’t have the kind of boats that could get you that far into the sky. but she’s always been resourceful. she picks up a new frequency, and starts listening to starfleet. and after a few months of listening and planning, she starts packing. she takes the kiddie transmitter kit, she takes clothing designed for all-weather wilderness exposure, she takes the kind of emergency preserved food that people used to keep by the pallet in case of earthquake, and she takes a few other trinkets she can’t live without. and when the time is right, she hails. it might be a combination of luck or goodwill, but she manages to convince a passing freighter that she is the stranded comms officer of a downed private ship, the only survivor of the wreck hiding out on a pre-warp world. they beam her up and the first few weeks are very touch-and-go, but she manages to convince them she belongs up here, that the people who look like her are very far away and not just under their feet, darting around her green little world like a hill of bugs under the eyes of giant birds. she gets off at the nearest starbase, and she starts exploring.
she takes numerous vessels to numerous worlds, gathering information all the time. she starts calling herself Sarge, instead of Sarjenka, and it makes people think she’s a military type and nobody bothers her. she stops at a library planet for a month and researches everything she can about the major governing systems in the galaxy. without much to go on - no name, only a vague physical description (tall? pale? humanoid?) - it’s hard to determine exactly what kind of vessel the Friend would have been on, if indeed he existed. the yellow clothes, one of her few clear recollections, lead her to guess starfleet, but starfleet is a massive organization and so many of its vessels have come near her homeworld that it seems unlikely she’ll be able to narrow it down like that. so she tries a different tack, searching for the other two vague faces that she can bring to mind. one is a middle-aged woman, humanoid, but the search turns up nothing; the woman is a doctor who has retired from the organization and now works at a teaching hospital near vulcan. the other is a bald man with a deep voice, humanoid, and his record turns up an absolute deluge of information. she skips past most of it; she’s inpatient now, if anyone knows about the Friend he will, and so she checks his last known location. on board the private supply-class ship La Sirena, captained by ex-starfleet officer Cristobal Rios. Rios is tall, dark-haired, and humanoid, but absolutely nothing about him rings that little mental bell. she checks his last docking location. the ship visited a reclamation site briefly, and then disappears from the record.
but Sarge is nothing if not a searcher, so she adjusts her frequencies and tries again. it’s months before they’re in proximity to one another, months in which she’s taken the opportunity to secure her own vessel, a little rented, dented passenger bucket that’s probably worth more in repairs than the price she got it for. but she trades radio repairs for ship repairs at the port where she buys it, looks up its name (Avis) and finds it acceptable, and then she’s in the sky. she tools around exploring new bases and stations, and keeps the hail open. and one day, it’s answered. a human voice answers. “Avis, we read you. What can we do for you?” they go on-screen with each other, and she sees first the captain - the bearded guy - and then...him. the old man. he is an old man, the bald guy, and his eyebrows raise when he sees her come on the viewer.
“Permission to come on board?” she asks. “I have something which might belong to one of you.”
the old man looks wary for a moment, but then he turns to someone behind him, they exchange some quiet words, and he nods. “Permission granted.”
there’s a young woman waiting for her at the transport platform. shorter than her by a good half meter, humanoid. pale. “Dr. Soji Asha,” she says, “You look...”
and Sarge could swear she’s about to say ‘familiar.’
“Sarge,” she says, and the woman’s small hand grasps her long one in a firm shake, and then waits patiently while Sarge performs greeting, letting her fingers just-not-rest on the woman’s shoulders and arms. “I’m actually looking for an old friend of mine, and I thought you might have his whereabouts. Tall, pale, starfleet officer? Ops gold. I know that’s not much to go on, but if it helps, he would have once contacted and established a rapport with pre-warp Drema IV? Humanoid, but not human. He...” It’s weird. standing here, explaining herself to this quietly-held young woman, Sarge is able to articulate better than ever before her half-formed memories. “He told me once he was a machine.” and then, like another CLICK is settling, she has a name. At last. “Data.” I knew he’d had a name.
the woman’s face lights up and falls in such swift motion it is hard to tell which comes first - the recognition or the sorrow. but they’re both there, clear and present. “Dad died almost twenty years ago,” she says. “But if it helps, I have a positronic clone of his brain.”
Sarge starts laughing; she doesn’t mean to, but the way the woman - Soji - says it, so matter-of-fact, so frank...she stops herself before it’s rude, but Soji’s laughing too. “Sorry, I -”
“No, don’t - how do you - how did you know Dad? Come on, come with me -”
“What happened? I didn’t know him for long, I barely remembered him, but I knew he existed -”
“That’s a long story. Do you want to meet the crew?”
Soji reaches for her hand, and with a feeling of mechanisms interlocking as they properly should, she takes it. they start walking. “Oh.” She’s almost forgotten. “If...if he’s not around to take it back, then this might belong to you.” She reaches in her pocket and holds it out: a small, ceramic singing bird.)
#mr chabon take notes or just hire me#geordi is also in all the other episodes . i really think picard would go from good to great if geordi was there regularly#i miss him sm and im in the middle of tng AS WE SPEAK#i got a little carried away on the last one and it turned into a whole-ass fic maybe#star trek#star trek: picard#this is the post that was incoming and yeah it's all star trek dont @ me#i am really good at star trek
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Why I'm done with Picard after this week's episode (Episode 5, air date 2/20):
Spoilers, obviously.
So this episode was a microcosm of everything I hate about modern screenwriting. And yes, I'm going to be referencing Star Wars a lot in this rant and I'm not much of a Trekkie, so be warned.
First off, we opened with gore and violence perpetrated by a woman, followed by the first of two (maybe three?) mercy killings by a protagonist in the episode. Seven-of-Nine kills the person she later admits was like a son to her. Don't @ me about how he was in pain because this is fiction, not real life, and a story choice like this is cheap emotional manipulation that reframes murder as mercy and I'm DONE WITH THAT TROPE THANKS (can’t find my last rant on the subject but between Logan stabbing Jean, Jon stabbing Dany, and Rey stabbing Ben, I’m DOOOOOONE).
Next we discover that Agnes and Bruce were lovers. SURPRISE. Where are they going to go with this? If you guessed another Killing-of-the-intimate-partner-for-the-Greater-Good with zero foreshadowing in the same f*cking episode, YOU WIN. So twist! Much shocking!
Hey, remember that kid that Picard felt a fatherly affection for in the last episode, who it seemed like would be the emotional parallel to Data’s daughter(s) since Jean-Luc didn’t have time to build an onscreen relationship with Soji since they were on opposite ends of space and all? Elnor? Yeah he’s just been relegated to comic relief now, after pledging his life to the quest of the man who abandoned him. GAH this child being ignored for the sake of the great heroic elder is starting to seem REALLY familiar....
Speaking of sh*t parents, Raffi went to find her estranged son in a beautifully-performed scene that had me sobbing so hard I had to ask my hubs to pause the show until I could collect myself. I mean, of course I felt bad for her and identified with her, but CAN SOMEONE IN SPACE BE A GOOD PARENT FOR F*CK’S SAKE? Ugh, I was not ready to watch that after all the Leia/Ben Solo reveals in the last two months.
Oh wait, I forgot to mention Bjayzl’s costume in the opening scene, which was basically just flesh-colored skin-tight gauze with extra sparkles. Yes, let’s be sure to overtly sexualize the evil woman character so that it’s clear that she got what she deserved later, the slut. Guys, feel free to jerk off to this hot chick without guilt because she’ll be dead by the end of the episode. Also, we won’t make it clear whether she has a romantic history with Seven before she’s killed, but we’ll drop enough hints to make you fantasize about it. Because this is FOR YOU, thirsty dudebros. The main male protagonist might have been unable to lift a sword (INNUENDO) in the last episode, but we wanted you to be confident this show is for the Male Gaze, just like everyf*ckingthing else.
Meanwhile, despite all the emphasis on parent-child relationships in the show, Picard has NO ONSCREEN RELATIONSHIP with Data’s remaining daughter, and Soji still has no personality. But we HAVE gotten the foreshadowing that she’s going to become eeeeevil, be “The Destroyer” by the end of the season. Hey, does that sound like any other Good heroine who lost her sh*t and randomly became an indiscriminate killing machine in the last year or so? The only question will be whether Picard manages to talk her down in a 2-episode-length monologue, or whether he just does her and the galaxy a favor and mercy-kills her, too. Because that’s totally what Data would have wanted. HAHAHA FML
Also I love how Soji and the Romulan dude (see? I don’t even know his name and I don’t care enough to look it up) have zero developed relationship, we’re just supposed to accept that they’re totally in love because they slept together the minute they met despite zero chemistry. Also Romulan dude has a quasi-incestuous relationship with his sister because Game of Thrones and Star Wars have made that A Thing that we do now. And dear lord will Soji EVER grow a freaking personality?
I just can’t, y’all. Space is clearly The Worst.
#star trek picard spoilers#picard spoilers#picard#star trek spoilers#star trek#picard rant#tros#star wars#game of thrones#tros salt#ben solo#leia#raffi#jean luc picard#soji#data's daughter#bruce maddox#seven of nine#star trek voyager#elnor#male gaze#screenwriting#skywalker twins#daenerys targaryen#jon snow#bad tropes#star wars negativity#star trek negativity
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More badass women I forever Stan.
11. Spider-Gwen/Ghost-Spider
How to make my favorite superhero even more cool and steal my heart for real? Easy. Give me an alternate universe and give the cape over to a strong, female lead and I'm sold. Gwen Stacey, thank you for being truly awesome!
12. Sara Lance
So Sara Lance is definitely one of my favorite bisexual characters. She snarky, she got the puns, she god damn assassin, she the captain, she a god damn legend. I mean for real the moment she was introduced as Canary I was like... omg, *swoon* ! Her character development is just awesome.
Oh and Avalance is one of top ships for life.
13. Shuri
I was actually beyond sad she doesn't have more screen time in the movies because Shuri is the best. Witty and an actual to goddess genius who doesn't take shit from anyone. She even becomes the Black Panther in the comics for awhile and to see that in a onscreen adaptation would be truly mind blowing! I found out she has been introduced in Marvel Rising a show I really, really need to catch up like ASAP, I've just been distracted by other shows and stuff recently so... it is on my list! Oh and she is offically a Disney Princess! I don't make the rules, it is just a damn fact!
14. Adora/She-Ra
Speaking of my "distractions", obviously I've been living and breathing She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and I'm still pretty high on it and probably will always be. The She-Ra crew took us to new heights with LGBTQIA representation in animation by giving us a Canon lesbian main character and so many other things that just make me so damn happy. Adora has that dumb jock energy and that's something I absolutely ADORE! (Sorry, not sorry)
Cough, oh BTW Catra is my favorite (I'm definitely biased when it comes to her i admit it!) so I'm happy with them being together, like SOOOO much but my ship for Glimadora never really died and my main ship is still Glitradora
... sorry Bow you're still my best boy, I promise!
15. Harley Quinn
Speaking of characters bringing us some beautiful representation lately, ladies, gentlemen and my non binary beauties I give you the one and only Harley Quinn! With the latest adapation giving us all we wanted with her relationship with Ivy her being canonical Bisexual is only one reason why I truly love this character. Harley broke out from her unhealthy relationship and has become one of the greats if not the greatest anti heros of all time. Fight me on it. Won't matter. Because I love her and I will never stop.
16. Posion Ivy
You know you gotta love a woman that stands up for her beliefs... even if that belief is that plants are better than people annnnnnddddd she's not wrong. Personally I have a black thumb but I have thing for plant Goddesses like her.
17. Catwoman
Oh speaking of my favorite DC women, Catwoman was my first crush. Yes, the Michelle Pfeiffer version in Batman Returns. No, my little baby queer heart didn't understand why at the time. Basically this theif took my heart before anyone else. Definitely the reason I have an affinity toward cat like or cat girls in general soooooo there is that. I love her because no one can tell her what to do. Not even Batman. She is just like, shiny thing i want, i take and hmm maybe I care enough not to kill you if you get in my way but who knows?
18. Abby
So I obviously played the game at this point.
Oh do I stan Abby? Um yes obviously. How couod you not? Am I conflicted about it? Nope. Ellie will always be my girl in this series but at the end of the day Abby's character growth and development sort of stole the show. Like Joel changed when he met Ellie, Abby changed when she met Lev. Cricumstances made her the bad guy. Did she do fucked up shit? Of course. Does she deserve redemption? Yes. I know a lot of people still hate her but I don't get it. I think the perspective shift was one of the most brilliant story telling in a game I have ever witnessed. I'm still emotional about the whole experience.
If you are an asshole that sent the voice actor Laura Bailey death threats unfollow me because fuck you. Seriously. Fuck. You.
19. Azula
Speaking of characters that have done evil things. Let's turn our attention to one of my all time favorite villains. Azula came in and we asked Fire Lord who? Fourteen years, a Clever prodigy that literally has killer instinct and it is not afraid to use her deadly force.You fear her every time she catches up with Team Avatar and then... they go and make you feel bad for her at the end. At least I did.
She loses everything. Her allies. Her throne. Her mind. Humanly flawed and not at all one deminsional.
20. Seven of Nine
Y'all have no idea how truly fucking happy I am that Star Trek brought her back. Seven is my favorite character in the whole series. I was obsessed with the Borg as a kid and when they introduced her character I just instantly fangirled so hard over her. I'm still fangirling over her. Bringing her back literally made me cry. She literally has transformed so much through the years and I can not wait to see where her character goes from here.
To top it off, my heart literally tried to kill me when she had that hand hold scene with Raffi, I was like... omg... omg! Yes, please!!!!! That's all I wanted as a little queer watching this series i just didn't know it at the time.
My mother is literally pissed about this btw. In the novels Seven and Chakotay actually date for awhile and I was okay with it but she loved it. Then that scene in Picard happened. My mom and I have very few things we bond over and Star Trek is one of those. But basically she refuses to believe that hand hold is anything but platonic and I'm just waiting at this point like... come on Star Trek. Give me this one to me please.
Anyways...
Thank you for coming to my blog to witness my undying love for so many women characters. Probs more to come since I'm a hopeless, queer fangirl lifer!
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Spoilers for Star Trek: Picard episode 5, “Stardust City Rag”
[[ So many things about this episode broke my heart.
I knew that was Icheb but at the same time I cAN’T BELIEVE THEY KILLED ICHEB OFF MY SON IS DEAD AND I AM CRYING AND SEVEN CALLED HIM “MY CHILD” AND BROKE MY HEART. Not only did they kill Icheb off, they made SEVEN have to do it and that hURT SO MUCH.
Seven deserved to have a better life than she got and frack Seven has had such a hard life I wish they Voyager crew all protected her from the terribleness that the Alpha and Beta Quadrants have turned into and I wish they went into a bit more detail about Seven and Jay (whatever her full name was) and that betrayal.
I like that Seven became a Ranger though I mean it’s tough but I can definitely go for that. Rios’ “oh she’s that ranger. She’s notorious” and the “Eleven or Ninety-Nine” “she goes by Seven” was amusing in Rios and Raffi’s chat. Rios forgot Picard was assimilated once. I want to see more of Raffi and Rios like this. Actually I really want to see him helping her deal with the rejection of her son.
Speaking of.
Raffi has a son and her son is having a half-Romulan daughter. Raffi is having a granddaughter and that’s adorable but it was so sad about her son rejecting her and it makes me sad that that is how she rejoins our group but I’m glad she’s still with us and I hope her son will change his mind later on. I want to know about her son’s father.
Okay so AGNES. That happened. Agnes needs our group to show her that the Zhat Vash are lying to her and manipulating her and I just... This development in her character... She’s still my baby but wHY. It hurts. Also, she was dating Bruce Maddox. I didn’t expect that. He’s old for her. Still ship her with Rios and I need that ship to sail asap. Also, the EMH knows that Agnes did something so like, how is that going to go? Is she going to try to hack into Rios’s system to erase that from the EMH’s memory?
Now the less painful parts. I love the EMH activating himself to help Agnes with her anxiety. Very happy to see the EMH again. “Who are you talking to?” “You. Well, not you--”
Rios’s pimp facer outfit was beautiful. Raffi’s “you really have to sell this you can’t do your broody existentialist spaceman routine” aND He sold it and it was adorable. The Very French Picard (with an Eyepatch!) was also adorable. Elnor attempting to imitate Rios saying “aguarrrrrdiente” and just all of Elnor’s confusion about lying.
The holo ad scene was great just as we’d seen before the episode came out.
QUARK’S. Quark is in Space Vegas (Spegas).
I loved how heist-movie this part felt it was great.
Now Bruce Maddox is dead (killed by Agnes??) but they know Soji’s name and where she is. I like the connection with Agnes and Soji Agnes is almost Soji’s mother she helped make her but like. I hope she’ll realize that before she tries to kill her because now I feel like she’s here to stop them from actually getting Soji (or, like, to get Soji and get her to lead them to “The Others” and sabotage them when they’re with all of them. More synths, I’m assuming)
They didn’t have any of the Soji, Narek, Hugh on the Artifact storyline this episode which is interesting *shrug* ]]
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From Under the Vault: Sleeping Boy Collective Interview
Disclaimer: This was a transcription I found in a notebook. Nowadays, founding members Maria, Paeng, and Alva were part of SBC back then.
I will tell vague details of the people I interviewed from this new group of people I got acquainted with. They call themselves Sleeping Boy Collective. This group was formed as a tribute to their late friend Raffy whose favorite song was "Sleeping Boy the Paranoid" by Funeral Diner.
I remember that it was raining when I went against the trafficky Saturday of summer time 2015 from Parañaque. I even got lost on the way to QC (way, way lost. As far as Navotas) because I was not familiar with the commuting route of the area. This technically was my first time in Maginhawa. It was a blast.
I remember entering the house they were in. As I remember, I recall Alva, Maria, and Grois rents the place. Paeng is always around there.
Maria was helping Clarenz (which was coincidentally, part of SBC as well) set up his offset guitar. They were also hinting a part of a new song they wrote which ended up as "Corpse Medicine" from Beast Jesus' first EP In Various States of Disassembly. After that I was confused and they took me to dinner. I remember before leaving that Alva muttered something like "Uy, wala munang uuwi ha. Manonood tayo ng movie. Wild Tales."
While walking, I asked Maria where did they get a copy of Sunbather. They were heavily into that record back then. They replied, "one of my best friends shipped it to me."
Tim's sister, Tita Thysz gave an improptu tour in Maginhawa as we were walking to that dinner place. She introduced us the place so deliberately, that in my opinion, she can describe Maginhawa with her eyes closed.
Her introduction of Van Gogh is Bipolar, Caution Hot, and the original food park located there caught my attention.
All I remember from that dinner was Tim was eating dinner with red horse beer as his drink, I think Paeng was drinking beer too. I cannot remember the things I have ordered. Maria had this huge Root Beer Float which I regret not ordering the first time I saw it. Alva and Maria have small strands of cat fur in their shoulders, their, backs, well... in basically their shirts. By the way, their cats are friendly and one of them jumped in my lap before we were leaving.
Ocho from Quezo/Franco passed by when we were eating dinner. I was the only one who noticed.
The next stop was dessert! This place which I cannot remember the name of, served locally-flavored iced cream based on the regions of the Philippines. Tim actually payed for my dessert. (He owes me 150 bucks from the Algernon Cadwallader cd I sold him. So technically, we're even.)
This place ended up to be the go-to place where I take my friends whenever I get the chance to visit Maginhawa. Their "Bicol"-flavored iced cream is highly commendable.
Before we went back, Tim's sister had other plans for the night so she won't be coming back with us. Clarenz had to go back home since he's from the South and it's a long ride home.
We bid our goodbyes and the girls and Paeng bought more food and drinks (AKA red horse and pulutan).
While we sat down on their second floor waiting for them, there were are a lot of pedals on Maria and Alva's boards (I remember specifically, Maria showed me his mooer triangle Buff and Boss HM2.) and random guitars that I cannot describe back then. I'm pretty sure there was a Jazzmaster there somewhere.
This whole interview happened because Tim and I were present in the last King Ly Chee show last Friday. I asked him if I could do an interview with SBC because we plan to have an article posted for Timog Bulletin. He invited me to go to their place for the interview.
Kuya Ebong's Timog Bulletin blog was still active back then before he and Kuya Darwin turned it into a podcast a few years later. The next day, I went for it. Unfortunately, the recorded file was lost. This is all that is left and a bunch of interesting memories.
Here is the rest of the transcript which is the interview I salvaged:
Me: Ayun, background check. Ilang taon kayo nung nakarinig kayo ng punk, hardcore, screamo, post hardcore, or anything?
Maria: Anything extreme? Well, nonconventional music, I've been listening to weird shit since I was like what? Seven years old. 'Cause my mom used to work in a music store. I crate dig and I find cassettes that nobody wanted. I got into obscure electronic shit. Stuff like Atari Teenage Riot, Orbital, Chemical (brothers)
Alva (jokingly): My Chemical Romance?
Maria: Mga ganun. (random laughs in the background.) It was eventually when I was a teenager, siguro mga 14-15 ako, I got into stuff from Victory Records tapos-
Tim: Blame Snapcase.
Maria: Oo! Snapcase, Thursday... tapos dahil sa kakapakinig ko sa stuff na ganun parang binibili ko na yung cassettes and cds nila, nakikita ko yung "Thank Yous" nila. Ito like, "thank you to this band and that band."
Nagustuhan ko yung Thursday, baka magustuhan ko rin yung taste nila sa mga friends nila and everything y'know? These bands that they think they acknowledge.
Paeng: What's up brother? (Brings in food and beer)
Tim: What's up?
Paeng: Yeah.
Alva: Haha, biglang may Paeng.
Maria: So it just went from there. I have been listening to non-mainstream music since I was 13-14 until 25 going to 26 now. So that's me, who's chiming in next?
Me: Ayun, bale... lahat kayo.
Tim: Ok, ako naman. Ah, siguro nagsimula akong makinig ng non-mainstream shit nung may nag recommend sa akin na makinig or pumunta ng fourfa (fourfa.com) office mate ko siya sa net café tapos uh, elder statesman namin siya dati sa school. Parang, "O sige ganyan-ganyan ka naman pumorma, ganyan-ganyan ka magsuot, eto pakinggan mo." Or "puntahan mo yung site na to. Ako naman, "o sige." So doon na yun nagpunta lahat.
So... hindi ko siya actually nagustuhan kaagad. I didn't actually save it on the cellphone and played it throughout.
Parang nangyari, nagbackdate ako ng "ano ba yung (pinagmulan)?" Bakit ba sila gumagawa ng ganitong jams? Parang from one thing led to another then you see Revolution Summer (Dischord Records era of hardcore) parang ganun, tapos parang hindi ko pa rin siya napagtripan kaya pumunta pa rin ako ng pababa.
Nakita ko yung DC hardcore. Bands like Black Flag, Minor Threat, tsaka Bad Brains, etc. Saka ko pa lang nakita na "Huh? Eto pala yung ginagawa nila 'tas parang yun yung unang beses kong nafigure out na ito pala yung pwede ko mapag-tripan na kailangan kong sabihin na, "Uy eto ganito, ganito, ganyan." So that was I think in second year high school? Ay! Second year college.
Ah kasi parang expat or migrant coming from Bukidnon, nandito ako sa Manila, wala akong mapuntahan or mapagtripan tapos mainly, skate music lang yung pinapakinggan ko. Not really coming from the mainstream ika nga and eventually it led through there. Then you realize, "uy, masaya siya pakinggan." Ayun, so next is Paeng.
Me: (Very intimidated and a bit shocked that Tim's interview was over.) Ummm...
Maria: The question here is how did you first get into non-mainstream shit?
Paeng: Uh... PureVolume.
Uh... I got into non-mainstream shit because of my upperclassmen. Yung crush ko na girl na upperclassman ko, hinila niya ako on some sort of a date sa campus. Tapos nagsoundtrip kami ng mga... mga Typecast.
In unison: (Everyone laughs.)
Paeng: Tapos binigyan niya ako ng cd ng Typecast tsaka ano... Too Late The Hero tsaka Saydie. Which by the way, ako yung nagpoproduce sa Saydie ngayon.
Tim: And guitarist?
Paeng: 'Di na. 'Di na ako nagsesession doon. Tapos after nun, it became some sort of identity for me. Yun nga yung sort of formative years ng teenage life ko. Sa college, so naghahanap lang ako ng association or identity at that time. Kasi one, ayoko sumali ng frat. Two, mga upperclassmen ko medyo bully. Tapos na ako nun nung mga high school.
Aesthetically, I thought it was y'know... for the girls so sinundan ko yung trend na yun admittedly. Siyempre, naghahanap pa ako ng form of identity nun. Then, after I got out of the surface level aesthetics, I delved in deeper kasi may mga ibang subject matter ng mga usong kanta nung mga emo shit nun that didn't jive well with me.
Kasi una, hindi ako bobo. Tapos, naghahanap naman ako ng emo bands na hindi naman bobo at marunong mag articulate in deeper form or usage of language, hindi lang "Oooh, I'm so sad." or basta mga ganun.
Me: Surface level aesthetic?
Paeng: Yeah. Uhm... then I realized na these are just trendy stuff na nagpapa popularize lang ng mga websites na tinitignan ko. But then, may nakita akong isang page sa forum
*Grois goes upstairs, Paeng gets sidetracked*
Paeng: Where was I?
Maria: You found a forum?
Paeng: Ayun, nakahanap ako ng forum na nakalista ang napakaraming emotive hardcore bands. Ah okay medyo nadistract ako.
*pauses for a while and there was a little chit chat about my tablet's recorder.*
Paeng: Sorry naderail ako sa conversation. Tapos pinakinggan ko yung bands na nakalista doon sa forum. Pagkatapos nun, nakilala ko si Francis (Maria) sa isa pang forum tapos nagdecide kami magmeet up.
Francis wanted to play "chaotic converge stuff" which was what he was currently into that time. Bale, pinagsoundrip niya ako sa mp3 player niya dati tapos iniskip through ko every single one of the songs until narinig ko yung Scarlet (US). Naalala ko dati na sa soulseek kami kumukuha ng files. Si Maria, ginagamit niya pa rin. Ako, I don't have the patience anymore, and there weren't any torrents back then.
Tim: Limewire sucks.
Paeng: Yeah, Limewire sucks. You end up with misconstrued song titles and child porn. So ito yung beginnings into music and the ideology involved rather than the surface level aspect. Hanggang ngayon I still apply this aspect in critiquing and producing other records for other bands and how to interact with them. Dahil sa roots ko sa Davao punk scene, yung idea ng Anarchy tsaka anti-establishment is still implied. Pero narealize ko... everyone is technically a sellout.
Me: Why is everyone technically a sellout?
Paeng: From birth, you're not the one that chooses the lifestyle you're born into. Kapag pinanganak ka, mapa-mahirap man o mayaman ka wala kang choice. Doon ka lang makakapili ng landas mo kapag may autonomy or sariling decision ka na. Ako personally, lumayas ako from home at 16 after namin magkaroon ng argument with my mom. I learned life firsthand. Natatandaan ko nakatira lang ako sa kubo. Tapos yung CR ko butas lang sa lupa.
Hindi ako naniniwala sa sellout na word. Dati nung lumayas ako, isipin mo I was emaciated 5'11" ako tapos para ako yung sa Machinist.
Tim: Si Slenderman hahaha.
Maria: I look like Christian Bale hahaha... from The Machinist.
Paeng: May mga times na tumutugtog yung Capulette (pre-Caitlyn Bailey) tapos mag cocollapse ako. Mahihimatay ako kasi wala akong kinain buong araw.
Maria: Umabot sa point na nag organize kami ng gig para magkaroon si Paeng ng funds for food for one whole month.
Paeng: Tapos nagkaroon ako ng work sa mall serving food. It was then that I realized that we are tethered to the system and if I break it, I will die. But at the same time, if I want to change the system, I have to corrupt it the way it corrupted me. I am trying to do that by implanting myself into the system which indoctrinates the youth, which is the educational system. That's why I ended up landing a job as a professor in Mapua Institute of Technology. So what was your question again?
After this I asked Grois and Alva. As far as I remember in the interview:
Alva Presbitero's first introduction to extreme music was by his kuya recommending her some stuff like Botch and Converge.
When she was studying college in UP, she was involved in an alternative metal sounding band which took a lot from Deftones and Tool called Tabula Rasa.
She was frontman of prog band Game Theory. She was playing guitar and singing vocals with emo/powerpop/alternative group Small Hands alongside Tani Cariño of Neverdie and Chi & Sep of Typecast at the time of the recording of this interview.
I remember vaguely that Grois Enayo started getting into punk when she was in college.
"I just came here to drink beer... what's up?"
While studying, she started to look for bandmates in the PUP, Pulp, and Rakizta forums online. Which Paeng followed through jokingly saying:
"Ahhh... PULPera ka pala dati?"
After that endeavor did not work out for her, she started to look for members again to play Bikini Kill sounding stuff.
At time of this recording, she's a member of the politically-charged band, "Death to Puberty" which Chuck Baclagon fronts and the Shocking Details which where she channels her inner Riot Grrrl roots.
Currently, she is a member of punk group Catpuke and The Shocking Details recently released recorded material a few years back.
After the interview at about 3am-ish they guided me to how to commute to get back home and they went into a bakery to buy Coca Cola and bread I think? I don't even remember how I got home.
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Raffi Boyadjian | Development of a Classic: The Breitling Ref. 806
Raffi Boyadjian | Development of a Classic: The Breitling Ref. 806
Raffi Boyadjian — Collecting vintage watches can be a fantastic hobby, but it can also be an all-consuming and extremely expensive one, particularly if your interest lies in historically significant models. With the crazy sums being paid for sought-after pieces recently, you would be forgiven for thinking you have to have impossibly deep pockets to play this game. There’s definitely some truth in that, but if you’re willing to cast your net a little wider, there are still tons of great vintage options out there at relatively accessible prices.
A prime example is the Breitling Navitimer ref. 806. While it has shown performed well on Chrono24 over the last few years, it still offers a lot of bang for your buck. Best of all, it likely won’t bankrupt you in the purchasing process. Read on to learn more about the interesting history of this iconic pilot’s watch.
Raffi Boyadjian — Performance Navitimer 806
Raffi Boyadjian | The Pre-806 Navitimer
Raffi Boyadjian — Chances are, you’re already familiar with the Breitling Navitimer. It’s considered one of the most famous pilot watches in modern history, thanks in large part to its distinctive design. Targeted at pilots, its name combines the words “navigation” and “timer.” Its most distinguishing feature, of course, is its flight-specific slide rule bezel. The slide rule allows pilots to calculate things like average speed, fuel consumption, and climbing speeds. Development began around 1952, with the first generation of the watch making its debut in 1954. It’s interesting to note that the slide rule bezel wasn’t actually created for the Navitimer. Instead, it was the Breitling Chronomat that first featured this unique bezel in the early 1940s.
The first Navitimer models were intended for exclusive use by members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, commonly referred to as AOPA. The case backs of these extremely rare and highly collectible watches do not bear any reference numbers, and production is thought to have lasted no more than a year, from late 1954 until 1955. Referred to as the “Pre-806” by collectors, these models are equipped with the Valjoux 72 manual chronograph movement.
Raffi Boyadjian — The dials of these watches are all black (contrasting subdials to improve legibility were introduced in later models) and feature the AOPA-signed wings logo just below 12 o’clock. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the Breitling logo is nowhere to be found. In fact, it didn’t appear on dials until the late 1950s. The other defining characteristic of this inaugural model is the beaded bezel, which was designed to be easily gripped with gloves for making in-flight calculations. The AOPA models feature more beads than later iterations (about 125 to be exact). Over time, Breitling reduced the total number of beads so that the individual size of each could be increased for improved grip.
Raffi Boyadjian — Vintage Navitimer Pre-806
Raffi Boyadjian | A Navitimer for All
Raffi Boyadjian — Following the success of this early model in the aviation industry, Breitling introduced what is now referred to as the ref. 806 in 1956. This was a commercial production model available to the general public. As such, the Valjoux 72 was replaced by the manual Venus 178 chronograph movement developed by Fabrique d’Ebauches Venus S.A., a Swiss movement manufacturer. Breitling continued to use this movement in the Navitimer until the early 1970s.
Early ref. 806 models still feature all-black dials, but several other changes were made. Some feature the AOPA-signed wings like the Pre-806 (made exclusively for the American market), while others have unsigned wings and the Breitling logo. Others still have a Breitling Genève wings combination. Most of these models are made of stainless steel, but there are also some gold-plated and solid gold versions available. That said, solid gold watches were made in very limited numbers and are exceedingly rare.
Raffi Boyadjian — Almost a decade after the original AOPA model, Breitling introduced contrasting subdials to the Navitimer. The reverse panda configuration is now a hallmark of the Navitimer collection, but at the time, the decision was made primarily to improve legibility. These initial models, introduced in 1963, were still offered in the earlier 806 case complete with beaded bezels, though the bead number was reduced to 93. The syringe-style hands were also replaced by arrow-tipped baton hands. These watches were only in production for about a year before Breitling made more dramatic changes in 1964.
Raffi Boyadjian — Vintage Navitimer 1962
Raffi Boyadjian — Some of these changes included the introduction of a milled edge bezel to replace the beaded bezel, and the use of the twin jet logo on the dial with “Breitling Genève” written below. The subdials were also enlarged in the name of improved legibility. In the early 1970s, Breitling further improved the functionality of the Navitimer with the addition of a date window at 4:30. Officially introduced in 1972, this model goes by the ref. 7806.
The use of date windows always seems to be a contentious issue — and the placement of this one is arguably a bit awkward — but Breitling approached the decision with gusto, introducing the first hints of color (on the date window and slide rule) to the previously monochromatic dial. It was the 70s, after all. This model is powered by the manual Valjoux 7740 movement and still features a three-register layout; however, the hour counter and sweep seconds swapped their positions at 9 and 6 o’clock.
Raffi Boyadjian | The Automatic Navitimer
Raffi Boyadjian — A few years earlier, there was another notable development in the Navitimer universe. Breitling, along with three other collaborators — Heuer, Büren, and Dubois Dépraz — had been secretly working on the development of the world’s first automatic chronograph movement. Zenith and Seiko were doing the same (separately, of course), and all three calibers debuted in 1969. While Heuer called the movement the Calibre 11 and created a completely new watch to house it in (the square Monaco favored by Steve McQueen), Breitling opted to put the so-called “Chrono-Matic” inside a new variant of the Navitimer.
Raffi Boyadjian | Vintage Navitimer 1969 Pizza case
Raffi Boyadjian — The ref. 1806 was launched in 1969, and has a truly fabulous oversized 48-mm case nicknamed the “Pizza.” Unlike the manual version, this was a bi-compax chronograph with the date window just above 6 o’clock. By this point, the Navitimer’s popularity had spread well beyond the aviation crowd and was beginning to be viewed as the status symbol it is today. Famous musician Miles Davis was known to wear one, as were Formula 1 drivers James Clark and Graham Hill.
Raffi Boyadjian | Special Mention: The Cosmonaute
The Navitimer Cosmonaute is technically not a ref. 806, but it is a very close relative and has an interesting back story to match. According to watchmaking lore, American astronaut Scott Carpenter, one of the seven members of America’s original space program Project Mercury and the second American to orbit the Earth, was preparing for his mission with a Navitimer on his wrist. Realizing that his watch may not offer the full functionality he would require, he supposedly approached Breitling about the possibility of developing a Navitimer with a 24-hour dial to help him distinguish day from night in space.
Recognizing this opportunity of a lifetime, Breitling introduced the ref. 809 Cosmonaute in 1962. The initial version featured an all-black dial similar to early ref. 806 models, but it had an enlarged beaded bezel that could be operated even with heavy astronaut gloves on. Scott Carpenter wore his own personal ref. 809 Cosmonaute during the Aurora 7 mission, making it the first Swiss chronograph in space. It’s worth noting that the version with the enlarged bezel was produced for less than one year, making quality examples extremely rare today. Later, Breitling updated the Cosmonaute along the same lines as the ref. 806.
Raffi Boyadjian — Navitimer Ref. 809 Cosmonaute
Raffi Boyadjian | The Modern Reissue
At Baselworld 2019, Breitling introduced a faithful re-edition of the ref. 806 from 1959. According to company CEO Georges Kern, the goal was to create a watch that was as true to the original as possible. To that end, the company worked in collaboration with watch collector Fred Mandelbaum (@watchfred), who reportedly owns one of — if not the — largest private collections of vintage Breitling watches in the world. It’s fair to say the end result is pretty cool.
Raffi Boyadjian — Measuring in at 40.9 mm (including the beaded bezel), the steel case is the same size as the original. The bezel even features 94 beads like the 1959 version. Naturally, this watch features an all-black dial and lacks a date window. Just below 12 o’clock, you will find a Breitling inscription in capital letters and an unsigned winged logo. This particular logo was reportedly used for the European market.
Raffi Boyadjian — Breitling Navitimer re-edition 1959.011, Image: Bert Buijsrogge
Perhaps best of all, Breitling went to the added trouble — and cost — of developing a manual movement specifically for this watch. Based on the B01, the Manufacture Caliber B09 is a COSC-certified chronometer and features a column-wheel chronograph with vertical clutch, offering precision to 1/4th of a second. The movement beats at 4 Hz and has a power reserve of 70 hours when fully wound. You can’t see the movement at work because like the original, it is hidden beneath a solid case back.
With a genuinely interesting history, the Breitling Navitimer ref. 806 is a great timepiece for vintage chronograph collectors and aviation enthusiasts alike. While the model has shown good value development over time, it remains relatively accessible to purchase. Plus, it looks great on the wrist!
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Character Sheet
(Played By Diane Guerrero)
Name: Rosalina Alma Cardoso
A.K.A:
Backlash
Rosa
Rosita
Mi Alma
Universe: D.C. Arrowverse
Sex: Female
Race: Metahuman; Latin American
D.O.B.: November 11th, 1990
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Skin: Tan
Height: 5’6”
Weight: 135 lbs.
Relatives:
Alba “Albita” Laura Guzmán (mother)
Rafael “Raffy” David Guzmán (step-father)
Manolo “Manny” Rafael Guzmán (younger half-brother)
Fernando Capello (cousin)
Occupation:
(former) Gang Member
Auto Mechanic
Superheroine
Residence:
Keystone City (former)
Central City
Appearance: Rosa is a woman of average height and a well-toned build. She has tan skin and a fair amount of slightly fading tattoos. Her most notable tattoos are the number seven shaped from Western-style pistols (the symbol of Los Sietes) on the right side of her stomach, a cross on her right forearm, and a rose design just under the left side of her collarbone. She had a piercing in her nose as a teen, but no longer wears it and has a light scar on her left nostril. Her clothing consists of a casual, urban style; usually tight-fitting pants and shirt with the long-sleeve flannel to go over it or jacket.
Her Backlash suit is primarily brown in color with black and gold overlay on her chest, shoulders, and sides. It has elbow length black fingerless gloves and highly durable black combat boots that end at the knees. The suit comes with a black mask that covers three-quarters of one’s face with only the jaw and mouth left visible, and tinted goggles are incorporated into its design. The Backlash suit has an emblem a the center of its chest piece of a gold sphere with a dark slash splitting it in two.
Personality: Rosa is a crass woman with a smart mouth, and an unfortunate tendency to attract and cause trouble. She is cocky, vivacious, and seems to enjoy getting into confrontations with others. Rosa is street-smart and quick to action and can keep calm in stressful and dangerous situations. She is sly and stealthy when needed, and though most don’t expect her to be, Rosa is perceptive and has a natural skill investigating crimes– able to see situations from the criminal perspective and work from there. She’s a short-tempered woman and can be quick to violence, not backing down from a fight if she can help it.
Mostly, she fights for the thrill and enjoys testing her strength, but she does try to control herself when she needs to. Despite her aggressive nature, though, Rosa doesn’t enjoy attacking or hurting others for just for the sake of it, and usually only responds to provocation. Underneath her obvious anger issues and played up bravado, Rosa is a more compassionate and has more values than she lets on. Although she does her best not to openly show it, the traditional values of her culture are very much a part of who Rosa is, and she places a high value on her family and her religion. She feels a great amount of self-loathing about what she put her family and friends through as a member of Los Sietes, and refuses to make excuses for what she’s done, she instead uses her failings as an incentive to be better.
Rosa is capable and willing to cross lines if it’s necessary, and she often makes these decisions on her own to keep her loved ones from doing the same. She struggles with her morals and self-worth – never completely certain if she can be a good person, much less a hero, knowing what she is capable of. Naturally a straightforward person, She is a tough and determined woman, and despite a rather skewed moral compass and a punch-first-ask-later mentality, Rosa is focused on becoming a better person and heroine.
Background: Rosalina was born on November 11th, 1990 to Alba Cardoso in Keystone City. At eight years old, Rosa was placed into the state custody after her mother was deported, and for the next four years lived with several different foster families and group homes. Rosa rarely talks of her time in the system, but the little she has mentioned heavily suggests abuse and neglect while in state care. Her mother eventually manages to get back into the country and regain custody of her daughter. During those years, Alba married Rafael Guzman and had another child, Manolo.
Struggling with suddenly being a part of the new family her mother had without her, Rosa quickly grows rebellious. By age seventeen, Rosalina is a high school dropout and a member of Los Suerte Sietes, a local Latin gang with a reputation for drug distribution and grand theft auto. Rosa stays with Los Sietes until her cousin Fernando, a high ranking member, is murdered for his role as an informant to C.K.P.D. Devastated, Rosa moves to Central City and tries to straighten her life out. She struggles to stay out of the legal system and hold down a job for some time.
In 2014, After losing her position as a mechanic at a local repair shop, Rosa participated in an illegal fight club to make ends meet. After winning her money, an injured Rosa slowly made her way home – only to be brutally attacked by an unknown assailant. As Rosa bleeds out in a back alley, the newly unveiled Star Labs particle accelerator explodes and the resulting shock–wave engulfs Central City. Rosalina Capello is rushed to a hospital, bloody and barely clinging to life, and despite emergency efforts from hospital staff, she is not expected to survive the night. However, doctors were soon baffled to see that, although still unconscious, Rosa was recovering even as nurses lost consciousness around her, and medical equipment and electronics in her space continuously failed.
Elsewhere in the hospital, another patient by the name of Barry Allen was also showing odd activity, in the form of sudden, unexplainable and repeated heart failure. As Barry is offered assistance from Dr. Wells at Star Labs, hospital staff ask Wells to take a look at another patient that might benefit from his experience. Though nearly completely recovered from her ordeal, Rosa still remained unresponsive and now vitals seemed to spike whenever anyone touched her. Both Barry and Rosa were relocated to Star Labs for further care.
A month later, Rosa wakes in Star Labs to odd scientists, a guy in a coma, and unbelievable abilities. She is stronger, faster, and healthier than she’s ever been, and Dr. Wells tells the young woman that her body is absorbing all forms of energy and converting it to her overall physical strength and wellbeing. The scientist offers Rosa an arrangement; so long as she allowed herself to be examined by Star Labs and kept her powers a secret, she would be paid for her services as “security.” With not many other options for herself, Rosa readily accepted the deal and became the first “metahuman” specimen (guinea pig) to be researched by Star Labs for the next eight months.
Then, Coma Dude (or, apparently, Barry Allen) woke up. He could run extremely fast and decided that he wanted to be a superhero. Rosa wants no part of Barry’s hero complex or tragic backstory, but the more time she spends with the speedster, the harder it is to stay out of it. Barry’s a self-righteous idiot with the worst common sense she’d ever seen – someone had to make sure he didn’t get killed out there.
Abilities:
Mix Martial Arts – Not long after relocating to Central City, Rosa started training in Martial Arts as an outlet for her aggression. To date, she has trained in Boxing, Muay Thai, and Karate, and has become an impressively capable fighter in these styles in a relatively short time.
Auto Mechanic Skills – As a member of Los Suerte Sietes, Rosa dealt primarily in stealing and disassembling vehicles for profit. Now, she uses the skills learned from chop shops to work as an auto mechanic.
Investigative Prowess – Rosa shows a natural affinity for crime solving. She has a surprising eye for detail and is capable of thinking critically when problem-solving. Her criminal background also allows Rosa to see things from another perspective and allows her to make connections that she might not otherwise.
Thievery – While still living in Keystone, Rosa’s criminal activity ranged from petty crimes, like shoplifting and pickpocketing, to more serious cases, such as burglary and grand theft auto. She has proven to be a decent thief even after starting over.
Meta-Human Power
Energy Absorption – Rosa can absorb various forms of energy while removing it from the source, into her body and uses it to enhance her strength and overall condition.
Energy Conversion – Rosa can convert one form of energy into another form.
Enhanced Condition – Rosa’s physical and mental abilities are above natural for a human being as a result of the energy absorbed in her body. The more energy she gains, the greater her enhancement.
Healing Augmentation – Rosa can voluntarily enhance her body’s natural healing process depending on the excess energy she has stored in her body.
Weaknesses:
Energy Overload – Although Rosa can take a great amount of energy, her body has a limit to how much it can store. If not corrected, this can severely injure Rosa or even kill her.
Over Exertion/Physical Exhaustion – Overuse of her abilities can leave Rosa weak and barely able to move. She’s usually starving and sleep deprived and needs about a day of rest and meals to recover.
Mental/Emotional Stability – Rosa’s ability to fight can be affected by the stability of her emotions. Her anger can greatly cloud her judgment, and she can become reckless to the point of severe injury as a result.
Cold Temperature – Although Rosa can absorb nearly all types of energy, extremely cold temperatures are difficult for her body process. Direct exposure to these extreme cold can also stunt her healing capacities.
Equipment:
Earpieces: Installed in her suit’s mask, are two discreet and durable earpieces Cisco designed to maintain a communication link, which she can manually turn off. The devices also include headset cameras to maintain video coverage.
Hidden camera: Cisco installed a mini-camera in the emblem on Rosa’s suit to give the team live video coverage in order to see where she is and better assist her.
Backlash Suit: As Backlash, Rosa wears a suit of reinforced tri-polymer that Cisco designed specifically to endure her super enhanced strength without wearing out or tearing. The suit has sensors to track Rosa’s movements, measure her energy input and output, and her vitals. Her gloves and boots are modified to redistribute kinetic energy and enhance her natural ability to absorb energy while putting less strain on her body.
Notes:
Rosalina: “beautiful rose.” Alma:“The soul.” Cardoso: “Thorny.”
Though officially her occupation is as an auto mechanic, Rosa is adept in criminal investigations and critical thinking and has even helped Barry with forensic evidence. Rosa’s abilities are also proven on Earth-Two, as her counterpart is a detective in the CCPD and implied to have an impressive record of solved cases.
Rosa is a talented and knowledgeable driver. Her favorite type of vehicle is a motorcycle.
According to Eobard Thawne, Rosalina was never a meta-human or a hero in the original timeline like Barry and would have likely died the night she was assaulted had the particle accelerator not exploded. Essentially, the hero Backlash would not have existed without Thawne going back and changing the timeline.
Rosa has superstitious beliefs and is very afraid of the supernatural.
She enjoys cooking and often makes food as a way to apologize. (She also angry cooks.)
Pastelitos de carne is Rosa’s favorite dish.
Her favorite singer is Enrique Iglesias.
Rosa is a good singer, though she rarely showcases her talent.
Her blood type is O+.
#OC#the flash#barry allen#arrow#oliver queen#arrowverse#multiverse#Rosalina Cardoso#Rosa#Backlash#Hero#DC Universe
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