#what he is for his own safety and he's seen as more 'plant-like' than vash is bc he can produce resources like his sisters | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hopey-thinks · 18 days

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Knives and ASPD (antisocial personality disorder) (spoilers in post)

To preface this, I’d like to say I am not trying to demonize people who have antisocial personality disorder (sometimes also referred to as sociopathy). I am not saying that people with ASPD would do the things Knives does or are automatically bad people, nor am I saying that Knives is possibly a sociopath only because of the atrocities he commits. I am simply trying to get a better understanding of Knives’s psychology as a character.

With that out of the way, I’ve been learning a lot about personality disorders in my psychology class, and I’ve done quite a significant amount of research in and outside of class about personality disorders (including reading about it them in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders fifth edition text revision).

This comes to my current predicament. My teacher wanted us to think of examples in media of characters that exhibit certain personality disorders. I was particularly fascinated with the nature of ASPD, so I zeroed in my research on that disorder in particular. The first characters that came to mind for me were The Joker and Ren Yamai from Komi Can’t Communicate, but in my trigun brainrot I realized that Knives would actually be a very interesting character to consider.

While he meets most of the diagnostic criteria according to the DSM-5-TR, there are some things that are making me wonder if he actually has antisocial personality disorder. Mainly his motives.

I’ve seen a lot of discourse about his motivations. And the two most common interpretations I’ve seen are the following:

he genuinely believes that he’s helping the plants and doing what he’s doing selflessly for them and the benefit of them. He also genuinely cares about Vash and the Plants and is doing what he’s doing for “the greater good.” He is only hurting humans because they are destructive towards plants, and only hates them because they are cruel. If this is the case, he likely isn’t someone with antisocial personality disorder because his entire philosophy is based off of pro social, albeit extremely immoral and flawed motivations and ideas since he doesn’t consider humans a part of his social group.

Knives has convinced himself that he is fighting for the greater good of the plants to rationalize his cognitive dissonance, but that’s not what he’s actually trying to do deep down. His true motivation (which he is not something he is consciously aware of) is simply because he wants to hurt and kill humans out of his own fear of them and because of their inferiority. Essentially, he’s actually doing it all for himself and to quell his own fears and not because he actually cares about the safety or autonomy of other plants. In this case, he would be more likely to have antisocial personality disorder because his true motives aren’t in service of anyone else’s rights or benefits, and he exhibits antisocial behaviors towards the beings he does consider a part of his social group (plants). He also doesn’t actually care about Vash as his family, but only as a means to achieve his goals and be part of his plan.

There’s a lot more nuance to it than that of course, but in my personal interpretation I’d say Knives seems to align more with the second description. Here’s why: He consistently shows disregard for the autonomy, rights, and wants of other plants, especially Vash, and will exploit them just as awfully as the humans he hates have if it means achieving what he wants for his vision. This creates cognitive dissonance because he simaltaneously believes he’s a good person who is improving the world by doing that, but the humans who do that are bad and destroying the world by doing the exact same thing. So he rationalizes it by thinking he’s different because “it’s for the greater good of all plants and those who oppose me are preventing that” which then created more cognitive dissonance because he can’t exploit and abuse the plants without a second thought while also fighting for their rights and caring for them. The rights and safety of other plants don’t matter to him if they conflict with what he wants to do. Which would make the true motivation in this case, wanting to hurt humans out of his own fear and hatred (which developed because of his trauma), make sense.

When you think about Knives’s actions, you come to find that he cares more about hurting and destroying humanity than helping plants. He is fine with hurting the plants to hurt humanity, rather than hurting humanity simply for the good of the plants. He prioritizes “cleansing” the world of humanity over the actual lives of plants.

Here’s why I made this post. I think Knives is a very complex and fascinating character, and would like to hear other people’s perspectives and interpretations of him, especially in relation to his psychology and possible disorders he may have. So if you’d like to join me in psychoanalyzing him, I would appreciate hearing your opinion in a respectful discussion under this post. I’m especially curious about what any psychologists here might think, and I hope I can learn something new and also be corrected and get a better understanding if I’m wrong.

Ik this seems really strange that I’m writing and thinking so much about the psychology of someone who isn’t even real, but I just really like character analysis and think it’s interesting to see psychological concepts in media.

#knives trigun #knives millions #trigun stampede #psychology student #trigun #character analysis #character psychology #anime and manga #vash the stampede #trigun vash #tristamp #nicholas d wolfwood #trimax #Psychoanalyzing fictional characters

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iwritenarrativesandstuff · 8 months

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Meryl, Luida, and Bridging the Gap

This is just a quick little side-note I wanted to make about the similarities between Meryl and Luida that I noticed as I was reading, and how they end up occupying similar, yet complementing roles in the story.

***Disclaimer: I was sick when I wrote this and my head is full of fog lmao. If I have completely left out a word or something... don't even worry about it it's fine.

First off, on a surface level, they both are characterized as capable, intelligent, level-headed women, who are suddenly thrust into leadership positions, with Meryl being assigned the task of tracking down and mitigating the damage caused by Vash the Stampede plus looking out for her new protégé, Milly, and Luida stepping up to take charge of Ship 3 and its residents after Doc's death.

While the demand placed on them both is immense, nonetheless, they are shown to be quite capable of shouldering this kind of responsibility - however, given their intense focus and objective-driven personalities, they actually both get scenes where they are somewhat horrified by their own temporary prioritization of objectives over morality. We see this with Meryl in Trigun Volume 1 when she doesn't react in righteous anger to Badwick threatening his parents and had shut herself off from writing to her own in pursuit of her job, and with Luida when she briefly considers the idea of another July incident to stop Knives. Both think negatively of themselves for this - of course, I'm of the mind that since they are upset with themselves on reflection, this proves the exact opposite, really. I think they both have hearts of gold, they're just under a lot of stress, especially as time goes on. The two of them are human beings who falter, but whose morals ultimately align closely with what Vash wants to see in the world. Really, what the two of them hate most here is the idea of their own inaction or taking the easy way in the face of wrongdoing - a concept that drives them into action going forward.

[ID: Two images from Trigun and Trigun Maximum. The first is from Trigun Volume 1. Over images of trees and Badwick's father, Meryl says "But I... I just stood there and took it all in without even budging. I am such a cold person. I chose this path of blood and tears without thinking about the rest of my life. All I can see is what's right in front of me." Meryl starts to cry as she continues, "Why could I not see... that when I closed myself off to him, something was wrong? I..." She then slaps her cheeks and says "No... never mind!" The second image is from Trigun Maximum Volume 8. A single tear runs down Luida's cheek. Meryl says "Miss Luida...?" Her back turned to Meryl, Luida says "I'm sorry. I... was thinking for a moment. If something like July would happen again... it could stop Knives, but... ... I'm a terrible woman. End ID.]

Both of them also have a connection to Vash's past that gives them a different perspective on him as a person, instead of just an ally - Meryl, of course, gets brain-blasted in Volume 5 with Vash's memories (poor thing), but Luida is also more familiar with him than even a lot of the people on Ship 3, it seems - enough that she calls him out for blaming himself after the attack, clearly used to hearing this from him. She also is the one to clear up at least some of Wolfwood's confusion and uncertainty.

We also get this interesting parallel of them both watching Vash walk away to face Knives, him having rejected their offers of help. It's something that clearly saddens them both, as they watch him fight alone again and again, and wish he wouldn't. Both of them have moments where they feel they can't offer much in the way of assistance, or that their best efforts aren't enough.

[ID: Two images from Trigun and Trigun Maximum. The first is from Trigun Volume 2. Vash, his back turned, runs off into the chaos, a Plant seen above him and the city ahead, as he yells back "Get as far away from here as you can! Get to safety!" Meryl watches him from the door. In the second image, from Trigun Maximum Volume 8, a grainy flashback shows Vash's turned back as he walks away from a young Luida, who is reaching out to him. End ID.]

Of course, we the readers know this isn't true at all! Meryl and Luida do so much over the course of the story.

Interestingly, they don't start off as the ones completely in charge - Meryl works for Bernadelli even if she is in charge of her assignment, and Luida is presumably part of the Council, but the one in charge is initially Doc. But once they do take over - Luida after Doc's death, and Meryl once the world is thrown into ruins and Bernadelli no longer exists - there is a striking difference in the way they act from their predecessors.

Meryl goes from simply following Vash around to taking a self-directed and active role in assisting him however she can - looking for his old belongings and anything else of potential use, asking Marlon to repair his gun, creating a distraction with Milly, and helping the Earth Federation in the final hour with no hesitation.

Luida takes a much more active role in rallying Ship 3 to assist Vash as well. While some of this may simply have been because the stakes were raised much higher after Volume 3, Ship 3, while already a base of support for Vash, was a distant safe haven, kept largely separate from the rest of the world. Up until that point, they had provided Vash with aid, but not fought alongside him, something that clearly bothers Luida on multiple occasions. She decides to change this. She's the one who sets out to help as many of the towns ravaged by the Ark as possible. She rallies the Ship 3 residents for a rescue mission to help Vash. She's the one to step forward and attempt to bring all the leaders around to standing with Vash.

Which brings me to my last comparison point. They're both staunchly supportive of Vash, quick to come to his aid, and quick to defend his character from those who doubt his intent - Luida even sharply calls out her own people for their moment of mistrust after hearing about July. These two know and care about Vash on a more personal level than most - and as we all know, due to his avoidant tendencies, this is not an easy thing to do. Vash is frequently misinterpreted, and these two are often the ones to set the record straight.

[ID: A panel from Trigun Maximum Volume 3. Luida, sternly, says "That's a foolish question. You would know the answer just by looking at the scars on his body. If he had used his true immortality, those scars would not be there. End ID.]

In this way, much like Vash is a bridge between humans and Plants, Meryl and Luida are something of a bridge between humans and Vash.

And they're able to do this because deep down, their ideals align closely with his - they're not just supporting someone they care about; they have a similar desire to see the kind of world he fights for, and they choose to fight for it too.

But while Luida is something of a spokesperson for Vash, reaching out to humanity, it is almost as if Meryl becomes the voice of humanity reaching back, responding to him, and agreeing that not everything in the world is awful; that it is worth believing in the best in others. They need to stand together.

[ID: A panel from Trigun Maximum Volume 14. Meryl, in a spacesuit, with frank determination, says, "Because we decided to stand together. We stand with Vash the Stampede." End ID.]

Meryl is the voice of proof that some people believe in the love and peace he speaks of, and are willing to say it back to him in turn.

Updated on my masterpost - my other book club stuff can be found here!

#storyrambles #i am actually really curious to see what luida's past was like and how she grew to care for vash so much #tristamp gave us a more maternal luida but that's really not how their dynamic reads in the manga to me at all #i'm so so curious.#at first i'd considered that maybe young luida was one of the ones who found him alongside doc after he lost his arm...#but that was 70 years ago roughly. she's definitely not that old and it doesn't seem like the cryosleep chambers are being used there...#hmmm #anyways meryl and luida should be post-canon friends i think they'd really get along #trigun #trimax #trigunbookclub #meryl stryfe #trigun luida #call me ace detective the way i am ace. and also a detective.#trigun meta

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teeth-and-tea · 1 year

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Vash!Plant Engineer HdCns Because My Day Job Is ACTUAL Tech Installations

Sup I'm just the local GNC gay tech installer and when someone was like "Vash as a plant engineer!!!" I loved it because this is something I can ACTUALLY contribute to. Engineers and installers/mechanics are different careers and do different things but the image I see is closer to my job than people think lmao

He started wearing black because he kept forgetting sharpies and pens in his pockets when tossing his clothes in the washer. They all started out in white T-shirts and alas, they never stay that way

He knows EXACTLY how long his index finger is and the length of the middle part of his finger (trying to get to a tape measure when it's on the otherside of the site and you forgot it? Improv time but you still want to be mostly accurate) (my middle bit of the index finger is 1 1/4 inches long)

Box and wire cutters are part of the FIT you don't UNDERSTAND

No he doesn't need to collect those extra screws and bolts but WHAT IF ANOTHER SITE NEEDS THEM??? Doesn't matter that he already has a gallon container of those exact screws YOU NEVER KNOW. (His pockets are ALWAYS full of nuts and bolts and screws, even though if he squats sometimes they stab his leg)

Has one (1) pair of good work boots and always forgets to wear them because converse and high tops are so COMFY

You look through his suitcase and there will be more pairs of socks than literally any other combo of clothing (going commando is less of a hassle and less disgusting than wearing the same pair of sweaty icky gross crusty socks 2 days in a row)

"My safety glasses is just squinting" - An OSHA regulator's ghost comes back just to smack him

Will eat food with the nastiest dirtiest hands alive and forget about it

Speaking of: his hands are ROUGH. Dry as a goddamn BONE. He has a singular travel sized hand lotion bottle in his pack out and he always forgets about it. Can always open a jar of pickles tho.

No one believes this IS the guy they called because "youre so young" "you just don't look like a-" "is this your first time" etc etc etc and he carries around a special laminated card on a string just to prove who he is

His packout is composed of whole SETS of tools in their appropriate cases but never actually organized in there, so they rattle around like the Devil's Baby Toy. Also holds 2 spare sets of the most tangled, atrocious headphones you've ever seen in your LIFE

His most precious tool is a 12-in-one screwdriver that he can just exchange out the heads for to get what he needs immediately. No you cannot use his. Yes it has paint on it to signify its his. Yes he loses it all the time, but no it also never leaves his pockets. It has legs of its own and he KNOWS its trying to run away he just KNOWS.

Always smells like oil and burning metal and sawdust (maybe?)

The little click a wire makes when connected is SO satisfying

WILL curse the ghosts of people who over-engineered A Thing so bad it'll break if you so much as sneeze at it

Talks to himself or his Big Sisters to figure out a problem

Gets really excited about matching tool sets and WILL talk about them for a WHILE with other tool heads (becomes a beloved Hononary Grandson and Nephew to SO MANY old guys)

HATES IT WHEN SOMEONE BUILDS SMTH AND MIXES METRIC AND IMPERIAL MEASUREMENTS IN THEIR BUILD LIKE WHAT KIND OF ANIMAL LIKE THATS DOUBLE THE WEIGHT IN TOOLS DO YOU FUCKIN-

His back is SHIT but his thighs are AMAZING

Anyways, hope this helps!

#trigun #trigun stampede #trigun vash #trigun au #Plant Engineer Vash #Engineer Vash #vash the stampede #fanfic writing prompt #writing prompt #cauldron burn and cauldron bubble

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phantom-le6 · 3 years

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Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 (5 of 6)

Continuing our voyages with the crew of Captain Picard’s Enterprise, here’s the penultimate round of episode reviews for season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Episode 21: The Perfect Mate

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Kriosian ambassador Briam comes on board the Enterprise with some cargo, ready for a peace ceremony with the Valtian. As the ship heads to the rendezvous, they save two Ferengi from a failing ship. Despite security being assigned, one of the Ferengi enters the cargo bay and accidentally deactivates the stasis field on Briam's cargo, revealing a young Kriosian woman named Kamala (Famke Janssen). With the Ferengi secured, it is revealed that Kamala is an empathic metamorph who can sense what males around her desire and react appropriately. She was being brought for an arranged marriage to the Valtian representative. Kamala generates pheromones that can affect males around her, which was is partly why she was to be kept in stasis until the ceremony. The other part of the reason is that she is in the final stage of her sexual maturation and must soon permanently imprint upon the desires of one man for the rest of her life.

Briam tells Kamala to stay in her quarters, but Captain Picard allows her to travel throughout the ship, with the unaffected Lt. Commander Data as her escort. This results in a fight nearly breaking out in Ten Forward, when Kamala begins to interact with several miners the Enterprise rescued en route to pick up the Kriosians. The Ferengi seek to bribe Briam to turn Kamala over to them, but he rejects their offer. As he leaves, they attack him, causing him to fall onto a glass table which shatters and to lose consciousness. The Enterprise turns the Ferengi over to the nearest starbase to stand trial, but Briam is unable to participate in the ceremony. Kamala helps Picard to take on Briam's role, and the two become close. He seeks to resist her abilities and asks her to be herself, and she explains that the woman he wants her to be is who she actually is.

They meet with the Valtian ambassador, Chancellor Alrik, who is more interested in the trade agreement than the marriage. With the arrangements made, Picard visits Kamala to say goodbye; she tells him that she has permanently bonded with him instead of Alrik. Kamala explains that he has changed her for the better, and she will continue with the arranged marriage out of the sense of duty she has imprinted from Picard. At the wedding ceremony, Picard escorts Kamala down the aisle and watches as she marries Alrik. After the newlyweds have returned to the planet, Picard says goodbye to Briam in the transporter room. When asked how he resisted Kamala, the expression on Picard's face reveals how much of a struggle it has been and how much he feels he has lost.

Review:

This episode is something to flag up for fans of the original X-Men film trilogy, as it marks the one occasion where Patrick Stewart and Famke Jansen, who played Professor X and Jean Grey respectively in those films, worked together before those films. Now for many people who have apparently reviewed this episode before, this episode falls a long way short of the word ‘perfect’ that comes up in the title. Many apparently criticise the character Famke is given to play, namely that of a woman who is designed to be everyone’s perfect mate, and who is on the verge of an arranged marriage to end centuries of conflict between two alien cultures with a shared ancestry.

Now to some degree, I can understand that criticism, given that marriage is something I don’t feel should be forced on anyone, much less be a tool for political purposes like peace treaties. After all, the intended husband isn’t even interested in the marriage, so you have to wonder what the hell the Kriosians are even playing at putting Kamala up for such a marriage in the first place. Marriage is meant to be for those who want to formalise any form of romantic relationship they might be lucky enough to create, and that’s it. They should not be ‘arranged’ until those who would be getting married decide that is what they want, and if some people just don’t want to marry, that’s ok too. So, if the objection was to the idea of arranged marriage, or that every long-term relationship has to lead to marriage, I totally understand that.

However, the objections seem to be more around the idea that Kamala is, according to Dr Crusher, on a mission that amounts to prostitution, and she is being treated more like property than a person. Given that Kamala comes aboard the Enterprise as a piece of cargo in stasis when she could have transported to sick bay for the same effect (it wouldn’t be the first time Picard’s ship transported guests in a state of suspended animation), and is then confined to her quarters initially, I can also understand some of that objection as well. That said, the episode establishes the Kriosians also have male empathic metamorphs, but they’re very common whereas female metamorphs are only born once in seven generations. Although the episode doesn’t go beyond that, it’s reasonable to assume both sets of metamorphs have the same ability to sense and become whatever the opposite sex wants them to be. This is something I don’t think other reviewers think of, and if true, it means Kriosian women are probably never short of an ideal mating partner compared to the non-metamorph male population.

In addition, Kamala also states she takes joy in being whatever others want her to be, and does so in such a way that it appears to be almost part of her nature. There are plenty of people in real life who also take pleasure in doing good by others, and where that is someone’s own choice rather than something forced on a person, it’s no bad thing. Because of these facets of the episode, I think some reviewers judge the episode too harshly on the whole female metamorph premise. They’re essentially saying female empowerment cannot take the form of someone like Kamala, when actually female empowerment should surely come in whatever form each woman chooses for themselves, because such empowerment is not about one person setting a single standard that all must follow. It’s about giving everyone in the group that needs to be empowered the freedom to empower themselves in the way that works best for them as an individual. Please yourself, please others, do both; as long as the choice is down to the person doing the pleasing and not anyone else, that is empowerment.

All this said, the episode is actually supposed to be about showing us a chink in Picard’s customary stoicism and almost monk-like celibacy, but really, we don’t need this episode for that. We’ve seen Vash get under his skin romantically, and we’ve seen Picard blow his stack a few times with good cause. This episode is consequently quite superfluous in that respect, not to mention it works in the Ferengi to no good effect and much audience irritation. In addition, Red Dwarf’s episode “Camille” featured a guest character with similar abilities to Kamala well over a year earlier, so the episode’s premise about a ‘perfect companion who can sense someone’s desires and become them’ is actually highly unoriginal. This is the second or third time at least that Red Dwarf beat TNG to the punch on an idea, and frankly did it better. Overall and on balance, I give this episode 5 out of 10.

Episode 22: Imaginary Friend

Plot (as given by me):

While the Enterprise begins investigating a nebula formed around a neutron star, Counsellor Troi works with a young girl named Clara Sutter, who has not long come on board the Enterprise with her father Ensign Daniel Sutter. The Sutters have moved between a lot of different postings, and as a result Clara has developed an imaginary friend called Isabella. Her father is worried that Clara is relying too much on Isabella for friendship and no longer even trying to make real friends. While Clara is planting in the ship’s arboretum later, Isabella appears as a real human girl. She encourages Clara to take her to other areas of the ship, which lands Clara in trouble as Isabella disappears around any adults and the sections they go to are off-limits to children for safety reasons. Only Lt. Worf initially sees Isabella at first because he encounters the girls when they are too distracted for Isabella to disappear in time.

Worried that Isabella is now becoming a kind of excuse for Clara to get away with misbehaviour, Troi insists Clara spend some time around real children. She convinces Clara to leave Isabella behind when going to attend a ceramics class with the other children on the Enterprise. This angers Isabella, who first spills Counsellor Troi’s hot chocolate in her quarters, then ruins a cup being made by Worf’s son Alexander so that Clara would be blamed. Fleeing to the arboretum in tears, Clara is confronted by Isabella, who threatens to kill everyone on board. Troi initially tries to convince Clara isn’t real and does a check of her room, only for Isabella to appear and attack her with some kind of energy discharge.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise has begun to get entangled in a lattice of plasma strands within the nebula that create a drag effect on the ship. Several energy beings then arrive and begin to drain the shields. Realising that the manifestation of Clara’s imaginary friend is some kind of alien life form, Captain Picard visits the arboretum along with Clara, her father and Worf. Isabella appears and declares her race wanted to try and feed off the Enterprise’s energy and determine if humanity was a threat; the crew’s treatment of Clara suggested to the aliens that humanity was cruel and mistreated their children. Picard explains that the rules Clara was subject to are a part of how humans keep their children safe until they have developed enough awareness not to know what is or isn’t dangerous, and offers energy to the aliens freely. Isabella accepts, and the alien beings within the nebula soon cease their attack. After transmitting some energy into the nebula, the Enterprise leaves, Clara and Isabella making friends with each other again as they say goodbye to each other.

Review:

Although some scenes in this episode were a bit cringe-worthy and demanded some fast-forwarding, it has a very interesting premise that I think more people, especially parents, should consider. Not only do we see a child’s imaginary friend become real, but then we get see how we might be judged if an alien opted to judge us from the perspective of a child. I think Picard sums up best how great an idea this is when he confronts the alien posing as Isabella, and I quote;

“You are seeing this ship, all of us, from a unique perspective - from a child's point of view. It must seem terribly unfair and restrictive to you. As adults, we don't always stop to consider how everything we say and do shapes the impressions of young people, but if you're judging us, as a people, by the way we treat our children - and I think there can be no better criterion - then you must understand how deeply we care for them. When our children are young, they don't understand what might be dangerous. Our rules are to keep them from harm, real or imagined, and that's part of the continuity of our Human species. When Clara grows up, she will make rules for *her* children, to protect them - as we protect her.”

Picard is totally right because if you look at how the adults deal with Clara, she gets told certain areas of off-limits, but never why, so how can she or Isabella know that what the adults are doing is for their benefit? Somehow, they’re expected to just know without being told, and in that sense it’s not unlike what dealing with the world is like for autistic people like myself. Our ability to learn the unwritten rules of society, the so-called ‘hidden curriculum’, is impaired to a point where we need things spelled out, and yet at times our non-autistic peers seem even less aware of such things than we are. All too often people like to assume others will just know what they know and never stop to think “what if they don’t?” This is a key reason why I often tend to post longer posts on social media than I necessarily need to, and why I will often try and explain something to one of my nieces or nephews in full and not just go with the truly idiotic response of ‘because I said so’. If you want anyone to learn anything, you don’t just tell them something, you teach them something.

It’s also interesting to have Guinan in the episode advocating for us not to abandon imagination as we grow up. A lot of this episode seems to be directed around the idea of getting Clara to abandon her imaginary friend, and could potentially be seen as somehow anti-imagination. However, there’s Guinan spotting cloud-shapes in the nebula and talking about her own imaginary friend, and I think it’s important that we all keep some imagination as adults. After all, imagination is part of how we find solutions to problems, and finding solutions is something the world needs to get back into the habit of doing. These days, it seems more inclined to play blame games and complain without actually trying to wipe problems out so they don’t keep plaguing us. For me, this episode earns 7 out of 10; it really needed some better scenes from some of the child actors in the middle, and frankly I think they went a bit too creepy with Isabella. The dress that character wore just screamed ‘creepy twins from the Shining’ the moment I saw it, and that’s not a great image to have while watching Trek.

Episode 23: I Borg

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The crew discover a wrecked Borg scout ship with a single survivor; an adolescent Borg drone. Dr Crusher insists on treating the surviving Borg despite the concerns of Captain Picard. On Picard's orders, the drone is confined and monitored by security forces at all times and is prevented from contacting the Borg Collective. Lt. Commander La Forge and Lt. Commander Data assist Crusher in bringing the Borg back to health. As they come to understand the workings of the Borg, La Forge and Data devise an idea of using the Borg drone as a weapon of mass destruction. By implanting an unsolvable geometric formula into his mind and returning him to the Collective, the formula should rapidly spread (similar to a computer virus) and disable the Borg. Crusher is aghast at this suggestion, considering it equivalent to genocide, while Picard and the other senior crew deliberate on the ethics of this plan.

The Borg drone initially calls himself "Third of Five", but ends up referring to and understanding himself as "Hugh", the name given to him by La Forge. Hugh discusses how the Borg only wish to learn about other cultures through assimilation, but La Forge counters this argument, discussing aspects of individuality that make them human and unique. In further debates, La Forge finds himself becoming a friend to Hugh, and begins to doubt his previous idea. This is further complicated when Hugh shows elements of individualism. The crew now debate whether it is appropriate to sacrifice one individual to protect the majority, though Picard is still insistent on destroying the Collective. Crusher and La Forge arrange to have Guinan, who has a similar loathing for the Borg because they destroyed her homeworld, speak to Hugh.

She finds Hugh to be not a mindless drone but a confused young man, and she agrees Hugh is no longer a Borg. Guinan convinces Picard to meet with Hugh, as well, and Picard comes to the same conclusion, in part because Hugh refers to himself as "I" instead of the Borg's collective "we" during their discussion. Picard abandons the proposed plan and instead offers Hugh asylum within the Federation. Hugh expresses enthusiasm at the prospect of remaining with La Forge but ultimately refuses, recognizing that the Borg will still come looking for him. He offers to be returned to the crash site, where he will be found and re-assimilated by the Borg. Picard hopes that, once Hugh is reconnected, the sense of individualism Hugh has learned will spread throughout the Collective. La Forge accompanies Hugh to the crash site and, from a safe distance, watches the Borg recover him. Just as the Borg transport out, Hugh turns to give La Forge a parting glance.

Review:

While many fans dislike this episode because they feel it de-fangs the Borg, I am not one of them. What this episode does with the Borg is continue what “Best of Both Worlds” started to show us, and what later Borg stories would continue to show, which is that without the hive mind, these villains are actually nothing of the kind. In essence, it’s the collective will of the Borg that drives assimilated individuals to commit horrendous acts against their will. Split the individual back off from the collective, however, and the individuality starts to creep back in. If anything, this episode helps showcase how truly horrifying the Borg are, because they turn individuals into mindless extensions of the group, and such is a fate worse than death. If I was to take a tag-line from a Warhammer 40,000 race and apply it to the Borg, it would be the one about the Dark Eldar; pray they don’t take you alive.

The episode is also interesting in that we get Picard and Guinan in the episode as people who have suffered at the hands of the Borg wanting nothing to do with this drone. Guinan wants the thing straight up off the ship or dead, and Picard is perfectly ok with the idea of using the drone to wipe the Borg out completely, and yet both ultimately realise this lone Borg is as much a victim as they are. Given how often some people in society who have been hurt come to hate anyone linked to their tormentors even when those people are innocent and may even be victims themselves, I think this is an important episode in TNG that should be viewed by as many people as possible. There’s a great lesson here about not punishing an individual for the crimes of their states and only assigning blame where it is actually due. For me, this episode racks up 9 out of 10; it loses one point for a production blunder around using the “I” pronoun too early in the guest Borg’s progression towards individuality.

Episode 24: The Next Phase

Plot (as given by me):

The Enterprise receives a distress call from a Romulan warbird and goes to their aid, finding the vessel adrift and badly damaged. Commander Riker leads an away team over to the warbird that includes Lt. Commander La Forge, Lt Worf and Ensign Ro, with Ro muttering an objection to Riker’s order that the away team goes in unarmed. When La Forge and Ro try to beam back with a damaged engine component, their patterns are lost and the pair are believed to be dead.

While Riker and Worf continue to work with the Romulans to save the stricken warbird, Captain Picard has Lt. Commander Data begin an investigation of the transporter accident, and Data also begins to try and plan a memorial service for La Forge and Ro. However, the two officers have somehow returned to the Enterprise, though neither of them can be seen by the other members of the crew, and both are able to pass through solid objects and all other people except each other. Ro, having seen Dr Crusher begin to make out death certificates, believes they are dead and begins to try and make peace with her fellow crew-members. La Forge, however, is convinced they are still alive, and convinces Ro to join him in tagging along when Data makes a shuttle trip over to the warbird.

Following Data and examining the warbird soon enables La Forge to deduce what has happened; the Romulans were testing a way to combine their cloaking device with a phase inverter. In theory, such a combination would render a ship invisible to sight and sensors while enabling it to pass through solid matter. Somehow La Forge and Ro became cloaked and phased during transport. Overhearing the Romulans plan to use an energy transfer beam from the Enterprise to rig the other ship’s engine to explode when it goes to warp, La Forge and Ro become determined to undo their condition so they can warn their crewmates. However, the pair do not realise they are being followed by a Romulan who has somehow become phased like themselves.

Back on the Enterprise, La Forge and Ro discover from Data that chroniton fields have been left everywhere they’ve been, and that these can be neutralised using anyon particles. While La Forge sticks with Data, and learns the chronitons result from a phased person passing through other objects, Ro follows the transporter chief, only to be cornered by the phased Romulan up on the Bridge. She ultimately manages to escape the Romulan, only to then be caught again after a chase through the crew quarters. La Forge stumbles upon the pair just in time to save Ro by hurling the Romulan out into space through the outer bulkhead.

La Forge’s time with Data has also revealed anyon particles can de-phase and uncloak himself and Ro, and the pair promptly head to Ten-Forward where much of the crew has gathered for their memorial service. After several attempts, La Forge and Ro manage to make themselves briefly visible to Picard and Data, the latter swiftly realising what has happened and ordering a maximum-level anyon flood of Ten-Forward to aid their friends. Once unphased and decloaked, La Forge orders the Enterprise’s engines taken off-line so he can reverse the Romulan sabotage. The pair then join the party-style memorial, and later discuss their experience with each other.

Review:

There’s not a huge amount to say about this episode because it’s one of those rare occasions where a Trek episode has no real depth or substance, which is ironic considering it deals with a main character and a recurring character being made into pseudo-ghosts. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun episode to watch, especially for the somewhat New Orleans-style funeral in Ten-Forward (Ro firing the phased Romulan disruptor through Riker while he’s playing the tuba is especially funny), but there’s no real issue exploration going on much. We just get a scene here or there that suggests Ro trying to wrestle with her Bajoran spiritual beliefs, but we don’t get enough of that for the episode to be about that. Really, it’s just using technobabble to stick two characters in a jam, then seeing them piece together a technobabble solution that saves the day.

Apparently, the episode also gets criticised for the phasing concept not resulting in all the affected characters going through the floor. Clearly, those critics have never read a bloody X-Men comic. In 1980, Chris Claremont and John Byrne first introduced Marvel readers to one Kitty Pryde, who would eventually develop the code-name of Shadowcat and whose power was the ability to phase through solid matter. However, there were a lot of rules around how that power got used; going through the ground was like going through water and Kitty would have to hold her breath. If she phased through anything electrical, it got shorted out, and with training Kitty could phase part of herself while keeping the rest solid. Likewise, DC Comics’ speedsters like the Flash have the ability to phase using their speed powers, and again that phasing doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing application.

Basically, when you apply the power of phasing to a living being, it’s not going to be total and absolute intangibility that the being has zero control over. Some element of conscious or sub-conscious control to prevent phasing into the Earth’s core or flying off into space must apply as a necessary in-built safety characteristic, or else it wouldn’t be worth having that power. By the same token, it follows that a phased person on a starship won’t automatically phase through the floor; some part of their mind would resist that and the phasing ability would follow suit, and the only reason this didn’t save the Romulan when La Forge pushes him is that getting pushed in such a manner interfered with that mental process somehow. The bottom line is the episode makes sense in that regard; what doesn’t make sense is making a Trek episode that’s all technobabble and no substance. As such, I’m only inclined to give this one 7 out of 10.

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