#literal assimilation (Seven)

[tea-earl-grey]

studying how Seven, Michael, and Worf all have very similar experiences of being tragically orphaned as a kid and adopted (or in Seven's case – forcibly abducted) into another culture/species leaving them with difficulties interacting with their own people and culture... i need to lock them in a room together.

#they truly each have a different take on cross-cultural adoption experiences from well intentioned & loving but troubled (Worf) to #literal assimilation (Seven) #i'm trying to think of any other characters who fit the same pattern #seven of nine #michael burnham #worf #my posts

[trillscienceofficer]

Star Trek: Voyager 6x02 “Survival Instinct”

It's nice to be on a Federation starship again. I'd like to stay aboard Voyager.

#trekedit #voyageredit #star trek voyager #seven of nine #marika wilkarah #three of nine #voy #ep: survival instinct #bajoran tag #i think about marika every day. #and about the way she spent those last few weeks on voyager #i wonder who she talked to. if she became close to the other bajorans on board despite her starfleet background #i wonder what her story was and if she ever told them #and if this influenced anything about her final days. about the rites she wanted to be performed after her death. #i wonder if seven and marika ever crossed paths again in those weeks. #no more words that needed or could be exchanged between them... #literally trek character of all time. bajoran in starfleet that got assimilated at wolf 359 and was in seven's unimatrix...

[doorhine]

Ok so I wanna talk about the guy we all know and hate, Abijah Fowler, because there are three scenes that do a fantastic job at characterizing him and speaking to the story’s themes.

*SPOILERS BELOW

The Chapel Scene: Fowler’s whole “prayer not prayer” is so interesting because he presents it as a business deal (which says a lot about how individualistic and apathetic he is). And honestly, that speaks really well to the use of christianity in imperialism, colonization and capitalism. If anyone here is familiar with Antoine Fuqua’s version of The Magnificent Seven (which is based on Seven Samurai), Bogue’s speech in the beginning of the film does a similar thing. In the case of Blue Eye Samurai, Fowler basically says, “we’re not friends but these people are ‘godless’ and if things go my way you’ll have a nation of souls to convert.” And I really liked that wording “a nation of souls” because it shows how imperialism and colonization, in the process of stealing other country’s natural resources, are, by design, meant to pose a threat to the entire culture and livelihood of the people that live there in order to do that. And a major way it’s done is through the spread enforcement of the colonizer’s religion over the ones of the people they invade. Which leads me to…

The Finale Monologue to the Shogun: because Fowler literally spells it out how the process of these systems, how white supremacy, is meant to twist and erase the culture and beliefs of those they invade to the point where they conform and assimilate to the invader’s culture and view them as superior. It also creates the idea of a white race in the first place that has its own ethnic and religious hierarchy that determines what the “best” kind of white is. I really liked the detail where he mentions spreading their shame because so much of white culture and its interpretation of christianity, whether or not it was the dominant form in its country of origin before being enforced on others, thrives on shame and enforcing that on other people (just look at the US). Lastly there’s…

The Famine Monologue: Something I really like about Fowler’s character is how he was written to be Irish rather than some posh English guy. It’s a nuance that adds a whole level of depth to his character and role in the story. Ireland was colonized by the English, which Fowler discusses when he mentions the Tudors. One of the ways that colonization was enforced was by replacing catholicism with protestantism. In this scene though, Fowler talks about the intentional famines that killed his parents and sister. It’s a graphic memory that shows how a victim of colonization will sometimes use the same tools used against them, to gain a sense of autonomy and control at the cost of other people’s livelihoods. This is compounded by the fact that Fowler is able to assimilate into the concept of a white race that was created to justify these systems and the oppression/exploitation of people of color that maintained them. Fowler is fictional but there were plenty of Irish people who took part in Britain’s colonization of other people one way or another. You’ll hear elements of Irish vernacular in places like Barbados for a reason to bring up a small example of the consequences of that. On a side note, this is also an interesting video on how the habitual “be” is used in both AAVE and Celtic languages. 

Long story short, Abijah Fowler is a very nuanced and well written villain.

#blue eye samurai #blue eye samurai spoilers

[lostyesterday]

An interesting semi-contradiction in reading Seven of Nine (as well as any other ex-Borg) as a disabled character is that she is disabled both because of the Borg and in relation to them. What I mean by this is that Seven is disabled because of her Borg implants and her continual reliance on Borg technology for survival. The literal reason she is disabled in relation to other humans is because she was Borg.

At the same time, Seven can be viewed as disabled in relation to the Borg. She frequently “malfunctions” in ways that would not have been tolerated in the Borg collective, where “disability” in relation to the ideal drone means being deactivated. Some good examples of Seven being disabled specifically in relation to the Borg are in The Voyager Conspiracy where her mind is unable to assimilate large amounts of information, and in Infinite Regress where I believe she very directly states that she is malfunctioning in a way that would have caused the collective to kill her. So, Seven is disabled both in relation to humans and in relation to Borg drones, but sort of in opposite directions.

#star trek voy #seven of nine #lane posts

[thresholdbb]

During Infinite Regress, all of the assimilated personalities who come out are acting on Seven’s repressed desires for her. The ones who emerge from the vinculum are able to because that’s where her defenses are already strained. Most of them are asserting her position on Voyager as a member of the crew.

She breaks into the mess hall because she is not satiated with how she’s been feeding herself. She wants to play with Naomi Wildman since she never really got to be a kid. She is an aggressive Klingon with B’Elanna because she has repressed sexual desire towards her. She becomes Meryl, a child, with Tuvok because she sees him as a mentor she’s afraid to disappoint, but she transforms into a Vulcan then Klingon because she also sees him as a kindred spirit that she can speak to as an equal and challenge.

Ensign Stone’s log shows her insecurities serving on Voyager and her fear of disappointing Janeway, even if she’s getting positive reinforcement. Another log shows she wants more intimate connections with her peers.

As a Ferengi, she is impressed and sees (literal) value in Voyager, and she negotiates with Janeway for it. Of anyone, it would be most important for Seven to communicate Voyager’s value to Janeway. As a mother of someone lost at Wolf 359, she shows how keenly she feels the loss of her family to the Borg and reacts with a mixture of fear and grief. She is helpless to do anything faced with the enormity of what the Borg has done, both as a victim and perpetrator of Borg activity. She trades jokes as a Bolian manicurist, betraying her emerging sense of humor. As a Krenim physicist, and shows she doesn’t have full faith in Borg perfection since there is room for debate. It is interesting this is the point in which Janeway questions her status as a crew member with Chakotay on the bridge, since every emergent personality seems to act to assert her position (even if some of them are violent). Seven is terrified, not only of the voices reconnecting her to the Borg but because their emergence could completely undo everything she’s worked so hard to achieve onboard.

By the time Tuvok attempts a mindmeld, she cycles through all of the personalities because she implicitly trusts Tuvok to be able to help her without judgment. The chaos of the emergent personalities breaking down her defenses because of the vinculum can be filtered through the logical, orderly mind of someone who cares about her.

The crew comes together to free her from the effects of the vinculum, despite giving them all a big Borg scare.

The EMH sums it up nicely, “You may not hear them, but I suspect they’ll always be with you.” Then she goes and plays with Naomi, responding to the first unmet interactive desire the personalities brought out.

#seven of nine #infinite regress #star trek voyager #yeah I’m not a huge shipper but I’ve come around to B7 #they’re much more interesting together than anything within canon #b7 #meta

[quasi-normalcy]

You know...

I grew up with TNG; it’s always been my Star Trek; I spent much of my childhood obsessed with it. And there I was, watching what promised to be the Last! Appearance! by the TNG Crew! Ever!,

and I felt nothing at all.

Nothing had any weight. The Borg Collective got blowed up real good, but they’d already got blowed up real good 20 years ago, and last season set up another, vastly more interesting version of the Borg anyways if only anyone had bothered to mention them or anything else from the first two seasons, so it means nothing. Nothing had any weight. No one even died. No one even got meaningfully assimilated. Apparently you can just peel Borg implants right off your face without, you know, bleeding to death or ripping out a chunk of your brain. Someone should probably tell Seven of Nine about that.

And now I’ve had a few hours to reflect upon it and what occurs to me is: I think I hate it. Yes, that sounds right. I hate it.

I mean, Nemesis gets a lot of sh*t, much of it deserved, but like…I actually cried during Nemesis. Nemesis also had a fascinating nature-versus-nurture theme, which admittedly, was a come-down from “All Good Things’…” promise of human transcendence, but at least it was something! This just felt like empty nostalgia calories, wrapped it a blanket with bathetic MCU quips. No thought-provoking science fiction. No exploration of the human condition. Just…bloodless violence for an hour.

And then I thought back to how this series started, my beautiful, flawed, Star Trek: Picard; and here I must admit that I’m one of those sad, lonely freaks who actually really liked the first two seasons. I liked the weighty themes of living in the cognizance of death, and the serious engagement with transhumanism. Above all, I liked the characters. Elnor, Soji, Rios, and especially Agnes. And then I thought: what an absolute Insult this season is! You dump all of the characters and you can’t even be arsed to namedrop them. I mean, shit, there’s a reference to Chekov in the first five minutes, but you can’t be arsed to reference any of the characters whose series you hijacked? You have Raffi sparring with Worf and she can’t even mention that her adopted son is a Romulan swordsmaster? You have the Borg invading, and “no one’s seen them in over ten years!” and you can’t be arsed to clarify why that Borg Queen that we all saw Jurati turn into last season doesn’t count? Literally the only allusion, anywhere, to any of the characters from the first two seasons other than Raffi is Shaw telling everyone to “Forget that weird shit on the Stargazer.” That weird shit. Yeah. One of the only characters in all fiction that I’ve ever meaningfully identified with. Thanks, Terry!

But, at the same time…what a gross insult to TNG! TNG, with its humanist utopia and moral conundra and scientific grounding. TNG, which, at its best, showed us what humanity could be; which challenged us to see the world in new ways. Reduced to this. This hollow, plastic pile of rubbish.

But, hey; the reviews are positive! The series is in the top ten for streaming! And a billion YouTube comments have already informed me that, finally, REAL Star Trek is back! Forget “all that weird bullshit,” this is what we, the fandom, wanted all along!

Anyways, can’t wait to see the next exciting installment of Star Trek: Funko Pop

#star trek picard #the last generation #spoilers

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

Daenerys is often compared to Aegon the Conqueror throughout the books. One thing I've noticed in rereading the ASOIAF books is that Dany's conquest of Slaver's Bay shares some similarities with Aegon's conquest of Westeros. One thing I really want to focus on is how both Dany and Aegon made the same mistakes.

Both make pretty huge concessions to try to appease the nobles. Aegon converts to following the Seven and allows the Great Houses nearly the same amount of power they had originally, even letting them make laws in their regions. Dany marries a Meerenese noble in a traditional Ghiscari ceremony, reopens the slave pits, and allows the Yunkai'i to continue their slave trade. Both these decisions come back to bite them in the ass. Aegon allowed the Faith so much power they literally marched against Maegor with almost zero consequences in the future. His decision to assimilate also planted the seeds of the future rebellions (the one against Aegon V and Robert's Rebellion). By the end of ADWD, Yunkai, Volantis, and Qarth are beginning to seige Meereen, the Harpy is more powerful than ever, and now Dany is stranded in the Dothraki Sea.

However, Dany has a chance to be better than her ancestor. Now I don't believe the whole "Dany is the antithesis of House Targaryen", but I do think she and Jon are going to succeed where their House has failed. Aegon's vision to unite the Seven Kingdoms and stop the Others will be fulfilled by both of them. Daenerys is going to come back from the Dothraki Sea fully embracing her heritage and will do what Aegon couldn't. She will not compromise anymore, she will rule with Fire and Blood.

#daenerys targaryen #aegon the conqueror #house targaryen #asoiaf

[isagrimorie]

I didn’t realize Tuvok recounting Seven how she did a Mutiny with Titan was very sentimental for Tuvok too.

Because until I rewatched Voyager I forgot how many times Baby!Seven

a) ran away from Voyager

b) Nearly Took over Voyager

c) Directly Insubordinate and Mutinous towards Janeway.

It’s like Seven of Nine drew her first breath as an Individual and proceeded to become the most stubborn, angry, mutinous littlest Newly Human ex-Drone.

It’s like all her teen rebellious streak and bloody mindedness was set free the moment she became an Individual.

Also she literally told the Borg Queen: “You’re Borg. Figure it out.”

Also, this Gem.

And also: “When the Borg Assimilate the Hirogen, Remember Me.”

(Seven looks good in that Black French Resistance —Maquis—covert ops clothes).

This aspect of Seven hasn’t changed tbh.

It must be nostalgic for Tuvok to do a debrief like this. Brings him back to the days when the Voyager crew had a countdown: 120 days since Seven of Nine Almost Succeeded Taking Over Voyager.

#seven of nine #star trek #tuvok (star trek) #star trek voyager #star trek: picard

[minothtime]

Xenoblade 3 Future Redeemed lore recap (obviously, spoilers ahead) but it's all just what I remember:

Lucky Seven contains what amounts to souls, most likely from the XC2 cast, and Shulk's Replica Monado presumably contains XC1's cast's due to both being forged with Origin metal (implied for the R. Monado)

What we knew as XC1 Alvis, a.k.a. Ontos, split into two: a half being a powerful, god-like machine (Alpha), and the other half being compassionate, amicable and having Alvis' memories and feelings, along with future visions (A).

Ontos was the intermediary between Logos and Pneuma in the Trinity Processor; where Logos presented as a male and Pneuma as a female, Ontos was neither, both, the middle, etc.

Some people were not assimilated into Origin for unknown reasons, though it's presumably because they were needed for events to happen.

Origin's architecture is based on Ontos' core.

Speaking about cores, Ontos (or A) remains watching over the world, Logos is heavily implied to be embedded in N's sword and Pneuma is straight up shown in Matthew's metal fists. Whatever that means.

Alpha's intention was to creat a world akin to that of Klaus', and for that he needed the people of the City as "fuel".

SPEAKING OF KLAUS' WORLD!!!! Apart from the apparent social unrest due to some human rights trouble (the "Saviourite Act" pretended to protect them), the main city seems to be divided in 13 districts (one of them called Minos, with a Dmitri Yuriev as a political figure). There also had been shuttle launches: the Radamanthus (XC2's First Low Orbit Station) can be seen, and the Terrestrial Evacuation Project aka Exodus had launched at least eight motherships to ferry out people. The eighth one, called Icarus, was intended to transport 480k people to "Eta Carinae, in the Carina-Sagittarius Arm in the Milky Way". So far there were 3M people shipped out, with plans to take out up to 10M in a new model (Philadelphia).

Shulk and Rex bent the literal rules of the world so Glimmer and Nikola (their children!!!!) could actually live their lives by using their own life force or whatever

N never wanted to kill Ghondor, but he had to do it and accept it because Ghondor asked for it.

The worlds did end up fusing through Origin properly! Everyone is fine and happy :D

Riku is one of Riki's eleven children, and was a disciple of Melia (his masterpon). How he's still alive..... is still left unexplained. I assume it's fuckery on Melia and A's side.

Both Pyra and Mythra are theoretically not connected to Pneuma's core itself anymore, as per the ending of XC2, and we do see Pneuma's true core without them nearby. Glimmer's core is not Pneuma, it just has the shape to hammer in the connection.

It is left deliberately vague if Shulk and Fiona ever got married. Though it seems to be the case, as Rex calls Dunban his brother-in-law.

Still unknown where Matthew's surname comes from........ XC1's Vandham, perhaps?

Riku did help create the Ouroboros stone, which is basically Pneuma's role in XC3.

#xenoblade chronicles #xenoblade chronicles 3 #xbc3 spoilers #xc3 future redeemed #xc3 spoilers #LIKE I WAS CRYING SOBBING TEARS STREAMING DOWN MY FACE AND THEY DECIDED TO INFODUMP ON ME..... #in THAT scene i couldn't pay attention to Matthew and Na'el all I could hear was the radio #insane game #holy shit #future redeemed

[relatableblorbopoll]

Round 1 of preliminaries, group 10

The first two places get a place on the bracket

Little reminder: there will be 2 more rounds of preliminaries, the losing blorbos of this poll still have 2 chances of getting in the official bracket

Propaganda under the cut

Nagisa Ran (Ensemble Stars)

"- autistic - grew up very isolated - nonbinary. to me. - they had a speech impediment veeeery similar to the one i used to have and their current speaking patterns are very similar to the way i speak - we both have a special interest in geology - i'd list more but the rest are just autism symptoms so. uhhh"

Waver Velvet (Fate series /The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II)

No propaganda

Shuichi Saihara (Danganronpa V3)

"sorry for submitting a danganronpa character but hear me out!! there's many reasons shuichi is a relatable character, such as: 1. he's def lgbtq+ actually. in the free time events with kaito momota (another male character), shuichi's inner monologue says "only someone like him could tell me what i need to hear." before he internally scolds himself saying he "shouldn't talk about another boy like that" 2. self doubt. throughout the game, he doubts his detective skills a lot. well, in earlier chapters. he grows out of it but yk. he feels like he isn't a "real detective" n all 3. a. autism. throughout the entire prologue and chapter 1, he wears a hat to avoid eye contact. while there is an actual reason that isn't autism, i still think that's autism behavior. also he seemingly knows a lot about true crime and at one point, when another character brings up the victorian era, he responds by mentioning jack the ripper. 4. he's very sad. chapter 1? cries. chapter 3? cries. chapter 5? cries. chapter 6? cries. he might've cried other times i don't remember though. although it is fair bc people are dying. but even outside of the death, he is sad. refer to number 2. also he feels like he shouldn't have solved the case that made him the ultimate detective. (there are reasons for that. also linked to the hat.) and more"

Opossums (real life)

"Nocturnal creatures that just like wanna chill and eat, plus they have to lay down when really stressed, they are like me for real."

Midori Takamine (Ensemble Stars!! Music)

"- literally just some guy that gets dragged into things (accidentally became an idol somehow) - his only real interests are mascot characters and vegetables + he finds talking to people bothersome - all of his friends are extroverted or very friendly while midori is just… there. - cringefail loser who can’t talk to people without being nervous despite being a 5’10 giant and an idol (179cm), only really talks a lot when discussing mascots - depressed, just straight up clinical depression but its ok cause he’s working on it and doesn’t let it get him too down"

Seven of nine (Star Trek)

"seven of nine is a big ball of identity questioning in one person. she literally has a whole section on her wiki page titled "identity crises". mood. as a child she's snatched up and made part of a hivemind, all these cyborg augments put into her, the usual scifi stuff. but her story begins when she's freed. against her will, even if it's ultimately for the best. she has no idea how to relate to these people, how to speak or act or dress or sound. big autism mood. big trans mood. big gay mood, because she has no idea what anyone is supposed to do when dating and it turns out she's into women and ends up with a girlfriend so it's no wonder she couldn't connect to all the lessons about boyfriends and the attempt to date a man! multiple times she's forced to assimilate and act more "human" and change her name but she won't! and the people who make an effort to understand end up important found family and friends. and she ends up in control of her own life and a captain!! legend."

#nagisa ran #ensemble stars #waver velvet #fate series #shuichi saihara #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #opossum #midori takamine #ensemble stars music #seven of nine #star trek #preliminaries #tumblr polls #tumblr tournament #character bracket #character tournament

[thegeminisage]

oh boy IT'S tng update time. last night* we watched "imaginary friend" and "i, borg."

*tonight. it's 1am. whatever. it's posting tomorrow when i'll be awake but busy. anyway im gonna have to start splitting these up so tumblr will stop FUCKING me re my character count

imaginary friend:

what i like about this episode and indeed tng as a whole is that the little girl was fucking adorable. tng fans, your show has at least one point of validity. whenever there was a child on tos i wanted to throw them out of the airlock because they acted possessed. all the children on tng inspire within me motherly concern.

HOWEVER. THERE SHOULD NOT BE. CHILDREN ON A STARSHIP.

we've gone over this at length. we don't need to do it again. i am sick to death of hearing myself talk about it. i want to stop. and yet. every. and i mean EVERY. SINGLE. PROBLEM. in this episode. happened because there were children on a starship.

problem #1: child is making up a fake imaginary friend instead of making real ones = it's because her dad hops from starship to starship

problem #2 her imaginary friend is real now and wants to drown her in the pool like in that one episode of s*pernatural = this is because an alien, from space, read her mind, which it could not have done if she wasn't in space on a starship

problem #3: the alien HATES the grownups and thinks they should die = because she is seeing the ship from a child's pov, because there are children on this starship

and on and on and on.

aside from this huge and ongoing point of contention it was solidly watchable. i liked the little girl. i like guinan. i like worf being a big old softie when he found them out of bounds. i like people not undermining deanna's counseling work. i liked the horrifically unsettling imaginary friend with laser eyes who definitely absolutely inspired 2.11 playthings.

can anyone tell me if the other star trek shows just let them have kids on the ships? ds9 i get because that's a space station but are there kids on the ship in enterprise? voyager? discovery? genuinely please write in i can't take living like this

i, borg:

ooooooh. ooh i am twirling my hair and kicking my feet and giggling about it. OHHH finally we get a good tng episode. and not just a good episode a GREAT episode. the liz community has forgiven tng. oh baby where do i even begin

okay, firstly, beverly. she so instantly sees someone injured and HAS to help, i mean HAS to, it's so good. it's very bonescore in a way that doesn't feel like they're trying to make her a cheap bones knockoff but rather a spiritual successor. he would have also helped his enemy rather than watching him die. hell, he DID do that and got quite literally mind-raped for his trouble, and he'd probably do it again. i was really really lukewarm on poor bev at first but she's come into her own so well and i'm proud of her

the borg himself - third of five, aw, just like seven of nine - but no, hugh - the name is dumb but whatever i'm glad he has one - was well-cast. it would have been easy to make him uncanny and an unpleasant presence onscreen (this was my biggest issue with data's daughter even though the ep DID make me cry, deeply sorry to data whomst i love the most). his "you will be assimilated resistance is futile" song and dance was actually really funny when played off of geordi's wry indifference. "ok, but before we get assimilated, can we please finish x test?" so true king

geordi's a natural choice to pair with this guy because when he's not being the creepiest person on earth to holodeck girls he's sociable, outgoing, and patient. PLUS he has experience befriending machines because of data. hugh actually reminded me of data in some ways because of his general lack of understanding re: humanity but - and this is critical to me - HE IS HUMAN

like, i feel like the episode didn't quite nail the point home hard enough possibly because they were afraid of the implications but the cold hard truth of the matter is that each and every person on the borg cube IS A PERSON. they have been assimilated, but we've twice now seen that it's possible to unassimilate them with only a few days of effort. picard (and guinan!) consider the entire collective their enemy but the collective is comprised of brainwashed prisoners. those fucked up little borg babies they found in the cube were assimilated as INFANTS - i assume they weren't born on the cube bc if the borg could reproduce on its own it wouldn't need to assimilate - but even if they were born on the cube, they had no choice but to be this. you know.

which is whyyyy it's so fucked picard was like yeah give hugh some digital poison let him carry it back to his cube and we'll kill them like ants <3 like, oh my god his lingering borg trauma or whatever. MWAH. when he told deanna he didn't wanna talk. when he and guinan had to trauma-bond while fencing. when he told geordi that he needed to unattach himself because it was nothing more than animal experimentation. STONE FUCKING COLD BY THE WAY. he is fighting in the war on animal experimentation on the side of animal experimentation. he was going to let his cre heal and feed that kid and then send him back laced with poison. diabolical <3

and, of course, when he didn't want to speak or associate that borg kid at all because that's who he used to be AND WHO HE STILL IS in some corner of his brain (!!!)

LIKE. WHEN HE WAS FINALLY CONVINCED TO INTERROGATE THIS KID. and IMMEDIATELY broke out the locutus voice. he still remembered all the protocol! the way of speaking! everything! i was so shocked and thrilled.

i love also how everyone who spoke to hugh came away extremely unsettled but also totally convinced of his humanity. even guinan, which was so fun, because she was even more anti-borg than picard at first and they were bonding over trauma and fantasy racism. that bit where hugh, who had only known about the concept of loneliness for like an hour, immediately pegged her as lonely after like three lines of dialogue. oh my GOD???

i was decently satisfied with the ending - obviously they couldn't send him back with poison nor could they protect him from the borg, but i wish they had informed him of the inevitable memory wipe before he made his choice. (a selfless choice! he loves geordi!!) still i think he mostly walked into it with eyes open. very sad but very proud of him.

my one tiny nitpick with this episode is that for all beverly's genuine and justified concern about hugh, i don't think theyre ever gonna address the fact that she shot and possibly killed some of the borg in the episode where picard got assimilated. i feel like after realizing they are all people, like hugh, she should also realize she's broken the hippocratic oath, and have a little crisis about it. i have no idea why we had the DOCTOR shooting and killing anybody but let alone if we aren't gonna get into that. i don't think anyone cares/cared except me though.

but tbh, for me this is one of the main draws of the borg. they're ALL brainwashed cyber-assassins and they're ALL prisoners and in theory ALL of them could be saved if only they would stop attacking first. sure, yeah, in fights you gotta do what you gotta do because your own life has gotta come first, but the unique scifi horror aspect of all of those guys being perfectly innocent people fucks and they should utilize it a little more!!!

NEXT TIME: "the next phase" and "the inner light."

#personal #star trek blogging #tng lb

[bumblingbabooshka]

Tuvok & Seven friendship is so important to me. autism 2 autism communication

I love them so much...I want them to be genuine pals. I want Seven to find Tuvok after he gets literally assimilated fully by the borg and for them to actually talk about that after some resistance ("I'm fine. I do not require your assistance") <- An inverse of Tuvok pushing Seven to talk after 'Tsunkatse'. I wonder about loneliness and the borg and vulcan bonds and why Tuvok was the one out of him Janeway & B'Elanna who was assimilated. I want to know about the recovery process following that. I want it to become another thing they can understand about one another like the long silences and the eyebrow raising about silly Human things and the isolation. The Borg are a terrible destructive force but when you're within it it's ALL, it's like nothing else. I want them to spend so many evenings in silence together. With Tuvok, Seven doesn't have to think about 'Being Human' and maybe Tuvok can relax with Seven too - "Commander Tuvok & I" that kinship, stated resolutely. "Commander Tuvok & I don't require..." I want them to not talk to each other for years after Voyager and then Seven just appears where Tuvok is and he's like "Oh, this is unexpected. I am pleased to see you." and they're able to fall back into their old pleasant silences and go on walks together and maybe they go for a hike on another planet and while they're camping out they talk more about stuff they wouldn't if they were anywhere more familiar and at night maybe they talk about stuff they wouldn't if it were day. I want them to talk about their time on Voyager and how it's affected them and is still affecting them and for them to poke fun at silly Human things (some of which Seven understands more now like being in love and having fun and looking at a sunset) I want Seven to talk about how much Starfleet has hurt her and Janeway has hurt her even though she wasn't trying to and how she doesn't know exactly how to feel about her time on Voyager. It was the start of her life, the best years and the most confusing and the most horrific and stifling and freeing and [and and and] Tuvok talks about how lonely it was in the stilted way he does - half describing a flower and he'll never denounce the captain the same way the captain will never denounce Starfleet, the closest he'll ever get is that it was a difficult time - that he doesn't agree with every decision but he isn't Human, he can't say for sure what was right or wrong and Seven has to accept that that's all he'll do (it's difficult, she wants to push him but she knows it's useless) and I want them to find that they still can relax around each other despite it all - that they're different but that's at least the same. "Commander Tuvok & I"

#I hate father-daughter Tuvok & Seven personally v_v I want them! To be pals! #Enough mentor Tuvok who only exists to dole out advice - let him chill! Delve into his personality! #If Seven gave him space weed on one of their walks would he partake?? Would they sing together under the night sky?THAT'S what's important #Tuvok: -gardening- #Seven: -climbing over his fence- I need to speak with you. Is this a bad time? #Tuvok: Hello Seven. / Seven: Hello. <- They haven't seen each other in like a decade #Q&A #Tuvok #Seven of Nine

[trillscienceofficer]

"Tsunkatse" really has everything

absolutely balls to the walls opening with aliens wrestling in an arena and finally the camera pans to the audience where B'Elanna and Chakotay are whooping and clapping because they're the dorkiest SPORTS FANS ever

"the Borg wouldn't know fun if they assimilated an amusement park"

Tom: Seven, you're just like B'Elanna, she also likes to have all her things with her at all times Seven: ??????????

Seven and Tuvok being perfectly fine with not making conversation :)

Jeffrey Combs is here

JG Hertzler is ALSO here

you forget why you love Star Trek for a hot minute and then you watch Jeri Ryan having a snark-off with Combs and Hertzler and you're like, damn it's so awesome when good actors play off of each other this well while being under frankly ridiculous amounts of alien makeup

B'Elanna and the Boyz (Harry, Chakotay and Tom) nerding out about alien wrestling together

Chakotay: you have the bridge B'Elanna: what??? so you can go see the match?? Chakotay: you told me to delegate B'Elanna, on all levels except physical: fuck you

the Doctor to Neelix: I'm sure you wouldn't want to watch something as violent and vulgar as tsunkatse [smash cut to Neelix among the audience of a tsunkatse arena]

The Rock

B'Elanna manspreading on the captain's chair :)

Seven gets a training montage with the Hirogen played by JG Hertzler and I'm like [guy who has only seen DS9] I'm getting a Martok mentoring Worf in the Dominion camp kinda vibe here

"Sorry for cutting your vacation short Captain" "🙄"

Tuvok and Seven trying to make sure the other is fine :(

Seven's face when she sees that her opponent in the death match is her new Hirogen buddy :(

Harry and B'Elanna doing literally every job on the bridge

The relief on Seven's face when she realizes she doesn't actually have to kill the Hirogen and her final conversations with Tuvok about her fears are yet again another two of those moments where I'm like 'damn I love when Trek actors put 120% into making sure these emotions are REAL'

#i love it :( #voy

[yeonsu-bh]

HELLO EVERYBODY, THIS IS sun COMING TO U LIVE FROM A WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A QUEUED POST FOR BEONHWA'S OPENING !!!

i am SOOO excited to see beonhwa finally open and can't wait to write with everyone here and see muse development! i am here to introduce my toll and veryyy internally conflicted and overwhelmed muse YI YEONSU the recently returned heir apparent of house gladiolus. i've editted this part like three times now - barely have any pages set up but pulled this plot page together last minute for something at the least!

bec i have nothing else to offer but extreme volume (LOUD) please feel free to take a dive into my best attempt at yeonsu's tldr bec i literally wrote an entire essay for my app and still feel sorry for that hhhh,, (to save u time if u read his app this is basically that cut in half so u can skip to the bottom OR vice versa if you didnt want to read his app bec it was so fking long u can read his intro!)

full disclosure! i may be slow to get back but if you'd like a plot below feel free to reply with which one specifically, or if you'd like to brainstorm/plot pls give this a like an i will meander my way into ur dms as soon as i can!

trigger warnings: kidnap, assumed death

heir apparent of house gladiolus

twenty-seven old man (weeping for older fcs)

was born to the yi family of gladiolus

as a young child growing up, yeonsu was very naturally talented at everything he learned and picked up from academics to physical training! he also had great relations with his parents and grandparents

wasn't exactly doted on but was regarded with as much respect as the growing heir apparent could get so that he would understand his role from a young age versus being treated as a usual child would be

at 12, yeonsu was kidnapped during a large town celebration hosted by the villagers after the house of gladiolus supported them against an issue with the nobility. it was clear that families of the nobility were behind the kidnapping however there wasn't any concrete evidence to pinpoint which families were responsible for hiring kidnappers

a ransom was demanded for yeonsu's life along with certain demands to accommodate the nobility. however, the yi family came to odds against each other between deciding how to save yeonsu and what was the right thing to do for the people as a whole

during this time, yeonsu was able to escape from his kidnappers after finding a moment of opportunity. he was chased to a town far from beonhwa where he found refuge within a poor town - collapsing in front of a small farmer family that took him in.

yeonsu's escape was kept secret from the yi family as the kidnappers continued to hunt him down. he was only able to survive after being hidden in a home full of sick villagers where he then fell ill with pneumonia from being exposed to the sick along with all the distress his body and mind were under.

eventually, the kidnappers stopped looking for yeonsu and it was reported to the yi family that yeonsu was killed due to their inability to pay the ransom or accommodate the nobles.

for his safety, his adoptive mother encouraged yeonsu to assume a new identity as one of their children until someone from his family came to retrieve him - unaware of his true background. from a poor farming family in a town barely able to sustain itself, there was no one that would be able to truly protect yeonsu or provide him safe passage back to beonhwa.

thus, yeonsu became chae dohwan. as the years passed by with no one from the yi family ever coming to search for yeonsu, he slowly let go of the hope that he would ever be found and truly began assimilating into his life as dohwan.

after 15 years, yeonsu was finally pulled back to his past and true identity when his true birth mother suddenly showed up after hearing about yeonsu through many attempts of contact from his adoptive mother.

with his true identity confirmed and restored, yeonsu was immediately whisked back to beonhwa to return to his rightful place as the heir apparent of the gladiolus house.

personality

yeonsu is going through A LOT of internal conflict and strife!! it's only been about three months since he's returned. short enough of a time to still feel out of place, but long enough to have a routine established.

kind of feels like impostor syndrome but? he's the real deal hello! how do you deal with that?! aka he's feeling suffocated on top of all the other negative feelings!

he's in an odd place of reassimilating into the lifestyle of those in beonhwa

for one, he misses his family dearly and is struggling with trying to reconnect with his original family after finding out the truth all these years that they had believed he was dead this entire time

from the fifteen years he's lived as a poor farmer, there are a lot of things about politics, luxury, power, and the people of beonhwa that yeonsu is having a hard time accepting with ease

but wait! underneath all the commotion dotion yeonsu is actually a heckin great guy! smart, strong, talented! and super control of his emotions actually which is why he hasn't lashed out or anything. he just needs to catch a break!

connections

people who knew yeonsu before he was kidnapped (so childhood friends?)

people who think that yeonsu is a fraud

someone that sees yeonsu as a threat

yeonsu is going through MAJOR emotional changes! he's processing and not really processing at the same time because he's just been thrown into responsibilities for his role rather than really be eased into them.

plots (copy pasted from the page above)

yeonsu heard muse talking shit and now he’s avoiding them. but the thing is, he doesn’t have context! muse isn’t a bad person! OR maybe yeonsu did have context and he honest to god just doesn’t want to get involved with whatever is happening !

a huge feast is being held at the house of gladiolus officially celebrating yeonsu’s return. it’s too much though and yeonsu wishes he was anywhere but there. while muse sneaks around the estate to secretly find a quite place, yeonsu follows to join them.

muse doesn’t know that know or realize that yeonsu is the newly returned heir apparent of the gladiolus house. they catch him on the street interacting with non-nobles and start treating him like one of them ! (could be a positive or negative interaction!)

[ claimed ] in a field near the outskirts of beonhwa, yeonsu has found a moment to escape. muse comes across yeonsu by chance - hidden by the thick grassy field, and lays down to join him.

#bhrp:intro #ooc ✶ #— i always tell myself to type less but it always turns into more #— is this considered reverse psychology #— a hint of insanity but i promise ull have a good time (☉U⚆) #— HAPPY OPENING DAY!

[punkbxt]

dime the takes. por favor.

*gets real close to the vending machine* quiero pepsi

okay all seriousness tho imma try to do this in a way thats like idk semi respectful towards janeway but i also need yall to know i do NOT reallyf fuck with her. idk if ive explained why before but i guess here we go

unlike most people that enjoy star trek i didnt really get into it till 2018 and then the demmy hit n i had nothing but time to consume every star trek imaginable and thats how i found voyager. yeah sure make fun of me for not knowing what star trek is but i need YALL to know that it is white and usamerican culture to be raised on trek and I DONT CARE. the only reason i got into star trek is bc a white friend introduced me. all this to say i was introduced to janeways actress through oitnb red ilu so much red best evil white lady <3

anyways i know janeway gets hate for having been the only lady captain and i always preface anything i say about her with this so yall understand that this is not the reason i dislike her but in reality it doesnt help either

also its tiring as fuck to include my opposing argument but it has to be done bc ppl are like “what about- pkay but you didnt consider how- yeah but- actually youre wrong bc-“ like fuck man im doing my damndest i literally hate voicing my opinions bc yall INSIST people of color dont actually get it n its tiring

if youve followed me since i started voyagerposting you may have noticed ive only actually drawn janeway twice and its cuz as a person she rubs me the wrong way for so many reasons

janeway gets put in this impossible position of being the top of the hierarchy pyramid to a crew that doesnt think theyll ever make it home again. shes deemed a mother figure by a LOT of characters but im gonna talk abt her dynamics with b’elanna, and seven because if i were to talk about the dynamics between janeway and harry thatd have to be its own post

when i get into a show, i loooveeee knowing what was happening behind the scenes because i love it!! i love set design i love character design i love costume design i love seeing what the actors are like outside of the show and how they feel about these characters bc these things ARE important. (writers too pero i have beef) behind the scenes is the biggest influence to the final product bc its the reason the final product exists in the first place and behind the scenes so many things went wrong. and when actors are mistreated or dont get along with eachother it becomes pretty apparent. well at least if you analyze things the way i do

so heres my issue with janeway seven and b’elanna. b’elanna is typecast to be the ugly character. klingons gave always gotten the short end of the stick and the case with her isnt as harsh bc her actress is a mixed puerto rican (information that has actually only recently been revealed bc when i tried to find out what roxan’s ethnicity was in 2019 i literally could not find anything definitive except for shes latina) but she STILL gets a lot of shit

one of my favorite things about voyager before the introduction of seven was how b’elanna and janeway actually got to bond a lot over science and when seven took on the roll of pretty girl on the ship, b’elanna and janeway suffered a LOT for it. we have an interesting dynamic between a maquis engineer and a federation captain genuinely not getting along bc b’elanna doesnt see janeways as an authority figure. not until chakotay has something to say about it and also until b’elanna and janeway actually talk about shit n get over their differences. the issue is when ppl purposely skip the earlier seasons to get to seven and then a lot of important interpersonal character building is missed I SAY THIS BC PEOPLE OFTEN FORGET THAT VOYAGER HAS BEEN ASSIMILATED BY THE BORG BEFORE AND EVEN THE WRITERS LET IT SLIP THEUR MIND N ITS LIKE BRO U HAVE GOLD TO WRITE WITH N U JUST LET IT COLLECT IN THE CORNER

seven is a unique and interesting character when she is first introduced. seven looks like any other borg and is so COOL. and then immediately all the cool interesting things about the way seven looks is basically negated to a few shiny parts. and yes janeway is partly to blame

BUT! what is the easiest way to gain the trust of people who already have bad history with who you once were? assimilation of course! seven goes from being one of many to the outcasts outcast

but punkbxt! what does any of this have to do with why you dislike janeway as a character? if anything it sounds more like you dislike seven. as long as the character is white ill always hold a lil disdain for them in my heart <3

janeway symbolizes the best of starfleet. she is an accredited officer and an extremely capable scientist. she is a beautiful white woman in THE position of power something that was revolutionary for her time. the issues with white women being put in positions of power is they they have NEVER had the interests of black and brown people to heart. “yes they-“ SHUT UP and let me speak before you decide to comment on this goddamn post

feminism throughout the centuries has focused on white women and while a show is merely a fraction of the lived reality of its time the effects are still extremely clear. white feminism JUMPED at the character of janeway and celebrated her and rightfully so! the issues came about when women like b’elanna got attacked and pushed to the side. this directly affected janeway within fandom and she got and still is recognized for accomplishments SHE DID NOT DO. she got put on a pedestal and once that happens to a character they suddenly can do no wrong. except she does because shes a human and shes white and shes a character with writers behind her

b’elanna has never actually been a super popular character and the wave of love for her is actually pretty fucking recent and not to toot my own horn but i definitely was a big part of the b’elanna love resurgence. when i got into voyager and these dates ARE important, i used to scroll through her entire tag easily a couple times through a DAY. fans occasionally created art for her and yeah! she got fics but nowhere in comparison to her other peers. surrounding yourself with people who also love her and want to create for her does help with recognition of b’elanna but its super recent stuff. and to add onto that any white fan that has an opinion about her will always be biased because they just do not understand what it is like to exist as a latina woman of color

this is where me myself and i come into the story because wowowowowow star trek is so cool! star trek preaches on and on and on about diversity love acceptance hate oppression and all that good stuff so who wouldnt love it??? and then??? OMG THERES A LATINA CHARACTER IN ONE SERIES OMG OMG OMG. imagine my disappointment when i found out that she a main character barely was getting any love. it hurt. because even within a narrative of inclusion somehow characters of color just seem to always be pushed to the side. especially when a fandom has such a majority percentage of white people

watching her story was SO personal to me. i could see myself in her struggling with living in america. i lived my childhoods in puerto rico and in many different parts of usamerica, surrounded by family and people like me until that wasnt the case anymore. i spent my life living as a nomad with no place to call home for on average no less than a year and no more than three. i could understand b’elanna with her struggles of living in a klingon monastery and then being thrust into an unforgiving and unaccepting world where humans/white people are the most important. the internalized racism that i grew up with was horrendous and to this DAY i am still trying to learn and better myself and connect with my culture in any way i can. because in a black ans white world, where is the space for those of us that dont fall under either? we are ignored and erased and with b’elanna is has been the same

the rejection b’elanna had to her klingon side was something i could relate to incredibly. but it still isnt enough. because even though i could connect with her through her klingon-ness, her latinidad is simply a label. throughout the show you see her change and grow and assimilate to the federation standard and it HURT. the narrative that i was directly picking up from her story was yeah you can be a part of the club but only if you do it how we want you to do it. and dont you EVER even talk about being latino unless its to shit on your deadbeat of a father. and i did. i learned how to adapt at an extremely young age. ive been told its one of the things i do best (sad isnt it?)

and okay how do seven and janeway have anything to do with this? well they are the white women who we literally have to conform to and for. thats it period

seven as a character had an amazing opportunity to challenge gender and sexuality because of her story (one that would have been better suited had she been an indigenous woman which ive spoken on before but thats for another post too) and then the people in charge decided that she just HAD to be the sexywoman instead of leaning into just how much she was no longer human and how humanity itself doesnt actually have one right way to be

this narrative is given to us by janeway time and time and time again correcting seven and telling her that seven simply is not himan enough and still has to learn. (things autistic ppl can suuuuuper relate to which is a reason i could connect with seven at all). no matter how you want to look at it (whatever canon you want to decide isnt canon anymore for the sake of a fucking ship) janeway was directly written to be a mentor and mother figure to seven. janeway is there to help her learn when in reality she can never understand what its like to be an outcast within the federation and to take it a step further be part of a eace which is treated with hostility by humans. something b’elanna CAN understand and relate to because at the time of voyager shits still om the rocks between klingons and humans. janeway pushes seven to accept and embrace humanity as if thats the only option seven has to become a better character but its just not true. the story woven between janeway and seven is one of white women and femininity and how to be the perfect white woman and how to be a good lover. by actively ignoring the help and influence b’elanna could have provided for seven to learn and adapt to a majority human world they put all that weight on janeway. something that affects ALL three of them negatively and results in a narrative of “well b’elanna could never understand and relate to seven in a way that matters” which is beyond true because they are so interwoven even unintentionally so. it simply just wasnt taken further and its a true shame

and this isnt even touching on how badly seven’s actress was treated by janeways actress for being the pretty new doll at the time of filming and how that affected how i felt about janeway/seven as a ship (similarly how castle and beckett did not get along behind scenes i could no longer enjoy that show anymore)

i simplified this IMMENSELY and this shit is already long enough as it is so im sorry about that but yeah thats it. also sorry if things got repetitive ive been told i tend to do that when i write. these are my feelings and i am a real human behind this account so keep in mind how you react to this post. i have recieved countless hate anons most of which ive deleted throughout my short lived time as a fan of this franchise. i used to be MUCH more vocal about representation within star trek and people got mad so i left. but im back because the people that love b’elanna and that love that i have things to say about her matter so much fucking more than any angry person ever will

#to add a lil statistics to it b7 barely breaks 200 fics on ao3 and numbers like that classify them rarepair within a fandom as big as trek #AND I BARELY TOUCH ON THE SHIPPING ASPECT TOO LOL #b’elanna torres #seven of nine #captain janeway #star trek voyager

[quasi-normalcy]

Also like...is anyone else getting kind of transphobic vibes from this plot? Like, they spend the first half of the season setting Seven of Nine up as a transgender analogue because of her Borgishness, and then the whole twist is literally that the Borg are using the transporter to groom young people, *directly repeating* the pseudoscientific myth that the brain doesn't fully develop until 25 in doing so. Like, they *literally* have the only nonbinary character on the entire series, post-assimilation, sit down in the captain's chair and announce that the Titan belonged to the Borg.

I'm going to *hope* it's unintentional, but like...between this and the complete lack of Saffi, I understand why every alt-right fucknugget on YouTube was giving this season good reviews.

#star trek picard spoilers