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stem-sister-scuffle · 3 months

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STEM SISTER SCUFFLE: ROUND 1 MASHUP 1

Shion Usuki (Xenosaga) vs Jadzia Dax (Star Trek Deep Space 9)

Shion Uzuki is a Computer Scientist and Roboticist!

Jadzia Dax is an Astrophysicist and Xenobiologist!

Why you should vote for each contestant:

Shion Uzuki:

"OK SO. Shion makes me very deranged so sorry for the 1.7k word essay in your inbox but also you asked for it and im not sorry. Right so on the science side, she and her Tragically Dead lover built KOS-MOS(a robot girl she has lesbian subtext with), who is designed to fight the eldritch abominations from space. She later has to rebuild KOS-MOS by herself and does so. She is very good at her job and the head and Chief Engineer of the KOS-MOS Project at the start of the game (at age 22).

Like this a 00s Main Character who is a woman in STEM who is single during the games themselves and gets to be Complicated. That in of itself is pretty subversive(so subversive there is a large contingent of dudebros who hate her to this day) and awesome, but the real kicker is how she is written.

She is also an extremely well written and developed character (ESPECIALLY for a 00s character)who has one of the most realistic depictions of complex-ptsd in media I have seen to this day. Very few characters come close or top her in my eyes. She is one of the best written characters in the 'xeno' metaseries imo, and that is VERY stiff competition if you have ever watched LPs or played those games.

I feel she should get best woman in STEM more because of how incredible of a character she is than anything else (though she is super smart and good at her job, its just the focus of the games is on her character development over her work).

!!SPOILERS FOR A EXTREMELY PLOT HEAVY GAME SERIES BELOW SERIOUS SPOILERS!! Also uh content warnings for abuse and trauma and stuff.

The majority of this is gonna be on how amazing of a character she is, more than anything so sorry if that wasnt what you were looking for. Promise shes doing science in the games and stuff. So Shion has got that PTSD, and her character arc is the continual chronic trauma piling up until her (not very good) coping mechanisms no longer work and she breaks down and hits rock bottom. It is here with the help of her friends that she finds the resolve to push through just a little bit longer and still find hope in the world. She ends the series on a hopeful (yet bittersweet) note. What is so good about her character arc is that its so realistic. She doesnt get stronger in the face of overwhelming trauma, she breaks down and begs for it all to stop already, and its only through others stepping in to help her despite her best efforts does she find the strength to have hope again at the end. People rarely get better in the face of The Horrors, they break or get worse. People don't expect this of characters and its rare to see, but characters that break are so important IMO, because trauma DOES THAT.

Shions life is a horror show and responsible for At Least Half the content warnings this game has(there is a lot), she even keeps getting goddamn EMAILS all through the first game while actively in the middle of a crisis, and yet she still pulls through. Its cathartic and wonderful to see a character stumble into a happy ending, not really heroically as much as teeth-grit dragging herself across the finish line, but getting it all the same.

They wrote that ptsd amazingly- so much so that long before you get to the specific trauma later games reveal, she displays traits that function as foreshadowing that you can pick up and guess. Her every action and reaction is informed by her trauma and its incredible how much thought went into it.

Early in the first game she has a seemingly hypocritical reaction to not removing the remote self-destruct sequence in the sapient robot people in the setting when she otherwise is very strongly for equal rights for them, until its revealed that she was there as a child during an incident when a whole bunch of them went berserk (because god melts people's brains and that virally infected them all- its this whole Thing) and killed a whole ton of people, including family in front of her. After this incident it was required to have this self destruct switch to prevent that from ever happening again.

This incident is also why she got into robotics and programming, because she didn't want to be scared of them and learned to see them as people in a way many others in the world don't. Her short temper is very clearly emotional disregulation characteristic of ptsd from her life of unresolved and untreated chronic trauma going back to her childhood. In the first game, she is still deeply in mourning (because her lover -named Kevin- got brutally murdered in front of her a few years previous) and still mostly running on the programming Kevin instilled(Kevin is also later revealed as a manipulative abusive dickbag), but over time she starts shaking it off- just in time for the plot to hit her over the head again (but we will get to that).

One thing people forget about ptsd is that it can make you just so ANGRY, and its nice to see a character that has that ptsd expression. That isnt the perfect 'good survivor' in response that people like. She makes bad decisions, she pushes people away, she gets snappy because she is running at the end of her rope by the third game and shaking her kneejerk fawn response. She is in a world where so much just keeps happening beyond her control and its horrible, and well, when you are in a situation like that you lash out just to control *something*. The narrative takes the time to be sympathetic to her even when she does this, and it means a lot to me to see that. And now we get to Kevin.

Shion is just starting to get better somewhat. Things are still terrible, but she is starting to have some progress on unpacking trauma and everything... Until a resurrected Kevin shows up and RUINS EVERYTHING.

See as stated before, Kevin is an abusive manipulative sack of dicks. When we see him at first in games one and two and up until his reveal, the red flags are all glossed over and barely noticeable because we are seeing things from Shion's unreliable memories and perspective. Kevin was well-liked, so people have good things to say about him too, which reinforces this. Shion very much behaves, if you know what to look for, like someone whos been through some specific emotional abuse, even as early as the first couple hours of the first game.

But then he shows up (clearly working for the bad guys) and ruins all the progress made. Then asks Shion to join him.

And after some time, Shion agrees, and goes back to her abuser. When people write abuse victims in media, the always make what people tend to consider is 'the right decision'. Very rarely, if ever, do they go back to their abusers the way people often do in real life. A lot of people don't leave their abusers, or they may leave but they go back later. Shion just wants to be happy and not in pain, and at least with Kevin she knows there will be nice things sometimes, instead of the horrorshow that is currently happening. She knows he is using her, that he WILL hurt her again, but she doesnt care because in the moment it feels like the decision that will keep her happiest and most safe.

She feels in the moment -especially critical to this- its the decision that will keep all of her friends the most safe. She is protecting them from Kevin by giving herself up and begging them to stand down. I feel that is something most people dont catch. She is playing peacemaker with her abuser to protect the party, and it doesnt work, but she tried. They never directly say that she has done this kind of thing before, but the very quick way Shion tries to smooth things over implies that this is something she has done in the past and she is trying to make it work again.

When you have been in a relationship like that, sometimes the abuser feels safer(better the devil you know, etc), and when Shion is mostly running on the basest of instincts to survive because trauma DOES THAT to people, yeah is incredibly realistic she went back. Its incredibly well written and agonizing to see.

After this, the party does convince her to leave again, but not before you are forced to fight her in one of the most emotionally painful boss fights in the series.

Key to convincing her to finally leave him is KOS-MOS, who all this time Shion was treating as a person until she became one. KOS-MOS and this other guy named Allen whos sort of her love interest but they never get together on screen give a dramatic speech and she decides that its time to give up on Kevin because her friends wont give up on her.

So we get to loop this back around to her job again! Yes- her being in STEM caused KOS-MOS to exist which saved the world and also her. Her being in STEM and good at it caused Allen to meet her and gain a big fat crush on her that Also saves the world despite him never actually being in the party (thats the power of a workwife!). Science wins!

All of this is also ignoring the actual batshit plot of xenosaga btw, which is a space opera that involves multiple bible figures, psudeo-time travel, the fact that the internet is built on everyones collective subconscious and you can therefore literally hack into someone's brain, a political faction clusterfuck, an immortal evil guy voiced by Crispin Freeman, and eldritch abomination god (who is trapped in what amounts to an infinite battery) trying to cause the apocalypse because a little girl begged for help.

Listen I know xenosaga isnt popular on here so she is probably gonna have a hard time, but that me blorbo she means a lot to me."

"super smart and pretty, loves her job and made a whole sentient humanoid robot, is an accurate representation of a mentally ill woman. play Xenosaga"

"Space lesbian. Made an android that's the reincarnation of her wife from a lifetime ago (who happens to be Mary Magdalene don't worry about that part). Trans gender."

"She's so mentally ill and loves her robot creation"

"She literally took the project her dead boyfriend was working on, which was a cyborg KOS-MOS, and managed to create a version where KOS-MOS doesn't go berserk and murder and slay. She is also captain of VECTOR. Robotics/cyborgs are her special interest. We stan a girlboss. shes gay af"

"She built her robot girlfriend and managed to creat a version of her where she doesn’t kill innocent people"

"Gay for the robotic war machine she created <3 Girlboss, sad-girl, mad scientist, mecha pilot. She really has it all."

"She made a billion dollar government funded battle android into her wife, with the help of lesbian space destiny of course. She’s simply #nyasome"

"She built herself a robot girlfriend and also her and the gf are reincarnated versions of mary magdelene and her fellower. Thanks!"

"She's autistic, traumatized and made her own girlfriend, "

"She’s the chief of an android development project AND she has a special interest in providing psychological support for artificial humans! She likes women your honor"

"Helped to create anandroid named Kos-Mos who would save the universe. Was the Head and Chief Engineer of the KOS-MOS Project and lead a small group of people to help fine tune Kos-Mos. Also she's just super cool and overcomes any obstacles she may face, despite all the trauma she's been put through. Shion is great and I love her."

"She is a mentally ill legend, she will stay up past midnight programming and working on her android gf instead of going to therapy, and I just think that's really sexy and cool of her. She's the best xeno game protagonist and I will fight on this"

"made a battle robot mary magdalene. fell in love with robot mary. is a reincarnation of a girly who was in love with the OG mary thousands of years ago. whenever robot mary acts like a robot she freaks out. almost dies to get robot mary functioning at 100% several times"

"Shion joined the huge corporate conglomerate Vector Industries when she was just 18 and became head of the KOS-MOS project (her girlfriend battle android) at age 22. Shion’s character growth throughout the series is amazing as she has to deal with her childhood trauma, facing her abuser, and moving on from the past by making steps towards the future. At the end of Episode III Shion finally stops being passively strung along the plot and begins to take steps on her own, embodying the themes of making your own ripples and seizing the future. Also Shion is very gay and is the wife of Mary Magdalene. Not kidding! LESBIAN SHION THE WORLD SHION/KOS-MOS NUMERO UNO CAMPÃO DO MUNDO

"She is the best woman in STEM because she is a very deep character who has an amazingly hard hitting story. She has realistically written PTSD, and is heavily implied to have BPD as well. She shows some very ugly symptoms, and even goes through no character development in the first third of the series which shows how deeply depressed and hurt she is. However, in episode II she begins to show signs of healing. Episode III absolutely goes haywire with her recovery process. She has many ups and downs, and even turns to her abuser, but in the end she overcomes him with the help of her friends AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, her android wife that she made with her own two hands.

So like. Robot wife. Awesome. But what if this robot wife was someone you deeply loved and looked up to in your previous life? So much so that you were called her Maiden. What if you died in her arms? And then, completely unbeknownst to you, after 6000 years, she reincarnated as an android that you programmed. How crazy would that be...

KOS-MOS (the android), starts off as your typical robot without emotions. But as time goes on, she grows more and more warm. And it's all thanks to Shion.

They embrace a ton of times, with KOS-MOS even bridal carrying Shion multiple times AND riding with her in her space motorcycle. Shion is also awesome because she's Japanese and hell yeah she's not White Woman Number 4050. Win.

Um. Also she eventually rebuilt her android's frame and gave her bigger boobs. HAPPY PRIDE.

timestamp 3:30 to end of the video, witness some lesbians :) hope you enjoy if you choose to watch https://youtu.be/eY6kPp-wcKg?t=210"

Jadzia Dax:

"She does a lot of science in space — like xenobiology and physics — but is also the ranking science officer, so she covers a lot of fields. she is an expert in many scientific fields, leads a lot of other scientists, and is a badass starfleet officer who can f you UP in a fight. her alien species is a symbiotic set of species, so Jadzia’s got a worm named Dax in her and has access to all of Dax’s past hosts’ memories & knowledge, part of why she’s an expert in so many fields! but Jadzia, the host, also got multiple degrees in different fields before she was “joined” with her symbiote."

"She is a star trek science officer, so mostly space anomalies and stuff 😄 She is self assured and takes up space and just a joy to watch. All the bi girls love her 💜"

"First F/F kiss on TV"

"IMMORTAL WORM ALIEN WOMAN who has lived EIGHT LIVES and is GENDERFLUID but is CURRENTLY A WOMAN! She's great"

"She is the lead science officer on her space station! Got four degrees in astrophysics, exoarchaeology, exobiology and zoology. She is an amazing researcher! Jadzia is a Joined Trill, host to the Dax symbiont which has lived 300 years. Jadzia became a Starfleet officer and pursued her science studies before then becoming Joined, which means she also has the wealth of knowledge from Dax's multiple lives. She is an amazing scientist and also loves to have fun, and she's a genderfluid pansexual ICON."

#stem sister scuffle #round 1 #shion uzuki #xenosaga #jadzia dax #ds9 jadzia #star trek ds9

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