• 0 Posts
  • 79 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 16th, 2023

help-circle


  • They would have to call cubes back from where they are pushing territory on the other side of their territory.

    The Borg were not just fighting one species when they came to get the Federation, they were expanding outwards on all sides. So they committed the lowest level of resources they believed were necessary, and because the Queen was an arrogant fool, that was just one cube.

    For First Contact, you can argue that having been thus far unable to assimilate the Federation they are unaware of the speed of human advancement. In the Star Trek Universe it has been implied that humans are EXCEPTIONALLY inventive especially when faced with a problem, and that the Federation is even FASTER than humanity alone because of the additional viewpoints added to human inventiveness. Basically, the Human Problem of Fantasy Games where the humans are an average, all-around boring species while Elves and Dwarves and others all have specialties? That’s not applicable to Star Trek Universe, where humans are especially well-suited to be engineers, and highly valued for their social abilities which foster teamwork. The presence of humans in the Federation is one of the ingredients that makes the Federation uniquely effective at technological advancement. Not only is the Federation large and powerful, it advances more quickly than the species that the Borg have assimilated, and has advanced to a level that the Borg never allow other species to advance to, AND it advances the way the Borg do by peacefully trading and adding technologies when it admits new member species.

    The Queen never dealt with a society like the Federation before, and she didn’t expect them to advance very far beyond their capabilities at Wolf 359. She figured her cube was better, and that should be good enough and if by some weirdness it wasn’t she would destroy the Federation by going back in time and destroying its weirdest, least predictable species: humanity.









  • There’s also the Republic of Ireland, the Republic of Korea, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the United Republic of Tanzania, the People’s Republic of China, the State of Kuwait, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Republic of Latvia, the Principality of Monaco, the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Sweden, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Republic of Peru, the Republic of Paraguay, the Republic of Ecuador and a whole ton of other countries who are called by the last word in their official names because that is HOW ENGLISH WORKS.

    And if you really gave a damn about all the people in Latin America, you’d call them by the proper names of their countries.

    But if you insist I’m wrong, go over to lemmy.ca and post a thread telling them they’re American. See what they think.







  • See, now I think early Lwaxana is key to understanding Betazoids. It is a society of telepaths and empaths, and as a result they have an EXTREMELY strong sense of self that can actually lean into the narcissistic, they don’t understand boundaries, and they do not have that filter that lies between thought and speech because everyone can tell what everyone is thinking anyway. They are so aware of people’s feelings that they don’t feel a need to cater to passing comfort, knowing that annoyance is just a thing that happens and will pass and that it’s better to focus on the more important hurts–which is why she goes out of her way to counsel Alexander and Odo but just rolls her eyes at Picard’s discomfort.

    This really strong sense of self is so ingrained in the species that even Lon Suder, who doesn’t have these abilities, is still such a strong personality that he TAKES OVER Tuvok during a Vulcan mind meld, and Tuvok is no slouch in telepathy.

    I think it was an amazing idea to portray a telepath or an empath like this, let alone both, and it indicates a unique and interesting society in the Federation. Star Trek has a (criminally underused) race of telepaths that is unlike any other race of telepaths and that is all because of Gene Roddenberry’s Auntie Mame joke.

    I mean, just stop and think about what Aunties and Moms can be like. Now stop and think about them in a matriarchal culture where men are still traditionally masculine and women are traditionally feminine. Now consider them in a culture where NOBODY CAN LIE.

    That’s the key to Betazed. Nobody can lie, so you may as well be yourself even if you’re annoying and overbearing.

    Going by Lwaxana, Lon Suder, Tam Elbrum (“Tin Man”) and even Deanna Troi when she lets her Betazoid half out a bit, Betzoids are an extremely impulsive and hedonistic species but also the premier telepaths of the Star Trek Universe and that is just unlike any other portrayal of telepaths but it still makes so much sense when you think about it.