Alright now that I have watched all the movies, I wonder why Data's emotion chip was abandoned? I'm not sure if it was a plot point I missed or something, please let me know if so, but all I remember is him having it on the majority of Generations, which was really compelling to see, and then in first contact (?) he turned it on and off, which I also like, and then the last two they almost backpedaled a little?
it's interesting to me, especially considering he's had over 7 or 8 years worth of experiences and then very little time with the chip, and we see that in generations he's having to catch up with all the emotions from the past several elapsed years, and I'm just wondering why we didn't explore that more. I mean, hell, there were plenty of emotional moments he could've had in the last three movies. I would've especially loved to see Data actually experience joy when playing with the young boy in Insurrection (?) , and while I believe he did enjoy himself, they just didn't seem to cover it as much. I am glad he was able to at least experience a little pleasure from the skin grafting, but again, not the greatest considering it was technically a torture/manipulation tactic. That's an entire conversation for another day. But that was at least balanced because he prevailed in the end :)
The oddest part to me though, was that some of the deleted scenes from Nemesis seemed to almost erase a lot of his current developments, or just some moments during Nemesis in general, which was particularly odd. I think we can all agree that Data has always experienced a very small amount of emotion in his own way, not dissimilar to how certain autistic folks like myself do, and all the chip did was amplify them so that they were more easily perceived by both himself and others. That's why him suddenly becoming very absent of his usual off-step charm was a little jarring. I will say Nemesis wasn't a total wash of Datas character, especially during the wedding and several other parts, there were definitely quite a few very sweet and well character aligned moments for him, but I don't know, I just can't shake the feeling we missed out on a lot of potential moments.
Especially considering the existence of B-4. That entire thing would have been so interesting to see Data process a little deeper with the chip, or even just with his own diluted emotions. The only real look we see into that is when he has to activate and deactivate b-4. Maybe I'm just overthinking, and maybe it's mostly just because I miss Data's laugh. I also think the added layer of complexity was *perfect* when he was able to switch it on and off, as it aligns well with his character's theme of wanting to be close to human, but knowing he is fundimentally different. Considering the depth of trauma he has from negative emotions due to the Lore two-parter near the end of the series, (I forget the episode names but you know what I'm talking about), Him actively making the choice to turn his chip off before he experiences heightened negative emotions is a very emotional trauma response, which I wish had been explored in more depth. That man has PTSD!
I don't know, I'm just rambling. I'd like to know everyone else's thoughts on the matter. Realistically they probably didn't bring the chip back because they had so much going on in the last two movies, but a girl can dream.
gummygunk
vaporwave
yousharknotpass
pixelskylines
prguitarman
dailybridgerton
kianamaiart
