"I don't know how to not be Elnor." | Independent Roleplay and Askblog for Elnor from Star Trek: Picard because he needed one and I have zero impulse control | Sideblog of @cristobalrios | RED ALERT: This is NOT a spoiler-free blog | Icon made by Angel
I’ve been having a lot of incoherent thoughts re: Romulan Star Empire culture which puts so much emphasis on both secrecy and extreme loyalty (to the Empire itself, to the singular institutions withing it— Tal Shiar or military or Senate etc etc) and how those are just two sides of the same coin. You are loyal enough if you’re willing to lie and keep silent to the bitter end, if you completely subsume yourself to the directives of the people to whom you’re sworn. (Which is.. not even exclusive to the Romulans, and of course I’m not unaware that there is no such a thing as a truly uniform ‘culture’; still it’s an interesting connection imho)
In this sense the Qowat Milat subverts both the ideas of secrecy and loyalty, by always telling the truth and by not promising anything to anyone unless the cause is already lost before the start. To me, this means that the Qowat Milat values both community and individuals in such a different way than Romulan society at large. None of its members is simply a cog in the machine, ready to sacrifice herself simply because someone asked. The addition to the Qowat Milat to canon was a very interesting move, it’s not surprising that a splinter group of heretics decided to live on their own, disavowing everything that the Star Empire stands for.
in this sense, Romulans who have been betrayed by the Empire and/or have been forced to live outside of it might find… sort of liberating to be able to not make the kind of promise that has no boundary and puts them in the position of owing something nebulous to other people. They would know by experience that a promise truly is a prison.
i love when people call elnor elnor startrek because that's his name twice. just like when people say legolas greenleaf or whatever. you're giving him the moon moon treatment and i think it's genuinely delightful. everybody look at my beautiful son startrek startrek
he's a gnc warrior prince raised by a society of all women. he can tell no lies. he was adopted by lesbians. he is also australian.
Let’s have a quick look at the Picard bracket so far…
LOOK at all those original Picard characters knocked out of the Picard bracket by TNG cameos
(Counting Ranger!Seven as a PIC original since the concept is so different from VOY)
Did your fav Picard character get knocked out by 80’s nostalgia in a leather jacket? 🙄If so- VOTE ELNOR to prevent TNG takeover! ✨ Sirena fans, Laris stans, Romulan appreciators, and anyone who’s blorbo isn’t Data-
I have screamed. I have cried. I have shouted into the void. I have told Jeri Ryan that she was the only thing I liked about Season 3.
Now ...
Here we go.
Picard. Season 3. Episode 10.
See, here's the thing. I was rolling along with this episode. I was actually really glad that I was a week behind in watching this because I was removed from the emotion of all of it, and I'd been off of twitter so I didn't see people masturbating to it, and I'd been spoiled so I went in kind of knowing what to expect. So, I sat down with a glass of whiskey and I settled in to watch.
When I took the episode at face value, as a Borg-based episode where we had a conversation about (yet another) evolution of the big ol bad, it wasn't terrible. It wasn't the best Trek we ever had, but it was definitely the best episode so far of the season and the action wasn't bad, the Enterprise D was boring but fine, and they were doing some interesting things.
I was really digging Seven's story and how she was taking true command of the Titan. How this was her crew and she was fighting for them. She wasn't going to kill these baby borg, she was going to fight for them. Trap them so she can help them. She was not giving up, damnit. I was invested in Troi and Will. I was rolling my eyes at Worf but loving him, so all was good.
And then, in the middle of Borg Dreamland, Picard said it. He said that which erased two seasons of journey and growth, and TWENTY years of understanding that Picard was burned out. He was tired of being a hero. He needed to find himself again. He said something that literally erased the canon set up in THIS SEASON of the show because we know he had a relationship with Riker, Geordi, and Worf. He said something that destroyed any good will that the show had started to claw back: HE SAID HE WAS ALONE WHILE AT THE CHATEAU.
You. Fuckers.
You absolute fuckers.
Zhaban. Number One. Riker. Worf. Geordi. LARIS. Fucking LARIS. The community around you. SOJI. ELNOR. Even goddamned Agnes.
A rebuilt relationship with Raffi meant NOTHING apparently.
Nothing is more important than the relationship between a father and the son he's known for a week.
I am so angry. Matalas has been all over, talking about why he renamed the Titan and where Laris is and all of the bullshit that he didn't manage to fit in because flybys of pretty and forgettable ships were more important than showing that Ro was alive or that Laris was doing just fine. No. No.
Picard has been alone for the past twenty years.
I want to celebrate the cool stuff I saw in this episode. I really do. Instead, I am so vibrantly angry that I am vibrating. Not just because of Laris (though that's what started it) it's because in one line, Matalas proved he didn't give a single goddamned care about the first two seasons, including one season that he helped to run. HE WAS IN CHARGE OF SEASON TWO AS WELL.
I have bent myself over backwards to find a way to work season 3's canon into my fic, and I'm regretting that now. Right now, I want the Borg to just kill Jack and we all have a party and laugh.
Can you imagine Seven hugging Elnor as he's unassimilated?
Or Agnes helping to connect the Borg (considering she made pretty much the SAME SPEECH in season 2?)
Or Soji at ops instead of Data and her begging the crew to trust her like they trusted her father?
And Laris being there at the bar, one year later? Or in the shuttle to say goodbye?
I'm so beyond it right now. And I can't even get to the stuff that made my girlfriend rage because I'm so focused on the fact that none of the journeys we have gone through to this point matter. All that matters is some damn family that couldn't bother to check in with you for the past twenty years. (Oh wait. EXCEPT THEY DID.)
GoodBigWolf always offers up such an interesting range of YCH options, and these two really seemed like great companion poses for Hugh and Elnor - serene moonrise vs exhuberant sunrise. ❤
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