If I see one more asshole talk shit about my girl Soji being a Mary Sue while no doubt liking Jack "Most Specialest Nepo Baby Boy" Crusher, I'mma start kicking asses.
As I scream into the void seeking a Narek RPer to play against, I have finally caved and must explain why I want this Romulan loungelizard to be more popular. (It won't happen, but I can dream.)
Reasons I like Narek as a character that nobody but me gives a shit about:
Let me preface this with a fact about me: I know Romulans.
I've RPed as Nero for almost two straight years in a large game. I've basically learned Rihannsu back to front for the endeavor. The person who played my Ayel and I both dumped countless hours into developing grammar and extrapolating cultural rules. We were dedicated to making them as believeable and accurate to canon as possible.
I have the whole timeline of the destruction of Hobus/Romulus down to memory. I know about all the neat little tidbits and trivia from comics and adjacent materials etc, etc.
This is to say: I have read and written quite a lot about Romulans in my time. I am very familiar with how they work and what data is available to draw from when writing them.
We do meet a few rank and file military Romulans from time to time, however. So we know how the general military operates in direct contrast to the Tal'Shiar. Caution and secrecy is sort of baked into their culture, which makes a lot of sense given that they're constantly at war with basically everyone, but they aren't (generally) unreasonable people.
In canon Trek, Romulans are often a little over the top with the sneaky-backstabbing-untrustworthy-nonsense. They're almost comical with how much scheming they do, but most of the Romulans we meet in canon are Tal'Shiar. The Tal'Shiar are known, pretty explicitly for the depth and breadth of their sneaky-backstabbing-untrustworthy-nonsense. It's kind of their whole deal, apart from mnhei'sahe (literally the ruling passion honor).
Narek, however, was a child when Hobus went supernova. He is from the very last generation that had any living memory of Romulus. (Elnor is also from this generation and they are great foils for each other, but that's another essay.) Narek is from a (presumably) respected family of--if not Tal'Shiar then Military--operatives. His aunt held high rank, his sister did as well, and both were inducted into the Zhat Vash, an organization that worked so quietly and efficiently that even the famously paranoid Tal'Shiar thought they were a myth. They orchestrated catastrophes and manipulated Galactic law to their ends, one of their members was the head of Starfleet Security and Narissa was on a personal basis with her.
Their underlying culture is present, but it isn't explored very deeply in any one canon source. Taken collectively, however, it is just as substantial as Klingon Battle-lust or Ferengi Capitalism.
Nero was a break from the norm, not because he was vengeful, but because he was the first non-military Romulan we'd ever really seen. His designs, the tattoos, the crew of his ship with their very un-Romulan loyalty, the way he talked and sought equivalent exchange of lives (mnhei'sahe), was a wealth of Romulan culture that we hadn't ever seen. He was a regular Joe, had a regular non-Military job, trusted and worked with aliens to try and save lives. His failure (not his fault) was something he absorbed and sought to rectify in the Romulan way.
Nero was super interesting both for how much detail he cast on Romulan culture, and in how he slotted into the Prime Timeline. Nero was a guy desperately clinging to hope, to the last vestiges of his civilian life, but he was cut free by the destruction of Romulus and set adrift. The only anchor he had in the AOS timeline was his honor and the driving need to balance the scales and restore it.
Narek, however privledge his family was, was a washout. He was a failure. We know he wasn't Zhat Vash, and whether he was even Tal'Shiar is up for some serious speculation. He doesn't act like military officers, and only seems to be play-acting as a Tal'Shiar, miming his sister when it suits him.
Narek may have had authority on the Artifact, but it was probably by dint of Oh granting it. We never get any clarification whatsoever about his rank or dayjob, just that he is fully devoted to helping the Zhat Vash. He is analytical, prepared, but he is not good at thinking on his feet and clearly does his planning off screen. He's meticulous but not especially skilled at hiding or regulating his emotional state. He is far less aggressive and stalwart than just about every other Romulan we've seen...except for Nero.
He was literally a placeholder sent to keep tabs on Soji. He didn't even arrive until Narissa had failed to capture Dahj. That Narek managed to get close to Soji, that he discovered her dreams and correctly surmised what they are, was more luck than skill. Before his assessments the Zhat Vash knew that Dahj (and Soji) could be activated out of their cover, but they assumed that they could capture them. They probably assumed they could torture the data out of them, if not dissect them and rip out a harddrive.
Narek found an easy way to get right to the information they needed. His attachment to Romulan culture is his puzzlebox--Before Nero we had never met a Romulan civilian and before Narek we have never met a cultural Romulan who plays with a toy, we had never seen a child's toy like that. Of course, the puzzlebox (Tan Zhekran) was a mechanism to illustrate his thought process, to make the differences between Narissa and him very apparent, but it was also something from his childhood (presumably). It's a weirdly personal affect for a Romulan and he fidgets with it almost constantly. It's a tell, something he shouldn't have, and it makes him accessible on an emotional level.
Narek is a civilian.
He's a civilian in a family of spies and operatives, raised alongside his sister on the same stories, with the same care. There's no way a Zhat Vash didn't have a family home on Romulus. While Elnor is a nice example of the new generation of Romulans, Narek is one of the last examples of what is used to mean to be a Romulan. He saw Romulus and escaped with all his surviving family when it as it was destroyed. Narek was raised on Romulan tradition (private names for family), Romulan stories about the end of the world, and he is haunted by them because he knows they're true, they're real. His sister and aunt have seen it, seen the message that drives people mad, about Ganmadan. His living relatives have dedicated their lives to preventing it and, even if he isn't actually Zhat Vash, he does the same.
Narek is a failure, by his culture's standards, by his family's standards, but he is also the only one of them who lives in the end.
He's a civilian who is trying, desperately, to avert another Romulan apocalypse. He has already lived through one and somehow this next one is even worse. Like Nero he sees the writing on the wall--but instead of doubling down on the traditional sneaky spy shit, he tries something new--unlike Nero, it works! He makes headway where nobody else could.
Unfortunately, it's kinda fucked up, but he then gives up everything in the pursuit of this goal. (Which to him, seems like a noble one.) Narek gives up who he is (by playing at being Tal Shiar), his safety (he has no idea what Soji is capable of or what might set her off, they only have records of Dahj killing a dozen agents before being blown up), and eventually resigns himself to killing the woman he's fallen in love with (the baseline requirement for giving out his real name). He does it all for the greater good, to save people and he doesn't seem to make much of a distinction between Romulan and other organic lives. He has his little plans, tracking La Sirena in a single cloaked ship, hiding his presence to tail them, firing on them despite being wholly outmatched, allying with Sutra however temporarily, trying to sway Soji again, turning to Rios, Raffi, and Elnor for help--he's willing to do anything because he's terrified that everything is about to end and it will be him who failed to prevent it.
The very last shot we see of him, after his plan to detonate the transmitter fails completely, is him on the ground being dragged away by the Coppelius androids. He doesn't posture or threaten, doesn't say ominous shit like the other Romulans we're used to--He begs. He claws at the ground, trying to stay, and he begs. He pleads with Soji, calls her his love, tries that last ditch hail mary because it's all he can do. He fails his task and she's the last person he can reach out to and, in the end, despite the very real threat to her life, Planet, and Picard, Soji smashes the transmitter. The apocalypse is averted.
Narek failed but he also succeeded. His aunt is dead, Oh has been outed as a traitor, and his sister is killed by Seven of Nine. In a cut scene, apparently, Narek was supposed to be arrested by Starfleet. So he's facing (at the very least) retribution from the androids and the ExBorg. Starfleet is very likely to arrest and interrogate him, if not imprison him indefinitely since he has ties to the Zhat Vash and, subsequently, will be on the hook to explain the Utopia Planetia disaster. Soji hates him, for good reason, and his homeworld is long gone. Narek has nothing...but the world was saved.
Narek is singular because he's all about needing and interacting with other people, he has no real authority, nobody he commands. He's a civilian (insofar as any Romulan can be) and is a soft, emotional boy who hangs on to his childhood toys. He's driven in equal parts by fear and a deep sense of failure, like everyone else in the show, and he takes the steps that seem right and necessary to him (also like everyone else on the show).
Narek was a great contrast against Elnor in every possible way--from his evasiveness to his fear of death--and he was a great foil for Soji. On Coppelius, Soji's terror clouds her judgment and she very nearly does terrible things to protect herself. Her actions, her opinions, her hesitation were all driven by fear. The ends seemed to justify the means. She reflects Narek's state for the whole show. Season 1 is about finding safety and meaning.
Narek is afraid for the whole duration of the show and his choices all reflect that same desperate need to find permanent safety, to live. Soji exists on the peripheral of that with the Ex-Borg, and as a synthetic, and then she falls headlong into it after his betrayal. Narek regrets trying to kill her and the symbolism of his losing that box, of him trying to kill her in a room that is so very culturally Romulan, right after telling her his name, makes it very clear that killing her is killing some piece of himself. But the ends justify the means. He can and will give up everything to save the world.
And his last line in the show is desperately pleading with the woman he loves as he's dragged away.
Then we never see him again or get anything resembling closure for Soji or Narek.
Which I will be big mad about forever, because they didn't even get the bare minimum acknowledgement and closure of "moving on and living life is paramount because it is finite and beautiful ". Nope. Nothing. I'm furious forever.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. I hope if Star Trek Legacy happens we get Narek as a sort of...side character creeper informant ala Garak. I also hope we get Soji on Seven's Enterprise because I love her.
Data isn't even a word to me that's just his name. I hear someone say data in a sentence and I think of him. "Collecting data" is when you go and get him
yall gotta learn to separate "this character deserved better" (as in "this character has an intentionally tragic story that is supposed to feel bad") and "this character deserved better" (as in "this character had so much potential and was failed by the writer")
thought about all the episodes Data's body is „possessed" by someone else and they always express emotions (anger) which absolutely does imply that he IS capable of feeling emotions and it makes the whole emotion chip thing even more ridiculous (unless there was magic involved).
I will never stop being bothered by this, I'll wake up in fifty years in cold sweat still thinking about it
here’s a radical thought: what if the emotionchip was just a placebo invented by Dr. Soong because he knew Data would never believe in his own abilities otherwise
My kingdom for anyone who wants to RP Narek with me. Anybody? (Bueller?)
Discord, Dreamwidth, Insanejournal, here, hell I will take smoke-signals and semaphore at this point.
I need that shady romulan washout in my life, i need that sweet emotional turmoil/catharsis since neither he nor soji got actual narrative endings/closure. I am not above bribery and am fully willing to try/adopt a rare character in exchange. And yes, I am threatening you (prospective rp partner) with a good time.
'Vulcans do not lie' the #1 lie vulcans tell. Right above 'Vulcans do not experience emotion'.
Which makes me understand why the Romulans hate them and hid their shared heritage so long.
Imagine moving across the country to get away from your suddenly 'hyper elightened' sibling and every time you meet someone who knows them they say some shit like 'I heard they were born utterly incapable of violence. Hey, you look kinda like them, are you related? How come you're so agressive?'
and you just gotta bite your tongue and repress the urge to tell them about how from age 8 to 14 you two beat the shit out of eachother like, daily.
for all Star Trek Picard fans out there (or at least fans of s1) – i was tired of having to go back to rewatch full episodes or rely on my memory when writing fanfic (or using incomplete transcripts) so i made my own!
dropbox link is here!
there will probably be a few errors/typos and i claim full responsibility.
feel free to use them however you like though be careful about where you post them for copyright reasons. lmk if the link ever goes dead and i can reupload them somewhere. i'm also planning on making transcripts for s2 and s3 though it'll probably take me a few weeks to get them up.
(also some stats for fellow nerds. in the whole season, Picard has 716 lines, Raffi has 293 lines, Soji has 281 lines, Rios has 251 lines, Jurati has 222 lines, Narek has 173 lines, Seven has 79 lines, Elnor has 78 lines, Narissa has 78 lines, Laris has 68 lines, Riker has 61 lines, Hugh has 52 lines, Troi has 37 lines, and Zhaban has 30 lines.)
I was going to point anybody who might be interested at the article I wrote a while back about how I did the work I did on the Rihannsu language. (It's not truly a full conlang: just a nod in the direction of one, as right then I had no time for more.)
However, I quickly discovered that the post—originally at my old, old, OLD (1996) blog "Homeward", had vanished. And the only trace of it online had been scraped and uploaded without my permission to Scribd, and covered with ads.
So I took some time today to restore the post from the original still stored in my hard drive (yay for .zip format!) and republish it at my main blog, "Out of Ambit". And here it is... together with the text of the original BASIC programs.
A quick note about this entry: The material below initially appeared in my very first blog (hand-coded, every page of it..), "Homeward", at
As for the worthiness: (grin) I strive to serve. Thanks for noticing that YouTube entry in the first place. It was most edifying. :)
Hot Take: If they absolutely had to go for an "unknown son" plot in Picard S3, they should have made Vash the mother.
Beverly not telling Jean-Luc that he had a son never made a single lick of sense in terms of her established characterisation. Vash not telling Jean-Luc that he had a son would be absolutely par for the course.
Moreover, Vash also spent several years travelling with Q. So instead of "Jack Crusher" (or whatever his name would be in this version) having weird things going on in his life because of Borg semen, it would be because he might just be part-Q. Or at least because Q might have regarded the child as belonging to him, as much as to Picard or Vash. And this could play into whatever the hell happened to Q in the previous season.
@northstarfan you may have seen this already but. yeah this is North's speculation also, was that Vash was the intended mother figure, and that they only asspulled Bev after the fact because...idk they couldn't convince the actress to come back and/or they couldn't actually think of anything for Bev to do. (OR BOTH. considering how they put Gates in the show and STILL gave her absolutely nothing to do, I'm. not impressed.)
The following is a file recovered from the wreckage of the Borg cube which imploded in orbit in over Earth on Stardate 44001.4. It's unusual content is speculated to be the result of internal conflict introduced to the drone by Lieutenant Commander Data's tampering with the connection to the Collective maintained by his captain, Jean-Luc Picard. Nonetheless, it was taken by a fringe few at the time as evidence that individual Borg maintained unique perspectives and were not irredeemable, unreprogrammable killing machines.
Either Data or Lore could 100% be like "we are NOT related, we are two robots built by the same person" but they never are, they're always like "ugh, that's my brother 🙄" and I love that.
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