#plurbius

[paddingtonfan69]

zosia hivemind locking in in episode eight

[nightblood]

I keep thinking about Laxmi. Like how does she feel watching her son not do all the things he normally does? Her son isn't really her son anymore. He's never going to play or get into trouble like a normal kid does. He'll get older, but she'll never get to experience watching her child grow up.

Do you think there's a little part of her that finds it a relief that she can yell at Carol? She can't blame her son or anyone else for not acting how they did before. And even if she could, she couldn't yell at them about it without causing them harm like Carol did.

[mythoughtsxxblog]

John Cena with the cast of Pluribus

[cannibalgender]

[dollymylove]

carol strurka is a great modern litmus test for how willing someone is to engage with a woman who’s biggest sin is Being A Miserable Asshole sometimes, and somehow massive amounts of people are failing. the show is challenging the politics of respectability by having a lesbian woman play the anti—hero with a heart of gold, and unlike a tony stark or han solo, it’s assumed that her heart of gold is the facade rather than her asshole demeanor. not only is she an asshole, but maybe she should consider that the Evil Alien Mind Virus is good actually because the people actively benefiting from the hive are saying there’s no wars and stuff.

of course, if one were to engage with carol earnestly, they’d be faced with inherently feminist concepts like consent. carol is forcefully initiated via sexual assault, like every other of the initial hive victims. she tells them to leave her alone, and they keep coming back. they have a spy drone watching her. carol’s first experience with someone happy about this situation is a man who’s first instinct was to play sims with the vacant bodies of women. the entity keeps reminding her that is contains the intimate (ahem) memories of her dead wife which it will gladly use to manipulate her. to any women, regardless of marginalities, this situation is cosmic horror. carol recognizes this and refuses to let zosia be corralled in.

to a lesbian, doubly so. she is outted to billions of people within a day. she is being told that she needs to change to fit in with the rest of society. there is something different and wrong with her, so she needs to be converted into the right way of thinking. she is completely shut out from other people like her because she loudly refuses to conform. is she wrong for assuming everyone would be equally horrified by this situation? maybe. but carol’s only interaction with humanity is now echoing her conversion therapy or willfully enabling it. this is all without mentioning that they killed her lesbian partner of multiple decades and is now bastardizing her memories to entice her. this conversion therapy has stripped her of a queer life partner who’d still be alive without its non-consensual take over.

the most ironic part, however, is using “white americanness” as the cudgel to beat her with. she isn’t the perfect leftist hero, which is acknowledged itself by the show. she’s entitled to her american comforts and cozy american life in many ways. manousos is the perfect leftist hero who eats dog food before accepting servants. and to manousos, she’s the only damn person left in the world who hasn’t completely sold her soul to the colonizers. because to manousos, these people are the second coming of the spaniards. they are white devils wearing the stolen brown and black skin of his countrymen. ironically, the actual white settler is the only person deconstructing the conquerors goal of complete cultural genocide. it is, again, challenging how deeply you’re willing to examine characters as they are instead of how you perceive them. koumba is the most well spoken and kind survivor, but he’s also the most willing to blatantly exploit human women who can’t consent. koumba is a colonized man from the global south who speaks about anti-colonialism while using humans like living sims characters. he is telling us he’s a good person while showing us that he’s complicit in evil. laxmi is the second most vocal survivor who speaks about family and respect, while she, again, demands that they pretend to keep being her family to sooth her own ego. she is incredibly sympathetic as a grieving mother, but she’s also quite blatantly denying reality for her own benefit. she is telling us that we need to play by new rules while showing us that she desperately doesn’t want to. contrast this to carol who is telling us that she’s some irredeemable asshole while showing us that she is willing to change her negative behavior, such as lashing out at the hive, when she realizes it harms people.

[acrylicdragon]

Going to the pluribus tag after watching the episode and the amount of people who understood nothing ???? about the whole show ????

[welcometocaritas]

Carol having been sent to conversion therapy as a teenager makes so much sense in terms of the show and her character. it's one of the reasons - if not the main one - why the idea of becoming part of the hivemind repels her so much. she's already had people try to erase her individuality to make her more like them, to fit into the whole. she's fought hard for her autonomy. so the concept of being forced to give that up is like being put through conversion therapy all over again. of course she's going to fight like tooth and nail against it. of course there's a part of her that believes that - despite all the odds - she'll succeed in making it through intact, just like she did before. she has to believe it.

[victorianitt]

If someone wonders, that's the book Carol is reading during the pool scene. Heh.