"the Joined care about the organisms on the worlds they consume" gotta be one of the wildest takes I've read in a pluribus recap because NO? NO THEY LITERALLY DO NOT. LMAO.
The Joined don't give a fuuuuuuuuuuuuckkkkk about life on Earth. Yeah they can talk over and over about how they just want people to be happy, how they would never kill a fly or a cow or even pluck an apple from a tree, sure, whatever, but is that really caring about things? Is it? They'll only care for a plurbed person's pets if the animal is persistent, but that's just another task, otherwise it isn't even a blip on their radar. When Kusimayu is joined and the hive pack up and leave those village chickens and goats are just set loose, nobody there to care for or love them anymore.They'll release all the animals from zoos and not give an iota of thought to the environmental impact that could have (or if they do, they just don't care.) Hell, the sheer amount of devastation on bird and other small animal populations that cats the Joined's have 'set free' could cause is ASTRONOMICAL. And that isn't even remotely an issue for the hivemind!!!
And honestly, even the level of care the Joined have towards the people of Earth is also uhhhhhhhh Not a Lot. Not Very Much at All. They care if people die from an emotional outburst, they don't want people hurt, but they just don't.... care about the beautiful broad brushstrokes of what makes people people. In their quest to turn "I" into "we" they're just mowing down cultures and creativity and offer none of their own in lieu of it. Like. The traditions and cultural identity of Kusimayu's entire village died with her. It's fucking haunting. And this just isn't even a small concern for the Joined. It's the biological imperative above all, they don't care about anything else no matter what they say otherwise (and hey well even if the Joined population will starve in ten years because of their own insane moral code, then they'll just broadcast the infection signal to another planet ^_^)
The Joined is simultaneously the most selflessly selfish AND selfishly selfless entity I've ever goddamn seen and they cannot be asked to give a SHIT about the lives that walk Earth. And it's fascinating and terrifying to watch!!
