#the borg

[dinosaurgiantpenny]

Maybe this makes me a 12 year old, I dunno, but the Torchwood episode Cyberwoman is still terrifying.

Cyberwoman - Wikipedia

[katofalltrades-bandit]

"Oh hey Q's back, surely this will be a great bit of Q and Picard sparring with philosophy and words!"

What actually happened:

Q being bored and wandering space because his parents kicked him out basically (nice! That's a fun idea can't wait to-)

Oh, Q knows Guinan? HE'S SCARED OF GUINAN?!

"Why don't we show them what's coming?" Me: Ok so I know the Borg are a thing but surely it's not that, we're only in season 2

"They're called the Borg." FUCK

[dinosaurgiantpenny]

[kremblor]

Okay, so I may be having a tiny chuckle at the fact that since Q threw the Enterprise into the DQ and introduced them to the Borg .... Starfleet has been trying to figure out how to eliminate that treat. Multiple species have in face since before then and even after. None of them have really managed though.

Meanwhile, in just a years time you have "Unimatrix" and "Endgame" ..... Within one episode Janeway introduces a virus that liberates countless drones from the collective due to them having a unique gene that allows them to exist as individuals during regeneration. And due to this the Queen takes out thousands of drones (Janeway suffering through this is also a whole other post for Janeway alone). Borg ships end up taken over by drones who have been liberated. Like, yes we have Hugh and what happens with him in TNG and of course the various fights but this episode gives us MULTIPLE Borg ships and drones that end up taken over by xBs - it's the start of the Borg down fall. Then in "Endgame" you have Janeway - two of them this time - introduce ANOTHER virus to the Borg that DECIMATES them and destroys them so bad it's not until the end of the century that the Queen is able to even try anything again (at least as shown within the shows) in any really true take over style. And she's basically a mess still.

Starfleet should have just sent Janeway from the start I guess.

[rikercard]

Borg Starfleet yaoi. Please and thank you.

[kremblor]

Borg Queen: of course I let Janeway take you make that was always my plan

Also the Borg Queen: you will hell us assimilate humanity because Locutus failed me

So, as Picard realized in "First Contact" the role she wanted for him was essentially consort, king. And when he refuses to return as Locutus she turns to Data - something that does have Picard sacrificing himself so Data doesn't get assimilated not that that worked - which ... Also fails for her. Now, in "Dark Frontier" she is turning to Seven and we know due to PIC that she turns to Jack Crusher (Picard's child). All of them are meant to be her equal and her means to humanity. But each I think are a progression away from the role Locutus was meant to be. That equal//consort/King role.

I mean, Data she is assimilating not by essentially plugging him into the Borg - he is already technology based after all - but by gifting him with aspects of humanity. It's still got that sensual nature to it but she is working in reverse this time, and she went for someone that was a subordinate to Picard - someone close to him yes but still beneath in the structure of things. Thus likely establishing her start at lowering the whole equal level thing.

If we actually believe her plan was to let Seven be taken by Janeway and then take her back to the Borg ... This is doing much the same attempt she tried with Data. Only instead, she is sending one of her drones (individuals she looks over and often speaks as if they are her children/young). And one she essentially had since a child at that to be taken back and dis-assimilated. For humanity to assimilate the drone so that the drone may return and be the vessel by which she - the Queen - can better assimilate humanity. Janeway is an unknown at this point though, to take this plan is to assume much about humanity and risk a lot (which the Queen tends to do so it's not unreasonable for this to have actually been the plan all along)

Neither of these two plans work. We get the whole Jurati thing and that off set of Borg but that is a unique situation and vastly different from what these above things are. The next big humanity take over attempt. Plan the Queen actually goes for or speaks of similarly is the one with Jack Crusher. Where due to Picard's time as Locutus he - much like Seven and other xB - still has nanoprobes within him and manages to pass that on to his child. This time the attempt is basically a siren song across the universe to this growing child in order to lure them into being the beacon that draws humanity in. It's no more "be my equal" manipulations but just straight to "can't teach them when they are grown so gonna manipulate them from infancy"

I could go on but I am loving the Janeway v Queen custody battle on my screen.

[rikercard]

Shoutout to all the Borg lovers out there<3