when the annoying omnipotent being that's weirdly obsessed with you won't stop talking about his odd and romantic fantasies about you in front of all your co-workers...
What if Q never got his powers back and ended up surviving within an inch of his life from the calamarain attacks?
I wonder how Q would deal with his life as a mortal, we never got to see the extent of how this would effect him. Would he feel any type of guilt for what he has done to the crew of the enterprise over the years? Would him being human change anything at all? What’ll happen with him in the aftermath? Would he stay on the enterprise if that’s even possible? If not, where would he go? What would he do? He has no identity outside of being a Q.
What’s so bizarre about him is that once he is rendered mortal, he isn’t just loosing his abilities but also himself and his role in the universe. He is an entity that has existed for billions of years, seen things no mortal ever has or ever will see. We can’t truly fathom his experiences nor will we truly understand what it would be like for him to stay human. How would it be possible for him to retain any ounce of sanity in the long run?
Q is already an incredibly weak minded individual, simply because he lacks a great deal of empathy which is integral to the human experience. I liked that the show decided to have Data be his escort throughout the episode. In many ways they are very similar. They’re both not truly human yet they display behaviors and habits that could be seen as human. Data wants to be human, Q is forced to become one. Unlike Q, Data is able to understand empathy even though he can’t feel it. Q doesn’t understand empathy, or at least not in a traditional sense, yet he feels it. He felt it when Data saved him, the look of shame and guilt was plastered all over his face as he admitted to Picard that he wouldn’t have done the same if the roles were reversed.
I think he shows a more pathetic part of the human experience. He isn’t a narcissist, he isn’t anti-social, he is an individual that is capable of understanding but only does so when he is forced to. This applies to him as a Q as well. Its why I think he is so fixated on Picard. He’s the only one who has challenged his understandings and won, not with power, not with status, not with age, but with words. Most characters in the show doesn’t bother with Q and his antics because they view him as an evil jester. This is especially true in Star Trek Voyager. But Picard understands that beyond Q’s performances, lies a very curious entity who desires to know more while already knowing everything.
Summary: Q learns about his eventual death and has a lot to think about.
(What led to Q’s statement: “I am dying. Alone. I am dying alone. I do not want that for you.” From ST: PICARD)
It took Q a very long time to figure out what was wrong, which was monumental by itself. He had been observing the movement of an ancient piece of debris drifting off into space, heading directly towards a highly populated planet. He had meant to conjure up some Earth popcorn when he noticed the oddity. When he reached out to summon the delicacy, it was one nanosecond later than usual that his demands came to reality.
That had begun his centuries-long research. He had roamed the universe as stardust, spreading thinly and vastly across space. Some remnants of himself searched throughout the timelines, others throughout the universe, and some even in the fabric of the universe itself.
Once it came to gathering his essence together, he had come to one solution. He was being faced with a concept that was entirely foreign to him. Akin to a Human being faced with the concept of changing the constants of the universe.
He was dying.
He cursed himself for wasting so much energy on research, and sought out the other members of the Continuum.
After he had made his pleas, they gave him nothing but sympathy. If it had been them…— Q was infuriated. Selfish, uncaring, arrogant, supposed family of his!
Q retaliated. He argued, demanded, and rioted against their lack of action. Against their cowardice when faced with losing a member of their family. In truth, however, if Q had been in their position, he’d, too, fear what it meant for himself. He’d, too, turn his back on them. He wouldn’t think of his brothers and sisters— let alone one who had caused as much trouble as he.
And so, he returned back to the vastness of the universe. He glided across the void. Thinking.
He thought back on his immensely long life. He didn’t remember the beginning. His form lost shape for just a moment as Q let out a metaphysical scoff. A beginning? When did he start thinking so much like a mortal? A beginning was a minuscule concept to Q. Much less an end.
Another century had passed. He tried to come up with a solution to lengthen his lifespan— he sought a reason which could have possibly introduced death to a Q. But he was wasting time. Wasting time. Another concept Q had never given a second thought. He had a limited amount of time now. Why should he waste it trying to prolong his life when it could be a futile effort?
Another century passed and his abilities' response time had decreased to a millisecond.
He had been wasting so much time.
He, again, returned to his thoughts. To the long life he had. What was he to do near the end? A lifetime of defying his own people. A lifetime of tormenting lower life forms. A lifetime of creating enemies out of his family and of the entire universe.
He was alone and he was going to die that way.
Then as he toyed with the idea of returning to the Continuum— a half-baked thought about asking for forgiveness— he saw a bright pillar of light billions of light years away. A beacon.
He zoomed towards it.
He knew what that beacon was, of course. He would recognize it if it had been a speck in the sand. A beacon of light which he manifested for his own personal perspective. A mark for an individual who had been and always will be one of his favorites.
Q arrived on Earth and watched, amused, as Jean-Luc Picard picked a grape off of a grapevine. He had grown so old and wrinkly.
From afar, Q could see past the kind eyes and bright smile. Past the skin and bones. Past the nerves and blood vessels. There was a thin layer of loneliness blanketing his conscious being.
Q’s essence disordered itself for a moment as he frowned.
Picard was alone, just as he was.
Picard was going to die alone too.
But that wasn’t right. A man who dedicated his entire life to saving others, saving planets, and civilizations, and the entire universe— no, no, no that was far from right.
Q felt the light in himself dim for a brief second. He was running out of time. He manifested a Human body, his favorite one. The grass crunched beneath his weight. He glanced down at his fleshy palms and then back up to where Jean-Luc remained oblivious as he picked up another grape.
Q let out a breath he didn’t need.
He had decided.
Jean-Luc was not to suffer the same fate as him. A lonely death.
Not if Q could help it.
A/N
I actually haven’t watched Star Trek: Picard. I just be eyeballing it.
unfortunate truth of reality is that oftentimes 15 year olds will say/do/believe some stupid bullshit because they are 15 but telling them that they believe that because they are 15 is probably the most counterproductive thing in the entire universe
