• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    5510 months ago

    There’s a case to be made for dueling what is essentially a post-scarcity socialist Federation against the embodiment of capitalism-as-cult.

    Conversely, the Borg are in a way aspirational-- growing and assimilating knowledge and improvements seems a bit higher of a goal, but their presentation comes off ham-fisted.

    I feel like there’s a missing explanation of why “assimilating the diversity” of a civilization needs to be a total stripmine rather than taking a few (potentially willing) representatives and regularly coming back in case anything new evolved, like binge-watching a civilization every few years. The stripmining aspect seems necessary to make them recognizabily villianous-- the enemy of sacred individuality rather than just data hoarders whose homelabs turned into giant cubes.

    It does feel like Latinum is very much a MacGuffin for undermining a huge amount of “we have virtually infinite free energy and can replicate anything we need” worldbuilding; they needed a way to make 24th century capitalism seem remotely plausible.

    • Seven
      link
      fedilink
      English
      4310 months ago

      The Borg became a metaphor for colonialism, I think, with assimilation being an “improvement” for it’s victims.

    • SSTF
      link
      English
      11
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      I almost feel like you’re describing the Trill or the Tokra regarding willing assimilation.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      9
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      I’ve always assumed that the Borg were once a truly egalitarian faction. One that seeks out other points of view in order to invite them into a collective where every voice has a share in the overall direction of the whole.

      I could see such a collective evolving into the current Star Trek Borg if things like fascism take root. A rabid xenophobia of thought that seeks to destroy any ‘wrong-think’ within the hive mind.

      It would explain a lot of the problems that the Borg seem to have. Why they never seem to learn from their mistakes despite their adaptability, why they all share one mind despite their quest for distinctiveness, why they have a single load-bearing queen despite their usual priority of hyper redundancy in all things.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    4410 months ago

    It still gets me that the Ferengi were mostly unknown to the Federation, yet by the time of DS9 they’re almost a widely known cornerstone of economics in the Alpha Quadrant.

    • teft
      link
      fedilink
      English
      38
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      Rule of Acquisition #45: Expand or die.

      Rule of Acquisition #75: Home is where the heart is, but the stars are made of latinum.

      Rule of Acquisition #9: Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.

      This comment endorsed by The Grand Nagus.

      • @TheGrandNagus
        link
        English
        1910 months ago

        This man has the lobes for business

    • FauxPseudo OP
      link
      English
      2810 months ago

      Ferengi move pretty fast. Faster than light if in the right kind of ship.

    • Seven
      link
      fedilink
      English
      2510 months ago

      Every world has the equivalent of Trump supporters, I guess

    • @hakunawazo
      link
      English
      110 months ago

      As I remember they had some phaser whips as weapons.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        310 months ago

        I forgot that detail lol. Let’s take energy weapon technology that can shoot in a perfectly straight line…and artificially limit its range and utility.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          3
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          It might be a similar line of though as the Goa’uld weaponry from SG-1. They aren’t meant for accuracy or range. They use weapons of terror that create an absolute massacre when they do by chance hit.

          The Ferengi, and especially of that particular group were Ferengi pirates of some sort, probably wouldn’t be above such tactics.

          But also it was very clearly not a well thought out episode, so I’m absolutely applying meaning where there is none.

        • @hakunawazo
          link
          English
          1
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          If one Ferengi whip is a bad idea Ivan Vanko doubles it.

          He also looks a bit like a grumpy Ferengi on bad hair day.

  • Flying Squid
    link
    English
    3010 months ago

    I wish their neat energy whip came back though.

    • @Odo
      link
      English
      35
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      It did in Lower Decks. Yet another reason to love that show.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        510 months ago

        Being a semi-parody allows them to reference the most embarrassing bits of the canon with a protective layer of irony.

    • @someguy3
      link
      English
      610 months ago

      Whips were all the rage, see Indiana Jones.

  • @fluxion
    link
    English
    1810 months ago

    Hell of a twist if that was revealed after all the initial interactions. The ultimate grift to put the Federation off guard.

    • FauxPseudo OP
      link
      English
      1310 months ago

      We don’t talk about it with outsiders

  • @someguy3
    link
    English
    8
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    It’s all in the writing, I guess. It’d be a kind of bungling, stumbling, weird encounter, random, campy, never know what they’re going to do, villian.

    *There were a decent villian in “Peak Performance” (the strategema episode). You just need that off species to be a counter.

  • @LesserAbe
    link
    English
    710 months ago

    More like the ultimate friend