TNG: The Survivors

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clearspira
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Re: TNG: The Survivors

Post by clearspira »

Madner Kami wrote: Mon Dec 18, 2023 2:12 pm
CrypticMirror wrote: Sun Dec 17, 2023 8:22 pm Picard did the cruellest thing to punish him anyway. He broke the fantasy. Uxbridge can make and remake his wife all he wants, but now he knows that Picard knows that he knows. That it is just a fantasy, and he can never now pretend it isn't. In the end, that is probably the harshest punishment possible.
Dunno whether I'd call it cruel. I'd call it necessary. It's very unhealthy for Kevin to continue living in a complete fantasy like that. What puzzles me however, are two things: The guy comitted genocide. He literally murdered 50 billion people. Maybe the Federation has no means of punishing him, but they should at least try to co-opt him into some sort of making amends. Sure, that ain't going to help the entire extinguished species, but there's certainly something he can do to make the galaxy a better place... After all, by his own moral standards, every single being of his own species deserves to be killed, after what he did...
And the other thing is: It's stated that he's lived for thousands of years. Is this the first time he fell in love with someone and lost her? That's generally not how that works and he probably should've invested a thought or two, once he realized that she's getting older and more frail...
We are talking about a being that if he loses control for even a second could wipe out the entire Federation. All gone, everywhere, forever. Spending even one more second in Kevin's company is a disastrous risk and Picard knew it.

I kind of like to think that the reason why we never see Kevin again is that one of the other higher beings of the Star Trek universe goes after him as we have seen several times that they do police themselves on some level. People keep on bringing up the Q, but I actually think a far more likely candidate here would be the Organians. They have the morality to do it and certainly the power. I'm not sure who else would be in his weight class.

As for why Kevin never lost it before this, the Joker once said that ''all it takes is just one bad day to become like him'' and I for one absolutely believe that this is true. I know plenty of real people who have never broken once in their lives going into full berserker red mist mode when pushed too far. In fact, sometimes you need to worry about these people far more than the conventional tough guy because in order to get to that point you've probably enraged him beyond any level of reasoning and control and he wants nothing more at that point than to rip your head off.
We used to argue whether Star Trek or Star Wars was better. Now we argue which one is worse.
Nobody700
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Re: TNG: The Survivors

Post by Nobody700 »

clearspira wrote: Mon Dec 18, 2023 3:42 pm
Madner Kami wrote: Mon Dec 18, 2023 2:12 pm
CrypticMirror wrote: Sun Dec 17, 2023 8:22 pm Picard did the cruellest thing to punish him anyway. He broke the fantasy. Uxbridge can make and remake his wife all he wants, but now he knows that Picard knows that he knows. That it is just a fantasy, and he can never now pretend it isn't. In the end, that is probably the harshest punishment possible.
Dunno whether I'd call it cruel. I'd call it necessary. It's very unhealthy for Kevin to continue living in a complete fantasy like that. What puzzles me however, are two things: The guy comitted genocide. He literally murdered 50 billion people. Maybe the Federation has no means of punishing him, but they should at least try to co-opt him into some sort of making amends. Sure, that ain't going to help the entire extinguished species, but there's certainly something he can do to make the galaxy a better place... After all, by his own moral standards, every single being of his own species deserves to be killed, after what he did...
And the other thing is: It's stated that he's lived for thousands of years. Is this the first time he fell in love with someone and lost her? That's generally not how that works and he probably should've invested a thought or two, once he realized that she's getting older and more frail...
We are talking about a being that if he loses control for even a second could wipe out the entire Federation. All gone, everywhere, forever. Spending even one more second in Kevin's company is a disastrous risk and Picard knew it.

I kind of like to think that the reason why we never see Kevin again is that one of the other higher beings of the Star Trek universe goes after him as we have seen several times that they do police themselves on some level. People keep on bringing up the Q, but I actually think a far more likely candidate here would be the Organians. They have the morality to do it and certainly the power. I'm not sure who else would be in his weight class.

As for why Kevin never lost it before this, the Joker once said that ''all it takes is just one bad day to become like him'' and I for one absolutely believe that this is true. I know plenty of real people who have never broken once in their lives going into full berserker red mist mode when pushed too far. In fact, sometimes you need to worry about these people far more than the conventional tough guy because in order to get to that point you've probably enraged him beyond any level of reasoning and control and he wants nothing more at that point than to rip your head off.
Gotta agree with Clear here, the thing is, how COULD you punish him? In ONE moment of anger, he wiped out a whole species on ACCIDENT! I very much doubted he genuinely thought 'kill the species' he must have thought kill them, and that overstretched to the whole species. That's what probably mortified him more than anything, that even he couldn't believe the level of power he had. He may be below Q, but beings of that power would automatically be considered very high up on the Star Trek scale.

On the matter of falling in love, he may have never fallen in love with anyone else BUT her. He was probably very introverted (given his OP power) and meeting a woman as happy and cheerful as her may have caused him to fall for her when no other being could. He may have had friends, but never someone that close to him. So losing her was doubly worse.
Science Fiction is a genre where anything can happen. Just make sure what happens is enjoyable for yourself and your audience.
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Wargriffin
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Re: TNG: The Survivors

Post by Wargriffin »

Kevin's not Ticking time bomb waiting to go off, He's a sad broken man waiting for his life to end wishing to spend it with just the memory of the woman he loves. like He makes it kinda clear his plan was just to allow himself to die in the first place and probably what he plans to do now with his illusion of Rishan.


The organians would come to the exact same conclusion as Picard

Kevin's already punishing himself,
"When you rule by fear, your greatest weakness is the one who's no longer afraid."
Nobody700
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Re: TNG: The Survivors

Post by Nobody700 »

Wargriffin wrote: Mon Dec 18, 2023 8:01 pm Kevin's not Ticking time bomb waiting to go off, He's a sad broken man waiting for his life to end wishing to spend it with just the memory of the woman he loves. like He makes it kinda clear his plan was just to allow himself to die in the first place and probably what he plans to do now with his illusion of Rishan.


The organians would come to the exact same conclusion as Picard

Kevin's already punishing himself,
Agreed there, he's not an active threat. He's just a guy who lost his wife and now wants to mourn her and die. He just happens to be able to wipe out galaxies if he wanted too, which he doesn't.
Science Fiction is a genre where anything can happen. Just make sure what happens is enjoyable for yourself and your audience.
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