just a little scrapbook where i reblog posts on the topic of death and posts that celebrate life and history. no original content. content warning for death, possibly unreality and occaisonally outdated language
What I love about this, though, is that the little nails will become an outline of where the water was. It will trace the shape, show someone later what was there once upon a time. It will be a testament to how much this guy wanted to capture the amazing things he saw and experienced, and though it will never truly keep it, it will hold a memory, something that in itself is beautiful and worthy of experience. We cannot describe the indescribable, but we can trace its outline, give some idea of what we experienced.
I don't think it's entirely fair to lay the blame for Section 31 being divorced from its original purpose in the narrative at the feet of Disco. Like, yes Disco did heavily contribute to it, as evidenced by the "cool, sexy spy movie" starring a Discovery character. But, I think the problem starts in ds9.
My read of the original episode in which Section 31 was created, that I admittedly have not watched in a while, is that it is portrayed as a repugnant thing that is not only unnecessary, but actively undermines the existence of the Federation. And I think that that is still widely the fan perception of it- that's why people are upset that it's being turned into a James Bond movie. But Section 31's biological warfare being what ends the war- the war that if we choose to believe Julian and the Jack Pack, was otherwise unwinnable and would have resulted in countless deaths, fascism, and slavery spreading across the galaxy- does narratively justify its existence. It is still repugnant, but this ending communicates that it is necessary. I of course personally disagree with this message, especially when applied to real world politics, but it is nonetheless the message that I think is being conveyed.
And while I have not read the ds9 novels, my understanding of them is that they expand upon this and Julian joins and becomes the head of Section 31 because of this necessity.
And while again, it has been quite a while since I watched them, to my memory, Enterprise's Section 31 episodes do ultimately conclude that while Section 31 is unpleasant, it is ultimately a useful tool and that many of its operatives are well meaning.
Discovery obviously builds quite a lot on this, but its portrayl of Section 31, is in my opinion, the result of a gradual process in how the organization has been portrayed since its beginning, not something they decided out of the blue
I’m not sure that I agree that Section 31 being a necessary evil was the intended reading of how the Dominion War ended. I always got the impression that it was the opposite… that their escalation led to worse loss of life on Cardassia because it backed the Dominion into a corner and made them feel like they had nothing to lose and made them want to vindictively take as many others down with them as possible. The Founder wasn’t at all interested in negotiating while the Link was imminently dying, so, in my understanding, Section 31’s plan would have lost the Federation the war or at least made it much more costly of a war, if the plan hadn’t been thwarted (and it still did cost Cardassia a lot bc it was not thwarted in time). I genuinely cannot remember whether or not the Founder being sick actually made a difference in the war on a daily basis. Did she actually make any unstrategic decisions due to being sick, besides giving the order to eradicate the Cardassians when she thought she was cornered and her own people had no hope for survival?
I always thought that one of the big factors that Julian and the Jack Pack failed to account for in their calculations was meant to be all the divine intervention by the prophets that Sisko had access to. (Or perhaps just that statistics is truly not able to actually do any of that.)
Anyway, I def do agree with the main point that Enterprise and Picard and even DS9 are also to blame here for why Section 31 now sucks lol! Like, the fact that your interpretation and mine are both absolutely reasonable takeaways based on canon with entirely opposite conclusions, means they did a BAD job of conveying any sort of clear message about s31 lol (specifically in the episodes Extreme Measures and What You Leave Behind anyway).
The other thing the Jack Pack and Bashir didn’t have was the Romulans joining the alliance, which happened later that season and I think was critical on multiple levels.
Given how the Romulans join, that is some food for thought on the idea of “necessary evils”. But I still think DS9 manages to convey that the likes of Section 31 are very different from what Sisko and Garak did. The nature of Section 31 as seen in DS9 strikes me as emblematic of the difference. They focus on the preservation of “the Federation” at the expense of its values, while ignoring that those values are its strength.
Ds9 section 31 plots: attack Federation ally, Romulan Senator Cretak, setting her up for execution or life imprisonment, in order to put a mole on a key committee in the Romulan government. Sloan makes pretty speeches about this being necessary for Federation security, as of course the Romulans will always be an enemy. But this is also fundamentally against the Federation’s strength: mutual cooperation and alliance. Which is incidentally saving the Alpha Quadrant’s ass, as that ability to work together is what’s holding the Romulan/Klingon/Federation alliance against the Dominion.
Which brings me to the other big Section 31 plot: the virus to kill the Founders. What need does Section 31 have for a strong alliance if they can just genocide the Founders away on their own? But as the previous commentary notes: the disease did not significantly alter the Founders ability to wage war but did prompt the female changeling to give orders to destroy Cardassia when backed into a corner. In theory, I suppose Section 31 figured that if the Federation could hold out long enough, eventually all the Founders will die and then it’s just a case of mopping up. The goal is total removal of a threat with no regard for cascading collateral damage from a literal extinction burst. And much like Tain’s planned genocide from Improbable Cause/The Die is Cast, no consideration for how much damage the Vorta and Jem Hadar might cause on the deaths of their gods. But who cares if countless other civilizations die in an interplanetary murder/suicide? As long as it’s not the Federation.
The Dominion War actually ends because of outreach and compassion. A cured Odo cures the Founders; the Founders stand down and withdraw. You could argue that Section 31 “succeeded” (the virus gave Bashir and Odo something the Founders needed) but as that wasn’t their plan, no points for Sloan and co.
A few other points:
“In the Pale Moonlight” is about convincing the Romulans to break their non aggression pact with the Dominion. Sisko and Garak forge the evidence that the Dominion is going to betray the Romulans … but maybe a more effective spy org would have gotten the actual evidence instead. (I refuse to believe the Dominion had any intention of honoring it; the problem was telling the Romulans that.)
All that bioengineering the virus to kill the Founders would have been better spent on prioritizing a cure for ketracel white addiction. Undermine your enemy by making their soldiers your allies!
In conclusion: the reason Section 31 sucks is that they nominally work for the Federation while rejecting the values that made the Federation a successful, diverse galactic power. They aren’t a necessary evil.
The sort of people who end up in Section 31 are the sort who would have opposed the founding of the United Federation of Planets to begin with. Their idea of “realpolitik” would have no space for something where Humans, Andorians, Vulcans, and Tellarites said “we are different species, different worldviews, but if we can build something together. It will be hard. We won’t always agree. But the end result will be worth it.”
Ah thank you yes, Statistical Probabilities is before ITPM (and after the divine intervention in early s6 that I was thinking about), so you’re probably right that it’s about ITPM if anything.
Also, I just want to say that I personally adore section 31 as a story element in DS9. Just want to call myself out for that. I have written sooo many fics pitting Sloan and Bashir against each other because I find it genuinely interesting. Which makes it really funny how much I dislike all post-DS9 portrayals of s31 lmao 😂
The big difference in other Treks is the framing of it. S31 in post-DS9 treks is 1) treated by the characters as an actual part of Starfleet that protagonist Starfleet officers don’t really mind the existence of, instead of a rogue organization that protagonist Starfleet officers actively want to get rid of, and, 2) treated by the narrative as a necessary evil that you just have to accept in order to maintain a utopia (like, the other shows seem to take what Sloan said to justify s31 at face value! this is maddening to me!), instead of as actively destructive to both the safety and values of the Federation. (I can’t speak to S31’s portrayal in the beta canon novels because I haven’t read them and don’t want to, but everything I’ve heard indicates that they are closer to what I dislike about portrayals of s31.)
They did predict the Romulans joining the alliance though. Seemingly before Starfleet Command was even considering asking for their help, or at least before they told Sisko about it
ALT
And yeah, obviously, everybody's time would be better spent searching for a cure for Ketracel White, but actual Starfleet doesn't want to do that either. That's the plot of an entire episode (Hippocratic Oath); it's a stupid episode because that's the obvious way to end the war with the least harm, but the episode nonetheless concludes that it's an avenue Starfleet is not interested in pursuing.
As for the disease worsening the Founders' desire to obliterate the Alpha Quadrant, yeah, quite possibly. But it's not what kept them away from the negotiating table. I get the distinct impression that we are meant to believe that they would never have come to the table if they had had any other choice. Yes, Julian creating a cure is what ultimately brings peace, but it still wouldn't have happened without the need for a cure in the first place.
Also, with Tain's attempted genocide being mentioned, can we talk about how Garak only got six months in a holding cell for attempted genocide? That's only tangentially related here, but it's always blown my mind. I obviously want the Federation to have a restorative justice system rather than a punitive one, but punitive is clearly what we're working with here, so six months??? The only way I can square that away working in my brain is if it was decided he was useful and his sentence was commuted, which would support my original point about Starfleet taking on necessary evils, but it's not actual text, so I'll drop that.
disabled people are worth whatever cost or resources is needed to keep them alive. disabled people are worth it even if they don't live long. they're worth it even if they will need extra support and resources for every day of their life. they're worth it even if they spend all they life indoors. none of it is wasted. none of it is in vain. time, effort, money, resources spent on a life are not wasted. these things have served their purpose. the joy of someone's existence is not undermined by not lasting forever. there's no meaningful point, some threshold where you can say "okay this is enough. after that it's not worth it." it's always worth it.
It took me too long to realize that not all the world is my enemy
[ID: A comic done mostly in black and white. A hound with a broken chain around its neck flees a cage and runs into two reaching hands. The hound bites one hand, drawing blood. Narration says, "When I fled my cage / I bit the hands that took me in / Because the only hand I'd ever known / was a bad one."
The hands, now with fresh bite marks, still reach out gently to the hound. ""We're not him." they said / and I knew what they meant / but I didn't understand."
Floating in white space: "Now I understand / but the damage is done."
A person enters a door, rolling a suitcase, saying "Hi" to two people on a couch, who look up from their newspapers and phones to say "Hey" and "Hi" back. The shadow of the person who entered the room stretches out before them-- a hound's, not a person's. Narration: "I'm so sorry / I couldn't help it / I couldn't help myself."
We see the hands of the people on the couch. Both have faded bite marks on them. "I was so blind, I forgot / that not all hands are made of iron." End ID]
something about foreshadowing being more prominent the second time around reading a story but in a way that the meaning is changed forever and you can never view a story the same as you once did before. do you know what i mean.
literally so insane how you can never go back to the innocence of it all. you see all the signs coming and you know how it ends. but there's nothing you can do to turn a blind eye to it anymore. it hits you and you just have to keep going.
"The themes of faith and forgiveness were worthy of a theologian. Are you sure there isn't something you'd like to tell us?"
Never shoot pool at a place called Pop's. Never eat food at a place called Mom's. The difference between horses and humans is that they're too smart to be on what *we'll* do.
And I have lost people. Too many people. Lost them to chance, violence, brutality beyond belief; I've seen all the senseless, ignoble acts of "god's noblest creature." And I am incapable of forgiving. My feelings are with G'Kar, hand sliced open, saying of the drops of blood flowing from that open wound, "How do you apologize to them?" "I can't." "Then I cannot forgive."
As an atheist, I believe that all life is unspeakably precious, because it's only here for a brief moment, a flare against the dark, and then it's gone forever. No afterlives, no second chances, no backsies. So there can be nothing crueler than the abuse, destruction or wanton taking of a life. It is a crime no less than burning the Mona Lisa, for there is always just one of each.
So I cannot forgive. Which makes the notion of writing a character who CAN forgive momentarily attractive...because it allows me to explore in great detail something of which I am utterly incapable. I cannot fly, so I would write of birds and starships and kites; I cannot play an instrument, so I would write of composers and dancers; and I cannot forgive, so I would write of priests and monks and minbari....
-- JMS, creator of Babylon 5, in the usenet/GEnie comments
