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Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x04 - "Absolute Candor"

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Narek’s line about her being shipped off to the Beta Quadrant was rather odd. The majority of the Federation is in the Beta Quadrant. Not to mention Sol is on the border.
He also refers to humans as Terrans, which is fine but in Star Trek that has a different meaning.

The War the Romulan's had with Earth predated the founding of the Federation. The use of Terra is probably to point out that the Romulans think of us as being the bad guys.
 
Also now that I'm used to hearing the f-bomb on occasion in Star Trek, I have to say, I'm cool with it, it's not as jarring anymore. But they need to mix it up, I haven't heard one single "shit" yet but there should be way more shits than fucks. Or at least something like a 2:1 ratio, two shits to one fuck.

(sorry, having too much fun)
 
He could have not resigned and kept pushing for as much as Starfleet was willing to give him. The line "You couldn't save everyone, so you saved no one" is particularly important to this story.

They gave him nothing. So when they accepted his resignation, he could have said. "Ok, nevermind, I didnt mean that. I wont resign." Ok, but how is that now going to get him ships that the threat of his resignation couldnt get? And many were saved. He was part of that. 100,000s at least. That's not good enough? And here is Clancy 14 years later still saying that they did the right thing back then.

Make him responsible for it. For SOMETHING. The Romulan star was unstable. It might collapse in 100-200 years. He and Spock are personally responsible for selling the Romulans on a Federation plan to stabilize the star. A new technology. Let's call it Red Matter. Then, the unimaginable happens. It causes the star to become far more unstable. Now it will collapse in weeks or even days, not decades, and billions die as a result.

Lots of ways to give him something to feel crushed about and need to atone for. But not being even more noble and selfless than he already is? That doesnt work.
 
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interspersed with a whole lot of demonstrations of self awareness that we didn't see at all from F-8.

Just because we didn't see them doesn't mean they don't happen. At least one of the workers was worried about offending him when the others starting cracking jokes behind his back. Also he had yellow eyes. There'd be no reason to give a robot yellow eyes unless it was symbolic of something, a lineage maybe.

Sorry, not trying to be argumentative. I think there's at least a decent possibility there's something to it though.

At any rate even if Picard's self-styled "failings" with the Romulans aren't directly related to the android revolt, there's still plenty of meat on the bone as far as him getting involved simply because it's a connection to Data, and they've put in enough work re-establishing the importance of the Picard/Data relationship to make it believeable that he would think it something worth the effort.
 
They gave him nothing. So when they accepted his resignation, he could have said. "Ok, nevermind, I didnt mean that. I wont resign." Ok, but how is that now going to get him ships that the threat of his resignation couldnt get? And many were saved. He was part of that. 100,000s at least. That's not good enough? And here is Clancy 14 years later still saying that they did the right thing back then.

Make him responsible for it. For SOMETHING. The Romulan star was unstable. It might collapse in 100-200 years. He is personally responsible for selling the Romulans on a Federation plan to stabilize the star. A new technology. Then, the unimaginable happens. It causes the star to become far more unstable. Now it will collapse in weeks, not decades, and billions die as a result.

Lots of ways to give him something to feel crushed about and need to atone for. But not being even more noble and selfless than he already is? That doesnt work.

His journey isn't about him coming face to face to our expectations of what failure is. It's about him coming face to face with his own expectations of himself and what he's done and the consequences for him, very much like we saw him do before in Tapestry. And he did sell the Romulans on the Federation not only saving them all but for everything working out great for everybody, and then when that didn't happen, in disappearing. The rescue had his face on it, so the repercussions we see and Picard feels are real.

There was nothing noble or selfless about resigning from Starfleet and hiding in his Chateaux for 15 years after making himself the face of a massive rescue offer that got recinded. He accused Starfleet of slinking away, but in truth, that was what he did and in facing the effects, is becoming to realize how horrible it was a mistake for him to make.

The problem was his pride/ego would not let him take back his resignation, and it kept him from facing what he did for 15 years.
 
Make him responsible for it. For SOMETHING. The Romulan star was unstable. It might collapse in 100-200 years. He and Spock are personally responsible for selling the Romulans on a Federation plan to stabilize the star. A new technology. Let's call it Red Matter. Then, the unimaginable happens. It causes the star to become far more unstable. Now it will collapse in weeks or even days, not decades, and billions die as a result.

Isn't that kind of easy though?

IDK, I'd much rather watch a story about how he feels guilty about breaking his promise to a little boy than how he feels guilty about science-fiction trope exhibit A breaking down or whatever. There's nothing particularly grounded about the second scenario but the first is visceral. It puts you in his shoes. Viewers can't relate to screwing up red matter but they can relate to breaking a promise to somebody they cared about - or making a promise just to get something you want (I still haven't decided which of those two he's guilty of, but it's one of them)
 
Just because we didn't see them doesn't mean they don't happen. At least one of the workers was worried about offending him when the others starting cracking jokes behind his back. Also he had yellow eyes. There'd be no reason to give a robot yellow eyes unless it was symbolic of something, a lineage maybe.

Sorry, not trying to be argumentative. I think there's at least a decent possibility there's something to it though.

At any rate even if Picard's self-styled "failings" with the Romulans aren't directly related to the android revolt, there's still plenty of meat on the bone as far as him getting involved simply because it's a connection to Data, and they've put in enough work re-establishing the importance of the Picard/Data relationship to make it believeable that he would think it something worth the effort.

I'm open to the possibilities, but until we get to be presented with more evidence to the contrary, I will remain skeptical. Dr. Jurati says flat out that they were never able to replicate Data's sophistication, and so far that's what we've got.
 
The emotional consequences he's dealing with aren't related to the attack and the withdrawal, etc. They're personal relationships that he abandoned when everything went to shit; he's called himself out for that at least 3 times.

Yes, but that doesn't track emotionally because --

A) We don't buy that Picard would abandon all those relationships. It's wildly out of character

and

B) His goals in the show have nothing whatsoever to do with rebuilding his relationships or trying to atone to the people he abandoned/dicked over. He went to Raffi solely for selfish reasons and he went back to the Romulan colony solely for selfish reasons. His goals are about saving Soji ONLY because she's related to Data.
 
I don’t get why they recreated his house on the ship. He wanted to get away from it.
If anything they should have recreated his ready room.
The Hospitality Program said that Zhaban sent it -- probably not by Picard's request.
 
Isn't that kind of easy though?

IDK, I'd much rather watch a story about how he feels guilty about breaking his promise to a little boy than how he feels guilty about science-fiction trope exhibit A breaking down or whatever. There's nothing particularly grounded about the second scenario but the first is visceral. It puts you in his shoes. Viewers can't relate to screwing up red matter but they can relate to breaking a promise to somebody they cared about - or making a promise just to get something you want (I still haven't decided which of those two he's guilty of, but it's one of them)

But the boy was saved. He is alive and well, thanks to Starfleet and Picard. Not becoming the surrogate father of every Romulan orphan is not a moral failing that you need to atone for. At least the other scenario makes him responsible for what happened. Should he have moved the boy to his chateau? Or other Children? Should PIcard have moved to a refugee camp to be Dad? What does he need redemption for in the aired version of the story? He should have done what? Lived in a refugee camp for 14 years to be his Dad, and if he doesnt, that's a moral failing on his part?
 
I want to hear Picard say something like: "It's not just the untold millions of Romulans who died I've been carrying in my soul for the past fourteen years...it's that my failure also cost Ambassador Spock his life trying to make amends for the things I couldn't do!!! My failure to save those people led to one of the most revered names in Federation history sacrificing his own life, and I will not allow both their deaths and his to go uncompensated for.

I'm going to help the people I should have helped back then if it kills me."
 
Yes, but that doesn't track emotionally because --

A) We don't buy that Picard would abandon all those relationships. It's wildly out of character

and

B) His goals in the show have nothing whatsoever to do with rebuilding his relationships or trying to atone to the people he abandoned/dicked over. He went to Raffi solely for selfish reasons and he went back to the Romulan colony solely for selfish reasons. His goals are about saving Soji ONLY because she's related to Data.

I'd suggest the 'wildly out of character' part is precisely why those people have been so disappointed with him. Disappointment is generally wrapped up in high expectations.

Your second point is definitely something to think about though. Those parts do seem thinly written; either that or Picard is a selfish asshole and we know that's not true.
 
But the boy was saved. He is alive and well, thanks to Starfleet and Picard. Not becoming the surrogate father of every Romulan orphan is not a moral failing that you need to atone for. At least the other scenario makes him responsible for what happened. Should he have moved the boy to his chateau? Or other Children? Should PIcard have moved to a refugee camp to be Dad? What does he need redemption for in the aired version of the story? He should have done what? Lived in a refugee camp for 14 years to be his Dad, and if he doesnt, that's a moral failing on his part?

No, nothing like that. But he did promise he would come back. It's the same reason he tells the head nun or whatever "I have no right to ask your help." Because he said he would come back and he didn't for 14 years.

Mainly I think it's supposed to be another example of how thoroughly he gave up. He didn't just quit Starfleet or whatever, he really just gave up on everything.
 
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Pain yes, but not anything in terms of his own redemption. He didnt cause the supernova, he didnt attack Mars, he didnt ban synths, and he didnt halt the Romulan rescue. So while he may feel pain about the consequences of OTHERS actions, they are not something he needs to atone for, since none of this is on him.

So yes, they try in each episode to make it seem like there is something redemptive that he needs to do, but squandered every chance to make it personally redemptive by making it everyone elses fault but his. Who cares about the errors in judgement or betrayal of principles by characters we never see, dont know and are not the focus of the show?

He is already a Moral Mary Sue who always does the right thing, always the champion of the good, and forever the exemplar of all that was upstanding and Just in Starfleet. His vicarious atonement for the sins and moral failings of others only furthers his ethical Mary Sue-ness.
Forgive me, but it seems that a common thrust of Star Trek has been that morality and ethics are not limited to law and fate. There may be times when our characters can only content themselves to those limits. And Picard has always stood for that thrust more than other characters. This episode ably demonstrated that Picard bound whole peoples to him with his promises, and quitting and withdrawing from public life condemned them to a particular end.

A moral Mary Sue? Perhaps in a sense, he was. Having the strength of the Enterprise behind him gave Picard the unique ability to do what he knew was right without dire consequences. That is no longer true in this series. Picard must face the fact that his choices--his promises--don't always produce moral outcomes.
 
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