A symbiont’s first host

[Markonian]

Is it a bummer to be Trill symbiont’s first host?

Jadzia Idaris, Verad Kalon and others worked hard to become host to one of the coveted Trill symbionts.

Those who succeed enjoy having part of them live on in the symbiont and future hosts; and they gain skills and experiences of the previous hosts.

(For a visual example, see the DS9 comic Waypoint Special story “Only You Can Save Yourself”, where Ezri draws on each previous host during a critical situation.)

Now, imagine having worked hard and being finally joined with a symbiont*- only to learn it's a youngster and you don’t gain any experiences from previous hosts because there are none. Do you feel “cheated”? Disappointed in only getting “half” the benefit of joining?

*Edit to correct "symbiont" for "host".

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'd imagine that a host would be told if its symbiont will be a newbie or a veteran, and could make an intelligent decision regarding joining with it.

That said, it's enough of an honor to receive a symbiont in the first place that most prospective hosts would be in no position to argue...beggars can't be choosers and all that.

Oh, and Verad didn't work hard for anything, he STOLE Dax.

 

[Markonian]

Oh, and Verad didn't work hard for anything, he STOLE Dax.

I assumed he failed to qualify in the program before resorting to crime. Gotta rewatch.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Now, imagine having worked hard and being finally joined with a host - only to learn it's a youngster

Did you mean "finally joined with a symbiont" in this case?

Because I doubt that a symbiont would care how old its host is.

Indeed, I should think that a symbiont would relish the thought of joining with a young host, that way it gets a chance to build up more memories in the process.

 

[kkt]

I think it would be like winning the lottery and discovering that your prize was only $150 million instead of $200 million.

 

[Tosk]

I imagine it would be an amazing honor for a host to be a symbiont's first.

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

You would be in a position to lay the foundation for many lifetimes of experience. I imagine there would be something particularly intimate between you and the symbiont because you are both experiencing everything for the first time. It wouldn't be lesser, only different. And in a sense, I think the hosts' essence experiences the subsequent lives of the later hosts.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

In "The Best and the Brightest", Moll was the first host for Enor and the weight of being a good basis for all others that would come after her was something that weighed upon her mind. She was highly intelligent with an eidetic memory and was practically guaranteed a Symbiont, though was a little disappointed at not having one with previous lives to draw upon but understood the importance of what it meant to be a Host and how generations to come would remember her.

 

[Markonian]

Did you mean "finally joined with a symbiont" in this case?

You are correct! My mistake, I did mean symbiont.

In "The Best and the Brightest", Moll was the first host for Enor and the weight of being a good basis for all others that would come after her was something that weighed upon her mind.

Cool, I had no idea it was thematised before. Gonna check out that book.

 

[at Quark's]

Hmmm.. never occurred to me before.

Perhaps there are multiple levels of qualification for the host candidate, the bar for being allowed a specific symbiont getting progressively higher the more lives that symbiont has lived already, resulting in the most 'senior' symbionts getting the most excellent candidates.

On the other hand, there's something to be said for the idea that if you're a host in the beginning of the chain, you'll influence many more lives than one much later in the chain. Perhaps these tradeoffs are considered of equal value.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

We've certainly seen that all Trill are not immune to things like greed or envy, yet can still be considered for joining.

But on the whole, their society seems to consider the joining a blessing. So it would be hard to imagine anyone would care that they were the first host, just that they were worthy of being a host.

 

[garakvsneelix]

Well, when talking about a symbiont's first host, another question came into my mind: What about the very first host of the very first symbiont, who got a host? I never figured out, how they found out about the given possibility of a symbiosis at all... (But maybe it was explained in DS9 and I just missed it.)

 

[saladdays]

It would probably be much easier when first joined, as the host wouldn't have to sort through some of the memories of prior hosts. I'm pretty sure it was alluded to by Jadzia at some point, but I specifically remember Ezri saying it was difficult.

 

[Markonian]

Well, when talking about a symbiont's first host, another question came into my mind: What about the very first host of the very first symbiont, who got a host? I never figured out, how they found out about the given possibility of a symbiosis at all... (But maybe it was explained in DS9 and I just missed it.)

It comes up in a novel. Need to look it up, but from what I remember symbionts used to be more numerous on prehistoric Trill. Telepathically, they detected the 'walkers' on the surface and became curious. They met, and humanoid Trill being a generally peaceful species, first contact went well. From there, it was just a matter of experimenting between individuals until at some point a symbiont popped into the right cavity.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I wonder if they wouldn't always put a first time squid in, at least, an older host and a first time host would always get an experienced squid.

 

[Markonian]

I wonder if they wouldn't always put a first time squid in, at least, an older host and a first time host would always get an experienced squid.

That's a clever workaround. Both time, you have a youngster benefit from joining with an experienced partner.

 

[Tim Thomason]

It comes up in a novel. Need to look it up, but from what I remember symbionts used to be more numerous on prehistoric Trill. Telepathically, they detected the 'walkers' on the surface and became curious. They met, and humanoid Trill being a generally peaceful species, first contact went well. From there, it was just a matter of experimenting between individuals until at some point a symbiont popped into the right cavity.

Also, in Beta Canon, Trill are marsupials, in that they all have an abdominal pouch to keep their newborns in (ew...). So, the presumption is that early Trill humanoids saw this squid thing (maybe it telepathically called out to him), and decided to nourish it in their pouch. Then the thing crawled in further, latched onto their nervous system, and refused to leave

 

[Oddish]

I assumed he failed to qualify in the program before resorting to crime. Gotta rewatch.

He worked very hard, devoted his whole life to qualify for being joined legitimately. Then, as he said, how whole life was reduced to one word: UNSUITABLE.

That didn't justify his actions, but they were understandable. Though one wonders why he didn't just find a joined Trill who had re-associated, and was sentenced to die with its host. The host dies, Verad gets their slug, no murder necessary.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

You wouldn't be getting all the memories and the history but you'd be immortalizing yourself.

 

[Oddish]

You wouldn't be getting all the memories and the history but you'd be immortalizing yourself.

Precisely. Or at least, you'd effectively live for hundreds of years.