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Is Trill society screwed up?

Using 'you will live out the rest of your natural life and when it's over, you'll die' is hardly a death sentence.

Also, we do see that the symbionts can exist unjoined under special environmental conditions in, I think, "Equilibrium" (?) In those special pools?

Denying a symbiont joining with a host is not endangering it's survival, it is denied the privilege of joining and adding to it's life experience in that manner.
 
Using 'you will live out the rest of your natural life and when it's over, you'll die' is hardly a death sentence.

Also, we do see that the symbionts can exist unjoined under special environmental conditions in, I think, "Equilibrium" (?) In those special pools?

Denying a symbiont joining with a host is not endangering it's survival, it is denied the privilege of joining and adding to it's life experience in that manner.

I beg to differ, it was clear in Rejoined where that question was first raised that the interdict resulted in the death of the symbiont.

Say what you want but when you make a decision, you know will result in someone's death, that qualifies as a death sentence.
 
Then that is a contradiction on the show itself that can't be resolved with debate, because we just as clearly see the slugs swimming around in the pools, unjoined with a humanoid host.
 
Then that is a contradiction on the show itself that can't be resolved with debate, because we just as clearly see the slugs swimming around in the pools, unjoined with a humanoid host.

You forgot to mention that in that state the symbionts are completely dependent on the people who tend to them. Plus you don't know how long they can live in that state without being joined, chances are... not very long.
 
Or chances are, millennia.....truth of the matter is that we don't actually know, it's never addressed in the show. There's also no reason the unjoined exiled symbionts couldn't be cared for the same way. Even when you're put in prison, someone still feeds you and gives you clothes and stuff.

It is addressed in a novel, so there is an explanation out there, but we'll stick to the TV for the purposes of this discussion, which doesn't offer a definite explanation for either of our supportable hypotheses.
 
In my opinion, the symbionts can't get that TLC elsewhere with these pools of liquid they need and the people going around and tending to them. If they are exiled by definition they can't get to Trill, the only known place where these conditions are met.
 
We do see many situations in which artificial environments are created 'on the fly' to support various forms of non-humanoid life, but is certainly possible that Trill symbiont-specific conditions could be unique to Trill, nothing is given to us either way.

I will also mention, although it doesn't need necessarily support my opinion, that the pools are 'breeding pools' which might (or might not) mean they arent capable of supporting a symbiont's life in the long term.

Still all supposition, but I enjoy discussing possibilities.
 
We see a non-trill doctor transferring the slug to another person, and we see Trill who are willing to break the rules in order to acquire a slug.

So where is the "death sentance?" At most you could never go back to the home world ever again, but you'd be free to travel the galaxy for centuries to come.

:)
 
For the purpose of my opinion regarding the 'death sentence' thing, I'm assuming that the symbiont is unable to find another host.

I think those solutions are certainly possibilities though.
 
For the purpose of my opinion regarding the 'death sentence' thing, I'm assuming that the symbiont is unable to find another host.

I think those solutions are certainly possibilities though.

In my opinion, exile from Trill is a dreaded sentence to joined Trill, the other Trill probably can live with that, because it wouldn't be much of a threat otherwise.
 
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