May Art Challenge - 137th Gebirg

[137th Gebirg]

Well, here it is - entitled "The House of Data". I figured that, since Data was an extremely rare individual, he might have started his own family crest. I based the overall design on those family crest printouts you can order at places like Colonial Williamsburg or EPCOT Center:

Symbolism meaning:

• The gold color is taken from a pixel capture of his uniform and the lighter beige color is taken from a pixel capture of his skin.
• The first panel shows a violin and a First Contact-style phaser rifle, the former representing his devotion as an artist and the latter representing his skills as a combat veteran. The rifle is pointing down, signifying that he will only engage in combat in self-defense.
• The second panel shows his Starfleet insignia and rank, for obvious reasons.
• The third panel shows three hands, representing Data and his two brothers, Lore and B-4.
• The fourth panel shows Data's beloved cat, Spot, with a traditional heraldic flair. I would have added cat paw prints denoting Spot's kittens from the TNG episode "Genesis", but I could never get a good answer anywhere as to how many she actually had. Not a big deal. Spot was more important to Data.
• The whole motif is topped-off with Data's emotion chip over the helmet ("Generations" version). I wanted to use the original version of the chip from "Brothers", but I couldn't get a clear picture of it, as it's not available in HD yet and it always seemed to be out of focus in these tiny tweezers being held by Soong. So, I used the bigger one from the movie.

Well, that's it!

Funny thing is, Data was never actually my favorite character on the show, but it made sense to me that he would have made his own coat of arms as a part of his own self-discovery and self-awareness, analyzing the most important and significant aspects of his life, whether enjoyable (playing the violin, time in Starfleet, Spot, etc.) or not so much (Lore, the Dominion War/fighting with the Borg in First Contact, learning the true nature of B-4, etc.) - all things that made him who he was on his journey to know what it was to be human.

Enjoy!

 

[Kaiser]

This is so awesome

 

[Klaus]

 

[137th Gebirg]

^^^ Does that mean you like it?

 

[Klaus]

yup!

 

[Albertese]

Interesting. I must point out that this means Data must have found the time to make this during the events of Nemesis. If one of those three hands represents B-4 and Data is destroyed at the end of the movie, then we must assume that he only had a very brief window of time to do this in.

Not that that's a problem, really. I just thought i'd point it out...

--Alex

 

[USS Fardell]

Interesting. I must point out that this means Data must have found the time to make this during the events of Nemesis. If one of those three hands represents B-4 and Data is destroyed at the end of the movie, then we must assume that he only had a very brief window of time to do this in.

Not that that's a problem, really. I just thought i'd point it out...

--Alex

Maybe there was a pre-existing version with two hands, and he made a quick change...

 

[Albertese]

That's certainly possible, too.

--Alex

 

[Forbin]

Let's see...
"Arms quarterly, blanc et or. Violin et arquebus; badge; trois mains; Spot rampant."

(Or something like that )

 

[137th Gebirg]

Interesting. I must point out that this means Data must have found the time to make this during the events of Nemesis. If one of those three hands represents B-4 and Data is destroyed at the end of the movie, then we must assume that he only had a very brief window of time to do this in.

Not that that's a problem, really. I just thought i'd point it out...

--Alex

Maybe there was a pre-existing version with two hands, and he made a quick change...

That was the original intent. Yes, Albertese, you are exactly right that B-4 caused some interesting continuity problems for this (and I did consider this issue for a while, actually), when I remembered something about the end of Nemesis, when B-4 started mumbling the words to "Blue Skies" - the same song that Data sang at the Rikers' wedding - a song that B-4 never knew. IIRC, Data and B-4 might have had a kind of Spock/McCoy "Remember" moment when they were linked earlier in the film. The implication being, that Data shared his programming and, therefore, the equivalent of his consciousness with B-4. His personality being stronger and more well-developed, started asserting itself over the weaker B-4 personality.

Then I also remembered the pre-Trek-movie comic that came out a few years ago - the one that was supposed to be an official part of the movie and later decanonized - that showed B-4, with a fully-developed Data personality, in charge of the Enterprise-E right before the Jellyfish left for the 23rd century.

It could be argued that Data did "return", after a fashion, in the form of B-4 and updated the coat-of-arms once his personality matrix stabilized.

It's kind of flimsy, I know, but that's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Let's see...
"Arms quarterly, blanc et or. Violin et arquebus; badge; trois mains; Spot rampant."

(Or something like that )

That's it exactly! Spot rampant especially came to mind when I was putting this together, but the formal words for the other panels eluded me. Thank you!