Addicted Fan
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 4,034
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Scully_fan,
The last thing I want to do is to disagree that they are "one."
I've gotten that vibe very clearly for almost five seasons now, and the humanistic vibe of that catch-phrase sends thrills down my spine, because it reminds me that you and I are both one, in that we're both part of the human race.
The problem being that the human race isn't "one" most of the time, and it's hard to walk down the street, let alone read a newspaper without figuring out just how many ways you and I can be divided by skillful, seductive arguments that find our most sensitive nerves to make us disagree strongly enough for us to spend several days fuming that we don't agree over every single aspect of a "good day" in our most basic daily lives that I feel like I'm being "yanked by my brain... chain... whatever" whenever evil, selfish people try to separate kind, loving human beings.
I'm going to respond by drawing what I hope is a relatively simple political analogy (and apologies to all of the creators of OB because they haven't exactly been secretive about wanting to tap into the current zeitgeist), but this isn't at all meant to twist anyone's knee-jerk political reactions, since similarly divisive periods have happened throughout history and "the fight for liberty" -- whichever side you're on, is always going to be polarizing.
The truth is that I really like history, but can recognize that many others on this board either disliked the classes that were required in school or just don't feel like stuff that happened 100 or 1,000 years ago matters today, and lots of people don't vote because they don't feel remotely connected to what's happening in current history.
So the themes I want to point out are immense divisions in the U.S. between both political parties (and especially to examples of measures that are deliberately floated using special rules that allow for a simple party majority to pass) is that internecine arguments within parties that prevent them from achieving majorities within election districts, so that winners and "losers" are often decided on the basis of whether or not any given "machine" (an ugly word, but it ably describes the ugliness that happens behind the scenes whenever there is money and power to be distributed) that can determine the differences between, for example, Mud deciding for a moment to help "the opposition," then wavering long enough to allow Susan's murder to happen instead of "P.T.'s.") are kinda ordinary, cyclical stuff that happens whenever, for instance, Susan agrees to work with P.T., despite despising his focus on ends she can't support, but then pulls back because Coady was precisely the rival who pushed for ends she found vile, with only P.T. and Coady left standing, as of this episode, but the villagers posed to storm the castle gates....
Then think of all of the other characters having to choose sides, when, in so many cases, the choices of sides depends on on the availability or resources or their own perceptions of costs/benefits, which has been to say that there are many factions, and we've all kinda tried to wrap our brains around the differences between Prolethethians, Neolutionists, Dyad, Topside, and Coady's unit in what seems to have been a branch of the U.S. Military, but that there are also individuals within each group, each with their own free will, often fighting for their own nebulous goals.
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The sestras have been divided this season, as I've tried to say, by the fact that Neolution seems to have taken over all of game, which, in U.S. politics, is analogous to them holding the triumvirate within the U.S. Constitutional framework of the Presidency, the Congress (in both houses) and the Courts System, and in controlling decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court.
The sestras have been pushed into corners and are struggling against new plots and plans that they can't access because they can't share info easily, just as many politicians say one thing in public and the opposite in private.
But I take heart, at least within the "world" of OB, in the idea that Cosima is officially no longer trying to fight within her tiny corner of "the island" as she was, and that older heads like Mrs. S have found ways to get around Sarah's recent isolation from useful data; that Kira is finally on board with fighting back both against being protected from the truth and prevented from learning tricks to fight against the mere notion of being exploited; and that we've now got explicit info on how some of the political divisions may, possibly, be exploited (which is one of the known factors in how many political movements, at least in U.S. history, tend to swing like a pendulum as one side prevails for a time but is then countered when the "tricks" to its popularity begin to be understood by the "opposition").
Again, I want to give a huge shout out to Tatiana, but also to Kathryn and all of the on-screen people, because I didn't expect for there to be clear signs of another dance party or clone dinner after episode six (which is to say that there's a rather obviously necessary pattern to the various season throughout the show's history, so expecting ten episodes of Clone Club lurve in the final season was... never going to happen in a show whose roots are so clearly grounded in it being almost more of a thriller than "traditional" science fiction).
IOW, I'm starting to feel like that pattern is coming into focus, and I like what I'm seeing!
Last edited by hopeless romantic; 07-16-2017 at 03:47 PM
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