In the fourth episode of the fourth season of\u00c2\u00a0Boyager<\/i>, WHAT THE FUCK, HOW DARE YOU. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For extensive talk of manipulation, brainwashing\/gaslighting, consent, PTSD, and trauma.\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
I am fucked up and I am going to be fucked up for a long time. I don’t think the show will\u00c2\u00a0actually<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0address the PTSD or trauma that Chakotay experienced, but I’d be pleased if they did. Still\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I am in\u00c2\u00a0shock<\/i>. I had a whole review ready in my head, all about how oppressors lie and fabricate and do everything they can to hide the fact that they are awful, violent people. I suppose much of that commentary still applies, but even then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it’s twisted. At the end of “Nemesis,” we never quite know the full context of everything we’ve seen. We don’t find out what started the conflict between the Vori or that Kradin, nor we do we know why it’s lasted for so long. All we know is that it got bad enough that the Vori instituted a new form of indoctrination.<\/p>\n
And y’all, it’s downright\u00c2\u00a0horrifying<\/i>. How do I even talk about what I just watched when THE ENTIRE THING WAS ONE EXTENDED, VIOLENT, NONCONSENSUAL PIECE OF PROPAGANDA? Before the big reveal, even\u00c2\u00a0I<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0hated the Kradin. How could I not??? They sought out the Vori, hunted them down, desecrated their bodies in death, kidnapped them, threatened sexual violence towards their women, murdered children, ran extermination camps\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 everything about them was\u00c2\u00a0textbook<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0oppressive overlords. In hindsight, I should have realized that they were too perfectly awful, but in the moment, I get why I fell for this. Initially, I thought it was odd that “Nemesis” was so immersive. Until over twenty minutes into the episode, we saw nothing but what Chakotay was dealing with. Because of the format of this story, I began to accept what I was being told. The Kradin were bad, and then, by the time they showed up, I\u00c2\u00a0saw<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0they were bad.<\/p>\n
Yet everything here \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from the nullification of countless Vori to the tragedy of Penno and Karyo and Daryo \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was all crafted to make me believe in the Vori’s cause. God, I’d even argue that the way this episode itself was written contributed to that. The Vori are given a complete personification. We learn how their soldiers work with one another; we get a sense for their cultural beliefs; Kenneth Biller’s script provides them with a unique was of talking and phrasing things! Everything exists so that I felt sympathetic towards them.<\/p>\n
And it was all a lie. I don’t even know if anyone aside from Brone is actually alive or real. How many of these people were holograms? Fake? Real? Was anything Chakotay told or shown actual reality? Given the way “Nemesis” ends, no one will ever know. Which makes this one of the most haunting\u00c2\u00a0Voyager\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>episodes ever.\u00c2\u00a0We will never know<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I’M SO FUCKED UP.<\/p>\n
The video for “Nemesis” can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards. I POST A LOT OF CUTE PHOTOS, OKAY. Think of it like a private Tumblr blog that only SPECIAL PEOPLE get to read.<\/b> In the fourth episode of the fourth season of\u00c2\u00a0Boyager, WHAT THE FUCK, HOW DARE YOU. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[614,656],"tags":[615],"class_list":["post-5935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-star-trek","category-voyager","tag-mark-watches-star-trek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I have updated my list of conventions and events for the remainder of the year and much of next year.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"