#about autonomy and dehumanization... yeah...

like, stormblood is in part a story about the gendered impacts of imperialism, which is why two of its leads include a woman sold into marriage at a young age and later forced into sex work and a woman whose unflinching loyalty to empire explicitly does not shield her from misogyny. the scene where zenos grabs yotsuyu by the hair is just straightforwardly a scene of gendered violence to the greatest extent the animations and the mores of the writers allow. depending on your wol's gender stormblood is either the story of how zenos exploits and abuses three women (two of them textually colonial subjects) on his way to do the thing that really matters, fight a man or The Woman He Has Decided Is Exceptional. and the third of the women violently exploited in this way is krile!

like the violence zenos does to yotsuyu and fordola is desexualized to the extent images of gender-based violence can be desexualized under current conditions (and I think it could easily be argued that square-enix's decision to be like And It Wasn't Sexual in the stormblood side stories is kind of a cowardly ass-covering move), which imo is why it matters that the violence done to krile is explicitly to violate her bodily autonomy! human experimentation, particularly performed in the service of empire, is very obviously meant to be a vile and horrifying thing to contemplate! zenos in the text deploys the metaphor of animal butchery: "[S]ilence that mewling little piglet. I would not hear another sound pass her lips...until I strip the fat from her." we are very explicitly invoking ideas of dehumanization, of women as objects of consumption, etc. and this pretty shocking culmination of this theme in the stormblood main quest...doesn't really get paid off and 100% just turns into a genre power up for the endgame, and stormblood's themes about gendered violence don't get any payoff in the text until fordola and yotsuyu's patch stories.

even just in writing this I can actually sort of immediately see why they couldn't explore it. it's gonna be pretty important that krile not be read by the audience as a victim in relation to zenos if endwalker's finale hinges on her having the ultimate say-so on the mothercrystal-shinryu situation. If it's at all about krile as a victim of his violence, it can read really horrendously to have her deciding "yeah I believe in zenos enough for this" as a factor of the finale. and it's conceptually cool for her to have the decisionmaking power here at all, zenos involvement or no. I like the idea that she specifically gets to make a dramatic gamble here at the end. but the idea that it only works because they pretty explicitly overlook what he does to her is....pretty bad! and it's not like it removes these implications from the text! they don't get undone by ignoring them! there are perhaps drawbacks to trying to have a character pull double duty as the Existentialism Understander and the Avatar Of Imperial Violence And You Better Believe That Includes Gender And Race-based Violence

Also this might be me not remembering lore well but were there more Poppy dolls experiments made by playtime co ? It feels like a possibility since one of Elliots successes is one

i do believe that poppy's pull string actually does work, considering elliot greatly prides himself in his most successful creation (the poppy doll being playtime co's first major big hit) enough so that he revives his daughter as one beyond the fact it's based off her + seemingly has a specialized commemorative case near his office. i don't think he'd have removed/altered anything from it; if he's willing to trap poppy in an extremely fragile porcelain vessel, idt he's above giving her a handy "Make-Me-Talk-Forcefully" switch

(something is really REALLY wrong with him, yeah)

additionally, i am with you on the whole thing abt the pull string being used as a constant dehumanization tool by the bad men!!! we know from the ollie vhs tape ("It's been weeks and weeks of taking things out and putting them back in!"), poppy was continuously tinkered apart to figure out how exactly she worked. factor that, alongside the poppy maintenance tape, the pull string probably was played with/taken apart repeatedly > constant reminder to the poor girl of how much her new self is less and less of a human with autonomy/biological freedom and more of a play thing/scientific specimen

i'd also want to add that it's probably not just the scientists who would take advantage of her fears & insecurities like this. that mf 1006 probably would not hesitate to exploit her trauma against her as a manipulation/power-grab tactic 😭 the prototype is most likely fully aware of all her grievances given his ollie persona, so him choosing to "discipline" her via the case — even after knowing what exactly caused her to greatly fear it — is DIABOLICAL (ollie that's like someone putting u through a whack-a-mole machine w/ a giant hammer what the fuck kid!!!)

also, technically, all the sold poppy dolls can be considered experiments in a way? they're greatly implied to have biological elements in order to be functionally interactive dolls so they were probably one of elliot's first few joyrides w/ fucking around with the poppy gel

(the dolls themselves were manufactured in 1950, when poppy was still about a year old + alive so he was playing god even before her death which is CRAZYY. again what the fuck is wrong w this family 😭)

Yes, many characters are very dictated (/doomed) by the narrative, beholden to their convictions, BECAUSE IT’S AN ALLEGORY.

Yeah, some things don't seem 100% realistic (although it's a fantastically well thought out world and story), BECAUSE IT’S AN ALLEGORY.

This story, these characters, THIS ENTIRE WORLD was meticulously staged TO SEND US A MESSAGE.

It's about capitalism. It's about classism. It's about the evil of hoarded wealth. It's about the dehumanization and infantilization of disadvantaged groups by privileged ones. It's about choice and autonomy, and how neither of those mean much - and yet, mean EVERYTHING - when all you have are bad choices. When all you've BEEN GIVEN are bad choices.

It's about the violence of poverty. About what people become when they have no other choice. About what people become when they don't have even the basics of life provided for them, the selfish beasts we must become to survive when those situations are imposed - and about how, then, we're blamed for it.

It's about the way we're pitted against one another while those in power sit back and watch. It's about the violence of consumption - specifically media consumption.

Of course In-ho is a little evil; HE EXISTS TO SHOW US WHAT HAPPENS TO NORMAL PEOPLE WHEN YOU FORCE THEM INTO THOSE CHOICES.

what will get him to depend on others, what will get him to let others forgive him

Plus, I know a character who had a fate that can seen as vaguely similar to what happened to Heinous/Meteora (purely in the sense that the character in question’s problems are resolved by having them essentially become someone else, but in a different way to Heinous/Meteora).

I have been thinking about it over and over again for years, even when I was younger watching her be turned into a baby for the first I felt immensly frustrated.

The worst part to me is how everybody in-universe and in real life considers that fate as being a "good" thing for her, completely disregarding her life and value as her own person. Yes her past was painful and unfair and her current self was a danger to the kingdom, so I can see why the writers took the easy route of resetting her to pretend she can have a good life now, without having to aknowledge the burden of her entire existence, because yeah the writers and the characters (including eclipsa) treated her (very reasonable) crash out as a burden that needed to be stiffled and shoved under a rug.

It's even more disheartening when you take a deeper look into Heinous' character and what she represents. I could go on and on about how well she embodies the struggles and expectations that come with womanhood. She spends her entire life getting abused, restrainging herself and obeying her "mother"s every rule in order to become what a proper woman should be, and the moment she steps out of that mindset and gains a smidge of freedom and autonomy she gets violently punished for expressing three centuries of well earned frustration (cause let me tell you if I were in her shoes I would've been a billion times worse)

This ending is really a slap in the face compared to her character's arc, it clearly criticises misogynistic beliefs only to end up reeinforcing them by replacing the angry old unwomanly hag with an innocent more feminine baby with no autonomy.

People act like this was a good thing for Heinous but really she just suffered the same fate with Eclipsa as she did with St Olga, getting abused and stripped of everything that made her "flawed", because she was too angry and old and violent so she HAD to be fixed for the good of society. And I think the show and the fans won't aknowledge that because it makes Eclipsa (sorry Eclipsa I love you but you literally killed my goat🥀) look bad

She was stripped of ALL her memories, personality, emotions and even her body against her will and you want to make me believe she's not just dead? Not only that but she was also replaced with a more acceptable substitute AGAIN, baby meteora is just festivia 2.0. On top of all of that she's also being forgotten by everybody, globgor never gets to know about his daugther who looked just like him, Eclipsa never aknowledges her daughter who lived a whole 300 years before meeting her, the show itself never aknowledges Heinous again, except for a one off joke about Meteora hating Marco for no reason.

And to me the scene that represents how little the writers cared for Heinous' character later is when Eclipsa says she hopes Meteora doesn't remember anything from before, like ok I see fuck her I guess?? It feels so dehumanizing to see how she's treated as burden and something that they HAD to get rid of. In all her three centuries of existence Heinous was never given a fair chance at a life and even after she's gone it's like she never existed, that's how little she matter to the world, including to her mother

One thing i hate is how the fans and the writer are unwillingly to accept depicting Eclipsa as a morally grey person. I think that would make her character even better and more compelling but no she HAS to be completely innocent and get absolved of any wrond doing for some reason. Like god knows I love a woman with dubious morals (ahem heinous ahem) so I wished they were more willing to aknowledge that Eclipsa does bad things sometimes, and that resetting her daughter was indeed a very very selfish move. And just to be clear, protecting the kingdom from Heinous was not the selfish part, but having meteora resetted into a baby and willingly ignoring her entire existence up to that point, just so she can have her happy end with a normal baby was crazy selfish, and it's the most cruel thing that could happen to Heinous when you take in consideration her past.

And there is a monetary incentive for people to play into it! We see Kim Dokja do so with Yoo Joonghyuk at multiple points, spoonfeeding him medicine or playing along with Uriel in order to gain coins. This is played for comedy, because Kim Dokja is secure enough that this is a choice for him. But it is not difficult to imagine people in this world who cannot make a better product of themselves, resorting to playing up fantasies about their relationships. The star stream creates scenarios that encourages constellations to play with incarnations like dolls, including mashing their faces together, in a way that plays into the general dehumanization and lack of autonomy they face. This is, I feel, especially haunting from a woman’s perspective given how much greater of a precedent women being pushed into relationships for economic gain has in real life

1) Julian Bashir was born neurologically and developmentally disabled. He had unspecified cognitive and physical disabilities that could easily be read/interpreted as high support needs autism, cerebral palsy, and/or all kinds of combinations of various existing conditions.

2) His parents had his genetic deficiencies illegally Fixed. His disabilities were Cured. Not only this, but he was enhanced to have cognitive and physical skills beyond any natal human capability. He is now functionally Better than other humans. This act was definitely a violation of his agency and autonomy, but the takeaway is that he’s now super-abled, not disabled.

3) Now let’s meet some other genetic augments who went through the same procedure! Oh, wow, they’re all struggling. They definitely have superhuman abilities, and part of their difficulty integrating into society is attributed to their being institutionalized and also general cultural Federation prejudice against augments, but fundamentally these people struggle because their augmentations giveth and they taketh away. Their augmentations have not erased their ongoing need to be accommodated! Sarina is straight up catatonic and nonspeaking from constant overstimulation; her enhanced senses deliver more information than her brain is able to process. Such narrative choices clearly demonstrate that genetic augmentation does not automatically heal disabilities and is incredibly likely to Give You New Ones even if it does…

4) unless you are Julian Bashir.

5) The other augments actively express jealousy towards Bashir— that he’s allowed to integrate with society, yes, but also that he’s not functionally disabled. The writing and portrayal of his character is absolutely still neurodivergent and disability coded, that’s pretty consistent, BUT: textually, according to the internal logic of DS9’s narrative, Julian Bashir has been successfully “cured” of his disabilities, and he is the only genetic augment for whom this appears to be true. The others need accommodations to meaningfully participate in society, and he does not.

6) They double down on this by having him “cure” Sarina in Chrysalis. Additional genetic augmentation performed by genius Dr. Bashir manages to stabilize her and she is suddenly able to function independently in society. But is she Cured the way Julian is Cured? No, she still requires support. Could you argue her struggles adjusting are due to being institutionalized and also catatonic for most of her life? Yeah sure, but that still suggests that genetic augmentation is not an automatic fix for being able to function independently. This is well in line with the themes DS9 and Star Trek attempt to narratively convey! It’s not as simple as just doing eugenics until no one needs wheelchairs or Braille anymore; in fact, we agree the practice is actively harmful to the wellbeing of individuals and society.

7) And yet Dr. Bashir is fine. Granted, he has his own issues and idiosyncrasies, but so do the rest of the DS9 cast, and so these are easily attributed to him being a complex and nuanced character, not a disability. Because he’s not disabled, at least according to narrative logic— they Fixed that. Yes, it was traumatic and violating and dehumanizing, and yes, augmentation has demonstrably never worked that way for anyone else in-universe, but Bashir is the narrative’s special favorite boy as far as this concept is concerned. He gets to be Fixed and Cured and never experience any measurable side effects of his own augmentation outside of social stigma and his own complicated feelings about it.

8) Here’s what grinds my gears more than anything: DS9’s narrative recognizes the violence inherent in augmenting Julian without his consent, but not the violence inherent in actually erasing his disability. Shady criminal procedures Cure his deficiencies by bestowing him superpowers, and aside from the fact that it makes both Julian and others uncomfortable, there are no objective downsides to this result. Purposefully or otherwise, it suggests that curing disability is not only possible in Star Trek’s utopian future, but a net positive moral good.

TLDR: The entire justification for Bashir’s special treatment as an illegal augment and the basis of his allowance to remain in Starfleet is that he’s an undeniably gifted doctor who will save countless lives by continuing to practice medicine. Jules Bashir, the six year old who struggled to learn the ABCs, could never have achieved this. Ultimately, Julian’s achievements symbolically justify his parents’ decision to violate him in the long run! Sure, he has depression and anxiety, he may not be content or personally fulfilled, but he functions, and that’s what makes it worthwhile. He contributes, and he does not need to be accommodated. Bashir’s whole personal complex around being an augment is even centered around trying to prove that augments (disabled people) can contribute to society. But considering the episode where other augments are introduced is all about showcasing their limitations, combined with Sarina’s arc in Chrysalis and Julian’s entire character post-retcon, they are demonstrably only able to do this ONCE THEY’RE CURED.

This is Star Trek! The same show that on the surface across multiple episodes and multiple series with multiple disabled characters has expressly, consistently tried to communicate that disabilities shouldn’t be cured or erased! Other fans have pointed out the Star Trek universe’s wobbly and conflicting success in conveying this message, but still— It blows my mind that DS9 beefed it SO hard. Bashir is an incredibly well written character outside of this aspect too! Yet from a narrative analysis perspective, where characters are representative symbols and not just people, Jules the disabled six year old really is dead. That’s not purely something adult Julian is written to believe about himself, it is textually true. Jules was completely erased. No matter how much the story condemns that erasure as injustice, there are still no narrative consequences. Richard Bashir goes to jail, but Julian is still a superpowered genius who can help save the world. Julian is troubled and has conflicting feelings about his augmentations, but even that internal conflict never gets in the way of his ability to practice medicine/functionally benefit society. Eugenics wins.

DS9 as a creative project is actively trying to push against fascist eugenicist pro-authoritarian rhetoric, and I don’t believe Julian’s arc is intended in any Doylist sense to fulfill it, but still, it does. Even the introduction of other augments who are functionally disabled, intended to complicate the narrative of augmentation/curing as a solution, simply ends up reinforcing Julian as a special example of how the whole practice can ultimately be successful. That’s fucked, especially considering how close they got to doing something legitimately groundbreaking for a mainstream 90s science fiction show! All they had to do was let Bashir continue to be disabled after they retconned him to be that way. No one was holding the writer’s room at gunpoint or forcing them into that decision; the least they could have done was stand by their goddamned choice.