Raised by Wolves - 02:02 - Seven

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After Campion is hurt during his first encounter with the serpent, Mother must reconcile her feelings for her natural child as the collective is ordered by the Trust to hunt it down. Marcus comes to believe the serpent will help him find the Tree of Knowledge and sets off to find it before the atheists do.

 

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We mostly agreed that there is a bias in the second season viewers as you cannot easily turn off the sense of disbelief. And then on the second episode we have the serpent. In my mind I cannot justify using the word necro with the serpent, even though Reberg's suggestion is a good one, because my mind specifically associate it necro with the undead.

The synopsis suggest that it's the serpent from Garden of Eden, but if Seven is that one then the garden most certainly is the twisted version of Eden. And the god guarding the Kebler-22b isn't the one we'd on Earth, except in extreme cases, which this series is famous for. It is a bloody strange planet and the settlers are mad or cursed.

In ways this series is a Dark Fantasy in dystopic SF settings. It is straight up my street, but it is just so weird. The thing that delights me is watching the narrative flow new details to emerge. Just like Marcus' claimed that the planet was a paradise. And Marcus itself becoming an avatar or a champion for Sol. It is a twisted thing, especially as we see the alien connection morphing his demeanour.

Thing is, I cannot decide if the play is an alien trap or an actual ARK story with celestial forces playing a twisted game with the settlers or survivors. Maybe they are both, settlers and survivors as they are the remains of humanity in Ridley Scott's universe.

Like with Kirkman, we have to accept that Mr Scott has his own vision and like it is with the Prometheus, that vision is radically different from the mainstream view.

"She's a necromancer. Machine like you." Exactly, and he's tied to a machine as well. It is so weird that the Collective gave Mother a task of punishment, as if the violence is accepted, because of her machine definition.

"Violence is pain. Compliance is life," was the Collective answer. But the thing is, while Mother was still a necromancer, she had turned off her emotions, while inside the helmet she was still very much feeling them, thus putting herself through the pain while dishing out a punishment.

"Hatred is pain. Pain is hatred." Say no more, evil Collective. It clearly affected her that she had to do the thing, when she clearly didn't wanted to. But from the Ai perspective, the whole thing was just numbers, a calculus or a process to correct the subject, without understanding the history in the torture.

Bad machine.

"It is a million year old android. Similar to us, but different..." Yes, very different for popping out bloody radioactive berries that somehow satisfied Father beyond the belief. It made me to think that he'd been in pub again and come back a bit tipsy to work on his project, while reality was that he was off his face. But you think that "caregiving protocol" and him feeling responsibility for the living, then yes, the tropical zone most certainly feels much better and most probably ranks very high compared to the last settlement at the rock garden.

I loved that Father brought up number seven's as a failure and the need for the Mother to see Campion as the Leader as Mother's instincts, because I'm pretty certain that he's thinking that Mother should be shut down and stored for the rainy day. He can handle the family business very well without Mother's influence. In fact, I think that the family would do better without her as harsh as it sounds, because not all women are made to be mothers. And she most certainly didn't start as one.

The thing that were missed were the berries, "Synthetic botanicals," as it was swiped under Mother's lies. Her surprising redemption came in when she said to Campion that she would take the blame for him turning in the alien artefact.

"These could hold the data." Man, my jaw dropped. A storage device that can retain the information over the teeth of time. We don't know anything like it. Nothing that would last for thousands of years of erosion.

Marcus, you devil or should I say a champion. It's just personally I cannot justify rooting for him because of his association with the alien god. You could say it's a problem because I see him as a betrayer rather than a survivor. The most interesting aspect is that he is growing his flock by rescuing the sol worshippers.

Bloody hell. Look at that track. That's snake has some weight. As soon as I saw it I thought 'Campion you're so effed.' The thing that I love about it is that it has horns on snout. When it took over Campions mind, I wish Mother to have her eyes back, because that snake needs some punishment. What you also can see in that shot is that Seven can fly, but it can also cloak. Therefore, Seven is an uberwyrm.

Also like its biblical counterpart Seven seems to be in possession of superior knowledge and just like in the Bible it is manipulating humans. Oh, Mother what did you do?

The Atheist called "an indigenous flying reptile," as if it's the norm to have an uberwyrm patrolling the skies. "It appears in addition to flying, it's able to withstand the acid water. So we got our work cut out for us." Say no more, sir.

Although it was an awesome sight to see the uberwyrm doing shenanigans. Poor people, you are so effed. "Right people. Go to your tasks, and by night we'll be hopefully roasting this thing on spit." Sir, yes Sir.

If this is a god play then the Atheist are the lost civilisation of Atlantis at their height and they have no chance in hell on surviving the wrath of the uberwyrm. What I hated was them putting Father leading the bait squad. But Scott's universe, that is what you'll do with the androids, because you simply never, ever cannot trust them. Except if it's our Father.

Therefore, damn you Atheist, leave Father alone. What I loved were Marcus' people gathered as a group for the worm to eat. "Make sure they're completely eaten before you'll detonate."

Oh Father, please do not listen to the instructions. Fire at will.

The craziest thing is that Marcus' rescue android told him that he needs to tame the uberwyrm. As if was the weapon.

Mum, the dragonslayer, Mk I, Mod 0. It was touching to see her feeling the connection through the shedded skin. If this is a fantasy story, she should definitely take it for the mod version.

"You don't deserve sympathy. Only death." And she burned the damn thing. MUUUUM!

 

[Dave]

I haven't watched this yet, so more comments after that, but it looks interesting, but completely wacko.

It is so weird that the Collective gave Mother a task of punishment, as if the violence is accepted, because of her machine definition.

However, I just had to say that it doesn't seem so weird to me. What was definitely weird last episode, was having her in charge of teaching the little baby children! I realise that in this society the children are taken from their parents by the collective, but even so, not a single one of them complained that the homicidal woman who had sunk the Ark ship single-handed, who had lasers coming out of her eyes, was now being left alone with the kids?

 

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was now being left alone with the kids?

Yep, Scott's Ai's are bad for the humanity.

 

[Dave]

Okay. So, some genuine questions: The flying alien sucker snake is now being called "biotech". (This presumably explains how it can fly without wings.) However, I don't understand: Is it an indigenous lizard or a constructed AI in serpent form? Are androids also classed as "biotech"? If not, what is the difference between biotech and an android? The androids that were living on the planet millennia ago, was their tech brought to Earth, or given by Sol to Campion Sturges through a vision, or was it a totally separate independent development? Are the birds on Kepler-22b also biotech? Is everything living on the planet biotech?

I think I'm following this now. It might even all make sense after all!

Some things will never make any sense though: The acid oceans capable of dissolving guards within seconds of being covered. Now the flying alien sucker snake can swim in the ocean because it is biotech, I'm guessing. What about the people fishing, with nets on poles? Why don't the net and the pole burn? What exactly are they fishing for? Is it for food? Are the fish biotech then? Can they eat biotech fish? Can they eat androids too?

I think I'm may be overthinking this.

 

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I think with biotech they want to say it's not organic, but a construct. Then again we don't know how Ridley's androids are made, just the fact that they share similar technologies to the biological counterparts. So, it's safer to call them androids than waffle with the biotech as android fits the definition.

I'm not going to even start on the acid ocean because I cannot comprehend it myself.

 

[Dave]

I'm not going to even start on the acid ocean because I cannot comprehend it myself.

Yep, the ocean and atmosphere would be chemically balanced as they are on Earth, with exchanges, releases and absorption of gases into the liquid solution. So, if you had an ocean that was, let's say, concentrated Sulphuric Acid or Hydrochloric Acid or Hydrofluoric Acid, maybe a mixture of concentrated acids, then the atmosphere would also be toxic with Sulphur Dioxide or Chlorine or Fluorine gases at proportionally high concentrations.

I think they were trying to say that the toxicity on the planet was radioactive to counter this argument. Father said that the ancient fruit growing on the android skeleton was radioactive. Unfortunately, that doesn't really wash. A radioactive ocean is not going to dissolve a human in a few seconds. If it did, then it would be for the acidic chemistry of the radioactive elemental salt, not just because of its radioactivity, and in which case, we would be back to asking why there isn't also a presence of that in the atmosphere too.

But I can ignore problems with chemistry and biology to some extent. People are ignorant of science. On the Apprentice they thought Penguins live in the Arctic, which they spelled "Artic" because they said most people spell it that way. These people somehow manage to get degrees.

What I can't accept is plot that is completely nonsensical. These episodes seem to make some sense if you buy into the God lives on Kepler 22b idea and there was once some civilisation there that has now collapsed, but maybe even seeded Earth with life.

 

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These episodes seem to make some sense if you buy into the God lives on Kepler 22b idea and there was once some civilisation there that has now collapsed, but maybe even seeded Earth with life.

That's the same thing as what Ridley presented in the Prometheus. So it's not a big reach that they're playing with the idea and making it more plain than what they were trying to do in the first season. Maybe we'll just have to peel this play a layer by layer and accept that the science doesn't know everything.

The idea of lost civilisation appeal me and even the Bible makes a note of them in Noah's Ark. They are mysteries, but the thing is, there seem to be abundance of evidence all around the planet that there were something before. Something technologically equal to Earth civilisations that has reached higher technological levels than we could have ever dream of and yet, according to this story, we were one planet civilisation, even at the Kebler system.

 

[REBerg]

"I don't plan to have any more natural children," said the android "mother" who gave birth to a flying serpent through her mouth.
That was the wackiest moment of this episode for me, She had her lactating "nipples" sealed so the humans wouldn't make the parental connection between her and No. 7?
I guess Mother's creator expected her to nurse her "natural" offspring. That really stretches my suspension of disbelief beyond its limits.
As a brother from the same mother, Campion also felt a psychic connection with No 7 when they came face-to-face. Maybe No. 7 will prove benign. I haven't seen it eating anyone yet, but I wonder where it gets the energy and matter for its phenomenal growth.

In my mind I cannot justify using the word necro with the serpent,

Seems like the right name for the offspring of a necromancer.

I don't understand: Is it an indigenous lizard or a constructed AI in serpent form?

I think the "indigenous" description came from the Collective as a simple explanation to the colonists. I imagine the AI, coming from the same digital gene pool, has a better idea of No7's nature.

 

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She had her lactating "nipples" sealed so the humans wouldn't make the parental connection between her and No. 7?
I guess Mother's creator expected her to nurse her "natural" offspring. That really stretches my suspension of disbelief beyond its limits.

To be honest, I get if she would have two, not eight (including the natural ones). We also don't know much about her model or what the hacker did to mod her for the Mother role. But you'll have to take some of it as a joke, because I'd have put a similar kind as sarcasm. Some of those things have gone through the editor red pen and some have even liked it.

I do get that you wouldn't believe, but the snake was born and that was impossible. Six lactating extra nipples are less of a concern when there's an uberwyrm on the sky. But since Mother has nibbles, does Father has a sausage and for what for?

There is a lose connection through the androids to the Wallace corporation being alive in the Blade Runner world. We know that the replicants are perfect copies or enhanced biomachines.

David in the Promethus certainly was one of them. If you look Black Lotus (BladeRunner animation), you'll see another. Mother however with her necromancer gear takes the top.

What I'm trying to say is that there is certain connection with these androids and the ones in the Aliens saga. They are all over-the-top bonkers machines, one way or another.

 

[svalbard]

Did I miss something in S1. When were the remaining Mithraics captured by the Atheists?

Is Ragnar turning into a kind of anti-hero character?

A million year old android? How far into the future or is it the past are we?

There is so much more to ponder but I am flummoxed with a lactating Android! I don't know what to make of it. It is bonkers, but not in a good Terry Gilliam way.