Hello and I’ve got a lot to talk about this video as we review Picard Episode four, Absolute
Candour so I’m going to start with a spoiler-full review and then touch on some old lore about
the various religions we’ve heard from in Romulan culture.
There’s a lot of development around the mysteries of Soji’s purpose and some clarification
of the Zhat Vash’s intent. At the centre of it is the assimilation of the Shaenor that
coincided with the severance of the Borg Cube from the collective. Meanwhile, Narek clarified
his mission is to use Soji to learn of the whereabouts of perhaps even more synthetic-people.
I’m warming to Soji a bit more this episode as we see her trying to unwarp an enigma that
she is unaware she is the central component of.
Although her goofing off with Narek had me cringing somewhat, but that’s because I’m
a grump and the kind of guy who would shout get of my lawn damned kids! I appreciated
the frivolity, but my Trek tempered mind kept me from enjoying the moment by screaming BORG
CUBE! DANGER! Don’t provoke the BORG! but I’m glad the Borg ritual that Narek alluded
to was nonsense. My heart did sink when he started going on about the Borg having a culture.
But fears were unfounded. Picard gets another flashback sequence, this
one on Vashti, a Romulan colony of nuns who took in some of the relocated refugees when
the evacuations were in full swing. Kindly grandad Picard is quite a juxtaposition to
the character as we knew him within TNG, but Picard has always consoled himself about his
lack of a family with the ideas that his brother had the Picard legacy covered. Of course that
was all lost in Star Trek: Generations with the death of Robert leading him to lament
his solitude. It makes sense that the aging man would seek a surrogate family in others
and perhaps he sees some of this in the young Elnor and the Asher twins. Equally I understand
Elnor’s resentment of Picard, having been missing for 14 years, but I am glad that he
seems mature enough to understand that it wasn’t all Picard’s fault. I’m thinking
this will be a tension between the two however as Picard does seem to dislike the direction
Elnor’s life has taken as a warrior and honestly, Picard’s self-imposed exile in
La Barre, France is partially responsible for him not being around these last 14 years.
We also meet up with the Qowat Milat. I noticed a lot very Old Japanese inspired visuals in
these shots, with blossoming trees, weapon racks hidden in the background and the Qowat
Milat seem to practice a lot of weaving judging by their paraphernalia and practice a way
of life not overly reliant on technology. Elnor in particular has a very strong Ronin
Samurai influence with the neat Black robe, tied cloth boots, hair bun, and Tan Galang
sword which looks very similar to a Katana. Although, yes, he does look like a fantasy
elf, but stick and Vulcan or Romulan in robe and give them a sword and that’s gonna be
true for the lot. It seems that the Qowat Milat were based on
Vashti in the Qiris Sector, Beta Quadrant, before the supernova and took in a number
of refugees including the young Elnor. As a male, he would be unable to join the sisterhood
but is still trained by them as an unofficial member of sorts and he pledges himself to
Picard’s mission. As for the way of Absolute Candour, I think
that it has a silly name and I imagine it leads to some awkward situations at times.
Although over time however, I image it probably tempers people’s emotional state when they
have to constantly speak their mind. It’s also is in opposition to standard Romulan
practice and interestingly also against the Vulcan way of Logic that both often have people
repressing their true feelings and intentions. We also get to see a traditional Romulan Warbird
from the 2270’s era of the Star Empire and it is mentioned as being an antique ship.
Still it is a fearsome match for a small vessel like the La Sirena, and has a bit of an updated
look to it which I’m not gonna lie, had me grinning with nostalgia. This Kar Kantar
seems to be a crimelord or gang member who has forced out the previous faction of Fenris
Rangers which sounds like a Romulan-connected faction. Fenris being named similarly to the
fame-wolf Fenrir of Norse mythology and Romulus and Remus being the wolfpack raised children
of Roman lore. As for the warbird itself, I’m not sure
as to the current situation, but in non-canon tales, many former military assets wound up
in civilian use, especially with the supernova causing the remnants of the military to horde
as many up-to-date ships as they could. This left the civilian populous to use whatever
old ships they could find. I’ve noticed there is a lot of world building
and background terminology dropped in dialogue and open to assumption in this series and
it’s not letting off which I love, but has led to some issues. What we are seeing is
the results of the Supernova as there is no time for yet another exposition dump to flesh
out the past 20 years of turmoil. Sufficed to say that it appears to be drawing on inspirations
from other Trek works that depicted the collapse of the Star Empire and the formation of numerous
movements and breakaway nations. We have had mention of the Romulan Free State, who run
the Borg reclamation project and now the Rebirth Movement who feel abandoned by the Federation.
The scattering of their people due to the half-hearted Federation evacuation has left
them without the support they were promised and the Rebirth Movement in particular feels
that in their moment of panic, swayed by Admiral Picard’s words, they were taken advantage
of by the Federation. A paranoid stance to be sure, but one grounded in observation of
the results and a very Romulan way of thinking. I’m liking this exposure to a side of the
Star Trek universe which we hear about but don’t often witness. How difficult things
can be for people without using the Federation. The relationship between Narek and his sister
is very uncomfortable to watch. I guess this is the point as I think it’s Narek’s discomfort
that makes it so. But still. What is going on here, the tone is borderline incestuous
and I can’t take it seriously. The cameo at the end has little to go on right
now, but after playing Star Trek Online where Jeri Ryan played a 2399 era Seven of Nine,
I can tell you that this is a very different Seven who has spent 20 years humanising. Her
speech is more colloquial and less precise than it was so be ready for that going forwards.
So this episodes sees us exposed to a hitherto unknown layer of Romulan Society, that of
the Qowat Milat, a sort of religion or sect of Romulans who follow the Way of Absolute
Candor and practice combat, like warrior monks. Only this group is traditionally women meaning
that Elnor, for however much training he has will never officially join their ranks. Religion
among the Romulans has been a part of their society for since the original series novels
with many following a belief in the five Elements, Fire, Earth, Water, Air and Archelement which
is the guiding force behind the others. This belief may have been a continuation of a lost
Vulcan belief as their cousins embraced the logical Surak’s teachings while those whom
marched beneath the raptor’s wings left on their exodus.
There is also the D’era meaning Endless Sky and this was the primary belief that unified
the early Romulans during the sundering from their original homeworld. It said that beings
from Vorta Vor, a Romulan heaven told the early Vulcans that they were to inherit the
stars, that they would be the superior species. Eventually the Vulcan’s lost this belief
with their Awakening to logic, but many in Romulus and Remus still hold true to the way
of D’era, thinking themselves superior to all others. Whether or not this is still a
conscious creed that they follow however is unknown. It did serve some good though, for
the Romulans as it preached that this divine right could only be obtained through unity
and is likely what saw them through their turbulent early times.
There are also references to a polytheistic religion and numerous other traditions that
have been written into canon over the years as well as originating in extra sources. For
example the reasoning given for Nero’s tattooed appearance was a tradition among Romulans
to get a small tattoo for a lost loved one that wouldn’t last so that as time passed,
the tattoo faded until it was gone. Nero and his crew decided to get a whole lot of them
to mourn the loss of Romulus in its entirety. So just as humans have had a variety of beliefs
and religions over time, the Romulan culture too has had its own early ways of trying to
understand the universe but many of these beliefs have faded with time. Especially due
to the rise in the Romulan Star Empire’s focus on military might and conquest and the
gradual suppression of many of its citizens ideals that could conflict with loyalty to
the Empire. Organisations such as the Tal Shiar would also police the Romulan populous
and while often allow certain beliefs to persists, didn’t exactly encourage it. Alongside this
were Spock’s efforts to reunify Vulcan and Romulus, a small segment began to embrace
the teachings of Surak too. Again, much of this was not seen in shows
but still adds flavouring to the species. Many of these beliefs were seen only among
the civilian populous which helps explain why they’re so seldom seen onscreen. So
as the Romulan specialist Ramdha was narrating, there is also a strong mythology in their
culture which included legends of the Ganmadan or, “Day of Annihilation” which saw the
Destroyer free the chained demons and begin an apocalyptical event. I’m going to go
out on a limb here and suggest that this is the driving belief behind the Zhat Vash’s
hatred of artificial life, that how they believe this mythology to be interpreted.
As for the Qowat Milat Sisterhood, they train Qalankhkai, warriors who follow their teachings
and will undertake numerous altruistic roles of protection. Occasionally, one can petition
their order for aid, but they will only agree to pledge if they judge the cause worthy.
They say it has to be lost cause and there is an understanding among the sisterhood that
the Qalankhkai have a high mortality rate once they undertake such a quest.
So that’s my analysis and critique of the information added by “Absolute Candour”.
I did have to watch it several times to pick up on a lot of the information that flies
by and I can see that the series has a solid backstory foundation which it is using to
flesh out its world, but if I have a criticism of the series so far it would be that there
is so much lore to uncover in such a short amount of time and the series is growing increasingly
reliant on that world. The series is assuming that the viewer is absorbing all this at breakneck
speed and maybe if I were an android, then I’d get it all on one pass without further
research. Personally, I’d rather this approach than the Discovery direction of just winging
it with its own retcons, but that is because I’ve been following stories such as Star
Trek Online and am completely used to seeing different factions of Romulans, Borg technology
being studied, ancient religions and myths coming to life and a conflicted Starfleet.
To me, I can look at elements from Picard and say, that’s like this from online, but
a bit different but that’s the problem, very few people play things like Star Trek
Online and Picard is a hard introduction to a Star Trek universe, 20 years from when we
last visited it on screens. That two decade gap has had a lot happen and we’re seeing
its effects but it’s a lot to juggle alongside the main narrative of Star Trek Picard especially
only in 10 episodes. I’ll keep on top of the lore reveals as
they come, but as I said, this is mostly built off of assumption and what other authors have
extrapolated in their own works but it lines up with what we’re seeing in Picard. As
for the show itself, I know not everyone needs this level of background detail and just wants
to be entertained and on this front, I think the series is doing fine, but I would not
recommend this as someone’s first foray in Star Trek as even people with a passing
knowledge of The Next Generation may struggle to keep up with its rapid delivery. When the
series is done, I foresee several lists of Star Trek episodes to watch to understand
Picard appearing and I’ll probably make one myself.
Thanks for watching this review and lore dive. I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you next time,
Jolan Tru.