![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Okay. So I finally managed to sit down and watch 3x11, Pax Romana, properly. And ... I have some problems with it. Just a smidge.
Um. Did anyone besides me find Ranna's (paraphrased) line that 'any lifeforce that comes within city limits automatically belongs to us' supremely creepy? No. I mean, seriously. So, not only does the city have the apparent right to lock people out, lock people in, control who gets to go to the surface, control who gets to come down, make sure people never leave, regardless of where they originally came from, but also ... Also they can apparently hold people after death. They get to decide when you're allowed to die. Step inside city limits, and not only do they apparently own you, but you can't even die to escape them.
Um. I mean, Adam is a murdering, megalomaniac, terrorist bastard, but suddenly, I'm feeling an awful lot of sympathy with him. Well, mostly with the poor sods who got stuck with him as their only hero, but still. Does that not ...
How does Helen let that go? I mean, yes, she's happy that it means they're not dead, always a bonus, but how ... She basically spends the episode talking to a woman who outright states that the city endorses a form of slavery, over any innocent, bewildered person who makes the mistake of coming down, or any poor abnormal already there with no choice in the matter, and Helen never calls her on it. Never calls her on any of the means Praxis has of controlling the underground and everyone in it. Because if the city falls ... what? The underground heads for the surface?
Okay. On the one hand, I can see why that could be a problem. Given the efforts of the Cabal with the Lazarus virus in season 1, I can understand why a sudden influx of new (and apparently in some cases more powerful) abnormals from Below will cause radical shift in human/abnormal relations, and make things very, very difficult for a while. But ...
To preserve the status quo on the surface, Helen basically walks away from a city that keeps people underground, apparently often against their will, via liberal application of force, death, the cultivation of ignorance (the mushroom farmers?), and a kind of slavery. She doesn't say anything. She walks away, after exchanging pleasant words with Ranna about how they can learn from each other.
I'm really, really hoping that this isn't because Helen was having a Victorian moment, and seeing Praxis as a sort of much larger form of Underground Sanctuary, justified in its methods. Because ... okay. I'm ... kinda not liking how the Sanctuary network itself is very ... human-orientated? As in, lock the dangerous abnormals away so they don't threaten humans? Admittedly, often to ensure that the humans don't lash back in turn, as per the Lazarus virus, but still ... Human spread goes unchecked, and Sanctuary seems to be mostly clearing the abnormals out of their path as they come, or helping them fit into to an otherwise human world, and that ... It sort of worries me, that Praxis might be a larger reflection of that. The logical conclusion, as it were. Separate the surface and the underground, humans and abnormals, entirely and enforce that by what looks like any means necessary.
And on the one hand, that means the humans aren't getting any of the awesome technology of Praxis. And on the other, that means most people under Praxis' rule aren't getting any freedom. Ever.
Um. So. To sum up? Awesome episode, with the action, and Henry geeking out, and all of that. But ... Praxis itself just seems ... supremely creepy and worrying to me, and the fact that none of them yelled at them for it ... I mean, Gregory chose to stay. Because he thinks the place is awesome. In need of work, definitely, but still awesome. And Helen was all ... fine by me? It just ... Um. Yes. Creeps me out a bit. The whole city, and what it stands for. I don't like it at all.
Um. Did anyone besides me find Ranna's (paraphrased) line that 'any lifeforce that comes within city limits automatically belongs to us' supremely creepy? No. I mean, seriously. So, not only does the city have the apparent right to lock people out, lock people in, control who gets to go to the surface, control who gets to come down, make sure people never leave, regardless of where they originally came from, but also ... Also they can apparently hold people after death. They get to decide when you're allowed to die. Step inside city limits, and not only do they apparently own you, but you can't even die to escape them.
Um. I mean, Adam is a murdering, megalomaniac, terrorist bastard, but suddenly, I'm feeling an awful lot of sympathy with him. Well, mostly with the poor sods who got stuck with him as their only hero, but still. Does that not ...
How does Helen let that go? I mean, yes, she's happy that it means they're not dead, always a bonus, but how ... She basically spends the episode talking to a woman who outright states that the city endorses a form of slavery, over any innocent, bewildered person who makes the mistake of coming down, or any poor abnormal already there with no choice in the matter, and Helen never calls her on it. Never calls her on any of the means Praxis has of controlling the underground and everyone in it. Because if the city falls ... what? The underground heads for the surface?
Okay. On the one hand, I can see why that could be a problem. Given the efforts of the Cabal with the Lazarus virus in season 1, I can understand why a sudden influx of new (and apparently in some cases more powerful) abnormals from Below will cause radical shift in human/abnormal relations, and make things very, very difficult for a while. But ...
To preserve the status quo on the surface, Helen basically walks away from a city that keeps people underground, apparently often against their will, via liberal application of force, death, the cultivation of ignorance (the mushroom farmers?), and a kind of slavery. She doesn't say anything. She walks away, after exchanging pleasant words with Ranna about how they can learn from each other.
I'm really, really hoping that this isn't because Helen was having a Victorian moment, and seeing Praxis as a sort of much larger form of Underground Sanctuary, justified in its methods. Because ... okay. I'm ... kinda not liking how the Sanctuary network itself is very ... human-orientated? As in, lock the dangerous abnormals away so they don't threaten humans? Admittedly, often to ensure that the humans don't lash back in turn, as per the Lazarus virus, but still ... Human spread goes unchecked, and Sanctuary seems to be mostly clearing the abnormals out of their path as they come, or helping them fit into to an otherwise human world, and that ... It sort of worries me, that Praxis might be a larger reflection of that. The logical conclusion, as it were. Separate the surface and the underground, humans and abnormals, entirely and enforce that by what looks like any means necessary.
And on the one hand, that means the humans aren't getting any of the awesome technology of Praxis. And on the other, that means most people under Praxis' rule aren't getting any freedom. Ever.
Um. So. To sum up? Awesome episode, with the action, and Henry geeking out, and all of that. But ... Praxis itself just seems ... supremely creepy and worrying to me, and the fact that none of them yelled at them for it ... I mean, Gregory chose to stay. Because he thinks the place is awesome. In need of work, definitely, but still awesome. And Helen was all ... fine by me? It just ... Um. Yes. Creeps me out a bit. The whole city, and what it stands for. I don't like it at all.
