I just fucking realised that the Borg going from a terrifying omnipotent inscrutable menace to bumbling stooges might not have been a convenient retcon, but rather part of their actual plan.
Forget about "The Borg" as in the Star Trek "race" and what that means to you. Think about what a real galaxy-spanning machine-mind might be like: how distantly beyond any little federation it would be as a result of assimilating, cross-referencing and extrapolating on every technology and philosophy it can find and using that to advance itself.
How fucking ludicrous it is that some humans could ever out-wit a patient, immortal collective like that.
We couldn't ever even assume that whatever surface it presents to us is its real self. As far as we know, every feature or characteristic we are presented with is merely a strategic choice designed to influence our long-term decisions.
What I'm getting at is that I think the Federation has already been assimilated, they (and by extension we) just don't realise it yet.
And they did this with Jeri Ryan's massive fucking bongo titties.
What we see of the Borg are basically dumb inept insects that are the DIAMETRIC OPPOSITE of the things the Federation values about themselves, and the reason they resist assimilation. But if our individuality and sense of self really is a strength, then wouldn't the collective want to incorporate that? But how would you assimilate that without destroying it?
Maybe by letting us think we're independent will still finding an interface that integrates us as an intact organ into a greater whole.
Maybe you'd go about that with a sophisticated bimbo trojan horse aimed directly at us, the audience (and by extension the crew) and some bullshit about a unimatrix, and LARPing as antagonists while all along safeguarding their (partially-borgified) ship and ultimately even ultimately giving them a highway to get home.
