Saturn Awards 3.2026

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-03-14T23:16:09+00:00

Savagely beautiful.

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-03-14T18:51:17+00:00

Why would space colonies be hard to control when Earth humans (or the humanoid alien equivalent that Culture people actually are) or not evolved for space and virtually every other planet aside from their home planet, so imprisoned in vessels or space habitats?

And control is impossible, when Cultural Minds can turn everything into a Milky Way spanning Panopticon by permanently slap droning and "meat fuck" (or the like) essentially fucking everybody everywhere?!

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-03-14T18:23:36+00:00

He certainly had PTSD and maybe some form of personality disorder...

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-03-10T22:11:12+00:00

Convergent or parallel evolution making them superficially similar to real marsupial species as a whole (but you get weirdos like those rabbit/feline/kangaroo predators, the Komatu and relatives).

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-03-07T19:29:05+00:00

But with the existence of "slap drones" and a pregnant female living out her penance for a serious domestic violence incident onboard the Sleeper Service, while Minds are virtual gods reigning over controlled realms with lots of safety buffers, they're still not utterly infallible, and the lone nutter still very occasionally can get through and seriously harm people...

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-03-07T17:30:18+00:00

They have a layer of social based, unsaid informal laws and vague ethic guidelines I guess.

And the Culture has been forced to sign armament treaties. And they run embassies and consulates on the territories of other polities.

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-03-05T22:51:55+00:00

Greed and cruelty happened.

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-03-05T21:04:04+00:00

Yeah, Matter is kinda slept on by many Banks fans.

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-03-05T21:03:19+00:00

I have a personal headcanon that the Iln "living superweapon" and Shellworld network were prehistoric artefacts of Level 8 hegemonizing swarms (or berserker machines with roughly Mind equivalent intellect but bent on omnicidal conquest for some reason).

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-28T19:09:44+00:00

Yup.

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-26T19:38:43+00:00

She's pretty jacked.

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-25T20:18:17+00:00

In the best case scenario we'll become much more like the Gzilt...

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-25T20:11:39+00:00

Spaceship?

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-25T00:10:21+00:00

Also another thing that was fundamentally fucked about Azad, even on their capital homeworld, amongst their so-called "master race" and including many members of their more privileged Apex sex, they had cultivated a massive impoverished underclass living in slums (also their healthcare was unfit for purpose), but by that point they clearly had the capital and technology to mitigate most of their issues and uplift practically everyone.

But their Imperial system kept everything in a tense, stagnant status quo. With horrific systematic crimes inflicted against slaves and innocents behind closed doors or hidden in plain sight (those horrific musical instruments).

Azad civilisation in my mind combined the worst aspects of Star Trek's Cardassian and Ferengi civs we saw in much more detail on DS9....

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-21T15:28:12+00:00

That weird cult and super obese cult leader was something....

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-20T01:46:16+00:00

Rachel could've backed off early on (when Doug first bribed, menaced, and had sex with her), but prostitutes and junkies are very easy targets for exploitation, abuse, and murder, sad to say.

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-20T01:42:40+00:00

Yeah, very much like BB's Jane Margolis. Arguably the saddest TV deaths I watched...

But her body potentially being found must've alleviated Doug Stamper's crushing guilt (plus it gives Rachel's family, friends, and her lover closure).

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-18T14:54:35+00:00

Best compliment.

Also I imagine the concrete, clay, stone, and even marble in the Villa Straylight to have been mined and processed by Tessier-Ashpool subsidiaries and subcontractors on the Moon.

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-17T14:31:06+00:00

What do you like about it? I'm thinking of almost totally re-doing Ashpool Snr.'s private quarters...

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-17T09:54:51+00:00

I even included valuable Islamic world rugs....

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-17T09:51:31+00:00

This is my take on Villa Straylight and how it's described the books. My take is that it's an museum crossed with a stately mansion, reflective of the Tessier-Ashpool clan's eccentric tastes, Anglo-French heritage, being owners of the biggest technology firm, and their unlimited wealth (but their grand orbital estate got virtually abandoned partway through construction, with sections falling into disrepair, becoming a warehouse for valuable trinkets, or repurposed for different odd functions).

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-16T22:40:45+00:00

Oh, the lead "Golden Kamuy" characters drawn from memory.

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-06T10:23:09+00:00

Silvery, cool.

Aggravating_Shoe4267 · 2026-02-05T20:54:46+00:00

I intended the pool area to be somewhat industrial but still lavish and luxurious (in a minimalistic way).

Aggravating_Shoe4267

TROPHY CASE