I mean, what else could the title even be, lol.
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I prodigiously use the Lexxicon throughout my blogging as point of reference info. It is Lexxcellent for tiny canon details when one is doing research, and very useful to anyone wondering anything about the show.
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I have brought up that I think Boron 7 was likely a lab planet used by His Shadow's scientists to experiment on manipulating DNA in every way possible. The only things we know about the Boron system are that Giggerota came from Boron 7 and that the Luvliner was near Boron 13, a big moon.
One of the bigger picture conundrums with the Lexx series is that one Insect managed to subjugate a League of 20,000 Planets and further terrorized an extensive part of the Light Universe. We see at the beginning of season two how Rockhound became the first His Divine Shadow, and I have briefly speculated on both motive and method. I have thought quite a lot on how the subjugation actually happened, and I'm about to point some fingers.
Using what we know about Bio-Viziers and especially Grand Bio-Vizier Mantrid and Supreme Bio-Vizier Brizon, it seems obvious that scientists were the key to His Shadow's rule across a universe. These scientists not only knew everything about Insects and His Shadow's ultimate goal to bring a race of Insects back to life, but helped him do it in such heinous ways that one must necessarily wonder why.
We find out in season two that both Mantrid and Brizon were far older than Kai, who was over 2000 years old as an undead assassin. They were both experts on Divine Assassin creation and maintenance. In the very first movie I Worship His Shadow, we see humans were obviously repurposed in a variety of ways even before they were dead as part of their judicial sentencing. The scientists behind this were geniuses, able to manipulate human body parts like toys, and quite able to make them function in any capacity. This observation lends to the conclusion that His Shadow chose a unique quality in his scientists that enabled them to not only stomach what they were doing, but delight in it. They were carefully chosen psychotic geniuses given promises of eternal life, and naturally they excelled at reestablishing a new Divine Order so that they could play without hindrance.
Among their genetic manipulations were bioships using lost Insect technology, human species reorientation, robotic humans, and reusable dead humans. We know by season one's fourth movie Giga Shadow that the last Insect had been kept alive and growing, and that its Essence, protoblood, and probably tissues were used to integrate technology and humans into a new strictly governed society.
The Cluster was the seat of judgement for His Shadow, a small planetoid that deceptively housed a hugely growing Insect that eventually broke free. Think about how many 'big bugs' must have been attempted, and where the Megashadow and Foreshadow were grown, along with the Lexx's DNA being perfected. The massive experimentation had to have happened on another planet, and I can imagine huge hangars, warehouses, labs, and clinics filled with coding tech specialists and equipment, bio coding specialists and equipment, and likely extensive 'housing' for potential subjects. Using Giggerota as an example, evidently inter- and extra- species manipulation and breeding programs were under way in attempts to design a new Divine Assassin, hungry for meat, alive and programmed to reproduce. We don't know if Giggy was a prototype gone wrong or one of many, but she was a problem. It's possible Brizon designed her, or that competitive Mantrid ventured out on his own and designed her, but we never find out. We do know Mantrid was banished at some point and that Giggy was taken to the Cluster for execution, so it's possible these two characters have everything to do with one another (indirectly), and that these particular experimentations might be part of the big personal problem between Mantrid and Brizon. The only problem with this line of thought is the time jag, since Mantrid has apparently been banished for quite some time by the beginning of season two, and Brizon seems to have been semi-retired later in season two. Mantrid and Brizon could have had their own factions of loyal followers in the psychotic science arena that carried on their work. Sorry, this paragraph is turning into its own muse, I need to refocus. Lexx is like that, so much going on that backstory could go on for years.
Back to Boron 7 and government over the League.
Robotic drones in any other type of government on our own earth would be a huge industry of wealth, either for capital venturists or socialist agendas. In the League it had nothing to do with wealth, and the only power allowed at all was Divine Order. In this light, it would seem that top scientists were allowed more freedoms than any other humans in any other capacities. They were free to dream, invent, argue, and corrupt as long as they did it in the name of Order. As long as they helped keep Order rigidly established, they were granted long life, authoritative positions, and all the access to service and equipment that their psychotic hearts desired. So, they became experts at replacing human heads with robot heads, integrating software into scraped out human bodies, growing city sized spaceships that fed on human flesh, you name it, they could find a way to do it. And the more they did it, the more society became clamped down into obedience in lieu of a stunning variety of punishments.
Imagine not knowing if the robotic drone walking by you had been a friend of yours, a coworker, or a family member. That might be their living body, but their head has been replaced with a robot head. Imagine raising your children in a society where you'd never know at any moment whether your future is secure, and that all it would take to lose your life would be to refuse the simplest expectation. Without those psychotic scientists enabling the last Insect, this level of Order could never have been established. Watching both Mantrid and Brizon, they clearly had free will, they clearly didn't feel any regret or shame, and they clearly knew they helped bring all this about. There was no waste on guilt, only on winning at any cost. They were coworkers turned rivals and hellbent on beating the other, no matter how many lives were lost, no matter how horrific their crimes. And surely they were not the only two psychotic scientists in the League of 20,000.
One of the weird fallouts they created was a small planet full of former Divine Shadow host bodies, which would never die but remain zombies forever without a brain or Essence to guide them, since the brain was removed from every host as a Divine Predecessor and the Essence passed on to each new Divine Shadow. We find out in season four that His Shadow had the Time Prophet killed and reconstructed (by scientists, undoubtedly) into the first of many vampires, more deadly than Divine Assassins since they were created specifically to hunt and destroy them, thanks to Kai fulfilling the prophecy. Seasons one and two were rife with convoluted corruption serving Order, including a fully condoned and thriving sex slave business stretching across the Light Universe, along with mercenaries and cabals, often working together for Order as we see in season two's "Stan's Trial".
The sex slave business relied on an amazing machine called a lusticon that could scan and reconstruct entire bodies in one visit without invasive surgeries and recovery time. That machine alone is so over the top that it's too much to think about and easily dismissed. Genetic manipulation theories and applications must have been shared from the Insect to the scientists, because the technology is so advanced and the idea so extreme that I don't think normal psychotic humans could have thought up and conquered that level of planning and execution. Remember, Insects could pass along a sort of programming software via Essence which would allow them to travel dormant over great sweeps of time across swaths of space and pass on information to others or to offspring without having to teach first. Essence would allow for an endless accumulation of knowledge across the universe. We know very little about the Insect Wars, but we do know some Insect technology was adopted by the Brunnen-G after they finally defeated the Insects long before Kai was born.
Lusticons allowed Order to use humans as still-living sex slaves stripped of their wills without transforming them into robotic drones. These slaves were used to manipulate and elicit others' behaviors per temple brothel conduits throughout the League and beyond, and likely part of the vast mercenary trade Order used to hunt and capture enemies of Order. Included in the DNA manipulation were expiry dates, which necessarily created a demand for more.
Robotic drones were everywhere throughout the Light Universe. On the Cluster we see security drones, and across the Light Universe we see other types of robotic drones that look like they came off assembly lines. 790 was one model, 791 and 792 models were briefly shown in a couple of episodes, and 790 created a 769 in season four. The 700 series were all designed to be attached to still living human bodies, as was the security model. Robotic drones were so common that they were simply part of everything, nothing to turn a head and elicit response. Humans grew up surrounded by and interacting with integrated tech for thousands of years. We don't have a timeline between Rockhound becoming the first His Shadow and Brunnis-2 being destroyed, so we don't know how much time as passed as the League of 20,000 planets was being established. This leaves us to wonder how very long ago Kai's people migrated from Brunnis-1, and how in the world they defeated Insects to begin with, after arriving in the Light Universe, and then how quickly after that defeat the last Insect drifted and then burrowed into what would become the Cluster. If you think about it, the Brunnen-G were indirectly responsible for the League being created, because that last surviving Insect wanted revenge. And if you think even more about that, you can imagine the Brunnen-G being the flag of vitriol behind everything His Shadow did, and that might be why they were so famous that Thodin recognized Kai even after he'd been converted into a Divine Assassin.
Aaaaaand this just turned into a think piece. Moving on.
Thanks to protoblood, His Shadow's collection of psychotic scientists were able to resculpt dead human flesh into interactive programmable machinery used as Divine Assassins. Kai is a very good example, as we see in season three. What was left of his body was so integrated with hardware that he obviously couldn't survive long if he were somehow able to come back to life. The protoblood forced his tissues into a sort of unalive living state, an undead state, if you will. His dead body was coopted into an ironic repurposed usefulness, and even after he got his memories back, he could not initiate his own will upon his own body because his will had been severed for vast software storage upgrade. His programming and the will of others was all Kai had as motivation to do anything. A fun example of this is season three's "Tunnels". He simply engaged his programming in order to facilitate being able to accomplish other actions the Lexx crew expected of him. One of his overriding commands in any capacity was to protect the key to the Lexx, along with its crew. (Kai means "Keeper of the Keys" in Scandinavian, for unaware fans. Cool, huh? See more meanings at Behind the Name. This is completely unrelated to Lexx canon, but I searched it since Kai and key are such similar words.)
I've seen and read loads of science fiction over several decades, and I have never seen anything that comes close to the technological horrors in the Lexx series. The Borg are a problem, yes, but they are barely investigated compared to the technological grip over humans in Lexx. The Borg are simply a runaway program, and with time travel introduced, the solution might be simple enough- go to the origin (non-canon but written by Shatner himself) and change history. There is no time travel in Lexx. The Sith are a problem in Star Wars, and the tech somewhat rivals Lexx, but it's missing the more horrific level of what they call the Dark Side. I know, I dare to impugn. I've had a running list of other scifi atrocities compared to Lexx in my mind for years, and I have yet to see another show cross the lines Lexx crosses into true despair, which feels so much more honest to me. I think painting the bigger picture of humans vs technology reaches a superior intellectual level in Lexx that is too easily dismissed, and the crucial point behind it all is innocent humans being so strapped into a locked position in government that there is no wiggle room with rights and wrongs, no way to survive but to obey, no way to fight and win. The root of the science fiction premise shines in Lexx. There is no prime directive, no Asimov's laws of robotics, only horrors and death and the sheer human will to survive. I think the closest an author has come that I've read is Greg Bear. His visuals are fantastic, and he dares to step into despair. I have compared Lexx material to Tim Burton, George Orwell, Dante, and Satre style storytelling. Edward Scissorhands could easily fit into the Light Universe.
And what else do psychotic scientists do when they get bored? They twist the human brain into even more toys. Shreds of brains were used to interface programming, brains were fed to Cluster lizards in a stadium filled with screaming fans loyal to His Shadow, brains were nonchalantly wiped and reprogrammed over minor misdeeds. Any brain lesser than a psychotic genius was subjugated, point blank. It didn't matter the perceived freedom or rank, all brains must serve Order or suffer the consequences. The question of human souls and wills, rights and dignities never even came up. Brains were usable and expendable, like any other human part, and that was all. A sense of self was allowed only in relation to obedience to Order.
This has gotten terribly long, but you can see how much I've thought about this TV show. I know others have spent considerable time writing up backstory, prequels, sequels, spinoff ideas, character synopses, etc. One of the latest to come out is Sanguinessa's fanfic Tales from a Parallel Universe series going deeper behind the scenes with more characters humanizing the extreme conditions we see in the Lexx TV series (click to purchase from Amazon, I receive no compensation for that). I know of other fans who have constructed entire histories around the brief blurbs we see in the show, so they probably think about all this at least as much as I do, if not more.
Lexx is currently owned and distributed by Echo Bridge Acquisition Corp LLC.
Syfy channel's connection to Echo Bridge Home Entertainment can be made through Asylum. Echo Bridge acquired Alliance Atlantis in 2008. Alliance Atlantis purchased Salter Street Films in 2001.
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I repeat my DISCLAIMER- This Lexx blog is a fan blog. I make no money here, and I have nothing to do with potential Lexx projects that spring up in rumors every little bit. I am not staff to anyone, nor an employer. I do not represent anyone who has ever been involved in the making of Lexx or merchandise associated with the Lexx property. I am not currently selling merchandise or receiving compensation for link swapping and sharing. I will never ask for or accept donations for anything I do online. If you find a site asking for money in my name, that is NOT me. I will continue to be a Lexx fan and keep building this fan blog, all cost here coming straight out of my pocket. Lexx is a hobby I enjoy, and like many fans I hope to see more Lexx one day.
I'd like to add that my stats are going crazy this year. A lot of fans out there seem to be in a tizzy over Lexx, many of the hits coming from new searches and then methodically reading this entire blog. Since I'm not seeing this level of activity in the older fandom groups and forums, I conclude this is a new generation of fans, possibly who grew up with their parents watching Lexx, possibly running into more accessible film merch now, possibly wondering what that weird sex in space show is all about.
The Lexx cult continues. Hats off to Paul Donovan and the Supreme Beans.
Oh, yeah, meant to bring up the mothbreeders. Maybe another time.
