I made a write-up about this since I have nothing better to do and the thread's dead.
Most things in Trek even if I think it's stupid or don't like or agree with it, I can at least understand the idea or intention behind it. But The Aenar is terrible and I just can't understand. WHY are Aenar? Why are they blind? Why are they telepathic? Why are they a supposedly mythical race? Why are they pacifists? Why are they white? WHY WHY WHY I don't get it so let's examine.
>Why are they telepathic?
Ok well I guess this is because the Romulans "needed" a telepath to be their drone pilot. What, are there no telepathic science experiments from races they have easy access to? Which brings me to the next thing
>Why are they a "myth"?
So if the Romulans were going to use telepaths for their program how did they get this specific guy when even Andorians wouldn't all agree that Aenar are even real in the first place? It's like if the Chinese came over to North America to hunt bigfoot for use in their black ops military experiments. Shran says he doesn't know anyone that has ever seen one. So why make that be part of their lore if it makes their inclusion in this plot even more nonsensical and stupid? They could have just been like, a known group of people? What does this add? Especially because even though they're supposedly so elusive and secretive when they go looking for them they find them IMMEDIATELY. They're fucking clomping around getting impaled on icicles like morons and one just shows up. They don't even act elusive. They're just like "oh you guys were looking for us? here I am" OR maybe the point is that Jhamel is some kind of special snowflake Aenar who actually wants to see the world so she's friendly? Also I find it hard to believe they only took ONE of them and didn't abduct a whole batch. The ship was a prototype after all there were bound to be mistakes and deaths and then you're SOL with no pilot when the ONLY one you snatched dies. Stupid.