06-26-2022, 03:42 PM
I don't think anthropomorphizing is a strictly American tendency; it probably happens to some extent everywhere humans and animals cohabitate. Whether our cats feel "love" for us as opposed to just loving the experience of food and pets is one of those mysteries we mostly just choose to interpret according to our preferences.
We only see the end result of the 150 years that Cochrane was the Companion's "kept human" before our heroes arrive. It's not unreasonable to imagine the relationship we saw being the result of a process similar to what happens when people socialize feral cats. And while the Companion tells Kirk through the universal translator that "the man is the center of all things," that doesn't necessarily translate to sexual attraction. Unless the Companion has gleaned some concept of that from Cochrane's thoughts, she probably has no idea what it is.
We only see the end result of the 150 years that Cochrane was the Companion's "kept human" before our heroes arrive. It's not unreasonable to imagine the relationship we saw being the result of a process similar to what happens when people socialize feral cats. And while the Companion tells Kirk through the universal translator that "the man is the center of all things," that doesn't necessarily translate to sexual attraction. Unless the Companion has gleaned some concept of that from Cochrane's thoughts, she probably has no idea what it is.