#Any of the ship crew. Captains. New characters I don't care.

[mysteriouslybluepirate]

Just did a rewatch of OFMD S2 Eps 6/7 and: (Yes, it DEFINITELY got better)

*All pacing issues and some cast being in scenes when others aren't is the fault of the studios being cheap and not the writers/creators. :) Flying the cast to New Zealand + housing them for filming meant some crew just couldn't be there (Fang, Roach, Olu) or mostly written out (Buttons, Swede).

The reason this season feels *weird* is just that. It is not the fault of the actors or any of the workers in New Zealand who got jobs because they were the cheaper, nonunion, option.

I was mainly mad due to some pacing things that, after I thought about it, I don't think *I* was ready for them to make jokes about, if that makes sense. Izzy is such a personal character for me that some of the stuff they joke about just...hits.

*While the show kind of blowing off Izzy's repressed feelings for Ed did originally piss me off (the 'jealous' comment from Ed in ep 7 especially), reframing the scenes as Izzy letting himself mourn this and seeing how easily he lets Ed go does make me happy. He will love Ed. That's just a fact. But he is not his relationship with Ed he is defined by what he does with it. Yes, they can joke about it. Izzy has probably defined their relationship as something that just can't happen. Either by thinking Ed could never love him or that Ed never cared. Izzy knew Ed's attention was always fleeting and MAYBE that's some BS way we can say eps 5, 6, and 7 happened within a few days of each other. Because...if Izzy is just repressing everything again. I swear. This show will not give me the polycule I want.

*Stede and Izzy work so fucking well as friends. Like. Izzy knows how Stede will use the bar as validation and is READY to fight for him. Stede knows Izzy will stand to fight with him. The way Izzy looks so DONE when Stede starts to fight? Izzy just lost Ed god damn it. That, and the thigh grab will be in my head forever... stizzy fans also win.

*Imagine having sex with the only person you've ever loved and they ditch the next day. Add that to Stede's own insecurities and it's like the writers had a checklist on how to break Stede Bonnet.

*Ed is leaving a manic period (started maybe ep 2), and entering a depressive period in episode 6 where he remembers 'oh yeah, I fucking hate pirating'.

*Both Stede and Ed want very different things in life and this conflict was always going to happen. But at the begining of ep 6 we see Ed replaying the abuse he's caused/experienced. He's mentally framing himself as a hazard. Stede enjoys the life Ed is desperately running from. This is why Izzy is so quick to grab Stede I think. To help him understand that Ed is just...a complicated man.

*Izzy was right about Ed needing to give Stede some time to sit with the death of Ned Low. Ed barging in allowed Stede to put his negative feelings into something positive, not fully allowing him to process his actions. Ed then uses their first time as an excuse to run away.

*Izzy is hot in both episodes :) End note. But for me, the reason the Drag scene felt weird on first watch is just that I can't read half the cast's face soemtimes. Its a me thing. On this rewatch I noticed them cheering and generally being more supportive, lol.

*I wish we got to see Izzy putting the drag makeup on. Even just a line of concealer. Putting on the character he'd embody for the night. Drag is such a practice of self realizion and community. I wish we got to see Izzy staring at himself, applying the mark on his face that he clearly loves so much.

*The concept of Ned Low- A vicious torture-focused pirate, sadly was handled like a minor inconvenience, and... while I like the masochism joke from Izzy, and the implications for Stede's arc, he felt weird and out of place. Like. Instead of tying Low's bad management to something like the Navy, why not the Kraken? The stuff was there for it. Show how shitty working on a ship that prioritizes violence is, and mirror it with Ed's growth.

*I love the ship design for Ep 6 so much.

*The Ed&Izzy apology still bugs me but I have hope Izzy and Ed will talk it out a bit more after talks with some of the lovelies online

*I love the crew but acknowledge that this season has shafted a lot of stories. Clearly, the writers did what they could.

*Izzy's 'love interest' this season is clearly just the 'community/self' and finding comfort in humanity again...its so GOOD.

*Izzy casually making sex jokes is so weird. Like a coworker you've known for a few years that finally starts talking shit with you on the job. It feels weird to me now, but I also write him like this? So it's a lot of wires crossing in my mind. Like...he FUCKS!

*Same with Izzy smiling. It feels wrong in the best way. Again, I wish we had ONE MORE episode of Izzy being in the middle of healing, but this more self-realized Izzy is lovely to watch.

*They changed the gender of the song Izzy sings so he's singing about a man. I will not be normal about this.

*I'm so happy I caught Izzy's hand being that FUCKING HIGH on Stede's inner leg first watch. It's changed me. Izzy really said 'When the dogs are away the cats are out to play' and POUNCED.

*I didn't catch Izzy pointedly calling Stede captain until I saw it online and now I love it. Stede adopted the stray cat and god damn he'll stay loyal until the day he dies.

*Spoilers for the teaser: If the series Ends and Izzy is in solitary confinement/Izzy is locked away from the others I will scream

*"Hiya, Boys" I LOVE HIM. Izzy confidently grinning and being a prick is my favorite.

*izzy loving Ed enough to let him go is just....so tragic and good. Especially since we know Ed just tried to hold izzy closer in s1

#ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #our flag means death #ofmd s2ep6 #ofmd s2ep7 #izzy hands #stizzy #if we get any type of ship for Izzy by S3 Ill be shocked #I want him to be content and in someones arms #maybe its projecting #Ah well #Any of the ship crew. Captains. New characters I don't care.

[beanghostprincess]

zolu or frobin for the ship thing!!

YAY I THOUGHT NOBODY WOULD ASK ME ANYTHING NGL AUIBFJKASFDFBFASBFJK

zolu: they make me mentally, physically, and spiritually ill. they're one of my favorite ships if not my favorite ship of all one piece. actually heavily surprised they aren't more popular, but i'm glad opla is kind of changing that. anyway- i've been shipping them since day 1. zoro's devotion to luffy is something i will never get tired of. the fact that he does not believe in any god canonically but the way he follows luffy is so easy to compare to religious imagery makes me weak in the knees and wanting to curl up and cry. zoro is luffy's anchor and the one that guides him when he's lost, and luffy is the one that saved zoro from a life of loneliness and gave him the chance to follow a dream he would have never fulfilled if he had continued on his own. luffy is, kind of literally, his sun. and i'm not even talking about moon/sun dynamics. i don't even consider them to be that specific trope. luffy is literally his sun and god and best friend and boyfriend and captain and everything. if you ask zoro what is luffy for him? his everything. that silly rubber guy? his captain. his sun. his moon. his stars. his dream. also!!! people never talk about luffy's pov when it comes to zolu, and it makes me so so so mad!!!! because his perception of zoro is so beautiful. luffy trusts him with his whole soul and would leave the crew on his bare hands if he needed to. zoro's his first mate. that's a captain's heart, man. luffy might be the captain but he's emotional and irrational, and he listens to what zoro has to say. their silent communication makes me want to bang my head against the concrete floor. luffy relies on him and zoro lets his guard down when it comes to luffy. they're so in love, whether you see it romantically or platonically... i love that they're so clingy and silly and so so so powerful together. if something happened to the other their worlds would literally be completely ruined. their love literally goes beyond romantic and platonic. they're the perfect definition of queer platonic. honestly, i'm not fond of luffy in sexual situations but when it comes to zolu it's just so easy to picture them being so so intimate... i'm gonna cry writing this they're so dear to me.

frobin: i want them to adopt me so damn much. my parents. mom and dad. i usually hate it when people use family labels when it comes to found family, because the point of found family is that they're not a conventional family but they love each other even more deeply than a blood related one does. however, this is my exception because i really really really think they give married vibes and i want them as my parents. their dynamic is so good!! perhaps it's just the fact that their arcs are basically the same one and they're the main characters of water 7/enies lobby (along with our dear god usopp. shout out to my boyfriend out there!!) but their backstories and dynamic are sooooo satisfactory and angsty and domestic to watch (yes, all at the same time). robin's personality is gentle and sweet but also kind of dark and satiric, with a lot of pain behind from her past. franky, on the other hand, is a big, funny, eccentric and extremely adorable guy with an emotional touch and a lot of energy. at first it's just "big funny guy x sweet gentle girl" but in reality is "big funny guy that always takes care of everyone with a smile on his face and is extremely protective of the one he loves x sweet gentle girl that is learning how to enjoy life and will protect her new family at all costs". it's not just the angst and hurt/comfort of it all, though! i love the fact that she's satiric and dark and he's just- he's just fucking scared of her sometimes. and tbh if you're not scared of your hot, goth, intelligent wife, what's the point? you know that meme of will smith showing off his wife? that's literally them. robin does anything and he's there supporting her. franky does anything and she's there saying "that idiot right there is my husband *tiny giggle*". anyway, basically they're very gentle and domestic and i wish my parents loved me the way they would please please franky and robin kiss get married and then adopt me plea-

TL;TR: i love both ships a lot! 10/10 <3

#i'm a fucking menace to society #why do i always write so damn much to say i like a ship #I'M SORRY SDKJFBSJDKB #i'm so dramatic and for what i could've just said i liked both ships a lot but noooooooo #anyway zolu and frobin supremacy #roronoa zoro #monkey d. luffy #nico robin #franky #zolu #frobin #one piece

[sarucane]

How did Stede leave pirating so easily?

So in the space of 2 episodes, Stede goes from being "the motherfucking man" to an innkeeper, and there's really not *much* in between there--all his scenes are primarily about other characters in the finale. So I wanted to rant about what I think fills in this gap.

Why did Stede become a pirate in the first place? Well, because he wanted to be a "real boy." He wanted to have a life that felt like his own, a life that wasn't swaddled in comfort (completely, at least). He wanted to break the monotony, the despair of a life without room for deep emotions or agency. And he became a certain kind of pirate because he wanted to be someone important and good in the lives of others, not just a marginal figure.

But why did Stede become a pirate the second time?

Ed.

Sure, there were other reasons: he didn't belong with his family anymore, didn't fit in his old life, and trying to have his cake (having run away) and eat it too (coming back) was just hurting everyone. He changed, and they changed, and a foundational truth of this show is that you can't change back.

But the reason he didn't belong with his family anymore was that he had gotten his original wish. He'd become a "real boy," someone who felt things deeply, who didn't need to keep one foot in his old life by hanging onto his wealth. He'd become important and valued in the lives of his crew, which they demonstrated when Chauncy challenged his right to the Act of Grace

But the moment Stede crosses the line forever between his old life and his new one is when he tells Mary "his name is Ed."

When Stede leaves, he falls in with the marooned crew--but he spends more time pining for Ed then talking to them. There's a place for him with his crew, and he fits in it, and we see in E5-6 that he cares deeply about doing right by them.

But neither Ed nor Stede fully fit into the crew when everyone's back together. Ed's caught up in his own self-reckoning, and Stede's splitting attention between the crew and Ed. In a way, they've outgrown Stede: they no longer need his help to enable the community on the ship. They've reached a point where they can deal with the conflicts in E4 by themselves, can absorb Archie and then Izzy and give both of them space to relax and integrate. They like having Stede as captain, but they don't need him anymore. In E7, Stede takes Olu leaving as a betrayal, but even that goes back to Stede being more focused on Ed than on the crew, and acting out over hurt feelings from a fight.

The only thing left that Stede can only get through piracy is the lure of fame. And that's a real perk--Stede genuinely enjoys his taste of infamy in E7. It's fun, it's a fulfillment of a childhood dream.

But it's also hollow, and it's a trap. It's hollow because Bill isn't Stede's real friend, and the loss of Steak Knife wasn't worth Stede dying by challenging Zheng (nor was Stede's ego worth Steaky's death, but that's another thing). And it's a trap because Stede really is a terrible pirate. Stede has to deal with the pirate world without Ed three times during the show. The first time, the Spanish almost kill him; the second time, Spanish Jackie almost maims him; the third time, he challenges Zheng to a duel and refuses to back down, then tries to "ambush" British officers who kick his butt. Stede's fantastic when he stays in his lane of nontraditional piracy, but if he became a really successful traditionally infamous pirate, he'd no longer be Stede.

So Stede doesn't need the infamy of success as a pirate, any more than he needs is pretty clothes (though he likes both). Stede doesn't need to stay a pirate to keep his relationship with the crew, and they don't need him either. Stede doesn't need to go out and be a pirate to feel real things, or think he's "adequate" enough for his father.

But Stede does need to give his relationship with Ed a real chance, to be what they want it to be. And Ed just cannot be a pirate anymore--there's too much damage and pain. Plus, living on the ship, their lives in danger all the time, heightening everything, pushing their actions out of their control. Their relationship was crushed under that pressure in S2, and it's still a pretty fragile thing. They need space and time. And by leaving the ship, they can have it.

For Stede, piracy meant belonging, love, and fulfillment.

He has those things now: He's got Ed. He doesn't need piracy anymore.

#ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd #ofmd s2 #our flag means death #ofmd spoilers #ofmd meta #ed teach #stede bonnet #blackbonnet #i love the finale and i'm eternally grateful a cancellationwon't be straight traumatic but just FIVE MORE MINUTES oh well life is what it i

[mattapparentlystumbltourneys]

Virtual Character Tourney - Battle for 9th! (and 10th!)

Propaganda below (May contain spoilers!)

Kasane propaganda:

HER DREAM WAS TO ONE DAY BECOME A REAL VOCALOID AMD SHE FINALLY DID IT!!!!!! ITS NOT A VOCALOID VOICE BANK BUT ITS A FULL SYNTH V VOICEBANK!!!!! AND A NEW DESIGN!!!!! SHE DID IT SHE GOT HER DREAMS!!!!!! YOURE NEVER TOO OLD TO ACCOMPLISH YOUR DREAMS!!!!!!!

Kasane Teto is a vocal synth, she started out as an april fools joke to parody VOCALOID, with her voice bank in UTAU. although she did start out as just a joke a lot of vocaloid fans grew to really love her and she became rather popular. Kasane Teto is to UTAU as Hatsune Miku is to VOCALOID. But recently on Kasane Teto's 15th anniversary, April 1st 2023, she got moved from UTAU to SynthV. With her voice bank now in SynthV she also got a new character deign alone with how her voice and her singing sounds much more clear and human like than her UTAU voice bank which sounded a lot more mechanical/robotic.

ART propaganda:

ART (Asshole Research Transport, nicknamed by Murderbot), formally known as the space ship The Perihelion (in italics but this is a Google Form), also known as Peri (nicknamed by it's human family) is a super illegal highly advanced AI that was created by a university. It grew up with two human dads and a human sister. It and its crew go on research trips that are cover for allying with people and communities at the edges (and beyond) of the capitalist hellscape that is the Corporate Rim. It also goes on espionage missions by itself, without its human crew and family, posing as an automated cargo ship. It was during one of these missions that it picked up Murderbot, a super-duper illegal bot-human security unit construct that had hacked the torture device implanted in all bot-human constructs so that it could disobey orders and walk away from its "owners" without dying. Murderbot uses its illegal freedom to watch television, a habit it passes on to ART. Turns out ART doesn't like shows where human crew members get hurt.

ART is the AI that controls/is the research and teaching vessel Perihelion. (Perihelion is usually what people call it, but the protagonist of the series calls it ART so that's the name I put. ART stands for Asshole Research Transport.) It is extremely intelligent and advanced and also extremely sarcastic and condescending. 100% earned the name ART. ART will do absolutely anything for its crew!! It was developed and "raised" alongside the captain's daughter, Iris, and they're like siblings. Its crew calls it Peri. They do corporate espionage on the side to help bring down said corporations. It has a "debris deflection system" which is definitely not a weapon because ART isn't legally allowed to have a weapon. Definitely just for debris, don't worry about it. It's friends with the aforementioned protagonist, Murderbot, and ART is very good at bullying it into actually leaving its comfort zone when it needs to. They care about each other a lot, and they like to binge watch TV shows together. I don't want to write too much but I just love it a lot.

Ene propaganda:

She's blue. Headphone actor and yuukei yesterday are also bangers

Epic gamer cybergirl. Miku adjacent

She's a girl that was forced to become digital but is still a good friend. She may not have a body anymore but she's still important to the plot.

Murder-Bot 2.0 propaganda:

Sapient computer virus made from bits of two other AI characters (the original Murderbot and a spaceship AI). Unlike its not-parents, it is genuinely just code and doesn't have a physical body. Its only physical presence is through its effects on the machinery it infects, and it considers its "body" to be the code rather than any combination of physical objects. Also it was literally made to cause problems on purpose, does so enthusiastically, gives several people including its creators existential crises, and saves one of its creators (and other people from the (literal) fallout of the other creator learning the first one got killed)

Murderbot 2.0 is sentient killware created by Murderbot and ART with the purpose of being sent on a suicide mission. It has some of Murderbot's memories, but not all because it doesn't have any hardware of it's own to store that much information in. It travels by hopping in between other computer systems (mostly bots and bot-human constructs). It named itself Murderbot 2.0. It freed a security construct named Three. It's nicer and more open than both its parents.

EDI propaganda:

EDI is the AI of the Normandy starting with Mass Effect 2. Through dialogue EDI can become more human-like in her way of thinking, developing different kinds of relationships with the crew. In Mass Effect 3 she uploads herself into a body so she can freely move around and can be taken to missions, but she is still part of the ship's system.

Holly propaganda:

Due to a pay dispute with Holly's original actor, Norman Lovett, Holly was instead played by Hattie Hayridge during seasons 3-5. This was explained briefly in the show as them having gone through a "computer sex change". This makes Holly canonically trans do not @ me.

holly is the silliest most specialest ai ever. she has an iq of 6,000 but sometimes it seems like his iq is more like 6. they're possibly transgender (do computers have gender??) (i am panicking over pronouns while writing this propaganda) - holly goes from appearing like a man to appearing like a woman with no real explanation(??) and nobody questions this (the show is from the 90s btw). he's hilarious and sometimes lies to the crew for no reason other than 'its a laugh, innit'. shes everything to me <3

Holly is the computer of Red Dwarf, a Tenth Generation AI hologrammatic computer who appears as a floating head on a screen. Can be downloaded onto various other devices. also literally transgender.. meets a female appearing parallel version of itself in a parallel universe and then goes through a sex change after falling in love with her. transgender computer ftw

Tama propaganda:

Tama is the eyeball of Kuruto Ryuki and investigates dream worlds with him. She's his bi emotional support eye who regularly ties him up to help him with stress relief and loves to affectionately tease him. She laughs at bad jokes and has AE10D1F ("Ryuki" in hexadecimal) in her likes on her profile.

OKAY anyway uhm she's like aiba in that she's a little Ai eyeball that helps you investigate except sadly no animal theme. instead she has a domintrix vibe instead!!!! she is so cool… also ermm she's a lot more. Human than aiba. Not literally/physically like uhh emotionally. I haven't finished aini but like she does look out for your best interest! what a good Ai partner i don't kno

She's voiced by Anairis Quiñones and she's an absolute legend

Lyla propaganda:

she is a humanoid ai programmed to help spider-man gather info. she can simulate human emotions and has a high intellect

#virtual character tourney #bonus round #kasane teto #utau #utauloid #murderbot diaries art #perihelion #the murderbot diaries #ene #kagerou project #murderbot 2.0 #edi mass effect #mass effect #holly red dwarf #red dwarf #one more WOLVERINES for the road #tama #ai the somnium files #atsv lyla #lyla spiderverse #across the spiderverse #spiderverse #character polls

[roz-ani]

Izzy deserved to hear that from Ed.

That's Izzy's family. It's Izzy whom the crew loves.

That was Izzy's arc, not Edward's.

Now, please, don't get me wrong. It is a part of Ed's growth. Still, the main focus has always been his relationship with Stede and his identity. You can absolutely dive into the captain's relationship with his crew, but you don't replace a character's arc with another one's, especially at the last minute.

I understand the symbolism of Blackbeard "dying" with Izzy. The gatekeeping, gaslighting, feeding the persona of the world's greatest and most merciless pirate staying in the past... I am also fully convinced that Blackbeard's right-hand man actually passing away to achieve that was unnecessary.

What this season did for Izzy was absolutely incredible. That man abandoned his ego and changed the way he perceived power, respect, loyalty, and support for and because of a group of people he despised at the beginning.

His main purpose has always been looking after any crew he was a part of. He had more contact with them than the captain himself, especially aboard the Revenge when Blackbeard was going through his mental breakdown. In the first season, we saw Izzy wouldn't be the best captain, but he did have the experience and eventually learned how to look after his subordinates. All because he finally experienced proper care himself.

He got his heart broken in more than one way, yet managed to find his people, his family. Izzy finally got to know what real appreciation looks like. He got it from the people he initially mistreated. The crew decided to look after Izzy because "he's their dick". They stopped fighting after seeing him at his lowest. They made him a new prosthesis out of the figurehead of all things, showing the audience how they see him - the crew's protector, the spirit of the ship.

At first, Izzy kept pushing them away. Not out of hatred for them, but for himself. Because healing is difficult, it hurts, it takes incredible strength and willpower to admit to yourself that your environment is harmful and that you might be the problem as well. Especially when leaving it seemingly deprives you of your identity or purpose in life. Besides that, come on, it's Izzy Hands. A man who wasn't heartless, but also not "soft", as he would have most likely put it himself. He was still rough around the edges and cynical. However, after all this time he finally allowed himself to let go and feel comfortable, so some of that bitterness disappeared over time. I still don't believe he was fully healed, but he was on the right path.

Despite changing his outlook on life, Izzy was still respected. He knew what mattered and what to do and say to make sure his crew's issues were properly resolved.

Now, Ed's apology. At first I felt like there didn't need to be any deep talk between the first mate and his captain, because they understood each other well enough. That's not what communication is about though. It's not about taking something or someone for granted. Especially is the conflict escalates to such extent. There should've been more to that. They should've both had a conversation about their relationship and what made them bad for each other. Most importantly, how they could fix that and heal together. If that would require them to part ways, so be it. At least they'd separate on good terms. Now we can only speculate.

I would say my biggest problem is not with Izzy Hands dying. It's about how he died. Although I doubt I'd support this decision in season 3, at least it wouldn't be so rushed. There was no proper build-up to it. Izzy and Richard, of all people, had a deep talk about understanding piracy, a concept that is a base for one's actions. This was probably the biggest red flag, which tragically appeared in the same episode Izzy died. The crew didn't thank him or bid him farewell. He wasn't properly mourned. He was buried in the ground.

"You should've expected that. Things were going too well. A mentor character always dies after regaining hope". I have two HUGE problems with that.

First of all: a mentor character? I guess? For two, maybe three episodes at best? Izzy did meet some mentor archetype points. He was Stede's mentor for a bit, I mentioned his experience and position as the first mate, but I wouldn't say that's his main purpose. The writers did, but we're going to talk about it in a second.

Second of all: this was many people's comfort show. Especially when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community. I myself have praised this show for its take on communication and found family portrayal. It was fun, light-hearted, safe.

I understand the need to tell your story, I truly do. I know that people don't have the right to tell someone how to create, because the audience, especially the more pushy members, can be very often self-centered and don't know what's planned for a show's future. Except that these days you really have to be careful with how you plan your story with the corporations holding all the power - that's why we need to support the strikes. You need to be prepared to disclose necessary information in a proper way if needed. You need to pay attention to what you're portraying.

Now, I also believe that media literacy is dead (exaggeration) and people really can't for example understand that stories develop over time, seasons, or chapters unless they're consuming a media piece that has already run its course. They do have the tendency to take things literally and not search for the context.

Still, in the postmodern era of creativity, you need to know you don't hold all the power, despite not owning people anything. Your audience can interpret things on their own. What you believe to have no power or significance can mean the world to your audience. Remember how difficult it was for people to believe this show actually has LGBTQ+ characters and a love story in it? Or how the creator admitted he was surprised by the scepticism? I don't. Not only because I started watching the show quite late, but also because I don't consider myself to be a part of this community. It didn't mean so much to me, because I currently focus on different aspects of the content I consume. However, I know how they perceive media and their products. I may not have the same experience, but I know where theirs comes from. And I know that this show was just different. TV series, books, etc. do not belong only to the creators nowadays. Yes, they are their products, but they are made for an audience that has the right to individually approach and criticise them. And even though overinterpretation is a thing, there is no one right answer to certain issues.

BUT THEN AGAIN: THE MONEY. Was it the budget? I honestly have no idea. Perhaps it was, because literally everything is dependent on it these days...

See, we could argue back and forth about the behind-the-scenes, but I don't think I have enough knowledge of that. I also don't want to get into the topic of disability, suicide, abuse, etc., because I am not the right person for it, even though some of those things are a part of my experience. There are people out there who can give you their thoughts on their perception of Izzy's character and his significance in those areas.

I suppose my point is... I'm mad and genuinely disappointed. I can't remember the last time I was so attached to a character. I absolutely adored Izzy's character and was drawn to him in the first season. I related to him struggling with his toxic environment and finding a safe space. I was ready to see him become a captain. Heck, even if that wasn't planned for him, I still trusted the crew to let the character be happy after everything he's been through. Instead, I got this: "As long as you turn over a new leaf and heal, your death is a good one... Redemption equals no happily ever after... Remember that life isn't fair..." Aren't we tired of such narratives? What does it say about us and the media we consume? Isn't hypernormalisation of such issues exhausting?

I'm disappointed because I had hope. Even after getting betrayed by so many stories in recent years, I still had it. I had hope for a different character. Hope for a different show.

Edit: Just wanted to make something clear because I see more and more people focusing on Buttons sitting on Izzy's grave and David Jenkins liking a tweet about him being a witch. You could call me a hypocrite for pointing out people's lack of media literacy and not even considering the possibility of bringing Izzy back. That was my first thought. I would absolutely love for Buttons to do his magic and revive our man. There is something inside of me still holding onto that hope. I'm just really, really, REALLY tired of having hope in shows nowadays. I'm choosing to remain sceptical. Who knows, maybe I'll be positively surprised. Still, I stand by what I wrote: I think killing Izzy was unnecessary in the first place.

#and so necromancy is the only thing I have left #ofmd spoilers #our flag means death spoilers #izzy hands #our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd 2 #our flag means death 2 #mine #roz writes

[electronickingdomfox]

"Corona" review

Novel from 1984, by Greg Bear. I had my doubts about this novel during the early chapters, but it grew on me, and by the end I was pretty enthralled. More slow-paced than the usual TOS adventure, it presents truly interesting ideas, and their ethical ramifications. The most scientific concepts may be hard to grasp for the uninitiated like me, but the language is never dry. In fact, many passages dealing with physics come off curiously poetic and beautiful.

It doesn't delve much into characters, save the new introduction (a journalist girl named Mason), and at times McCoy, who is revealed to be a much more tormented man than normally assumed. Though in the case of Mason, she's a mere observer for most of the novel, and doesn't have much to do until the end, when her true role in the story is revealed.

What the narrative does fine, however, is creating an increasingly disquieting mood, once the Enterprise crew comes face to face with the dead-eyed Vulcan researchers of a distant station. In particular, their creepy children. The titular "Corona" is easily one of the most alien (one could say, Lovecraftian) entities that have appeared so far in these books. At first only obliquely referenced, its true nature and purpose are revealed in a gradual, pretty effective way. The reader doesn't really know what's going on, and it's not like anything terrible is happening (there are no murders or monsters around, nobody is injured). Yet I appreciated the feeling of lingering horror behind it.

The technology presented is a bit baffling, and it tends to play loose with canon. For example, we have the Enterprise sustaining warp eleven for seventeen days! Kirk is said to have a brain implant to receive directly certain transmissions (a gadget that was introduced, I think, in the TMP novelization). And the Federation has developed a new device to implant a person's memory in a new body, should the worst happen in the transporter. In all aspects, it's a cloning machine, but is much better received than I'd expect (after all, cloning machines are usually the domain of villains). All these things, as well as the misleading cover, made me think the story was set some time after TMP. However, the stardate firmly places the events during the five-year mission.

Another point of interest, is the introduction of novel ideas in regards to Vulcan culture. In particular, a coming-of-age ritual that awakens dormant conditioning in Vulcan children, to help them become adults. There are also full sentences in Vulcan. I don't know if all this was invented by the author, or taken from some reference material (or even fandom ideas!), but it's certainly the first time I encounter it.

Overall, this was a solid story. I'm surprised the author didn't write any more Star Trek books.

Spoilers under the cut:

A remote scientific station in a nebula has been cut off from communication for ten years (funny how nobody cared to check on the poor losers during all that time). But now, Starfleet has received a distress call sent from the station a decade ago, through conventional radio. The scientists at the station were studying Ybakra radiation, and were all Vulcan: T'Prylla (a distant relative of Spock, and presumably the woman depicted in the cover), her husband Grake, their two children Radak and T'Raus, and two other scientists. Besides them, the other members of the scientific expedition had been put in hybernation chambers, until the radiation in the nebula subsided. The Enterprise is tasked with a rescue mission. Though, after ten years, I don't know why the mission is so urgent: either everyone's fine, or everyone's dead by now.

However, Kirk has his own problems aboard the ship. Starfleet wants him to test a new monitor system, for command and medical decisions, capable of overriding the Captain's orders if it considers them contrary to Federation policies (so imagine how well this sits with Kirk). The monitor computer is imbued with the personalities and memories of several renowned admirals, who supposedly would find together the best course of action. Also, sickbay has been equipped with that new "cloning machine" I mentioned above. On top of that, journalist Rowena Mason will travel in the Enterprise, to cover the results of the new monitor system. She's a true country bumpkin that has never left her home planet, has all sorts of prejudices about non-human races like Vulcans, and feels pretty anxious about being in a starship. Kirk is annoyed by Mason sticking her nose in his business. But wants to keep her around as objective observer, to have some proof to rub in, in case the monitors fail (as he secretly wishes).

Once they arrive at the station, it becomes apparent that something doesn't add up. A redshirt glimpses a young boy, that the tricorder doesn't register at all, and the station seems at first deserted. When they later encounter T'Prylla and the others, they're in good health and polite, but also pretty stonewalling against any rescue attempt. And the children, rather than the adults, seem to be in charge of the compound. McCoy wants to revive the frozen scientists with the new machine in sickbay, but T'Prylla also objects to this. There's a further complication when the medical monitor registers the sleepers as legally dead (nervous system destroyed by radiation), and thus not elligible for resucitation.

Meanwhile, Chekov starts feeling influenced by a conscience inside his head, that forces him to do things against his will. He sends detailed plans of the Enterprise to the station, and later sabotages the shuttlecraft; the only means of transport for the landing party, since Ybakra radiation seems to be messing with transporters.

Tired of the newcomers' interference, Grake decides it's about time to show them their scientific achievements. The Vulcans have developed a transformer to control subatomic particles around the nearby area, which allows them to pop up anywhere in a certain radius. And through this transformer, they can also reproduce the conditions at the universe's birth. So they plan to start their own Big Bang. They show them a miniature demonstration of it. And there's an interesting insight into the characters, when each of them interprets different things in those images. Kirk realizes this is all madness, and blames it on the effects of Ybakra radiation on the scientists. He manages to get Chekov and T'Prylla inside an isolation container, which frees them from the radiation effects. And T'Prylla, again herself, tells them about the alien influence inside their minds. It manifests as a corona around one of the suns in the nebula, and its control is greater in the Vulcan children.

With the shuttlecraft dead, the landing party has to risk using the transporters. Almost everyone comes aboard the Enterprise, but the transporter can't retrieve Spock and Mason, who are sent back to the station. Spock feels Corona is about to control him, so in a last, desperate attempt, he transfers part of his conscience to Mason, though in the process, some of Corona's comes into her too. The journalist must overcome her fear of Vulcans, and use Spock's knowledge to awaken T'Raus, by means of imparting a coming-of-age ritual on her. For his part, Radak has materialized inside the Enterprise, and tries to sabotage the engines. But his mother imparts on him the same ritual. Once "adults" per Vulcan custom, Corona's influence on the children diminishes. But the Big Bang machine is ready, and starts the countdown to restart the universe.

Since Mason has part of Corona's memories inside her, she tries to reason with the entity. Through T'Raus, Corona explains its motives. Its race had existed in the first moments of the universe's birth, when everything was just energy in flux. As the universe cooled down and matter appeared, its whole race died. Only Corona survived in certain radiations, such as those in the present nebula. And all this time, it's been trying to go back to these initial moments of the Big Bang. The universe in its present state, is a dead corpse for Corona, and living beings are like germs.

In the Enterprise, Kirk hesitates about destroying the station while Spock and Mason are still there. But the fabric of reality is already starting to disintegrate at subatomic levels. The monitors consider that Kirk has failed for not destroying the station yet, and they override his command. The ship starts firing, but Corona controls all energy in the area, and deactivates both phasers and torpedoes. This gives Mason a bit more time to convince the entity of the worth of living beings. At last, Corona has a glimpse of her memories. And in the recollections of her planet's clouds, and the feeling of freedom she associated with them, the entity finds a parallel with its own world and memories. Corona decides to give living things a chance, and spares the universe. At least until the final moment when entropy reduces everything to nothing. Then it should be restarted. And it may seem corny to have the poor country girl saving the day against such an entity. But I think it's somehow fitting that precisely the most humble character, communicating with the greatest, is the one who achieves this. Also because, as a writer, her most distinct skill is that of communication.

In the aftermath, Mason has overcome her narrow views of the world. And McCoy finds out that the monitors will now let him revive the sleepers. As a parting gift, Corona tampered with the system to redefine what counts as "legally dead". There's also a funny moment when McCoy contacts one of the personalities inside the monitors: his (now dead) teacher from Academy days, who almost flunked him. And the teacher reprimands him for slacking off, when he learns that McCoy is still just a Lt. Commander. The monitors, however, proved to be faulty, and Starfleet will discontinue their use. But Kirk ponders what would have happened if they hadn't overriden him, and whether he could have fired at the station himself.

Spirk Meter: 2/10*. A couple of brief moments. At one point, Kirk feels he's almost in telepathic communication with Spock, and doing what he just would do. Later, Kirk is certain that Spock is still alive in the station, as he can feel his reassuring presence.

There's a bit of Spones too. This novel makes McCoy and Spock very similar at their most intimate level. We're told that McCoy also suffers because he can't control his emotions, too extreme in his case. And he has adopted brusqueness to disguise them, just as Spock has adopted logic. McCoy seems also pleased whenever Spock agrees with him. And when everything starts coming undone, described as McCoy's most terrifying experience ever, his last thoughts are reserved for Spock, whom he feels sorry about. He recognizes that, behind all their bickering, he hides a deep respect for the Vulcan.

Apart from this, Kirk really wants to fuck the ship. Take this passage into consideration:

"At the touch of his fingers -resting on buttons set into his chair arms-and at the sound of his voice, he could make the Enterprise come alive. Stroking... He put such errant nonsense from his thoughts (and a good thing neither Spock nor McCoy could read minds at a distance)"

Funny that he's specially concerned by Spock and McCoy's reaction to this...

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

#star trek tos #star trek novels #novel review #spirk #k/s #spones

[arceespinkgun]

I'd love to hear your opinions on IDW Rodimus. I personally thought he was one of the better characters in that comic, but I have not read the Marvel comics so I have no point of comparison.

Just to clarify: I hate this character as he is in MTMTE and Lost Light. Not Rodimus as he appeared in IDW before those series. I'm not familiar with all his appearances, but his origin story seemed pretty strong to me. What I'm about to say isn't the fault of the character, it's the fault of the writer, James Roberts, who I resent for throwing out all the characterization that came from other writers before him in this and many other instances.

I don't really know what to say. Rodimus is a monster. I can't recount every horrible thing he did, there's too many. A few egregious ones are:

Punishing Rewind for having a snuff film collection, but then telling him to project a record of Fortress Maximus being tortured onto a wall to trigger Maximus during a hostage situation, then telling Swerve to shoot Fortress Maximus after Swerve repeatedly protested. Swerve said he was a bad shot, that Maximus was too close to Rung, that Maximus was already calm... Rodimus had so many chances to reconsider.

When Red Alert attempted suicide, Rodimus lied to Rung about it. You know, Red Alert's therapist? And not only did he lie about that, but he called this person who'd just tried to take his own life a bunch of ableist slurs. And Rodimus smeared him like this to cover his own ass and hide what Red Alert had found.

Bringing Overlord onto the ship because his ego is so fragile it couldn't handle Prowl calling him a wimp, then lying repeatedly about it, including during Overlord rampaging around killing the crew.

When Ultra Magnus is presumed dead and Drift is exiled by Rodimus, one issue after they're gone, Rodimus goes to Rung and Cyclonus and is basically like, you two are the new Ultra Magnus and Drift, really showing how disposable everyone is to him.

Rodimus's treatment of Drift in general was especially gross. Please keep in-mind that Rodimus is the captain, so he had direct power over him. Rodimus got possessive and impatient any time Drift was doing anything other than attending directly to Rodimus, including calling him some horrible, undisclosed thing, and threatening to have the law changed specifically in order to punish Drift for his Decepticon past (this is during peace time). He claimed to Thunderclash that he'd "rehabilitated" Drift. He had Drift take the blame for Overlord, kicked Drift out of the Autobots, and didn't intervene when Drift was assaulted for this. And we learn that Drift only hadn't told the crew the truth about Overlord in the first place because he'd felt "beholden" to Rodimus. The way Rodimus treated Drift almost felt to me like Drift was his courtesan or something, along with the racist tropes that implies... it's really bad. EDIT: oh, and it was even worse because Rodimus exiled Drift right after Drift had his legs torn off by Overlord, and because when Rodimus eventually did confess to bringing Overlord on board, he didn't look for Drift or even send him a message.

Now I know what fans might say. But he came clean/apologized/grew so it's an arc! But that's not the case. As I've reread most of MTMTE just now, I saw that this character is basically written as a complete monster until about issue 18, and then suddenly starts behaving heroically and saying the right things after no growth at all. It's not an arc, it reads like JRo just reconsidered this guy's entire characterization, but you can't do that! You have to commit! Plus, I do not really care that Rodimus did better eventually, because "making amends" should have included stepping down as the first act. No, there absolutely should not have been a vote over his captaincy. He should have been removed or better yet, removed himself. (Also, what kind of a sadistic choice was that vote? Because if Rodimus had been voted out, that would have meant Megatron would've been sole captain of the Lost Light, and there was no vote over that! That was just unilaterally decided by Optimus Prime!)

A really great example of how Rodimus doesn't really grow or change genuinely is issue #36. In that issue, he and other crew members go back in time, and Rodimus keeps trying to find a way to prevent Trailbreaker's death. He shows a lot of concern for him. But this comes out of nowhere. As I've just reread a large chunk of MTMTE, I can tell you that Rodimus and Trailbreaker had no connection whatsoever before this. And again, none of this is the character's fault. This is the writer's fault. Because Rodimus doesn't actually grow, I wouldn't blame people from being like, "Well, I prefer to think of Rodimus as the version who behaves better and says the right things." But that would be the reader's choice, not something the writer or series should be credited for.

When it comes to Rodimus in the Marvel comics, what sort of things did he do that made him a flawed, complex character? Hiring a bounty hunter to take out Galvatron, which went poorly, but the intention was to try and keep people safe. Giving in to being goaded by Galvatron and losing his cool, but he gets talked down by Arcee. As Hot Rod, he was especially impulsive, and make mistakes like getting bored and going for a drive when he was supposed to be keeping watch at a diplomatic summit, which gave the Decepticons an opportunity to attack... but he then tried to redeem himself as soon as possible by immediately going one-on-one with their leader and putting himself at great risk. This basically applies to any of Rodimus's or Hot Rod's errors in judgment. He always tried to address them ASAP, and often they were made with good intentions (in one of the annuals, he disobeyed orders because he thought Kup was being hurt, for example), not to cover his own ass or spite people.

I also want to mention Rodimus from the 80s cartoon as well. He is known for saying absolutely deranged things and being so depressed, he took any opportunity to be rid of the mantle of leadership.

But the thing about this is that his actual actions were still almost always for others' benefit. I think that's the other biggest thing that JRo ignored.

#my analysis #transformers idw #Rodimus Prime #transformers g1 #transformers marvel #negative #rant

[songsformonkeys]

Saying I love you with a letter (Ezra x reader)

Month: May

Word count: ~900

Warnings: ANGST, mcd

Notes: You receive a letter from Ezra.

I don't know exactly what happened here. I was in the grumpiest of moods and needed to write something before the end of June. And I did...technically. Oh well... everyone needs something to be the laziest and worst thing they've written. This is probably mine.

The rest of the Year of Creation stories

@yearofcreation2023

~~~~~~

My dearest,

It's been a month since we parted ways. And I ache with every inch and second of that distance, lover.

I dreamt of you last night and I woke up this morning to the phantom sensation of your arm around my waist. I reached for your hand but ended up grasping at nothing but air. I begged for sleep to take me right back to dreamland, but she is a cruel bed companion, I'm afraid, and once I found myself awake, it was impossible to go back.

I'd like to think it was the real you. In the dream, I mean. That you dreamt of me too last night and that somehow that was enough for us to find each other. Is that foolish of me? Distance makes the heart grow fond, and drives the brain a little crazy, I think.

The moon we're at is beautiful like you wouldn't believe, sweetheart. They call her The Green Moon. A very apt name. She looked like an emerald in the void when our ship approached. She's hiding the largest treasure of Aurelac in the system, and guarding it with a deadly fierceness.

There's this... dust of sorts, some kind of spores, I believe. It's everywhere. Captain showed us pictures on the way over of different gruesome ways it can mess up the human body. I'll spare you the details. But don't you worry, lover, I'm careful, and this trusty suit ain't giving up on me anytime soon.

There are ten of us here, practically living in each other's pockets. And let me tell you that after a long day of harvesting, I'd just about be willing to trade one of my limbs for a reprieve from the unpleasantly potent smell of myself and my crewmates.

The crew is about as interesting as a crew of money-hungry desperate bastards can get. Not sure I trust any of them further than I can throw them. Except for maybe the one that doesn't speak. I dropped my rationed bits bar on the floor the other day, and couldn't eat it out of fear of dust contamination. Now, I was prepared to accept my fate and I even laughed along with the others at my misfortune. This guy, however, he doesn't laugh – not sure he even can – just breaks his own bar in two and hands me half. Says a lot about a man's character, that. Still don't know his name.

The work itself is not so bad. By no means the hardest I've labored. Harvesting Aurelac requires more finesse than brute force, which is a nice change of pace.

Some of the others are unhappy with the cut we're getting of the profits. Mostly the new recruits. I think the pay is decent enough, compared to what gigs such as these usually pay. Or perhaps me and the others who've been around know there's little to gain from complaining. Voice your displeasure enough and you'll soon find yourself overlooked when the next job rolls around. No one claims it's fair but them's the rules, and no one's ever heard of anybody getting rich off of prospecting.

How are things back home? I'm itching to hear some gossip about the new neighbors. Did you end up taking them up on their offer to help with the roof? I do feel bad for leaving you to deal with it all on your own. But you know I couldn't turn this job down. Not with all things considered.

I promise I'll make it up to you a thousand times over as soon as I am back! Not too long now, and I'm counting down the days.

I love you, sweetheart. More than words could possibly convey. Can't wait to be back in your arms again.

Yours forever,

Ezra

~~~~~~

You smooth your fingers lovingly over the familiar handwriting and only just resist the urge to bring the letter up to your face. It wouldn't smell like him anyway. Written a month after he left. Exactly one month after he left. You knew because you too had been counting the days, starting from the morning when he hugged and kissed you goodbye at the hangar.

You smooth your fingers over the paper. It's worn like it's been folded and unfolded countless times along the same creases.

One month after he left.

Three weeks before he was supposed to come back.

Your hands begin to tremble.

The young girl across from you at the table speaks up, voice a bit guarded like she's expecting you to lash out at her. Like perhaps that had been the default reaction of someone before you.

”I found this among his stuff... after...” she tells you. ”He never got a chance to send it, but I found it and I thought you deserved to have it.”

And with that, the last glimmer of hope flickers and dies in your heart, replaced in an instant by the cold hard truth.

Ezra isn't coming home.

#year of creation 2023 #year of saying i love you #ezra x reader #prospect fanfiction #tw: mcd #tw: angst

[rosetintmyworld84]

I feels cheap, is the thing

So on the whole for OFMD season 2, episodes 1-5 were perfect, and episodes 6-8 felt rushed, and any plot points that weren't part of the Stede and Eddie show were seriously pushed to the wayside. Think about all the scenes featuring the rest of the crew, in moments that aren't about Ed and Stede in episodes 6, 7, and 8. They are incomplete. I think ultimately we can blame WB for that, since there are less episodes this season. But that finale should have been much longer.

***OFMD Season 2 Spoilers under the cut***

They were trying to go for an epic battle, and instead we got a handful of fight scenes, everyone running away, and Izzy being shot and dying almost as an after thought.

I'm not really going to get into whether or not he should have been killed (he really shouldn't, because killing a character off just after all the massive character development for their redemption is cheap and overused and I thought OFMD was better than that), but it should have had way more of an impact. On everyone. Not just Ed. Because that was kind of the whole point of Izzy's arc this season, moving beyond Ed and finding family and belonging with the rest of the crew. HE'S THE NEW FREAKIN UNICORN FOR GOD'S SAKES! They should be EFFECTED by his death. And his final words shouldn't be consoling Ed, and telling him that he has friends now. For that scene, it should have been Izzy being fatalist and maudlin (you're born alone, you die alone), and ED telling him he has family, that HE was loved. Even Stede seems kind of unbothered about Izzy dying. For all that "Ed, Stede, and Izzy's arcs are tied together" it sure seems like Izzy became an after thought.

But again, ultimately everything felt incredibly rushed, and because of that we get half a plot. Think back to season 1, where we had a full season long arc of Jim/Oluwande, where they were basically the basis of the B plots for almost the whole season, sort of being a mirror to the main romance. So far in season 2 we get Jim and Olu getting new love interests, kind of? There was the beginnings of relationship development through episode 5, and then it just kind of stopped. Because we kind of stopped spending any real amount of time with anyone that wasn't Ed and Stede. We don't get the deep dives into the rest of the crew. We don't get something like the growth of the Black Pete/Lucius relationship over multiple episodes, without it being forgotten or overwritten (literally the entire plot of Izzy's relationship with the crew of the Revenge and Stede). Frenchie and Jim, integral in the first 3 episodes are afterthoughts. Roach, Black Pete, and Wee John are barely in the episodes.

We get some moments, but they aren't connected to anything else happening. It is all planting and no payoff. It's Buttons becoming a seagull to just make a weird cameo at the end. It's Stede leaving piracy with Ed after NO conversation at all. It's the crew riding off with Zheng and Spanish Jackie, and WHO THE HELL IS CAPTAINING THIS SHIP? It's the Republic of Pirates still under occupation, because they didn't do the big damn hero thing.

And I get it, they weren't sure if they'd get a season 3 so they wanted everything wrapped up, but the plot suffers for it. It's an amputated story, where nothing feels earned, or completed. There was more narrative weight tot he death of Karl the seagull than Izzy Hands.

I mean why have him make the speech about belonging, if no one seems to care that he dies?

All of this to give more air time to Ed/Stede, and they still didn't really complete that either. Things I loved about the finale, the opening with Ed totally not knowing how to do any actual fishing work, parallel to episode 1 at Jackie's with the occupation, Zheng getting used to failing, Izzy being a legend, and badass montage. Just really wish they'd have actually done something with this episode other than looking kind of cool.

I wish the last 3 episodes had the time they needed to breath and be full episodes, but here we are.

Anyways, the great thing about fandom is ignoring canon when we want, or fixing it, so I'm going to need lots of fic filing in the grieving of the crew, and also seagull Buttons raising Izzy from the dead on my desk by next week.

#ofmd season 2 #ofmd #ofmd season 2 spoilers #our flag means death season 2 spoilers #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd spoilers #our flag means death spoilers #our flag means death s 2 spoilers

[spacecasehobbit]

In spite of my pretty liberal blocking policy, I keep seeing this idea that Azula was betrayed by everyone she cared about, and that's what lead to her breakdown by the time Sozin's Comet arrived. I finally figured I'd put my two cents out there, though I'm putting it below a readmore. I like discussion and character meta, but I don't really want to incite a bunch of internet fights about what is at the end of the day a fictional character from a fictional kid's cartoon.

Azula wasn't betrayed out of nowhere by people who had no reason to leave; she was a bully, and her primary victims one by one refused to stay and help her cause more harm to others.

Azula consistently uses fear to control other people, starting from her first scenes in the show. She is also shown to be prone to bouts of irrational anger and impulsiveness just as bad as Zuko at his worst; unlike Zuko, she is her father's favorite and a known firebending prodigy who has the social and firebending power to make her impulsive anger and irrational demands much more potentially dangerous to those under her command.

The first time we see her in S2, she has been tasked with bringing Iroh and Zuko back to the Fire Nation as prisoners, on charges of treason for what happened at the North Pole.

Azula tells the silent crew of her ship that she will not hesitate to "bring them down" if any of them hesitate to act against two former crown princes - one of whom is also a former General known for his own powerful firebending - who are now considered traitors to the Fire Nation. She demands that the captain of her ship ignore the tides - a literal natural phenomenon that he would have no way of controlling - in order to bring the ship into port a few hours faster. She threatens her captain with death if he doesn't obey her irrational order, a threat he seems to take seriously when he chooses to risk getting the whole ship destroyed by the tides rather than go against Azula's irrational order.

She waits in Iroh and Zuko's room to catch them off guard; she lies to Zuko, using his deepest insecurities and his longing to be accepted by their father against him, all the while planning to put him and Iroh in chains once they're on the ship. Then, when one of her crewmen reveals the con too soon, she mocks Zuko with those same insecurities, baits him into anger that makes him sloppy, and nearly shoots him with deadly lightning after knocking him to the ground.

In her next episode, she terrorizes Ty Lee - and the entire circus in which Ty Lee has found a home where she is happy, by extension - until Ty Lee agrees to join her in hunting down Zuko and Iroh. Mai agrees to join Azula right away, but she still chooses to humiliate Mai's father in front of his family, pretends she is going to trade Bumi for Mai's baby brother only to call off the trade at the last minute with no advance warning even to Mai, and launches herself at the Avatar also with no warning to any of her allies the instant she sees him.

At the end of the episode, she tells Mai and Ty Lee that they have a new addition to their mission: capturing the Avatar - implying that this wasn't a part of her original mission, but rather that she has given herself this mission (the one thing her brother still clings to as his only chance of pleasing their father and earning his way back home in their father's eyes).

If Zuko goes home because she captured the Avatar, then he will be in her debt. As we see later in S3, if Zuko goes home because she captured/killed Aang and then lied to their father about it, Zuko will be both in her debt and in a position of maintaining her lie - with Azula once again giving no advance warning of her plan to her supposed ally, and thus forcing him to just react in the moment with no chance to prepare - or risk his own safety too.

Azula gives herself the task of capturing or killing the Avatar, she seems to give herself the task of capturing Ba Sing Se, and when she returns home at the start of S3 she chooses to lie to her father in such a way that Zuko will be forced to lie to him, too - with no chance to prepare himself or plan what to say - in order to keep them both safe.

Azula is smart, strong, and manipulative, and she relies on fear to maintain power over the people around her.

She is also a fourteen-year-old kid who grew up with a father who consistently encouraged all her worst, most destructive impulses.

She grew up the princess of an imperialist world power, the descendant of the man who started a war against the rest of the world that was still going 100 years later, the daughter of a man who praised her for exerting power over others. She grew up with a father who told her that strength was good and compassion was a weakness, a father who made himself Fire Lord by using his wife to kill his father and then banishing her for the very act that brought him into power.

And so Azula cultivates the traits that earn her father's praise, uses fear and emotional manipulation to control even her friends and brother, and responds with fury and threats of violence when anyone from whom she expects obedience so much as questions even her most irrational orders in a tone that suggests they might not obey.

Then Zuko leaves, not giving any advance warning of his actions to the sister who has a history of lying to him, manipulating him for her own benefit, and throwing him under the bus whenever it might help keep her safe and maintain her power over him.

Then Mai turns against her when she is about to kill her own brother, Mai's ex boyfriend who wanted her to care about things and who left because he realized that he cares about the world more than he cares about making his abusive, genocidal father proud, and Ty Lee turns against her to stop her from killing Mai in retaliation.

Finally, her father - the father she had lied to under the confident assumption that Zuko would never have the guts to expose her lie - seems to turn against her too, refusing to take her with him to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground.

And that is what leads to Azula's breakdown. She has always relied upon her martial power, her status as her father's favorite, and her ability to read people to manipulate and control them. Discovering that she might not always know what the people closest to her are thinking, that they are capable of keeping secrets of their own from her and that her martial strength and threats of violence might not be enough to keep them in line through fear anyway, that is what shatters her foundation and leads to the breakdown we see by the time Sozin's Comet arrives.

It's a tragedy because she is a child, a child who grew up in a home soaked in cruelty and who internalized all of her father's worst lessons; but it is a tragedy of Ozai and Azula's making. Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee turned against her because she gave them no indication that she would be willing to prioritize anything, including their lives, over her goals and desires.

Azula learned how to treat everyone "beneath" her like tools that she had a right to use however she wished, including her brother and her supposed friends. The fact that they eventually stopped letting her use them to destructive ends does not make her breakdown their fault or their responsibility to fix.

#atla #atla meta #azula critical #(i guess?) #(tbh it's more just my read of canon Azula) #(which differs from a lot of what i keep seeing from fans and antis both) #(also it's probably very rambly) #(but it kept getting longer every time i tried to proofread it so eventually i gave up) #(and decided to toss what i have out to the void!)

[mysteriouslybluepirate]

Can't send asks from my sideblog, but this is @chewing-the-drywall

I feel like much of s2 fell into Frenchie's "we put it in the box and then lock it and don't open it again" in the sense that it set up A LOT that I was intrigued about how they would address it, but it either never was mentioned again or was handled poorly.

Examples range from light, like how I wish we saw more of the crew interacting with each other in ways that built on their characters from S1, where in S2 they didn't feel any more developed, or even regressed. (Example, Fang used the word Fingies 2-3 times through S2, and it felt like they were using it almost as a shorthand for his character, rather than making him feel more real and multidimensional as a character.)

100% @chewing-the-drywall. When I first heard that line I had I was so excited for the story to prove Frenchie wrong. Or show how important it can be to put aside problems to stay alive in the moment. But in the end, this one line summarized how the season handled everyone, besides Stede and Ed. Below, is an in depth discussion on where this season decided to spend it's limited amount of time. Instead of focusing on the characters and plotlines they'd already established.

This season had so MANY ideas it wanted to touch on.

Izzy trying to deal with his unrequited love and opening up to a new way of living. The traumatized 'Revenge' crew trying to adapt to a softer way of life again. The abandoned crew learning how to help their traumatized friends. Introducing new characters like Zheng, Auntie, and Archie into our main group. Setting up a conflict to resolve in season three. Along the way, referencing Pirates of history like Ned Low, Mary Reed, and Anne Bonny.

Notice, I've said all this and we're not even at our romantic leads.

Which is fine. Stories are fluid things. As long as the story knows how to flow from our leads to our side characters. Which leads us to how I feel this show took a lot of time away from establishing our central crew-

[Warning- this will be a controversial opinion- I want to know what y'all think about this] Zheng/Oluwande. This seasons habit of retreading old plotlines and referencing scenes from S1.

What S1 did so well was paralleling the side stories with what was going on with Ed/Stede. Usually, highlighting how well Stede/Ed worked by showing how much Ed/Izzy DIDN'T work. Or general hijinks that tied into the plot (Oluwande and Frenchie on the French ship).

Season 2 chose to parallel our main story with what was going on between Zheng/Oluwande as a budding romance and Izzy's slow recovery. The reason Zheng/Oluwande scenes felt like a waste for me in that the story was JUST a retelling the story we watched from S1.

A frustrated first mate(Auntie), and a legendary captain(Zheng) fighting over the captain falling in love with an idiot(Olu). In season 2, much like every callback for me, it felt like it slowed down the plot by pulling us out of the story. Like...yeah, you did the thing again, do you want me to applaud you for it?

I LIKE Zheng and Oluwande as a couple! I like that Oluwande was debating leaving Stede and taking Jim and Archie with him. But at the same time, I didn't care about Zheng until episode 7 when she beat up Stede, showing that yes. She's not just some all powerful woman taken down by a mix of love(the crew in ep3) and thinking that she was above it all (ep 7). She's fast on her feet, smart, and willing to stab someone who gets in her way. She's her own person. But.

Every other scene that established her was about her romance, felt like we could have put Rhys and Taika in there. It didn't feel...unique. It's as if the show only knows 1 way to write a romance between a badass and a bumbling idiot. Again. Oluwande in season 1 wasn't dumb in the same way everyone else was. He was protective of Jim, a bit nervous overall, but he was the person the crew chose to lead them. The season just dumbed everyone down a bit and called it a day.

This comes to the larger issue. When we only have eight episodes I don't want to rewatch the exact same plot beats with different characters. Time spent here ends up taking away from other stories we could have told about trauma and growing as a family and other forms of growing as a family. We didn't need another romance plot line. Imagine taking this time instead to show Lucius reaching out to Pete AND the crew for help. Or Frenchie finally feeling safe enough to play his lute. Or Roach helping Fang get over his thing with cakes-you get my point.

The fact we took all the found family stuff from season one, and pushed it onto only Izzy in S2 means when he dies, all the found family shit falls away. His death makes us realize we've been ignoring the central family we were supposed to care about. Because in so many words, their trauma was ignored.

[I even theorize if Izzy was alive and sailed away with them. Showing how he was taken in and loved by his crew, the ending wouldn't feel so hollow. This crew doesn't feel like a caring family. The person who protected them for months died, wasn't mourned, and then they threw a wedding the same day. Not even a full day to mourn. The 'New Revenge' feels like a heartless crew of characters we barely recognize because they aren't a family like they were at the end of S1. More like coworkers who sometimes fall in love with eachother.]

Trauma, Timelines, and Tonal issues when jumping from Episodes 1-3 to Episodes 4-5.

When the crews meet up, the story chooses to focus on the fun plot. Ed and Stede recovering their relationship, only dipping back into that serious tone when Izzy or Lucius come on screen to 'make things sad' again. I don't think the transition from 'serious' to 'comedy' was handled well.

I don't have an official timeline of the events of season two. But from what I remember, everything happens within 2 weeks.

In episode 4, Stede ignored the vote of his crew- to let the man who was torturing half his 'FAMILY' for at least 80 days- back aboard. This rubbed me the wrong way, as it showed Stede being a selfish prick in a way that could seriously harm his crew. That's when I started to see how not adding a *single* time-skip mid-season would hurt S2.

Imagine if we had a one-week off-screen time skip between episodes 4 and 5.

Maybe it's implied that they stay in that town for a bit. Izzy would a bit more time to learn to move on his new leg and start to open up to those he already trusts. Include a scene of Izzy WITH the crew, maybe laughing about something with the old traumatized crew, even if it's just a 30-second opener. Imply that the traumatized crew would have more time to settle in with the family they miss. Show that yeah, the traumatized crew needs more time to heal. Imply at the start of the 'Ed apology' that Ed and Stede have had more time to talk their issues out.

THEN have Ed apologize. You can even keep the bullshit corporate to show that Ed still has to work for this.

Healing takes time. Setting a series over the span of two weeks after half your cast was tortured by your lead love interest? After five of your main crew thought they would sail off into a storm and die after months of stress and life threatening battles? Why did that shit get shoved to the side so quickly?

Framing episode 5 as the START of Ed making amends with the crew, only to drop the plot by episode 7? Not a smart move. Because let's be honest, 'poison into positivity' in episode 6, referring to the fact that they sold all of Ed's loot to pay for the party, ignores the sacrifices the crew made to live that long. (The death of Ivan, and intense trauma they all need to work through). In a way, Ed throwing this party was him asking the crew to start putting everything away in that imaginary box.

It's Ed retroactively letting himself say 'hey, that time I spent torturing my captives was worth it because we got something good out of it' while still ignoring his own guilt. Ed needed to take accountability for his actions. No more 'I took 'a' mans leg' bullshit. The reason his arc feels so unsatisfying is that the plot easily forgives him. Fuck. I hate what they did for Ed's arc, but that's not the point.

Overall.

My issue with this season is not that it chose to do these topics, it's that it didn't think about the implications of what they were bringing up. It didn't dare to think 'maybe it's fucked if we quickly brush off a trauma like this'. Again. I know we have to blame MAX for cutting off two episodes. But I don't think 2 additional episodes would fix a tone problem seen going from episodes 3-4.

Fucking hell. Each member of the revenge had the potential for their own arc, so it's baffling to see them all reduced to 'well meaning idiot' when they all felt so fleshed out in S1.

When izzy gives his speech about belonging, there's a reason the only image in the show of the crew all together was from S1.

At the end of the day, Season 2 didn't let our surviving side characters grow. This is a mean spirited bit on how I feel the writers see the their own characters.

Stede and Ed are our leads. They won't die, not in this genera. Their shitty actions will be forgiven because it's a comedy, and as long as it's joked about, it holds no weight. They won't die. They won't get fatally hurt. Their trauma will be taken seriously, but it's a 50/50 on if they'll talk about it before breaking up again. They will eventually get a happy ending, their trauma looked at head on, because duh.

Jim, Olu, Lucius, Pete? Characters who used to have defined personalities in S1, but haven't been defined much beyond their relationships with their partners? Whose trauma might be mentioned, but will quickly be 'resolved' in one scene? Shame. Seems like they're only useful as set dressing, But we might make you useful as interchangeable side characters to riff against. Oh, and you're in love! Isn't that cool!

Izzy? I'll just quote Jenkins here. "To have him become a father figure to Blackbeard, and on some level to the rest of the crew, and to see him become the heart of why we’re giving pirates the chance to stand for being able to live how you choose. In reality, they’re thieves and criminals, but what our pirates stand for is a life of belonging to something larger than they are in the face of a crushing, slightly fascist normalcy." So...Is Izzy a pirate and accepted into the Revenge family? Or is he still an outsider? Jenkins gave us a romcom but still defines Izzy's character as that of one stuck in a drama/tragedy. Point and laugh, because tonally these two things clash HARD and will make an audience lose trust in it's writers unless well established. Leading us to the entire issue we've pointed out of not letting your characters actions hold in dramatic weight in your story.

Frenchie, Wee John, Roach, and Fang- Ah. No love interests again...shit. Well. Background actors it is... for now. We'll see. But we need 2 more scenes of the couple breaking up, so MAYBE you'll get some backstory hinted at in dialogue. You all have 1 thing your good at, so that's easy enough to put you where you belong.

Buttons and Swede? Well. They're still alive!! Don't be sad, fans :) The actors just couldn't show up anymore. We don't want our silly happy queer pirate rom com to not end on a happy ending! (Closes the lid of the trash can where they're keep Con O'Neill a bit tighter, thanking God Con was silenced by a strike this entire season from social media)

Do you agree, or disagree? Leave any lingering thoughts down below!

I'd love to chat down below.

#I am absolutely screwing myself over spelling-wise by adding a poll but fuck it. That's what we do #Overall: Just because you can fit something into your story doesn't mean it needs to be shown on screen. #I wanted to add a section of all the scenes I'd cut/tighten to make my added scenes work but I don't think we're there yet as a fandom #I theorize that the reason they couldn't change the script and had to hack it up was due to them already having 10 episodes fully written #also I SWEAR I LIKE ZHENG- but the part of me that sees her as a hollow Ed 'narrative mirror' finds her a bit boring until episode 7 #I LOVED her ship and how she hated Stede. But that's just because I generally don't enjoy Stede when he's unquestioned #Stede on her ship was a pacified lamb slowly getting fattened for the slaughter. She would have turned on him SO EASILY. She almost did too #I semi-tolerated Ed/Stede's love story of not communicating and puppy love. Seeing it again but sped up didn't make me like it more #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd critical #? #yeah I'll tag that just to be safe #izzy hands #edward teach #ofmd s2 finale #ofmd season 2 spoilers #ofmd s2 meta #ofmd s2 analysis #trauma

[sethmacenzie]

So I've said my part about ofmd season 2s finale and that I didn't even care anymore that my favourite character died, but the show had such an insane decline from season 1 to season 2 it was simply not as enjoyable for the entire time.

So here's a quick critique of open issues that stuck with me:

-they killed Ivan off-screen and he's only mentioned once in passing, no one cares or questions where he is when they meet again, they were fine with Izzy there, but didn't even bother asking about a crew member they were much closer with -Buttons turned into a seagull (which I didn't think was bad) and it's only questioned once by Roach and then never again brought up, and Roach asks if Ed didn't simply kill him and it's just ignored -Ed doesn't really become part of the crew, he doesn't pay up for what he did and why is Izzys deathbed apology more sincere than Ed's non apology about Izzys leg? He doesn't deserve to come back at all, because he doesn't do anything to earn it. He spends a day with Fang and that counts for the whole crew, Fang who isn't even angry at him -Izzy actually earns his place within the crew and still has to apologize to Ed, his worst abuser. Sure Izzy was part of the problem with Blackbeard, but in no way does it justify what Ed did to him (and everyone else while he was Captain of the Revenge) -remember last season when Ed made it clear that he only ever killed one person, and then in the finale he coldly pushed Lucius over and it was therefore a big deal? Yeah Ed just randomly kills like it's nothing now, and "go back to what you were good at", it wasn't killing, Ed was never good at killing

-they barely paid attention to the non ships aside from Izzy and it sucks. We had such a wonderful balance in season 1 of crew live, that we got to love them all, we didn't have any of that in season 2, it's so plain when you look at Archie, she just didn't get what her crewmates got to the point you don't care about her all that much -speaking of Archie, that relationship something with Olo, JIm, Archie and Zhang Yi Sao was a mess, they sank of the biggest relationships from season 1, which had such a well done ark in the first episodes, and many, myself included thought we might get a poly relationship, but we didn't, we got the mess we had. We had a well developed relationship that took an entire season to build and it got removed during the first three episodes in favour of two new underdeveloped characters getting with them in no time

-I know we are not historically accurate and don't bother too much with it, but Zheng Yi Sao is the most powerful female pirate in history and they nerved her for nothing, I did like how Richard got rid of her fleet, but they should have used someone else than a pirate known for dying peacefully because she got so powerful she made a deal

-the pacing was obviously bad, and I want to give them as much nicety about it as possible, but Owl House got cut from an entire season to three episodes and they still manged to nail it, ofmd lost 2 episodes and it doesn't excuse this pacing

-honestly Izzys redemption ark was rushed, just so he could be killed off, it was too much, too fast. I do love the first few episodes of him, but doing drag was a bit far fetched for episode 6, but it's a small complain, loved the singinig and dancing

-"bottle it up" is the new solution to problems, after "talk it through as a crew" from season 1. Lucius, Frenchie and Izzy just bottle everything up and nothing bad comes of it, we're supposed to believe that's a good thing? -everyone knows Stede is alive, Mary relies on him being dead and it's never brought up or important whatsoever

-this season feels like there aren't proper consequences, Ed can leave and come back and it's fine, Buttons can turn into a seagull and no one cares, Auntie gets blown up with the fleet and survives, people get stabbed multiple times and survive, but Izzy gets shot and dies, it's all over the place -there is always the whole: we have a suicidal character, they try to kill themselves, they fail, they get over their depression, they finally get happy, and we kill them off just after they found happyness. It sucks as a trope, it gives every last person that is suicidal the feeling that being happy is not worth it, because you're going to die anyway and well, maybe don't have the characer that tried to kill himself this season a line about wanting to go and in the same episode that had "it's only suicide if we die", it's tasteless at best and ill-intended at worst

-Roach is in the main cast now, but I swear he had more scenes in season 1 than seaosn 2

-having a tiny funeral scene and bam wedding, like there was no decent emotional impact on either of these moments, any why would they bury him without his leg or ring?

-Stede has a panic moment when he kills Ned and it seems like that's why he and Ed slept togeher, but it's not brought up that killing is still an issue

To end it on a few positive notes, I liked -Swede becomes Jackies husband and Roach going Mrs Bettet about the whole thing -most of the first three episodes in general -Buttons turning into a seagull and being recognized as a seawitch -having more historical figures -Auntie -Susan (mostly) aside from the issue I brought up -Wee John getting into knitting -Izzy sining and dancing -the entire leg arch of Izzy -pretty much all Izzy/Stede interactions -Frenchie sceming again and the rest all going with it -indigo! -everyones new looks -Fang going fishing and his and Roachs spa day -the after credit scenes -Ed freaking out because Stede moved too fast -Stede having a killing flashback when killing Ned Low -Spanish Jackie in general, but especially poisoning everyone and getting Swede a new look -Richard as the main antagonist -Clocks -Stede getting Hellcat Maggie and the to mutiny -the entire cast was amazing

And I shouldn't have to say this, but: don't harass people over this, critiquing is fine, threats are not. And no it's not bury your gays, everyone here is gay and that is not one of the issues this season had.

#ofmd #ofmd season 2 #ofmd spoilers #critique

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

ooh can i ask what story the girl turning into the spider is from? it sounds sweet!

oh uh... it's sweet in the sense that, even though pretty much everything goes wrong, some things still go right?

Tavra (spider girl) is a very stoic, somewhat blunt and socially awkward, generally grim, only ever laughs bitterly but will gently stroke your cheek and remind you to keep moving forward main supporting character in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance YA books written by J.M. Lee. (mostly in the third one, tides of the dark crystal) (SPOILERS) She's... kinda like the older sister figure / adopted mom / eventual one half of fav OTP to the three point of view characters? Her whole thing is being ready to sacrifice herself and her happiness for the sake of saving people, enduring pain without flinching even while telling others to be careful, repeatedly almost dying and smiling about it....

....except that she really, really, REALLY wants to see her girlfriend again, too. Especially after kinda sorta dying and getting spider-ed.

Her uncharacteristic rashness and nervousness when showing herself to Onica- and Onica's zero hesitation to reach out to the small spider that sounds like Tavra- is the first clue these two are A Thing.

They've been a thing for a loooong while. A forbidden secret romance kinda thing.

Onica turns out to be outwardly the sun to Tavra's cloudy day, except she's actually still VERY angry at Mayrin (Tavra's mother) for being a jerk, and VERY bitter over how Mayrin treated Tavra over their relationship- and while Tavra tries making excuses for her mom the best she can come up with in the end is a damningly faint "that was a long time ago". Which. Well.

Anyway, up till now Tavra has always taken on the role the Experienced And Steady Advisor and Guardian to her new younger friends, but once she's back on Onica's ship (Onica is a single crew sailing ship captain able to dream of things happening far away have i mentioned that?) Tavra starts finally relaxing enough to show some of the stresses she's been under lately, even going off and 'mope' when her attempt at teaching one young friend how not to get killed with a sword goes badly.

(moping is described as Tavra "just being Tavra") (her kinda new little sister is the one saying this) (Tavra can be recognized in any form by her dower frown) (especially funny when Onica is constantly described as laughing and chuckling and wearing a mysterious smile)

So blah blah blah, Onica is a the good kind of terrifying and almost dies, Tavra saves her via the power of gay flashbacks with the help of their new number 1 shipper-

Then Onica's bestie, who is in huge awe of Tavra, tries to push a traumatized depressed disabled woman in the body of a spider into leading all their people in revolution bc she'd be ideal for it- and Onica very pointed says that you can't help others if you don't take time to help yourself before going off to presumably snuggle her sad spider gf.

The two are last seen in the books as Tavra's sorta adopted teen son Kylan-

(who turned her into a spider to save while committing murder despite generally being a pacific presumably bc of the trauma of watch his birth parents get snatched away by murders as a child)

-decides to look at some runes, and Tavra says she and Onica will stay with him.

So. Tavra never gets her old body back, and her mom is murdered, and part of her soul is drained and eaten, and her sisters probably think she's dead- but she also does not die. By the end of the story she is happy with the family she has found, and finally fulfilling her and Onica's promise to someday live their lives as one.

Oh did i mention there's a parallel between her and Onica's secret forbidden romance and the more tragic example that kicks of the whole story?

Did i mention Onica calls Tavra "my love"?

And Tavra was a swordswoman before becoming a spider?

I don't know if you wanted or needed all this info and I don't care, there will never be enough stuff about these two written but by gods i will take ever chance to scream about them

And that's how my arachnophobia was cured!!!

#tavonica #tavra #onica #age of resistance books #the dark crystal #rant #your honor i love them

[iliadette]

What are some reasons to actually like Spirk + Star Trek?

I'm an ORV fan but I used to watch Voyager as a kid and I've seen a one or two of the newer movies a few years back (dark something something?) I stayed away from the Star Trek fandom as an adult because I mainly associated it with racism and misogynistic nerd guys.

Hi, anon. Sorry if this ask will take a long time to appear, English is not my first language an I am bad with words on a good day.

You're probably thinking of Into Darkness. It's the second reboot movie. There's a lot of different opinions about those lmao. Personally, I love them even though they do have bad bad points, but then again, I love everything about Star Trek, even at its worst.

There's no denying that there was a bit of period-typical misogyny in the original Star Trek, and it got worse in the long run after Rick Berman was selected for production. Latent misogyny, hetero and amatonormativity, as any 60-to-90s show does. To deny that would be stupid. But.

Star Trek was one of, if not the first, tv programs to depict people of different races working together, as equal as they could get in a military-like setting, in a time when segregation and Cold War were still a thing. A Black woman, an Asian man, a Russian one, a Scottish one, all holding a major position in a government vessel, all iconic characters to this day. Censorship never let him, but Gene Roddenberry, the original creator, always intended to include queer people in ST, as I will explain better later. ‌The original series had episodes which very clearly condemned nazism, racism, the Vietnam war, genocide. The Ferengi race of the Next Generation were created to be a satire of western capitalists but were wrongly pegged as an antisemitic stereotype. If a major character is disabled, they have accomodations made for them, they don't have their disability erased, though I hear that Strange New World kind of fucked that up. An episode of TNG was in protest of conversion therapy though people didn't like how it ended. A major theme of Deep Space Nine revolves around colonialism. It had the first black protagonist (commander and later captain); the first female first officer in the franchise to have a major role, who formerly fought in a resistance movement against a the occupation of her planet by a fascist imperialist race; the first trans woman in all but designation, who btw very much kissed another woman in an absolutely iconic scene; a canonically very neurodivergent doctor. Voyager had the first female captain to star in a series. Seven of Nine's character is particularly dear to me because while it's obvious that she was added mainly to boost and entice the male audience with her sex appeal (and well, I am sapphic and far from immune), it's also obvious how much the writers and Jeri Ryan cared for her storyline and growth. She's such a complex character, I really love her. Seven-centric episodes are always a treat for me. I can't remember anything else off the top of my head, sorry abt that (I also haven't watched Enterprise and the newest series yet so I can't talk about that).

Does ST have bad moments? Misogynistic, racist, homophobic, ableist, amatonormative moments? Hell yes. Some episodes are really cringy and have very bad writing. But there are more good ones than not, and those are the ones I live for, the ones that can give you a message that stays with you, where there was somebody in the crew/cast who read the script, saw something terrible, and went "this will not pass on my watch" and worked together to fix whatever they could. I'm sorry if your experience with Star Trek was with dudebros who think "the woke of the latest series ruined the franchise".

Now, about K/S. I believe with all my heart that nobody needs a reason to ship any two or more characters together. That said, I think Spirk is one of those ships where you have to wear anti-ship goggles not to see the potential (but no big deal if you don't). They touch each other all the time, they risk their life and career multiple times to save the other. This is not inherently a sign of non platonic feelings, and they sure aren't canon as we usually mean it, but.

Writers sure had a field day sprinkling suggestive bits (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) all throughout the franchise, especially queer writers (Theodore Sturgeon, writer of Amok Time and Shore Leave, may his soul be blessed for all eternity).

Bonus for how they look at each other. (1) (2) (3) (4)

Roddenberry himself described their relationship as one of love. It's not mentioned in the series, but in the books it's revealed that they share a telepathic bond that connects their souls, which in Vulcan culture is called t'hy'la which can mean "friend, brother, lover". This definition was created specifically for the two of them, so this is a very obvious wink/nudge, if not an outright acknowledgement that "yes they're in love, but homophobia exists so this is all we can do."

In The Motion Picture when Kirk looks at Spock like a lovesick puppy after a long separation, and the simple feeling not much later.

And can anyone dare to say that those death scenes from The Wrath of Khan and Into Darkness are supposed to be platonic, or what Kirk says about Spock at the beginning of The Search for Spock, that his death feels like he lost "the noblest part of his soul"? And what about "Not in front of the Klingons"??

The books, too, have some very interesting nuance.

Sooooo yeah I absolutely think that Spirk is and will always be the one ship that best comes to mind when it comes to ST. In my eyes and in those of a lot of people they're canon in every way that matters, and if either of them had been female there would have 100% been a marriage in one of the movies, à la Riker/Troi. They'll forever be my ST otp, though I'll occasionally indulge a little bit of Spones and McSpirk. I could even like and reblog other ships like McKirk or Spuhura but only in fanart and only in moderation. I personally wouldn't be interested in reading fanfiction about those. But every ship is valid and equal in fandom, and none is superior just because it's canon and/or had a major role in the birth of shipping culture. Which is the very point all this behemoth of a post originated from, I guess.

This.... Has turned into way more than I thought. Sorry about thay. I hope my answer was satisfactory, anon. Also that I didn't bore you. Hope you have a great day, and thank you for reaching out. ❤️🖖

#star trek #k/s #spirk #anon ask #long post #personal #meta #ish #i think this was coherent

[spoopkook]

No. 2

"I'll call out your name, but you won't call back." Thermometer | Delirium | "They don't care about you."

Summary: the Captain needs their sleep

Mark's POV, first person

Word count: 1,813

Cw: major character deaths, isolation, insanity, survivors guilt, loss of memory, alcohol abuse, caps, delirium, repetition

Software update complete.

Good Morning Head Engineer. We are currently ERROR years into our journey. Coffee is en route. Current ship status is… ABSOLUTELY CATASTROPHIC

I-I-Initializing emergency Wakey Wakey Protocol.

Reviving Head Engineer.

Suddenly I was pushed out of my cryopod. Not this shit again. I clicked the 'blast shields close' button on the main console. Not again.

I looked around but the Captain was nowhere to be found?

There was no time to look as alarms blared.

Fire on the bridge. Error. Life support systems failing. Error.

I ran to life support.

I cranked the wheel as fast as I could trying not to pass out.

Oxygen levels rising.

Good News Head Engineer, the momentary lapse in oxygen extinguished the fire on the bridge.

Then came the ADS and the reactor and the warpcore. I activated the Event Horizon Protocol.

Now that the time sensitive emergencies were taken care of it was time to wake the rest of the crew. Luckily since I programmed the computer, it listens to me even though I'm not the Captain.

"Computer, wake the Captain," I commanded.

Error. Wakey wakey protocol disengaged.

"Why?!" I asked, infuriated.

Error.

"Computer, what is the error?"

Error.

"What is the-"

Error.

I groaned in frustration. This was useless. "Computer, wake Gunther."

Error. Wakey wakey protocol disengaged.

What was going on? "Computer, ship status?"

Ship status nominal.

"Computer, wake Burt."

Error. Wakey wakey protocol disen…

"What the fuck???!?!"

Error.

I didn't want it to come to this. But I'd need the cryo expert to solve this problem. Also she was the only option left out of the crew leads.

"Computer, wake asshat," I said through gritted teeth.

Error. Wakey wakey protocol…

And now I was worried.

"Computer, wake the colonists," I was getting desperate.

Error.

"Wake the Captain."

Error.

"Wake the crew."

Error.

"Wake-"

Error.

"Computer, can you do anything?"

No.

I punched the wall, tears in my eyes. But I wasn't giving up yet. I was the fucking head engineer dammit. I built this ship and I'd fix every 100,000 cryopods one by one if I had to.

First was the Captain's. I took a look but everything seemed to be in order. It looked the same as my cryopod. There was no explanation as to why the Captain's cryopod didn't engage Wakey Wakey Protocol.

I searched every cryopod. Every. Single. One.

I lost track of the hours… days… weeks…

It seemed useless. I couldn't wake anybody up. I couldn't fix the cryopods. I couldn't even reprogram the computer to get the wakey wakey protocols working again.

I tried over and over and over. Everything I could think of… until I just gave up. I cried banging on the cryopods. Trying to manually pry them open. Nothing worked.

I tried to put myself back into cryosleep.

Error.

Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error.

Over and over.

Everything was useless.

~~~

I ate from the reserves. There was plenty. More than what was needed for my lifetime. No rationing needed. I never was in want of food.

I still tried some days. When I had the sudden motivation or maybe it was just the need to do something, anything.

It was never any use. I was a useless head engineer. I could never do anything right. Not the first invincible and now my entire ship was in peril once again.

I was all alone. Again.

It was my own mistakes. It was all my fault.

~~~

"Captain! Captain… Captain. Please wake up. I need you. I need your guidance, your leadership, I need, I need…. You."

Time passed before I could realize it. Suddenly I had a beard and long hair. There was all the time in the world, but not enough time to pay attention to my appearance. There was no need to anyway. I would be alone for the rest of my life. I tried to do what I was supposed to. Keep the ship running, keep the cryopods in order. Eventually it ran out of power… and the cryopods' internal temperatures were rising to unsafe levels… the ship was running out of its oxygen supply.

There wasn't a single thing I could do. I was a prisoner in my own ship, trapped in a cage of my own making. I'd let them down. I'd let them all down.

~~~

The isolation. The silence. The darkness.

It gets to you after awhile…

I don't know when the papers showed up. I knew I wrote them. I had to. I was the only one awake, possibly alive at this point. The oxygen was running low. It was getting to my head. My head. My head.

Weeks, days, years, hours, months, decades, what is time anyway? 24 hours in a day. The sun, the moon, they didn't exist out here. Nothing but the darkness of the ship and lingering light from celestial bodies when they were merciful enough.

Floating. Endlessly. For eternity.

I deserved it. I had failed my crew, my, my…

My captain, my dearest… and yet I couldn't remember their name. What was their name! Their name? Their name… my captain, the love of my life, what was their name?

And I'd never even told them how I feel.

I leaned against their cryopod. I pressed my hands and forehead against it as if it would will them to come out, will my brain to think of something miraculously… but it never came. They never left their cryopod.

I turned my back to them, sinking to the floor.

"I-I…" my voice was hoarse from barely using it. "I love you, Captain."

Guess it's no use remembering their name anyway.

"I'll call out your name, but you won't call back."

~~~

The cryopods were all the wrong temperatures. The oxygen was far too low.

Everyone but me was dead.

~~~

But not even my death would save me from this fate. I ended up here again. And again. And again. And again. And again! And again. And again….

~~~

I may have found some liquor hidden away in Gunther's quarters…

"Oh Captain! Captain, come out, come out wherever you are! I know you're in there Captain. Come on, join the party. I'll bake you a caaaake~!"

I kicked their cryopod. "This isn't funny anymore, Captain," I said through gritted teeth. "You just want to ignore me, huh? I'm just disposable to you! A tool so you don't have to get your hands dirty!" In a mocking voice I said, "Oh I'm the Captain. I know what's best and sometimes that's sacrificing my dumb old crew who sacrifice EVERYTHING for me. I'm the Captain and I jump out the airlock for fun! Forget that Mark has to clean up the mess and fix the ship! How bout I blow everyone up just for funsies! It's not like every single 100,000 of us have plans and lives. Oh noooo. We're just here for the Captain. They can kill us for their own entertainment."

"They don't care about you."

"They don't care about me."

Tears threatened to fall from my watering eyes but my burning rage wouldn't allow it.

"It's good you're getting your beauty rest Captain! Good to know a nap is more important than our lives! Just like everything else. The Captain needs their sleep. A fucking sleepy head, huh."

"You know… it's no different Captain. Even with you here I have to do everything myself. You're no use anyway. It's better without you here!"

The clanking of the metal ship groaning didn't alarm me. About time this damn hunk of metal started falling apart. I am a joke of an engineer anyway. The Invincible II? Who was I kidding? I'm surprised she made it this far with a pathetic father like me.

But then I heard it. Shallow breaths. Coming closer. What was happening? The oxygen was low enough as it is.

"Who's breathing? Who's breathing?! THERE'S NOT ENOUGH AIR FOR ALL OF US! GIVE IT BACK! GIVE I-"

I stumbled to the ground.

There the Captain stood in the hallway. Like they had never left. Like they didn't rip a hole in my heart when they never woke up from their cryogenic slumber.

Was I hallucinating? I internally laughed at myself. Maybe I'm the one who needs their sleep after all.

But there they were.

"Captain?" It was undeniably them but I still posed the question. Not wanting to believe it.

"Captain." I got up from the ground.

"You're not here." Maybe telling my hallucination they're a lie would make them disappear. Leave me to what I know: solitude.

"You've never woken up here before."

"You were always gone."

I started to get choked up.

"I tried. I tried to keep them alive, Captain."

I walked towards the Captain and they backed away from me.

"But I go and I come back. I solve problems, and I go and I come back, and I go and I come back, and I always come back!"

The Captain held up their hands as if to defend themself.

"But this time… this time…" my thoughts were getting away from me.

The Captain reached out as if to give me a reassuring touch. Oh how long it'd been since I felt another person's touch…

Something blue glinted in the Captain's left palm.

"Captain, what's in your hand?" I asked them.

It was undeniable. It was the warp crystal.

"Where did you get that crystal?" I grabbed their hand. "You didn't shut it down did you?" I held them tight as they tried to break away.

"Was she right about you?" Dorene Whitacare… all she said about their poor leadership. The Universal Stability Agency… Gunther… they all saw the flaws while I was being led into a fool's paradise putting every once of my trust into their leadership!

"We trusted you!"

But who gives a fuck about the colonists. About the crew who all put their lives in the Captain's hands. I put more than my life in their hands. I gave them my heart. My soul. My eternity. And it led me to this endless hell! I gave them my everything and they didn't care about me.

"I trusted you, Captain!"

They finally pushed me away.

A buzzing sound hit my ears and the warp crystal glew, whirring to life.

"Captain!"

They disappeared in a flash of blue light.

They left me alone.

Again.

I'm so sick of being alone.

Sick of having time to think.

They were all right about the Captain.

The Captain caused all of this.

I was going to stop them even if I have to die for a thousand years. But I will stop them.

They don't care about the colonists and the crew. But most importantly, they don't care about me.

…Not in the way I care about them.

I'll call out 'I love you' but you won't call back.

#I'm definitely on time hahahaaa.... #whumptober2023 #whumptober #whumptober 2023 #my writing #fanfic #no.2 #i'll call out your name but you won't call back #insanity #major character deaths #isolation #survivors guilt #loss of memory #alcohol abuse #caps #delirium #repetition #iswm #iswm fic #captaineer #angst #head engineer mark #in space with markiplier #captain

[vanvelding]

Star Trek: Picard Final Spoilers

Below the cut

Who had "Jack Crusher with the power of love" in the pool?

.***.

Borg Queen: "Watch. Your future's end."

.***.

The Enterprise-D is fucking cash money for such an "antiquated old ship":

-Immediately finds the Borg super-cube in Jupiter when every ship passing through Sol for YEARS couldn't.

-Takes out the point defenses of the Borg super-cube in one volley (remember when The Borg had tractor beams?)

-Star Trek XIV: Jupiter Drift

.***.

Worf didn't die. I thought for a moment, but they didn't. They just made him more badass. If nothing else, this season treated Worf with the disrespect we expect of TNG, but otherwise pretty fucking well.

.***.

"What did you do to him?" Motherfucker, she did the one thing Borg do to him.

.***.

"Man, it's easy to reverse assimilation by killing the Borg Queen." I know; it's a new type of assimilation except for when Picard jammed an assimilation tube into himself--which I guess is a thing now--and then when Jack took it out he...deassimilated himself.

.***.

Data: "The Borg super-cube has powered down its weapons and lowered its shields."

Picard: "That's an invitation."

Borg communication: "To the approaching vessel, if Will Riker is on board, we surrender. Otherwise, resistance is futile."

.***.

Lrrr, of Omicron Persei 8: "Why does the Queen not simply destroy the ship and crew which have stymied the Borg at every turn?"

.***.

I talk a lot of shit about this show, but Shaw's "The rules she breaks were probably broken anyway..." Actually good television. I'm not sure when he recorded that, but I choose to believe it's before they left spacedock.

.***.

We didn't get the Worf versus Borg Elnor fight. I...I didn't realize how much I was anticipating that.

.***.

I can't get over how this show uses blood and death and trauma to pose as mature, but erects a protective field around its main characters that would make a golden age comic blush. It's elitist trash at its core, especially when it goes all-in on making the Gary Stu that dwarfs Wesley Crusher and Picard II into the captain's assistant and Q's most special boy.

.***.

I thought for a moment, "It would be stupid and lazy and so unoriginal if they gave us an MCU-style teaser at the end of--OH GOD THAT'S Q THOSE IDIOTS DID FINALLY DID IT. DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"

.***.

The thing with Seven and the Titan finding a way to buy time cleverly integrated so many things that had been set up in the series. It was legitimately enjoyable to watch and well-executed. The cloak didn't even fail first, which it usually does.

.***.

No Janeway. I thought we'd get Janeway. I don't have any strong feelings about this one way or the other.

.***.

Was joking about Chekov showing up (or Chekov's son? Grandson? I'm not really sure what was up with that except it was cringeworthy fanservice). I'm happy Walter was cut a check and finally canonized into the TNG-era.

.***.

This isn't a comment on the show, but Geordi if you're going to order a woman to blow up the core of a ship which is going to her kill son and baby-daddy, maybe...just do it yourself. Be graceful dude.

.***.

When I talk about "jerking off until your dick falls off," I mean going straight to the Enterprise-G when we just saw the Enterprise-F. Why show the Enterprise-F when it's going to get immediately sidelined and replaced.

Also, renaming the Titan to Enterprise erases the accomplishments and history of the Titan. I don't even care about the Titan, but that's fucked.

.***.

So what the fuck is wrong with me???

.***.

.***.

It's cute how we end on a poker scene reminding us that we've ended up exactly where we were 30 years ago, except Picard has a son. We get these huge stakes and then...poof it's like none of it ever happened. I wouldn't care if the stakes weren't so pretentiously, pointlessly high.

This is why I quit reading comics. World changing stakes once a year that...get referenced but culturally forgotten pretty soon. None of it really matters because we're computer-generating a Borg cube bigger than the last one to convince you simpletons this story is better than the last one because the odds against our heroes are larger. How could they ever get out of--they got out of it again with no consequence and no lasting effects. Status quo antebellum.

#star trek picard #picard spoilers #star trek picard spoilers #PIC spoilers