#character: michael burnham

[tea-earl-grey]

studying how Seven, Michael, and Worf all have very similar experiences of being tragically orphaned as a kid and adopted (or in Seven's case – forcibly abducted) into another culture/species leaving them with difficulties interacting with their own people and culture... i need to lock them in a room together.

#they truly each have a different take on cross-cultural adoption experiences from well intentioned & loving but troubled (Worf) to #literal assimilation (Seven) #i'm trying to think of any other characters who fit the same pattern #seven of nine #michael burnham #worf #my posts

[lostyesterday]

It kind of irritates me that there is a broad expectation in Star Trek spaces that everyone should automatically agree that Discovery is a messy show that wasn’t made very well. Even a lot of people who like the show will preface their statements with “I know it has a lot of problems” or something similar. Personally, I think Discovery is great and one of the least messy Trek shows writing-wise. I have no problem with people who disagree with that sentiment and don’t like Discovery (as long as it’s for non-bigoted reasons), I just wish there wasn’t this base assumption that no one actually completely likes Discovery or thinks it’s genuinely good.

Well, I like Discovery, and I think it’s genuinely good.

#star trek discovery #lane posts #also michael burnham is an amazing character and one of the most interesting captains in all of star trek

[scherzokinn]

Btw I'm serious when I say Sarek has a human fetish. This is how those with a fetish for a certain group of people act. Sarek being disgusted by Spock's human side while also marrying human wives is 100% because of a fetish. Sarek is just the Star Trek version of Alma Mahler.

#sarek #spock #star trek the original series #this is also why i think michael burnham being spock's adopted sister is bad writing bc it goes against spock's whole character #like idrc if he has a million secret siblings or whatever even if it's dumb (it's been dumb from the start with sybok) #but sarek was so disgusted by spock's human side that spock remembered when he commented on that when he was BORN #and now some writers are telling me he adopted a human???!?!!? i don't buy it #+ it's also an offense to his entire storyline involving him being mixed species #and it's just lazy writing to make your main character related to the most influential star trek character ever #at least make her Not A Human #anyways #star trek tos #amanda grayson #alma mahler #gustav mahler

[eastsideofthemoon]

Finally meeting THE REAL Michael Burnham

One of the reasons I love season 3 of Disco the most is that we FINALLY got to meet the REAL Michael Burnham.

In one year of being away from all things Starfleet and The Federation, all things Vulcan, Michael finally got to discover and embrace herself without worrying about the opinions and expectations of others, nor needing someone else's approval. She got to release the guilt and shame of her past and completely shed the Vulcan shell she'd created for herself as a byproduct of assimilation.

And girlie was flourishing!

Michael was at peace with herself, which lead to the calm and confidence that exuberated from her. She had genuine joy and was able to obtain peace. Thus, she was smiling and laughing and cracking jokes. Michael has a sense of humor, yall!

Also, I love that she had the opportunity to create a life for herself and be a regular person - well, as regular as you can be as a courier. She really needed that time away to determine her own moral code and values, which is something that should take place before anyone takes on the mantel of captain.

Also, Michael needed to choose Starfleet for herself. Up to now, Starfleet was a constellation prize to make Sarek feel better for not choosing her to join the Vulcan Exploration Group. In the first half of the season, we see Michael having an internal conflict with whether or not she belongs with Starfleet and her crew due to who she had become during her gap year. It's in Unification III, where we see Michael, with the help of her mother, Dr. Gabrielle Burnham, come to the conclusion that she does belong. We actually get to see her choose Starfleet for herself on her own merits. Yes, she may have her doubts and will question things, but at the end of the day, she is fighting for the same things Starfleet and the Federation are fighting for.

I think this is why I'm baffled at how some people stay stuck on season 1 Michael. The woman has grown since then. And this is before we get to season 4, which I'll write about later.

Although I do believe there is still a conversation to be had about why Discovery didn't just start with Michael as captain, I am enjoying her journey.

#star trek discovery #star trek #michael burnham #season 3 #character review #dsc

[ichayalovesyou]

The Spock We Know From TOS Is Grief Incarnate

You ever think about how the reason Spock is so disdainful of emotions and his humanity in general is probably because he’s grieving?

He’s hurting, a lot. Within the span of less than a decade he:

Loses his sense of linear time and almost his sanity, institutionalizing himself after his first five year mission on Enterprise.

Loses Michael, who was his first and strongest link to human friendship and familial love (aside from his mother). Due to circumstances beyond his control. His visions, his needing Michael, indirectly leads her to fulfilling her destiny, and being forced to leave him behind.

Has a falling out with T’Pring, because she feels he does not value their relationship or his Vulcan heritage enough. Which he internalizes as not being Vulcan enough period. A confirmation of what he already believed.

Has a falling out with Chapel, because she’s in love with the humanity in him which he has come to resent, and cannot be what she wants/thinks him to be. He is not human enough among humans. A confirmation of what he already believed.

He loses Chris, his captain, his best male role model (cuz he’s not getting that from Sarek and his only brother has been in rehab most of his life). Pike, who accepts him as he is and cares about him. Who sacrifices himself because he knows for a fact Spock will go on to do greater things. In doing so, also ends up parting ways with Spock.

He spends 90% of his young adulthood losing people.

Spock’s Vulcan ties reject him, and every human he has ever loved enough to reach out for so far has seriously hurt and/or been hurt by him.

He associates emotion with his humanity (even though Vulcans do feel), and his humanity with the humans that have touched his life.

It hurts to love, love is a human emotion, the logical solution is to further reject my humanity and connection with humans so that I do not feel this pain again.

“I am a Vulcan, there is no pain.”

Is it a wonder that he’s so disdainful of humanity by the time we see in in TOS? Not just from human vs Vulcan prejudices (because damn they hostile to each other constantly), but because being condescending and rude and aloof keeps people from reaching out to him or finding him approachable. If you think about it, that persona, the one we don’t see formed yet in SNW, is a deliberate product of all of that.

Logically, if you don’t want friends, if you don’t want the inevitable pain that love causes, the most direct course of action is to project a persona that people don’t want to be friends with. Evidence suggests that bad things happen to the people who accept him as he is. The last thing he wants is to be loved and to be hurt by another human, another person, right now. Not after what happened to Michael, to Hemmer, to Chris.

You know the two people aboard who immediately see through that and start chipping away at the ice from the moment they meet him?

Jim and Bones

“Listen closely little brother, this is the last advice I’ll ever be able to give you. Find the person that seems farthest from you, reach for them.”

He gets along with Kirk so incredibly, reality bendingly well. It scares Spock! He keeps trying to avoid it but Jim has him pinned and isn’t going to let him go. “When I feel friendship for you I am ashamed” goes beyond the inherent embarrassment of a Vulcan feeling an emotion, it’s the shame of getting attached and believing whole heartedly that it will end in suffering. So much so that he leaves and attempts Kolinahr rather than chance that bond deepening further! Which ultimately fails because, while Chris and Michael both loved and needed Spock, not nearly the same way, the same soul wrenching intensity, that Jim needs him. It’s the stuff that myth is made from.

And Bones, like the saw for which he’s nicknamed, makes it his business to cut through Spock’s bullshit. He forces Spock to acknowledge his humanity, that well of love and of pain and loneliness, where Spock would otherwise deny it. Bones sees through the Vulcan-isms that Spock is hiding behind and sees the truth, a truth so obvious to him and foreign to Spock that it actively pisses him off. Bones confronts, challenges, goads, dares Spock to feel. Bones accuses Spock of being so far gone he can’t feel, just to make Spock prove him wrong. He knows what he’s doing and it’s working. Which is what makes them as inseparable as Jim and Spock, rather than two coworkers who hurl casual insults to each other. Bones KNOWS him, and in his own way needs him for the same confrontational nature he dishes out.

Neither of them could get Spock to heal on their own. Jim isn’t confrontational enough, and Bones is too prickly. Which is one of the many, many reasons the Triumvirate is such a powerful trio.

Love is going to hurt, it always does, but the love is always, always more important than the pain of losing it. Where Nyota’s character arc begins, is where Spock’s ends.

Like Hemmer says

#star trek #Star trek meta #meta #meta analysis #character meta #Spock meta #Star Trek tos #Star Trek dsc #Star Trek snw #strange new worlds #the original series #discovery #Spock #s’chn t’gai spock #james kirk #Jim kirk #spirk #leonard mccoy #the triumvirate #michael burnham #Hemmer #captain christopher pike #Ethan peck #Leonard nimoy #grief #character development #love is more powerful than death #tos #snw #dsc

[best-star-trek-character]

DISC FINALS!

#best disc character competition #sylvia tilly #ensign tilly #ensign Sylvia Tilly #Captain Michael Burnham #captian burnham #Michael burnham #st #disc #best star trek character competition

[leohtttbriar]

people tend to characterize vulcans with like blunt bitchiness but i think that undercuts a lot of the literary purpose of such an alien and how they both represent and challenge conceits of utility and rational ethics. maybe the instinct here is to not see any of what sarek says as particularly fatherly or affectionate but the affection is still evident. un-possessive and active affection. he’s saying to michael what no one has yet said: that he trusts her. it’s not faith bc it’s still rational but it’s also something he has to say in order to encourage her to save her own life. we tend to think of “utility” and “resources” through a history of feudal and colonial and then capitalist economies, and therefore balk and object when the logical-aliens say things like this: i am not here for sentiment, but because i do not approve of wasted resources. but i mean, mill wrote that “those who know anything…”:

that michael could survive and work and be as sarek knows her to be is not an invocation of a shallow utility. in the sentimental sense he is arguing that the universe itself benefits from michael’s presence more than her absence and that comes down to, yes, her intelligence but also her bravery. he’s like: my daughter, your patrimony is this world and i trust with everything i am that you will care for it.

#all the jokes about michael being sarek’s fav child are hilarious #but i’d also say that since sarek no longer has to play the narrative role of “prejudiced dad” in the racial allegory #now the character is more interesting. #star trek #discovery #michael burnham #sarek #vulcans

[blackcharactertournament]

Submitted explanations:

Molly Blyndeff

Molly Blyndeff is a 12 year old girl who deserves the world and more. Saddled with a sister that constantly shirks her responsibilities and refuses to acknowledge that she's a problem, an irresponsible and neglectful dad that always takes her older sister's side and lied to CPS, and the responsibilities of a business-running adult and a preteen in middle school, Molly is understandably an anxious wreck, cynical, and kind of a pushover, not used to getting anything good in her life. Especially not after her mother's passing, which made things even worse. Due to an unlikely meeting and friendship with Giovanni Potage, a criminal who talks big but is a mostly pathetic and dramatic teenage boy, Molly is inspired to stand up for herself more as the series passes, seeing that her feelings matter and she's allowed to do things she wants- within reason. This sparks her demeanor in the book Prison of Plastic, where she finally stands up to her big sister Lorelai for mistreating her. Honestly, I want Molly here because she grows realistically as a character and also just deserves so much better than her life entails. Also, she's a cutie patootie and I want to listen to her infodump about bears(her favorite animal).

Michael Burnham

She's Star Trek's first black woman lead character! She was adopted by aliens and grew up disconnected from her own humanity and emotions but has had a long character arc about getting back in touch with them and learning about herself. She's kind to the point of self effacement and has had to learn how to draw lines and not erase her own needs. She has the most gorgeous smile I've ever seen. Her scream of unbridled joy upon finding out she saved humanity at the start of season three makes me feel shrimp emotions. I love her so unbelievably much. She had the world placed on her shoulders bringing life back to Star Trek TV and she went above and beyond. She's the pure embodiment of Star Trek and why I love it

#black character tournament #black characters #poll tournament #polls #molly blyndeff #molly epithet erased #epithet erased #michael burnham #star trek discovery

[persbaderse]

babe, i'm so sorry, the fandom turned the black female character into a side-character who encourages the two white male characters to hook up. yeah, like the sassy black friend stereotype... no, she's not acting in-character at all, i'm so sorry

#see: michael burnham ; death of the endless ; lucienne ; uhura #i was thinking of another character too when i opened this post now i don't remember... i'll come back to it..... #percy says things

[carbondated]

Forgot this was the early days when everyone hates Michael bc of the war 😭

#out of character. #i love you Michael Burnham 😭❤ #ivory watches

[poebrey]

I just wonder what type of relationship Amanda and Michael would have if she had stayed because on the surface they have the healthiest mother daughter relationship and then the second Michael admits she did something wrong Amanda’s like “you’re the reason our family is falling apart” like why when Sarek and Spock won’t speak to each other first of all but second like how did she watch Sarek raise their human child that way and go “this is ok”?

#michael burnham #sorry this is incoherent this just bothers me a lot like I wanted to know #but now this will be forever forgetten like when a tng character gets a member of their immediate family introduced for an ep #and like #I know this was a consequence of all the changes between s1 and s2 #but where was mama bear Amanda when Michael got thrown in jail #or more importantly when she was running away from home at the tender age of 10-11 #to be fair Michael has some weird hang ups with her human mom too #(love Sonequa discussing this) #but also that’s kinda on Amanda for deciding the Vulcan way is better #because in what other situation is your human child dismissing you for being a human lol

[sporkandpringles]

Whether or not you agree that episode 3 “confirms” that SNW is in a different timeline than TOS or not, I’m really glad that this most recent SNW episode gives us “DISCO-SNW is a different timeline than TOS” folks a clear divergence point that isn’t Michael Burnham. For years, the most prominent theory among people insisting that “DISCO-SNW is a different timeline from TOS” was that it was the existence of Michael Burnham that somehow broke off DISCO-SNW into it’s own thing and in TOS she didn’t exist. But, although I’ve been a long-time proponent of the divide, I never really liked the idea that TOS hinged on my favorite character of all time not existing, or at the very least, not being adopted into Spock’s family. Also, it just doesn’t make sense to insist that she “couldn’t” be part of TOS Spock’s past. I mean, TOS Spock is canonically known for not mentioning his relatives anyway, so really, TOS can proceed un-altered, with her still in that universe. SNW’s assertion that it’s the temporal shenanigans around Khan, though, avoids making Michael the make-it-or-break-it factor. TOS has 1990s Khan and DISCO-SNW has 2020s Khan. That’s it. That’s the split. A few other things have changed too. But despite this divergence, it’s established that these two courses of history have resulted in outcomes that are 99% the same. And presumably, that means that both of these iterations of the “Prime Timeline” can still have Michael Burnham as Spock’s adopted sister because they’re both Prime, just slightly different Primes.

#sorry I'm not gonna shut up about this all week #I have been WAITING for this #snw spoilers #so glad that we can say it's khan being bumped up #and not hinge everything on michael #michael burnham is my favorite character of all time #and I'm so so sick of everyone insisting she 'can't exist' in the prime tlimeline #she can be spock's secret sister in EVERY universe thank you #forever and always on the michael burnham defense squad

[hard-times-paramore]

"Average Star Trek show has 3 captains" is a statistical error. Average Star Trek show has one captain. Captains Discovery, who has like 7 captains and two admirals running orders on a single ship at any given time, is an outlier and should not have been counted.

#star trek discovery #star trek #star treks #gabriel lorca #saru #christopher pike #philippa georgiou #mirrorverse georgiou #michael burnham #admiral cornwell #admiral vance #leland isn't captain of the discovery but he's nonetheless a recurring captain character #oh god is there more #my posts

[eastsideofthemoon]

Captain Michael Burnham haters can choke.

She is the main character. It's always been that way. It was NEVER going to change.

Die mad about it.

#star trek discovery #michael burnham #captain michael burnham #it's not main characters syndrome you idiot #cause i'm sure you never have that same energy for your favorite white male hero #black characters are not here to simply champion your faves #we too are the champions

[ichayalovesyou]

I will never get over how hysterical it is that Christopher Pike gets along with E V E R Y B O D Y

But NOT Ash Tyler, he’s just, he’s just that one fuckin guy, I mean, for real.

Tilly: *has a meltdown because of the angry mushroom who looks like a dead middle schooler in her head*

Pike: Eh it’s okay people get nervous, no biggie ☺️

Saru: *let’s two officers fight in the mess hall*

Pike: Just don’t let it happen again ok? 😅😮‍💨😁

Burnham: *does crazy risky shit, is just her intense ass self in general*

Pike: You’ll make a great captain, you and your brother are gonna give this captain an ulcer from constantly scaring the shit out of me but it’s fine! 😌

Mirror!Georgiou: *casually talks about murder and genocide and things like it’s super chill*

Pike: I don’t trust you, but I’ll get Michael to babysit, mirrorverse who? 😉

Ash Tyler: *breathes*

Pike: Oh my God shut the fuck UP Tyler, ugggggh I hate your face and Section 31 SO MUCH 😒🙄😡🖕🏻😒🙄😤😫😩😮‍💨

#listen I love both characters dearly #and I don’t think it’s necessarily ooc for Chris because it’s not like he likes Leland either #but have you considered #it’s funny as hell #star trek #star trek discovery #captain christopher pike #saru #michael burnham #ensign tilly #sylvia tilly #mirror!georgiou #philippa georgiou #ash tyler #Star Trek dsc #dsc #discovery #lar trek #ichayalovescaptainpike

[best-star-trek-character]

Mega Bracket Round Two

#mega bracket #st #disc #disco #Captain Michael Burnham #captain burnham #michael burnham #burnham #voy #captain kathryn janeway #captain janeway #kathryn janeway #Janeway #best star trek character competition