fatalism-and-villainy

[fatalism-and-villainy]

[fatalism-and-villainy]

that tar pit post really sucks man. it translates to 'you make everyone around you miserable, your presence is a burden, and the world would be better off without you' which is not something i would say to a stranger, and especially not to a stranger who is unwell (which often manifests in inflammatory and antisocial behavior online)

relenquish your need to decisively and spectacularly defeat your internet enemies in the free marketplace of ideas

[fatalism-and-villainy]

something so crazy-making about unhealthy mentor-protegé relationships. we're foils, we're mirrors, we're the same person, we're a parent and a child, we're lovers, we're enemies, we'd be better off without each other, we'd kill and die for each other

[fatalism-and-villainy]

15 DAYS OF DEEP SPACE NINE day 13: favourite villain  ✧ intendant kira nerys

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Enjoy a drink on one of my special coasters. Yea I custom made them (the coasters) to be so light the drinks condensation makes em stick to the bottom of your glass, but still heavy enough that when it (the coaster) finally clatters to the ground it's loud as fuck and shatters your nerves and makes you spill your drink everywhere. Why am I doing this? Well, it's a sex thing for me

[fatalism-and-villainy]

Speak to me. Tell me what I should do.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

I was also rewatching Progress from season 1 the other day, and was struck by Sisko and Bashir's scene together in that episode - where Sisko manages to protect Kira's career by saying that she's staying with Jeraddo on Bashir's recommendation, and Bashir says "but sir, that isn't true" (god, I'd forgotten how naïve he could be in the early seasons) and Sisko responds, "make it true". Just, the dynamic of Sisko guiding Bashir through how to find loopholes and circumvent official rules and regulations is a wrenching contrast to their interaction in In the Pale Moonlight, where Sisko is once again getting Bashir to circumvent the rules in a much more serious context, that prompts much more serious conflict. Argh.

Sisko and Garak’s dynamic is delicious in In the Pale Moonlight, and there are also interesting questions it raises as to Garak and Bashir’s dynamic (personally I headcanon that they’re somewhat estranged at this point, in part because the war and later Section 31 stuff has brought the mystery and intrigue that Garak once represented to Bashir a little too close to home, but it is at least another angle to get at their ideological differences).

But the other piece of this weird little triangle is Sisko and Bashir’s dynamic. Because Bashir is part of the chain of moral compromises that Sisko has to make to see Garak’s scheme through, as Sisko twists his arm to get the biomemetic gel. And Bashir is angry about it! But it’s not followed through on at all - the next time he appears it’s just when he and Jadzia are pleasantly surprised at how few casualties there have been this week.

It’s especially interesting to see that moment of tension between them given that this episode comes not all that long after Statistical Probabilities, another significant ideological break between Sisko and Bashir. And in that case, it’s Bashir arguing for surrender to the Dominion out of a pragmatic motive to prevent loss of life (even if it’s a pragmatism stemming from far-reaching speculation); and Sisko’s rejection is one based in ideals, the notion that it’s better to go down fighting in service of one’s values than to compromise them (something also reflected in his behaviour in Sacrifice of Angels, when he’s ready to go down with the Defiant in the face of a full-scale invasion).

Those ideals are what are challenged in In the Pale Moonlight, when honest fighting and diplomacy aren’t sufficient, and it is necessary to resort to deceit and do collateral damage in order to prevent further loss of life. How exactly that turnaround would affect his dynamic with Bashir - especially given that earlier in the show, Bashir was more of an idealist, and Sisko was the one who had more of an understanding of the costs required to uphold those ideals - is a really rich question. (Especially given what Bashir explicitly brings up - that the releasing the biomemetic gel has the potential to do even more collateral damage than Garak prompts Sisko to accept.)

There’s also another angle to this, which is the fact that the episode comes on the heels of “Inquisition”, i.e. Bashir’s first introduction to shadowy behind-the scenes workings of Starfleet/the Federation. Lots of people have pointed out the foreshadowing of Bashir’s “are we willing to sacrifice our principles in order to survive?” at the end of that episode, but there’s something else as well. Bashir, in response to the request for biomemetic gel, says he’s going to file a complaint with Starfleet Medical - but it’s implied through Sisko and Garak’s conversation that Starfleet would, if not officially sanction, then at least tacitly condone it as a necessary tactic to tip their odds in the conflict. And that kind of situation in which Bashir tries to register a moral protest and it falls on deaf ears with Starfleet plays out more explicitly later in Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges.

Anyway! In the Pale Moonlight is about as perfect an episode as you can get, but the dynamic with Sisko and Bashir is one thread I wish had been followed through on a bit more.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

A cosmic tribute to my current favourite comment in YouTube history

[fatalism-and-villainy]

the worldbuilding in bruce springsteen’s music is crazy he made up a whole country called states of merica that is very evil but also his home

[fatalism-and-villainy]

*sage voice*: is it not a little bit yuri to write yaoi in order to turn other women on?

[fatalism-and-villainy]

Sisko and Garak’s dynamic is delicious in In the Pale Moonlight, and there are also interesting questions it raises as to Garak and Bashir’s dynamic (personally I headcanon that they’re somewhat estranged at this point, in part because the war and later Section 31 stuff has brought the mystery and intrigue that Garak once represented to Bashir a little too close to home, but it is at least another angle to get at their ideological differences).

But the other piece of this weird little triangle is Sisko and Bashir’s dynamic. Because Bashir is part of the chain of moral compromises that Sisko has to make to see Garak’s scheme through, as Sisko twists his arm to get the biomemetic gel. And Bashir is angry about it! But it’s not followed through on at all - the next time he appears it’s just when he and Jadzia are pleasantly surprised at how few casualties there have been this week.

It’s especially interesting to see that moment of tension between them given that this episode comes not all that long after Statistical Probabilities, another significant ideological break between Sisko and Bashir. And in that case, it’s Bashir arguing for surrender to the Dominion out of a pragmatic motive to prevent loss of life (even if it’s a pragmatism stemming from far-reaching speculation); and Sisko’s rejection is one based in ideals, the notion that it’s better to go down fighting in service of one’s values than to compromise them (something also reflected in his behaviour in Sacrifice of Angels, when he’s ready to go down with the Defiant in the face of a full-scale invasion).

Those ideals are what are challenged in In the Pale Moonlight, when honest fighting and diplomacy aren’t sufficient, and it is necessary to resort to deceit and do collateral damage in order to prevent further loss of life. How exactly that turnaround would affect his dynamic with Bashir - especially given that earlier in the show, Bashir was more of an idealist, and Sisko was the one who had more of an understanding of the costs required to uphold those ideals - is a really rich question. (Especially given what Bashir explicitly brings up - that the releasing the biomemetic gel has the potential to do even more collateral damage than Garak prompts Sisko to accept.)

There’s also another angle to this, which is the fact that the episode comes on the heels of “Inquisition”, i.e. Bashir’s first introduction to shadowy behind-the scenes workings of Starfleet/the Federation. Lots of people have pointed out the foreshadowing of Bashir’s “are we willing to sacrifice our principles in order to survive?” at the end of that episode, but there’s something else as well. Bashir, in response to the request for biomemetic gel, says he’s going to file a complaint with Starfleet Medical - but it’s implied through Sisko and Garak’s conversation that Starfleet would, if not officially sanction, then at least tacitly condone it as a necessary tactic to tip their odds in the conflict. And that kind of situation in which Bashir tries to register a moral protest and it falls on deaf ears with Starfleet plays out more explicitly later in Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges.

Anyway! In the Pale Moonlight is about as perfect an episode as you can get, but the dynamic with Sisko and Bashir is one thread I wish had been followed through on a bit more.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

reblog if you're hoping 472 of the First Age in Beleriand will be a fresh start

[fatalism-and-villainy]

A really funny aspect of The Wire is the fact that Garak and Bashir’s infirmary heart-to-heart is like, right in front of Nurse Jabara’s salad. I mean, the sequence of events goes: Bashir and Jabara discussing replicating leukocytes —> Bashir going to talk to Garak and giving him forgiveness with a side of the Spirk-homage hand clasp —> Bashir telling Jabara he’s going to find Tain. We get ~thank you Doctor, that’s most kind~ and then it cuts away and she just steps back into frame. So was she just hovering there the entire time??? Even if she was standing respectfully out of earshot she must have seen how emotionally intimate the entire exchange was. I know she’s a consummate professional but there’s still gotta be something wild about being a Bajoran on DS9 and watching the Starfleet doctor who was shipped in to be your boss exchanging tender words with the station’s dying exiled Cardassian ex-spy.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

Can you say something about fat people that doesn’t involve the phrase “tummy squish” or any variants thereof. Quickly

[fatalism-and-villainy]

it's so funny when people are like 'bdsm is obviously fine but cnc/incest kinks are bad because they fetishise abuse and real world violence'. like lmao what do you think is being fetishised when someone gets spanked sexually amiguita? what do you think is eroticised when people handcuff their partners? those are the two most 'mainstream' 'uncontroversial' bdsm activities i can imagine and you can draw an obvious and direct line to child abuse and police violence if you think about them for five seconds. people who say this kind of stuff have just learned that it's considered passé to call bdsm evil without ever thinking about why

[fatalism-and-villainy]

The final (I think) result of all the dyeing I've been doing for The Bestie Art Retreat

I may do a few more pale shades for contrast, but oof, it's probably been a decade+ since I've dyed this much fiber at once. Wools used: Rambouillet, Targhee, New Zealand Romney, Domestic Wool Blend, Falkland, Shetland, and Merino/Silk.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

Two types of people on Queering the map: