#ensign-solhunder

[antzonian]

nice! I'm in the middle of creating D'vana's niece :)

Having a bad day? Kinda feelin down? Have you tried drawing the imaginary child of a fictional couple from your favorite show?

[ensign-solhunder]

If I may, I would like to put this idea into consideration:

Boimler wasn't copying someone else. He was copying himself.

Sure, alt Boimler led a slightly different life, but he was still the literal same person. What if, in copying alt Boimler, regular Boimler was given the confidence to actually do what he wanted? What if he wanted to grow a beard, or try new drinks, or do any number of things that alt Boimler did, but had always been too nervous to try?

I like to think that, in seeing himself BE himself and still succeed, it gave him the confidence to do the same thing in his own universe - copying what was on the padd was perhaps his way of "catching up" on things he never discovered he liked because he had always been too scared to try, or was maybe his way of finding out what he could do without jeopardizing his goals and dreams (he was still anxious, after all - no character arc will rid you of anxiety lol) ie "I've always wanted to do [this], and Beard Boimler did [this], so I must be able to do it if he did."

It's less of a personality replacement and more of a confidence booster. A way to (literally) tell himself it's okay to be himself.

Is it the healthiest way to do that? Definitely not. But it's probably the most comfortable and direct way to inject some confidence into a guy that's always tried to be the Perfect Officer™. He was able to get confirmation that he could be his own unique self and still succeed. And if there's anything we've learned about Boimler as a character, verifiable information is one of the only things he can comfortably use to make big decisions like that.

tl;dr You can't replace your own personality with your own personality. Alt Boimler experienced different things earlier in his career that allowed him to gain confidence in himself and his actions. Regular Boimler didn't experience that. In using that padd, he essentially gave himself a free pass to be who he wanted to be - just with some unwanted anxiety still attached.

idk just food for thought ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

How are you feeling?

About life in general? Absolutely fine!

About the LD Finale? Upset the show is over, and peeved with how they dealt with Boimler's arc