#he's a literal redshirt

[raskallion]

The Origins of Rød

My husband has run an RPG group on Monday nights for the last few years, but because I'm always at work I've never been able to join them. This week, however, I was at orientation in the morning and could join their first session of a new campaign (it also happened to be his birthday). We thought it would be fun if I made a quick, disposable character with no real backstory so I could sit in on the session and heroically die near the end to give the adventurers a fallen companion to think of fondly through their future triumphs.

In true TTRPG fashion, however, things did not go as we planned and instead the group tried everything in their power to work against me and keep my character from dying, creating a new recurring temporary squadmate.

Meet Rød, the Infernal Tiefling Fighter. Rød is incredibly attractive, but not very smart. A long time ago, Rød was married. Things weren't going well, but because Rød was terrified of both his warlock wife and her Undying patron (and, again, not very smart) he tried to fake his death to get out of the marriage. The patron then cursed him with the inability to die, no matter how hard he tries, and blessed his ex-wife with demonhood.

So now I'm in the group, but only on Mondays when the school is closed. Rød will continue to try to die every session I play, and at the end of those sessions (or if I'm ever on the brink of failing the death saves), he will mysteriously be sucked into the Hells to return the next time I can make a session.

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

My Morph primer

Since X-Men 97 is drawing in a lot of new fans with varied levels of experience with the original animated series or the comics, I figured I could give a write-up of who Morph is, where they come from, and why you don’t see them in any of the movies or other media.  This is also an excuse for me to write about an obsessive fave, seriously, they are all over my blog. I'm not necessarily an "authority," but I've watched TAS and read the comics, which are the basis for this write-up.

Who is Morph?

"Wolverine! Fall back!"

Morph is a shapeshifting mutant who was added to the X-Men team in the original X-Men: The Animated Series as a redshirt/sacrificial lamb, to be killed off For Real in order to show that the stakes are really high.  Originally it was actually going to be Thunderbird, a short-lived X-Man who died in the comics just a few issues after he was introduced, and has remained dead for decades.  But creators realized that killing off the only Native American character on a mostly white team was a bad look, and went with Morph instead.  Morph proved surprisingly popular with (mostly child) viewers, and was brought back in the 2nd season as a result.  Morph in TAS was originally presented as male using male pronouns, but I’m gonna use they/them for the character since they are nonbinary in X-Men 97.

(Btw, even Morph's TAS costume shows their redshirt nature, as they are basically wearing a variant of the standard X-Men uniform that different groups have worn, with the Original Five (Angel, Jean, Cyclops, Beast and Iceman) and the New Mutants all wearing something similar. There was a time in the 90's when all the X-Men were wearing this uniform to try to give them a team look, but thankfully that didn't last, the individualized looks are much better. Morph's amazing disappearing reappearing jacket are the only personalized touch in their uniform, and I hope X-Men 97 gives them a costume upgrade after everyone gets used to the new look.)

Morph doesn’t appear in many episodes of TAS, but here are the definitive ones:

Season 1:

Night of the Sentinels Parts 1 and 2: Morph seems to be an established part of the team, a wise-cracking shapeshifter who is so naively overconfident about their mission that they’ve practically got a target painted on their back.  When the mission goes wrong, Morph pushes Wolverine out of the way of Sentinel lasers, and gets blasted all to hell.  Morph’s supposed death (which was meant at the time to be a real death) is sensed by both Jean and Xavier.  Cyclops orders a retreat because the team is getting their asses kicked, abandoning both the (dead) Morph and (alive but injured) Beast, who spends the rest of the season in jail.  Morph is quickly forgotten as a character, BUT the impact of their death is felt throughout the season.  We get Wolverine yelling “This one’s for you, Morph!” while slicing up a Sentinel, and Cyclops in the finale insisting, “I’m not leaving anyone behind!  Not this time!” 

Season 2:

Till Death Do Us Part, Parts 1 and 2: Morph returns as a villain, but a sympathetic, brainwashed villain under the control of season Big Bad Mr. Sinister.  Sinister is an evil scientist who likes to fuck around with mutant genetics and is especially obsessed with getting Scott and Jean to fuck, because their child will supposedly be an extremely genetically superior mutant.  After Morph’s “death,” they were taken by Sinister, who revived them and implanted a control device into Morph’s brain that he uses to literally torture Morph into compliance.  Morph seems to have a kind of split personality, which Sinister exacerbates and encourages, shifting between a haggard-looking Evil Morph who wants revenge on the X-Men for abandoning them and cracks jokes while attacking the team, and a normal-looking Good Morph, who doesn’t want to hurt their friends, and is generally scared and confused and having a Bad Time.  If you are wondering about Morph turning into that version of themselves with dark circles around their eyes in X-Men 97 “Fire Made Flesh,” it was a reference back to this:

Evil Morph lookin' reeeeeaal creepy.

Morph uses their shape-shifting trickery to fake marry Scott and Jean (as the priest), impersonate Xavier and turn the team against each other, until Wolverine identifies them by scent.  The team then chases Morph to Sinister’s lair, where he’s captured a honey-mooning Scott and Jean.  Morph has been struggling with the brainwashing the entire time, and breaks free long enough to attack Sinister, then runs off away from everyone. 

Whatever It Takes: Wolverine, who has declared the Morph is “the only one who could ever make him laugh,” chases Morph down to Brazil in an attempt to drag them back to the team.  Morph, still fighting their dark side and flipping back and forth between the two personalities, taunts Wolverine in Jean’s form, fights him, and eventually gains enough control to tell Logan to back off. (“I have to get through this by myself!”) 

Fighting your friend in an abandoned mine shaft, a totally normal thing to do.

Wolverine reluctantly lets them go.  This the B-plot, the main plot of the episode features Storm and Rogue confronting the Shadow King in Africa, and is also really good.

Reunion Parts 1 and 2: Morph leaves a message for Wolverine stating that he wants to return to the team, in what seems like an obvious set-up for a trap.  Wolverine, Jean and Cyclops go to retrieve them, and find that yes, it is a trap.  Morph attmpts to warn the group to leave, but they are jumped by Sinister and the Nasty Boys, and the fight ends with Jean being taken, and Morph (still struggling against Sinister’s control), going semi-willingly.  The whole team winds up at Sinister’s base in the Savage Land and there are a lot of good character moments, like Gambit telling Rogue he loves her.  Morph spends the whole time still fighting against the brainwashing, but throws it off completely at the end (with Xavier’s help) and turns on Sinister, helping Scott and Jean defeat him.  Morph is then Put on a Bus to Muir Island so that the writers wouldn’t have to deal with the character but could hold them in reserve to use later.  Xavier comments that he can remove Sinister’s mind-control chip from Morph’s brain, but that “removing the psychic damage will take longer.”  So the answer to “Where’s Morph?” in later seasons will always be “Recovering on Muir Island, probably hanging out with Moira and Banshee.”

If you are a Morph fan, Season 2 is THE Morph season, they get a great character arc that fleshes them out, and establishes their close relationship with Wolverine.  I’m glad they didn’t toss out Morph in X-Men 97, both because I like the character, and because Morph’s entire arc in Season 2 was about their struggle to come back to the team, and constantly reaffirms that Morph is one of them, and that they belong with the X-Men.  Also, I know Tumblr love an angsty, suffering blorbo, and good God does Morph suffer in Season 2. 

(Someone is having a Bad Time).

Season 4:

Courage:  After getting only a couple of non-speaking background cameos in Season 3, this is Morph’s comeback episode in Season 4.  Morph believes that they are fully recovered and ready to rejoin the X-Men, while both Moira and Xavier seem to think they are not ready, and warn them to slow down a little.  Morph tries to jump back into their old role, makes jokes, and goes on a mission with Wolverine, but is clearly still dealing with PTSD and completely freezes up when Sentinels attack the mansion and kidnap Xavier.  Morph is left at the mansion while the X-Men go to rescue Xavier, but follows them anyway, and manages to play an instrumental role in stopping the Sentinels and saving Xavier.  Despite this, Morph decides that they are not ready to return and cannot be relied upon in battle (because the writers didn’t want to deal with using the character on the team), and goes back to Muir Island.  It’s a standard “character fucks up at the start of the episode but saves the day in the end” superhero cartoon story, and I was a little disappointed that the episode focused entirely on Morph’s “near death trauma” from the Sentinels and not the much worse “brainwashed and tortured by Sinister to the point of developing a second personality” issue.  The closest we get to addressing that is Morph pointedly walking up to Cyclops with “Scott…been a long time….” which sounds like a way of saying “We’re cool now, bro, I promise I won’t try to kill you.”  Still, we get some great Morph and Wolverine moments, and Morph kicks a lot of ass at the end.  After Morph spends most of the series either dead or suffering, I don’t mind an episode where they get to kick ass. This episode also establishes that Morph was suffering from serious nightmares for awhile, so consider that a canon excuse to put that in your angsty fanfic.

(Morph also gets a non-speaking cameo in Beyond Good and Evil Part 1, sitting next to Jubilee at Scott and Jean’s second wedding.  I think it’s sweet that they were invited, but can also imagine Scott putting them in the front row just to ensure that there are no more “fake priest” shenanigans.  “Let’s put Morph where I can see him….just in case.”)

Season 5:

Graduation Day: After Xavier is attacked, Morph returns to help calm mutants world-wide by impersonating Xavier and making a public call for peace.  Morph doesn’t do much in the episode, but they get an individualized goodbye from Xavier while he is addressing the team one by one, and it is clear at the end that Morph is officially back with the team.  In other words, the writers could give Morph a happy ending of coming back since the show was ending and they didn’t have to deal with it going forward.  Thankfully, the X-Men 97 writers were happy to pick up that ball and continue running with it, and I love what they’ve done with Morph so far!

Were there shippy vibes between Morph and Wolverine in the original series?

I dunno friend, watch “Whatever it Takes,” and “Courage,” and you tell me.  Morph shifting into Jean to taunt Wolverine definitely gives me vibes of “There’s something going on there.”

Is Morph in the comics?

(Note – I’m using he/him for all comics versions of Morph because those versions all apparently ID as male.)

The answer is yes, sort of.

Changeling:

Morph was loosely based on an obscure, long dead shape-shifting mutant from the X-Men’s original 60’s run.  Changeling was a villain with a tacky costume who acted very much like a standard 60’s comic book villain, associated with a terrorist group called Factor Three. Look at this fucking dude:

  At the end of the Factor Three arc, it turns out that Factor Three’s leader, Mutant Master, is an alien who wants to destroy ALL life on Earth to make way for his own people, and the mutants in the group turn on him and help the X-Men. Changeling is the first one to question Mutant Master’s motives, and that’s probably the only interesting thing he does in the whole story.  Several issues later, Xavier supposedly dies while helping defeat a villain named Grotesk and save the world.  This story is retconned near the end of the run, when Xavier is revealed to be alive, and explains that the dead “Xavier” was actually Changeling.  Changeling had discovered that he was terminally ill, and came to Xavier seeking redemption.  Xavier asked Changeling to temporarily take his place as Xavier while he shut himself up in the basement to prepare to stop an alien invasion (and no, the X-Men were not informed of this, besides Jean, and yes, that is really fucked up).  So Changeling became a reformed villain and honorary X-Man who went out in a heroic sacrifice, and was almost never mentioned again.  (Even now Changeling appears to still be dead in the comics, even though the current storyline has allowed ALL the dead mutants to come back.  Even Thunderbird is back.)

Changeling was greatly reworked to become Morph, totally changing his personality and origins.  The only similarities are the shapeshifting powers and physical appearance.  You can see how this guy:

Became this not-actually-a-guy:

Or even this version:

X-Men 97 Morph got a real glow-up to their human form.

Of course, they also share the trait of being a sacrificial lamb plot device, and X-Men TAS creators were originally going to call the character “Changeling,” but changed the name to Morph because DC’s Beast Boy was called Changeling at the time.

Age of Apocalypse Morph:

In the 90’s, there was a cross-over event over all the X-Books called the Age of Apocalypse, in which a time-traveller (Xavier’s son Legion, long story) murdered Xavier in the past before Xavier formed the X-Men, and created a dystopian alternate reality in which Apocalypse had taken over and Magneto led the X-Men.  This was a kind of what-if event that let writers have fun with switching up character relationships, turning good guys bad and bad guys good, and of course, killing a lot of characters off.  The event only lasted about four issues before it was all undone and we returned to the main Marvel universe, so they could really go wild.  In the AoA book Astonishing X-Men, Magneto’s team includes a character called Morph, a versatile shapeshifter with a pasty white made-of-clay look, and a jovial, upbeat personality that is clearly based on TAS Morph.  (This change to character design is where X-Men 97 Morph’s white, featureless appearance comes from).

Just a silly little guy!

AoA Morph is also stated in the book to have been formerly Changeling, before undergoing a name-change and attitude adjustment, making him an AU variant.  He explains to Sunfire at one point that he never takes anything seriously because fuck it, he’s probably gonna die anyway, he may as well die with a smile on his face.  AoA Morph is pretty cool, he does great shapeshifting tricks, and has some depth and heart beneath the obnoxious jokes.

Exiles Morph:

After Age of Apocalypse, the fan-favorite character Blink (like Morph, another alternate version of a short-lived character in the main comics timeline) gets pulled out of the AoA timeline and placed on a team of time-displaced X-Men.  This team, all coming from alternate realities and including some other minor neglected characters (like versions of Thunderbird and Mimic), is tasked with hopping through realities, putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that the next leap will be their leap home.  The team also includes a version of Morph, who is so similar to AoA Morph that Blink mistakes him initially for her old teammate.  This is another AU variant of Changeling who was never Changeling, but instead was recruited into the New Mutants (a bit of an age retcon for the character, as 60’s Changeling seemed much older, while Exiles Morph is clearly much younger.)  Exiles Morph was a popular hero in his reality, served as both an X-Man and an Avenger, and is an incredibly powerful shapeshifter.  He also winds up being a long-running mainstay of the Exiles team, so this is really the book to read for Morph content.  Exiles also fleshes out the character’s past, stating that he was born as a shapeshifting blob with X-gene already activated, and only assumed a human appearance to fit in with peers.  He also lost his mother to cancer at an early age, and his obnoxious jokey personality was partially a reaction to that, an attempt to both cheer up and get some attention from his grieving father.  Exiles Morph is a great character, my only complaint is that he is a bit of a sex pest, constantly making “jokes” that border on sexual harassment of his female teammates.  I don’t think he’s meant to actually be a creep, he never actually does anything, and when the teammate he has a crush on reveals that she is a lesbian, he steps back and acts as a supportive friend.  I think Exiles Morph just suffers from late 90’s early 2000 writing where the funny jokey character has to be all “LOL, Boobies!” all the time, just so we know he’s straight.  (Funny, given how not-straight X-Men 97 Morph seems to be.)

The Other Morph: Benjamin Deeds:

Brian Michael Bendis, in his Uncanny X-Men run, introduced a new character named Benjamin Deeds who could shapeshift, and looked suspiciously similar to a teenage version of Changeling/TAS Morph.  His personality was different, though (more of a sulky teen trying to deal with being a mutant than a funny guy), and the nature of his powers is different.  Benjamin has what is described as “chameleon-like” shapeshifting, taking on the physical characteristics of people when he gets close to them rather than fully shifting forms.  He also exudes a chemical that makes people automatically like and trust him.  Emma suggests the codename “Morph,” and although Benjamin doesn’t like it, it becomes his official codename going forward.  I don’t think Ben actually has any real connection to Changeling or TAS Morph, he seems more like a legacy character or winking homage, like Pyro II (Simon Lasker, who inexplicably has the same powers and looks almost exactly like original Pyro, St. John Alledyce).  He’s fun character and a cute lil’ guy, though.

There are people who call TAS Morph an “original character” completely invented for the cartoon, and I don’t think they’re entirely wrong.  Morph is VERY different from Changeling,  But to me, it makes the most sense to consider TAS Morph another AU variant of Changeling, given all the influence back and forth between the comics and the cartoon.  Morph was based on Changeling, and Morph’s popularity led to AU versions of Changeling in the comics with TAS Morph’s personality literally named “Morph,” and now X-Men 97 Morph has been redesigned to match AoA/Exiles Morph’s appearance.  They are variations of the same person.  And it’s not exactly the first time that a comics character has been drastically reworked in an adaptation – I’m looking at you, First Class Mystique and Evolution’s “Lance Alvers.”  I wonder if people would still be calling Morph an “original character” if they’d kept the name “Changeling,” since keeping the name seems to be all it takes at times.  Still, TAS Morph is kind of right on the border between OC and “adapted from the comics,” and even I tend to include them in groups of “created for the cartoon” characters like Firestar, Spyke and X-23.

Why is Morph tagged as “Kevin Sydney/Sidney”?

Because that is the character’s name, more or less.  TAS Morph didn’t have a “real name” in 92, because Changeling didn’t (similarly, Rogue also didn’t have a real name because the character hadn’t been given one in the comics.)  In Age of Apocalypse, characters called Morph “Sydney” or “Syd,” and Morph even referred to himself that way in a thought-balloons, but the Exiles writer apparently decided, “Nah, it’s a last name,” and officially named Morph “Kevin Sydney.”  The name stuck, and the 2004 Marvel “Book of the Dead” gave Changeling that name in the entry on him.  Morph’s name has never been given in the cartoon, but it’s probably safe to assume that their official “human name” is Kevin Sydney, just like TAS Rogue is probably Anna Marie (her official name in the comics.)  Interestingly, even in Exiles, the book where the name originated, Morph always goes by “Morph” and never “Kevin.”  Maybe Home Alone ruined the name for him.  I tend to use the Kevin Sydney tags on Tumblr and A03 to differentiate from other uses of the “morph” tag.  In particular, Tumblr has a lot of body modification fetish posts tagged as “morph,” and no offense to the fetishists, you all keep doing what you are doing, but that’s not the content I’m looking for.  I’m sure the fetish people are probably a bit annoyed at their own tag filling up with an X-Men character, but hey, it’s their name. 

How old is Morph?  How long were they with the team and when did they join?  Is the featureless white face their “real form”?  What’s their history with Wolverine?

I don’t have answers here because we don’t know.  There’s a lot we don’t know about TAS Morph, and the origins of their comics counterparts don’t really translate well into cartoon continuity.  Like I can’t imagine TAS Morph ever having been a willing member of Factor Three. 

Personally, I tend to assume that Morph was with the team for awhile before their “death,” given that they have an established “old friend” relationship with Wolverine and know the team extremely well.  I also tend to assume that TAS Morph is a similar age to the other young adults on the team like Scott and Jean.  They sometimes look older in the original series, because they were based on Changeling (who also looks older), but the voice acting and general personality of the character seem younger, plus Wolverine calls them “kid”a couple of times.  And it seems like their “human form” may not be their “real face” anyway, given that they’ve now defaulted to the white blank-face look.  The white blank-face look IS the real form for Exiles (and presumably AoA) Morph, so the same is probably true for TAS Morph and Changeling.  But this is all just my own headcanon and speculation, based on what I’ve seen in the original cartoon and the comics.  You are all free to come up with your own headcanons fleshing out the character, I’ve already seen great stuff in fanfic out there!

Edit: Actually, I thought of a bit more:

How does Morph shift their clothing? Does Morph even wear clothes? How can they create accessories like Psylocke's swords?

Honestly, I dunno, this is Rule of Cool and Morph as a vehicle for character cameos in affect here. I will say that, in the comics, many characters with shapeshifter-type powers, like Wolfsbane, wear costumes made of unstable molecules that shift with their bodies, the same may be true of Morph. Exiles Morph, when commenting on his female teammates' skimpy costumes, at one point jokes that he "wears even less," so he may just be literally making clothing out of his own body. Although I would think that would get cold, or painful with no protection against the elements.

I assume that Morph does form accessories like Psylocke's swords out of their own body, which also presumably means they can't drop them. I wonder if it would hurt Morph if one of the swords broke? Exile Morph regularly turns his own body into accessories that he can hold (but not separate from his form), so presumably X-Men 97 Morph is doing the same. This is a step-up from TAS Morph, who never did that. Exiles Morph seems to be able to turn their body into whatever they want.

Does Morph copy the powers of other mutants?

Morph seems to be able to mimic only the physical-based powers of other mutants, under the shapeshifter logic of changing their body to give themselves larger muscles, claws, etc. So Angel's wings, but not Cyclops' eye beams. Nightcrawler's tail but not teleportation. In X-Men 97, Morph takes a couple of shots from X-Cutioner after shifting into Colossus, so apparently they can do the whole metal skin thing. But in TAS, when Morph turns into Wolverine, their claws are not adamantium and Wolverine easily slices through them.

I would add that Exiles Morph is also extremely durable, and can literally be ripped to pieces and shapeshift himself back together. This doesn't seem to be the case of "died from Sentinel lasers" TAS Morph, but maybe they just aren't there with their power levels yet. Exiles Morph IS especially susceptible to burns or laser blasts, and almost dies when Hyperion hits him with a beam at close range.

That’s it, hopefully this is helpful for people completely new to the character who got into X-Men 97.  Mostly I just love writing about Morph.  I encourage you to go back and watch the original series, or at least the Morph episodes.  It’s a good show, if a bit 90’s corny, and will let you fully appreciate X-Men 97 (which has been, so far, an absolute banger of a series).  Presumably we’ll see more character development of Morph as the show continues, which will maybe answer some of these questions.

[t0ast-ghost]

HIIII Episode 10 (Dagger Of The Mind) time! I made it to ten! Now only… one.. seven… twenty… seventy four episodes to go!

Here’s the review:

- remember kids; when trying to beam something down to a penal colony they have to remove their shields first

- that is a whole ass man.. HOW DID YOU MISS THAT WHOLE ASS MAN

- no but seriously even airports can check for human tissue like- I forgot this was made in the 60s I’m stupid stfu t0ast

- “more like a resort colony” my ass, Kirk

- BONES!!! He just kinda stands on the bridge (for no reason) and stares at what’s happening (at Jim)

- wow two redshirts dead in five minutes

- okay Bones walks over to Spock FOR NO REASON and I’m pretty sure he just wants to bicker

- my name is WHAT my name is WHO my name CHICKACHICKA Van Gelder

- why would destroying one control panel kill the ship?!? Design flaw imo

- “that doesn’t ring true” what are you a truth detector? I thought he was a doctor

- I love Bones “going against” Kirk (he’s smiling the whole damn time) and Spock backing him up

- “oh yeah I’m sending down Dr. Noel” REVEAL SHES A WOMAN OH MY GOD

- why’d he need to bring Spock down to the transporter room? Emotional support? He’d miss his boyfriend?

- Lethe? Isn’t that the river of uhhh- ummm ugmmm… I forgor

- I like whatever was happening with the light in Lethe’s eyes

- awwwe Spock and Bones working together

- STOP CUTTING OFF DR. NOEL

- WHY WOULD YOU STAY THERE OVERNIGHT?!? Kirk would NOT survive a horror movie. He’d be first to die (comment down below)

- McCoy is like “Our boyfriend could be in danger, use your damn mind magic”

- OHHH OKAY I SEE WHY VULANS MEDITATE. The words he speaks to Van Gelder are a lot like being lead through meditation

- I LOBE THIS SCENE! The dialogue from Van Gelder, the movements and prompts from Spock, MCCOYS FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

- Kirk catapulting into danger right after they TOLD HIM NOT TO

- “and now she’s gone” “helen” I thought he was gonna shout or smt so when he just said “helen” it got me

- you know how this would be so much more tragic? If (canonically) Kirk was dating someone else aboard the ship *cough* you know *cough cough* and then the evil doctor implanted the idea he was in love with Dr. Noel and then him having to deal with the idea of loving both her and the other… anyway

- “Kirk to enterprise.. ughhkghjkk”

- He is literally the worst.. girlfailure

- people are too good at hiding in plain sight

- KIRK NOT AFRAID TO PUNCH A BITCH

- she- she just killed a guy.. good for her

- THE FUCKIN- the sitcom ass look Spock gives Jim like “oh really dr Adams did this”

- MCCOY!!! yeah he’s around. HE’S DEAD JIM MOME- oh no “he’s dead, captain” goddamnit Bones

- “can you imagine the mind emptied by that thing. Without even a tormentor” was a line most definitely meant for Spock and Bones but Dr.Noel saying “I understand” reminds me that she is indeed there not just observing but participating

- Bones just causally leaning against the back of his chair

- does he know? Does he even know that most medical officers don’t normally lean like that against your chair?

- OMG I SAW A POST ABOUT THE “it’s hard to believe a man could die of loneliness” “not when he’s sat in that room” AND THEN KIRK LOOKS OVER TO SPOCK AND SMILES

- he’s so surrounded by loved ones bro is beaming

Anyway all in all a good tenth episode!

I made a master list of all my Star Trek tos thought posts :D

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s2 ep22: Innocence

I remember most of this episode, especially how dumb the twist at the end was, but it had so much good stuff for Tuvok, I can kind of forgive it.

I forgot that a redshirt got killed off in this one, they really are dropping like flies this season! That brings this season's grand total to six so far, and the season isn't over yet! I remember at the beginning of the season they specifically mentioned Voyager having 154 crew on board, and now they should be down to 148. Idk how they're gonna have anybody left at this rate- I'm interested to see what the final numbers end up being, and if they fudge the numbers later.

The main point of this episode, though, was getting to see Tuvok be a good space dad, and he was. The three kids he rescued were thankfully pretty cute and non-annoying, so it was a lot of fun to watch Tuvok wrangle them. (With only slightly more exasperation than he wrangles the Voyager crew with, lol.) It was wonderful to get a Tuvok focused episode that actually focused on him as a person, rather than as a prop for evil mind takeover nonsense like they gave him last time. Vulcan philosophy requires detachment and controlled responses to everything, but when Tuvok gets to take care of people, like he does for these three marooned children, and for the dying ensign at the beginning, we get to see what a deeply caring person he actually is underneath. Whenever he talks about his family back home, he has so much love for them, and it's a poignant reminder that Tuvok, of all the main characters, has lost the most by being marooned out in the Delta Quadrant, but he also has the most reason to keep fighting to get back home to them.

I honestly don't think Tim Russ gets enough credit for how diffiicult a role he had to play as a Vulcan, who isn't supposed to show emotion, and yet he managed to convey Tuvok's whole personality, and the emotional life he keeps hidden underneath, with the smallest, subtlest gestures. He gives a truly masterful performance each and every episode, and he's so good you almost don't notice, except in episodes like this. I almost cried when Tuvok sang the song he used to sing to his kids. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Tuvok is the good space dad we all deserve.

I really wish they'd have come up with a better explanation at the end than the ridiculous 'these aliens age backward!' nonsense they had. Literally any other explanation to make it more plausible would have helped, because even as a kid, I was sitting there trying to think of how reverse-aging could even work, which took away from the emotional impact of the story. (Also, if they reverse age, the people on the planet would be referring to them as 'elders' not 'children'- but nobody apparently thought very hard about this one, so I wont either!) In the end, though the dumb ending lowers my estimation of the story itself, I'm still appreciative of the character scenes this ep gave us with Tuvok.

Tl;dr: A great character piece for Tuvok, despite a weak plot.

[invested-in-your-future]

What do you think the mistakes with White Fang story were?

The biggest mistake was not having that plotline at all beyond lipservice.

I think the "no no, any sort of actual resistance instantly makes you bad guys" is such a flawed and stupid position for a show to take.

The show's failure is highlighting WF motivations and WHY would anyone feasibly go down that route - HOW do Mistral, Atlas, etc treat Faunus or even Vale.

JFK once said - "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

If he existed in MilesWBY the quote would be "Only peaceful revolution is possible and anything else is evil"

We never see WHAT the Faunus have to deal with or how the society changed, (and if it did) since the Great War. We never see HOW Blake becomes the person she is (and if anything, have her regress by making her a runaway princess of tropic paradise)

The result is honestly quite racist - the show silently suggests (through the combined force of Blake's awful monologue and how Ilia's storyline ends) that the problem with The Faunus is their own "destructive" tendencies and their "unwillingness" to compromise or "wait for things to get better by being model minorities" - if only they waited a bit longer all the bigots would recognize how wrong they were!

With what the show presents, it's literally impossible to delve into the intricacies of the nature of extremism or why Adam's approach is flawed - because the show posits that the only right way forward is via complete no-exceptions peaceful resistance of… being nice and docile even when threatened with death?

We are straight up EXPECTED to see Ilia beating up bigots who laughed at people dying in the mines as BAD - the narrative EXPECTS the viewer to be horrified at her revelation rather than feel catharsis for her doing the right thing. The writing wants us to "feel like Blake" by being horrified at how violent and unhinged her friend is while completely ignoring the context - because any resistance beyond non-violent slogans is instantly a slippery slope into blowing up schools.

And where does that argument end up? In Twitter posts about how all those people shot by the cops "deserved" it by "doing something to aggravate them" - that's where.

Adam IS abusive, and Adam IS in the wrong and it's pretty clear that he has long since been addicted to power, BUT there's no possibility to even begin discussing what's right or wrong with the way the show handles the WF plotline as a whole.

We don't know what position Blake can take nor what position she had on the matter before because we don't get a sense of how WF could function beyond the two completely absurd strawman extremes of whatever sunken place nonsense Ghira's WF was in and whatever slippery slope cult-like strawman his successor created (nor how that progression happened).

What is his "vision"? What does he hope to achieve? How did he, according to Blake, "change"? We know nothing about White Fang beyond "Ghira's Non-Resistance White Man's Strawman of MLK" WF being good and his successor's WF being a slippery slope argument.

No wonder the show defaults to the most rudimentary aspect of Adam's flaws in the final confrontation, refusing to give both Yang and Blake a chance to refute him thematically while also refusing to give them proper character arcs that would lead to that confrontation - because the narrative never thought things through beyond that.

The show jumps around random and nonsensical gods subplots and religious imagery being all daring about what needs to change, but the moment actual themes of discrimination and human nature are at play, the narrative instantly becomes just so in love with status quo.

The WF began as "angry redshirts to be beaten up" and when the show decided to move on to all the "exciting"(it's really not) Brother Gods nonsense, the subplot got thrown away in the most racist way possible.

[iamafanofcartoons]

Why Ironwood’s actions made him a villain, and Team RWBY’s actions made them heroes.

Let’s go into some perspective about why Ironwood + his regime, and not Team RWBY, was the actual “worse than salem” group. And why Team RWBY are the heroes, and Ironwood and his regime the antagonists.

Let’s turn back the clock to before James threatened to nuke Mantle or blackmail Penny into helping him, and shot down planes that would carry people to safety.

“He genuinely offered all his resources to Team RWBY and co to maximize all the chances of them getting better and winning.” While squeezing Mantle dry.

Pre-V8 he still was authoritarian militarist, who locked down Atlas and Mantle, crippling its trade and defense capabilities of other regions, which led to a lot of people left to starve or die to Grimm, and he was also squeezing Mantle dry on top of it with a blatant disregard to its safety, and only giving it token "support", while his Huntsmen were more concerned with arresting people protecting Mantle, than helping them fight back Grimm.

Mantle was dying in volume 7, and it was all James’ fault, and critics were demanding that after Ironwood squeezed and bled Mantle dry, that Atlas abandon Mantle.

The writing is on the wall, but people are so focused on how he treated RWBY and co that they completely miss (ironically, unlike RWBY and co themselves, as it was their major concern) how he treats literally everyone else.

Of course he would treat them well, they are a very useful asset! Unlike people of Mantle, who could die in a ditch for all he cares.

That's not to say that he wants them dead, of course... he just doesn't care about them. He doesn't care about the people he's sworn to protect.

“ For Mantle, the entire point of the Huntsmen down there was to secure it and cover for the lack of resources. “

Lack of resources he himself created, funneling every drop of dust to his pet project.

James was always a borderline dictator. And he could pretty much brow-beat the Council to do what he needs, seeing how he held two seats out of five, and one was vacant.

“But James isn’t authoritarian!”

Authoritarian: Favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.

“But Ironwood was trying to prevent invasion of Salem’s agents”

They infiltrated Atlas through Mantle, by means of using outdated security. With Watts even explicitly pointing out that Atlas got the shiny upgrades, but no one cared to get them to Mantle. And Cinder and Neo still got in. Ironwood failed spectacularly. As he always does.

People were losing their jobs and their living because of lockdown, and those who kept theirs, were working in harsh conditions. Grimm regularly invaded Mantle. People couldn't even get their children to schools without Huntsmen protecting them.

“Its for the greater good”

I just don't see any merit in humoring ideas that treat people as expendable pieces on the path to some lofty goal. "Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make" logic is the logic of villains.

“Ironwood employed Penny and the robots, that shows he cares!”

The robots were shown to be like Star Wars Movie stormtroopers in terms of effectiveness, and Star Trek Redshirts in terms of survivability.

Also, not caring for someone implies not giving any thought to their problems, and in this particular case those problems were directly or indirectly created by Ironwood's actions or negligence. Sending Penny down there is a band-aid, an illusion of action. Also he was running her 24/7, having girl do the job of an entire military and her sole energy source and repairs comes from her dying father, who’s also being run ragged on Jimmy’s project.

“But Team RWBY used the satellite?”

Should we just discard the progress, if it was made by amoral means? Or should we rather use it, to at least in some way honor those who suffered for it?

“But Ironwood didn’t commit murder till he shot Oscar”

Murder is not the only weapon in dictatorship's arsenal. There’s media control and forbidding public functions and mass gatherings, which Ironwood did in the first episode of V7. There’s also banning weapons unless you’re in the dictator’s private army, which Clover literally confirmed in the 2nd episode, even ignoring Qrow’s license.

“Influential people aren't simply council members. People with money and connection need to receive privileges in exchange for services they may provide. That's how politics work. “

And yet, he literally SINGLEHANDEDLY LOCKED DOWN ATLAS. And neither other council members, nor other "influential people", represented in a show by Jacques, could stop him, despite it hurting their bottom lines. Whoops.

“ Y'all keep forgetting what being a soldier/military man entails. You obey your superior without question. That's not authoritarian, that's how any self-respecting army functions. “

Huntsmen aren’t supposed to be soldiers, they’re warriors who act with a code and serve society, not a general who treats everything like a contest of measuring “GLYNDA!”

Ironwood privatized the Huntsmen System, thus preventing Atlas Huntsmen from serving society, with the exception of the Happy Huntresses, who Clover called “Worse than Grimm” to Qrow. Imagine that defying Ironwood makes you worse than Grimm? Apparently that’s all it took for Robyn Haters.

Speaking of Clover...obeying orders without question? You mean like how Clover decided to defend Ironwood’s decision to abandon Mantle, try to arrest Qrow, and completely disregard the mission to capture Tyrian because “Good soldiers follow orders?” Then the Qrow vs Tyrian vs Clover fight makes sense. Tyrian wanted to cause chaos, Qrow wanted to stop Ironwood and Tyrian, and Clover wanted to obey Ironwood’s orders without question. Qrow made the mistake of thinking that Tyrian, who had never lied before, had meant that “putting the kid to bed” simply meant incapacitating Clover, not killing Clover. Meanwhile Clover had no problem arresting anyone who wasn’t licensed by Ironwood or carrying weapons that weren’t part of Ironwood’s army. I guess Clover did die as he lived...not a huntsmen, but a soldier.

“ Unless they showed someone's corpse or Team RWBY looking at beggars, there wasn't any sign of famine or death as you mention. The most there was is extra security and frequent robot patrols. “

Just because there are no corpses lying around on the streets, doesn't mean that people aren't suffering. A lot of the times their suffering goes unseen. You can't deny that Mantle looks like a mix of cyberpunk slum and depressive post-USSR Eastern Europe city. That's enough to make an educated guess about the state of the city and its inhabitants.

Just because Ironwood sacrifices some things, doesn't give him the right to sacrifice something he doesn't own - namely, other people.

Watts of all people called Jimmy out on neglecting Mantle's security. Aside from that, how did he help Mantle aside from sending a few Huntsmen there, which is, again, a band-aid, and an illusion of action?

“Ironwood trusted them like he trusted Ozpin” Remember what he did to Ozpin in V2. You know, the whole going behind his “Friend’s” back to get Ozpin, Salem’s chief nemesis and founder of the schools, fired? And also putting Penny in the Vytal Tournament despite nobody allowing it if they knew she was an android? This is the same guy who talked about trust? Ironwood is a hypocrite because he loves to talk about trust while betraying everyone else’s.

Remember the episode “Sparks?”

Unrest doesn't happen like *snap* and everything blows up. Tension grows gradually and usually goes unnoticed, until it's at the point when a slightest spark is enough to ignite the situation. What Jacques and Watts did was that spark, but the groundwork was laid by Ironwood's actions raising the tension between Mantle and Atlas. And that growing unrest could be seen as far back as e1 of that volume - specifically, in the drunk racist and Forest.

“Ironwood didn’t expect Watts to be alive!”

Someone broke through a military grade cyber security and caused all Atlesian robots and mechs to go "Execute Order 66″  on people. Whether or not it was Watts is irrelevant, because it's a known (to Ironwood) fact that there's someone capable of doing it*.* You don't need a hindsight to account for it, just a regular sight and basic common sense. Which Ironwood has none. That Ironwood, knowing this, only went as far as updating the infrastructure in Atlas, but not in Mantle, is not just negligence, it's a sabotage of his own goals.

The fact is that Ironwood's methods revealed his disregard for people with whom his goals don't align.

“Ironwood was to take drastic actions! There needed to be sacrifices"

The sacrifices began when he locked down Atlas and Mantle. They were just incidental, a product of ignorance and negligence.

“Atlas was the mightiest military” Name one battle they won that didn’t involve Team RWBY’s help?

Their ships could barely fire upon some giant worms, and had not been updated since the great war, causing them only to be able to effectively fire single laser shots against other ships.

An elite huntsmen can take out tons of weaker grimm. And Ironwood’s ships were useless against grimm as well. The paladins could work...yes.But they had a nasty habit of being stolen or hacked...which was again, ironwood’s fault.

“Qrow was willing to trust Ironwood!”

Even though Qrow told them in V6 that they should ask Ironwood for help, by the time the team actually met Ironwood, Qrow had changed his position to not talking to him. Sound familiar? Something Lionhart?

Ironwood didn't take defensive measures against Salem's forces. We see in the very first episode that whatever Ironwood is doing to keep Salem's forces out of Mantle isn't working.

We learned in episode 2 that he was not only aware of his actions having literally the exact opposite effect of what he was promising the people of Mantle, but he also accepted that.

Even before the main cast met Ironwood, they knew he either had no idea what he was doing, or he wasn't on their side any more. They didn't know which it was, but they already knew they couldn't count on him.

The grand sum of Ironwood’s character is:

“I can tolerate leaving thousands of innocents to die for some vague concept of the great good, but I draw the line at insubordination and lying.”

“But Ruby and Yang were being hypocritical in going behind Ozpin’s back!” A huge part of volume 7 was that Ruby realized that Ozpin was ultimately morally grey, and morally grey I mean his actions he took while thinking of other people. Selfishness is the complete opposite of morally grey, which instantly disqualifies Raven Branwen (mass murderer and thief), Adam Branwen (Mass murderer and terrorist), and Roman Torchwick. (Thief, murderer, and racist) from ever being qualified as morally ambiguous. As a result, Ruby ends up acknowledging Ozpin’s points, and even starts working with him again in V8. Yang on the other hand was agreeing with Blake’s points during the cargo truck ride and decided to go: “Hey Robyn, I know jimmy is oppressing your people and your actions against him are valid, but he’s trying to restore global communications for the greater good and his ‘protector of mantle’ didn’t actually kill your constituents, so if you could please stop taking back what’s yours, James will eventually repair mantle.”

And Robyn went: Okay.

Yang and Blake got Robyn to be willing to compromise with Ironwood, something Ironwood cannot do himself, and something he is incapable of getting people to do unless he abuses his military and political power, which he does on a regular basis.

“But Robyn was a terrorist who sabotaged the project!”

She was taking back the supplies that were meant for Mantle, that Ironwood was stealing from Mantle, for his personal project that was done without the council’s authority. She was giving those supplies back to the people of Mantle. Which emboldened the suppliers of Mantle in giving them hope that they could pressure Ironwood to repair Mantle’s defenses. Ironwood’s response? Call the entire city of Mantle “A few cityblocks”

“Robyn’s outfit and equipment was ridiculous compared to Ironwood’s military”

Yeah, when you’re in a city that’s poorer than Vacuo and oppressed by a small-minded man with a giant ego, you don’t tend to have access to the best equipment, clothes, etc. Not to mention that unlike Vacuo, Huntsmen aren’t allowed to protect people in Atlas unless they’re part of Ironwood’s private army.

“Team RWBY were selfish, Ruby is acting just like Roman!”

Lying to save lives and prevent human extinction is not the same as lying for your own self interest. When the gang steal and airship to get into Atlas, it isn’t an evil thing. They are doing it so they can save lives and protect innocent people. The good guys make sacrifices when they have to, where there is absolutely no other choice. Ironwood would sacrifice anything he could to protect his people, you can debate whether or not he’s a true villain, but he goes to far. Sacrifice isn’t a last resort for him, he believes it is. But most villains believe they’re on the right side. This is why most “Rewrites” that try to “Fix” Roman, Adam , or Ironwood go out of their way to rewrite the plot and characters to try to claim that the Villains are in the right, and to shame any female characters who stand in their way. The both the White fang and the good side use violence. But the white fang use violence and seek division and persecution as vengeance for their own struggles. Ultimately, through salem’s manipulation, they divide the intelligent creatures of Remnant. They attack hurt innocent people to further their own goals. The good guys use violence so that violence can be ended. Remind you of anyone? Cough cough, Batman! The sin of the cynic is acting purely in self-interest. Torchwick's line of "lie, cheat, steal and survive" refers to putting his needs first and foremost. It's not the same as resorting to desperate methods to save lives. Like, Jaune cheating his way into Beacon is motivated by self-interest, but his idea to steal an airship in V6 was motivated by keeping others safe. He isn't proving Torchwick's ideals are right in the latter instance, it's quite the opposite. Same with Ruby.

I'm not sure how people can say that Ironwood was proven right when we are shown that there were ways to save the people of Mantle. It's not even a one-time thing either, he thought that he had to keep forcing Mantle to make sacrifices but it turns out it was completely possible to make a compromise with them.

And if we're going to be completely honest it's Ironwood's refusal to compromise that's the biggest factor regarding Atlas's fate. For example, Neo was able to steal the lamp because his soldiers unintentionally gave her the opportunity and a way to escape. It's what led to Robyn acting the way she did on the plane and everything involving Penny was because of him.

Frankly, the only point I can give critics is the white Fang and it's only because the series so horrifically failed to demonstrate the difference between Sienna and Adam.

“But Ironwood was prepared to compromise with Robyn”

He wanted to have her taken into custody 1st and only then was he going to "negotiate," with her... I don't think I need to explain how this is not under any circumstances an actual compromise.

The actual compromise between Ironwood and Mantle took place in the Schnee Manor and that was entirely thanks to Blake, Yang, and sadly Jacques. And that was a compromise that he broke mere hours later when he decided to completely unnecessarily abandon them all to die... A decision he made without seeking any advice and then straight up threatened the people who dared question him on it.

“Sleet: The fact of the matter is, you've operated with a fair amount of autonomy for the past few years, James. But we need now is for you to work with us “

So Ironwood disrespected his peers and did whatever he wanted, and when called out on it, refused to listen to his colleagues, his equals.

A person arrested and completely at James’ mercy ISNT really a negotiating.

“I can either throw you in jail for the rest of your life OR you can agree to work under me, under my terms and conditions.”

What a “””negotiation.“”” Much fair.

“But Ruby is the villain in the trolley scenario!” If the Trolley is the floating city of Atlas, then the people of Mantle are the ones lashed to the tracks, and Ironwood put them there. Salem is coming up behind the Trolley, and Ironwood wants to bulldoze over the Mantle people. Ruby and the Gang want to get the people on board, but Ironwood refuses to let them on. To the point where he will do anything to prove he’s right and somebody is wrong. Ironwood is literally the man who cuts off his nose to spite his face. So Ruby and Crew use Ambrosius to get everyone to a new destination.

“Ruby and crew destroyed Atlas!” According to Cinder, RWBY saved thousands. And if  you think an infrastructure is what makes a kingdom, then you forget that a kingdom is nothing without living breathing people, who live in Atlas, who have made it to Vacuo, and while Vacuo is about as xenophobic as Atlas, they put power in the people, and everyone there works together for the common society. Aka, the greater good. The people of Atlas can do good for each other, when Ironwood isn’t sabotaging everything.

“Ruby sabotaged Ironwood’s broadcast!” Ironwood’s broadcast was “Hey world, I want you to ignore every bad thing I’ve done and every red flag I’ve given off because there’s a greater evil in the world, and I want you to let me use my army that failed to protect everyone into your borders just like I forcibly brought my army into the Vytal Peace festival. I promise I won’t do anything behind your backs like use your events for weapon testing of the human soul like I did back then?

What was Ruby’s Speech? “Hi Everyone, I’m a Huntress, my job is to help you all. Listen, Atlas is under attack by the same bad person that brought down Beacon. We’re all in the same mess. Yeah, she can’t be killed, but everyone working together has been able to stop her the past 80 years, and if we all work together again, we can do it again. Here’s some people you can trust to validate the info, but Ironwood can’t be trusted because of all his actions in the past and his red flags. I believe in you all, because you all can do incredible things, and together everyone can stop Salem”

So Ruby was trying to unite humanity, give EVERYONE the hope and strength to work together and fight Salem, and stop Ironwood from getting too big for his britches.

Ruby was not being a savior, Ironwood was trying to act like he was. Ruby was trying to make humans and faunus alike the saviors. Power of the People.

“Ironwood is a battle-hardened experienced general!” Remnant had been at peace for 80 years, the only conflict was Grimm and the White Fang. And Adam represented the main bad people out there...in Vale. So Ironwood basically used a display of military bravado for everything (Glynda’s words) and people think that’s battle experience? If that’s the case, then Team RWBY and JNPR have loads of experience both on Ironwood in terms of tactics, and on the Ace Ops in terms of combat. Oh wait! THEY DO! That explains why Ironwood fails so spectacularly against Salem and her agents tactics till Team RWBY comes along to help, and why Team RWBY can defeat the Ace Ops.

”He was completely different back in volumes 2-3!″

Why did people look at Adam Taurus, a wannabe edgelord who tried to murder innocent passengers on a train....and then people decided to defend his every action? Claiming Adam was “misunderstood?” What, like Vergil from Devil May Cry, who murdered innocent people for power and had no problem unleashing monsters onto civilians, just like Adam did in Volume 3?

Why did people look at Ironwood, who brought a war fleet to a international peace conference, got screamed at for his warmongering by the Assistant Headmaster who kept her voice relatively level even against team rwby’s food fight, got the headmaster fired for not obeying Jimmy, and used the conference to conduct weaponization of the human soul projects....and claim he was a savior?

So yeah...Ironwood was cool, had drip, had charisma, had good intentions. But his actions spoke louder than his words. Sadly people only listened to his words. Must be his Messiah Complex.

[bballlvr8]

https://www.tumblr.com/bballlvr8/764779394006941696/could-we-see-azzi-playing-in-the-thanksgiving

For Aubrey that’s good news.

For Azzi, I wonder what he’s referring to by rusty….. 🫠. But obviously she deserves some grace, just yk how people get.

For Caroline…. 😔😔. The fact that she’s had a whole year of rehabbing and trying to get back into basketball and still has no estimated comeback time is very saddening. Her injury can literally ruin her life so it’s not great to hear that she’s probably still struggling. I’m praying for her but idk what the future looks like for her. Do you see her using her redshirt year next season or medically retiring?

yeah, that’s good news for Aubrey

For azzi I feel like she’s probably just starting to do full practices and she hasn’t done them in 10 months so she’s gonna be rusty

I don’t know Caroline is such a tricky subject because we don’t really know what exactly her injury is, but I do know head injuries are very dangerous and can be very fatal if not taken care of properly 

[astronautical-mile]

Ok, so I started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and I was live tweeting my reactions to my parents (freakin' nerds amiright?). Then my mother suggested that I actually live-tweet my reactions. But, because my X (formally known as Twitter) account is still purporting to be Robert Nozick's X (formerly known as Twitter)(it was for a school thing), I have no interest in finally learning how to use X (formerly known as Twitter), and I think Tumblr will enjoy this more than X (formerly known as Twitter), I have decided to live tweet my reactions here!!!

Here's What I have so far, will update:

Live Tweeting my reactions to Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 1, Episode 1: "Encounter at Farpoint: Parts 1 & 2":

Ooo, space Christopher Columbus, hope he's less of an asshole than his earthly counterpart

Also, The Enterprise is kina ugly ngl

This Q guy is hilarious, I preferred the Columbus outfit tho

*My dad saying that Q is as much of an asshole as the real Chris Columbo* Ah, but he's fictional, so his dramatics and humor endear me to him

I like the guy wearing a skirt

If Patrick Stewart wasn't acting his heart out, this would, unfortunately, be too silly for me to continue

Oh no, did I just say I liked a space Nazi? Because this black bird on a red background looks very space Naziy to me

I love Q so far, very intriguing and so silly goofy at times

Also, these post-atomic fallout costumes are a vibe

Oooo, this is fun, stakes are rising, Edward guns for hands are pointing them at EVERYONE!!!

Stand By Me kid is great (yes, I do know the actor's name)

Redshirt on the bridge seemingly named Kant or Khan is a mood. So clueless, so left out, literally me in high school

[stra-tek]

Yet another another another excerpt from I Survived Kirk, the forthcoming fanfic autobiography of a bitter redshirt on Kirk's Enterprise

I may be a former member of Starfleet, but that doesn’t mean I agree with every choice they make or have made in the past.  Starfleet is STILL paying for the mistakes they made in early missions, and likely will for centuries to come.

I hate propaganda.  I hate whitewashing history.  Don’t teach lies so that your children won’t have to learn that you’re flawed and made stupid mistakes, otherwise they’ll make the same damn ones.  Obviously, I wasn’t there but if you do the research you can verify all this for yourself.

We’re taught that Jonathan Archer heroically saved the planet from the Xindi in 2153.  We’re told he was instrumental in ending the Romulan war.   He was a hero, who paved the way for the United Federation of Planets.  He’s a legend.

But here’s what they don’t tell you:  Jonathan Archer wasn’t even the first choice to command Enterprise NX-01.  That was a guy named AG Robinson, who was disqualified after an unauthorized test flight.  Something HUGE that is ALWAYS glossed over, is the fact that it was Jonathan Archer’s father Henry Archer who designed the Enterprise’s warp five engine.  Nepotism in Starfleet?  The same nepotism that pervades today, if anyone looks up George Kirk Sr, best friend of Captain Robert April and whose troublemaker of a son ended up succeeding April (and Pike) as captain of this generation’s USS Enterprise.

And it’s not like Archer had any starship experience.  That’s why you never hear about his time on any ships before Enterprise.  There wasn’t any.  “Flight School” (that’s what came before Starfleet Academy) – test pilot of the NX-project – Captain of the Enterprise. They just declared him a captain and sent him out in charge of 80-odd people.  

It was Jonathan Archer that invited the infamous Xindi attack which cost 7 million lives and destroyed Florida by telling every alien they encountered for two years how to find Earth.  He literally sent starcharts so that even the ones that couldn’t understand our language knew where we came from.

And Starfleet just let him.  In fact, they didn’t even send Enterprise out with a proper mission statement except to “go where no man has gone before”.  You’d think a mission of such import (they only spent 30 years developing the warp five engine and ship design, which ended up the blueprint for everything after upto and including our current generation of starships), they’d have mapped out the mission in intricate detail, which stars to visit, which planets to chart, which aliens to contact and what to say/not say.  But no, Johnny boy just floated around aimlessly, getting his ship into trouble and making a professional victim of himself.  He was “officially” kidnapped 28 times between April 26, 2151 and April 24, 2153.  Once he caused an intergalactic incident because he let his dog piss up some sacred tree.  Once he almost let member of his crew die in the extreme heat of a planet and never thought to beam down cooling units.  Most infamously, he refused medical help to a species called the Valakians because he decided it was their destiny to die out.  What a nice man.

So anyway, after two years of obliviously causing intergalactic incidents (including with the Romulans, more on that later), a race called the Xindi sent a weapon to Earth and killed 7 million people.  They then build and launch a second, much larger weapon to destroy the entire planet (because just rendering it uninhabitable is too mainstream, or something.  I guess these guys weren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer either).  Archer somehow sneaks onto the weapon and destroys it, and somehow survives.

Now, why did the Xindi attack?  Something to do with ancient gods but they’re very sorry now can we join the Federation blah blah.  How did the Xindi attack?  Earth was clearly marked in maps the Enterprise had been transmitting to everyone they encountered.  Why advertise your location to a galaxy full of clearly hostile species without adequate defences?

And yes, Archer’s why the Klingons and Romulans hate us, too.  Cheers mate, you’re a legend.

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "Rebel Assault"

Everything goes so very, very wrong.

Hoo BOY this opening slow pan across the Empire's current gathered forces above Lothal is ah... Very Concerning.

Were there this many ships in the finale? Did Thrawn call for reinforcements just for this one event?

This was an amazing shot in the trailer but once you put it up against that opening pan...

Yeah this attack was doomed.

Mart! Hi! It's so good to see you! Sad that Gooti and Jonner couldn't be here but hey. At least you have a couple redshirts flying with you.

Imperial March briefly excepts into the organs that signify that Thrawn's onscreen. Both he and Hera have identified the fuel depot as the primary target, being both the softest and least defended, and also the most important. No fuel, no production line, no output. This is basic War 101.

"24 ships, Grand Admiral." (squints, checks back in the caps) That is not 24 ships, guys. C'mon, nerds will be checking this.

And now the Empire gets to indulge in its favorite strategy:

Spam TIE Fighters at problem until it goes away. Lol.

No seriously this is going to bug me now, were there that many ships in orbit above Lothal for the finale?! Weeeeeeew lordy, Ezra might have the highest kill count of anyone on the show if that's the case.

Really liking the deep dusk lightning here on the ground with the others. It's very soft.

Aaaaaaand Duke is clearly just Freddie Prince Junior enjoying his Western Drawl voice again lol.

Ohhhhhhh I know I've heard this cue, they used this before in.... ghfkhfhj I can't remember! I think it was another spacebattle? Maybe?

Zeb still antagonizing Ezra like a bullish older brother lol.

Jeez is that pollution or lingering dusk? Hellish red.

The Main Theme kicking in as Hera attempts her heroic X-wing move here.

Thrawn. Thrawn, pal. Buddy. Compadre. That is an ace, you do not just let him get himself stupidly killed. You know full well what Hera is about to do, explain it to Skerris and then he might listen to you. Giving a cursory, "Hey you better obey me." does not suffice, as you well know from Konstantine's defiance back in "Zero Hour".

Maybe if your people skills were better, you wouldn't have people so eager to thumb their nose in your face.

Oh! Ohhhhhhhhhhh! Oh you absolute whore, Skerris didn't even need to die, you could literally have just not had your batteries fire! Oh my gosh this is his exact attitude in the finale. "Gee it's too bad about that guy, anyway shoot to kill." SKERRIS COULD STILL HAVE HAD INTACT SHIELDS WHEN HERA MADE HER SURPRISE ATTACK IF YOU HAD JUST NOT FIRED AT BOTH OF THEM, THAT WAS AAAAAAALLLL YOU, THRAWN, YOU ASS.

"How unfortunate." my foot.

Yeah, uh... X-wings can't actually fire like this with the S-foils closed. It's a known technical lore detail. Yeah the husband was pretty pissy about this one. I mean good for Hera but they should have really let her foils open.

Right so that means that this extra collision here is Thrawn's fault because he let Skerris die to prove a point. Stop doing that, you're gonna lose all your troops!

You know what I think Thrawn absolutely wanted to get to spring his second wave of TIEs on the attack squad and that's why he aggravated Skerris's blunder. He does seem to have a penchant for theatricality.

Again, very on-point lighting.

:(((((((

The defeat is almost muted in tone. We get only a suggestion of the massacre of the attack force, see them as nothing but streaks of flaming, falling comets of light. There's utter silence at first, and then strings ramping up as the horror descends, along with the ships.

All that effort and heroism, fizzled into nothing. With barely any effort on Thrawn's part.

The worry in Kanan's voice as he tries to call Hera. :(((((((

Ryder's resigned defeat, contrasted against Ezra's cautious optimism.

It's not often that it's Ezra comforting Kanan, but it works to pull Kanan out of his head enough to vacate the area with the others.

Ooooh the camerawork in that shot! And the sound design of Chopper's electronic panicked scream!

Seeing Hera hurt is always awful. Fortunately a gaggle of civilians are around to help.

The score flaring up in mournful cello notes as Kanan lets his fear and worry take over, which makes him halt and turn full tilt around to go back.

Ezra lets him go, even though he has to know what a bad idea it is. Better to let him try, I guess, and I know Ezra relates.

Still can't get over how hellish red Capital City looks at night.

Pryce is still Not Fond of Rukh lol.

RIP R3-A3. :(((((((

He died protecting Mart too.

Good on Mart, by the way, for being useful in this ambush, immediately grabs a blaster and shoulder-checks one Trooper and shoots another, I love him.

Zachary Gordon's voicing Mart a bit deeper this episode, apparently we hit puberty lol. (Mart, I mean. Zachary was 20 when this aired.)

Hhhnhnhnhhghfhh what was that noise, Rukh, jeez!

His theme coming in as he finds Mart and Hera and Chopper, heralded by that deep woodwind note.

Hera's not a slouch in the combat department, but Ruhk is very quickly on the offensive again, takes Chopper zapping the crap out of him for him to break off.

The white Loth-wolf meanwhile, is once again just kind of being ~mysterious~ and doing its thing. I have no idea why turning off all the other streetlights were necessary, it's not like Kanan can see it.

Kanan sounding very frustrated. I'm actually reminded of Ezra's behavior in the early part of "Legacy", impatient, impulsive, snapping randomly at the easiest target.

The Loth-wolf does not take kindly to it. But this gets Kanan to calm down again and clear his head.

Some excellent teamwork here between Hera, Chopper, and Mart.

"I'll catch up!" CURSED WORDS, HERA. CURSED WORDS.

The "Shenanigans" cue once again being put through an action wringer, notes staggered, off beat.

THE WAY THIS PARALLELS "CALL TO ACTION" WITH HERA SHOOTING OUT THE DOOR CONTROLS TO SEAL THINGS BEHIND CHOPPER AFTER ORDERING BOTH HIM AND MART TO GO.

Kanan being remarkably chill about all of this after his pep talk with the wolves.

And the wolves leitmotif to close us out, replacing over the ending credits.

Boy this episode is a downer. The attack we've hinged all our hopes on since Season Two fails, Hera is captured, and Lothal seems utterly lost. Now imagine having to wait about oh... six months to see the resolution. Yeah that was fun.

The animation and camerawork is wonderful this episode though, music appropriately somber, and the dark parallels to Season One's finale would continue, to a horribly subversive end. This is all serious from here on out. We have to face the darkest night before we can push through to the dawn.

See y'all next episode. It's uh... gonna be a thing.

[thedevilsrain]

FEWL Star Trek au??? 👀👀👀

ok just because you asked nicely (lore under the cut hehe)

they're in a spaceship! i didn't know/remember if star trek had spies, so i just went with what i knew here lol

mischa is the captain! his full name is mikheil sergeyev (made up by me an my friend), he's the captain because socialism won in star trek so the captain might as well be the socialist character

dorian is a half-human half-betazoid ambassador of betazed, hence the big black eyes but the english name. betazoid so he still has some form of title (son of the 6th house of betazed), and ambassador because it's kind of like if an earl had a job

eberbach is chief security. no majors on the ship, so he's a lieutenant commander. he's like troi or kira or kirk as in he's there for the eye candy

the alphabets are literally redshirts - they're all ensigns, and they definitely have names, but i didn't feel like making them up 😭

james is ambassador gloria's accountant, and he was raised by the ferengi. don't ask. he knows all of the rules of acquisition from memory though

bonham and dorian are literally o'brien and lwaxana respectively lmao

bonus: was unsure of who the first officer could be. i thought either the chief or polar bear but neither had the pizzaz i wanted

[t0ast-ghost]

You know this has got me in a pretty deep (Obsession) which is the name of S2 episode 13 of Star Trek tos.

Better luck next time on that opening:

- Kirk’s on edge…

- Star Trek horror episode when?

- is this inspiration for when Doctor Crusher fucks a ghost

- god I love Chapel

- Hot new redshirt is probably the shapeshifter (edit: this is just wrong)

- The fucking gas is sneaking up on ‘em. Of all the things to die to it’s the vampire gas

- Kirk’s boyfriends both think that they should leave and deliver the supplies. Two versus one AND it’s the two that always fight against their favourite idiot

- Kirk ignoring both McCoy AND Spock is not a good sign

- The chief security guy dramatically flopping on his bed is so relatable bbygirl

- Kirk getting paranoid about his bridge crew “conspiring” is like. haven’t you learned trust? Haven’t you learned love? I guess he’s still a soldier at heart or smt

- “I hope I’m not disturbing you, Doctor.” “Interrupting another autopsy report is no disturbance, Mr. Spock. It’s a relief” I just remembered that they’re married and in love

- Spock outright asking McCoy for his advice/opinion is like. YEAH he respects you, he has his own beliefs and ideals but he wants to hear from you! And when he’s worried about your (boy)friend he wants you to be on the same page as him. He wants you to validate his thoughts.

- whatever the fuck this is

- “Mind if I come in?” McCoy you shouldn’t be able to just enter people’s quarters like that. Can’t you see he’s writing his diary and listening to Mitski in bed?

- Oh my Bones pulling out the big guns.. AND SPOCK. Oh they really were conspiring. You know if they worked together like this more often, they could literally do anything. Like kiss.

- Genuinely unsure if the gas is intelligent or not. I like the mystery of this one.

- “Jim, we’re not trying to gang up on you.” They are though and it’s probably for the best

- Love how the entire bridge crew is just like “this isn’t healthy. Kirk, this is concerning behaviour.”

- OH WOW Kirk came so close to blowing up his own ship

- “Self pity’s a terrible first course, how about you try the soup.” Christine Chapel is literally the best. She also knows how to make threats, not even McCoy knows about (I love how terrifying the medical department is)

- I want a pair of those slutty boots

- McCoy is fucking furious

- “I’m sorry, Jim. I was wrong.” McCoy in short sleeves <3

- Spock genuinely trying to comfort Kirk cause he has an unhealthy obsession with the creature and Kirk dismissing it

- Spock then trying to comfort the ensign

- He breaks the vent controls with his strength then tries to COVER IT WITH HIS HANDS. Spock, babygirl, that is not logical

- “Don’t misunderstand my next question. Mr. Spock, why aren’t you dead?” Happy to see you too, Jim

- “Bet he left a bad taste in the creatures mouth.” “Colloquially expressed, but essentially correct.” That is a fucking banger line

- KIRK HEALING ARC

- Spock and Bones at odds once again

- Of course Kirk is gonna be self sacrificial and Spock is going to try and self sacrifice himself.. admittedly Spock had the more logical thought process

- HE FUCKIN KARATE CHOPPED HIS NECK . WHAT THE HECK NEW GUY?!?

- I’d love if I lived on the enterprise and got little updates through the comms by Chekov “stand by for shockwaves.” Of course thank you :))

- Spock is like “I’m to thank, not god, thank me Jim.”

- Kirk healing <3

Better episode than I thought it would be :)

Masterpost

Episode written by Art Wallace

[beyondmistland]

Hi! Just saw your ask about Alysanne being Maegor’s daughter (possibility). It’s so complicated and interesting... but actually wouldn’t make sense because in many ways Alysanne is basically her grandmother Rhaenys over again - for they have so much in common: the beloved Good Queen who cared about people etc. Even Rhaena compared Alysanne to Rhaenys and herself to Visenya. And actually when I think about Visenya’s possible grandchild I think of someone similar to Rhaena as well. Anyway, I’m glad Visenya’s line didn’t continue because she was really downgrading with Maegor by blindly supporting her hitler of a son.

I respectfully disagree with your opinion.

Maegor, for all his many, many faults was neither genocidal nor a eugenicist.

Children are their own people and there is never any guarantee they will turn out like their parents. Case in point, Jaehaerys I is nothing like his dithering father, Aenys I.

People don't have to literally be someone's descendant to resemble them in terms of looks or personality. People can and have taken after aunts, uncles, or grandparents on either side of their family. Heck, sometimes a person resembles no one in the family due to inheriting long-dormant recessive genes from a distant ancestor! And that’s before you get into people choosing to deliberately model themselves off someone they admire, which in this case would be famous kings, queens, knights, lords, ladies, etc.

Characters shouldn't be punished for the actions of their offspring and the idea that *bad* characters or characters with *bad children* shouldn't have descendants is imho very problematic. Seriously, by that logic, Daeron II shouldn't have been born and while I personally think he's more flawed than most of the fandom, he is undoubtedly one of the better Targaryen kings. Similarly, according to this train of thought, Aegon III and Viserys II shouldn't have been born because neither Rhaenyra nor Daemon are good people. Speaking of those two, who even decides who's a good or bad character? I personally find Daemon Targaryen loathsome but he clearly has a ton of fans and not just on Tumblr. Would a guy like Maekar fall under your category of *bad* considering his many flaws as a parent and person as well as the fact he accidentally killed Baelor Breakspear and sired Aerion Brightflame?

The fact that Visenya's line dies out is part of a wider trend wherein GRRM, for all his talk about disliking black-and-white conflicts/characters and preferring "the human heart in conflict with itself", often writes one side of any given struggle to be more sympathetic, with the other side ALWAYS dying out. Visenya's line dies out and through only having Maegor is made to be less sympathetic. Alicent's line dies out (unless you include unacknowledged bastards) and the Greens as a whole are written to be mustache-twirling redshirts. While before there was good reason to believe Bittersteel had children by marriage (which would have heightened the contrast with Bloodraven and fit in well with the grounded institutional nature of Bittersteel's legacy, whereas Bloodraven's is relegated to the fleeting memory of song, just as magic comes and goes) but now, according to GRRM, he probably never had children, which in this case I'm willing to let slide, mainly because it shows how he and Bloodraven are mirrors of each other in terms of being each side's respective fanatic, the conflict consuming every other aspect of their lives in service to it.

We have no idea what kind of mother, leader, or person Rhaenys would have been had she lived longer. And its not like Visenya didn't have people who loved her too or else Yandel wouldn't use the phrase "even those who loved her best".

I generally dislike tropes like "the evil stepmother" as @cynicalclassicist can attest.

Thanks for commenting, anon.

[invested-in-your-future]

Can't really do racism subplot well without redeeming Adam

Disagreed.

First of all, will have to talk about my personal pet peeve with the WF subplot.

RT, WHY are y'all treating ACTIVIST ORGANISATION as something that has a clear-cut structure and leadership???

Why even do "Oh well our LEADER changed and now we are literally terrorists, I guess. Let's make some cool masks and go attack some schools."???

That's…now how ANY of this works.

Why is every single WF member a faceless evil redshirt? Why are the only "good" people there directly connected to Blake or her family? Why does whether a faunus is "good" or "bad" often depend on approval of or connection to lead cast?

EVEN IF Adam is exactly the same as he is in the show and EVEN IF we do the absolutely dumb slippery slope "activism to terrorism" plotline with Sienna's addition(and removal, LOL, can't prominent powerful woc or even just prominent powerful women, really), that kind of rhetoric shouldn't affect the whole WF. Activists aren't generally cults or hiveminds. Sure the rhetoric will attract a bit of following, but that also would not really be WF as a whole. Remember, WF in Remnant is something worldwide. Is the show implying that all marginalized minorities are just waiting for a chance to "lash out"? Or that racism isn't real and people get manipulated into believing it is by "their leaders"?

The writing for White Fang and for overall even the idea of oppression in Remnant reeks of like, those kinds of dudes who rant about how "all this radical activist behavior is not what the peace loving MLK would have wanted" - the kinds of people who genuinely believe "Antifa" or "BLM" are actual definitive organizations rather than set of ideals or a slogan and that Civil Rights were "won" by merely defiantly smiling at bigots or something (I am actually quite sure that's how Miles and like view it, considering how Ghira in the past is written), which even goes against literal Remnant lore considering Great War and Faunus supposedly literally winning themselves a continent through death and bloodshed (the fact that the said continent is portrayed as basically tropical resort paradise ain't helping too). Even the main cast constantly employ violence since its in part an action show(or used to be).

To get back on track, Adam being or not being a "good person" should in no way affect the writing of WF arc as a whole. The portrayal of Faunus struggle overall shouldn't hinge on singular character. It can be an aspect of it, but the idea should by all means not be limited to a single individual (especially) villain.

The idea of oppression, of racism, of inequality is bigger than a single character. Its bigger than a single character can change or steer or "solve". Adam being good or bad can't change how society overall treats Faunus, Adam wanting or not wanting to do something can't define how marginalized people respond to bigotry and Adam being possibly thwarted/defeated won't just end racism or people acting out against it, whether its protesting or something bigger. Adam could be someone shaped by direct bigotry or he might not be! A person does not have to only stand against bigotry when they personally were affected by it in a direct physical way. Because its not just "direct physical way". Racism EXISTING alone is enough to make it permeate everything within society. To tie it solely to physical harm or violence is to fundamentaly misunderstand what it is. Misunderstanding like that leads to basically the "oh racism has been ended because we no longer have slavery!" kinds of takes. In reality there's no "win condition" against it. Just eternal struggle to push back against oppression and discrimination.

Whatever story does or doesn't do with Adam, whatever he does or doesn't do shouldn't instantly change the status quo of oppression itself. Because its not his story. Correlation isn't Causation. Adam being part of oppressed group SHOULDN'T lead to Adam horrifying crimes or being abusive. There are essentially TWO Stories - one dealing with racism in Remnant and one dealing with Adam. One story might have might overlap with the other, but they are VERY different and conflating them is dangerous in terms of messaging. The common point is that both stories SHOULD be stories of Blake growing to be her own person, so it should connect to Blake's ideals and beliefs. Basically him being an antagonist to her is FINE. What IS needed is an actual character arc for Blake, progression of her worldview and beliefs. If it leads to her facing and defeating him? That's fine and actually a logical progression for her (and yes Yang too) and in fact I firmly believe that was always going to happen. Adam was always going to be her Gaston that limits her path. He is dangerous and terrifying and powerful and deceptive and he is part of trauma and memories that haunt her and he caused indefinite amount of hurt to her and people she cares about. The story shouldn't diminish him into a Team Rocket Villain and instead should treat him as an actual threat. Not because he's part of WF, but because of the personal and traumatic experiences his character causes and what his personality and toxicity means. And what's more important the story SHOULDN'T conflate consequences of oppression and racism with perpetuation of abusive behavior. Sure in real world the nature of systematic racism and cycle of violence can be complicated with the idea of generational trauma, but the way the show dumps both into each other, it creates this false perception that marginalized minorities have all been "conditioned to be violent" which leads to the weird centrist kinds of takes how "pushing back against racism is as bad as racism" because oh no reverse racism. The messaging becomes not that racism is bad, hurts, diminishes and damages people and people should be equal but that racism is bad because "the scary minorities will murder everyone because muh horseshoe". Adam The Absuive Ghost of Blake's Past is her personal conflict, Adam Who Leads the WF is the conflict of her ideals - they are not the same even if they are embodied by the same person. And facing him SHOULD NOT BE the end for her journey and SHOULD NOT BE the end for the overall struggle with racism in the setting.

TLDR:

Adam being an evil and dangerous villain is fine as long as Blake were to get a proper character arc and the exploration of inequality, racism, bigotry, etc, extended way beyond these two characters and doesn't end in some "omg we been looting" nonsense monologue.

The show COULD HAVE done BOTH an arc of Blake fighting back against Adam's influence(and both her and Yang dealing with trauma tied to him) and control over her AND also acknowledge that the overall matters of systematic (and personal) racism and the way it affects people and the paths they take is WAY MORE complex than "oh no I got hurt then did activism and now I blow up schools"

The Show Fails at writing both characters (Blake literally has no character arc, be it it exploration of bigotry against faunus, her traumatic experiences with Adam or her complicated relationship with Yang) and the show fails at writing and depicting a bigger issues of the world those characters live in.

[ao3feed-spirk]

When You Gonna Make Up Your Mind? (When You Gonna Love You As Much As I Do?)

read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/52198147 by EdwardAllenPoe (Set after the events of my fic Project TRT. Can be read as standalone but recommended to read previous story first.) Newly bonded James T. Kirk and his t'hy'la Spock go to Jim's childhood home in Riverside Iowa during shore leave for the holidays, and Spock gets a little excited about seeing snow for the first time. They have a snowball fight and reminisce on their pasts and plan their future. Featuring: Annoying father-figure Pike, singing Jim (who is obsessed with his husband), mischievous Spock, and Tori Amos Words: 4255, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: James T. Kirk, Spock (Star Trek), Christopher Pike Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock, James T. Kirk & Spock, James T. Kirk & Christopher Pike Additional Tags: Christmas Fluff, Winter, Snowball Fight, Established Relationship, T'hy'la (Star Trek), Married Life, Telepathy, Spock Loves James T. Kirk, James T. Kirk Loves Spock, Shore Leave, Light Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Domestic Fluff, James T. Kirk Has ADHD, Autistic Spock (Star Trek), Not explicitly stated but it's implied if you squint, Also cuz I said so, Jewish James T. Kirk, Jewish Spock (Star Trek), Tarsus IV (mentioned), Childhood Trauma, That's also not explicit, But Vulcan kids are assholes, And Frank is an asshole, Wedding Planning, I swear it's not as angsty as it sounds, It's literally just Kirk being a simp, No beta we die like redshirts, and I mean that, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Including Pike, Bc he had to live to give Kirk shit and I stan that read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/52198147

[quarktrinity]

quark watches star trek season 1 episode 7

ok were looking for this lady christines ex.

hes definitely dead

"dr korby"

what kind of bras do they have these ladies wearing

oh hes alive! neat!!

this episode is called "what are little girls made of?" bad omen i think

"can you beam down by yourself captain kirk?" hes going to kill you

this set looks like a zoo exhibit

"beam down two security men" theyre going to die

kirk stop grabbing her shes engaged

dramatic lights!!!

random other guy!

alien!!!

"bottomless pit" shut up

ok so this is where the redshirt thing came from

"dr korby was detained" what

why do you call dr brown "brownie"

dr brown is so evil

so were just skimming over the fact that a guy just fucking died

ohhhh nooooo not the other red shiiirrrrt

this is the most 60s secret lab ive ever seen

woah other woman. christine is obviously jealous

oh hey dr korby

WOW that is the most lustful kiss ive ever seen on television

woooaaahhhh these people are eeeviiiiil who couldve seen this comiiiiing

ok dr brown is a robot apparently

oh shit the alien guy can mimic kirks voice. the actors pretty good at lip syncing too

the aliens not allowed to disobey christines orders. hi chekhov is that ur gun on the table there?

"ruk destroyed them both totally against my wishes, i assure you" sure dude

"the old ones" shut up

this fight choreography is extremely homoerotic

does this show ever pass the bechdel test like ever?

andreas overalls are so stupid

ok so andreas a robot. korby showed this by having her kiss kirk. thats not consensual! go away!!!

theyre turning kirk into a robot??? they had to strip his clothes to do that???

theyre spinning him around. stop spinning him. please

apparently this guys fiancee used to be his student? thats icky

STOP SPINNING HIM

this show is so determined to sexualize kirk at every given opportunity. normally im fine with this but only when he has agency about it

theyre having gummies for dinner

andrea: "i am now programmed to please you, also. is the food appealing?" christine: "yes, thank you" star trek has now passed the bechdel test

this episode seems to have a theme about following orders

oh this episode is also about transhumanism

this episode is strongly criticizing transhumanism

kirk rolls a nat 20 on sleight of hand

hey kirk remember when ruk agreed to follow christines orders. how about you tell her that

oh she knows??? why didnt she take advantage of that before

i love when this show decides to enter the horror genre for a while. its great

weirdly phallic image of kirk holding a dick-shaped stalactite

cameras waaaayyyy too close for this fight choreo. cant tell whats going on

oh ruk is helping him!! yay!

uh oh robot kirk is on the ship

robot kirk commits a hatecrime against spock

"i felt quite at home on the enterprise" what do you mean "felt"

real kirk stop making out with the robot girl. what are you doing

stop trying to seduce the robot girl shes not into you leave her alone

this episode is also about the singularity

jesus christ korby just fuckin killed ruk

korbys a robot too :O literally didnt see that coming

robo korby is having such an existential crisis rn

andreas in love with korby apparently. ok

andrea and korby are dead now

spock: "dont call me slurs" kirk: "ok" (paraphrased) so does spock not know what happened. like at all