#sarek; i married her because i loved her.

[prettythinginthehouse]

some more practice <3

[cdr2002]

Deep Space Nine forced the mirror universe to evolve as a concept and explore the idea of inverting the characters on a more individualistic level and opening deeper questions of who each of us could have been if our lives turned out differently and I’m tired of that being abandoned and ignored to cling to the familiarity of the Terran Empire.

[reginaldqueribundus]

the Sarek family is hilarious to me because you have so much drama in one place. there have got to be at least 3 like, holo-documentaries or whatever about them. how could you not?

you have Sarek, the patriarch: one of the UFP's top diplomats, who knocks up a Vulcan princess then goes “hrm I am ambassador to Earth therefore I should marry a human” and he does, upsetting all sorts of the worst kinds of people on his home planet and causing racist hate groups to try to blow him and his family up multiple times, and seems honestly more put out by his son joining Starfleet than his other son becoming Vulcan Moriarty

Amanda, the matriarch: an accomplished educator and quite possibly the only well-adjusted member of the family, but when her son Spock shows up on her doorstep after growing a beard, having a mental breakdown and apparently murdering several medical staff she still shrugs and hides him in the family mausoleum

Sybok: Amanda's stepson from the aforementioned princess fling, who becomes an antiestablishment criminal mastermind with an edgelord fake name, hooks up with a hot space pirate, finds religion, starts a cult, takes an entire colonial government hostage sparking a diplomatic incident involving three galactic superpowers, and hijacks a Starfleet ship to the galactic core to find the Vulcan Garden of Eden, where he dies fighting god in hand-to-hand combat

Michael, a traumatized human girl Sarek brings home from a work trip, who joins Starfleet, becomes their first-ever mutineer, goes to prison, saves the Federation from a war most people think is her fault and gets “killed” in a highly classified, very suspicious incident involving an experimental starship and a series of red lights that appeared across the galaxy like a divine omen (oh, and returns 900 years later to solve the dilithium crisis, kill the head of the Emerald Chain and save two entire star systems including her siblings' homeworld)

and last but not least Sarek & Amanda's one-of-a-kind hybrid baby. Spock, who gets accepted into the Vulcan Science Academy, tells them to go fuck themselves when they're racist about it, runs off to Starfleet instead, gets so famous his arranged marriage falls apart resulting in him publicly strangling his own captain to death except not really, steals the Federation flagship twice, invents time travel, saves the entire planet Earth, dies and comes back to life, goes into his dad's line of work and achieves peace with the freaking Klingons as his opening act, then after a long successful career suddenly dips to go do extremely dangerous underground activism on one of the most paranoid authoritarian worlds in the galaxy to unify the Romulans & Vulcans who've hated each other for over a thousand years — and he isn't around to see it but it eventually works. then he fucks off with the VSA's high-speed prototype ship full of the most dangerous substance known to science and gets sucked into a black hole of his own creation, never to be seen again. and this is just the stuff that's public knowledge!

then you dig into the novels where Sarek's ancestor basically makes out with Zefram Cochrane 5 seconds after meeting him and Amanda tells the press her husband has a huge cock

I love them

[aspiringnexu]

Humans are Vulcan catnip, I swear to Q.

Spock and Kirk: No need to explain. In any universe they are drawn together and Spock abandons any sense of rationality if his Captain is hurt or just looks at him sweetly.

Sarek and Amanda: Admitted he married Amanda for love, not logic. Then made Spock.

Solkar and Zefram: Ten seconds off the spaceship and Solkar decides to do the diplomatic thing and make out with this human.

Surak and Archer: Archer was given Surak's katra without his knowledge and when T'Pau attempted to extract him Surak clung to the mental doorframe because he was safer here and he liked it better here, despite the logic of being housed in a nice logical Vulcan mind instead.

Solok and Sisko: Solok abandoned all pretense of logic when he won a wrestling match with a young Sisko and became so obsessed with him that he taught an entire Vulcan Starfleet crew how to play baseball just so he could beat Sisko again.

T'Pol and Trip: T'Pol became so attached to the Enterprise crew that she gave up her military career with Vulcan to continue to serve as First Officer, and to keep close with her boyfriend.

Tuvok and Janeway: Tuvok is fiercely loyal to Janeway, to the point that he will go along with her illogical plans just because he has such great faith in her.

Soval and Forrest: Soval respected Forrest but when Forrest died saving Soval it uprooted what loyalty he had left to the Vulcan High Command (who he then realised was corrupt) and he went rogue trying to save Vulcan from itself. (Really watch for the nose flare when he talks to Archer next to Forrest's casket, that Vulcan is pissed.)

[eco-lite]

Finally making more progress on the pile of ST books I own but have yet to read. Here’s some good stuff from The Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah.

[Image ID: The cover of the book The Vulcan Academy Murders. The background has lots of dark purple tones. In the foreground, Spock stands with a phaser pointed at a Vulcan creature with green skin, a cat-like face, a fin down its back, sharp claws, and a long tail. The creature is hissing down at Spock from a rock. End ID]

First of all, what is going on with this cover? Nothing like this happens in the book.

[Text ID: “Kirk recalled that all male Vulcans were married—had to be—and glanced at Spock. His First Officer, however, was very busy inspecting the almost un-touched wine in his glass.” End ID]

Interesting interesting. 👀

[Text ID: “Kirk had been given Spock’s room (underlined red by me) and McCoy the guest room in Sarek’s house—a house far from anything Kirk would ever have imagined as the home Spock had grown up in. He had envisioned either a sterile, unadorned ‘environment,’ or a castlelike ancestral residence. Instead, the house on the outskirts of ShiKahr was a simple single-family dwelling.” End ID]

This book is way too casual about Kirk sleeping in Spock’s childhood bedroom. Also, there’s no mention of where Spock is sleeping while they’re there???

[Text ID: “He remembered forcing Spock to control his emotions when he was five, and his schoolfellows taunted him for being ‘different.’ Under his father’s tutelage, Spock had refused to cry when the others shut him out of their games, calling him ‘Earther’ and ‘half-breed.’ Amanda had hidden her tears from their son, and Sarek had hidden his anger. Or had he? Perhaps I directed it at my son instead, he realized. He had intended to prepare Spock for whatever lack of acceptance he would face in life. And the message Spock received was that his own father did not accept him as he was, had to mold him into something he deemed acceptable.” End ID]

We love reflecting on our past mistakes. 👏🏼 We love character growth. 👏🏼

[Text ID: “’A computer cannot lie,’ said Spock. ‘Nevertheless, this one is giving false information.’ ‘Why don’t you try playing chess with it?’ came a voice from the doorway. Sarek turned to find Leonard McCoy, bouncing on his toes and grinning.” End ID]

I love them. I can picture this so perfectly.

[Text ID: “’What dost thou know of Surak?’ she asked finally—but her voice spoke more of perplexity than challenge. ‘What everyone knows: he was the founder of Vulcan philosophy. I know he is a personal hero to my friend Spock, the way Abraham Lincoln, from human history, is to me.’” End ID]

Kirk will bring up Abe Lincoln whenever he has a chance. That’s canon now.

[Text ID: “’You are not only anything, Spock. You are more, not less, because of your dual heritage. It is fruitless to wish now that I had made that clearer to you when you were a child.’ ‘You wanted me to be Vulcan.’ ‘That is true,’ Sarek agreed. ‘And you are Vulcan, representative of IDIC in its fullest sense.’ Spock studied his father. ‘You never put it to me that way. The last time you and I spoke as father and son, before I went to Starfleet Academy, you reminded me of how important it was that I think of myself as Vulcan. Do you remember your words, father?’ Sarek remembered. ‘I am Vulcan by birth. Your mother is Vulcan by choice. You are Vulcan by both birth and choice.’ ‘And then I disappointed you by making a different choice.’ Sarek searched his memory, trying to recover the logical reason for what now seemed completely irrational. Finally, he said simply, ‘I was wrong.’” End ID]

Yes! Let’s talk about our feelings! Let’s resolve those daddy issues!

[Text ID: “He went back to his room—Spock’s room, really. Kirk had brought with him a sturdy suit and boots, for Spock had suggested they might go camping in the mountains after the summer heat abated. (Last sentence underlined in red by me.) He put on the boots and the trousers to the suit, but decided the heavy shirt would be far too hot—" End ID]

Spock wanted to take them camping. 🥹

[Text ID: “‘He will recover, though?’ asked Spock. ‘Yeah—you can see him later, Spock,’ said the doctor. ‘He’s gonna be in considerable pain—you’re probably the only person he’ll be able to stand. Your son would’ve made a good doctor,’ he added to Sarek. ‘I don’t know how he does it, but he’s really good with people in pain.’ Spock’s eyebrows shot up at the unexpected compliment from the man Sarek usually saw him trade barbs with. Then Leonard left them to go back to his patient, and Spock turned to Sarek. ‘May I ask you something, Father?’ ‘What is it, Spock?’ ‘When Mother became conscious, you called her…?’ ‘Beloved.’” End ID]

Spock being very concerned about Kirk’s injuries. Bones saying Spock is the only person Kirk would tolerate while in pain. Spock asking his father about expressing love for an outworlder. It’s a lot.

[s0domizer]

do you think Spock ever met Amanda’s side of the family?

How do you think they reacted?

What do they think of Sarek? (My thoughts) I think we have skewed perspective on how humans react to aliens, because we basically just see Starfleet officers. I think some humans could be resentful of how much other worlds have “influence” earth. Like the ufp is only like 100 years old? Especially Vulcan who have touch telepathy and never tell anyone anything EVER. They just cool with that? *press x to doubt*

Also, how are you? :D

first of all, THANK U. babies first ask im so happpyyy!!! something really pos just happened in my life so im good!! my year has been very 📉📉 so im glad its finally going 📈 thank u! how are u!!<3

THE QUESTION IS SO INTERESTING BECAUSE IVE ACTUALLY BEEN THINKING ABT THAT A LOT!!

i dont think amandas family took too kindly to her marriage. like you said, the federation is very young and to the average human, aliens and space still are not as normal as they are to our main little space guys!

i think personally, that amandas family probably wanted the best for her, and wanted to see her happy and so they let her go, even if not completely happy with that. the idea of her marrying a man that is so fundamentally different to them (species) probably freaked them out. sarek being an ambassador eased their minds a little bit tho, he might not be human but at least he respects human traditions and customs.

i want to believe that amanda insisted on a traditional human wedding on earth. maybe to see her family for one last time, before she and sarek move to vulcan. yes they may come back to earth, but who knows how often. the wedding was beautiful but also very tense. amandas parents probably telling her that she could stay on earth, that she didnt have to leave them and that love might not last forever, esp with a vulcan (im convinced many humans have negative prejudices against vulcans)

when spock is a little kid, maybe 2 or 3 they probably go back to earth. maybe its even because of sareks ambassador duties. spock is a very polite kid, and for both human and vulcan standards incredibly behaved, but his extended family is weirded out when they first see him. his grandparents were expecting to see a more human kid... spock didnt bounce around the house nor talk anyones ear off. he just sat, spoke when spoken too and fidgeting with a little stuffed toy.

nobody says it but its clear that spock is different, and the rest of the family isnt used to that.

im sorry if this got a little long, i hope my answer was satisfactory :] have a little spock introducing himself as a treat (he was informed that humans would be weirded out if used the 🖖 to greet them)

[trekkingthroughthestargate]

"Emotions are alien to me. I'm a scientist"

I LOVE Nimoy's line reading here. He can't quite look her in the eye when he says it, and it feels almost as if he's trying to convince himself of the truth of what he is saying.

And it makes me think that possibly, whatever his relationship with Leila was six years ago, it had something to do with his complicated relationship with his parents and with his heritage. Because he's been on the Enterprise for at least 12 or 13 years at this point, and it's possible that his visit to Earth six years ago was his first time being there for an extended amount of time since having a falling out with his family.

So maybe a part of him wondered what about this planet was so special to his father that he would choose to marry someone from there, instead of someone from his own home. Did he wonder if maybe he could be more Vulcan - like his father - if he followed in his footsteps? Is that what his relationship with Leila, whatever it was, was about for him?

Because it was clearly an intense enough relationship that Leila is still harboring feelings six years later, but even she doesn't know what his feelings for her might have been. Did he unintentionally, by human standards, lead her on, simply in an attempt to understand why someone as deeply Vulcan as Sarek would do something as extraordinary as marry a human? Did he wonder if it was love that motivated Sarek to marry Amanda, or if it was logic? Is that why (later in the episode) he looks at Leila and says in a tone of wonder "I can love you!" - not because he ever doubted his ability to love, but because it answered the question of what might have motivated the crucial decision that resulted in his very existence. An instance of "I can love you. I can be motivated by love. I can be drawn to love. And I can be happy in love. Which means that perhaps I was made from love"

[gun-chucks]

highlights of the star trek comic from 1994 i got at an antique store

very cool cover i want it on a tshirt

TWO COMICS!! i didnt realize it was a special edition

the second comic had a really good colorist/separator- the only criticism i have is that they made sulu a bit too yellow on one of the pages but otherwise pretty solid

theres a nine inch nails the downward spiral ad on the inner front cover. it is the FIRST thing you see.

BLAISE OF GLORY - 1994

immediately following that ad is a comic where kirk fucks and its implied hes got a micropenis

bones implying kirk is married to the enterprise after kirk goes on a hopeless romanic rant

SAAVIK IS HERE

uhura tells rj blaise [kirks love intrests] to look at her hips and blaise goes "im dazzled beyond my ability to speak"

blaise is nonstop is calling kirk out on his mysogyny, his ego, etc, basically calling him a pompous ass: "What do you think you're proving here, huh? That you know better than me? That you're going to rescue the brainless woman from her own problems? Is that it? That is so typical of you!"

also that hes a bad fuck

the problem is resolved because the antagonist is completely fed up with kirk and blaise's bitching and moaning

rj stands for RASPBERRY JAM. HER NAME IS RASPBERRY JAM BLAISE.

some frames i liked

overall 3.3/5, its silly and makes fun of kirk relentlessly

THE NEEDS OF THE ONE - 1994

KOHLINAR SPOCK..... i love his emo haircut

takes place on vulcan pre whales in 4. so naturally its gonna be good.

sulu is also slaying in his suit from 3/4

kirk telling his personal log he understands why sarek doesnt want spock to leave vulcan again by saying "i understood that hollow feeling too well"

mister spock is climbing a mountain why is he climbing a mountain

I-CHAYA MENTIONED

bc of the former spock has another naked time moment where he says "This.... emotion is unworthy! I must be in control."

amanda talks abt how spock had a reckless streak as a kid and they thought he fucking DIED because of how long hed been GONE.

kirk sees a scrap of fabric from spocks robe and says "...my heart fell"

AMOK TIME MENTIONED. SPOCK RELIVES THE EVENTS OF AMOK TIME AND ALMOST KILLS KIRK AGAIN. like he fully starts choking kirk while reliving the memory

bones and scotty getting drunk off klingon jet fuel. im not kidding.

spock saying "There appears to be a moment of great trauma in my life after which my memories are... unreliable." like yeah me too LMAO

bones starts telling amanda abt spocks brain. leonard mccoy tells spocks MOTHER his BRAIN was TAKEN BY ALIENS for a brief period. shes gonna think abt that for weeks

frames i liked [yes ik the last one is a whole page ITS A GOOD PAGE]

overall 4.4/5. u know i love spock and having added context to the voyage home is fun

thank u for listening to my rambles ok goodnight

[thegeminisage]

sigh. tng update time. tuesday we did "sarek" and last night i sadly watched "menage a troi" on my own.

sarek: the fact that they mentioned his "son's wedding" once near the beginning and never clarified distracted me for the entire episode until i could google it. and google gave me no answers except to say that he married saavik in some semi-canonical novel. i hate that because saavik was his student (i guess aos had him right after all...) and also because of whatever horrible and weird thing they had going on in search for spock. WHICH BY THE WAY BROKE PREVIOUSLY ESTABLISHED CANON don't get me started

anyway, aside from that, this episode fucking ruled

i love the concept of vulcan dementia just being vulcan emotionalism. i wonder if it's genetic. i wonder if spock would've gotten it had he lived longer. i kind of wish spock had been the one following sarek around containing his emotions even though i wouldn't wish that fate on him cuz then i would've gotten to see him :(

less thrilled about the new wife. they could have had someone else play amanda if her real actress wasn't available (and she wasn't dead, i checked). if people live for like 150 years in the future there simply wasn't long enough for her to die and for sarek to have gotten remarried, especially if vulcans bond for life (which i guess was implied in some interpretations of amok time but not canonized).

actually, if sarek had once been bonded to someone as spock was to t'pring, how did HE wind up with a human wife...did he get remarried so quickly because of pon farr or does that wind down as vulcans get older...so many questions which will never be answered

anyway, i loved the sudden bursts of anger, it was so fun. uh except for beverly hitting her kid but it wasnt Her so we can move past it. especially thrilled with riker and picard almost getting into it

SAREK CRYING? ok king. i wish we had gotten to see spock cry and not in that deleted tmp scene

i loved picard's nerdery of him also. that makes the mind meld very fun. the rituals are literally intricate. also, "we shall always have the best parts of each other inside of us" i HOPE THATS TRUE FOR SPOCK AND KIRK AND BONES. i read an excerpt from a novel. well. i don't want to talk about it

anyway, picard calling out to spock and amanda...maybe i did well up a little at the mention of spock's name. who can say!!!!!

menage a troi: SSSSSSSSSSSIGH

ok, so i grabbed this one by myself because the summary looked bad and we're trying to finish s3 before chr*stmas fucks up all our social plans. no matter how bad the summary was, the actual episode was WORSE

i have three good things to say about this episode actually. the first was that i like that deanna yelled at her mom again, although this time i know better than to expect it to stick. the second was that i LOOOOVED deanna and riker's little date outfits. extremely charming. and finally i loved when lwaxana handed riker that horrible looking vegetable and he ate it with only mild reluctance. king is literally down to clown.

the rest of this ep was garbage. i know we didn't actually see any sex happen but i feel like they implied pretty heavily that the ferengi fucked her, possibly even multiple times. and like it's funny! ha ha ha look at the crazy situations this eccentric lady gets into! ha ha ha look at her and deanna having to run around naked!

somehow, this was the worst lwaxana episode yet. idk why i actually expected them to do a little better in s3. like, if i was gene roddenberry and they did this to my WIFE on MY SHOW. but you can put even odds on it being his idea or him getting off to it. his horrible little fetish fuel.

cherry on top was lwaxana's self-sacrifice at the end where she stays behind to let deanna escape sex slavery or whatever. which one felt like a classic narcissist parent thing and two wasn't even real - it was an excuse for picard to do badly-acted poetry on the bridge to pretend to be her jealous lover to get them to let her go. and then after all that she goes right back to sexually harassing HIM. because it's funny! ha ha ha!

anyway, it's a shame they had wes's little arc as the b plot of this episode because it was fine and feels important continuity wise, and yet every list on earth will rightfully suggest this episode get skipped because it fucking sucks.

tonight, the last two episodes of season 3 - "transfigurations" and "best of both worlds part i." i already know picard gets BORGED in the finale because i've known that since i was a baby and i am WAITING!!! they fucjing blue balled me in the first borg ep and i am MORE than ready for some brainwashed cyborg action. palette cleanser after lwaxana troi episodes.

[prettythinginthehouse]

indi. private select. ambassador sarek for star trek & sci-fi verses.

sarek; i married her because i love her.

[lenievi]

one thing about Spock and Sarek’s relationship I find interesting is that Sarek actually does show that he cares about Spock, but Spock doesn’t understand that’s what he means because Sarek uses words that can be misunderstood. And that’s why I find their relationship fascinating^^

Just because a Vulcan says something was “logical” doesn’t mean it was done without feelings. No, it was done because at that time it was the most logical course of action. He loved her, so it was only logical to marry her. Spock is a Starfleet officer, so it’s only logical to accept that and want the best for him. It was logical for Spock to save me because he was the only one who could (he had the means) so thanks are unnecessary and illogical. 

Logic informed me that under the circumstances, the only possible action would have to be one of desperation. Logical decision, logically arrived at. KIRK: I see. You mean you reasoned that it was time for an emotional outburst. SPOCK: Well, I wouldn't put it in exactly those terms, Captain, but those are essentially the facts.

(that Kirk makes fun of him because of that is him misunderstanding what “logic and logical” means to Vulcans, but also because he just likes teasing Spock whenever Spock shows any kind of “emotional outburst” Kirk considers inherently human but I guess he just does it better than McCoy for fans not to get angry at him idk)

There are moments in the series where Spock hides behind the word logic because he knows humans misunderstand (and he himself does too), and he occasionally plays it up too much.

However, Doctor, you must remember I am entirely motivated by logic.

also

Your request is not logical. SAREK: Forgive me, T'Lar. My logic is uncertain where my son is concerned.

It is not logical to want to bring my son back from the death, b-but he is my son and I love him.🥺

[helianthusaster]

I have the TOS brainrot ♡

Have a headcanon!

Semi-spoilers for S2 Ep10: Journey to Babel

So, basically, Scotty and Spock are cousins because they're my favorite blorbos and it works ok!!!

Spock & Scotty's grandparents, Muriel and Patrick Scott, divorced when their mothers, Amanda and Anna Scott were 10 years old. Amanda Scott, later Grayson--her mother's surname, moved to New England (take your pick, I personally get DC vibes) to work for Starfleet while Anna Scott stayed in Aberdeen with their father.

Amanda, after kicking Sarek's ass for "insulting her intelligence" and subsequently marrying him (cause that's totally how that went), moved to Vulcan and had Spock; who canonically left Vulcan at 18 to attend Starfleet Academy.

During the summer, at her request, Spock stayed with his Aunt Anna, in the hopes of connecting with the nephew she didn't know she had until literally 2 hours prior because communications between Vulcan and Earth take Far Longer Than They Should and also Amanda and Anna kinda lost contact 3 years after "The Separation". Through this random arrangement, Anna was able to connect with her nephew, who got both incredibly homesick and lonely during his time on Earth, by teaching him how to play Earth games like Chess and Stramash. He, in turn, opened up a bit and was able to teach Anna a few Vulcan phrases like "hello" and "goodnight", because--contrary to popular belief--Spock was far more antisocial and silent in his early days at the Academy than he ever was on the Enterprise because his Aunt Anna (he called her "Aun'tanna", and she called him "Squawk" in return cause we love a Canonically dyslexic family ♡; Anna having visual and Spock having deep and visual) and her son, Montgomery (or "Won'ry" as Spock called him), worked really hard to undo all of the literal child abuse he had been faced with.

Sarek did his best with what he thought was right for a Vulcan child but did not take into account that Spock is not only dyslexic (canonically) but also autistic (fanonically) and did not know how to accommodate him because it was an Undocumented Phenomenon (The term "Autism Spectrum Disorder" was created in 1988 but was not made a formal diagnosis until 2013; which could not have happened in Star Trek: TOS because it is preceeded by The Eugenics Wars from 1992-1996) in Both Humans and Vulcans, so she defaulted to "spare the rod, spoil the child." (If you don't believe me go rewatch Journey to Babel and tell me that's the first time she's done that to him based purely on his reaction. You know the scene.)

Also, Scotty didn't realize they were cousins until month 3 of their 5 year mission on the Enterprise when Anna brought a photo album with her shortly after they docked for shore leave and showed them pictures of her and her sister as kids. He thought that Spock was just a random Vulcan exchange student living in their house for like 4 years that his mom kinda "adopted".

Spock has drunk Scotty under the table (the equivalent of a full keg of Scotch) before immediately passing out after a single Scottish Jersey (Scotch Hot Chocolate).

And thus, this image was born!

Operation: Give Spock As Many Friends As Possible (also Operation: Everyone On The Enterprise is Neurodivergent) is in full swing! :D

I hereby dub this hc "S'Cousins"!

[uss-exile-ncc-440548]

Before I go any further I ask for the logic and courtesy of being heard in entirety.

I want to say something about Sarek, first what I have observed through my own Trek experience, and then through a personal lens. I haven't ever shared this outside of my family, I share a lot but I tend not to share personal things, however, I think it's important because people love to rip Sarek out of context and for me, this is one of the many things that made Star Trek so important growing up, it was not just a way for my large and ridiculously extended family to connect, it was more than that. I am not saying he is a good father, I am not saying Spock should forgive him, I'm not an apologist and the second part is up to Spock, who does not exist, but I am saying that sometimes life sucks and the situation is bad to begin with. The rest is under the cut.

Observed: Sarek, for a Vulcan, is a bit outrageous. We see fans who complain about the "Wife, attend" line without considering that he is literally asking if he can kiss her. In public. It is against Vulcan customs to kiss or touch in public. He proclaims her as his wife about every three seconds and spends most of his time gushing over her as much as a Vulcan can be accused of gushing. He adores the very ground she walks on. With Spock, Sarek is proud, ya'll take the lines way too literally without considering that yes, a Vulcan is going to deny any emotion they are feeling. It isn't proper to do otherwise. Yes, he was distant with Spock, yes, he forced him to behave as other Vulcans, but there are numerous reasons for it. Sarek was already on very thin ice for marrying a human woman, the reason he gave to the rest of his species? It was logical to further relations between Vulcans and humans. Sarek didn't know if he would be able to have kids with her, so far no child of the two races had survived infancy. He didn't have an agenda because he was entirely smitten and it sounded like a good excuse at the time. Through much difficulty and a lot of intervention, Spock was born, and yes, Sarek comments Spock seems so human, but if you add the context of how much he loves Amanda, the fact he is a S'chn T'gai human lover, Sarek isn't angry... He's terrified. How is a child that behaves like a human going to survive on Vulcan? What is going to become of Spock? His eldest son Sybok, would come to face exile and an even worse fate. It is common practice for Vulcans to send those who show emotion for conditioning, and if that doesn't work, they are no longer considered Vulcan. Vulcans are so stuck on appearances that they will wreck entire families for it. Sarek knows this painfully well, and he is willing to give up his relationship with Spock to make sure his son has a place in society. He did not do it well, but he did what he knew. If you add in "Sarek" by A. C. Crispin, narrated by Mark Lenard himself in one version, you get to see a lot of this playing out, including a temporary fallout between Amanda and Sarek as Sarek, not wanting anything to happen to Spock, threatens to exile Spock himself, worried that Starfleet will get his son killed. To be fair, they do, to which we know Sarek immediately starts hunting for Spock's katra in desperation, something that most all of Vulcan believes is a myth. It isn't logical, but as Sarek says, logic fails him when it comes to his son. Sarek does whatever he can, bends whatever social moray he can, he argues for the crew's pardon, he pushes and pulls between two governments by the skin of his teeth, and when Sarek is dying, he does not expect Spock's forgiveness, instead he asks Picard to simply show Spock that Sarek loved him. No pressure on Spock. This is a man who quite plainly put would rather die than his family. None of this is fanwork, it's all right there.

Personal viewpoint: So let me say a little about situations like these, and I ask you to be as patient here as you were above. I was diagnosed with aspergers and hypermobility at three, and spent three and a half years in physical therapy. It ran in my father's side of the family, skipping no generations, but some had a harder time than others. On my mother's side it was scattered, and missed her. She thought her youngest child was broken, but was not of the opinion long. I grew up thinking I just had this thing, I was a little weird, stuff was loud and bright, fine, fair enough, the mask would do. But then one night as a little girl Ruth Bader Ginsburg comes on TV and with a smile calls for the euthanization of people like me. On national television. On a commercial. Now I came from a family of Germans and Americans and my half siblings and their mother and their extended family are all Jewish, and I grew up knowing what the word meant. I didn't have to run and ask my parents the definition. I stood there staring at the TV in shock and for the first time I went from thinking I was a bit strange to genuinely being afraid of society. This had been allowed, encouraged even, and she would later become a supreme court judge. I showed the commercial to my mother the next time it was on and as I got older I heard stories and cases of kids being handed live bombs and fireworks, fed dirt and bleach, treated like animals no matter how much education they had, no matter how much they passed as "normal." It wasn't until I was an adult that I decided that I would carve out my own chunk of things. For a brief time, I shared Spock's disgruntlement, but I also understood. We are humans, and if we will hand children live bombs and feed them bleach and call for death, then you're damn right Sarek was afraid. It is too easy to forget as we grow into a world that cries for more and more diversity acceptance that these things were the norm not so long ago, not even decades ago, and that they continue to happen every day, in some societies more than others. Many parents do what they can, whatever they can think of. There is no manual for this, not human nor Vulcan, and Gene knew that very well.

(If you make a Dr. Spock joke on this post I will eject you from it mercilessly. 😉)

[noblehcart]

sometimes i just think about how difficult it was for amanda marrying a vulca.n- like that's impossibly hard as it is being someone in an entirely new culture, but to be the AMBASSADOR'S WIFE that's an entirely other thing.

a regular person could probably get away with not knowing things, but NOT the ambassador's wife. she has to be equally as intelligent and well versed in HER world and HIS while also navigating diplomatic situations. not to mention the DANGER because in general being tied to an ambassador is just dangerous for obvious reasons but DOUBLELY so for her on Vul.can with a half human/vul.can child with the riots because the union. idk if she knew the weight or entirety of what she was undergoing when she met/married sar.ek because i don't think most people would think of that. she just wants to marry the person she fell in love with and share a life and a child with him and that is all that should matter in the end.

-but it explodes into this. revulsion from vul.can society, dangers of being an ambassador's wife and a source of hate because of their child that they wanted so much. its fucking heartbreaking, but she PUSHES on to be the best that she can be and to give no room to people against them because that is their weakness for not seeing the beauty in it. she absorbs and adapts to the culture and becomes as vul.can as she can humanly manage while still retaining her warmth and compassion despite all attempts to destroy her spirit and confidence.

and i'mma be honest....Sarek's success as an ambassador is probably entirely thanks to Amanda.

I SAID WHAT I SAID- I call it the Jack & Jackie Effect. A maJORITY of JFK's success as a US president was thanks to the charm and sway of Jackie, who was beloved wherever she went. He knew damn well that he wouldn't succeed without Jackie at his side and I'd bet my firstborn it was something similar with Sarek and Amanda. Amanda with the endless compassion, charm, intelligence, grace and humor. Her natural ability to make people feel safe and welcomed and wanted- look at Pelia in SN/W who said that she first came out to Amanda of all people about who/what she really was. Sar.ek's success is thanks to Amanda folks is all I'm saying and Vul.can is damn lucky to have her.

[reginaldqueribundus]

that awkward moment when you're such a shite dad it has truly galactic-scale consequences

on a more serious note, Sarek strikes me as a man who did not consider for one nanosecond the ramifications of marrying Amanda. he jokes about it being “logical” and in one timeline even admits he loves her, but like, the dude spends all his time harping on about their half-human son not being Vulcan enough, then he adopts a human child and when she does turn out to be Vulcan enough he lets her think she isn't, because he so desperately craves the approval of his Vulcan peers despite their open hatred of him and his family. maybe he's just overcorrecting because his first kid became a Batman villain but c'mon. Sarek started a blended family and spent the next 40 years regretting it, and as a result Michael had an inferiority complex the size of a quasar and Spock grew up ashamed of himself for loving his mommy & had to literally die just for Sarek to have a normal conversation with him. we don't have any primary canon of Sybok's relationship with his father but it couldn't have been good, given that Sybok ended up in conversion therapy camp and then became a cult leader. I know Star Trek has worse dads (most of them Cardassian war criminals) but it's really saying something that all 3 of Sarek's kids flew off into the galactic core or 900+ years in the future or a whole other timeline, probably to get away from him

imagine being average federation citizen doing a wikipedia dive on Amanda Grayson for like a book report or whatever and you click on “spouse” and it links you to a guy who was thee vulcan ambassador to earth for like 200 years and publicly called the klingon ambassador a murderer once and you think huh neat and click on “children” and the first person listed is described as “career criminal, activist and religious evangelist” with a rap sheet as long as your arm ending with him taking the entire government hostage in nimbus iii and then no death date he's just listed as “missing” and the second kid is a starfleet science hero you've seen on the poster of like 7 different documentaries on space netflix and you notice his year of death is listed as 2285 but “years active” goes on like 20 years past that so you look closer and yep “death” is only the 7th item in a list of like 20 section headers also he's apparently the reason earth isn't completely underwater right now? then you read his sister's article and it's all “starfleet's first mutineer” “blamed for starting the first federation-klingon war” “lauded for ending the first federation-klingon war” but is weirdly vague on what happened to her after that and the article is edit locked and her year of death has like 6 annotations attached to it

[thegeminisage]

i don't know how i'm supposed to simply do a tng update when there was SPOCK but obviously last night (tonight as i type this, but it's late, so this post is going up while i'm at work) we watched unification part i & part ii

tng update:

🌈SPOCK🌈

okay, i'm normal again

part i: BITTERLY disappointed that all we got out of this episode spockwise was one blurry photo and him coming in right at the end. i had a feeling they'd do that. i guess now i have to talk about the nonimportant nonspock parts of this episode 🥱

ive decided i hate sarek's new wife. what business is it of hers if spock objects to sarek in public? if sarek didn't have a problem with it why make one? evil stepmother fr. why did sarek marry another human anyway does he have a fucking fetish or something...at least she was too old to get knocked up. i was reading about ages on the wiki today and amanda was only TWENTY YEARS OLD when she had spock. sarek would have been 65. i know vulcans age way different so it's not as creepy but STILL. girl, wait until you are old enough to drink

speaking of sarek...i went back and forth feeling terrible for him and wanting to attack him with my bare hands. under one hand he is on his deathbed and obviously very ill and miserable and suffering deep regrets over past mistakes and it's hard not to have sympathy...on the other, maybe if you wanted less deathbed regrets about your relationship with spock YOU SHOULD HAVE TREATED HIM BETTER! bitch.

also, whatever he and picard had going on was homoerotic. "we're part of each other" why do they talk about the mind meld that way in tng and not in tos. why did picard feel up sarek's hand on his deathbed the second his wife looked away. hes got a history of homewrecking since he (i know) had his affair baby wesley with beverly. so Whats Going On

picard forcefully obtaining the klingon ship. i LOVE when he gets to be a bitch

ROMULAN RACEFAKING??? a proud star trek tradition at this point i guess but it was truly awful to behold. DEEPLY disappointed sela did not later lick the paint off his ears as the klingons implied she would. smh

i like also how riker blew up that whole ship and nobody batted an eyelash. he really can just do whatever

part ii: SPOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the first time i cried was when spock himself came onscreen at the end of part i. then just as soon as i collected myself he mentioned jim kirk twice in the space of 30 seconds and i lost it again. we are literally bridging the gap between tos spock and spock prime from aos rn and i Dont like it.

Very Sad his dad kicked it before they could reconcile. but i saw his microexpressions when picard delivered the news. i missed them more than you can possibly imagine

i did love though that he started viewing picard as like a proxy sarek. imagine having daddy issues with a guy who is 75 years younger than you. lowkey they also had a little homoeroticism happening. "cowboy diplomacy" sure whatever

riker and the four-armed pianist 10/10 i hope they fucked. i'm so glad we wont he riker roulette and it wasn't creepy. also only riker could successfully flirt with a women after killing her husband in a spaceship battle <3

i'm a little iffy on spock's uhhh whole deal in this episode. he's lik yeah i chose the vulcan way of life these romulans are gonna have way better lives after their vulcan enlightenment but meanwhile he's criticizing sarek for his obsession with logic to the exclusion of all emotion (which is what he decided in tmp, that you need both) and also the vulcan way of life has done huge damage to his relationship with his father as well. so which is it?? idk, maybe he's not doing well because of sarek dying and all but he seemed like he was in a very "im not willing to acknowledge that i have emotions because rn theyre causing me pain" sort of mood. buddy :(

then again, it IS a tng script. we can only expect so much. it wasn't so inconsistent that it took me out of the episode but it did bother me a little because i just don't understand why he's willing to devote the rest of his life to this cause...he seemed to imply he had emotional reasons but what were they?? we will quite literally never know.

what's wack to me also is that in nineteen years romulus is gonna be GONE. like it's just going to be gone. eaten up by the sun or whatever. if someone had a baby right now on romulus that baby would not be old enough to drink before the sun swallowed them. so everything spock is doing is for nothing.

sela in this episode was really funny. "i hate vulcans." so true queen. i mean i don't care about her at all but that was hilarious

data doing the vulcan nerve pinch!!!!!!! that was so fun. i don't think it requires telepathy to do, just super strength, but i guess if you do then that makes no sense. it made me happy though.

the end when spock melded with picard to quasi-meld with his father and almost wept was me crying for the third time...i couldn't stand seeing him cry!!!!!! i can't believe sarek really just died without ever reconciling with him but i kind of like it better this way bc what sarek did was his own fault not spock's. so spock got closure and sarek. didn't. rip dude

okay. this concludes. the SPOCK UPDATE. tonight: a matter of time. and TOMORROW........the undiscovered country. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA