#sasha kaidanovsky

[muse-of-the-multiverse]

Muse Wishlist

I decided to create a wishlist of Canon Characters that I would love to write with for my muse, they will be categorised by fandom.

Disclaimer: This does not mean that I won't write with your Muse if they aren't any of the characters listed, you can refer to my pairings post for pairings I like.

Transformers Animated

Jazz

Omega Supreme

Jetfire

Jetstorm

Transformers Bayverse

Drift

Ironhide

Transformers Cybertron (Unicron Trilogy)

Leobreaker

Metroplex

Optimus Prime

Doctor Who

9th Doctor

10th Doctor

11th Doctor

14th Doctor

15th Doctor

Captain Jack Harkness

Little Shop Of Horrors

Audrey II

Orin Scrivello DDS

Pacific Rim

Sasha Kaidanovsky

Aleksis Kaidanovsky.

Van Helsing

Dracula

[jacensolodjo]

I know it’s been a while but I think a lot about both Pacific Rim and the Man From UNCLE or at least in the fact that both have characters of eastern slavic descent and how important it is that NOBODY just goes with the idea they are both actually just Russian.

I know. It’s fandom. It’s fictional stories. It’s WHATEVER. But we all know damn well that fictional shit reflects the current state of the world. And can also affect real world things. 

But people are too quick to decide a name ending in -enko,-sky, or -kin is Russian. Or indeed, that if someone was born somewhere that was considered Russian territory that it makes them 100% always Russian. It is WRONG to treat slavic and russian as interchangeable. They are NOT. 

And I want people to know that -enko is actually overwhelmingly most often Ukrainian. This is something that Lyudmila Pavlichenko actually brings up in her diaries. And part of it is that her commanding officer saw ‘enko’ at the end of her name and instantly started treating her lesser, as many often treated and continue to treat Ukrainians (*gestures vaguely at the news and all the violence leading up to the invasion*). It didn’t matter if Lyudmila considered herself Ukrainian or not. It mattered that everyone else did and treated her accordingly. 

A woman who took out 309 Nazis was consistently treated lesser not only for being a woman but for being Ukrainian. Or at least for the crime of having a name that people associated with as being Ukrainian. 

Which leads to Aleksis and Sasha Kaidanovsky. And Illya Kuryakin. Both are called Russian even in their respective media. But that does NOT mean they actually are. Exactly because of everyone’s tendency to consider slavic surname means Russian.

It’s a small thing, really, for someone like me to put his foot down and go ‘NO they are NOT’. But if people do it the other way around that’s fine??? Why is it more acceptable to see slavic surname and go ‘russian’ than it is for someone like me to see slavic and say ‘ukrainian’? 

The Kaidanovskys literally pilot a jaeger called CHERNO ALPHA and you want ME to think instantly and automatically they’re Russian? When if you break things down, it is in fact a jaeger named in memory of Chernobyl/Chornobyl, the first off the line to do so aka Alpha. Spelled Черный Альфа/Cherniy Alfa. And if we think that the pilots have a say in the name of their jaeger, it would make far more sense for a Ukr to name their jaeger Cherno Alpha than it would a Russian. What do they care about Chornobyl for when we know historically they didn’t? And to put the cherry on top, they are die hard fans of Ukrainian hardhouse. Ukrainian hardhouse is LIFE. If you don’t like it, you don’t like life. and yet, the culture of Russia is that anything Ukrainian is LESSER, that it is UNWORTHY of attention or affection. The Kaidanovskys are at an age where when they were born things were shaking up, Ukraine was just recently independent. All of this combined means it makes far more sense that one or both are Ukrainian instead of Russian. Because, again, a lot of non-Slavs (and many slavs anyway) will say Russian when they actually mean basically any other Slav that isn’t Russian. 

And so we go back in time, to before Chornobyl even happened and we were only a couple decades post WW2. Ukraine was still called ‘The Ukraine’ or ‘Ukrainian SSR’. And here you have a man, Illya Kuryakin, who lost his father to gulag and his mother to a bunch of bastards who used her and abused her and raped her. And here we don’t focus solely on his surname. His first name ‘Illya’ is spelled the way it is spelled in Ukrainian traditionally NOT Russian. It would have been ‘Ilya’ otherwise.  Sure, he says shit isn’t the Russian way but you know what a lot of Ukrainians suffer and continue to suffer from? Russification. Essentially a process that strips you of your heritage to instead just make you a Russian drone. You are forced to give up your mother tongue, you are told you will only celebrate Russian holidays and uphold only Russian tradition. Even if, indeed, they claim it is ‘Soviet’. In this case, Soviet is used interchangeable with Russian whether they want to admit it or not. Of course a man being told to follow his programming would chant the same shit over and over again. That isn’t him being a proud Russian. It is him being told he is Russian OR ELSE. Indoctrination involves key phrases repeated ad nauseum in order to reinforce said programming. They repeat it OR ELSE. They ARE this thing OR ELSE. 

Anyway no one can stop me from waving my hand over eastern slavic characters and declaring them Ukrainian over Russian. A character can be born in fucking Moscow and still not be Russian in any way except on their passport. Plenty of Ukrainians are born in Russia. 

All your slavic faves are Ukrainian and I DO make the rules. 

[3fluffies]

Hiii am reading your generation K series right now as my source of inspiration and am in the process of writing my own fanfic. But what are your characterization of the Kaidonovskys and can you share some your headcanons for them?thank you!

So sorry it took me a while to get back to you - been bogged down with work and moving across the USA from Florida to Washington! Let the rambling begin! Hope you enjoy and do let me know your thoughts or if you have specific topics you want to hear about. I love fleshing out my headcanons (as you'll see!)

I know extended canon has the Kaidanovskys as prison guards, and I only partially adopted it. (I'll call the wife Sasha and husband Alexis even though it's implied in canon and this series headcanons that they use the names interchangeably with each other.) Sasha has been a prison guard, but in reality, they're essentially diplomats/spies - but not the formal "James Bond" type. Rather, they get into more dirty work (literally, not figuratively - working class, grubby jobs to interact with people on the streets and lower classes) in various countries to gather information on public sentiments or stoke popular opinions.

Sasha is the more strategic, the one most likely to step into a formal setting when required and the "big picture" thinker, while Alexis is more small-scale and direct action focused. However, Alexis is no mental slouch and had learned more languages than her prior to becoming pilots. He speaks fluent Russian (of course), Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Chechen, Romani, Greek, English, Mandarin and Cantonese, and can adapt quickly to the regional dialects of each. Sasha speaks Russian, Polish, Slovak, German, and English. Both could communicate somewhat in all the Romance languages (Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and Romanian). As of the movie after 12 years of drifting, they can each speak the languages only the other spouse knew at first.

Sasha's maiden name is Rabinova. Her father is Russian Colonel Pavel Rabinov, who became commander of the Vladivostok Shatterdome. He worked in Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula prior to the Kaiju war and sympathized more with Ukraine in the border conflicts than with his home country. The troops under his command weren't well-supported, so he tended to go to the black market and skip the chain of command to provide for them, which is actually how he and Sasha met Alexis. (Sasha only joined the Russian military after the Kaiju War started due to her father's disenchantment with the Russian leadership.) Whether Russia still pushed its expansionist agenda and ultimately invaded Ukraine during the Kaiju War is up for debate...I'm leaning towards probably, knowing Putin who would have a Shatterdome but would also exploit the rest of the world's focus at the extraterrestrial invasion to his advantage. (If you haven't read Tales From the Front Lines Chapter 4, the Kaidanovskys have some appearances, and, spoiler alert...

They were the ones who pranked Putin at the wedding.

[vampirismology]

[ID: A video of several of the Pacific Rim characters doing the Caramelldansen dance to the corresponding song in front of various backgrounds from the first movie. In order of character appearance: Yancy Becket and Raleigh Becket, Stacker Pentecost and Mako Mori, Newton Geiszler and Hermann Gottlieb, Herc Hansen and Chuck Hansen, Sasha Kaidonovsky and Aleksis Kaidonovsky, the Wei Tang Brothers, Hannibal Chau and Newton Geiszler, Stacker Pentecost and Tendo Choi, and finally Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori. The video repeats a second time with the characters in the same order. End ID] pacific rim caramelldansen (Г・ω・)г

[burrito-toast]

P.O.V: Two of the coolest Jaegers + Their pilots drop. Only to be killed in the very next scene

It’s not you Pacific Rim, it’s me.

(but seriously why did they need to die so quickly-)

[thechaosgods]

Should I make polls? I should :]]

[yeet-wolf-in-the-stars]

My kaidanovskie's playlist is just a mix of 'im russian i hate my country I'm depressed' and 'oldish nostalgic shit'

[copperdaisy]

Still idly poking around at the idea of joining another Pern game. I'm still too shy to commit to anything yet. But, I have at least started the process of going through my list of potential basic character ideas. I don't necessarily want to reuse characters from my last game; some of them are so hyper specific to the last setting that they'd be next to impossible to adapt to another Pern game. But I could make others work. Even if I have to nix the mutations on the dragonkin I'd feel comfortable just keeping their personality the same.

Mostly talking about Leksasha and Otachith, here. Sure I'd miss the sheer monstrosity that Ota was in her last game in terms of size and other mutations, but she would be the same Ota at her core. A terror of a green that operates by her own set of morals that you really want on your side in a fight. Pretty sure she had a Lawful Evil alignment; her rider was Chaotic Neutral. I think. Need to doublecheck the old profile. (And yes, they were a pair loosely based on Sasha Kaidanovsky and Otachi from Pacific Rim.) Might just change her name to Otath since the full one is a bit of a mouthful, or pick a new name entirely... hm.

But I also have dragon and rider pairs that are literally just names. A list I saved from all of the hatching boards I did on Neopets back in the day. And candidate ideas that I never used on any site. Just need to expand on those ideas.

Just... need to get over my shyness and join a game. OTL

[reiverreturns]

10 characters | 10 fandoms | 10 tags

tagged by @kasseivor, ty love!

Eivor Varinsdottir (Assassin's Creed)

Sadie Adler (Red Dead Redemption 2)

Natasha "Phoenix" Trace (Top Gun Maverick)

Sasha & Alexis Kaidanovsky - they come as a pair don't @ me (Pacific Rim)

Andreas Maler (Pentiment)

Zagreus (Hades)

Sevika (Arcane)

Jacob Seed (Far Cry 5)

Cassian Andor (Andor/Rogue One)

Dorian Pavus (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

tagging without expectation or pressure (and sorry if you’ve been tagged before i cannot keep up): @forsty @depressedmacaron @properthieves @chocolatecheesecake @zforzelma and anyone else who wants to do it!!! my tagging keeps fuckin breaking!!! 

[cameron-phillips]

Sasha and Aleksis Kaidanovsky 

[jacensolodjo]

Oops I’m actually not done talking about husband and wife team Aleksis and Sasha Kaidanovsky that are totally Ukrainians or at least one of the pair.

Aleksis was born January 23rd, 1989. What else happened in 1989? Oh ya, the fall of communism in eastern europe. Note I don’t say defeat, I don’t say death. Just the fall. It lost its grip on the eastern bloc. The official fall of the Berlin Wall is actually considered November 9th 1989. Even if it took more than one day to take down all that concrete and junk. 

And I don’t agree with it, but Sasha was born February 9th, 1989. I really REALLY much preferred when she was YEARS older than Aleksis but whatever (I really don’t know the point. So she was a few years older why wasn’t that okay? It was only 6 years difference). Point now is that they were both born months before the Berlin Wall began to get yanked down. 

And then on top of that, they were born only a couple years before Ukraine’s official independence. They are babies when Ukraine is growing, when the tenacity of Ukraine is at an all time high since the Holodomor and subsequent war. This would EASILY affect the Ks to become the people they are now. If, of course, they are Ukrainian. They grow up hearing about all the bullshit their parents and grandparents went through, and so they now have the fate of the world resting on their shoulders. No, their Ukrainian shoulders. Ukrainians, seen as just being the dumb hick version of the slavic people. UKRAINIANS thus: holding the siberian wall for SIX YEARS. Longest neural handshake? EIGHTEEN HOURS, a universal record claimed by Ukrainians and beaten by NOBODY. 

Also I think this is only in the novelization but... that remark by Pentecost about how they can get you ANYTHING? Where would that sprout from? When Ukraine was considered “the Ukrainian SSR”. When their ancestors had to find a way to get needed food or there would have been NO aleksis/sasha. When, much more recently, a Ukrainian-Jewish man stood before all the world and said “i don’t need a ride, I need ammo’. Yes pacrim happened before that last one but do you see how easy it is to squeeze into Cherno Alpha lore? The Ks die fighting until the very last because that is what their Ukrainian blood screams to do. Because they were in their early 30s when Russia invaded Ukraine. Because freedom fighter could totally be on their resume. There’s no way a team like the Ks would stay out of the war. It is what they are BEST at and they will do it in defense of their home. 

ANYWAY the Ks being not only millennials but Ukrainian millennials puts them in a unique position. They have seen their world end once before. They’re not going to let it happen again. 

(also we bump into the whole ‘everything east of germany is Russian’ thing. Just because Cherno is considered a Russian jaeger doesn’t mean he is or at least not his pilots. Ukraine just happens to be so far west but I can see the Ks smelling an opportunity so they pack up to become jaeger pilots. A lot of it also hinges on whether we want to operate under the idea of the Russian invasion being a thing in the Pacific Rim timeline or not.)

[punkbxt]

some pacific rim art circa 2018

[rockthistowninsideout]

Even though it’s been eight years, Pacific Rim still lives rent free in my head.

But the majority of the fandom, myself included, knows that it’s not the perfect science fiction movie to dominate all science fiction movies.

So here are a few suggestions I have at the top of my head to make this glorious mess even better:

- GETTING RID OF THE G-SLUR IN THE NAME OF LADY DANGER, like c’mon Guillermo, it’s not that difficult

- Having a female K-scientist, and having her replace Charlie Day. He’s a gift but PR significantly lacks women in the cast and I feel that a messy kaiju-groupie-esque woman would be the better choice when replacing either of those male characters. Women are hardly allowed to be messy.

- In general we need more women/non-male characters. Are there female J-Techs? I don’t know but if yes I doubt that there are many. Another male character I think who could be replaced (more easily than others) is Tendo Choi. They should keep the rockabilly attitude though.

- Maybe add an extra Jaeger to make room for at least another female pilot. Give me a South American team! Peruvians perhaps or Chilean (There are surprisingly [to me, a European] not many South American countries bordering the pacific).

- I would also like to see more non-white characters. PR has a Japanese woman and a black man in the leading trio but there are still a lot white dudes in the more important roles. They are nice white dudes, but they’re white nonetheless.

As I said, these are just the things that come to my mind right now. Please feel free to add your ideas!

EDIT (19.12.21)

Several of you lovelies have given me lots of ideas and improvements of my own suggestions. Here are they:

@jedi-whovian24601 said: Maybe we can add a female/non-male k-scientist instead of removing Charlie Day? Herman’s physics/maths and Newt’s mostly bio so the new k-scientist can be chem (which is also a messy science. Image the explosions they can cause)

@bae-science pointed me towards a very interesting presentation

@milfbailorgana opened my eyes to my own white privilege: Bestie said pac rim should have more non white characters and said we should change Tendo Choi— one of pac rim’s only poc— in the same post

You're right and you should say it. Instead of replacing Tendo we could let him work in tandem with a woman, maybe even his wife Alison. We don't know much about her, only that she worked in munitions in Anchorage, so let me headcanon that she retrained and now they handle the operations together. Alison could also be BIPoC. As for their son, there might already be some sort of kindergarten for Shatterdome employees in canon.

[thechaosgods]

My wife and husband <3

[yeet-wolf-in-the-stars]

Also I'd like to include that Alexei and Sasha never finished universities. Alexei was threw out because he stood up for a girl who was getting harassed by one of the professors and the head of the university didn't want to deal with the professor so he made the student go away.

Sasha was very good but at some point she broke down because she couldn't manage living in a shitty dormitory, working and being one of the best in the class. She just burnt out and couldn't do anything

One thing that didn't come to my mind is that Kaidanovskie probably don't know English well enough to communicate. They understand the orders and "battle related staff" because it's a must thing to do. (And okay probably they NEEDED to learn it and on papers they know it. But all the documentation is poorly structured in Russia and can easily be redacted)

But broader things are a struggle to them. English isn't taught in Russian schools well. And especially when they were studying at schools/universities everything was worse. They didn't have a chance and there was no actual need. They might have tried learning things themselves with Duolingo but many things are hard for them especially when they're transferred to Hong Kong Shatterdome where most people don't speak Russian. (My poor babies). So between trainings and staff they were trying to learn words and understand the grammar with some books downloaded from torrents because isolation isn't cool and what if at some point they need to understand something? Sorry, but for me they seem like people who would at least try to learn something when being surrounded by English speaking people.

God, I can talk about them for eternity

[mr-e-nigma]

The blu-ray special features: Their relationship is up in the air, sort of left to interpretation. Are they siblings or are they lovers? Who’s to say?

Man, Machines, & Monsters: The Russian husband-and-wife pilot duo