#there is pony spock there too

[arttsuka]

Spock my beloved ♥︎

[kyurochurro]

my ponysona Googie shipping pony spirk!!! In equestria I like to think it’s called “Star Trot”

[multiverserift]

I really like Kira Nerys. Let's discuss her and organized religion A hothead, experienced freedom fighter, child soldier, passionate, kind, really good at self-control. In [DS9 S01E19: Duet], she learns that life can be complex and difficult and ultimately learns to forgive Marritza. She learns that hate has to end at some point to make peace. But there is one aspect of Kira that I always find unnerving: Her absolute blind spot when it comes to faith. And DS9's handling of organized religion. 01. Bajoran Culture and Cultures in Star Trek Because Kira is the Bajoran character we see most, and the only fleshed out character where "being Bajoran" is a major character trait, we mostly experience the culture through her. Yes there's Leeta, but there is just a single instance where it plays into the story that she's Bajoran. [DS9 S05E20: Ferengi Love Songs]. Leeta wants a Bajoran wedding, while Rom tries to hold onto what's left of his Ferengi identity. Rom ultimately lets go of all the Ferengi stuff. Good for him. Of course there is also Kai Winn, but her stories mostly circle about her being Kai Winn, not her being a Bajoran. There is a single instance here too, where her Bajoran identity plays into the story, and her past during the Occupation. ([DS9: S05E10 Rapture]) She explains that she teached the faith of the prophets and was imprisoned for it. The other Bajoran characters are less fleshed out characters. Shakaar, Lupaza, and Furel. Even Li Nalasm remember him? Ro Laren is there of course, but her job was to create conflict in the perfect world of the Enterprise-D. Not being Bajoran, primarily. Star Trek does this more than once. Experiencing a whole culture through a single character. For a long time, Spock was the only fleshed out Vulcan we got to see, besides one episode with Sarek. Plus Sarek in the movies. It took decades until Tuvok showed us more than Spock's perspective. And ENT with T'Pol and the Vulcans arc finally fleshed out the species more. Jadzia is the only Trill that matters. Kind of a one trick pony species. The people with the symbiotes. And when Ezri finally shows up, we learn a bit more about them when they're not centered about their symbiotes. Cardassia is a good counter-example: We have Dukat, Damar and Garak to show us Cardassian culture from various perspectives. Plus the Tribunal episode, TNG's torture of Picard ("There are four lights!") We learn a lot about Cardassia. The DS9 treatment of the Ferengi will always be top notch.

02. Kira and Religion So back to Bajor, Kira and religion. Hehe, Bajor Kira. Sorry. As a non-religious man, I have my problems sharing her point of view. Trusting in faith, even when it contradicts rationality. There are two main storylines that illuminate this problem: 1. [DS9: S04E17 Accession] 2. Kira's relationship with Kai Winn. In Accession, Akorem Laan takes over the job as Emissary and installs himself as a conservative, even reactionary, religious leader. Bajorans are told to follow their d'jarras. A caste system. And Kira as our PoV Bajoran, simply....does it. Her D'jarra is Ih'valla, the artists caste. She actually had to struggle with this before. In [DS9: S02E02 The Circle] she tried living in the monastery with Bareil. She tells him she sucks at being an artist. Kira really tried. So when Akorem takes over the religious leadership (maintaining a good working relationship with Kai Winn, what a red flag), Kira shows us how Bajor reacts. They simply.....comply? Odo even tries out the sceptical, rational PoV. Kira just brushes it aside. DS9 does this a few times, actually. Respecting their characters' choices rooted in faith. Odo fighting Weyoun calling him a god on every occasion. Worf and Kira agreeing on Sisko's choice of trusting the Prophets in [DS9: S05E10: Rapture]. Weyoun 6's sacrifice. Even Quark's little prayers to his piggybank. What I really dislike about the plot of Accession is the Deus Ex Machina. The characters are not confronted with their choices. Akorem Laan and Vedek Porta don't go to jail for murdering some guy. Kira doesn't have to deal with supporting a regime that got opressive in a heartbeat. What I would have really liked to see were the Bajorans that disagree. The ones Akorem threatens with deportation. Sorry, our 45 minutes are up, the Prophets endorse The Sisko, Akorem is gone. Kira even still likes his poetry! Yay! Pity. I would have loved to see the consequences. And see if Kira finds a way to deal with blind obedience. Which brings me to my second point. 03. Kira Nerys and Kai Winn

While Gul Dukat is mainly Sisko's antagonist, Kai Winn is Kira's. She basically killed Kira's boyfriend, cashed in on his accomplishments and literally stole his fame, after she cheated her way to becoming Space Pope. Which would have been him. Bareil. Interesting side story: Bareil does the same thing Kira does. He blindly trusts the religious system. Bareil doesn't question Kai Winn's authority. Well, then she kills him by overworking him, and he lets her. Gladly. He decides to get killed. Because he trusts the Prophets. There's another side question here. Are the Prophets to be trusted? Are they doing good things for Bajor? or are they selfish? I basically think they're selfish af, and I can explain. But that's a story for another time.

So Kai Winn did a terrorism in [S01E20: In the Hands of the Prophets], gets people killed, supports an insurrection (but to be honest, her support never got public), cheats herself to be Pope, nearly starts a civil war because of Shakaar. Kira is in a powerful position. She is one of the most trusted advisors to the Emissary of the Prophets, is an administrator of DS9, was a member of the famed Shakaar Resistance Cell. She obviously has power. Military power, political power. She knows how to play politics. There is a dialogue about this in [DS9 S01E13: "Battle Lines] And she obviously knows Kai Winn is horrible. Dangerous. When does she talk back? Once. She does it once. In [DS9 S02E24: The Collaborateur], she is snarky and gets scolded by Winn. She never openly defies her again. Kira is complicit with a religious organisation that constantly punishes her for it. That would force her into a career she hates. That killed her boyfriend and robbed his dead body. Kai Winn even gloats over it a few episodes later. And in Accession, we see the climax of this: Even when the religious regime gets captured by bad people, she complies. 04: Fazit I would have loved to see Kira deal with the contradictions. See people who don't comply with Kai Winn's church. Who challenge that system. Because like in our world, organisations can and will be captured by bad players, in bad faith. The ability of political structures to withstand capture and abuse is essential. This always starts with the people being able to recognize it and fight back. I don't like it. I'm more like Odo. Rational, naturalistic. I don't understand how one can think with religious faith. Especially because Kira has such a temper and a sense for injustice. She challenges Winn from within the system, yes. With Shakaar. For a while. Then Shakaar loses steam as a character and we don't delve further into the matter. Simply DS9 having enough depth to allow such discussions about their characters is one if the reasons I love it so much. Stay safe out there, people. Stay vigilant in the face of powerful people. Thank you for reading.

[lenin-it-to-win-it]

Enterprise Crew Members Ranked From Least to Most Likely To Get Their Shit Rocked by Chappell Roan

"Does Not Care" Tier

Scotty

he doesn't listen to music

only the sweet sweet mechanical melodies of his beloved ship

Bones

everything he's learned about Chappell Roan has been against his will

that said, he's sure she's a lovely lady and he respects her for telling people to leave her the hell alone, it's very relatable

"Filthy Casual" Tier

Riley

knows the hits but pretends not to so he can seem macho

Janice Rand

She's too straight to really get into the music herself but listens anyway because she's an #ally

Nurse Chapel

despite being very distantly related to Chappell Roan (hence the name) she's not all that into the music

it's just kind of awkward hearing your ancestor sing about eating pussy in the passenger seat you know

"Actual Fan" Tier

Uhura

she has good taste

in music and women also probably

she borrows spock's lyre to play chappell roan covers on the recreation deck and fucking slays

Sulu and Chekhov

they share a brain cell and it is continually blasting HOTTOGO

"Absolute Wreck" Tier

Kirk

Captain James Tiberius Kirk is one tequila shot away from getting "midwest princess" tattooed across his ass at any given moment in time

refers to himself as "your favorite captain's favorite captain" without the slightest hint of irony

Spock

the second he finds out Kirk listens to Chappell Roan he considers it his DutyTM to memorize every single word of her discography

it's what any first officer would do.

it's literally his job you guys

he feels no emotions about this. none whatsoever.

pink pony club did not make him cry

i'm going to be real with you chat, if Spock listened to "Good Luck, Babe!" I think he would kill himself

[powerpolyculeshowdown]

POWER POLYCULE SHOWDOWN POLYSHIPS

I didn't make a proper bracket image because there's too many names but here's a list of our 44 contestants under the cut!

MASTERPOST

REMINDER: I'll answer questions about the choices but if people start to be rude, anon will be turned off and I will start blocking.

If your guys didnt make it in just know I was happy to see all the nominations anyway so at the very least you put a smile on my face :)

The Showdown is finished!!

WINNERS

let me know if you want another one!

The contestants!

Tulio/Miguel/Chel (Road to El Dorado), Yoo/Han/Kim (Omniscient Reader), Mane 6 (My Little Pony), Sasha/Anne/Marcy (Amphibia), Rey/Finn/Poe (Star Wars), The Doctor/Rose/Jack Harkness (Doctor Who), DaveJadeKat (Homestuck), Sora/Riku/Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Cosmo/Kathy/Don (Singing in the Rain), Ferris/Sloane/Cameron (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), Amaryllis/Sir Damien/Lord Arum (Penumbra Podcast), Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot (High Noon Over Camelot - The Mechanisms), Star Allies (Kirby Star Allies), Wu Zetian/Li Shimin/Gao Yizhi (Iron Widow, Hardison/Parker/Elliot (Leverage), Geralt/Jaskier/Yennefer (The Witcher), Sadie Kane/Walt Stone/Anubis (The Kane Chronicles), All 1008 Pokémon (Pokémon), Suki/Sokka/Zuko (Avatar: TLA), Sonic/Knuckles/Shadow (Sonic), Fred/Daphne/Velma/Shaggy (Scooby Doo), Luka/Adrien/Kagami/Marinette (Miraculous Ladybug), Sweet/Cap’n/K_K (Deltarune), Shiver/Frye/Big Man (Splatoon 3), Wonder Woman/Superman/Batman (DC Comics), Megaera/Zagreus/Thanatos (Hades), Dekubowl (My Hero Academia), Jolyne/Ermes/Foo Fighters (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure), Bocchi/Nijika/Ryo/Kita (Bocchi the Rock), Tsukasa/Emu/Nene/Rui (Project Sekai), Trevor/Sypha/Alucard/Greta (Castlevania), Heizou/Kazuha/Scaramouche (Genshin Impact), Rachel/Chloe/Max (Life is Strange), Quanxi/Tsugihagi/Pingtsi/Long/Cosmo (Chainsaw Man), McCoy/Spock/Kirk (Star Trek), Frodo/Sam/Rosie (Lord of the Rings), Cassandra/Rapunzel/Flynn (Tangled Series), Vivi/Lewis/Arthur (Mystery Skulls Animated), Aizo/Yujiro/Hiyori (HoneyWorks), Panchito/Donald/José (The Three Caballeros), Catra/Adora/Glimmer/Bow (She-Ra and The Princesses of Power), Amethyst/Peridot/Lapis (Steven Universe), Hunter/Willow/Luz/Amity (The Owl House), Bucky/Steve/Peggy/Angie (Marvel)

[rouge-forever]

I just spent way too much time playing ponytown. I really like making characters into cats on there (idk it’s more cool than ponies to me). Just made Two-Face and had a fun time chit chatting with like… Austin Powers… and other characters.

I’m gonna make a Star Trek TOS character next, probably Spock or McCoy. Maybe Kirk. Idk. I have so many ideas…

[perlukafarinn]

Rating Star Trek TOS costumes because why not! (part 6)

Mirror, Mirror (2x04). So I know the Halkan council is kind of incidental to the plot of the episode - any other alien of the week could have served the same role - but that's no excuse for these lazy fits. I really only included them as an excuse to post this screencap of Kirk and Uhura. 3/10, try harder Halkans.

I already reviewed the Mirroverse uniforms in my first post but I didn't include Spock's outfit, which was a gross oversight on my part. Just look at him! The beard is, of course, iconic, but lets also appreciate the satiny fabric, the little plastic dagger attached to his sash and the gold trim on the collar. Go off king, 10/10.

I hate that color combo, which is a pity because I like everything else about the outfit. The high pony is my absolute favorite part, the TOS ladies serve such good hair. 8/10.

The Apple (2x05). These aren't costumes so much as a series of bad decisions. The bodypaint sits somewhere between "unfortunate spray tan" and "hatecrime", those scraps of burlap they've wrapped around the actors look itchy as all hell and I'm not sure who thought white makeup on orange skin would look good? The one detail I don't hate is the cut of the bikini top, it's kind of cute. I feel sorry for these poor kids, 2/10.

Catspaw (2x07). This is Korob and he very much dresses like a man with that name. This outfit is not too remarkable but I do like the sci-fi wizard vibe of it, especially the embroidered eye on the front. 6/10.

Okay so the wig is pretty bad but this is my favorite caftan to appear on TOS so far. Elizabeth Taylor but make her a space witch, 8/10.

Here Sylvia is showing off to Kirk that she can look any way he wants and uhhhhh. The first outfit is fine but the second one....... oh, boy. Did Kirk have a secret clown fetish maybe? 7/10 for the first dress, I like the train and the cut out on the front. 4/10 for the second and all four points are for the sheer audacity.

[gayfrasier]

as it turns out drawing horses is like riding a bicycle

[onetragicalnerd709]

Note: I updated this on 06/06/23 because Dax's muzzle was too chunky. It's much better now!

Well…first post… let’s see, why not delve right into my Trek obsession…because that has all I have been seeing and liking since I downloaded this app. Nothing but SPACE and Spirk 🤦🏼‍♀️

This has been a re- obsession as of late. I hate to admit it but I haven’t seen any Star Trek series all the way through…except maybe Picard and Voyager since it’s my favourite…but I have seen a handful of episodes from each. I have corrected this error by starting from the beginning with TOS. I have a plethora of TOS SPIRK goodies to come soon because I. AM. WORSHIPPING. MY. SPACE. HUSBANDS! While also simping over Spock for myself. Zachary Quinto is also included. In my fantasy he bats for my team as well OK?!

Trek is a big part of my life. My mother named me after Voyager’s Seven of Nine. (Seven you may ask?! I wish…but no, she decided Annika was better for a normal human girl) I have been to museums to see props and have even seen some of the cast up close at conventions but unfortunately I wasn’t deeply involved then… (2018- 2019) The last two years have brought on exciting changes. Trek is back in the spotlight and my mind. (It won’t friggin leave! Even when I sleep!)

But… like all nerds with access to the internet I soon found out about DS9…watched like half an episode about Kira Nerys, researched her and some other characters like Jadzia Dax and fell deeply in love. I decided to feature them in this piece here and I can’t wait to seep further away from my apparent straightness when I reach DS9. I am now fantasizing my life as a Bajoran babe alongside these leading ladies.

Description: Hanging with my fantasy moms, the 2 out of many fandom moms. My wrinkled nose fantasy has come to life! Jadzia is rocking her trill spots and The little trill plush I added as a last minute addition has seemed to peak her interest. I immediately knew I had to include one when I found out they exist IRL. Found them on Etsy. Ugly but cute tbh..however I have spent too much on Trek merch recently. *no regrets*

I think I called this piece Bajoran Babes and a Worm 🪱

…but…wait

You noticed yet? Is your eyesight ok if you haven’t? Themz don’t be humans! Themz be equines!

Yep..I mainly draw MLP characters including crossover sketches so fair warning…Ponies will be a common occurrence with this profile.

You’ll be seeing my Oc frequently from now on. The purple dragon character. Her name is Sploched Canvas / Sploot for short. You may know me already from the official MLP amino as BooptheSploot too! So Hello again my timemuffins! If y’all are from there as well. She is quite dear to me. Her cutie mark has a Tardis and paint marks so if you haven’t guessed already, Whovian blood runs thick with this one and time travel is something I wish to do desperately!

(⚠️Important note) Before I log off and stop rambling your ears off. Be aware like many others on tumblr, I am strictly prohibiting the theft, tracing and or recolouring of my art or characters. If you wish to draw my characters, any of them please…just be thoughtful and ask before hand. I don’t bite. It’s just I’ve dealt with theft before and I have no tolerance for it.

Lastly I guess I should say, Hello Tumblr, hello this whole new world…*cue Aladdin music* I have arrived…please don’t let me regret it!

Enjoy! 🖖

[captainpikeachu]

For the ask - Christopher Pike obviously and Ash Tyler

CHRISTOPHER PIKE

First Impression: Damsel in Distress

Impression Now: Best Space Dad who is also a Damsel in Distress who should not be allowed outside without a safety bubble or adult supervision

Favorite Moment: Does an yet-to-be-appeared scene count as a favorite moment because I don’t think anything can top what would have been the moment he realizes that he’s gonna have that accident, that it’s happening now, but he still walks into that room knowing full well what will happen next, facing his destiny with his head held high, to save those cadets.

Idea For A Story: still waiting for him to meet a Pikachu, it is his true destiny.

Unpopular Opinion: He may seem very open and jovial in the Discovery version of the character but I feel like he is still fully capable of going dark and angry and furious, you seem glimpses of it in The Cage and even in Discovery. I think if someone were to cross him the wrong way, like hurt one of his people, he will not be the cuddly teddy bear person that we think of him as. There’s anger sitting beneath that ocean of calm. A storm kept at bay but always brewing.

Favorite Relationship: Pike and Spock, the OG duo, what they were both willing to risk for each other. TRUE PURE LOVE.

Favorite Headcanon: He definitely tried to get a small pony on the ship once and Una and Boyce wouldn’t let him

---------------------------------------

ASH TYLER

First Impression: A BABY! (a la that Wonder Woman scene)

Impression Now: I’M SO PROUD OF HIM!

Favorite Moment: When he got promoted to commander of Section 31, because there is just a new level of confidence that he has in that scene, this kind of self-assuredness that he didn’t always have before, like he knew who he was now and who he wanted to be. And I just LOVE that. I love him embracing who he is now and being proud of that.

Idea For A Story: He goes on vacation and gets to relax and have fun and no other trouble because he deserves it. I want a story where he just gets to be happy whatever way possible.

Unpopular Opinion: I actually do like the reveal of him as Voq and having this story of figuring out who he really is, Voq or Tyler or something new. I really love the complexity of that kind of a story.

Favorite Relationship: Tyler and Tilly because she was always the first one to reach out him, the first time they met after he arrived on the ship, and after it was revealed he was Voq. Tilly always tried to understand him, tried to give him chances and the benefit of the doubt. They didn’t have that many scenes but in those few moments, that relationship touched me because he needed kindness and the only person consistently always did that for him was Tilly who always stood up for him and reminded everyone else how they treat him will determine the kind of person he will be.

Favorite Headcanon: He lays flowers at the tombstone of the real human Ash Tyler’s mother every year on the anniversary of her passing, because even if he is not technically the real Ash Tyler, she is still his mother too.

[arttsuka]

Some drawings

[the-goofball]

Raffi Musiker...

...and how she became Picard’s First Officer.

Excerpt from ‘The Last Best Hope’ by Una McCormack

[...]On-screen, the woman said, "My name is Lieutenant Commander Raffi Musiker, and I'm an intelligence specialist at Romulan Affairs. As you're aware, we've been tracking some odd communications from Romulan space in recent weeks - odd even by Romulan standards."

Listening to Musiker, Picard found himself taking a liking to her. She had a faintly disreputable air, a plesant change from the smooth operatives that Starfleet Intelligence usually fielded. Her frankness was refreshing, as was the fact that she was clearly not daunted by the grandeur of her audience. Most of all, she was on top of her briefing. A question came about the reliability of their sources, which was dispatched with confidence and ease. Then another question came about the range of the blast from the supernova, and here she stopped and took a moment to collect herself.

"What I want to say is, that these calculations are a worst-case scenario. This implies that effects in climate change are already being felt. Sometime in 2387. I'll show you that first. Because it might make the best-case scenario less damn frightening."

Picard leaned over to Clancy. "What was her name again?" "Raffi Musiker," said Clancy. "Lieutenant Commander Raffi Musiker."[...]

Hours later Picard talks to Beverly Crusher via com:

[...]"Can I offer you some free advice?" she said.

"Of course, Beverly. Of course."

"Put someone right next to you who isn't scared of you."

"Scared--?"

"You're quite... now, let me get this right. Not intimidating... not severe... huh. That's it. You can be quite certain of yourself. And that can stop people from telling you things that you need to know."

"Certain of myself?"

That half-smile again. "Don't get me wrong! With good reason. Most of the time. But you're only human like the rest of us. You make mistakes. And you need someone there who's able to tell you when that's happening."[...]

.

[…]Lieutenant Commander Raffi Musiker, when asked to wait for a senior officer, did not generally sit patiently in a chair, and she saw no reason to do so for a legend either. She stood outside the admiral’s office, bouncing up and down ever so slightly on her heels, ready for action.[…]

[…]Raffi mentally ran through her presentation one more time. The instruction to see the admiral had been brief, courteous, and not particularly informative as to the purpose of the meeting. She knew, from superiors and colleagues, the impact of her presentation and so she assumed she was here to give a direct one to the man himself and answer any questions he might have. Then back to her desk at Romulan Affairs. Only now she would have met a legend. Gabe, her son, was dying to hear about him. Mom’s job was mostly that thing that meant she didn’t always make his soccer matches, but every so often she managed to deliver something incredibly cool, like this.[…]

(And because I couldn’t decide what to leave out, there’s a bit more under the cut.)

[…]The admiral closed the screen, rose from his chair, and came to greet her. The legend, come to life. She had the edge on him when it came to height, but he moved with a commanding grace. “Commander,” he said, “thank you for making the time to see me today.” His voice was measured, cadenced; the kind of voice, she suspected, that you could not help but listen to, and then do exactly what was requested.

“Happy to supply whatever you need, sir.” She looked around the room for an audience that wasn’t there. Didn’t he have a senior staff in place yet? “Are we meeting here?”

He gestured to two comfortable seats in the corner of the room, where teapot and cups stood waiting on a low table. “Take a seat. Tea?”

“Sure, thanks.” Raffi sat, uneasy in the easy chair, putting padds on the floor beside her, and then leaning forward, palms on her knees. He took the chair opposite, smiled disarmingly, and poured tea. “I assumed I was giving a presentation this morning, sir.” She sipped her tea. What the hell was this stuff? It tasted of goddamned perfume. Was it too late to ask for coffee?

“I’ve watched your presentation half a dozen times now,” he said. “It’s insightful, informative, and precise. I was very impressed.”

Hey Gabe, wait till you hear what the Great Man said about Mom. “Thank you, sir.”

“Could you tell me, please, from your perspective as an expert on Romulan affairs, what you believe our chief difficulty will be in Starfleet’s dealings with them?”

He didn’t waste time, did he? Raffi took a breath. “Opposition, sir,” she said. “Believe it or not, they are not happy that Starfleet is devoting so much time, energy, and resources to helping them. They are hating all this. They hate that we know they’re in trouble, and they hate accepting help. They won’t want to lose face.”

“I understand. What else?”

“And even if they’re united on this, they’ll be divided among themselves about what to do with us. Some will want to accept our help for a while. Some will try to make it impossible for us to function. Others might try to get rid of us—”

“By force?”

“By subterfuge, more likely. Secretly, so that half of them won’t know whether it’s a sanctioned operation or not. The saying in our office goes that Romulans don’t tell their left hand what their right hand is doing.”

The admiral nodded. Yes, he recognized that.

“That makes them inconsistent and unpredictable,” Raffi said. “Not to mention damn annoying. They’ll say one thing and do another, and they won’t even know themselves what their real policy is toward us. Expect the unexpected, sir.”

“I see. Would it help at all, Commander, if I approached Ambassador Spock and had him petition the Senate to instruct cooperation with this mission?”

“Excuse me, sir? How would that help?”

He looked surprised. “The ambassador surely commands considerable respect—”

Raffi laughed out loud. “Spock? They think he’s a nutcase!”

His eyes opened wide. Shit, she thought, me and my big mouth. She had a vision of herself, explaining to Gabe: No, the admiral hated me, and that’s why I’m being court-martialed… Hold on. Was he… smiling? “Sorry, sir,” she said quickly. “No, I wouldn’t advise that. Ambassador Spock’s mission to Romulus may look very laudable to us, but from the Romulan perspective he and his supporters are outliers. Reunification of Romulus and Vulcan? Hey, when I was a kid, I wanted a unicorn. With wings. I didn’t get one. I didn’t even get a damn pony—”

“A personal mission of peace, the ambassador calls it.”

“Well, the Romulans consider it very personal. Almost…” She scraped around for a word that wouldn’t offend. “Um. Idiosyncratic?”

“In other words, they think he’s a crank.” He was most definitely smiling. “Carry on talking so frankly to me, Commander,” he said, “and we shall get along very well. Very well indeed.”

The door buzzer sounded. He called out, “Come.” Kaul came in.

“Apologies for the interruption, sir, but you asked me to let you know immediately when the ship was ready for you.”

“Ah, yes, thank you, Kaul! Yes, I’ll be on my way shortly.” He turned back to Raffi. “The Starship Verity has been assigned to lead the first fleet out to Romulan space. A nice name, don’t you think?”

“Sure…?”

“ ‘A true principle, especially one of fundamental significance.’ ” He looked pleased. “I believe that remembering such things will be crucial to the success of our undertaking. Above all, we are on a mission to protect, preserve, and save lives.”

Raffi nodded, faintly. This meeting was not going in the slightest how she had anticipated. No presentation. He said he’d already watched it half a dozen times. He clearly didn’t want it in person. For some reason they were now discussing eternal verities. She was a simple intelligence officer, maybe turned a mite suspicious by having to think like a Romulan twenty-four hours a day. She wasn’t any kind of philosopher. Why was she here?

“Lieutenant Kaul,” added Picard conversationally, “was on staff here before even I was. Seconded from Admiral Bordson’s office. Their loss has been my gain. She’ll be vital to operations here on Earth.”

There it was again, that extraneous information, as if giving her a picture of the setup here.

“Sir,” said Raffi, “may I ask you something?”

“By all means,” said the Great Man. “You must always feel you can speak freely to me.”

She’d never had any superior officer say that to her. Sometimes quite the contrary.

“This isn’t a briefing, is it?” said Raffi. “This is an interview.”

“That’s correct, Commander. My apologies if I kept my cards close to my chest, but I wanted to see how you answered my questions face-to-face.” He sipped some of his revolting tea. “You’ve answered them most satisfactorily.”

“Which means…?”

“Which means I’d like you as my XO.”

She put down her cup with a rattle. Tea spilled. “Shit!”

His mouth twitched. “I sincerely hope not. Most certainly we have some difficult times ahead. More difficult than either of us can imagine.”

She turned and looked out through the transparent aluminum partition into the busy office. All those people, dashing about, putting the nuts and bolts of this mission together, building this operation from data, information, decisions, actions. Sure, it was easy to take the piss out of the padd pushers, but nothing could happen without them. Working out what was needed, where it could be found, how to get it all to the right place at the right time. She had no idea how to do this… She took a breath. How do you say “no” to a legend?

“Sir,” she said, “I’m not an administrator.”

He blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

“I mean, this is a flattering offer, sir, I hope you understand that. Truly flattering. But an operation like this?” She gestured to the room beyond. “I’m not cut out for this kind of work. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

She saw understanding dawn in his eyes. “Ah, there has been a misunderstanding. I have a very able administrator arriving to head up the office here on Earth, Commander Crystal Gbowee. She’s on her way from Starbase 192 as we speak. She’s worked with the UFPHCR coordinating numerous missions— she was on Bajor for a while after the Occupation, and on Cardassia Prime during the reconstruction effort there. Once she arrives, I shall move over to the fleet. This mission must get underway, and soon.” He glanced out across the busy room. “No, the appointment here is filled, I’m afraid. I’m sorry if that’s a disappointment.”

His eyes were quietly twinkling with suppressed mirth. No, of course he didn’t want her here. She’d be no damn good here, would she?

“Then—”

He leaned forward in his seat, held her eye, very serious now. “I’m asking you to come aboard my ship, Commander. Be my first officer on the Verity. But I’m asking more than that, and I think you know it. I have left my crew behind on the Enterprise. I must replace them, and if I am to succeed, I need an excellent XO. And what I require above all from my XOs is honesty. I shall need you always to tell me the truth. What do you say? Is that something you believe that you could do?”

Shit, she thought, and managed not to say it out loud this time. No, this was not what she’d been expecting when she’d walked into this room.

“It’s a big decision,” he was saying. “There may be all manner of ties keeping you here on Earth…”

Gabe had a soccer match next week. She’d missed the last one putting together that damn presentation. “When does the ship leave?”

“Six days.”

So she could make Gabe’s match. But there would be the next match, or the match after, the long months away, the individual seconds and moments of simply being present that were tiny for her, but that constituted the whole of Gabe’s life, his childhood.

“I…” Damn, she wanted this post. She could do this job. She was made to do this job. She’d known the second she walked into this room that she wanted to work with this man in some way. But she’d never imagined she would be offered this. Right hand to a legend. Right in the middle of the greatest operation that Starfleet would ever mount.

He was smiling at her. “Would you like to see the ship, Commander? The Verity? You’d be spending a lot of time there, after all. You can make your decision after that.”

“Yes,” she said, already knowing what her decision would be. “I’d love to see the ship.”

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #450

Top Ten Characters with the Best Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes

As I’m writing this, it’s officially Star Trek: Discovery day; the first episode of the new season is up on Netflix and ready to watch. Given how little time I manage to find for watching anything that I want to watch, I’m cautiously optimistic that I can get to see it this weekend, but we’ll see; my lovely wife might want to finally catch up with Star Trek: Picard first, which for some reason she never finished. Regardless, I’m excited, and I wanted to write about Star Trek again.

The new Star Trek series have been a bit of a roller coaster, because whilst they’ve both generally been very good, they’ve certainly had their odder and more controversial moments, and neither of them has consistently felt like classic Trek. If I had to be critical, I’d argue that there are plenty of darker adult-tinged sci-fi shows at the moment, including ones set in space, but not that many that follow the day-to-day travails of a starship crew, which as always been Trek’s raison d'être. However, both shows have succeeded in giving us some compelling stories and – especially in the case of Discovery – a fantastic cast of new characters to celebrate. Great characterisation has been the cornerstone of Trek since the beginning, and no doubt one of the reasons why it still resonates to this day, from the “Holy Trinity” of Kirk, McCoy, and Spock, through to the wonderful and insanely empathetic Saru in Discovery and Captain Sexpot Rios in Picard. The fact that we’re now in a new time period, with no established history to try to tie the narrative to, means Discovery 3 is in a great place to give us some great new stories.

Anyway, to celebrate all of this – the new season of Discovery and my overall love of Star Trek characters – I’ve decided to go back to the Next Generation well and talk about just that: characters. TNG famously hit its stride when it started focusing each story through the lens of the different characters on the show, so that we tended to get a “Worf episode” or a “Riker episode”; even the best eps, the biggest and most epic, really had a tendency to hone in on one or two characters specifically, such as the all-time classic “The Best of Both Worlds” really being about Picard and Riker, or “Yesterday’s Enterprise” being a much-belated Tasha Yar episode.

But which characters have the best episodes? That is, if you know an episode is focused on a particular character, how likely is it that it’s going to be a belter? Can you reasonably say one character was better served than another in terms of the quality of “their” episodes? Well, yes. Yes you can. That’s this list. That’s the whole thing.

So this list is basically which characters have the best episodes, or are more likely to. It’s not a list of my favourite characters, or even really a list of the best episodes overall; it’s just, well, who got to chew scenery the most on the bridge, basically. Now, I really feel like I should end this blurb with an appropriate Star Trek quote, but I must have used “Make it so” and “Engage” before, so I’m not sure what else to say.

May the Force be with you, I guess.

Picard: Yes, of course; he’s the star, he’s the stand-out actor of the bunch, he gets the best episodes. If it focuses on the captain, you can rest assured you’re in for a treat. Whether it’s an epic mythology-enhancing saga or – even better – a slower, sadder meditation on life, Picard’s episodes are engaging. Chortle. Also if there’s room for a classic Picard Monologue, all the better; I don’t know if you’ve noticed this about Patrick Stewart, but the guy can chew scenery. Key episodes: The Best of Both Worlds, The Drumhead, The Hidden Light

Worf: Worf’s complex backstory offers a lot of opportunities for great stories, with the caveat that pretty much all of them focus on Klingon history or the contrast between his heritage and his place in Starfleet. Issues of familial loyalty rub up against quasi-Shakespearean dynastic dramas, often with high adventure. You can assume a Worf ep is a good one, despite the fact that quite a few of them are also about Alexander. Key episodes: Sins of the Fathers, Redemption, Birthright

Data: everyone’s second-favourite emotionless nerd on Star Trek, Data’s eps are almost uniformly great, and often poke at what it means to be alive. There may be a bit of ground retrod as we examine the notion of humanity, or sentience, or emotion, but his episodes are always interesting, and often very funny, and Brent Spiner is a continuing delight. Key episodes: The Measure of a Man, The Offspring, Brothers

Q: is it cheating to include a recurring guest star? Maybe, but I don’t care. John de Lancy is just phenomenal as Q, one of the best Trek characters, and so good he became a My Little Pony. He’s arch, he’s hilarious, he can take the show into new directions; he raises questions of fate, or of the concept of divinity; and underneath it all there’s a malevolent streak, a genuine sense of danger exemplified in his first appearance. Pairs very well with Picard, naturally. I didn’t like the Robin Hood episode, though. Key episodes: Deja Q, Encounter at Farpoint, Q Who

Riker: he’s a Kirk-esque horn-dog ragamuffin with a heart of gold and a fist of steel, so there’s always a lot to love when William T. takes the helm (see what I did there?). Often issues of loyalty, or duty versus personal wishes, arise; he’s frequently putting his life on the Enterprise above his career. But he’s also a very moralistic character, so quite often he’ll be trying to do the right thing in tough circumstances. Key episodes: The Pegasus, Future Imperfect, Frame of Mind

Crusher: always a stand-out supporting character, Crusher has some great episodes focused on her too; usually quite a self-righteous sort who puts the immediate moral obligation above her own safety or duty to Starfleet, which raises lots of interesting, thorny questions. She’s a smart cookie, exemplified in the astounding Remember Me; her relationships with her son and with Picard are good to explore too. She also shagged a ghost, but let’s try to forget about that. Key episodes: Remember Me, Attached, Suspicions

Wesley: pigeonholed somewhat unfairly due to a few ropey first-season episodes, Wesley Crusher is actually an interesting character whose stand-out storylines offer a good deal of nuance and intrigue, as well as exciting hi-jinks, insights into the Federation, and – should you go that far – weird magic Jedi stuff. He gets a nice romance with Ashley Judd, we unpeel his relationship with Picard over multiple episodes, and the bloom comes off the rose in spectacular fashion when he gets to Starfleet Academy. Wil Wheaton was a good young actor and was sadly underserved by the show, but at least we get these eps. Key episodes: The Game, Final Mission, The First Duty

Pulaski: say whaaat? Yes, she’s only in the show for five minutes, but Doctor Pulaski gets a few crackers under her belt in that time. A bit like Crusher would later, she often excels when standing up to authority and presenting herself as a moral arbiter. Interestingly, she’s not always right, and it’s a fun dance to watch. She’s also been round the block a bit, adding facets to her relationships with other characters, particularly Riker. And, of course, she flirts with a bunch of polygons when Geordi and Data cock up the Holodeck. Key episodes: Elementary, Dear Data, Unnatural Selection, The Icarus Factor

Troi: sadly suffering in the face of a bunch of soppy romances and storylines involving her mother that are, shall we say, an acquired taste, Troi still gets some good stuff, mostly later in the series’ run. Taking her out of her comfort zone, making her a spy or an investigator, or giving her some proper dramatic meat, works wonders. Also once she was a cake. Key episodes: Face of the Enemy, Eye of the Beholder, Dark Page

LaForge: oh, Geordi. I love Georgi, but he kinda got done dirty a little bit. Always an interesting and dependable secondary character, unfortunately the bulk of his episodes as a primary character tend to revolve around him being a bit of a jerk or a bit of a creep. Obviously the most heinous sin is making a computer program based on a real person and then, well, trying to shag it, but he also has a tendency to be a dick to anyone new in Engineering. He’s even a bit of a dick to Scotty! I sometimes think the writers never quite had a handle on Geordi’s character; is he a young tech genius with poor social skills? Is he supposed to be arrogant? A wannabe lothario who’s just really unlucky? Anyway, like I say, I still love the guy to bits, and LeVar Burton is fantastic, but of all the main ensemble, his are the flakiest solo episodes. That said, the three listed here are all belters. Key episodes: The Next Phase, The Enemy, Relics

Anyway. There we are. I’ve still, as of going “to press”, not watched Discovery season 3, and my wife’s still not watched the end of season 1 of Picard. Any day now…!

[tgai-spock]

Lines of ice from rolling waves and subtle villains

A strange boy

Chapter 4

“It is my honour to welcome you here today. I am Mr Daimon, the headmaster. I’d also like to welcome you to the cafe. It isn’t usually this busy, but at times like this, the stage is necessary. This will be where you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is closed the rest of the time but if you are the snacking sort you can always take away some fruit, or find the vending machines across campus, although we don’t sell chocolates and crisps anymore, after we raised the obesity rating in our area several years ago, there are several good snacks in the vending machines, nuts, cereal bars, cup noodles, and fruit.”

“I’m sure you all know this is a school that prizes our diversity, in all its shapes and forms, whether its species, religion or sexuality. In this school, we truly put our minority first. I will now leave you in the capable headmistress Mrs MacDougal.” 

A human woman, older wrinkled like a pitbull, and with a crazed spark to her eye, took the microphone and somehow, while her glazed look danced across the group, looked each of the new years in the eye.

“Good morning children” a thick Scottish accent wrapped its way around the room, almost comforting, almost terrifying “in a moment, I will call your name, and you will then you will go to the back of the room and stand near our prefect in the bright yellow vest…” she points. There were several people standing at the back of the room, several of them Spock recognised from outside. One of them put up a hand and waved.

“Alice Anderson” Mrs McDougal cooed, and a girl stood up with her bags and walked towards the prefect. This continued with all the names. Eventually, and sooner than he expected she called Spock’s name.

“Spock” she sighs “I’m slaughtering this, don’t correct me right now. Too guy, Schiin.” God she really did slaughter his name. Spock stood and walked across like the others had done. She stood next to the prefect, and Jim, who had already been called. Then a moment happened. One Spock would never forget. Mrs MacDougal looked to her list and into the microphone she spoke.

“Pavel Chekov.” A gasp sounded in the hallway, and on that far from table Spock had come from, Moriarty stood up.

“That’s my name, that’s my name. I’m Pavel.” Pavel who had previously claimed his name was Moriarty said as he walked over to stand next to Spock.

“….thats a nice name” Spock said quietly.

“I thought your name was Moriarty.” Jim said.

“It’s not. I forgot my name, it’s Pavel.” They said. Jim frowned and averted her eyes.

“Okay…”

When Mrs MacDougal finally stopped for a moment, she waved at the small group, of about 40 people, and the prefect spoke loudly and lively.

“Right guys follow me” the prefect said, and as if by magic, the doors behind them opened, but it wasn’t magic it was electricity, a sensor on the door.

* * *

He didn’t talk until they’d walked far enough down the corridor, to the point where Mrs MacDougal’s echoing voice finally vanished. Then he started talking.

“I’m supposed to give you folks a tour, welcome to the Red house. I’m Tyler the prefect, and I will nark on you. The headmaster gives me money every time I do, given there’s proof. History lesson 1, this entire school exists because of our current headmaster, so have some respect. History lesson 2, the headmaster originally tried to make enough houses for every colour of the rainbow, he was hitting diversity from more of a gay angle rather than alien, but then he found out that was way too many houses, so our schools house’s colours are now red, orange, yellow and green. The other houses tend to pick on green, but thats just because we’re jealous they got the good colour. If you go outside wearing our house’s colour you’re going to look like a real neon bitch. I f**ked John Harrison in that room” he points to a room labeled library.

“Is there anytime we need to wear our house colours?” Pavel asked.

“Sports day, spelling bees and quizzes. Our houses don’t matter the rest of time, despite teachers trying to encourage some friendly competitiveness between us. We do get house points, at the end of each week the winner of the individual week get some sweets or a treat brought to their form. Sometimes its food, sometimes it’s a film thats just been released, you know something you’d want. At the end of the year the house with the most gets 5 school days to take off during the year. A lot of folks just use this to extend their half term holidays, others use them as mental health days, or for times they’ve forgot to do their homework. The year before yellow won, most of their group saved their days until the end of the year and then had a 3 day summer holiday party before they left.” Tyler points to another room labelled ‘secret library.’ 

“Made out with Galia Eric in that room.”

“Why is it called the secret library?” Trisha a girl with a blonde pony tail sharply pulled back asked. Since Spock had watched them all stand up he had memorised their names.

“It’s just to let you know that those books are known for being racist, or sexist anything along that line. It’s more of a hey, maybe don’t say you want a relationship like ‘Lolita’, thats from the secret library so you probably haven’t understood it Christina. We got ‘Lolita’ and ‘Mein Kampf’ stored at the back, below it is ’50 shades of grey’ I’m telling you now, the librarians terrible, don’t mention it to the librarian though, she’ll take your guts out. Top tip if you’re going to read ‘Mein Kampf’ do it in the library and don’t take it out. The teachers will watch you for days unless you’re a history student. Hot tip: judge on the book, but research an author before you give them your heart. I’ve recently secretly moved a book from the library into the secret library.”

“Why?”

“I came in here a young whippersnapper alone and found a friend in a book. I researched the author and it all looked clear, they even appeared to support the ‘gays’, but it was a lie. God I purchased so much merchandise. The author has every opportunity to educate themselves. My bezzie Alexia has never done anything to speak over the abuse suffered by women, but now her words are just one more excuse for a transphobe to hold up. Broke my heart. F**k her.” He pulls his hair back and then shrugs “thats just how learning to live begins. Sometimes growing up is about allowing fandoms to die, it’s nice to visit them occasionally but if the artist of your work turns out to be evil, supporting a fandom even when they’ve stopped publishing work is supporting them. You’ve got to learn that it’s okay to mistake evil people for good. Countless people, even countries have done it. Save things that are dear to your heart but put it in a box for when your down, so you remember that, and move on. There are new creators around every corner looking for love, and deserving of it. It’s bit different when the creators are already dead or if it had more than one creator, but if not you’ve really just got to let it go.” Spock, had no idea what Tyler was talking about. He had enjoyed many works before but the term ‘fandom’ was completely lost on him. Then Tyler shrugged with a grin.

“If you don’t you’ll be Frozen.”

Tyler pointed to the right, and to the left, sometimes pointing at walls, sometimes pointing at doors.

“This whole hallways full of extra curricula's, the signs are self explanatory” Tyler points to the computer room “those all run ‘doom’. Lost my virginity under those desks.”

“Oh for gods sake” Christine a short girl with grey dyed hair, a fringe at the front and pony tail at the back with teeth that overlapped in a cute way said “do we need to-”

“Child, it is absolutely necessary you know what rooms I’ve made out in” Tyler points to the next room labelled music room “you do not want to know what I’ve done with some of those drumsticks.”

“Are all the prefects as slutty as you?” Christine asked.

“I don’t know, are all you bitches slut shamers?”

“Where’s our dorm?” Pavel asked “my bags kind of heavy .”

“The other side of school. Probably should have gone there first, but I need y’all to listen to my tour first.” The group groaned.

[Chapter 1]         [Chapter 2]         [Chapter 3]          [Chapter 4]

[Chapter 5]         [Chapter 6]

[medbaycaptain]

So, imagine this...

-Leonard is on the Enterprise, when he’s informed of an incoming call from Earth for him. He answers, and is surprised to find that it is Jocelyn on the other end. Leonard’s surprise quickly turns to despair when she says Joanna has fallen sick (and is in a coma), and her doctors don’t think she is going to make it.

-The three days it takes for the Enterprise to enter Earth’s orbit are the longest in Leonard’s life. He ends up with near-permanent indents in his hands from clutching the little plastic pony (hornless unicorn his traitorous mind whispers), given to him by Joanna, too tightly.

-When he finally arrives at the hospital, not even the sight of his ex-wife and her new fiancé can distract him (though he is still glad when they take their leave). Joanna looks small she was so tiny on the bed sized for a grown adult, and the white bedsheets only highlight the sickly hue her skin has taken. Her hand is fragile cradled in between both of his, and tears blur Leonard’s vision as he gives into his warring emotions. His sobs echo in the small room, accompanied only by the beeping of the heart monitor.

-Hours later, Leonard stands outside, the air cool against his face. Khan’s deal is at the forefront of his mind.

-Save Joanna and take the lives of hundreds of others, or let her die and live with the knowledge that he allowed it to happen.

-It’s almost worse than when his father fell ill. At least back then, there was no cure, no way to prevent his father’s passing. Now, there is one at his finger tips, and he just has to decide whether or not to take it.

-Spock’s stupid saying comes back to him. “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one”, but Spock was a hypocrite. Logic wasn’t what drove him to beam down to an imploding Vulcan.

-Leonard doesn’t know what to do.

-And it breaks him.

//

-So basically, it’s an AU of the beginning of Star Trek: Into Darkness, where, instead of the unknown family and their sick daughter, it is Leonard and Joanna. I feel like Leonard would be torn in two by Khan’s proposal: the father who would do anything to save his daughter, but also the Starfleet doctor who refuses to do any harm to others.

-I guess it’s kind of up to interpretation what the outcome would be- if McCoy takes the deal or not. Technically, there’s even the possibility of Joanna hanging on long enough for Leonard to help Starfleet take Khan down, and get her the vial of blood like he did with Jim, if that’s what you want.

-So, yeah. If anyone feels like telling me what they think would happen, I’m always interested.

[scifrey]

In February of 2017 I had the great pleasure of addressing the Grant MacEwan University English Department with a keynote speech titled “Your Voice is Valid.”

This speech was all about Mary Sues, fandom, and marginalized voices, and is a direct response to the negative reactions that media texts receive when they announce a protagonist that is deemed to be a "Mary Sue".

In the intervening years I think the message of my talk has become even more vital to creators, so I thought I’d record a  new video of the speech to share with a wider audience.

 If you liked this video, you can find more of my writing advice on my website.

Read the full speech on Wattpad, or below:

(Text may not match the video exactly as I did alter some of the phrasing.)

*

My friends, I have a declaration to make. A promise. A vow, if you will. And it is this:

If I hear one more basement-dwelling troll call the lead female protagonist of a genre film a ‘Mary Sue’ one more time, I’m going to scream.

I’m sure you’ve all seen this all before. A major science fiction, fantasy, video game, novel, or comic franchise or publisher announces a new title. Said new title features a lead protagonist who is female, or a person of color, or is not able-bodied, or is non-neurotypical, or is LGBTQA+.

It might be the new Iron Man or Spider-man, who are both young black teenagers in the comics now, or the Lt. Michael Burnham of Star Trek: Discovery, or the new Ms. Marvel, a Muslim girl. It could be Jyn Erso, the female lead of the latest Star Wars film or Chirrut, her blind companion. It could be the deaf FBI Director Gordon Cole from Twin Peaks or Clint Barton from Fraction and Aja’s Hawkeye graphic novel series. It could be Sara, of Dragon Age fame or Samantha Traynor from Mass Effect, both lesbians, or Dorian also from Dragon Age, who is both a person of color and flamboyantly queer. Maybe it’s Lt. Stamets and Dr. Hugh Culber, played by Anthony Rapp of (best known for his time as Mark in Rent) and Wilson Cruz, both open out gay men playing openly out gay men in a romantic relationship in Star Trek Discovery. It could be Captain Christopher Pike, from both the original Star Trek series and the reboot film, who uses a wheelchair and assistive devices to communicate. Or maybe it’s Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, fights with a prosthetic arm in the comics, or Iron Man, whose suit serves as Tony Stark’s ego-tastic pacemaker.

And generally, the audience cheers at this announcement. Yay for diversity! Yay for representation! Yay for working to make the worlds we consume look more like the world we live in! Yay!

But there’s a certain segment of the fan population that does not celebrate.

I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about.

This certain brand of fan-person gets all up in arms on social media. They whine. They complain. They say that it’s not appropriate to change the gender, race, orientation, or physical abilities of a fictional creation, or just protest their inclusion to begin with. They decry the erosion of creativity in service of neo-liberalism, overreaching political-correctness, and femi-nazis. (Sorry, sorry – the femi-“alt-right”).

It’s not realistic. “Women can’t survive in space,” they say, “It’s just a fact.” (That is a direct quote, by the way.) “Superheroes can’t be black,” they say. “Video game characters shouldn’t have a sexual orientation,” unless – it seems - that sexual orientation is straight and the game serves to support a male gaze ogling at half-dressed pixilated prostitutes.

“And strong female characters have to wear boob armor. It’s just natural,” they say.

These fan persons predict the end of civilization because things are no longer being done the way they’ve always been done. “There’s nothing wrong with the system,” they say. “So don’t you dare change it.”

And to enforce this opinion, to ensure that it’s really, really clear just how much contempt this certain segment of the fan population holds for any lead protagonist that isn’t a white, heterosexual, able-bodied, neurotypical, cismale, they do everything they can to tear down them down.

They do this by calling that character a ‘Mary Sue.’

When fan fiction author Paula Smith first used the term ‘Mary Sue’ in her 1973 story A Trekkie’s Tale, she was making a commentary on the frequent appearance of original characters in Star Trek fan fiction. Now, I’m going to hazard that most of these characters existed as a masturbatory avatar – wanna bone Spock? (And, um, you know, let’s face it who didn’t?) They you write a story where a character representing you gets to bone Spock.

And if they weren’t a sexual fantasy, then they were an adventure fantasy. Wanna be an officer on the Enterprise? Well, it’s the flagship of the Starfleet, so you better be good enough to get there. Chekov was the youngest navigator in Starfleet history, Uhura is the most tonally sensitive officer in linguistics, and Jim Kirk’s genius burned like a magnesium flare – your self-representative character would have to keep up to earn thier place on that bridge. This led to a slew of hyper sexualized, physically idealized, and unrealistically competent author-based characters populating the fan fiction of the time.

But inserting a trumped-up version of yourself into a narrative wasn’t invented in the 1970s. Aeneas was totally Virgil’s Mary Sue in his Iliad knock off. Dante was such a fanboy of the The Bible that he wrote himself into an adventure exploring it. Robin Hood’s merry men and King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table kept growing in number and characteristics with each retelling. Even painters have inserted themselves into commissioned pictures for centuries.

This isn’t new. This is not a recent human impulse.

But what Paula Smith and the Mary Sue-writing fan ficcers didn’t know at the time was that they were crystallizing what it means to be an engaged consumer of media texts, instead of just a passive one. They had isolated and labelled what it means to be so affected by a story, to love it so much that this same love bubbles up out of you and you have to do something about it, either in play, or in art. For example: in pretending to be a ninja turtle on the play ground, or in trying to recreate the perfect version of a star fleet uniform to wear, or in creating art and making comics depicting your favorite moments or further adventures of the characters you love, or writing stories that encompass missing moments from the narratives.

‘Mary Sues’ are, at their center, a celebration of putting oneself and one’s own heart, and one’s own enjoyment of a media text, first.

Before I talk about why this certain segment of the fan population deploys the term ‘Mary Sue’ the way it does, let’s take a closer look at this impulse for participatory play.

Here’s the sixty four thousand dollar question: where do ‘Mary Sues’ come from?

I’d like you take a moment to think back at the sorts of games you enjoyed when you were about seven years old. Think back. Picture yourself outside, playing with your siblings, or the neighbour’s kids or you cousins. What are you doing? Playing ball games, chase games, and probably something with a narrative? Are you Power Rangers? Are you flying to Neverland with Peter Pan? Are you fighting Dementors and Death Eaters at Hogwarts? Are you the newest members of One Direction, are you Jem and the Holograms or the Misfits? Are you running around collecting Pokémon back before running around and collecting Pokémon IRL was a thing?

That, guys, gals and non-binary pals, is where Mary Sues come from. That’s it. It’s as easy as that.

As a child you didn’t know that modern literary tradition pooh-poohs self-analogous characters, or that realism was required for depth of character. All you knew was that you wanted to be a part of that story, right.  If you wanted to be a train with Thomas and Friends, then you were a train. If you wanted to be a magic pony from Equestria, you were a pony. Or, you know, if you were trying to appease two friends at once, then you were a pony-train.

Self-insert in childhood games teach kids the concept of elastic play, and this essential ability to imagine oneself in skins that are not one’s own, and to stretch and reshape narratives is what breeds creativity and storytelling. It shapes compassion.

Now, think of your early stories. As a child we all told and wrote stories about doing what, to us, were mundane everyday things - like getting ice cream with the fictional characters we know and love.

My friend’s three year old tells his father bed time stories about going on walks through Home Hardware with his friends, the anthropomorphized versions of the local taco food truck and the commuter train his dad takes to work every morning. He doesn’t recognize the difference between real and fictional people (or for him, in this case, the stand-ins that are the figures that loom large in his life right now as a three year old obsessed with massive machines). When you ask him to tell you a story, he talks about these fictions as if they’re real. And he does not hesitate to insert himself into the tale. “I did this. I did that. We went there and then had this for lunch.” He is present in all his own stories because, at this age, he understands the world only from his limited personal POV.

As we grow up, we do learn to differentiate between fantasy and reality. But, I posit that we never truly loose that “me too!” mentality. We see something amazing happening on the screen, or on the page, or on a playing field, and we want to be there, a part of it.

So we sort ourselves into Hogwarts Houses. We choose hockey teams to love, and we wear their jerseys.  We buy ball caps from our favorite breweries. We line up for hours to be the first to watch a new release or to buy a certain smartphone. We collect stamps and baseball cards and first editions of Jane Austen and Dan Brown. We want to be a part of it. Our capitalist, consumer society tells us to prove our love with our dollars, and we do it.

And for fan creators, we want to be a part of it so badly that we’re willing to make more of it. Not for profit, but for sheer love. And for the early writers, the newbies, the blossoming beginners, Mary Sues are where they generally start. Because those are the sorts of stories they’ve been telling yourselves for years already.

But as we get older, as we consume more media texts and find more things to adore, we begin to notice a dearth of representation – you’re not pony trains in our minds any more. We have a better idea of what we look like. And we don’t see it. The glorious fantasy diversity of our childhoods is stripped away, narratives are codified by the mainstream media texts we consume, and people stop looking like us.

I’m reminded of a story I read on Tumblr, of a young black author living in Africa – whose name, I’m afraid, I wasn’t able to find when I went back to look for it, so my apologies to her. The story is about the first time she tried to write a fairytale in elementary school. She made her protagonist a little white girl, and when she was asked why she hadn’t chosen to make the protagonist back, this author realized that it hadn’t even occurred to her that she was allowed make her lead black. Even though she was surrounded by people of color, the adventures, and romance, and magic in everything she consumed only happened to the white folks. She did not know she was allowed to make people like her the heroes because she had never seen it.

This is not natural. This is nurture, not nature. This is learned behavior. And this is hegemony.

No child grows up believing they don’t have place in the story. This is something were are taught. And this is something that we are taught by the media texts we consume.

I do want to pause and make a point here. There isn’t anything fundamentally wrong with writing a narrative from the heterosexual, able bodied, neurotypical, white cismale POV in and of itself. I think we all have stories that we know and love that feature that particular flavor of protagonist. And people from that community deserve to tell their stories as much as folks from any other community.

The problem comes from a reality where when it’s the only narrative. The default narrative. The factory setting. When people who don’t see themselves reflected in the narrative nonetheless feel obligated to write such stories, instead of their own. When they are told and taught that it is the only story worth telling. ‎

There’s this really great essay by Ika Willis, and it’s called “. And I think it’s the one – one of the most important pieces of writing not only on Mary Sues, but on the dire need for representation in general.

In the essay, Willis talks about Mary Sues – beyond being masturbatory adventure avatars for young people just coming into their own sexuality, or avatars to go on adventures with – but as voice avatars. Mary Sues, when wielded with self-awareness, deliberateness, and precision, can force a wedge into the narrative, crack it open, and provide a space for marginalized identities and voices in a media-text that otherwise silences and ignores them.

This is done one of two ways. First: by jamming in a diverse Mary Sue, and making the characters and the world acknowledge and work with that diversity. Or, second: by co-opting a pre-existing character and overlaying a new identity on them while retaining their essential characterization. For example, by writing a story where Bilbo Baggins is non-binary, but still thinking that adventures are messy, dirty things. Or making Sherlock Holmes deaf, but still perfectly capable of solving all the crimes. Or making James Potter Indian, so that the Dursleys prejudiced against Harry not only for his magic, but also for his skin color. Or making Ariel the mermaid wrestle with severe body dysphoria, or Commander Sheppard suffer from severe PTSD.

I like to call this voice avatar Mary Sue a ‘Meta-Sue’, because when authors have evolved enough in their storytelling abilities to consciously deploy Mary Sues as a deliberate trope, they’re doing so on a self-aware, meta-textual level.

So that is where Mary Sues comes from.

But what is a Mary Sue? How can you point at a character and say, “Yes, that is – definitively – a Mary Sue”.

Mary Sues can generally be characterized as:

-Too perfect, or unrealistically skilled. They shouldn’t be able to do all the things they do, or know all the things they know, as easily as they do or know them. For reasons of the plot expedience, they learn too fast, and are able to perform feats that other characters in their world who have studied or trained longer and harder find difficult. For example, Neo in The Matrix.

-They are the black hole of every plot – every major quest or goal of the pre-existing characters warps to include or be about them; every character wants to befriend them, or romance them, or sleep with them, and every villain wants to possess them, or kill them, or sleep with them. This makes sense, as why write a character into the world if you’re not going to have something very important happen to them? So, for example, like Neo in The Matrix.

-A Mary Sue, because it’s usually written by a neophyte author who’s been taught that characters need flaws, has some sort of melodramatic, angsty tragic back-story that, while on the surface seems to motivate them into action, because of lack of experience in creating a follow-through of emotional motivation, doesn’t actually affect their mental health or ability to trust or be happy or in love. For example, like the emotional arc of Neo in The Matrix.

– A Mary Sue saves the day. This goes back to that impulse to be the center of the story. Like Neo in The Matrix.

-And lastly, Mary Sues come from outside the group. They’re from the ‘real world’, like you and I, or have somehow discovered the hero’s secret identity and must be folded into the team, or are a new recruit, or are a sort of previously undiscovered stand-alone Chosen One. Like, for example, Neo in The Matrix.

Now, as I’ve said, there’s actually nothing inherently wrong with writing a Mary Sue. Neo is a Mary Sue, but The Matrix is still a really engaging and well written film. And simply by virtue of the fact that an individual with ingrained cultural foundations is writing a story, that story is inherently rooted in that writer’s lived life and experiences. As much as a writer may try to either highlight or downplay it, each character and story they create has some of themselves in it. The first impulse of storytelling is to talk about oneself. We write about ourselves, only the more we write, the more skilled we become at disguising the sliver of us-ness in a character, folding it into something different and unique. We, as storytellers, as humans, empathize with protagonists and fictional characters constantly – we love putting our feet into other people’s shoes. It’s how we understand and engage with the world.

And we as writers tap into our own emotions in order to describe them on the page. We take slices of our lives – our experiences, our memories, our friend’s verbal tics or hand gestures, aunt Brenda’s way of making tea, Uncle Rudy’s way having a pipe after dinner, that time Grannie got lost at the zoo – and we weave them together into a golem that we call a character, which comes to life with a bit of literary magic. I mean, allow me to be sparklingly reductionist for a second, but in the most basic sense, every character is a Mary Sue.

It’s just a matter of whether the writer has evolved to the point  in their craft that they’ve learned to animate that golem with the sliver of self-ness hidden deep enough that it is unrecognizable as self-ness, but still recognizable as human-ness.

For years, mainstream western media has featured characters that were primarily heterosexual, able bodied, neurotypical, white cismales. And, regrettably, because of that, this flavor of human is now assumed to be the default for a character. When people from other communities speak up requesting other flavours, for characters for whom the imbedded sliver of humanity remains just as poignant and relatable, but the outer shell is of a different variety, this is when that certain segment of the fan population looses their cool.

That certain segment of the fan population has been telling us for years that if we don’t like what we see on TV or in video games, or in books, or comics, or on the stage, that we should just go make our own stuff. And now we are.

“Make your own stuff,” they say, and then follow it up with: “What’s with all this political correctness gone wild? Uhg. This stuff is all just Mary Sue garbage.”

Well, yes. Of course it is. That’s the point.

But why are they saying it like that?

Because they mean it in a derogatory sense.

They don’t mean it in the way that Paula Smith meant it – a little bit belittling but mostly fun; a bemused celebration of why we love putting ourselves into the stories and worlds we enjoy. They don’t mean it the way that Willis means it – a deliberate and knowing way to shove the previously marginalized into the center. They don’t even mean it the way that I mean it in my own work - as a tool for carefully deconstructing and discussing character and narrative with a character and from within a narrative.

When a certain segment of the fan population talks about ‘Mary Sue’, they mean to weaponize it. To make it a stand-in for the worse thing that a character can be: bland, predictable, and too-perfect. Which, granted, many Mary Sues are. But not all of them. And a character doesn’t have to be a Mary Sue to be done badly, either.

When this certain segment of the fan population says ‘Mary Sue’, they’re trying to shame the creators for deviating from the norm - the white, the heterosexual, the able bodied, the neurotypical, the straight cismale.

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: “I don’t believe people like this are interesting enough to be the lead character in a story.”

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: “I don’t think there’s any need to listen to that voice. They’re not interesting enough.”

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: “This character is not what I am used to a.k.a. not like me, and I’m gonna whine about it.”

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: “Even though kids from all over the world, from many different cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds have had to grow up learning to identify with characters who don’t look or think like them, identifying with characters who don’t look or think like me is hard and I don’t wanna.”

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: ”Even though I’ve grown up in a position of privilege and power, and even though publishing and producing diverse stories with diverse casts doesn’t actually cut into the proportionate representation that I receive, and never will, I am nonetheless scared that I’ll never see people like me in media texts ever again.”

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: “Considering my fellow human beings as fellow human beings worthy of having stories about them and their own experiences, in their own voices, is hard and I don’t wanna do it.”

When this certain segment of the population says ‘Mary Sue,’ what they’re really saying is: “I only want stories about me.”

They call leads ‘Mary Sues’ so people will stop writing them and instead write… well, their version of a ‘Mary Sue.’ The character that is representative of their lived experiences, their power and masturbatory fantasies, their physical appearance, their sexual awakenings, their cultural identity, their voice, their kind of narratives.

Missing, of course, that the point of revisionist and inclusive narratives aren’t to shove out previous incarnations, but to coexist alongside them. It’s not taking away one entrée and offering only another – it’s building a buffet.

Okay, so who actually cares if these trolls call these diverse characters Mary Sues?

Well, unfortunately, because this certain segment of the population have traditionally been the group most listened-to by the mainstream media creators and the big money, their opinions have power. (Never mind that they’re not actually the biggest group of consumers anymore, nor no longer the most vocal.)

So, this is where you come in.

You have the power to take the Mary Sue from the edge of the narrative and into the centre. And you do can do this by normalizing it. Think back to that author who didn’t think little black girls were allowed to be the heroes of fairy tales. Now imagine how much different her inner world, her imagination might have been at the stage when she was first learning to understand her own self-worth, if she had seen faces like hers on the television, in comics, in games, and on the written page every day of her life.

And not just one or two heroes, but a broad spectrum of characters that run the gamut from hero to villain, from fragile to powerful, from straight to gay, and every other kind of intersectional identity.

You have the power to give children the ability to see themselves.

Multi-faceted representation normalizes the marginalized.

And if you have the privilege to be part of the passing member of the mainstream, then weaponize your privilege. Refuse to work with publishers, or websites, or conventions that don’t also support diverse creators. Put diverse characters in your work, and do so thoughtfully and with the input of the people from the community you are portraying. And if you’re given the opportunity to submit or speak at an event, offer to share the microphone.

The first thing I did when actor Burn Gorman got a Twitter account was to Tweet him  my thanks for saving the world in Pacific Rim while on a cane. As someone who isn’t as mobile as the heroes I see in action films - who knows for a fact that when the zombie apocalypse comes I will not be a-able to outrun the monsters – it meant so much to me that his character was not only an integral and vital member of the team who cancelled the apocalypse, but also that not once in the film did someone call him a cripple, or tell him he couldn’t participate because of his disability, or leave him behind.

Diversity matters.

Not because it’s a trendy hashtag, or a way to sell media texts to a locked-down niche market, but because every single human being deserves to be told that they have a voice worth listening to; a life worth celebrating and showcasing in a narrative; a reality worth acknowledging and accepting and protecting; emotions that are worth exploring and validating; intelligence that is worth investing in and listening to; and a capacity to love that is worth adoring.

White, heterosexual, neurotypical, able-bodied cismales are not the only people on the planet who are human.

And you have a right to tell your story your way.

Calling something a ‘Mary Sue’ in order to dismiss it out of hand, as an excuse to hate something before even seeing it, is how the trolls bury your Narrative and your Identity.  We are storytellers, all of us. Every person in this room. Whether your wheel house is in fiction, or academia, or narrative non-fiction, we impart knowledge and offer experience through the written word, through the telling of tales, through leading a reader from one thought to another.

And we none of deserve to be shouted down, talked over, or dismissed. No one can tell you that your story isn’t worth telling. Of course it is. It’s yours.

And don’t let anyone call your characters, or your work, or you a ’Mary Sue’ in the derogatory sense ever again. Or I am going to scream.