#they combine the focused perception and expressiveness of mccoy and the brutally self-denying calculations of spock

[anghraine]

I know it's well-understood at this point that Kirk/Spock is much more of a nerd4nerd ship than a nerd/jock thing, but it's just been kind of percolating around my mind that both of them aren't just space nerds but space nerds who were personally bullied.

Like, 18-year-old Kirk was targeted by an older bully who combines "total asshole" with "the most grating man in existence":

MCCOY: Well, yeah, I'm beginning to feel a little bit picked-on, if that's what you mean. KIRK: I know the feeling very well. I had it at the Academy. An upperclassman there. One practical joke after another, and always on me. My own personal devil. A guy by the name of Finnegan. MCCOY: And you being the very serious young— KIRK: Serious? I'll make a confession, Bones. I was absolutely grim, which delighted Finnegan no end.

This was five years after Kirk survived a genocide, btw, and likely well before his stint as an Academy instructor known to be strict and demanding (which is the period the "stack of books with legs" description of him comes from). By the time he's 33, fifteen years after all this, it turns out one of his deepest fantasies is just beating the shit out of his bully, but only if he can do it According To The Rules (the replica of Finnegan sneers, "Always fight fair, don't you? True officer and gentleman, you").

Spock, meanwhile, is viciously targeted by his Vulcan peers for being biracial from at least age 5; he's described as being tormented by other boys by that age, and "at home nowhere except Starfleet." I think he'd have been 18 or 19 when he left for Starfleet and it's... the least bad of his options, but he seems to have spent his entire career among humans and being persistently subjected to raw racism and profound disrespect for his culture at every turn.

Like, their histories of being metaphorically shoved into lockers are not identical or anything, but I think it's interesting that they both have them.

[tocautiouslygo]

#i feel like kirk and mccoy are generally seen as more temperamentally aligned despite kirk being emotionally closer to spock #spock representing cold logic and kirk and mccoy as the passionate emotional ones #but i feel like a) spock is wildly emotional just repressed. and coolly utilitarian in philosophy. and usually undemonstrative. #b) mccoy is highly intelligent and sometimes VERY much the voice of reason #(not typically cool rationality but certainly reason - he puts together clues that the others don't see on multiple occasions #he's not as easily derailed by obscuring details or over-cerebral analysis paralysis as the other two imo) #c) but mccoy sometimes struggles with the really big emotional shit and spock is more on kirk's emotional wavelength there #(this is especially obvious in conscience of the king and turnabout intruder but not only there - in both mccoy resists seeing #the full horror of the violations of the most basic rights that kirk has endured while spock is much more sensitive to those things) #and d) kirk is emotionally expressive but typically more cautious and measured in judgment than either of the others #more likely to formulate positions in terms of philosophical principles than mccoy's kneejerk sense of decency #(which sometimes is exactly what's needed and sometimes disastrously lacking in rigor and reflection) #or spock's often brutally utilitarian focus on outcomes that runs roughshod over... like. everyone. #that's why kirk is the mediator; he's not at the exact midpoint in every dispute #but broadly his personality and strengths/weaknesses fall pretty evenly between spock and mccoy #(interestingly i think this is especially noticeable with kirk's infamous seductions - which are rarely motivated by simple desire #they combine the focused perception and expressiveness of mccoy and the brutally self-denying calculations of spock #when sylvia exclaims that he seems warm and passionate but his mind is cold it's like... yeah. softly lit femme fatale james t kirk #it's like the unholy side of kirk's overall approach borrowing pretty equally from both mccoy and spock) #ANYWAY the point is that i don't think kirk is actually more similar to mccoy than he is to spock #and in particular his tendency to repress the horrors and focus on useful concrete action are very akin to spock

(tags via op)

I know it's well-understood at this point that Kirk/Spock is much more of a nerd4nerd ship than a nerd/jock thing, but it's just been kind of percolating around my mind that both of them aren't just space nerds but space nerds who were personally bullied.

Like, 18-year-old Kirk was targeted by an older bully who combines "total asshole" with "the most grating man in existence":

MCCOY: Well, yeah, I'm beginning to feel a little bit picked-on, if that's what you mean. KIRK: I know the feeling very well. I had it at the Academy. An upperclassman there. One practical joke after another, and always on me. My own personal devil. A guy by the name of Finnegan. MCCOY: And you being the very serious young— KIRK: Serious? I'll make a confession, Bones. I was absolutely grim, which delighted Finnegan no end.

This was five years after Kirk survived a genocide, btw, and likely well before his stint as an Academy instructor known to be strict and demanding (which is the period the "stack of books with legs" description of him comes from). By the time he's 33, fifteen years after all this, it turns out one of his deepest fantasies is just beating the shit out of his bully, but only if he can do it According To The Rules (the replica of Finnegan sneers, "Always fight fair, don't you? True officer and gentleman, you").

Spock, meanwhile, is viciously targeted by his Vulcan peers for being biracial from at least age 5; he's described as being tormented by other boys by that age, and "at home nowhere except Starfleet." I think he'd have been 18 or 19 when he left for Starfleet and it's... the least bad of his options, but he seems to have spent his entire career among humans and being persistently subjected to raw racism and profound disrespect for his culture at every turn.

Like, their histories of being metaphorically shoved into lockers are not identical or anything, but I think it's interesting that they both have them.