#valiant

[fatalism-and-villainy]

Something I love about DS9’s framing of Jake Sisko is how he’s consistently positioned as someone worthy of protection, whose survival and flourishing and emotional well-being are of tantamount importance, and whose innocence and vulnerability are precious.

It’s present from all directions in The Visitor. Everybody protectively closes ranks around Jake upon Ben’s disappearance, with those little moments of Dax and Kira and Bashir giving him physical affection and reassurance and Quark going out of his way to be nice to him. Jake’s older self’s protective impulses towards his younger self, as well as his desire to save his father, are the basis for the timeline reset. And then after the spacetime continuum gets wrenched back in line purely to save Jake from the emotional trauma of losing his father, the episode ends with Ben, who’s borne witness to everything and is the only one who remembers it all, continuing that work of shielding Jake from that knowledge.

And then Nor the Battle to the Strong carries on the thread of protectiveness towards Jake, in that case as part of the episode’s deconstruction of military heroism. As he’s marinating in shame over bailing on the mission to retrieve the generator, Bashir apologizes to him and says he was wrong to put Jake in harm’s way in the first place. And then at the end, he wakes up after sealing the cave entranceway and both Bashir and his father are tenderly looking after him, with similar imagery to The Visitor in terms of him being symbolically cradled by the other cast members’ concern for him. He never needs to toughen up or grow out of that need to be rescued - in fact, his fear and panic and feelings of being out of his depth prove to be immensely valuable, as his last conversation with his father emphasizes, because he’s able to bear witness to the experience of the soldiers through his writing.

That comes through in a really interesting way in Valiant as well, with Jake’s emphatic concern for his own survival in the midst of all the culty militaristic weirdness of the Valiant crew:

Nog: You don’t understand, because you’ve never put on one of these uniforms. You don’t know anything about sacrifice, or honor, or duty, or any other things that make up a soldier’s life. I’m part of something larger than myself. All you care about is you.

Jake: That’s right. All I care about is Jake Sisko and whether or not he’s going to be killed by a bunch of delusional fanatics looking for martyrdom.

And I love that exchange not only because it’s a rare articulation of how I would actually feel in a situation like that in a franchise full of characters who are all prepared to sacrifice themselves in the line of duty, but also because in the context of the episode, Jake’s position is actually the heroic one! It’s his sense of self-preservation, and the fact that he hasn’t romanticized the notion of heroic sacrifice, that enables him to see through the dogmatic ideology of the Valiant cadets and recognize how dangerously out of their depth they are. And it’s just a nice articulation of his own worth.

(And of course the Defiant rescues them at the end, because Jake’s grown up now, but he hasn’t outgrown needing his father to save him. And that’s never a shameful thing, but a really beautiful thing, and necessary to the fabric of the show.)

[artchael]

"Your servant? You sacked me."

"Now I'm rehiring you."

DAY 1: SACK @merlinktober masterlist / day 2 ->

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Plymouth XNR Concept, 1960. Designed by Virgil M. Exner and built by Carrozzeria Ghia, the XNR made its first public appearance at the New York Auto Show.  It used the chassis and Slant-6 engine from the Valiant, both of which were new for the 1960 model year.

[nerdgatehobbit]

Here are four screencaps from the scene in "Valiant" where Gwen explains armor to Merlin.

[mr-merlin]

“How can you go out there and fight like that?” “Because I have to. It’s my duty.”

[surfer-roo01]

Photo: wayne priestly

[witchmd13]

forgot how agitated arthur was by merlin's general existance in valient lmao he was clearly too nervous and merlin wouldn't shut up. i love how that becomes their own private ritual later. they exist in that bubble before every fight or war or anything dangerous they have to do. how arthur learns how to gauge merlin's mood during from those moments and just know what merlin's thinking. how merlin always choses to voice his opinion then. how if they were in a fight that's when they probably make up. i missed them so much.

[letmeliveinelfhame]

I promise I'm normal 😭

[bigboppa01]

Valiant Charger Hemi 265 R/T:

The Chrysler Valiant Charger was a two-door hardtop coupe introduced by Chrysler Australia in 1971. It was a short wheelbase version of the concurrent Australian Chrysler Valiant sedan. Introduced within the VH Valiant series, it continued as a variant through the subsequent VJ, VK and CL series, until production ceased in 1978. It was marketed and badged as the Valiant Charger in the VH and VJ series and as the Chrysler Charger in the later VK and CL series.

[stinkerbee]

You smiled and it was the most beautiful thing that I'd ever seen And you apologized Then you covered your mouth 'Cause you're insecure about your crooked teeth But can I just say this? I'm kinda glad that you never got braces 'Cause I like your smile just the way it is

Valiant and Orchidthorn are my everything @forgotten-elegy @scoutfire

[spaceshiprocket]

X-O Manowar by Barry Windsor-Smith

[march-hare01]

[frvmewxrk]

just thinking about the valiant again, i think it just shows the simm!master’s very need for the doctor: his attention. he needs him to see what he’s doing, he needs his audience, he had shown the whole thing on tv but the whole human race seeing it wasn’t enough, he needed him. he could’ve easily killed him before or locked him underground when he couldn’t see but no, he kept him there right where he brought his plan to action, he made him see every torture he inflected on the human race, he made him witness him turning his friend’s family into slaves, he made him watch his friend get tortured. he danced with him, he hurt him, he carried him around, he showed him to his wife like a precious trophy, i just know they had so many conversations that always ended in the same way “it’s not over yet” “i’ll kill them all and then you”.

what must have thought lucy about this? the faithful wife that never went against her husband’s wishes, even when he was defeated, watching him treat this alien in the exact same way he did with her, with love, with torture, with callous hands and attentive reverence? what did martha and jack think when they saw the man they considered their saviour, their friend, their equal, lulling the dead body of their capturer in his arms? did that ever change their conception of the doctor? them, that were both in love with him and knew it wasn’t reciprocated, did they realise that this was how the doctor loved? unconditional affection, painful adoration, obsessive needs of control, loyalty to a cause over his very heart. did they appreciate that despite his feelings, he still put the the human race over the master? did they loath him for that? what even happened between them? they’ll never know, he won’t talk about it.

i just need like a whole new spin off for the valiant, it is one of the main reasons i love tensimm so much, they’re both insane and everyone can see it.

[nocternalrandomness]

1942 US Navy Convair SNV-1 Valiant

[mickey-g-classsics]