#excellent commentary

[brother-emperors]

DO NOT BE AFRAID

this is combining Ovid's Heroides and the Excidium Troie because I can't stop thinking of Hermes telling him not to be afraid. what the fuck!! Ares is wearing the crown that Paris gave him.

I have. thoughts. about Paris. he's almost got this Troilos parallel in my mind, that the event that defines him in detail exists in a lost narrative that we don't have (the Cypria), but everyone else knew. the event that defines Troilos is his death (murdered, butchered by Achilles, the violence of which haunts everything after. Achilles, child killer, you can't escape that!), and the event that defines Paris is the Judgement. what's a lost text but a kind of grave!!

idk I don't think that Paris before the Judgement would recognize himself after bc when you become god touched, it rearranges your guts. you become transformed in the worst way possible! how could you recognize yourself! but I also think that all the Parises after the Judgement would recognize each other because that event is so locked into the trauma of war and the scar it leaves on the land, it's like a scar on the narrative too. it exists like this forever, over and over again, so you exist like that forever too. Troy collects grief and despairs.

Troy as trauma: Reflections on intergenerational transmission and the locus of trauma, Andromache Karanika

and Paris is like. a miserable little god/corpse-puppet or something, like a match for the gods to throw onto gasoline.

The Excidium Troie + Ovid's Heroides:

Excidium Troie, trans. Muhammad Syarif Fadhlurrahman

Ovid, Heroides 16 (trans. Harold Isbell)

a collection of things regarding Paris that made me go 😬 but under a cut bc this is getting. very long.

The Divine Twins in Early Greek Poetry, Corolla Torontonensis

Iliad 24 and the Judgement of Paris, C.J. Mackie

Elegy and Epic and the Recognition of Paris: Ovid "Heroides" 16, Elizabeth Forbis Mazurek

Ennian Influence in "Heroides" 16 and 17, Howard Jacobson

Paris/Alexandros in the "Iliad", I. J. F. de Jong

[lickingyellowpaint]

[opera-ghost]

Could we get a compilation of times Jeremy Stolle heard “slut” when the director called “cut”? 👀

(ask is referencing this post) yes! in my research i found myself only able to focus on this one specific show towards the end of the broadway run, amazingly captured by @angelofmusicishere. and you can see why

like. come on. the flourish when he grabs the hat? the unwavering eye contact? the cape flip????????

slutcullis sprawl. (also him lingering after,,,,,,,)

dude is getting his shit ROCKED

and then he's just annoying! (slut)

and as a bonus, i have to include that time he went feral when half the set pieces stopped working during the first lair

[shittywriterbrain]

i want u so bad our flag means death dvd release

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

me? watching dhmis for the 'nth time? its more likely than you think

[antirepurp]

kieran over the course of indigo disk: it's not fair that Player gets everything and i get nothing after i've tried and worked so hard to get somewhere, i want to have something this once

kieran at the end: no it's ok Player can have the legendary pokemon it's okay they have everything i want to have and i get nothing like im some kind of npc or something

[jelly-o630]

Spoilers for Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods

I’m about 3/4s of of the way through Small Gods en and I’m at the part where library is burning down and everyone’s trying to escape to Ankh-Morpork and in my head I was thinking ‘okey so they managed to save hundreds of scrolls using Brutha’s perfect memory and every character we care about is escaping to live in a safe city where Om can maybe become a big god again- okey I can see how this book is going to end, kinda bittersweet with the burning of Ephebe but the characters we like are free and there’ll probably be more wisdom about the nature of religion in this last quarter of the book which may very well be a slow ending about the characters we like having a happy ending’ BUT THEN they start taking about putting Vorbis on god damn TRIAL for what’s he’s done and Brutha being 100% precent for it and I’m just here like HoLy sHiT he’s actually gonna do it HOLY SHIT TERRY PRATCHETT IS GONNA HAVE HIS RELIGIOUS LEADER CHARACTER LOOK HIS ACTIONS IN THE GODDAMN EYE AND MAYBE NOT REALIZE WHAT HE’S DONE BUT HAVE MOST EVERYONE ELSE IN OMNIA REALIZE AND THEY WILL FINALLY BE FREE OF THE FAKE SURENESS AND FEAR OF THEIR LIVES VORBIS WILL FACE ACTUAL REAL CONSEQUENCES FOR HIS ACTIONS OH MY GOD OH MY GOD TERYY I UNDERSTAND WHY THEY KNIGHTED YOU

[cinamun]

I totally agree that Bishop is super toxic/abusive & manipulative and NEEDS to d*e. But I'm curious to why Mercy hasn't attempted to even look at another man, not really. She didn't seem afraid of Bishop at the club, but I know that doesn't mean she isn't. Is she just like this is good dick so I don't need to try other men? Or is she scared that Bishop will unalive her/any man she even attempts to date? Or is a shallow relationship that can't go any where w/ good sex all she wants bc of Jackson?

Your honor, if I may, I'd like to draw your attention to exhibit A, The Club™

FRIEND!! I'm so glad you brought up the club!! Not just because it was a super fun scene to do, but because LOOK AT MERCY! So confident, so carefree, so about-to-probably-let-Sean-smash!

What happened? She was absolutely "attempting" to explore things outside of Bishop (who, mind you, was her first whatever-the-hell-this-is since her husband's untimely passing) because she had Indya's help!

Your honor, if I can direct the viewers' attention to exhibit B, The Dating App™

Indya was helping her to believe that she CAN have a meaningful love outside of Jackson Carruthers, Jazz Pianist.

But Indya has 3 children and one of them experienced a horrible, horrible tragedy so her attention was obviously elsewhere.

And here we are......

Mercy lacks the confidence she had in the club. But now that her and Indya are close again with these grandbabies, can she confide in her? Can Indya pick up where she left off and help Mercy escape...? yadda yadda yadda ghettoball z.

[mmmmalo]

In reply to that post building on @burn-the-retcon's supposition that the Horah at the Rosemary wedding was primarily instigated by the Tricksters, @zenosanalytic says:

I think we shouldn't lose sight here of how making Rose canonically Jewish was an act of fan-service. Jewish Rose headcanons go back to when I got into the fandom in 2012, and Rose Hanukah fanart was as much a yearly tradition as christmas sweater fanart

I think that's difficult to prove! Even if Hussie regularly drew headcanons and fan theorization into the fold of the story, one could just as easily call it the realization of those breezy references to Jewish weddings that Dave made much earlier in the story: "see that little bottle // stomp on that shit like its on fire // noisy ethnic dudes are flipping the fuck out and waving us around on chairs til someone gets hurt" (1099). That feels consistent with the Trickster reading, even if their "ethnic" deviation from the comic's ostensible araciality seems to make them white -- enough so that I can't really regard the wedding as an unambiguous canonization of Rose's Judaism, even if that's how a lot of fans read the panel.

There's absolutely a strong case to be made that Rose's story contains Jewish motifs (eg Freud, motherhood as it intersects with the feminazi meme complex, perhaps even that bottle Rose breaks 50 pages after Dave makes the wedding joke). But similar motifs permeate the story outside of Rose to a degree that her being a medium for the story's rhetorical misappropriation of Judaism doesn't persuade me that Rose has been made canonically Jewish. I would phrase it like... the story's preoccupation with bigot's fantasies of corruption results in it periodically threatening the reader with the idea of Rose being Jewish? Or else threatening the reader with encroaching Judaism, via Rose -- this is how I would frame John's suspicious reactions to Rose's playful psychoanalysis, for instance. Similarly, Lil Cal is introduced as the threat of collision between white and black (Chuck Norris and Mr. T handcuffed together a few pages prior), despite the inability of the reader to assign an official race to a puppet. This motif was recycled in Pesterquest by Dave claiming to be "racially ambiguous"; he neither accepts nor rejects headcanons about his race but instead /teases/ them in a provocative manner

[newtrekcriticisms]

This is going to be a bit long, and I apologise for that.

I’m seeing lots of people saying they’re tired of people calling SNW Spock “straight”. Consequentially, I am tired of people acting like there is no valid criticism to be made about SNW Spock’s bizarre hypersexualised relationships with women. But let’s focus on the former complaint for a moment.

Mostly, I’m seeing the position that those who are unhappy with how Spock’s relationships with women are being depicted are being biphobic; the implication being that Spock has demonstrated attraction to both women and men, and that him liking women should not erase his attraction to men, and that Spock should be allowed to love whomever he loves. And that would be a very valid and important criticism, something which I myself would stand by. Except for the fact that nowhere in all of Star Trek has Spock actually been depicted as being attracted to men.

I realise that what I just said could be equally provoking to both sides of this ongoing debate, so let me make some things very clear. I need all of us to admit that we understand that Spock, in any iteration, was never actually gay. He has never actually been, at any point, canonically attracted to men. I know we believe that he is. I know Spock’s sexuality—not his orientation, but his relationship to romance and sex as whole—has been depicted rather vaguely since TOS, and I know we as LGBT people therefore feel, some of us very strongly, that he is even coded as gay. We’ve seen all the iconic moments: we all saw the Search for Spock and the one with the whales. And we should all understand that interpreting Spock’s relationship with Kirk through a romantic lens is a thoroughly valid reading of their relationship. But we also need to understand that mlm Spock is only true in our heads, in our stories and art. Yes, people have been exploring the relationship between Kirk and Spock in a romantic way since the 1960s, as was the dawn of fandom culture. No, that does not make it anymore real. To the writers of Star Trek, from the 60s to now, the iconic character of Spock is, has been, and always will be understood to be heterosexual. I need everyone to take a step back, be objective, and really recognise that. We can argue day and night about intentions and subtext and implications but when it comes down to it Spock is not actually an LGBT character. He just isn’t. Anyone who says otherwise is living in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Understanding that, we can understand, then, that Spock has only ever been canonically depicted as being attracted to women. In TOS, these moments were sparse, light, one-off romance plots and usually came down to either Spock’s utter indifference or his duty to the Enterprise coming before personal relationships. In SNW, it is a whole new breed of animal. But my point is, there exists no logical grounds upon which to claim that Spock is canonically bisexual. He has only exhibited canonical attraction to women, and his attraction to men only exists in the popular conception of one specific group of Star Trek fans. The size and passion and hopes of this group is irrelevant. Spock is not canonically mlm. Spock is not canonically bisexual. A belief, no matter how strongly held, is not reality.

Therefore, objecting to valid criticisms of SNW Spock’s repeated ooc sexual and physical encounters with T’Pring and Chapel on the basis of biphobia is invalid. There is no actual bisexuality being erased here. I need people to understand that.

To be clear, I do think some people objecting to SNW Spock’s relationships with women are not doing so in good faith. I do believe that some of these people are objecting because they are misogynistic, or think Spock needs to be seen as a “gold star” gay, and are ultimately only objecting because they feel their “ship” is threatened by T’Pring or Chapel merely existing and playing out the scripts that were written for them. I have even seen this fearmongering extend to Uhura in some particularly vile instances of misogynoir. To these people, the “sanctity” of their gay ship is their only concern. I would like to state that I do not align myself with these people, and rather condemn them for their blatant fetishisation and intolerance. Those displaying this sort of behaviour are not allowed to use this post as a shield.

But I digress. My point is that someone taking issue with SNW Spock’s bizarre ooc hypersexual relationships with women on account of them being bizarre, ooc, and hypersexual is not biphobia. Calling SNW Spock “straight” is not biphobia, either. As we have established, Spock is not canonically bisexual. SNW Spock is, very much, being depicted as straight. And in a overwhelming, almost disturbing way.

Now if somewhere down the line Strange New Worlds decided to make Spock canonically attracted to men, i.e. bisexual, I need it to be understood that I would absolutely lose my mind. I cannot think of anything the show could do that would make me happier than that. And I have seen some poor souls who are excited for Kirk to appear in season 2, because they believe something resembling Spirk is going to happen. But in our second reality check for this essay, we need to understand that the chances of that happening—that is, the chances of Spock being depicted as LGBT in any way—is, put gently, extremely, extremely unlikely. Put harshly, it is never going to happen, ever.

And there is a reason why it is never going to happen, ever. The reason is homophobia. I’ve stated a few times before that Spock, even more so than Kirk, is the Star Trek franchise’s golden boy. He is the iconic character to end all iconic characters. There is absolutely no way in hell that the powers that be at Star Trek will ever allow Spock to be depicted as LGBT in any way, shape, or form. They would upset and alienate cishet viewers, which is important to them, and they could possibly lose money, which is even more important to them. In short, the powers that be at Star Trek will never allow Spock to be depicted as LGBT because they are homophobic. They don’t believe in gay Spock. They have no reason to. They don’t subscribe to the interpretation and it therefore doesn’t matter to them. I would venture to say that some if not most of them would react to the idea of gay Spock with confusion at best and disgust at worst. It’s important to recognise that outside of the Spirk circle, nobody knows, or let alone cares, about Spirk.

And, to be clear, “Spock” was only dragged back onto the silver screen in the first place to be paraded in front of the camera so that everyone would say, “Omg Spock!!!!” and thus attract masses of fans who otherwise might not have cared or bothered to watch some mediocre sci-fi show, but now will because, as I said, “Omg Spock!!!!” They chose him as a safe option to draw in viewers. They are not going to let him be gay.

And by god, if anything supports this claim, it is the very specific and intentional way in which Spock’s relationships with women are being depicted. I’ll reiterate that attraction to and sex with women does not in any way preclude Spock from also being attracted to men, but as we’ve established, they are not going to let him be attracted to men canonically. And as I’ve stated in previous posts, there are no good, inclusive intentions here with the way Spock’s relationship with T’Pring is being portrayed. SNW Spock’s heterosexuality—and yes, it is heterosexuality—is intimately portrayed, aggressively asserted, and dominates the character’s entire arc. Not one single character in the show deals with the topic or action of sex more than Spock. Not only that, but the writers went out of their way to deliberately and knowingly transgress established TOS canon specifically to bring T’Pring into the picture. Specifically so that they could depict her and Spock having sex and kissing and being in a very overt, central, and very sexual relationship. SNW Spock’s relationship with T’Pring is, in a word, purposeful. The writers are communicating something to us through the constant fucking. They are reminding us what Spock is. Spock is straight.

Again, these writers do not value or care about LGBT readings of Star Trek. They don’t care what Spock means to the LGBT community. They’re not even altogether concerned with keeping Spock in character for these recurring sexual and romantic escapades. To them, it doesn’t matter how out of character it is for Spock of all fucking people to be smashing puss every other night. The writers are demonstrably doing everything in their power to assert that Spock is a heterosexual. Not secretly bi, not secretly gay. Not questioning, not closeted. They are not leaving room for any interpretation here, and they are doing so deliberately. The whole thing reeks of desperation in a really weird way.

Of course, I have no evidence that can conclusively say that yes, the reason they’re making Spock have so much straight sex on screen is to dissuade people from seeing him as gay. This is just an opinion piece, not a peer-reviewed investigation, and I am just an armchair critic. But speaking from my armchair, I simply cannot come up with any other explanation for why, out of the blue and wildly out of character, Spock is being depicted in this way. I don’t know why Spock’s storylines would revolve around sex in the extremely obtrusive way that it does. I don’t know why this is what they decided to do with this legacy character, who previously had next to nothing to do with sex with the sole exception of Amok Time, which was a once every 7 years thing. As I’ve indicated, this is Spock we’re talking about. The iconic character to end all iconic characters. Star Trek’s golden boy. And this is what they decide to do with him? Of all the things they could have possibly done? It’s borderline inexplicable. What is presented in the paragraphs above is only my best attempt at an explanation. It’s one that I think makes sense, but only the writers of Strange New Worlds truly know what their intentions are with Spock.

In summary, Spock’s hypersexualised relationships with women on Strange New Worlds is a valid cause for criticism. It is not biphobic to be confused, disappointed, or upset about Spock’s depiction on SNW, as Spock is not and was never canonically mlm, and the writers very clearly would like us to remember that. Of course, I say fuck them. I’ll continue to enjoy Nimoy’s Spock as preserved in TOS, and I’ll continue interpreting him as gay because it’s what I personally believe. You too can continue to have whatever headcanons or theories you have about Spock’s sexuality, even on SNW, and what his future on that show might entail. You can even continue rooting for SNW Spirk in season 2 if you want (although I would ask you if you really think Ethan Peck and Paul Wesley can really give you anything half as heartfelt and touching as Spock and Jim’s interactions in the TOS movies, and if it’s really worth caring about, but that’s just me).

Ultimately Spock’s portrayal in SNW is divisive, and people are probably never going to agree whether his sexually charged plotlines are right or wrong, in character or out of character. But I hope we can at least understand after all these paragraphs that slinging accusations of biphobia against those attempting to address this issue is uncalled for. The issue lies not in the possibility that Spock could be bisexual rather than gay, but in the fact that the writers would clearly have us understand he is neither. That’s what I’m upset about.

[storkmuffin]

This was a surprisingly fun watch for me, a S. Korean, and I am very charmed that he calls it resilience and not a more pejorative term, even if he makes us sound a bit like the Borg.

Always find a way huh?

Okay.

[capitalism-and-analytics]

[away-ward]

Bonus, F3 trying failing to hide their laughter

[shimmerbeasts]

"Top Hat, you literally own a camera", Jinx said and turned the oneway camera around in her hands, "And I took the picture, duh! Not my fault, you and Fat Hands were a bit dizzy and groggy, so no wonder, it slipped your mind."

@piltover-sharpshooter

[hall0wedwyrm]

recently getting a huge kick out of people analysing Sans of all things???

like... can we all agree that Sans is genuinely such a good character?? how he seemingly is just another silly guy we meet on our journey but then we realise that he actually is very knowledgeable and then hes the JUDGE and he determines (no pun intended ironically) whether we are worthy of going past him... but then that ALSO turns out to have a deeper meaning too.