Keeping up with the Cardassians

35, She/Her, Bristol UK (though originally from Carlisle). I like science fiction, theatre, LARP, and am terrible at describing myself like this.

[firebirdeternal]

"I have never seen a cat that showed affection/love for it's owner" is the pet ownership version of "I don't believe in Female Orgasms they don't exist, after all, my wife has never had one"

[shubbabang]

[noodleddragon]

[hyumjim]

We can try and invent discourse as a joke all we want but nothing will compare to the real home grown takes on here such as hating landfillslop consumerism is actually Catholic

[girldraki]

[lotus-tower]

ilu morgan

[demilypyro]

The thing about really long series is that they start to develop their own tropes. And if they go on long enough, they get the opportunity to subvert their own tropes.

There's a sort of running gag with the Star Trek engineers. Something will need to get done, the captain asks how long it will take, and the engineer gives an estimate. The captain will then say they need it done twice as fast, or more. They then usually pull it off somehow. This is the done thing. TVtropes calls it "Scotty Time", after the engineer from the first series.

We get this same interaction over and over across multiple series, from multiple different pairs of captains and engineers. By the later seasons of Next Generation they're already riffing on it. One scene establishes that the initial estimate is usually actually already longer than they'll actually need, because captains love to pressure their crews and the engineers know this, so getting it done in less time than initially proposed makes them look good. This ritual has by this point been established as Starfleet standard, seen in the original series, Next Generation, and prominently in Deep Space Nine.

So then we get to Star Trek Voyager, and we have our captain Janeway and our chief engineer B'elanna Torres, and we know how this is gonna go. In a season one episode, sure enough, Janeway asks that whatever needs to be done gets done in half the estimated time, and... Torres stops her. No, she says, it takes as long as it takes, it can't be done faster. And her face is dead serious. Janeway is momentarily surprised but doesn't protest. And it's some great characterization for both of them. It establishes Torres as an honest and hard working officer, a straight shooter who doesn't take shortcuts. She'll look her commanding officer in the face and just say the truth. And it establishes Janeway as someone experienced but not incapable of adapting to her crew. She knows how this interaction is supposed to work, but takes Torres at her word, and doesn't repeat this trope for the rest of the series. I like it a lot. Idk end of post

[oneheadtoanother]

[tachyon-log]

(USAmerican trying to imagine a societal environment) Okay, so picture a highway,

[fishmech]

inability to correctly perceive 3d objects is in fact far more dangerous when someone is driving a car next to you then when they're like, sending emails to you.

[bunniope]

can we focus on the gnome for a second

[bunniope]

wait sorry i was not wearing my glasses. that is a cat

[ladyofspoons]

these are the people i have to share a highway with

[fyterx]

[greatcheshire]

Hah. Just pulled a fast one on Hades. He’s going to let us both go. All we have to do is walk one after the other and I don’t have to look back. This is going to be SO easy.

[kevinbikes]

Is she still there?

[greatcheshire]

Of course she’s still there! Why wouldn’t she be? In fact, I’m pretty sure I can hear her still walking behind me! Then again, maybe that’s the sound of my own footsteps…

[lily-valley-hyperfixates]

I mean, it is Hades, lord of the dead. He’s pretty territorial about the souls that cross the Styx. Maybe he pulled a fast one on you?

[greatcheshire]

That’s a good point… why would he let me win? This is a trap, isn’t it? He’s trying to fool me into leaving without her. But no. No, I shouldn’t look. I know she’s right behind me. I just know it… right?

[doggirlpaws]

She's being awfully quiet, isn't she? I wonder what she thinks of all this

[greatcheshire]

That’s a good point…. I can’t hear her anymore. I can hear the walls echoing my feet but not her. Surely she’s not there. I can see the light but I can’t hear her. Maybe just a quick glance back. Just to make sure she’s there. Hades probably won’t even notice. I can’t leave without her. I just gotta be sur-

[greatcheshire]

It’s you

[pillowspace]

thank god for female characters who have something wrong with them amen

[ironlily-art]

How to instantly catch every archer's attention around the world.

[gatheringbones]

dissociating into passive compliance upon becoming angry =\= “never” becoming angry

[gatheringbones]

intellectualizing and pathologizing your anger until you convince yourself it isn’t rational to be angry =/= “never” becoming angry

[demilypyro]

It's always "the corporations are going to put pay walls on your cybernetic legs" or "your cybernetic legs are so dangerous with their built in machine guns and jet feet" and never "your new legs are so stylish and shiny. i love the colour. congrats on being free from chronic pain forever"

[demilypyro]

what kind of idiot would get cybernetic legs without flame decals

[demilypyro]

what I mean: I'm a proud member of the proletariat

what I say: I'm a dirt girl I like to be down here in the dirt

[demilypyro]

what I mean: I feel a strong kinship and community with the marginalized

what I say: us dirt girls gotta stick together

[davros42]

When old comics age extremely well.

[davros42]

We have an update on the situation.

[goldensunset]

>‘this thing is too generic and tropey’

>look inside

>forefather of that genre

[firestorm09890]

[frankbelloriley]

[natsuhi-supporter-archived]

[tinyyellowflowers-blog]

Was talking to a coworker today who explained that her grandfather was like Snow White “but Californian. And an old man.” in that the creatures of the forest would follow him around and presumably duet with him.

“When he died the ravens sat in the trees outside for a week, watching. Taking turns. A horde of raccoons tried to break into the house every night, tearing at the siding. Eventually they gave up, but it was unsettling.”

“Aww. They were checking on him!” I said, like a normal person. Internally, I thought “Maybe you could do the thing you do with dead pets, where you show them to the living pets so the living pet understands they’re gone. But I guess if you did that to a bunch of scavenging species, they’d be like “Well, that’s very sad but he IS food now.” So what you’d need, for human sensibilities, is some sort of transparent corpse barrier. Like a see-through coffin oh that’s what the dwarves were doing! You’ve stopped paying attention to this conversation about the loss of a beloved family member you gotta phase back in.”

[sun-ni-day]

oh that's what the dwarves were doing