KirkFanatic

Like 99% reblogging fandom stuff I find interesting or noteworthy. Star Trek TOS was my first love.

[whenthegoldrays]

[sshol]

[hailed-marys]

tiny specks of light

[hailed-marys]

imagine remembering you forgot your meds 11 light years from home

[hailed-marys]

Highly anticipated sequel: the meds were there he just forgot where they were

[hailed-marys]

Anne Carson, Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides

[indysinks]

| eva the terrible

[buy-more-oranges]

Theres no way third degree burns dont have a lasting affect, phantom pains or something

[iggyshippingcorner]

Finally finished my little comic! I loved loved LOVED how the colours turned out, i was playing with the saturation a lot :)

also, some snuggling grace n rocky for someone on my tl (im doing the majority of my random thought posting on twitter) because I was so taken with the idea! plus a bonus sad, lonely Grace because that was my base ^^

[cookieekun]

[avi-mation]

What if PHM crew survived

[almondcroissantsandink]

one laundry night they definitely start discussing how many Earth-named constellations are based on Greek myths, and then that definitely brings up the Odyssey (and how it relates to their current journey to Erid), and they spend the next week or so spinning tales and having Mary read the poem aloud and Rocky makes miniatures so Grace can act it out

[seraphimgraces]

Rocky make Eridian clothing for Grace, statement!

I made the executive decision to put Grace in Eridian celebration clothing.

[trek-tracks]

Among the sizeable portion of humanity who would believe the Eridian footage to be faked, I wonder if “yeah, and Dr. Grace went to live on Erid in a beautiful biodome” becomes the new “we sent your dog to live on a farm upstate”

[ghostofmads]

rb to bonk prev with an empty paper towel roll

[akajustmerry]

there is a tragic thing that sometimes happens to characters in franchises/long-running series that i like to call Jack Sparrow Syndrome or Jack Sparrow-ing. it's where you take a character (sometimes more than one) who was originally conceived as Not The Protagonist (But Very Important), and you make them a Protagonist, and in this process, everything that made them a good Not The Protagonist (But Very Important) character either a) makes them a terrible protagonist or b) has to be completely overhauled to make them The Protagonist.

I call this phenomenon Jack Sparrow Syndrome because Jack Sparrow in the original POTC trilogy is Not The Protagonist; he's more akin to The Trickster or Mastermind or The Cunning Fool archetypes or some combination of these, which is what made him so compelling in the first 3 movies. None of these are compatible with being a Protagonist (at least not in the conventions established by POTC as a franchise) because the audience has to know what the protagonist's motives are to have any interest in the plot. a huge part of why Jack Sparrow *WAS* compelling in the original trilogy was that we (the audience) and characters around him never quite knew What His Deal Was.

a huge part of why the last two POTC suck ass (apart from the fact they're Just Bad) is because they made Jack Sparrow The Protagonist, and in doing so had to make him legible to the audience in a way that requires fundamentally altering the character's function in the story, and therefore fundamentally altering the character altogether. Often, for the worst. Jack Sparrow is far from the first or only character to suffer this fate.

I'd argue an early significant example of Jack Sparrow Syndrome is Lestat De Lioncourt, who was so fundamentally altered by becoming The Protagonist between IWTV and TVL that reading the books back to back had me seriously questioning if they were even written by the same author. Earlier still, one could make an argument for later Sherlock Holmes stories. Another example is Loki in the MCU, who went from being the literal god of mischief to a fucking COP for all of reality in his own show. I would also argue Spok suffers from this in many Star Trek reboots/spin-offs. There's another, more recent example, which is actually what inspired me to make this post, but the author doesn't deserve the attention.

When I explain this concept to people, they often suggest that I am talking about Flanderisation. While there can be some crossover, Jack Sparrow-ing is not reducing a character to their surface-level mannerisms, but it can appear that way. Often the character's typical mannerisms are ramped up to cover for a drastic character overhaul that places them in a more prominent role than they were designed for. Jack Sparrow-ing is taking a character who was never meant to be the Audience Way In. making them thus, and completely changing them in the process. While there are *some* examples where taking a Side Character and making them the Main Character has worked, it is my opinion that those are exceptions and not the Rule. It is also my opinion that this is one of the more tragic things that can happen to a character you love very much. thank you for coming <333

EDIT/NOTE: in case it doesn't go without saying, 99% of the time Jack Sparrow-ing is driven by a desire to maximise profit from a popular character(s), rather than out of any genuine desire to elaborate on, grow, or explore the character - which is why the problem exists at all.

[darkestbrook]

Oh waiter! Waiter! More art of them cuddling, please! Yes, yes, with the xenonite barriers. I like my fluff with a pinch of angst.

[prokopetz]

Level 1: The author's unintended implication.

Level 2: The author's unexamined assumption.

Level 3: The author's ill-informed opinion.

Level 4: The author's misleading conclusion.

Level 5: The author's mendacious justification.

Level 6: The author's We Don't Talk About That.