whooooooo-dunnit?

GMW is a rabbit hole [but it ended years ago now and I’m back to see AoS off into that good night] [back again for SBTB2020] [and now back for nutrek shenanigans because nutrek is great]

[gonna-need-you-to-not]

[comehomet0myheart]

Past Lives works so well for me because I am so enamoured with pragmatism in fiction.

I read and watch a lot of stories about idealized love stories and I often enjoy them too! I spent my entire childhood believing that the teenagers who got together in the media I consumed would stay together forever. And then as I got older, I was naturally introduced to more stories about romances that didn’t work out. Still, it’s hard for me to think about those as pragmatic, most of them have this desire for sadness in them. They would make me feel as though the devastation was the point, that the narrative was forcefully bent toward the saddest outcome.

Past Lives doesn’t make me feel this way. Nora doesn’t stop talking to Hae Sung because of an unforeseen tragic circumstance. She makes a choice and goes through with it. Hae Sung puts it best during their conversation at the end of the film. She is the kind of person to leave. And he loves her because she is that kind of person. The “what-if” isn’t in wondering about if circumstances were different. No matter what, she would have chosen her plays over anything else. Her husband even notes that so much of how their relationship happened is because he fit so well into the life she wanted. The whole reason this film is called “Past Lives” is because that’s the only way to ponder about whether Nora and Hae Sung could be together.

It’s such a delightfully Asian perspective on it. “In another life” films are so common, but I always feel like Western movies do it in a kind of parallel universe kind of way. I love that in this one, Nora is so steadfast and consistent in her personality and desires, that there is no real contemplation and consideration of making her and Hae Sung’s relationship work. There is only a longing and a love.

[abbeymp3]

who do you think they are to each other? / it took me twelve years to find my friend / he was just this kid in my head for such a long time, and I think I just missed him / you dream in a language I can’t understand / you make my life so much bigger, and I just wonder if I do the same for you / this is where I ended up. this is where I’m supposed to be / I just wanted to see you one more time / I didn’t know liking your husband would hurt this much / maybe we were a bird and the branch it decided to rest on one day / who you are is someone who leaves / to arthur, you are someone who stays / if this is already a past life, who do you think we are to each other in the next?

[billy-crudup]

PAST LIVES 2023 | dir. Celine Song

[flippyspoon]

[emonydeborah]

I am convinced that Una turning off the gravity was a fully conscious decision. She went I'm never going to be in a music video again let's go ham.

Fully believe she had such a great time the whole episode. Funky little musical nerd. I love her.

[merrysithmas]

the god tier meta of galaxy quest (1999) parodying star trek (1967) by making the character Guy in the image of a stock trek background everyman and then over twenty years later strange new worlds (2022) satirizes this by making Jim's narratively expendable brother Sam (originally played by Shatner in a moustache for 4 sec of screen time in 1967) have a distinct and hilarious resemblance to Guy from galaxy quest (1999) by having Sam (2022) in-verse acknowledge his frustration with his textual role as shafted bro is just the next-level in-joke self-awareness that makes the multi-decade Trek fam so great 😂

[mylittleredgirl]

i think before every new star trek series there needs to be a previously-on-star trek “ok quick primer: here’s what you Absolutely Need To Know and no more” featurette because my non trekkie roomie saw me receive my strange new world discs and said “hey i’ll watch the first episode with you, do i need to know anything real quick?” and it’s like. well. in the year 1966. anyway i’ll let you know how it goes.

[theowldetective]

Hi!

Would you be able to tell me if I would need to watch DS9, VOY, and ENT to enjoy Picard? Or is it entirely focused on TNG?

Thanks in advance!

DS9s Dominion War arc and the tentpole Seven of Nine episodes from VOY definitely help, but you can still enjoy it without.

[tinderbox210]

Spock and Data + stumbling drunk out of turbolifts

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: s02e09 - Subspace Rhapsody Star Trek: The Next Generation: s01e03 - The Naked Now

[nerdstrings]

Captain Christopher Pike is an infosec nightmare.

His command code string is 2-4-6-8-10. Like what

M’Benga insinuates it’s been this way for a long time and Pike has never changed it

The man is walking around with command codes that IT set for him by default and told him to reset the first time he logged in and he just. Never did that.

The Serene Squall pirate crew tortured him for this code. They could’ve just fuckin’ guessed it in one go.

But they didn’t know that and their mistaking this man for a competent firewall led to him great-british-baking his way into a mutiny incitation and escape. anyway

Pike is Starfleet’s best, a Boy Scout, who is also gonna get them fuckin’ hacked

This man is sooo socially engineerable

He has never once completed a required infosec course

I know this because he walks onto the USS Discovery and expects them to just hand him command. Because he’s nice and he said so and obviously he means it, scout’s honor. Nevermind that an official fleet communique has never arrived, or that his identity is entirely unconfirmed

He’s so wonderful because he’s so kind and trusting but he is so phishable for the same reasons

The human brain has spindle neurons that are associated with emotion and social behaviors. On earth, these evolved separately in only three types of creatures - great apes/humans, elephants, and dolphins. Cetacean Ops is a thing; Elephantid Ops is not. Presumably the dolphins keep their shit together and the elephants don’t. And then there’s the highly-decorated human captain of the fleet’s flagship just. Being an exceptional representative of his species while literally letting fucking anyone onto the bridge of his ship

He’s the type to repeatedly dismiss a notification about required password trainings every single day for months on end

Una sees it once and is like umm you know they fire people for not doing those, right?

But he knows about Discovery, what are they gonna do? Let him just leave?

So no, he never even gets reprimanded

No wonder he and Section 31 hate each other. They know this guy is a complete security idiot. Meanwhile, Pike thinks making someone buzz in with their own badge is rude and a morally gray area

Too many spindle neurons, that one

[clementine-kesh]

i want fox mulder and quark ds9 to meet so bad now imagine mulder being like wow. finally. after all these years. i’ve finally found proof of life beyond our world and the life beyond our world immediately tries to scam him out of 20$

[definitelymaybeahuman]

Nevermind punching Q, the biggest distinction between Sisko and Picard is whether they responded to one of their subordinates running off to join the Maquis by getting so into their vendetta they willingly cast themselves as the villain in their opponent's Les Misérables fantasy, or whether they got so into it that they memorised how to make a cutting remark in a language they don't even speak.

[entertainmentindustryupdates]

Update from the WGA on negotiations

[theowldetective]

Dammit AMPTP! Get it together. 😡

[ex0rin]

Anyway...

[captaincrusher]

Strange New Worlds, please show me a flashback of Ortegas getting into a Vulcan duel because of relationship drama.

[lithiumseven]

Strange New Worlds: We are going to have a female love interest for Spock!

Me: No thank you, we don’t need a female character created solely to no homo the biggest gay ship in fandom history

SNW: It’s Christine Chapel and we are going to explore the nature of denied attraction from both sides this time, expanding on the framework provided by tos and showing that this was not an unrequited pining situation but a difficult choice made by two equals

Me: You have my undying fidelity