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silverlovesmadi · 6 years

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Star Trek: Discovery

"Despite Yourself" review/rant/analysis

It just annoys the hell out of me the show would write such a disturbing, sadistic and traumatic storyline for two already very traumatised characters of color.

Ash because of losing his entire crew because of the war, being a pow for 7 months, being subjected to some fucked up frankenstein like medical experiment and being forced to deal with Voq’s memories because of it. Not to mention all these creepy, disgusting, triggering convo’s he had to have with L'Rell because he didn’t know and understand wtf was going with him.

Michael because of her parents being murdered by Klingons when she was a little girl, her almost dying in the process, almost dying again because of some Vulcan extremist, being raised by Sarek to surpress her emotions at all times and aim for ubercompetence, losing her captain and some of her crew in the war and being used as a scapegoat for a war the Klingons started, realizing Sarek was a fraud of a father and was never gonna validate her nor admit he was the one who was wrong, waisting 7 years of her life in the process, having to go undercover in the mirror universe as some facist captain persona and being forced to kill one of her former crew members out of self defense, knowing that even if the war is won and she survives, she goes back to jail for life etc.).

There’s angst, there’s nuance, there’s compelling drama, there’s conflict, there’s adventurous and realistic sci-fi. And then there’s OVERdoing it with the shock value because the mainstream loves it on Game of Thrones (a show I personally couldn’t care less about) and thinking that’s the way to make the show as popular as GOT.

I should’ve known, because they’ve been overdoing it since the beginning not just by killing off Georgiou and Landry, but also the explicitly violent ways in which they killed them off for shock value. And the oneliners the bridge crew always get, who are obviously only there to fullfill some “diversity” quota to satisfy viewers, have started to get annoying as fuck too. We get it, you’re never gonna give them proper storylines, because you don’t really want too.

I really love Michael and Ash together, because they have such amazing and natural chemistry, which in large part is thanks to Sonequa and Shazad. There’s a always a very strong sense of trust, protectiveness and loyalty between the two. You can tell they really wanna be with each other and wanna look out for one another. Something they aren’t always able to do, since they are expected to go out and put they’re lives on the line everyday. It’s because they have and care so much about each other they’re some what able to face and deal with fighting in this war, and for now this mirror universe too, despite their mutual trauma’s. They help each other get through it as best as they both can.

But I just wish the show didn’t have to make Michael and Ash each others love interests, if the price they had to pay for their relationship was having to go down this depressing ass road. Why couldn’t they just let them stay friends?

I’m not in the mood for Michael having to face the fact that there’s a fucking Klingon inside Ash somewhere while she had a whole (and her very first too!!) intimate serious relationship with him. It’s gonna traumatise her even more. But we all know she’ll just suck it up again and keep going, because that’s what she’s so good at right? Sucking it up, being strong and sacrificing herself for the war.

And what type of fuckery is it that Michael, who is known as the killer of T'Kuvma, who Voq and T'Rell were so loyal too, had to be the woman Ash had to fall in love with while Voq was inside his body all this time. Like what? Are Voq and L'Rell gonna try and kill Michael out of revenge? Traumatising her even more?

Since Michael still doesn’t know about this whole fucking mess of a medical experiment L'Rell and Voq subjected Ash to, is she gonna see the man she had her first ever serious relationship with, shared everything with, something she already struggled with so much to open herself up to in the beginning, who promised to protect her at her at all costs, try and snap her neck like Voq did with Hugh? Something we really did not need to see since surviving that injury is not gonna make us unsee it. If it is even true that Hugh survives.

Is Ash gonna try and fight Voq internally somehow, to prevent him from getting to Michael? Probably having to sacrifice himself to kill Voq for good to safe Michael and the Discovery crew, killing off character of colour number #3?

I’m just looking at the writers like, when is enough ENOUGH?? How the fuck is Michael gonna trust anything or anyone ever? 10 steps forward, 50 steps back.

This storyline is so oversaturated with angst, trauma and suffering upon angst, trauma and suffering, just so the writers could introduce “the Klingon as human” storyline, but completely without nuance and the consideration of the implications for doing this with a cast full of poc.

There is already an abundance of media where in characters of colour, especially black female characters are subjected to traumatic and tragic storylines. So the Discovery writers aren’t doing anything “innovative” here. It’s lazy, predictable and quite frankly racist, sexist and homophobic, idc what anybody says and idc what anybody is gonna throw at me for keeping it real. Come at me. Art and media is here to be criticised. Especially if you’re “trying” to represent us.

I’m really curious as to whom the writers think they’re tonedeaf way of writing is aimed at. Who do they want as an audience? Because it seems to me they have no clue themselves.

I’m done seeing Michael suffer, I’m done. I'm done with the whole: "Ash was raped by L'Rell, only for the writers to go: oh sike! It was consensual after all, because they're Voq's memories, so Ash is perfectly fine!!!🙃🙃🙃".

It seems like the writers are less about the storyline/creating groundbreaking sci-fi and more about the trauma said storyline creates and causes, because according to them the drama comes frome the trauma, and everything for “interesting” television, right? It doesn’t feel like watching an adventurous, exciting, fresh, modern take on an iconic sci-fi show anymore, but another episode of Black Mirror that just won’t fucking end.

And you know what the hypocrisy of it all is? A majority of tv critics where so overly critical of the show’s use of the f-word (something that never bothered me because i know it wasn’t a big deal), which happened in literally one scene of 1 episode, accusing it of trying too hard to be “dark and edgy”, and that it completely ruined the show and the heart of Star Trek, but the same critics are completely eating up and loving this “Ash and Voq share the same body” storyline since Ash was introduced. Because apparently this storyline is not dark and sadistic at all, it’s just “really cool sci-fi!!!”

I wonder why that is. And who even remembers the f-word scene now?

#star trek: discovery #long post #haven't written such a long post in a minute #i wanted this show to be good for sonequa #but we'll see #star trek discovery #michael burnham #hugh culber #philippa georgiou #commander landry #ash tyler #ashael #ashburn #misogynoir #tw: rape mention #despite yourself

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primrosetta · 7 years

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Analysis of Hak’s character and his relationship with Yona or something

I feel almost alone when saying this, but I find Hak a kinda fascinating character with the way he was written. I have no idea if Kusanagi did it on purpose, but he was written almost to resemble a deconstruction of your average wish-fullfilling love interest character. Before his character development, he started off embodying a lot of common love interest tropes; overprotective, seemingly untouchable by emotional trauma (and therefore, someone who will always serve as walking emotional support, meanwhile needing nothing of the same in return), prone to physical advances... but as the series went on, those traits became something of flaws and/or were revealed to have deeper influencers than originally thought.

His overprotectiveness culminated in both himself and Yona nearly being killed by Taejun’s soldiers, and ultimately he has to come to terms with the fact that he can’t protect Yona from everything by himself. As such, he agrees to teach her archery and later swordsmanship. By the end of the Awa arc, we see a new character trait emerge from this; an attraction and pride in badass Yona. He no longer wishes to stifle her in an attempt to protect her; he wants to let her grow.

As for being untouchable by emotional trauma... well, for the longest time he never seemed nearly as broken up about Suwon as Yona was. Very, very angry, of course. But I never expected the bitter, broken rage he flies into in chapter 91 until it happened, and as a reader, it made me realize Hak wasn’t as okay as he pretends to be. It wasn’t that he was untouchable by the trauma, or “too manly” to be hurt. It was that he had a habit of suppressing it, so he could fulfill that role of emotional supporter without having to unload any emotional baggage on Yona, and the result was realistically unhealthy for him.

But the trait that really makes me wonder if he was meant to be a deconstruction is his dynamic with Yona, and the way he tried to make romantic advances. These advances were A) something he did as an attempt to make his feelings known because he’s established as a character who has trouble conveying serious emotions verbally and B) portrayed as largely ineffective in both attracting Yona and conveying what they meant.

The manga provides a reason why Hak tends to take a physical route to making romantic advances. It’s not because he thinks it’s ~sexy~ or because he thinks it’s what would work the best for someone like Yona; it’s his inclination due to his personality. He’s not great with words; Yona’s commented on it a couple times, and if someone (Jaeha) pisses him off, he’s more likely to throw a punch than say anything. Even when he had his break-down with Suwon, he went straight to kill-mode. He didn’t say a word until Jaeha and Kija held him back from attacking, and even then, what he was saying was largely incomprehensible. Imo, it’s portrayed that Hak is physically affectionate because he doesn’t know how to be verbally so.

Additionally, Hak and Yona’s romantic relationship remained mostly static so long as he used this method to convey his attraction. Their friendship had grown plenty, but their romance really wasn’t much closer to mutual than it had been at the castle. The physical advances; the attempts to kiss, the kabedon... none of it did a thing for Yona. She wasn’t really repulsed or bothered by it, but she wasn’t attracted to it either. She was only ever confused by it, dismissing it all as teasing when it was meant to be genuine.

When asked to stop, however, he does. As far as he’s concerned, when Yona asked him to halt his “jokes” in chapter 63, he had been rejected. Sure, Yona may not have realized the meaning behind his advances, but she expressed discomfort with it in that moment, and so Hak does actually stop. While the scene itself is mostly played for laughs, it also marks a change in Hak’s behaviour--next time they share a romantic scene, Hak is the one to pull away and mention that he promised to stop his “jokes”.

And maybe I’m overthinking it, but I can’t help but notice any real development in their romantic relationship begins right after Hak agrees to stop “joking”(like I mean the literal next page). As in, Yona is actually, on an attraction level, aware of Hak. She’s blushing from looking at his face, she’s self-conscious sharing a bed with him where she used to be completely unaffected. The next day, she’s unconsciously bothered watching women fawn over him, whereas she didn’t care at all when she caught him in a brothel back in Awa.

Fast-forward to chapter 110, in which Yona comes to realize just how strong her feelings for Hak have grown. What triggers the realization? It’s not a near-kiss, not any of the physical advances Hak used to employ to convey his love... it was his words. After she gifted him the lapis necklace and wishes him protection, despite how hard it is for him, Hak actually opens up and verbally acknowledges his affection toward Yona. He thanks her, earnestly telling her that his greatest happiness is her happiness. And with it, Yona too realizes she loves him.

Hak personifies many love interest tropes, but the manga frames it in such a way where those tropes are not played straight. They’re instead presented along with the realistic consequences and/or influencers someone who actually had such a personality might face. It takes some wrongly romanticized tropes, and instead of them being Hak’s static personality that Yona and much the audience is supposed to find attractive, they are the starting point--the flaws--in which he later develops out of.

This is merely speculation of mine; again, I have no idea if this is what Kusanagi intended with Hak as a character, but this is certainly my interpretation of him and part of the reason I love his character so much.

#akatsuki no yona #hakyona #son hak #i am the world's biggest hakyona piece of trash #i put way too much thought into this #i just love this boy okay #he's the best supportive boy #and i think kusanagi deserves a lot of credit for writing him the way she did #any discussion

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