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thisisnotthenerd · 1 year

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silly little ideas i had post-c3e51

with the party split the way it is, communication is going to be super hard for bell’s hells. both of their party members with sending are in the flotket alps--they won’t have much to spare to send to the others, especially if they try to contact any allies that weren’t at the ludinus fight. it might take a little while for them to get the band back together, so to speak.

if they go the slayer’s take route and have the parties alternate, potentially with guests, it would be a little fun and spicy to have aabria come and dm one of them if they run into the crown keepers. maybe its another exu expansion. idk. all i know is that she’s great, and having matt dm a guest group with the crown keepers would feel just a little weird. i don’t like the idea of dariax as a dmpc. maybe he’s busy with the observer? idk.

As of right now i think orym, laudna, and ashton are either on issylra in the original Hishari, or they’ve been transported to terrah on tal’dorei--they’re more likely to run into the crown keepers especially because orym has the sending stone to dorian. the wildemount group is probably going to start hitting more c2 people (or not).

after they get their bearings and potentially start finding out what really happened to ashton, it would be really funny to see them meet up with the crown keepers. I don’t know if laudna and opal would instantly click, but they both have a drippy warlock lady with voices thing going on, and it would be an interaction like that of laudna and ira or that one cleric they ran into whose name i cannot remember after eshteross died. there’s a vibe there. also opal’s probably straight up not having a good time with the apogee solstice and lolth. great opportunity to find out if delilah’s still knocking around in there and what she thinks of ludinus. and also to try and get her out of there.

ashton has an opportunity here to meet another genasi (fy’ra rai) and also find out more about what got implanted in their head (dunamis something or other/glass?). i think this is his opportunity to really be understood and prioritized, especially given the e49 conversation they had with laudna. give this guy a chance to leave and see what he does. cracking this particular geode, especially when the party is split, is going to give way to some fun and spicy character dynamics in the future.

orym is just reuniting with his friends, and it would be interesting to see what the crown keepers’ level ups look like. i think that little man needs some time to decompress a little. he’s just relived a bunch of his major sources of grief--the survivor’s guilt is going to come out, i feel it in my bones. this fun little murder lad needs a moment to be just a guy. maybe he spices it up along the way, idk. he’s already got a lot of the requisites to toss in a little bit of ranger. give him a favored enemy. let the little murder man go feral with the blessing of melora. he’s always the hinged one. personally, a little flavor of the ashari with horizon walker could be interesting, what with them guarding the gates to the elemental planes. i want this guy to maintain that he is just a guy while hasting himself and teleporting places. not that it would happen--he’d lose too many fighter levels to do it. but still, it’d be fun and spicy.

the followup

#critical role #cr spoilers #c3e51 spoilers #cr laudna #laudna #cr orym #orym of the air ashari #cr ashton #ashton greymoore #cr crownkeepers #crown keepers #bell's hells

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daisychains111 · 1 month

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live "tweet" books with me (via the goodreads progress bar) pt.2: Lore by Alexandra Bracken

idk who the narrator of the first part was, but I'm very confused...if he's not a god anymore is her love interest...or maybe her dad?

who is gil...how did he die?

her grandfather? wasn't gonna guess that

potential love interest spotted..hey masked dude

oooooo does she know him? intrigue

SEVEN YEARS HOLD SHIT THIS IS GONNA BE GOOD

potential love interest #2...van hello

I cannot stress enough how happy I am that her name isn't actually lore

wait nvm it is actually her name...that's stupid

Annabeth come get you mom, this is embarrassing

Percy come get your namesake ancestor...this is embarrassing

they are saying a lot of words that mean absolutely nothing to me?

happy to report that her name isn't actually lore...thank God...gods? whatever

"the Olympics but with murder" Nothing better happen to Miles bc I love him already

HAH poseidon and perseus reference

(I'm gonna spend this whole book talking about pjo just fyi)"

I get this feeling that apollo let Castor kill him

nooooo not the doggg

castor out here with the Olympians shittiest moments highlight reel to remind athena that he's cooler than her

oooo are miles and van gonna be a thing..that would be cute

athena deciding to keep miles around like he's a puppy is peak comedy

just because you're pointing out that the names are getting stupider doesn't mean you don't lose a point for continuing to name your characters stupid things

van and miles going on a secret special side quest together? mmmmhhmmm checks out

don't get me wrong I love a good enemy's to lovers but istg destiny if she gets with the guy who killed her family I will never forgive you

EW CREEPY PEDO GUY GET BACK CREEP

I am directly halfway done with this book, and there has yet to be one single ounce of romantic subplot...This is extremely disappointing"

WAIT IS GIL HERMES!!!

IS AEGIS THE NECKLACE

MILES HAS IT

I asked for romantic subplot but idk if this is what I wanted...however I'm a suckered for childhood best friends to lovers so we'll see"

"do that again when you mean it golden" period you tell her castor (I 1000% agree)

also him calling her golden is cute...even if I'm not sure why he does it"

hehe miles and van bonding time.. thats a romantic subplot I can get behind"

"oh so you're in love with him" YOU TELL HIM MILES

throwing away the necklace as if it's not extremely likely it's the thing you need...aces move lore, stop pouting and think

istg if you kill castor rn I'll never forgive you

IRO YOU MOTHERFUCKER IF YOU REALLY KILLED THAT BOY

HES ALIVVVEEE

ATHENA YOU MOTHERFUCKER...I should've know better than to fucking trust you

MELORA I KNOW YOU DIDNT JUST DO THAT

SHE WASNT EVEN LINKED ATHENA WHEN I FIND YOU

it doesn't make sense that she's had aegis the whole time and wasn't even thinking about it enough to hide it from readers...im sorry thats just lame"

this book lacks interesting romantic subplot but " I was born knowing how to do three things: how to breathe how to dream and how to love you" is the smoothest shit ever"

him calling her golden? cute...her calling him big guy? really fucking weird

istg don't pin with a couple separated by mortality, I can't handle that rn

HEHE lore calling van out for staring longingly at miles

lore and miles bestie vibes only

I get the sickening feeling castor will not be making it out of this book alive

holy shit she killed athena"

holy shot did athena just redeem herself

apollo let castor kill him CALLED IT

YAY FOR STAYING MORTAL AND STAYING WITH OUR FRIENDS!!!

This book wasn't bad but after the literally masterpiece that is the darkest minds series I expected more from miss bracken...the only reason I was able to read this as fast as I did was bc I had to finish it to read iron flame LOL

#lore #alexandra bracken #athena #melora perseus

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isaacathom · 1 year

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more ds9 time bc heat make brain jelly. s2e7

fascinating that dax is down her playing dabo with quark. tongo. whatever.

ah. ferengi misogyny. i do enjoy that dax is very... unthreatened? shes basically just using it as an opportunity for banter. thats kinda fun.

ah, plot. lets go baby.

i feel like every time the nagus shows up im going to have to re-remember hes the one guy from the princess bride. in my defence have not SEEN that movie still but by reputation i am aware of the man.

okay so i have, for lack of word, clocked that that specific ferengi is being played by a female actress, so thats. hm. whats going on here. ah i see thats a plot point, i promise i noticed that before the scene where she returned to her room.

okay so dax genuinely is just like 'yea theyre shitheads but theyre funny' incredible? incredible.

we love a lady knight scenario, dont we folks. love a good ol' fashioned uhhhhhh alanna situation. yknow i always use alanna as my go to reference for a 'woman pretends to be a man' fiction and ive literally never read it or known anyone who has. niche, i guess.

so this is all the start of the ongoing ferengi women plotline, iirc. i know quarks mother (mothers?) shows up in later plots about ferengi politics, but i didnt realise we were gonna jump in with it. neat!

is dax's job now just advising other women on their romantic situations. its what she was doing in melora. like thats two eps in a row her primary role seems to be 'provide advice to a woman in love' whats the go.

i dont like the nagus but at least in universe i think thats the position of the majority of the people around him

make! out! like i dont really give a shit but like just go for it folks

thank you for your contribution to the plot, mr odo sir, very excellent work inciting a crime

now my thing is i dont actually like 'pretends to be a man' plots bc, yknow, ~transgender~, its a vibes based situation. anyway i skipped the scene but ive got the transcript, ive got the gist. im good. it seems fun. that said the way quark physically reacted to being kissed, and how hes reacting in every dialogue line afterwards, is uh. very dramatic? not sure where this is gonna go bc the signs point to Poorly for the both of them

but also "dont you want to know why i kissed you?" is the sort of shit i would say if i was trying to come out worse than i actually had. like "dont you want to know why i started shortening my name" level shit.

oh that was an excellent in the background there

this romance is doing Nothing for me lads

that said like, quark is still quite compelling as part of it. and the fact he defends Pel is sweet. but i also find it so difficult to take ferengi drama seriously because like, the nagus is RIGHT THERE, and he's a pure comic character. its pure comic. and that just sorta sucks drama out of it for me. whereas i think quark has the right balance of comedic greed and genuine pathos that he can carry dramatic story lines. pel isnt quiiite working for me in that respect but i already flagged my lack of interest in this specific kind of plotline earlier so its not her fault.

dax just vibing in the background of most of this episode was kinda fun though. i do like that.

okay so my verdict - ? two romance episodes back to back kinda sucks for me since i didnt really feel invested in either romance as a thing in itself, though maybe part of that is the foreknowledge that neither go anywhere, right. as an episode on its own i think its alright, but will probably be better as part of the overarching Ferengi plotlines later, i guess? idk. its not quite my thing. i did enjoy dax here though so she's starting to win me over after a rocky start

#ds9 blogging #i dont have that many thoughts about it honestly #sometimes i worry im very predictable in not enjoying romantic stuff in media and get very defensive about it

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princessamericachavez · 5 years

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Fjorester moments episode 65

Can you believe I was already resigned to this being a small post with just cute little highlights for this week and then that last hour happened?!

I’m guilty of doubting Travis and Laura would feed me so well two weeks in a row.

Honestly, it’s been mostly Travis who’s been pushing for it the most lately and I for one LOVE this switch in the dynamic.

Okay, so let’s dive in (heh, get it?):

[As soon as danger shows up]

Jester: I cast bless.

Matt: On who?

Jester (immediately): On Fjord... Caduceus, and Yasha.

The last two she has to think about but Fjord? Fjord is a no-brainer. They are always each other’s first priority, after all.

FJORD AND JESTER BEING A POWER COUPLE AND NEARLY TAKING OUT A MONSTER ALL ON THEIR OWN BEFORE THE FIGHT EVEN STARS

Jester: *down and being attacked by a monster*

Fjord: *casts Charm Monster on the monster attacking her and the one attacking Beau*

Matt: Okay, so the first one’s save fails.

Travis immediately: Which one? The one attacking Jester?

LIKE, I SEE YOU. I SEE YOU TRYING TO BE SNEAKY AND MAKING SURE THAT WHATEVER HAPPENS THE EFFECTIVE ONE GOES TO HER BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT FJORD’S MAIN PRIORITY IS. I SEE YOU.

[After the fight]

BOTH OF THEM CHEERING BEAU UP TOGETHER

Fjord: *asks for a short rest*

Beau and Caleb: reluctantly agree

Jester: But we only got a certain amount of-

Fjord:

Jester: Okay, yeah.

Fjord:

SHE’S SO WEEK FOR HIM GUYSSS AND HE KNOWSSS IT

THIS IS LIKE THAT “NO YOU WON’T, YOU LOVE ME”

HE’S SO FREAKING SMUG ABOUT IT AND I LOVE IT

NO PLAYING DUMB ANYMORE FOR HIM NO SIR

[As they ride]

Yarnball: strays away from the group

Fjord: What is your fucking animal doing?!

Jester: On that! On that! On that!

Jester: *casts command to send Yarnball back to the group*

Fjord: Oh! Slick!

I LOVE THIS TREND OF JESTER DOING SOMETHING BADASS AND FJORD BEING OBVIOUSLY TURNED ON BY IT

Matt: The rain now in heavy sheets, sipping into every piece of armor and clothing you have.

Travis: who knows Fjord is riding with Jester, holding tightly to her in their fast pace

POWER COUPLE AGAIN TO GET RID OF THE SECOND WAVE OF BIRDS ATTACKING THEM

LOOK AT THOSE TWO POWERFUL BABES THEY ARE UNSTOPPABLE

[While bedding down next to the so-far ominous Melora giant tree]

Nott: Should I go scout while we are waiting?

Jester: No!

Nott: It’s a hundred feet! I can just turn invisible and go-

Fjord: She said no! Jeez.

WE LOVE ONE SUPPORTIVE BOYFRIEND WHO WON’T HAVE HIS GIRL DISRESPECTED OR IGNORED BECAUSE HER VOICE AND INPUT MEAN THE WORLD TO HIM AND HE ALWAYS LISTENS TO THEM AND WHY CAN’T YOU ALL SEE HOW GREAT SHE IS, LISTEN TO HER DAMMIT.

idk why that little detail was so heavy for me but I loved it. Nott can be rather pushy and accidentally barrel over anyone’s opinion that isn’t Caleb’s, and Jester is generally nice about it and let’s it go (except that time that the teasing got to her) so Fjord standing up for her firmly made my heart soar a little ngl

[THE TREE BIT]

Fjord: *ready to climb a 300 ft tall tree*

Jester: *obviously worried*

Jester: Climbing is good for strong people, right? Strong people climb well?

Fjord: Or people who, if they fall, have a good safety net.

THIS BIT WAS ALREADY NICE BUT GIVEN WHAT COMES NEXT IT’S SUCH NICE FORESHADOWING?

Like, listen, okay? Fjord is clearly talking about himself falling and saving himself, he probably had the thunderstep in mind already.

But Jester? Jester hears this and immediately sees herself as the safety net. So she stays down, ready to catch whoever might fall.

Later, though, Caduceus suggests she go up and she seems a little put off by it, because she clearly wants to but also wants to be there to protect her friends. Eventually, though, she follows up.

FJORD’S IMPRESSED FACE WHEN JESTER CATCHES UP TO HIM

MATT DESCRIBING THEIR CLIMB “GOING NECK TO NECK, EVEN GETTING A LITTLE COMPETITIVE” IS SUCH A WONDERFUL VISUAL

THIS TWO BEST FRIENDS, ON TOP OF THE WORLD, GOOFING AROUND WITH EACH OTHER, CLIMBING TOGETHER

And then

Of course

that natural one

and Fjord just leaps after her

Travis: I push off and dive down after her!

Matt:

Laura:

Everyone:

LISTEN THOUGH THE IMAGE OF BOTH OF THEM FALLING DOWN AND REACHING OUT FOR EACH OTHER MID-AIR IS OOF

IT’S SO ROMANTIC AND TRAGIC AND DRAMATIC

THIS MAN, THIS SAILOR WHO LESS THAN A YEAR AGO LIVED A FAIRLY ORDINARY LIFE, PLUMMETING DOWN AFTER THE GIRL SHE MET SO LONG AGO WHO HAS BECOME HIS SOURCE OF SUNLIGHT IN LIFE, WITHOUT AN INCH OF FEAR OR HESITATION, LASER FOCUSED ON REACHING HER IN TIME

And then that Feather Fall comes into play and slows them down just enough for them to hold on to each other, floating slowly in the air, breathing heavily.

And I legit thought that was it, that they would slowly float down and recover from the scare.

But nope. No. Fjord goes for his initial plan and thundersteps them back up.

And I kinda love that? Because, no, they are not giving up. They are going together and reaching their goal and they are doing it together because they always go with each other.

Jester: Fjord!

SHE LOOKS SO WORRIED. SO CONCERNED. BECAUSE HE JUST JUMPED AFTER HER AND HE COULD’VE DIED AND WHY DID HE DO THAT? WHAT WAS HE THINKING???

BUT FJORD JUST BRUSHES IT OFF

Fjord: Hang on, will ya?

AS IF HE HADN’T JUST DIVED 100 ft DOWN JUST TO SAVE HER

CASUAL

WHATEVER

JUST NORMAL FRIEND STUFF

Jester: You-

JESTER JUST KINDA STUMBLES OVER HER BREATH AND LIKE I DON’T BLAME HER OK?

I actually love that Jester was getting used to the idea that romance and love are not like in her novels, and maybe it’s fine and she will never find that dramatic over the top romance she dreamed off her whole life

—AND FJORD SWEEPS IN WITH EXACTLY THE BRAND OF ROMANTIC DUMBASS GESTURES THAT A GRAND HERO WOULD PULL

And Jester is tired and scared and feels like she can’t go on

Jester:

Jester: I’m just gonna stay here, Fjord! You keep going. It’s okay!

BUT FJORD IS NOT ABOUT TO LEAVE JESTER BEHIND

Fjord: You know, if you get up to me, I can help us get a little boost!

Jester: I can’t move! It’s okay, you just keep going!!

POOR BBY. BUT FJORD IS STILL NOT ABOUT TO LEAVE HER, SO THE NEXT TIME THEY ROLL HE WAITS FOR HER TO CATCH UP.

Fjord: You want a boost?

Jester:

Fjord: Okay, grab my hand.

Jester:

THUNDERSTEP

SO MUCH HAND HOLDING GUYS

AS SOON AS FJORD BROKE THE TOUCH BARRIER WITH THE KISS LAST EPISODE HE’S JUST GOING ALL IN FOR IT AND WE ARE GETTING SO MUCH AND IT’S JUST SO LOVELY

ALSO ALSO ISN’T IT SUCH A LOVELY PARALLEL THAT AT THE BEGINNING THEY WERE BEING PLAYFULLY COMPETITIVE BUT AS SOON AS JESTER IS HAVING TROUBLE FJORD’S FOCUS SWITCHES ENTIRELY AND HE SPENDS THE REST OF THE TIME ENCOURAGING HER AND HELPING HER?????

Thanks Matt for the last bit of description too! Fjord with his 11 STR throwing Jester up to safety is such a good detail!

That NAT 20 was True Love and you can’t convince me otherwise.

I ALSO LOVE HOW THE TABLES TURN LATER WHEN FJORD FREEZES WHEN STEALTHTING AROUND THE ROC

Fjord: you go ahead without me!

Jester: No, Fjord, you’re coming!

Fjord: I’ll just stay here

Jester: C’mon, Fjord, let’s go!

Fjord: Alright.

THEY REFUSE TO LEAVE EACH OTHER BEHIND YOU GUYS IM SO EMOTIONAL

ALSO

GUYS

MATT DESCRIBING THE WARM SENSATION FJORD GOT FROM SAVING JESTER VS HIS USUAL UK’OTOA SPELLS?

THE FACT THAT HE USED HIS VERY FIRST SPELLS POWERED BY A LOVING DEITY RATHER THAN UK’OTOA TO SAVE HER

IS JUST SO

POETIC CINEMA

I’M CRYING

Jester: *tries to pain Beau and Fjord*

THIS TWO DISASTERS IMMEDIATELY:

Jester: No, it’s candid, you guys! Pretend you don’t know I’m drawing you.

Fjord:

Jester: Yeah, that’s better. That’s good.

EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS EPISODE WAS WONDEREFUL. MY HEART FEELS SO FULL WITH LOVE. I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE FANART AND THE EVENTUAL TALK THESE TWO DESPERATELY NEED TO HAVE ALREADY.

I’m looking forward to so much next week! Fjord is out of spell slots (after saving and helping Jester) so I expect she’ll prioritize keeping him safe during the fight. So much angst potential! ALSO really looking forward to Jester thanking him for saving her, fingers cross for a cheek kiss to mirror his earlier one. Also, please Traveler, they need to TALK about all these things that they keep doing for each other.

#fjorester #fjord #jester lavorre #critical role #cr spoilers #sofia's nonsense

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zenosanalytic · 7 years

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DS9: Season 2 Doldrums

DS9 S2E 5-7(Cardassians, Melora, Rules of Acquisition) are Infuriating.

Their Premises aren’t actually bad:

Cardassians is about Cardassian war-orphans left on Bajor because 1)Cardassian culture takes a “fuck ‘em” approach to anybody unfortunate enough to lose/get separated from their parents and presumably 2)they’re interspecies children; this doesn’t get mentioned in this ep, but I can’t imagine the Cardassians would have taken half-Bajoran kids when they withdrew

Melora is about a scientist from a “low gravity” planet(that idea bugs me because it assumes life-bearing worlds are generally earth-sized, and thus, earth gravity is “standard”, but idk what else you’d call it |:T) assigned to DS9 for a survey mission in the Delta Quadrant.

Rules of Acquisition is about a female Ferengi masquerading as a male to escape the misogyny of Ferengi society and pursue a life in business who happens to be working for Quark when the Nagus brings him a unique opportunity.

And their execution isn’t universally terribly, either, but each has something about it that’s so frustrating/off-putting that it soured whatever was enjoyable about the episodes for me.

Caradassians is probably the best of the bunch. It’s built around this Cardassian boy named Rugal, who was left during the withdrawal and adopted at a very young age(4-6 it seemed like) by Bajoran parents, who raised him as a Bajoran(aside from the obvious Talks about how he looks different and how to deal with people who are mean to him for his heritage, obvsl). In summary, Gul Dukat plots to have him brought to the station to create a diplomatic incident to be used as an excuse to repatriate the boy as a way to embarrass his Cardassian “father”, Kotan Pa’Dar, of the Civilian government, thereby short-circuiting an investigation into crimes committed during the Occupation and discrediting the Civilian government in general. The plot’s very convoluted, but Bashir and Garak get to be sleuths and that’s super-fun to watch. It ends up being the case that Rugal was kidnapped by Gul Dukat from his family’s home after a resistance attack on it(raising the question of what, exactly, Dukat knew of that attack, and if it was carried out by Bajoran resistance at all or simply made to look as such; there’s an implication that Pa’Dar was opposed to the Occupation even when he was part of the colonial government there. Questions never examined further, unfortunately) and placed in a Bajoran orphanage, leaving Pa’Dar to think he had also been killed. Since he wasn’t dead, Pa’Dar leaving without him would be considered abandonment in the eyes of the Cardassian public given how much they care about Family(who, again, don’t give a single shit about all the Cardassian kids with no living relatives willing to claim them they left on Bajor), and that’d end his political career.

What annoys me about it is the transparent insincerity of the Starfleet officers’ concern for Rugal‘s opinion about the whole thing. There’s alot of platitudinizing that what ultimately matters is what Rugal wants, regardless of what the inquiry discovers, but the ep literally ends with a voice-over of Sisko saying his Cardassian “father” is “obvsl the real victim in all this”, and Starfleet handing him over to Pa’Dar with zero input from Rugal. Rugal’s real parents, the Bajorans who raised him, are nowhere to be seen and, iirc, don’t even speak at all in the second half of the ep. The Bajor government has zero input in any of this. So yeah, it’s just really offensive.

The thing is, if this was presented as Sisko just coolly making the politically expedient and strategically correct choice(save the moderate’s career by preventing the case from going public while doubling his debt to you by handing over the son he thought was dead and wanted back) regardless of what Rugal wanted, it wouldn’t bother me as much; It’d be a good early example of the cold-blooded political and strategic savvy Sisko would become known for. What really bugs me is that the sheer duplicitous sanctimony of their protestations to care about what Rugal wants are never presented or treated as such, even as they, in the end, hand him over like a poker chip. Oh, and also there’s this scene about O’Brien’s hatred of Cardassians and Keiko’s wrong-headed awkward do-gooderism ham-fistedly squashed in there that they really didn’t need.

Melora presents Melora’s natural lower-gravity biology as a disability and illness, which right off the bat was annoying. She’s not sick, she’s just from a different density planet from everyone else. Usually she uses a servo-harness and anti-grav chair to get around that won’t work for some McGuffiny reason so they have to put her in a wheelchair instead. But here’s the thing; why wouldn’t she just be in an anti-grav harness? The Fed uses Synthetic gravity Fields, so one could imagine a harness which generates a “filter” field around her, lessening the gravitons she’s exposed to to natural levels for her and thus allowing full mobility. Hell, depending on how Synthetic Grav fields work, I wonder if one could not simply program the central computers to weaken the field as it applies to her or her surroundings, keying the reduction to her comms badge or lifesigns. Or, given that there’s at least one whole planet of Federation members for whom low-grav is natural(and realistically if there’s one there’s gotta be more low grav worlds), why don’t they, IDK, have low-grav-exclusive crews? I mean, they clearly have the tech to not have to segregate like that, but it’s another solution that the writers choose to avoid by just deciding Melora’s species generally has no desire to leave their homeworld(so how’d they become warp-capable, DS9 writers???)

The show does a good job, for it’s time, presenting ableist-induced frustrations(from Bashir modifying her chair without informing her or asking her consent, to Jadzia implying Bashir knows “her condition” better than she does, to Sisko treating her desire to have her agency and opinions respected like those of any officer as essentially ridiculous, to stupid unnecessary frames jutting out every-goddamn-where in the station due to absurd Cardassian architectural tastes in Bulkhead design, to people assuming she must be sheltered and ignorant of galactic cultures because she’s “fragile”, to people babying her for the same reason, to random do-gooders wanting to “fix” her, to ect ect ect). The problem is, almost invariably, the show comes down on the ableists’ side, presenting her objections as unwarranted acts of rudeness meant to keep the world away(again: she grew up in a frigging low-grav culture where EVERYONE IS JUST LIKE HER! YOU GUYS ARE THE WEIRDOS TO HER!!! WHY WOULD SHE HAVE THESE PERSONALITY TRAITS!X4). It even has this weird pixie-dream girl element where she’s super-agile and strong and able to “fly” in low-G(which, if everything on her planet is evolved for low-g, why would they have the muscle mass to fling themselves into the air and stuff as Earth-G people do on the moon? Idk, maybe this makes sense scientifically, but it bugged me), which she teaches Bashir how to do because, of course, he immediately starts hitting on her and she totally goes for it once he proves his “brilliance” by jerkily eviscerating her distancing techniques. So you can see why I disliked it.

Then it ends with the survey being accomplished in a single ep(like, 3 or 4 days at most), which is stupid. And there’s this sub-plot about a partner Quark betrayed seeking revenge, which inevitably ties into the main-plot and I’m meh about that. And, of course, Bashir never mentions this deeply intimate romance, for the sake of which he developed an entirely new “treatment” for gravity intolerance off the discredited theories of an obscure medical researcher -which insultingly locates her physical difficulties in her brain rather than lower-density bones and muscles, a low-grav body plan, and a metabolism, equilibrium, and body-chem adapted for lower-g- ever again. Yeah.

Rules of Acquisition, of course, makes the female Ferengi, Pel, fall in love with Quark. This is the first ep she’s ever been in, and no reason is ever given for why she’d feel this way about him. Everything she does is, of course, driven by her love for him, and not a desire to gain profit, or prove herself, or any other personal ambition. The ep is filled with lines written for Jadzia to say justifying, excusing, or treating as a joke, misogyny.

Just: either get rid of Jadzia’s excuse-making for Ferengis, or make Ferengi misogyny less pervasive, as they do in much later eps with Rom and(to a lesser extent) Quark.

Pel really should have been intro’d earlier and been a recurring character for a time, with her gender being revealed in this ep. I also don’t get why Ferengi women would have such softer, more melodious, non-scratchy, non-nasal voices compared to the men. Having her natural voice BE her Male!Pel voice, or at least very close to it, would have made the point about gender equality far better.

If there was going to be a romance in it that needed to be developed(preferably over many eps); Pel needed to have a reason for being drawn to Quark, even if it was just “I think he’s sexy”. Personally, I’d like it if -behind his sleazy bluster- Quark(and Rom) was actually less misogynistic and creepy towards women than most Ferengi men as a result of his mother(though still with lots of room to grow), and willing to take hits to his business to stand, in evasive ways, for those principles, and that this was at least in-part why Pel found him endearing.

Pel’s primary motivation ought to be that of any Ferengi -making profit to achieve social status and personal power- with any attraction to Quark coming second, though still personally important enough to prevent her from betraying him.

Pel is responsible for nearly every success they achieve in this ep and Quark really needs to be written as less hapless, which is honestly a problem with his characterization in general. In one ep, Quark is dealing hard-nosed and unflinchingly with the worst kinds of galactic scum(though he hates violence and tries to prevent it, which is a consistent characteristic I love for him, and which Shimerman does a wonderful job of both presenting, and presenting Quark’s attempts to hide and feelings of ambivalent pride/shame over it), and the next he’s grovelling and incompetent before the merest aggression and resistance. I’m not saying he shouldn’t be a physical coward(that’s an important bit of his character and it works), he just needs to have a tolerance for menace appropriate to the line of work as a black-market Fixer and Mastermind that he’s chosen for himself. Plus, I don’t really buy that Pel as presented, with her intense dedication to the Rules of Acquisition and business acumen, would find someone as out of his depth as Quark in this ep attractive. Of course she shouldn’t have to, since Quark is SUPPOSED to actually be a good entrepenuer, hampered by his occasionally quixotic bouts of ethical behavior, but the writers just can’t help writing in these “funny” scenes of Quark being useless.

The plot is actually sort of decent for this one, though Rom’s rather immediate jealousy doesn’t make any more sense than the other things which needed long-term building up to work in this ep. Maybe the discovery of her gender could be accomplished some other way? Perhaps have the Nagus screw them at the end of the deal and have Pel throw her lobes in his face out of rage as he’s compligloating at them about their acumen in realizing his true objective and brokering the meet? Or maybe have Quark accidentally discover her gender in this ep, decide to keep it quiet, then have them both present in a later ep for the Dominion negotiations and have the Dominion agents reveal it out-of-hand half-way through, without realizing the difficulties they’ve put her in(maybe as bred merchants, they have an acute sensitivity to biochemistry or something and can just smell that she’s very likely female). I really like that possibility, because it’d put the Nagus in the position of having to keep her on to finish the negotiations, both for her aptitude and the chance that kicking her off would offend the Karemma, and it’d set up an exit for the character that would be a clear step-up for her; maybe the Nagus, to avoid personal embarrassment and because the Karemma connect with her so well during the negotiations, decides to make her his Delta-quadrant-side silent factor, working through Quark; an effective exile that hides the importance of a female to one of his greatest deals, but still leads to huge profits and a notable position of importance for her. This would also give a good reason for her to pop up as a guest character in later episodes.

#Star Trek #ST: DS9 #DS9 S2 #DS9: Cardassians #DS9: Melora #DS9: Rules of Acquisition #zA's Outside Viewing #zA's Trenchant Literary Criticism #Long Posts #DS9 Rewrite

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