rewatching The Deadly Years made me rethink my Kirk backstory a bit. Not by much, but I tweaked it.
things I won’t ever give up:
1. Kirk didn’t grow up on Earth
2. Kirk’s parents didn’t have a happy marriage
up until now I had vague concepts:
at the time of Kirk going to the Academy, his father wasn’t a Starfleet officer (I didn’t think much about if he ever was or if he quit the service, the point is that he wasn’t)
his mother wasn’t a Starfleet officer, she was, however, a scientist, she just never associated herself with Starfleet (this was what I assumed Sam Kirk did as well, and I really dislike they made him Starfleet, not everyone needs to be in Starfleet *rolls eyes*) – she might have occasionally do something for Starfleet though
recently, I also started to hc that Kirk’s parents eventually divorced. I tended to think that Kirk’s father was distant and not home often, hence why Kirk was looking for “father figures” elsewhere
I, however, decided to switch it up.
Initially, because in AOS, Kirk and his mother’s relationship was distant, I wanted a reverse, but I think that even in TOS, Kirk not having a close relationship with his mother makes sense.
I now have to accept that even in TOS they decided that George Kirk Sr. served on Kelvin, so okay, but he quit Starfleet after Jim was born. He gave up his career for his family, and that ultimately didn’t make him entirely happy. He chose it, didn’t have strong regrets, but it affected his marriage and family life anyway. He was a bit distant with his sons, but not a lot. Jim still respected him and looked up to him, especially as a little boy and young teenager.
Kirk’s mother, on the other hand, pursued her career, and the family often followed, but that made George Sr. feel unfulfilled, so he eventually decided to stay on Earth.
Jim was supposed to stay on Tarsus IV with his mother, but she got caught up in some research and didn’t join him until after the famine... so by then she decided to take Jim back to Earth and for a while, they lived as a family. She actually really wanted to be there for Jim because of what he went through, but one night Jim overheard his parents arguing, and there was a lot of grief and regrets and blame thrown around, and as a child Jim internalized some of it - the most important part: it won’t make you happy if you give up your dreams/career for someone else.
KIRK: Things wouldn't change if it started all over again, would it? You have your job, I have my ship, and neither one of us will change.
WALLACE: You said it. I didn't.
WALLACE: I met a man I admired. A great man.
KIRK: And in your field as you. You didn't give up a thing.
He yearns for love, he yearns for a relationship, but he believes that he can’t have it because 1. he can’t give up his ship/career 2. he can’t ask anyone else to give up theirs [and when he tried to form a romantic relationship with someone in Starfleet, it ended up disastrous]
Love. You're better off without it, and I'm better off without mine. This vessel, I give, she takes. She won't permit me my life. I've got to live hers.
he pours a lot of “love” into the ship and the crew as a whole (to the point of being obsessed), but the yearning for something else is still ever present, but he knows there are no happy endings.
His parents were a good example of that.
As a young man, he was relieved when Carol told him to stay away from her and David, but when he got older, he started to have regrets. Pursuing his career and holding himself back from ever creating a meaningful long-lasting romantic relationship, didn’t make him happy either. And it was only in his mid-50s when he realized that he did create and maintain meaningful relationships, even though they were not what he yearned for or expected.
McCOY: I thought you said men like us don't have families.
KIRK: I was wrong.
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