zeal0telite [he/him,they/them]

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Joined 4 years ago
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Cake day: August 17th, 2020

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  • The DS9 episode was Badda-Bing Badda-Bang and it was Vic Fontaine’s 1950s Vegas casino.

    I always liked that moment as you said because it is someone acknowledging the problem created with historical programs in a world that has moved passed that history.

    I like that Yates’ counter-argument is that it might be nice to experience history as it should have been, rather than how it really was.

    I don’t really come down on either side but it’s an interesting way to look at it.

    Wouldn’t be surprised if it was Avery Brooks who asked for the scene tbh. He was often vocally critical of some choices because he didn’t want to be just another black character they were they often written. It’s why he liked his relationship with Jake Sisko so much.

    On a related note, the episode If Wishes Were Horses script was changed from a leprechaun into Rumplestiltskin because Colm Meaney objected to the Irish stereotype.


  • The thing I like about T&T versus the new TOS-era Trek stuff is that T&T knows that TOS looks like crap, but it plays around with it and it feels very humble when showing its roots. It appreciates the old show while also poking fun at it.

    Kurtzman Trek feels like it’s embarrassed by the fact that Star Trek was once a show that had buttons glued to cardboard sets and blinky lights, and the ship was a cute little model that flew past the camera. It’s just like “actually TOS never happened, everything was always cold blue-tinged steel and all displays and consoles were all floating holograms (don’t get me started on how much I hate transparent holograms as a display and touchscreen), and everyone was zipping around at infinite speed and all ships had a shuttle contingent of 10,000 (if that shitty Season 2 finale of DIS is to be taken seriously)”. Oh, and we also just have all this technology that people in the older shows said was brand new but now it’s been around for a century. Riker walking into the holodeck with wonder and awe was because he was an idiot who never saw this 100-year-old technology. What a dipshit.

    Even the edgiest the show got in Berman-era with ENT still had a fair amount of care put into it to show that it was still a TOS-prequel. A great deal of attention was paid to the set to make it look both futuristic for the 00s but also like a precursor to sci-fi from the 60s. DIS and PIC just look like every other shitty sci-fi property out there.

    There’s no love. They just treat old-Trek like something that you can harvest images, references, and iconography from.



  • I always liked the Plinkett review of Crystal Skull for this reason. Stoklasa points out that both sides were doing what they believed would allow their ideology to win out in the Cold War.

    He points out that the Soviet’s actions in the movie basically mirror the American’s, especially when Indiana Jones is actually harassed by the FBI for allegedly being a spy.

    He points out that the scariness of a an alien mind control device is kind of lessened when one of the first things we see in the film is a America’s superweapon; an atomic bomb.

    The lack of real conflict and consequences hurts the movie.

    There’s also something of a “fuck you” about Americans making a film about the Soviets doing mind control doing the Cold War.







  • Okay, I get that the Stormcloaks are a bit sus, and clearly nationalistic but they’re not Nazis. I’m just saying, the only side that has random citizens get sent to camps and prisons are the Empire.

    They even let you join if you’re a non-Nord so long as you respect their customs. And Ulfric himself is smart enough to not spark a race war in his city despite a huge population of Dunmer and Argonians.

    Not to say they’re good but more that they’re just sort of a weird ideology and can’t be reduced to “they’re Nazis”.

    The actual Nazis though, the Thalmor, are given free reign to harass, torture and murder innocent civilians by the Empire. The Empire wags their finger but ultimately cave to their every whim. Several religious individuals go missing after an Imperial victory and are not seen again.

    Despite their victories over the Thalmor they decided the war was too costly to their core regions and caved to grossly imbalanced demands. Hammerfell didn’t cave and managed to win against them despite the whole-ass empire claiming they can’t. Weird that.

    Going past that the Empire are also horrid racists themselves. The moment they’re given access to the holy Island of Vvardenfell they immediately plunder its resources and attempt to convert the locals to their own religion. Then, despite their membership in the Empire, the people of Morrowind are given no aid when the Oblivion crisis occurs and are left to defend for themselves. The Empire actively pulls legions out of Morrowind back into Cyrodiil during this crisis. Then the Red Year occurs and the Empire gifts Solstheim to the Dunmer… Oh wait no. That was actually the King of Skyrim. Weird that.

    The Stormcloak holds of Riften and Windhelm even have accepted and integrated refugees from Morrowind as well.

    tl:;dr Despite their reputation, the Stormcloak are not only less horrid than the Empire, but are honestly less xenophobic than most other of the provinces, despite some of their shortcomings.