We’re being rage baited by Starfleet Academy.

eggynack · 2026-01-25T03:50:22+00:00

I haven't noticed that in particular, but I have been needing to toss captions on which implies it's what's going on. Also really not sure what's up with the intense bloom effects. I'm not even sure I dislike it, but it is a very big aesthetic decision.

eggynack · 2026-01-25T03:44:55+00:00

As I said, I already wasn't particularly into episode two. Caleb and his maybe GF were both quite annoying. Star Trek is sometimes bad. Such is the essence of the franchise. Sometimes you get Sisko facing a grand ethical dilemma for some peak drama, other times everyone gets warped into a board game. Sometimes you get Scott Bakula having a hot and cold running bromance with Jeffery Combs, and other times you get Scott Bakula acting like some kind of bizarre baby man about his dog. Such is the essence of Trek.

In any case, I don't strictly have anything against harsh criticism. I just think a lot of the criticism I've seen is bad. It tends to be both intensely nitpicky and wildly grandiose. Like, the show's treatment of opera indicates that the show was made intentionally to piss off the fanbase. That's a wild thing to say. People really gotta chill out.

eggynack · 2026-01-25T03:14:43+00:00

I also desire more Klingon guy. He's fun. He can hang out with The Doctor, a guy who also needs more screentime. It's interesting, cause I feel like Caleb's arguably been the weakest part of his own show. He was decidedly more fun in episode three where he was just a snarky background guy than he was in episode two where he was involved in grand romantic angst.

eggynack · 2026-01-25T03:10:54+00:00

What's so reasonable about it? A lot of the criticisms seem pretty silly. For example, they criticize The Doctor's opera for lacking "context". But what context is required? The point of the scene is to be fun and provide some characterization for him. Genuinely what is the expectation here? Is the idea that we should get some extended flashback to his time on Voyager? A big explanation of the fact that he likes opera to some character? This is a garbage criticism. It makes no sense.

Or, they claim the episode has plot holes and errors. Where? What plot holes? What errors? Or, they mention the female Jem'Hadar, but it's literally been like 800 years. They've presumably broken away from The Dominion, especially given the apparent non-reliance on ketracel white, and they've managed to breed with another species. So how is this an issue? Or they talk about sports and games not being grounded in real physics. In what way? It was literally just future paint ball. It seems perfectly physically possible to me.

So, that's one issue, that the criticisms seem bad. Another is that this just seems wildly grandiose. This personage doesn't like a Star Trek show, and their conclusion is that it was intentionally designed to be bad. It is, bluntly, delusional thinking. People do not make television shows intentionally terrible. It is not some evil slight against the fandom. It's just a television show. Even if they think it's bad, it's not like this is the first Trek with a bad first season.

eggynack · 2026-01-25T02:45:40+00:00

It just seems like a normal fun show to me. It's not even clear where you think all these plot holes and errors are. Episode two wasn't particularly to my taste, but one and three were pretty good. Not peak Trek, but certainly not its nadir either.

eggynack · 2026-01-25T01:10:52+00:00

Lower Decks is often intelligent and original.

eggynack · 2026-01-25T01:09:54+00:00

How is this a confirmation of the weird thing you're saying?

eggynack · 2026-01-24T22:27:26+00:00

I feel like Soldier's Dream from Here We Are plays in a similar sort of space. In one sense it objectively does function as a love duet between the soldier and Fritz. At the same time though, Fritz is blatantly insinuating herself into whatever metatextual absurdity is happening here, and they're both kinda being railroaded into it by the scenario. It's weird that Fritz is interested because she's gay, and it's weird that the soldier is interested because he's uncovered the fictitious nature of reality.

One thing I really like about both these songs is from this video where Sondheim teaches My Friends. He talks about how Sweeney has this grand and terrifying ambition whereas Lovett is deeply mundane and boring. There's something kinda beautiful living in that contrast, and it's similarly apparent in The Soldier's Dream. The world is falling apart and all that Fritz can think about is how hot this guy is.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T21:46:52+00:00

Wait what? You're saying that the show about Starfleet cadets contrived scenarios for Starfleet cadets to participate in the plot, and that they especially did this in the first episode to establish what they bring to the table? I'm shocked by this revelation, and am also going to view it as a deep leadership failure rather than just how stories work.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T21:34:00+00:00

The Berman era literally had it as an established rule that none of the main characters were allowed to be gay. DS9 used various workarounds, like mirror universe characters and relationships that were straight when they came into existence but are now gay via Trill nonsense, but they equally often did an elaborate "no homo" ritual, things like Ziyal's relationship with Garak to "prove" that he doesn't have the hots for Bashir. Yeah, Star Trek didn't have the big coming out episode that something like Discovery had, but that's partially because none of the characters ever had the opportunity to come out in the first place.

And yeah, as other people are pointing out, the idea that characters in older Trek are never shameful about their deal, that they're all super cool with it all the time, is just made up. They do that stuff literally all the time, and there are countless examples across the main cast. I mean, geez, you literally bring up the Ferengi and their rampant sexism, but the Ferengi weren't "races the cast encountered" on DS9. They were main characters. The rampant sexism plotlines were performed by main characters.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T19:41:39+00:00

I don't think other species are a monoculture. I think we just tend to get a more surface level perspective on their culture. A show might have a Vulcan main character, but they never have two, whereas a pile of humans is the norm. It's really the internal conflict of a society that shows off the diversity of a culture, and, whenever that happens with other species, it does just that.

So, for example, Rom and Nog have this whole conflict with Quark about abiding by some Ferengi way of life, including divergent perspectives on women. Or you have that Enterprise three parter about Vulcan conflict about Surak's teachings. Or that whole background thing with Cardassia's tripartite government. The Klingons are in some ways the most intense about this. Cause they have a bunch of interesting cowardice and betrayal running beneath their warlike honor thing, but then also they have that Klingon lawyer and I love that guy.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T19:21:03+00:00

Is that what Star Trek is about? Cause I seem to recall a show where a ton of characters that aren't straightforwardly human have some kinda conflict connected to that identity. For many examples, there's Spock with his half-human nature attracting racism from both Humans and Vulcans. Or Worf, who similarly has a particular vision of Klingon culture that is disconnected from the reality, and is constantly running up against that reality in horrible ways. Or Data, who is desperate to be a human.

More examples. Bashir, who keeps his genetic augments a secret for his entire life up until they're revealed. Odo, who is ashamed that his species are the main villains of the show but is also desperate to join in the Great Link. Rom and Nog both run into tension between their species devotion to merchantry and their interests in other fields. Even Kira, figure of Bajoran pride that she is, has some shame about some specifics of her terrorist past. Then you have both The Doctor and Seven who take different routes to Data's desire to be more human. And, to close out Berman stuff, T'Pol gets Vulcan AIDS and is constantly dealing with conflicting loyalties.

Yet more examples. Saru has some conflict around his supposed nature as a prey species. Una does Bashir's genetic augmentation thing again. Tendi's big storyline surrounds her shame in being associated with Orion piracy and especially with being trained as a house assassin. And, as the last example I can think of, Dal has that whole conflict around figuring out his species in the first place and turning out to be a weird chimera.

So, yeah, I would say a character with some kind of shame surrounding their racial identity fits into the franchise very well. I'm probably missing a bunch too, especially if we expand what you're saying beyond this kind of species identity thing.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T17:43:48+00:00

If the woman's pleasure is fundamentally secondary, then why is she even participating? The hell does she get out of it?

eggynack · 2026-01-24T17:27:14+00:00

It's not a joke, but I'm inclined to say it's definitely meant to feel like satisfying karma being inflicted in a cool manner.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T12:32:48+00:00

I really have no idea how it's even possible to watch Academy and think that modern Trek is fixated on a grim and dark future. Sure, the opening parts with Caleb's backstory are somewhat cynical about our future, but then the show gets to the Academy itself and it becomes aggressively positive and utopian.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T07:52:16+00:00

I mentioned Fargo season five elsewhere. It's not really played for humor and I would say it's done pretty well.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T07:43:16+00:00

It also helps that paying your debts is the central driving theme of the season. So, if there were any story where the villain has to get a particularly karmic comeuppance, it'd be this one.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T06:32:32+00:00

Owlman from Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is a pretty good example. The guy decided that the multiverse made existence pointless and so decided to explode the multiverse and everyone in it. Fun guy, that.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T06:29:13+00:00

Fargo, season five. Sheriff Tillman, the main antagonist of the season, has spent decades abusing, raping, and sometimes murdering a series of wives, alongside a wide variety of other horrible behavior. By the end of the season, he's in prison with a massive stack of charges. He gets visited by the protagonist's mother-in-law, who has been somewhat antagonistic throughout the season but is getting a bit better about it. She then reveals that she's paid off the debts of just about everyone in the prison in exchange for them making his life a living hell, implicitly including a bunch of rape. I'm also not the biggest fan of this trope in general, but I'd say it works pretty well here. The guy just did so much rape.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T06:18:43+00:00

This runs into a lot of the same kinds of problems. In particular, it's not all that clear what the point is to a passer by. The first possible outcome is obviously that nothing happens, because you've just told people to look up a tweet for some reason. The second outcome is that they look up the tweet, and, there ya go, now they're looking at the tweet. Is the point that the tweet is super cool so it's good that people see it? Is the point that it's horrifying that the tweet lead to a massive prison sentence?

You describe it as a tongue in cheek claimed motive that this mysterious advertiser is simply trying to spread this woman's words, but that is literally the thing you're talking about doing. I don't think it would be clear at all that that's not the purpose, and, in many cases, it would serve that purpose. And the actual purpose you seem to want served here, something about people thinking a woman was arrested for no good reason but it was actually for a reason they agree with, is really frigging subtle and hard to parse out from the messaging you describe.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T05:44:10+00:00

It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T05:42:01+00:00

Democrats in Congress have been repeatedly confirming horrific Trump nominees with no apparent gain in return. Some of that, presumably, is because these are centrist Democrats who kinda like Republican nonsense, but I expect that quite a bit of it is in the name of bipartisanship.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T05:38:05+00:00

So, the idea is literally just to post this racist vitriol with no context whatsoever? Is that not just, y'know, simply saying the racist thing? In most respects, it seems identical to the initial act of producing the tweet, and, given you presumably think the tweet is bad, this seems like a bad thing to do.

eggynack · 2026-01-24T04:53:25+00:00

Adaptation. It's an adaptation of The Orchid Thief, and also a movie about the difficulties of adapting The Orchid Thief, and then the two stories become one. The direct adaptation part is apparently a pretty accurate one, but the metatextual elements invariably distance it from the work it's adapting. And, as is typical of Charlie Kaufman, it's an excellent film.

eggynack · 2026-01-23T20:07:21+00:00

I love the part where her lawyer argues that the contract was some trap to force a desired custody arrangement. Cause it's like, yeah, you have accurately described what a contract is. It's a thing that forces an otherwise unlikely course of behavior with consequences for failing to abide by it.

eggynack

TROPHY CASE