Author Archives: Sam

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I’ve been trying to think of what they might call a Star Trek series with Pike as Captain of the Enterprise (aka the spin-off from Discovery that I want more than air) and it’s tough. They can’t call it Enterprise because that’s been done. My thought then went to their five year mission but there has already been a series called Voyager.

My next thought was a follow-on because it’s not just exploring the stars but also reflecting on themselves – Pike knows his future now after all, but Star Trek: Exploration, or Star Trek: Reflection didn’t sound right. Thesaurus kicked back Reverie when I put reflection in but the definition is all about day-dreaming rather than learning about one’s limits and learning to value oneself, so while it sounded better, it wasn’t appropriate.

Right now I’m toying with Star Trek: The Lost Years, or something of that ilk, because in the UK there was a TV show called Dad’s Army, and the BBC lost/recorded over a few episodes, and they became known as The Lost Episodes. Well Trek was supposed to be Pike initially but the pilot was rejected and anyway it became Kirk and a legend was born. So a series following Pike pre-the Kirk years, it’s like we’ve heard whispers of this story but never got to see it – these are the Lost Years.

Then of course thematically, Pike knows he’s a marked man, he’s living on borrowed time. These are ‘found’ years but knowing what he does, how can he make promises to people, or fall in love, or make any kind of future plans, when he knows that at some point the time crystal vision will come true. So in some respect those are Lost Years, as he can’t live them as he would have before he knew his fate – he has lost himself. It circles back to my thought about reflection and learning about ourselves and not just the stars.

That could pick up from Star Trek: Beyond, with the quote:

It isn’t uncommon, you know, even for a captain, to want to leave. There is no relative direction in the vastness of space. There is only yourself, your ship, your crew. It’s easier than you think, to get lost. 

Enterprise is on a five year mission, lost in the vastness of space, pushing back the final frontier. I don’t know, I think it works on a few levels, but I’m sure if they do make it (and I really, really hope they do but I also want to be realistic and acknowledge they might not, even though they did build a proper set for the Enterprise bridge gah). Anyway, I’m sure that if they do make it, then they will come up with a better name. For now though I think I’m going to refer to it like this in my head 🙂

The Endgame Series: Steve Rogers

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(I wrote so much about Avengers: Endgame I’m splitting it into a series of posts)

Standardised beginning because I don’t care if the spoiler ban has been officially lifted. The movie hasn’t been out that long and the last thing I want to do is accidentally spoil anyone.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!

I’m going to put everything under the cut but in case it doesn’t work for some reason. Seriously don’t read beyond this point if you haven’t seen the movie. Anyway now that’s established let’s dive in 🙂

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The Endgame Series: Tony and Pepper

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(I wrote so much about Avengers: Endgame I’m splitting it into a series of posts)

Standardised beginning because I don’t care if the spoiler ban has been officially lifted. The movie hasn’t been out that long and the last thing I want to do is accidentally spoil anyone.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!

I’m going to put everything under the cut but in case it doesn’t work for some reason. Seriously don’t read beyond this point if you haven’t seen the movie. Anyway now that’s established let’s dive in 🙂

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Just rewatched Curse of the Black Pearl and I feel like giving a shoutout to Elizabeth’s Dad. She’s in the captain’s quarters and he sits outside and says something like “I’m proud, you made a good decision today BUT sometimes even a good decision if made for the wrong reasons isn’t right” – he totally knew that Elizabeth only accepted Norrington’s proposal to save Will (everyone knew that, Norrington, the crew, it was pretty obvious) BUT he not only knew it, he was circling round to saying “don’t go through with it, I know it’s not what you want” despite the fact that Norrington would be his choice for Elizabeth.

So it seemed to me that he was putting his daughters feelings ahead of what he thought was right for her. Then later when Elizabeth pretends to faint, he realizes what she did and rolls his eyes in a fond exasperated manner. Then he talked about piracy for good reasons and basically forced acceptance that Will was Elizabeth’s choice, that he would go free despite freeing Jack and attacking soldiers etc.

I don’t know it just struck me that especially for the time period, that was quite unusual in fiction. Much more normal (unfortunately) to write a dad that thinks he knows best, and doesn’t respect his daughters opinions. With Elizabeth’s dad it was quite the opposite really.

I also need to give a shoutout to Norrington, who like I said must have realized that Elizabeth was just using him to save Will, that he was her second choice even if she did marry him. He then was embarrassed in front of all his men but dealt with it with dignity and honor “the man that forged this blade would bring such care to every aspect of his life” that was probably the nicest “you better treat her right” threat I’ve heard. He could have gone all macho but he didn’t.

aaaaand I’m going to have the music stuck in my head for ages. I always do. Incredible soundtrack.

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Just watched Star Trek: Discovery’s season 2 finale so all caught up!

Two main comments:

1) I need a Captain Pike led Star Trek: Enterprise spin-off more than I need air. I don’t know what they would call it but the Enterprise looked incredible and it would be criminal to only see the bridge just this once.

2) *cough* a good percentage of my enthusiasm for a spin-off is probably due to my utter love for Rebecca Romijin’s Number One. It is true that my fondness is from the fact that she is Eve Baird (Librarians) But the brief glimpse we got showed that she was a kickass fascinating character in her own right that I would love love love to see explored more. She had one scene earlier on this season and then a handful in this two-part finale. I need more!

Which is where the comedy part of my comment comes in because the Rumbelle fandom has spoiled me. I found anyelle fic so bizarre a concept years back when I learned of it, then I found it fun to play with and now I find it so sad that there is no Librarians in the 23rd century, immortal guardian Eve Baird in Star Fleet talk. Why don’t all fandoms have super fun fandom-smushing?

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I’ve knackered, have a headache, hands are shaking, forgot to eat all day

BUT

my assignments are pretty much done!! 🙂

I need to proof both essays and make sure all my citations are correct and that I’ve not ballsed up the wording anywhere. I really, really hope that when I read them again they make sense. My short story + commentary is just ready to submit, so it’s kinda like one down, two to go at this point in play.

Tomorrow is another day though, seriously I’ve not moved all day, I really need to stop. So Endgame screaming is suspended until the weekend – I did say I was going to put it on a low simmer :p

Story disconnect, levelling and power

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You are always the hero in your story.

Well not always but for the sake of Warcraft let’s roll with that old cliche. Some quests are obviously more momentous than others but I was just in the Troll baby pool, and I helped Vol’jin kill the Sea Witch that had driven the Darkspear from their home in the past, helped him avenge the death of his father – I was level 5!

Obviously there are quests that ask for ten boar flanks for a pot of stew, and lots that aren’t to do with the world ending, or major lore figures. However, I think most zones try and lead up to some climatic moment in which you can feel like a hero. It could be argued that each expansion asks for more and more of the heroes, that they take on bigger and bigger challenges. But at the same time there is always the smaller quests too, and deep down it’s all story – there is a narrative structure to it. I think it would be reasonable to say that blizz has got better at storytelling over the years. Those random small quests now feel a lot more important, they are framed better, the story is more cohesive and it’s deeper. Although I guess my point is that they still exist. There are big hero moments at every level, and grunt work at every level.

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Big milestone dates or anniversaries or anything in that vein really make me introspective. That’s not really a good thing but /shrug I’m just going to share what I’ve been musing on this time.

Everything has it’s season.

Life ebbs and flows. There are phases, some last longer than others, and most come back around, but nothing lasts forever.

I’ve said for years that nothing is wasted on me. For example I don’t know – a game. If I get given a game, then I’ll play it obsessively for a time after I got it and then I’ll put it away. At some point down the road I’ll take it out again, play it obsessively for a bit, and then I’ll put it away.

The same applies to stuff I love. I’ve said before re: certain things like Agents of Shield, or the game Swtor, that I’ll take a break and not watch/play for ages and then I’ll come back to it for some reason and I’ll be slammed with how much I love it, and I’ll think “why don’t I watch/play this all the time?” but I think it’s because everything has it’s time in the sun.

Passions need fuel or the flame starts to die down. Sometimes a break is needed to rekindle the love, or sometimes it requires new material or perhaps a friend suddenly getting into it. When the passion starts to fade, that’s not a bad thing because if it’s meant to then it will come back, and something else will take its place for a bit. Like I said ebb and flow, everything has it’s season and then has to go rest for a bit. Maintaining intense obsession is impossible, it’s not sustainable, and that’s why there’s the swap-out mechanism – or at least this is what’s true for me.

I think I’ve made a post before where I hypothesised that taking breaks from stuff I love is a good thing, as it means when I come back to it there’s a fresh feeling and a massive resurgence of love. I need to remember this I think because sometimes I reckon I hold onto things that I should let go rest, their time will come back.

You know it’s probably a little how fashion keeps coming back, as old returns to style :p same with passions.

Random Warcraft Thoughts

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Back in the day – Cataclysm – I loved running dungeons. Those three Hour of Twilight dungeons, I never got tired of them. I ran them on all my alts and I liked it. I’m on record as saying this before, I could dig in the archives for proof but I can’t be bothered. Anyway, the two reasons I give for why I found this seemingly repetitious content compelling was that I got to play the different class, and get into the class fantasy of it all AND I got to make incremental progress so my playtime felt worthwhile.

I’m talking justice/valor points here which went the way of the dodo right after.

I’m pretty sure I’m also on record as saying that Mists killed alts. I’m pretty sure I wrote complaining posts about it, about how blizz had gutted my playstyle, how everything had become raid or die thanks to the reputation gating etc. I wasn’t happy basically but it was ok because I was raiding on my main, so I just got my alts up to level to use the farm and get mats and then produce stuff re: professions that my main wanted. However once I stopped raiding, that’s when I took my first break, and then Warlords felt like more of the same and that’s when I quit for 2.5 years, which I thought was for good at the time.

INVASIONS

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Everytime I watch Thor: Ragnarok I’m reminded what short shrift the warriors three got – and Sif wasn’t mentioned at all!

I did actually start a fanfic about it, temporarily titled “there was something wrong with Odin” because it bothers me.

Anyway enough of that, I sound like a broken record – today’s thought! What if they didn’t kill Hela? I mean it’s like one of those two enter contests – who would win in a Hela vs Thanos match-up? I mean Hela decimated Asgard’s soldiers like they were paper toys, which also makes me wonder (and not for the first time) what makes the royal family gods of various things, and the regular asgard just regular asgard. How does that work exactly?

Also there’s leaked footage of Endgame apparently 🙁 so I think I might ‘go dark’ a little early and just stay off my dash for the next two weeks.

Oh and to complete the random marvel rambles :p I watched Guardians of the Galaxy yesterday and now can not stop playing ‘wham bam shang-a-lang’ it’s very easy on the ears heh.