Amaya

Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s good to see you’re still you, Spock.

the strangest fandom hobby is plotty fanfiction, the kind that requires research, because engaging in this hobby makes no goddamned sense.

it doesn’t even give anybody masturbation material, which is at least a logical and admirable goal that contributes to the betterment of society, or at least society’s solitary orgasms.

So they just have these sexually charged, knowingly mutual moments every now and again and do nothing about it

Scenes that I think would rule

Canon additions, like when they nearly kiss in the cell when Kirk's missing but like they both know it, they know the other wanted it, they just didn't do it

And the cave where Spock's going off his nut, I think they have an interaction afterwards where Spock's like, "if that woman hadn't been there, doctor..." And McCoys just like, "yeah, that was lucky. This is easier to walk back."

Flirting on the bridge that occasionally goes too far and one quietly whispers a warning to the other to pull back

I love a forced confession and this is like the lowest stake confessions ever. McCoy's like "Im into Spock" everyone on the away mission is flabbergasted. Spock is just like "ugh 🙄 did you have to say it tho?"

McCoy's "at least I lived long enough to hear that" dig in Galileo 7 is a bit of a reminder that Spock never said it back and there's shit unsaid between them

Their mind melds are so explicit it's unreal but they just shrug it off

Whenever one gets his flirt on with a love interest of the week the other gets unreasonable but they both know why. Sometimes they're kind about it, sometimes they're an asshole, depends on the week

People thinking Spock is so cruel for not letting McCoy down gently enough after that forced confession and he gets like cold shouldered by some crew, meanwhile Spock and McCoy are having a laugh about something else entirely cos that's just normal for them by now

Minor courting rituals just to keep the awareness of the mutual interest alive. Spock dropping by with tea in the evenings. McCoy falling asleep on Spock's couch after a meeting. Just small things

Writing papers together and McCoy makes a crack about how if Spock doesn't include his first name it'll read like they share a surname 'Spock and Leonard McCoy.' and Spock's little "would that be so objectionable?"

When one of them slips and asks for more the other always refuses. Spock giving McCoy a love letter and McCoy not reading beyond the first line once he realised what it was. McCoy whispering his room number to Spock at a conference, then sitting up late while Spock doesn't invite himself over. That kinda thing

The occasional hard on when they pressed together for some Plot reason that they don't even bother to pretend to ignore

The nearly kisses that take longer and longer to pull back from as the years pass and the interest doesn't wane

The sheer anxiety as the mission is wrapping up and neither of them died and neither of them married someone else and they both still want each other but it's been building for five years can anything match that expectation?

The looks of confliction as they sign onto five more years. Why fix what ain't broke? It worked before, just keep ignoring it

dana, who loves and respects robby, who robby clearly loves and respects right back, who robby can't fathom running the hospital without, but even through all that mutual adoration and affection there is still a final mile between them, a wall dana simply can’t breakthrough, one that robby is stubborn and steadfast about maintaining. whether that’s because of some kind of internalized bias or some misguided sense of responsibility or just sheer stubborness on robby’s end, who knows, but the cracks dana sees in robby are in spite of his effort, things robby is trying and failing to hide, rather than because robby lets her in to see him. robby trusts dana so much, but clearly still needs her to see him a certain way, to be the fearless leader, her partner in crime, someone who’s strong, the carer and never the one who needs care. if i had to guess i'd say at least toward the end of s2 he’s self aware enough to know dana has seen past that smokescreen, but even still at no point does robby ever let himself open up to her. he resists up until the very end and what he does reveals is reactive, almost out of his control, never meant to be shared except the veil is too thin and he is too tired to hide behind it.

with jack, robby still gnashes his teeth, but he’s doesn’t lie to him. it almost feels like he can’t, that he doesn't want to. oh he'll try to distract him, try to deflect so he doesn't have to give in, or he'll avoid him so he doesn't have to confront it, but when jack really really steps up to the plate and confronts robby directly it's almost like it's the secret code for robby's brain to shut up and listen. when jack point blank asks, robby answers. he hears him, even if he doesn't always believe him, even if he can't, and as far as we've seen on screen, it works. jack knows robby doesn't like to to listen because this is a song and a dance they've done before. when no one else can make robby even begin to listen, they look to jack to cross that line because it's a line he's been able to cross before.

Alright! What the hell?

She took off the robe, showing Agnes the proof of her devotion. She said "He cant hurt you anymore." searching for her approval. Then she stripped, completely bare and vulnerable before Agnes, important detail in a society so afraid of the "power" of the female body. Then Agnes bathes her, similar to a baptism. Becka says something like "I committed divine justice... and for you" as if Agnes is more important than the lord she has been told to revere. "I would do anything for you, Agnes."

After everything they'd gone through together, all their history, their love spanning 6000 years, they literally vanished into dust.

Their "human versions" are not them. They met each other in their 50s? 60s? and will get like 30 or so years together.

No sticking together for centuries despite being from opposite factions in an eternal conflict, no developing their rivalry, friendship, and eventually love throughout the ages, no having each other's back despite the dangers of doing so, no bickering, no rescuing each other, no "you go too fast for me, Crowley", no 'our' Bentley, no "angel" as a pet name, NO THEM. At all.

ellis told trinity nobody gave a shit how tired, traumatized, or exhausted she was when trinity was on the fourteenth hour of her twelve hour shift. a season of that, to more universally sympathetic characters, will NOT be palatable to a lot of gen z. ellis doesn’t care if junior residents are overworked, she doesn’t coddle or encourage. she is a tough love, ‘put me in coach,’ rub some dirt on it kind of person, and the gen z viewership will become overly critical of her life philosophy that demands a lot of grit.

shen is insensitive and detached. robby was wondering where his step son was, there was a mass casualty rolling in, and shen was relaxed enough to sip on his dunkin. he was bothering robby about if he could get thanksgiving and christmas off that year. shen’s blasé attitude will start to grate on people as he extends that lack of fucks given to more patients and coworkers than just robby.

jack is not the woke guy everyone projects him to be. i believe they kept him far away from the ICE episode because the writers had no truly satisfying answer to how jack’s character would act in that situation. this man participated in imperialism for free college and healthcare (or for valor which is even worse). he continues to listen to police scanners and joins SWAT. he is on the side of the establishment as it relates to exerting force. he may have unpacked some conservative values, but there will be nuance there that will make black and white thinkers very uncomfortable.

the night shift doctors characterization is much less developed, but the seeds of complexity are there. ellis hates whining, shen is largely emotionally removed from any patient outcomes, jack is a mess of contradictions. people just can’t pick up on that because they watch the show while scrolling through their phone.

Like these are two men in their late forties/fifties who have already survived so much grief and guilt and loss between them that it’s practically calcified into them. Their lives are already fully formed by the time they meet. Entire histories exist before Jack or Robby even enters the other's picture.

And then suddenly they meet, and it changes the entire cartography of their lives.

That’s what gets me about them. Not that they were always destined to be together or that they're bound to one another because they've known each other for decades, but because of the fact that, after the tragedy has come and gone, they still have one another to look forward to, even though they don't know it. Jack, who has every reason in the world to retreat into himself, will still allow Robby close. The fact that Robby, who carries so much grief and self-recrimination, will still let himself be softened by Jack anyway.