Lemonade Laced with Lemonade

Here’s a thing I’ve had around in my head for a while!

Okay, so I’m pretty sure that by now everyone at least is aware of Steampunk, with it’s completely awesome Victorian sci-fi aesthetic. But what I want to see is Solarpunk – a plausible near-future sci-fi genre, which I like to imagine as based on updated Art Nouveau, Victorian, and Edwardian aesthetics, combined with a green and renewable energy movement to create a world in which children grow up being taught about building electronic tech as well as food gardening and other skills, and people have come back around to appreciating artisans and craftspeople, from stonemasons and smithies, to dress makers and jewelers, and everyone in between. A balance of sustainable energy-powered tech, environmental cities, and wicked cool aesthetics. 

A lot of people seem to share a vision of futuristic tech and architecture that looks a lot like an ipod – smooth and geometrical and white. Which imo is a little boring and sterile, which is why I picked out an Art Nouveau aesthetic for this.

With energy costs at a low, I like to imagine people being more inclined to focus their expendable income on the arts!

Aesthetically my vision of solarpunk is very similar to steampunk, but with electronic technology, and an Art Nouveau veneer.

So here are some buzz words~

Natural colors! Art Nouveau! Handcrafted wares! Tailors and dressmakers! Streetcars! Airships! Stained glass window solar panels!!! Education in tech and food growing! Less corporate capitalism, and more small businesses! Solar rooftops and roadways! Communal greenhouses on top of apartments! Electric cars with old-fashioned looks! No-cars-allowed walkways lined with independent shops! Renewable energy-powered Art Nouveau-styled tech life!

Can you imagine how pretty it would be to have stained glass windows everywhere that are actually solar panels? The tech is already headed in that direction!  Or how about wide-brim hats, or parasols that are topped with discreet solar panel tech incorporated into the design, with ports you can stick your phone charger in to?

Ever heard that and wanted to strangle the person who said it? No worries, I can relate ;) 

First of all, this dude 

couldn’t be boring if he tried. Not to mention that this smile

instantly adds 10 years to your life, and it alone would be enough to redeem his character. If there was something to redeem in the first place. Because he’s perfect.

But…. I digress. 

So to prove the haters wrong, I did some super scientific sciencing, comparing line counts to get some super scientific facts explaining that he was a fantastic character who just didn’t get enough to do. (Massive kudos to Chakoteya at this point for compiling the list and making it so easy to access.) 

Then I applied my overly basic excel skills to come up with the following graphs. 

Let’s start with the pure line count.  

It’s nuts that as second in command, and Janeway’s closest friend, Chakotay gets about half the lines she gets and even less than the Doc. Also note how Seven had three years less than everyone (well except Kes…) and still managed to not be far behind. Hell, she got more lines than poor Neelix. 

Here is how that looks in percentages: 

Now, some of these characters get a few lines in almost every episode, so I checked how many episodes feature 10 lines or less for them. For Kes and Seven I obviously only counted the episodes during which they were actually on the ship. 

Can I just say: Poor Neelix again!!! B’Elanna is tricky, since Roxann was off-board for a bit to have her baby. The number of episodes in which the Doc doesn’t get to say much are a bit surprising, considering he gets a fair amount of lines overall. 

Now, I also wanted to know how many episodes these characters got, that really let them shine. So I checked in how many episodes they had 100 lines or more. 

Over the seven season run, Chakotay had exactly 6 episodes that featured a line count of 100 or more. That is the same amount as Harry and Tuvok.  To compare: In her 4 years on the show, Seven managed to have 13 episodes in which she had 100 lines or more.  That is just nuts!!! 

So, in conclusion: Our dear Commander may have been second to only Janeway in the chain of command, but clearly the writers didn’t know what to do with him, leading to such a low count of episodes in which he got to be active.  By the way, the episodes that gave him 100 lines of dialogue or more were the following:  State of Flux (season 1): 108 Nemesis (season 4): 112 In the Flesh (season 5): 116 Unforgettable (season 4): 124 The Fight (season 5): 150 Shattered(season 7): 155

Man, that sure is wide range is quality… It also kinda shows why Robert Beltran got so frustrated once Braga and Biller took over as showrunners. He has stated that he spent a lot of time being bored out of his brain and I think we can see why. 

So. There you go. Thank you for reading my very scientific sciencing. 

And yet, he is consistently refusing the usual behaviours and tropes associated with performing this type of masculinity.

He is the guy who stands down immediately, when the captain points out his behaviour will impact if not decide how his crew behaves and is treated onboard. No need for bravado or a pissing contest.

He is the guy who always notices when a crewmember is acting weird, and actively checks on them and asks how he can help. Unless the episode specifically needs another character to fill that role, it’s always him. He was the crew’s caretaker, nurturer in many ways.

He is the guy who (when in his right mind) always refuses to fight, and try to talk and placate others instead. Even when he would or thinks he would win that fight.

To me, Chakotay was one of the first examples of undoubtedly-straight maleness (so, Kirk doesn’t count… to my eyes, his portrayal is very queer even if he isn’t intended to be :p ) being non aggressive, not built on the destruction or control of others. I never doubted for a second that if I were his crew, I’d follow him to hell and back, and I’d expect him to have my back in return!

So, I was very surprised when I discovered the fandom and read dismissals of him as unremarkable, boring as OP said. It made me wonder if all I had seen in him was just personal projection, headcannons and wishful thinking…

Well said!

There is a lot of complexity there. He is very kind and calm while he also has an angry side. I mean you watch Maneuvers and you realize you don’t want to piss him off.

Also, please don’t forget:

Dude has some layers. Like all that contrary youth is still in there, years of pent up anger.

“To all mankind – may we never find space so vast, planets so cold, heart and mind so empty that we cannot fill them with love and warmth.” · 📸: @puck90

Do you need to distract yourself? Or are you simply bored? Here are some great websites to make the time pass.

create pixel art

Awesome photo editor and art program, all free…!

Totally free transparent textures

make a cute chibi

draw some cool generative art

be a graffiti creator

create a picassohead (you don’t need to be a picasso to do so)

paint online

another awsome site to create pixel art on

and another one

create your own mandala

or color one

create an avatar

or you can try creating your own superhero

here you can interact with organisms in different environments to see how to music changes

here’s a website that translates the time into hexidecimal colours,

Here is a website where you can travel along a 3D line into the infinite unkown

here is a website where you can listen to rain with or without music

Need a model in a certain pose for drawing? here

Want to build your own planet

here is a website where you can create your own galaxies

make your own pattern (very useful if you need a new background)

create next hit comic

make a city which looks like something from 90′s games

draw a mandala like design

jig saw puzzles

more jig saw puzzles to solve

create a stunning HTML5 animation - no coding!

make a movie

create and dress up dolls

play a piano

you can also play a guitar

create sounds

another sound creator

create a logo

design your dream home

sketch rooms

explore fashion trends and create your own sets

build a website

try this app for building a website

Or maybe start learning how to code!

design your own t-shirt or a beanie or sweatpants and order them

design your own phone case

pretend to be a graphic designer with this cool online tool

Make your own Glitch art

Here’s another glitch art maker

And another!

Holy hell, here’s a third!

make an image look like it was created by a commodore 64

freaking cool text generator!

Easy to use word processor

Make up really cool patterns or run your photos through it :)

Write an essay on anything with no hassle

Wanna see how something you write would look like if it was on JacksFilms YGS((Your Grammar Sucks videos on YouTube))?

Make pictures out of text

ASCII word generator

Need an idea for some fanart-here :D

mario

cubefield

sleep calculator essay typer

rice questions

maths 

artsy-fartsy pretty thing

quotes

survive nature

rain

tumblr music

calming rain

themes

backgrounds [x] 

loads of references

Still haven’t found something that would float your boat? Try these:

watch a documentary

learn to code

do something yourself

workout with the help of this great youtube channels

learn things

play pokemon or zelda or other awesome old school games

waste your time on miniclip

play games at additing games

or try games at agame

calm your thoughts

the quiet place

it will be okay

vent or listen to someone

pour out your soul

explore the sky

look at art from around the world

virtually visit museum of iraq

explore world with arounder

create a music playlist

list through rare books

scroll useful science website

create sand art

brain games

try out tastekid and discover new favorite band or movie or book

interactive 3D anatomy

random street view

post a secret

create a family tree

find our what’s the difference between x and y

help scientists and become volunteer researcher

create your own font

read a classic short story

In the mood to read, but not sure exactly what book to go for?

scribble on maps

listen to letters

play with acrobots

listen to podcasts

make a bucket list

Ever want to see the most truly useless websites in creation?

Prank a friend with this blue screen of death!

Zone out watching the colors drip down

Sprite generator!

Face Generator/Creator!

Maybe none of these peeked your interest-maybe you’ve been wanting to create an o.c, but never really knew how to start-or you just enjoy making O.C’s….Or maybe you have a Gemsona that you want to create, but don’t have the energy to draw!

This masterlist is to help you in making your own OCs….it can also apply to developing RP characters i suppose! (´ヮ`)!

Gemsona stuffs;

Just a straight up character gemsona creator

Here’s another

Not sure what gem to go with, or where? 

OR maybe your unsure about more than just that?

How to Write Better OCs:

basic tips on how to make your oc even better

tragic backstory? learn how to write one/make yours great

writing specific characters

a wordier, great guide on how to develop your character

kick out those vague descriptions and make them AWESOME

Character Development:

how to actually make an OC

Q&A (to develop characters)

more Q&As

giving your character a backstory

how to write an attractive character

Need an Appearance idea?

Humanoid generator? check

Here’s another one

and maybe if you didn’t like those this’ll work

Need Monsterpeople?

Well, then here ya’ go

Maybe you need Cats?

Diversity

adding more racial diversity

avoiding tokenism, AKA, how to add diversity to your cast not just because you “need” it

writing sexuality and gender expression (doesnt include non binary, if you have a good ref to that, please add on!)

masterpost on writing more diversity into your story

cultures of the world

guides to drawing different ethnicities (not just a great art reference, but also really helpful in appearance descriptions!)

Mary Sue/Gary Stu

Test to see if your character is a Sue

Explains subdivisions of Sues/Stus

Powerful Characters Don’t Have to Be Sues

Villains

villain generator

need an evil sounding name for your evil character? bam

villain archetypes

what’s your villain’s motive for being a villain?

Relationships

character perceptions (What your character thinks of themselves and what others think of them)

how to write strong relationships between two characters

8 ways to write better characters and develop their relationships with others

OCxLove Interest Handbook

develop your couple with good ol’ Q&A!

how to write realistic relationships

how to write relatives for your characters (this is more OC related to a canon character, but will help in writing family members in general)

ARCHETYPES

12 common archetypes

8 archetypes for male/female characters

female archetypes (goes pretty indepth from two main categories)

a list of archetypes

NAMES

how to name your character

random name generator

most common surnames

surnames by ethnicity

APPEARANCE

tips for better design

basic appearance generator

pinterest board for character design (includes NSFW and images of skeletons/exposed muscle (?) so tread carefully!)

clothing ref masterpost

Clothing generator

Another clothing generator

More clothing generator

Aaaand even more

Steam punk clothing

Char Style preference

Dress Generator

DETAILS

give your character better powers

a list of professions

proactive vs reactive characters

positive and negative traits

interest generator

skills generator

motivation generator

123 ideas for character flaws

list of phobias

Oh shit someone died

Backgrounds and stuff? yep

Quirks

Personality. you need that shit

Need something fandom related?

City generator hell yeah

location? got ya

World-building?

make your own god damn laws

Landscape.

Need Item names?

Fantasy/sci-fi/etc. medicine names

Stuff to make things more interesting.Weapons, clothes, treasures… whatever your characters need.

Item & Artifact Generators

Other stuffs!

Genre, Plot, & Story Prompt Generators

How did your characters meet?

Fanfic plots. you bet your ass.

Other Other stuffs!

Wanna make a custom minecraft skin?

Well then these’ll work!

This one too~

WAIT!…if none of that worked, then maybe you want to make a southpark style character?

Here!

Well, this one’s nice too~

And another..

Aaaand another!

UNDERTALE STUFFS;

Undertale character speech box creator!

Want inspiration for an Undertale Oc?

OR a super Edgy Undertale Theory generator?

Maybe you just want to read some funny Sans Puns!

TMNT STUFFS;

How about a TMNT creator?

THIS IS MY FAVORITE POST ON THIS FUCKING SITE

For when I have the time.

Star Trek: TOS + Aesthetic Generator

Bonus: