#jewish coded

Like we look at other characters from Zaun and even given what we know eventually happens to Vi, there’s a definite undercurrent of loyalty to their position societally, geographically, that Viktor, despite apparently being from the same place, doesn’t seem to have, despite being passionate about problems that have affected him and people he knows due to geography (water purity, mining safety, etc). Considering the way the rest of the show handles matters of national/ethnic identity this is actually very weird. What’s his deal?

Well, look at this through the 19th century lens, and consider if Viktor was Jewish, well, a LOT is going on for Jews during that time — Jewish Emancipation was happening piecemeal in Europe and Jews were slowly gaining equal rights to Christians and integrating into mainstream society and struggling to navigate what that meant. With this as the backdrop, Viktor not feeling especially connected to Zaun vs Piltover makes more sense. His family may have only recently begun integrating and he would likely still consider himself an outsider to both words, possibly symbolized by his accent. To him, Topside and the Undercity may be the same (derogatory), to the point that he rarely mentions anything about it to Jayce despite being very close and only begins pushing back when Jayce starts being weird about it. He seemingly only caves to ideas of national identity under huge pressure — which is exactly what the conflict in the show continuously ratchets up. So, we’ll see how he fares in season 2.

I have never covered it in any of my fics, but my Spock is a Jewish polytheist. His father is Vulcan, his mother is Jewish, and he has all kinds of idols all over his quarters.

I dunno what you're seeing, but I'm seeing Lamassu and Athena.

And here he is, being chill, with a burnt offering going. And a crystal ball.

But there is. NO. Disputing. That Spock is a Jewish-coded character! Or that both his creator and the guy who played him were Jewish. And the thing about Nimoy was that he infused his art with his Jewish identity. Let's not forget where the ta'al comes from!

Feeling like you owe allegiance to two irreconcilable worlds, constantly code-switching, always feeling like you're coming up short? BIG Jewish mood!

I feel like rather than seeing Spock's Vulcan heritage as his 'Jewish' side, it makes a lot more sense to imagine his father, who comes from a polytheist culture (Source? TAS: "Yesteryear"), as being the non-Jewish part of him, and to think of his mother as being Jewish, which would make him half human, half Vulcan, and ALL Jewish.

I also like to imagine Kirk as being Jewish, since Bill Shatner is. I have a lot of complicated feelings about Shatner, and especially his homophobia, but credit where credit is due. We see Kirk as bi because Shatner accidentally played him that way. Or maybe because De Kelly kept ratcheting up the sexual tension on set. Hard to say.

And so, I like to imagine a McKirk holiday with them bringing Joanna to her gramma's for Christmas. Kirk and Spock show up in ugly Hanukkah sweaters, and Spock makes just an EPIC quantity of latkes.

All Jewish headcanons that invoke physical appearances make me itch.