No Kirk Without Irk

Did anyone in Project Hail Mary ever stop to ask "hey what do we do if Grace's glasses break"?

Because I know a lot of people don't think of poor eyesight as a disability, but it's a pretty significant one. I can't drive without my glasses. My roommate can't even walk to the mailbox. I had to get replacements after my frames snapped so I was wearing my three-years-ago glasses for a week this spring, and I had splitting headaches the entire time.

But all things considered, what I'm gathering is that Hollywood went "lol we can't have him be attractive, put him in glasses." So it is ableism, just from a different vector.

That being said, I didn’t even think about that the first time I watched it because I know so many people who don’t wear their glasses because it’s too annoying.

I am in the camp of needing my glasses to safely walk across a room I’m not familiar with. I cannot function without my glasses.

It is so far away from anything I can relate to as a glasses wearer.

four leaf clover in the patch of grass

stars on the bottom of grace's converse

fox figure in grace's hand

tiny pluto in the kuiper belt in the diagram of the solar system

i included the moon in the solar system diagram as well

hubble space telescope star blanket. obviously it's hubble.

pulsar map, completely accurate to the one inscribed on the cover of the golden record

So when it turns out astrophage does need water, he crashes out, like he did when he was younger—throws things, shouts, deflates, and hides. Stratt assumes that’s all she can get out of him, and prepares to leave.

But then—he begs her to let him help anyway. For the world. For his kids. Even if he’s just one of hundreds of scientists, with no audience left. Even if it does nothing for his pride. That’s when we and Stratt realize that there is more to this guy than ego.

my dad: i thought it was bones

me:

Kirk is arguably hypersexual, or at least is fine with being perceived as such (him being considered a “womanizer” to such a large portion of the audience would likely be exactly how people in-universe see him too)

Spock being desirable was also introduced pretty early, and I think him being “weirdly sexy” was always the intent, and they just were surprised it worked so /well/

But the most important fact about both of their sexuality is that; they are completely emotionally unattainable, and do not have a healthy relationship with their sexuality AT ALL

Kirk: the Yearner, the Romantic. He wants to love but CAN'T because of his duty to the ship! The Enterprise must always come first, no matter how much he might wish it otherwise. Any love he can/does get must happen in snatches: stolen moments, kisses, brief entanglements that leave both with just a taste of What Could Be, inevitably to end in a trail of broken hearts, Jim's the most broken of all. What a whirl. But no wonder he believes he'll die alone.

Spock: The Stoic, the Restrained. While Jim Kirk is like the breeze, snatching love when he can, this is the unmovable stone. He is above such petty feelings and attractions, yea, in fact, he has nooooo such feelings and attractions. The unmoving stone is now a challenge. Who can command the mountain to jump? Who can elicit a crack in its surface? Seeking love and relationship becomes secondary to seeking the victory of a response at all. And, the ultimate thrill, that the stone COULD, on rare occasion, be dared to move of its own accord, with all its years of repressed action and feeling exploding forth as a volcano: powerful, exhilarating, and dangerous. What risk. But what reward.

Both unattainable in their different ways, yet just as magnetic. And then...

McCoy: the Sensualist, the One in Love with Life itself. He is no force of nature. He is, however, unashamedly, unabashedly human. He has experienced the ecstasies, as well as the miseries, of love. He delights in the glorious failures as well as the glorious victories. It's all a part of being alive: the pain, the joy, and everything in between. We may only have each other, we may only have today, but that will not stop him from still fighting for tomorrow. He is just as flawed as anyone else and there's honestly to that, there's understanding and acknowledgement of regret, grief, the darkest side of yourself you don't want anyone to see, and yet here's this charming, compassionate, doctor who has walked many miles in similar shoes smiling and asking "well, how about a non-reconstituted meal and a drink?"

and while I don’t deny how important and admirable his work in the dissident movement was, it seems highly unlikely that a person could climb to such a high rank in an organization as brutal as the cardassian military without being complicit (at best) in those acts. but the episode only mentions his involvement in the kiessa monastery massacre as a young man.

and I think it probably makes sense that it's not included - it doesn't really fit with what the episode is trying to do, and there are other episodes (like things past) that explore that theme. and from a more watsonian perspective, maybe the rest of his military career wasn't related to the occupation (federation border wars or something), so kira isn't as interested

What matters is how much people want to STAY in a system that perpetuates such fucked up options.

The fact that Ghemor joined the dissident movement matters because regardless of what he to become a Legate, he chose to oppose the system that required him to do whatever he did.

That’s a distinction that Kira (especially at that point in her arc) can understand.