sometimes, writing fic leads to...
May. 22nd, 2018 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chanter1944More TOS musings. Whee?
I confess, I borrowed the concept of the below list from both an utterly delightful Babylon 5 comm post of several years ago, and a dedicated Trek site with a sizable pageful of squee (rightful squee, IMO) about another character. So! Clicky the cut if so inclined for a list of my own, and be forewarned if you do: Here be spoilers, mostly for the original series and ST VII/Generations, but also for one specific episode of Voyager.
And yes, you can blame this almost entirely on the original series Trek/Young Wizards fusion fics I've been working on lately.ceitfianna has seen part of one of them, as yet unreleased to AO3, and then both Demora Sulu and Chekov spoke up and the start of a full second story resulted, and now Mears and a few friends are being amazing, and Tamura's started giving me a couple thoughtful looks, and and and... :)
Hikaru Sulu is my captain because...
*I doubt he'd think less of me for stopping to sniff as well as scan the flowers on a survey mission, so long as the flowers checked out as human-friendly on the tricorder and I didn't take all day about it.
*Even when he's in command, he thinks and reacts like a born helmsman. Knowing exactly what to do, both instantly and continually, when riding out the Praxis explosion, anyone? Good gosh, that was just beautiful...
*He's a skilled swordsman and how, but he isn't one to brag about the fact. He'll prove it, though!
*He's got that sly sense of humor that springs out of nowhere, and he makes some of the best quips. "So much for the little training cruise." Heh!
*He *is* a born helmsman. He's a rock steady natural, even early on in his ensign days, and it shows.
*He adores Excelsior at first sight, keeps right on adoring her for years, sets his heart on her, and cares not one bit what anyone else might think about his devotion. And he gets her!
*Other captains, and other people - coughKirkcough - have a fair amount of bluster and glitter in with their daring. Sulu doesn't. He has plenty of both elegance and candor, but neither is a bit performative.
*During the first log entry from his perspective as captain, especially when he's giving the ship's name, he sounds so contented and pleased! Not smug, just an absolute case of aha, this is right, my dream's come true and it lives entirely up to everything I've imagined, and then some.
*He has zero qualms about showing understated but open concern for his friends; he and Chekov holding hands aww!
*He's a protector of the vulnerable, even if he occasionally misjudges--sorry, Uhura! He's absolutely the sort who'd intervene if he saw someone being attacked on a random street, or a guy taking a swing at his wife, or similar. This shows up in at least one not-necessarily-canon tie-in novel, even.
*He's not forever chasing tail. Sure, Ilia turned his head, and I gather he turned M'Ress's! but he doesn't have a conquest a week like *some* people...
*Somebody said he had a teddy bear in his quarters all through the first five-year mission. Not sure if that's true, but if it is, double aww!
*His relationship with Chekov; best friends for ever and ever, those two. One could probably make the argument for their being queerplatonic rather than platonic. Just me?
*He's downright ferocious in a fight, but he's also no stranger to the concept of situationally-appropriate force, and he clearly doesn't consider restraint a sign of weakness. Case in point, when the controlled explody plan to escape Kang's ship was put forward, his first question was whether or not the Klingon vessel's shields could withstand it. Somebody knows and cares about the difference between 'temporarily disable' and 'put more significant dents in'. Not every captain would worry about that, so long as their own ship got away.
*His relationship with Rand. He knows an excellent officer when he sees one, even if most other people overlook her, and he doesn't hesitate to tap her as one of his senior staff as soon as he gets the chance. And they're good friends for life, too. I'll keep any shippy biases out of this... :)
*He can be intense, and sometimes the metaphorical claws come out - yikes, eep, sir! - but he's never rough without reason. There's a line between going at something hard when necessary and being hard in general. He never crosses it.
*His father-daughter relationship with Demora. "If it's important, you find the time." Of course he was proud of her. And she inherited!
*When there is a genuine fight to be had, he does not mess around. At. all.
*He doesn't view less than high literary twentieth century references as either beneath him or bizarre, to the point of using them himself. See also matches and gasoline, because he didn't learn *that* trick in his home era. Sure, he might've known about the vehicle fuel - Tom Paris did - but that specific reaction? I just bet that knowledge came from down the timestream.
*That voice of his. Voice for days and days. Good gosh. High school me caught no end of flack from friends over my starry-eyed giggliness due to that voice. Current me can still get a bit starry-eyed... I've got a few more reasons now, though. See above!
I should right one of these for Sisko, or even Janeway or Pike. ... Later. Eeks, later! I don't need any more listy musing for a few days.
I confess, I borrowed the concept of the below list from both an utterly delightful Babylon 5 comm post of several years ago, and a dedicated Trek site with a sizable pageful of squee (rightful squee, IMO) about another character. So! Clicky the cut if so inclined for a list of my own, and be forewarned if you do: Here be spoilers, mostly for the original series and ST VII/Generations, but also for one specific episode of Voyager.
And yes, you can blame this almost entirely on the original series Trek/Young Wizards fusion fics I've been working on lately.
ceitfianna has seen part of one of them, as yet unreleased to AO3, and then both Demora Sulu and Chekov spoke up and the start of a full second story resulted, and now Mears and a few friends are being amazing, and Tamura's started giving me a couple thoughtful looks, and and and... :) Hikaru Sulu is my captain because...
*I doubt he'd think less of me for stopping to sniff as well as scan the flowers on a survey mission, so long as the flowers checked out as human-friendly on the tricorder and I didn't take all day about it.
*Even when he's in command, he thinks and reacts like a born helmsman. Knowing exactly what to do, both instantly and continually, when riding out the Praxis explosion, anyone? Good gosh, that was just beautiful...
*He's a skilled swordsman and how, but he isn't one to brag about the fact. He'll prove it, though!
*He's got that sly sense of humor that springs out of nowhere, and he makes some of the best quips. "So much for the little training cruise." Heh!
*He *is* a born helmsman. He's a rock steady natural, even early on in his ensign days, and it shows.
*He adores Excelsior at first sight, keeps right on adoring her for years, sets his heart on her, and cares not one bit what anyone else might think about his devotion. And he gets her!
*Other captains, and other people - coughKirkcough - have a fair amount of bluster and glitter in with their daring. Sulu doesn't. He has plenty of both elegance and candor, but neither is a bit performative.
*During the first log entry from his perspective as captain, especially when he's giving the ship's name, he sounds so contented and pleased! Not smug, just an absolute case of aha, this is right, my dream's come true and it lives entirely up to everything I've imagined, and then some.
*He has zero qualms about showing understated but open concern for his friends; he and Chekov holding hands aww!
*He's a protector of the vulnerable, even if he occasionally misjudges--sorry, Uhura! He's absolutely the sort who'd intervene if he saw someone being attacked on a random street, or a guy taking a swing at his wife, or similar. This shows up in at least one not-necessarily-canon tie-in novel, even.
*He's not forever chasing tail. Sure, Ilia turned his head, and I gather he turned M'Ress's! but he doesn't have a conquest a week like *some* people...
*Somebody said he had a teddy bear in his quarters all through the first five-year mission. Not sure if that's true, but if it is, double aww!
*His relationship with Chekov; best friends for ever and ever, those two. One could probably make the argument for their being queerplatonic rather than platonic. Just me?
*He's downright ferocious in a fight, but he's also no stranger to the concept of situationally-appropriate force, and he clearly doesn't consider restraint a sign of weakness. Case in point, when the controlled explody plan to escape Kang's ship was put forward, his first question was whether or not the Klingon vessel's shields could withstand it. Somebody knows and cares about the difference between 'temporarily disable' and 'put more significant dents in'. Not every captain would worry about that, so long as their own ship got away.
*His relationship with Rand. He knows an excellent officer when he sees one, even if most other people overlook her, and he doesn't hesitate to tap her as one of his senior staff as soon as he gets the chance. And they're good friends for life, too. I'll keep any shippy biases out of this... :)
*He can be intense, and sometimes the metaphorical claws come out - yikes, eep, sir! - but he's never rough without reason. There's a line between going at something hard when necessary and being hard in general. He never crosses it.
*His father-daughter relationship with Demora. "If it's important, you find the time." Of course he was proud of her. And she inherited!
*When there is a genuine fight to be had, he does not mess around. At. all.
*He doesn't view less than high literary twentieth century references as either beneath him or bizarre, to the point of using them himself. See also matches and gasoline, because he didn't learn *that* trick in his home era. Sure, he might've known about the vehicle fuel - Tom Paris did - but that specific reaction? I just bet that knowledge came from down the timestream.
*That voice of his. Voice for days and days. Good gosh. High school me caught no end of flack from friends over my starry-eyed giggliness due to that voice. Current me can still get a bit starry-eyed... I've got a few more reasons now, though. See above!
I should right one of these for Sisko, or even Janeway or Pike. ... Later. Eeks, later! I don't need any more listy musing for a few days.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-23 03:15 am (UTC)He's both a sneaky bastard and an honourable gentleman, as circumstances require.
Principled, in any case.
He's not afraid to show love for family in public.
He knows Lord Nelson's Toast... and made it his own.
He's not afraid to face those more powerful than he is.
He doesn't seem particularly religious... but has no problem with those who are. Including his wife.
He still, however, has a sense of wonder. All the way to the end.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-23 04:18 am (UTC)I will confess that, though I adore him, Sulu is not my absolute favorite out of all the people in all the metaphorical center chairs out there. But you already know my favorite's a commander rather than a captain, anyway.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-23 04:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-23 11:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-23 07:00 am (UTC)Sulu crawling thru the access tunnels in My Enemy, My Ally is one of the best scenes in the book. I always wished they could have made a movie out of that one.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-24 11:09 am (UTC)A one and a two and a one two three, as soon as I get these other fics finished... I've got four more in the same 'verse in progress at the moment. Please do heed the tags and the summaries, especially on the first one I linked; it gets intense in its depictions.