Fic: Say Goodnight, Not Goodbye (1/3)

Jul 13, 2013 00:16

Title: Say Goodnight, Not Goodbye

Author: Gixxer Pilot

Summary: “You know what your problem is, Jim? You don't respect the chair.” He does now, thank you very much. ***Into Darkness spoilers***

Author's Notes: So. Star Trek: Into Darkness. My thoughts on the film can be summed up in one simple sentence: Gix was not impressed. It was a cluster ( Read more... )

fic, title: say goodnight not goodbye, canon!aos trek, star trek: 2009

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***Spoiler Alert*** inconstantflux July 13 2013, 10:51:21 UTC
Oh, yes! More Pike and Jim! You make me so happy.

And I can't even write a long comment here, because I'm so curious about the next chapter and how that's going to unfold. Oh god, my heart's still aching when I think of a scenario with a dead Pike. There have been a couple of good stories about Jim trying to cope with that, and I usually ended up crying. But I can't stop myself reading them anyway.

So I'm really intrigued. And I very much like the effect this death experience has on Jim. Especially with Kirk, I just love to see something or someone unhinging him, not allowing him to use his I-don't-care attitude as a shield--but showing the real Jim, young and raw and vulnerable.

That was one of the biggest problems I had with Into Darkness--next to not allowing Jim to be there when Pike died (Spock, wtf?!), Spock performing a non-consensual mind meld on a dying human being, and killing off Pike in the first place:
The impact of Pike's death on Jim was just not strong enough! Okay, he cried, he hunted down Khan and hit him because he was furious, he had this nice little reference in his speech at the end of the movie. Yes, they alluded to his emotions a little bit. But it wasn't enough. For me, there's so much more between these two characters.
I know, Pike's a minor character and most happened off-screen. That's how blockbuster movies work, unfortunately. And I'm okay with that, since I have ̶t̶̶o̶̶o̶̶ ̶̶m̶̶u̶̶c̶̶h̶ enough imagination to fill in the gaps. But it's just not enough in connection with Pike's death.

Ah, see--you need to post that second chapter of yours!

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Re: ***Spoiler Alert*** inconstantflux July 13 2013, 10:52:59 UTC
So much for not writing a long comment...

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Re: ***Spoiler Alert*** gixxer_pilot July 15 2013, 04:46:58 UTC
My dear, I am gloriously long winded. You will find no quarrel on that front from me. Ramble away!! :)

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Re: ***Spoiler Alert*** gixxer_pilot July 15 2013, 04:57:40 UTC
Yaay! *high fives* I am glad you're happy! That means I'm doing something right as the writer, eh?

I was really disappointed that we didn't get to see any resolution with Jim and Pike and McCoy on the matter of Pike's death. For those two, losing Pike is probably like losing a father. I think no matter which way you slice it - fanon or canon - Pike took both those two under his wing and made them his special projects. I don't think either of them succeed without his intervention and to deny us something of a goodbye was, in my book, criminally wrong.

(Consequentially, that is why in my cop!verse AU, the only rule I have is that Pike will never die.)

Ahem, back on topic. I think Jim has had his share of close shaves, but nothing has ever been so final. There have always been people there to pick him back up, lecture him about how stupid he was, and to try and give him a proverbial smack. But it's never sunk in, because he's always been able to say everything worked out all right in the end. Except this time, everything did NOT work out all right. There's a resolution, sure, but there's really no winner. And that was exactly what I want to show for Kirk.

And dude. DUUUDE. You should have seen me in the theatre when Spock explained his motives for melding with Pike. I'm pretty sure the entire theatre heard my shouted expletive. Look, I get that it's an AU because of Nero, but that doesn't mean the characterizations change, only the sequence of events. I thought that perhaps Spock was offering Chris some comfort so that he might die with a little bit of dignity and without so much fear and regret. But no. Spock was doing it because he wanted to know what his mother felt??? The fucking fuck???

I don't think I can give them a pass on the 'it's a blockbuster' thing. Because if you're going to use Pike's death as Jim's motive for wanting revenge, then you need to show WHY it's so important for character A to avenge character B. Otherwise, it just feels cheap and cheesy, much like Into Failure. I think they had a great opportunity to use an actor with great chops (Greenwood) and they blew that for the sake of more digital effects.

And please don't get me started on how they misused McCoy in this movie. Ugh.

And finally, I have to mention this because it's really kind of awesome. Everything you put in your comment? It's been addressed at some point in some way in this story of mine. Great minds apparently think alike!

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Re: ***Spoiler Alert*** levade001 July 28 2013, 18:32:15 UTC
I don't think I can give them a pass on the 'it's a blockbuster' thing. Because if you're going to use Pike's death as Jim's motive for wanting revenge, then you need to show WHY it's so important for character A to avenge character B. Otherwise, it just feels cheap and cheesy, much like Into Failure. I think they had a great opportunity to use an actor with great chops (Greenwood) and they blew that for the sake of more digital effects.

And please don't get me started on how they misused McCoy in this movie. Ugh.

Thank you!! I've been in the land of "omg, Benedict as Khan was just SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO amazing!!!", and the sole voice saying, "But...Khan had meaning in the TOS. He and Kirk had history, a reason to hate. This mess? This was..." FANGRL SCREAM: HE IS SO HAWWWWWWT

So, yeah. It had more to do with hot looks than plot in their minds. Why can't we have both? Oi.

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Re: ***Spoiler Alert*** gixxer_pilot August 12 2013, 03:27:27 UTC
Totally late to the party on the reply to this, but even my husband, my, 'I-don't-understand-a-goddamned-thing-about-character-development-or-plot-or-anything-remotely-literary,' husband was all, "Cumberbatch is Khan? No. Nonono. Do. Not. Want." I loled. Yeah, I think Bad Robot's focus was just a smidgen off. Like, navigationally speaking, they were off by a whole freaking grid.

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