It's Both Of Them

Lizard returns

for me? it was s2e8 “necessary evil”. that’s when I knew deep space 9 was going to be different.

star trek has done murder mystery episodes before– yanno they’re fun, they’re a great format for a well paced forty five minutes where we can learn more about our characters and get some cheeky twists along the way.

“necessary evil” elevates that trope by setting the mystery on terok nor. it’s literally our first flashback look at the ugly political past of the space station. as an audience we’ve been learning to love and trust the warm vibes of the show’s setting– seeing a version of this place that’s dystopian, that’s horrific, that nonetheless features so many of the characters we know? it feels so fuckin visceral.

I will never forget the final twist in this episode. I will never forget learning alongside Odo what it really means for people to make the choices they must in the face of dehumanization, and the fallout that’ll haunt them for years. the realization that sometimes the most obvious truth is the profoundest one, and that sometimes all the twists in the world land you right where u started

the moment the character asks Odo if he can ever trust them again, and the shot lingers, and ends.

the episode ends there

that’s when I knew that this show wasn’t going to be like other trek. that’s when I knew this was going to be a story about the nuance, the incongruity, the unresolution and the things left hanging behind when an episode ends. that’s when I knew the writers on this show would wake up and choose artistic greatness in defiance of conventional tv wisdom.

thank you for my life, s2e8 necessary evil. we should talk about u more. xo.

Poor, precious lizard boy. I liked ASIT, it’s a damn fine piece of literature. I also liked how he was sad and confused most of the book. I can relate to that

brain’s been rattling nonstop about how my favorite album duology was waiting for me to discover garashir, because it IS about them.

röyksopp (acclaimed & iconic norwegian electropop synth artists, my beloveds) put out an album in 2009 called “Junior”. it’s a delight. it’s bright and optimistic, it’s uptempo even when it’s sad or conflicted, there’s a deep sense of drive and a pull towards the future. the duo brings in like half a dozen collaborating artists on lead vocals (robyn! karin dreijer!) and the result is so profoundly vibrant.

this is the julian album. this is the julian-as-he-projects-himself-outwardly album. julian surrounded by friends and moving too fast to think twice about what’s happening internally. julian while he’s still young and golden and nothing’s crashed down around him.

then in 2010, röyksopp releases “Senior” as a direct counterpart to Junior. it’s their only all-instrumental no-vocals album, and the tone has shifted. Senior is downtempo and sparse, it’s ambient and contemplative and dissonant even if the melody stays uncannily warm.

the sense of deep sadness and isolation in these instrumental tracks is so on the nose for garak it’s a little wild. tracks with names like “the drug” and “the alcoholic”. the empty stretching synth pads of “a long, long way” sounds like what the station must’ve felt like the first night after every other cardassian left.

It’s not a strict binary ofc, shades of both are in both albums, but the contrast between youth and experience, between unabashed optimism and tired reticence….. it’s sustaining me.

please listen to these albums and tell me what you think please

Nobody has made me feel safer or more respected than the filthy perverted freaks I was warned about.

jake sisko jumpsuit haters are weak and will not survive the winter. who else on the station is combining patterns and colors like that? who has the effortlessness, the ease? aura off the charts BECAUSE of the insane outfits, not in spite of them.

People are way too mean to Jake Sisko about his outfits :(( his fuckass outfits are one of the best parts of the whole show. Seeing non starfleet federation citizens. Seeing futuristic fashion. Having fun with colours and patterns. Seeing his fashion sense change from a child to an adult. He has more fashion sense than any of the muted militarised "something you could find in abercrombie and fitch" ass outfits of modern trek shows. Where is your zest for life, where is your idealism? Only Quark has more drip.

in order to not succumb to sex negative conservatism you have to accept that people will get off to things that are upsetting to you. and you cannot assume anything about what they have or have not experienced, what they do or do not believe, and how they act based solely on what gets them off. even if it's extremely confusing and disturbing to you. there are people who have only ever had heterosexual vanilla sex in missionary with the lights off, who actively contribute to more real world harm than your average fetish artist. kink is not a reliable source of information on someone's moral standing. it just feels good to think that way.

I'm honestly relieved that my hyper-fixation has over 900 episodes of TV and 13 movies.

just a plain simple tailor

Garashir illustration based on a piece from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrecs series “In Bed” ! Reference is below! :-)