I think we’re coming upon the limn of fridging not being synonymous with a trite trope. I can think of cases in recent TV memory where a character gets arguably fridged technically - but isn’t necessarily diminished as a character. Say, Doakes, Laguerta, Rita, and Deb on Dexter. Or Dualla, Cally, Gaeta, Ellen on Battl…

The reason I hate this theory: the most interesting thing about Lorca is that he exists in a moral gray space. Writing it off as Mirror Lorca feels like an utter copout, depriving him of being among the most morally complicated characters the franchise has ever offered up.

Ultimately, I find the contentious problem of fridging being a question of consequence. For me, it’s too early to answer that here. Does Culber’s death narratively belong to Stamets or Tyler, moreso than giving Hugh his own agency? Even if Hugh was better developed than most victims of fridging, if he doesn’t get to…

TWIST: It was Rappin’ Jake Sisko the whole time.

The criticism from Force Awakens that Rey was a Mary Sue struck me dumbfounded over the hypocrisy that somehow, Luke wasn’t also.

I have zero doubt this isn’t the first X-Men/Star Wars crossover that was pitched at 20th Century Fox before the Disney buyout. And now, maybe it won’t be the last either.

I gotta ask.

An interesting way to put it.

All excellent points.

But how do you feel?

I’ve been wracking my brain tryna think of parallels in other long-running fan communities - from Trekkies to Whovians to Baker Street Irregulars, even. Trek in particular has some capacity for toxicity, but also has some bona fide stinkers in the franchise, and doesn’t quite reach the operatic crescendos of fanboying…

In one fell swoop, Johnson addressed my one overarching point in the eternally useless Wars vs. Trek nerdsquabble - that Wars, for all its engagingly fantastical saga, can be readily distilled down to a family soap opera. Which is not a point of criticism, mind you - it’s a feature common to the fantasy inspirations…

This is wholly correct, but I’d only add that Luke is by far the most central point of identification in the Original Trilogy. Sure, Leia and Han get plenty to do - and there’s plenty reason to find one’s self more attached to and enamored of them. But Luke is not only the entry point into the broader narrative in A…

“Fine” is an interesting take. Certainly not wrong in any way.

Random ‘pinions:

For my money, it was probably the single most awkward part of the retro-re-retcon built into the premise of Enterprise.

I caught it on Netflix US. I’m not certain about your location, but I see it available for rent on YouTube:

That’s why I present it as a tension of gradient, instead of a black-and-white binary choice. The episodic format certainly has its strengths - it lets the writers play with tone and structure, it allows certain characters to rotate into the foreground. It’s certainly clear to me that some of the series most…

I get that you’re shading the boots offa Enterprise, but I’ve staunchly defended the last season of ENT as a winning formula, balancing short, digestible serialization against the episodic format in a way that was - alas, too little, too late. But I still stand by that last season as some of the most consistently…