I watched the Star Trek tribble ep yesterday and came to the conclusion that it’s basically MAG 39. Jane Prentiss gives the tribble to Martin in the bar, leading to the loads of tribbles in USS Magnus, and while cleaning Martin discovers Gertrude’s corpse somewhere. Meanwhile wacky hijinks ensues.
As usual, AU by @luftballons99 uwu
based on this ask, which lives in my mind rent free
Yang just getting over her PTSD right before/after killing Adam was toxic enough, but I just realized this effects the FNDM's view of James. What’s that? someone who suffered a traumatic injury is actually reacting REALISTICALLY then one of our leads? Clearly it’s because he’s weak! I watched RWBY reactors and they’re like "James calm down" when he’s "losing it" in Gravity after losing his arm NOT EVEN AN HOUR AGO, like shut. The. Fuck. Up. RT got people thinking you can just walk off trauma.
I’m in a perpetual state of comparing RWBY to better written media so I’m sorry for going off the rails with this ask but I just listened to the end of The Magnus Archives season two and it does? Such a better job?? With this??? Like I’m a casual fan of the show so I can’t get into any of the drama (there must be drama, right? lol) but I’ve been impressed with how well the show has balanced trauma with hope, thus far anyway. Truly horrific things happen to this cast that changes their view of the world, kind of like getting dumped into a war where you learn that evil witches exist! Our main character has a total breakdown where he receives both justified criticism and well deserved sympathy, with his paranoia simultaneously called out but also acknowledged as legit - there are dangerous things here and he can’t trust everyone. It takes a long time for the characters to work through the trauma of their experiences and they do so in different ways. They’re allowed to both show these symptoms while also getting called out for them when they have too much of a negative impact on themselves and those around them. We get why you’re paranoid, Jon, but you can’t keep spying on us! We get why you’re perpetually pissed off, Tim, but at some point you’ve got to accept the hand you were dealt and try to do something about it! And then there’s Martin, the simple soul of this story, who has more development and nuance in a handful of episodes than Ruby has gotten in seven years, who actually embodies remaining hopeful despite unimaginable odds:
Tim: Oh, for God’s sake, this isn’t about you.
Martin: It never is.
Tim: Alright, fine. Fine. What do you want? What’s your light at the end of these spooky damn tunnels? And don’t say ‘everyone happy forever’, because that’s not happening. … Well?
Martin: I don’t know. I don’t know! I want to find out what’s going on. I want to save John. I want everyone to be fine, and, you know what? If we were all happy that wouldn’t actually be the end of the world!
Tim: Fine.
Martin: No, no it’s not “fine”. You’ve been going on and on and on about how alone you feel because John’s not taking your feelings into account while he’s having his breakdown, but you’re just doing the same thing. We’ve all been going through this, Tim, but you’re the only one who’s been running away
There’s more acknowledgment of trauma, conflict, growth, realism, and hope in this exchange than we got in the entirety of Volume 7! No one walks off their trauma because it’s integrated into their characters in various ways that lead to good storytelling!!
Okay. Happy TMA rant complete. Had to get that out of my system 😅