The facial expressions on this one are perfect lol. Good work!
[deleted]
Submitted 1 year ago by Stamets@startrek.website to risa@startrek.website
Comments
Throbbing_Banjo@midwest.social 1 year ago
Stamets@startrek.website 1 year ago
As with all the memes I post, I cannot take credit for making them but I completely agree. The ‘hurr durr’ face that was chosen for Troi, as well as the ‘Done with this shit’ face, couldn’t have been chosen better.
CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 1 year ago
Counterpoint: Vader was not a potted plant.
He’s got SOOO many plates spinning! He’s very busy being the driver of the entire plot of a great big saga. There’s a lot on his mind.
What have you done today, Deanna? Eating a fudge Sunday doesn’t count.
To step out of the bit for a moment, when people criticize Troi, they’re really criticizing the writing. This character is there to look good and rarely gets anything meaningful to do, and when she does, it’s almost always redundant or superfluous to the situation. Marina Sirtis deserved so much better.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 year ago
*sundae
“Look! I have one job on this lousy ship, it’s stupid, but I’m gonna do it! Okay?”
RavenFellBlade@startrek.website 1 year ago
Sometimes I wonder if Galaxy Quest didn’t understand Trek better than some actual Trek shows?
CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 1 year ago
Ha! I just finished listening to the Film Reroll podcast episode where they play Galaxy Quest, so I find this comment extra amusing.
CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 1 year ago
Bloody autocorrect. Fixed it.
Hank@kbin.social 1 year ago
I like cum towns take on that character. Basically star trek fans are so autistic that they established an empathy character to explain emotions to them.
Stamets@startrek.website 1 year ago
Yeah, not a big fan of insulting an entire fan base because you don’t like a single character. Dude sounds like an insecure little bitch.
Hank@kbin.social 1 year ago
The entire concept of the podcast is shitting on everything and the listeners are well aware of that. No one is forced to listen to it. Ironically the guy who said it is most likely autistic and a closeted star trek fan. I'm autistic as well and I don't see an issue with making fun of it. It makes me feel more included than unnecessarily patronizing behavior.
CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 1 year ago
I just want to point out that it was you who took “autistic” as an insult, when there was no such negative connotation in the original comment.
CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 1 year ago
Haha, that seems about right. Only you have to specify that the fans in question were the ones actually writing the show. These are of course the same social pariahs who made the engineers into hopeless incels, the science officer into an emotionless android, and the doc into a sexy redhead who just happens to have a romantic history with the aloof captain, a literature nerd who hates kids. The only character on the bridge with his shit together is the first officer, a parody or pastiche of Captain Kirk, the untouchable coolest person in the franchise.
OctopusKurwa@lemm.ee 1 year ago
It’s a shame the writers made her terrible at the one thing she’s meant to be good at.
If I needed therapy on the Enterprise, I’d be going to Ten Forward.
feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Cumtown represent
reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I like it when memes get defensive right in the meme itself. Really sets my phaser to kill, if you know what I mean.
Makeitstop@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Force powers are vague psychic/mystic stuff. We see Vader sense Kenobi, and he can tell that Luke is strong with the force when he is focusing on him. And there’s other stuff like sensing Alderaan blowing up or things happening in other places and times (aka literally anything the plot wants the character to see). But the rules just really aren’t clear, especially in the original trilogy. There’s no indication given that Vader should be able to sense that someone is related to him, nor would he be able to pull it from Leia’s mind since she doesn’t know either. If anything, he should have sensed the millennium falcon coming in to cover Luke during the trench run, that seems like the more obvious thing to be able to detect.
Troi has empathy, which is a much more clearly defined concept. And while they stray from that sometimes by letting her sense danger or other nebulous generalities, we do know that she should be able to sense emotions, intentions and honesty vs deception. That makes it stand out when the script seemingly forgets that she should be able to sense lies, deception, and malicious intent. Conman pretending to be a researcher from the future lies in order to steal from them and she can’t tell that he’s a fraud. The staff at a party are getting ready to grab weapons and take them all hostage, and she doesn’t notice. These are situations that call for things that are well within her established skillset.
Honytawk@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
Maybe not if they are related, since neither of them knew.
But shouldn’t Vader detect the force in someone?
We now know both his children are strong with the force
Makeitstop@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Who says he didn’t? We only know he sensed that Luke was strong in the force during the death star trench run because he said it out loud. Presumably he has encountered many people with relatively strong force potential, but that’s probably something he’s going to keep to himself unless he has a reason to act on it. She’s a prisoner that he’s unlikely to recruit, and it’s not like she’s had any training. Hell, he probably dismisses people like her as being too old to start training anyway. (And if we bring in stuff from outside the movies where they explain that force sensitive people often become leaders, or larger than life figures that shape the course of events, then one would expect a lot of those people to run into Vader eventually.)
It may also be that force ability is more apparent once someone actually starts using the force. That would be logical and consistent with the fact that Luke is only really noticed by Vader once Obi Wan started telling him to use the force, and the fact that Vader and Luke could sense each other in space over Endor, but apparently that didn’t apply to Leia.
And again, he wasn’t trying to reach Luke on the radio to make him an offer once he noticed the force was strong with him, he was trying to kill him. The empire wasn’t determined to capture Luke until the emperor was able to sense him making waves in the force, when he was at the point where he was already using a lightsaber and capable of telekinesis, and when he had been identified as Vader’s son. At that point he had demonstrated actual ability, not just wasted potential, and the familial connection offered a plausible way to work around his opposition to the empire.
juliebean@lemm.ee 1 year ago
okay, one: vader? an empath? really?
two: even if he was how is empathic reading supposed to tell him she’s his daughter? it’s telempathy, not remote gene testing. it isn’t like leia was feeling familial affection for the guy.
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Vader can sense Luke repeatedly throughout 5 and 6. Luke can sense Leia in 5 and 6. Vader can sense Leia at the end of 6. But no one ever asked why Vader could do it in 4. Hopefully this helps.
VindictiveJudge@startrek.website 1 year ago
Vader only starts sensing Luke after he gets some training and goes from being merely Force sensitive to a proper Force adept. Trained adepts are consistently shown in the franchise to be easier to sense than untrained sensitives, like Leia.
Vader only knows Luke is his son after being told his name. He only finds out Luke has a sister after ripping the knowledge from his mind, and it’s unclear if he got her name.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
In 4, Vader senses Obi-Wan’s presence on the Death Star, but not Luke’s.
juliebean@lemm.ee 1 year ago
i’ll admit it’s been a while since i’ve watched the films, but it was probably a bit more obvious with Luke, right? he wasn’t exactly hidden. he had vader’s last name and lived with vader’s family on vader’s home planet.
meanwhile leia was adopted by some rando and had her name changed to match. she probably didn’t even know she was adopted.
anyway, i will have to rewatch the OT with this in mind at some point.
samus12345@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Vader can sense Leia at the end of 6.
He can? The only thing I remember is him reading Luke’s thoughts that she was his sister, which doesn’t involve sensing or reading her at all.
ursakhiin@beehaw.org 1 year ago
He could sense his son.
blindsight@beehaw.org 1 year ago
Yeah, but that was after he was already doing some pretty Forcy things. Leia only used the Force very weakly for empathic connection.
Bay_of_Piggies@hexbear.net 1 year ago
Leia didn’t even know
MimicJar@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Let’s talk Vader.
Vader didn’t even know about Leia until Luke leaks it in RotJ. During the Vader/Luke duel is the first and only time Vader acknowledged Leia. Luke’s thoughts turned to her during that fight. Vader saw that “weakness”, the attachment, and he leapt on it. And it worked (for a moment).
Now it’s possible Vader had a rough idea of her existence near the finale of Empire. Luke calls out to Leia. Leia is with Luke when Vader calls out to Luke. I expect Vader was too distracted to notice Leia.
Back to A New Hope. Vader doesn’t suspect anything until Obi-wan shows up on the Death Star. Why is Obi-wan here? What is he doing? Then he just disappears? Something about the crew he arrived with is suspicious. Then during the Death Star trench run. He is focused. Vader can sense something. Vader can sense something that can not be. Obi-wan has a Padawan? Why now? Who? Then Han Solo fires at him. Vader should have seen it coming, but he was distracted.
Sooo! Vader seeing Leia opening? He just had no idea.
OctopusKurwa@lemm.ee 1 year ago
As an Irish person, Troi doing this impression boiled my piss more than Up the Long Ladder
PlasmaDistortion@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I’m gonna need a translation here.
KevonLooney@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Something about Guinness
whofearsthenight@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Up the Long Ladder is an episode in which they picked up some backwater folks with Irish accents, in which the hot Irish woman existed mainly to yell about how men are useless and then bang Riker after coyly attracting him by asking him to wash her feet. It is widely regarded as not a great episode, and the only way they could have stereotyped the Irish further would be if someone ran through each scene yelling about how they’re always after his lucky charms.
ryan@the.coolest.zone 1 year ago
Ok but would y'all actually want to see a mental health counselor who could read your mind? I'd avoid the psychiatry department like the plague.
Carlo@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
A telepath? Definitely not. But an empath, like Troi? Sure! She just gets impressions of emotions; it’s not as if she can hear your internal monologue.
ryan@the.coolest.zone 1 year ago
Absolutely, that was my point and I worded it poorly :) If Troi were any more telepathic, Starfleet shouldn't allow her to practice mental health services. She's right at the edge where it's really useful before it becomes terrifying.
Mnemnosyne@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Um, yes? Assuming I haven’t done anything that will get me in trouble, and that the society we’re in doesn’t punish wrongthink, then most definitely; a mind reader should be much better at counseling than anyone else.
EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Especially one who’s that damn hot
Norgur@kbin.social 1 year ago
It's not your empathic abilities, Troi. It's the amount of leading question and interpretations you barrage your clients with that leads me to the conclusion that... well... you are a little shit at your job.
StellarTabi@hexbear.net 1 year ago
Fan theory: Vader recovered just fine in a few days thanks to space aged technology, but used the event as a facade to wear his kink gear full time.
Kuori@hexbear.net 1 year ago
“uh sir? does it…absolutely have to be skintight leather?”
“yes. it also needs to be black.”
jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
You mean the daughter he thought was dead at this point?
Stamets@startrek.website 1 year ago
So Vader is an all powerful empath who can sense all kinds of shit over lightyears but he can be immediately thwarted if someone lied to him 20 years ago?
Not the take you think it is.
panchzila@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Jedi powers kept changing from movie to movie, so its more inconsistent writing than anything else.
StellarTabi@hexbear.net 1 year ago
Here’s my cool guess: Maybe he can sense her, but she was introduced to him as an important political figure first, which caused a blindspot in identifying any personal relevance she may have to him. Luke was sensed without any context because he was actively training?
TWeaK@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I think a better suggestion is that she was weakened by the stun blaster. Leia hadn’t developed her force powers much at all at that point, so being in a weakened state could lead Vader to thinking nothing much of her. His child would be incredibly powerful, of course.
CarbonScored@hexbear.net 1 year ago
I think ‘foresaw his wife’s pained death, choked her out in a fit of rage a lava planet, then woke up and felt her death’ is bit more convincing evidence his kids didn’t make it than ‘someone lied to him’.
x4740N@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It could also depend on the force users mind
vader could have unconsciously ignored his force senses because he believed he didn’t have children
Steve@communick.news 1 year ago
That’s not a defense. It’s a distraction. They’re both bad empaths. Vader being worse doesn’t make her better.
Stamets@startrek.website 1 year ago
To me the meme comes off as a ‘Star Wars fans complain about Troi meanwhile their evil ‘god’ who has more leather than sense can’t even feel his own daughter standing 2 feet away from him’. It’s not a defense so much as a “If you want to bitch about Troi then you better recognize Vader has major faults too”. A leveling the field as it were.
Doug@midwest.social 1 year ago
Is it Star Wars fans complaining about Troi? I always figured it was Star Trek fans. Then again I never understood why there was a divide or why you have to be one or the other?
Even so empathy is the thing that Troi is supposed to excel at. She’s the counselor presumably because she’s an empath.
Vader, on the other hand is a capable warrior, commands the dark side of the force, is a legendary pilot, leads troops, and senses other force users. At this point neither Luke nor Vader is aware of Leia’s sensitivity to the force.
This seems like the equivalent of the Flash being bad at running then saying Superman isn’t very fast either.
I’ve got no problem criticizing Star Wars. There’s plenty to over. But this isn’t really a good comparison.
Steve@communick.news 1 year ago
It’s still trying to distract, rather than defend. The target audience doesn’t effect my point at all.
pomodoro_longbreak@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Ooh I love this template
BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yeah I just can never forgive her for being such a cunt when she lost her empathic abilities
teft@startrek.website 1 year ago
aeronmelon@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I read the whole thing in Sirtis’ disappointed mom voice.
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Leia also has powers with the Force.
Star Wars is basically a more accessible version of Dune. In Dune people had precognitive abilities that would allow them to predict the future. Problem is if someone else can foresee the future one person is reacting to what they predict the other will do, but then the other changes what they’ll do based on what they predict the first person would do. So it results in kind of a stalemate. Two people with precognitive abilities can’t predict each other’s actions. Or the actions of those under the other’s influence.
So the Sith’s abilities are weakened by the presence of a Jedi and vice-versa. Leia’s ability with the force (whether she knew she had them or not) prevents Darth Vader from sensing much about her other. Also the Sith’s abilities wouldn’t be effective in predicting the actions of any rebel following Leia’s leadership.
Why9@lemmy.world 1 year ago
This… Isn’t the answer.
More to the point, every answer to this question is talking about something completely different. Vader was distracted. Vader was only clued into Leia’s existence after Luke thought about her. Vader had too much on his plate…!
But this answer, even among all the above, is reaching at things that just make no sense. By your logic, every force user would be crippled at the battle of Geonosis, with hundreds of jedi and sith present.
Qui-Gon and a young Obi-Wan took on Darth Maul, where the latter was able to use his ability without seemingly any hindrance at all. Similarly with Obi-Wan and Anakin against Count Dooku. When Yoda steps in, it’s 3 jedi against Dooku. There’s no evidence of Dooku bring weakened, as he matches Yoda in force abilities without much effort. By your logic, the sith in both encounters should have been weakened. That is clearly not the case.
The simple and obvious truth is this: at the time of writing, Lucas never intended for Leia to be Luke’s sister (hence their kiss) and so, there simply wasn’t anything for Darth Vader to sense. Retconning that and then adding in some wishy-washy explanation just trashes the credibility of the franchise.
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
By my logic the Jedi wouldn’t be able to sense that Palpatine was a Sith even while sitting in a room with him where there was no dangers or distractions. I’m no prequel fan, but I recall that it’s mentioned the Jedi’s ability with the force was being weakened.
And it wouldn’t affect the ability to swing a lightsaber around. Though it would affect the ability to use precognition to predict where the opponent was going to swing their lightsaber. I mean they can deflect blaster shots all day but can’t deflect a lightsaber that’s moving much slower? Why is this? Makes sense if you consider the guys shooting the blasters don’t have much force abilities so they can use the force to predict where the shot will be and deflect it. But another force user’s actions can’t as easily be predicted so it comes down to good old fashioned martial arts abilities.
jabrd@hexbear.net 1 year ago
Zotoh Zhaan > Deanna Troi
m_r_butts@kbin.social 1 year ago
Troi's character was thwarted in a number of ways. For one, if she was too perceptive, it would kill a whole bunch of plots. I imagine that's why they made her an empath and not a full telepath, but even with reading emotions she never said anything the actors didn't make obvious. "I don't want you here! Get away from my planet forever and never ever come down here!" "He's hiding something." No shit, counselor. The other problem is that they gave all the cool practical psychology stuff away to Guinan. If Troi had even half of Guinan's scenes of clever interactions with the crew, we'd probably think of her as an exceptional psychologist, but they didn't.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
The character of Troi was such a strange collection of decisions.
In addition to a ship’s doctor, let’s also have a psychologist on board. Okay cool. A show as progressive as TNG was in its day would do something like “Hey we have a psychologist. Taking care of mental health is a thing you’re allowed to do.” Plus, in the Trek future, I can see where a psychologist might perform the roles of a present day Navy chaplain; Trek, especially TNG era Trek, had no use for religion and championed science, reason, philosophy and understanding, and so instead of a ship’s chaplain you’d have a ship’s counselor. Makes sense.
She’s a member of an empathic species who feels the emotions of the people she’s talking to so she’s an extra good counselor. And “logical” Vulcans are always science officers, right? Kind of on the nose but it’s on brand for Trek. Surprised the Klingon on the crew isn’t the weapons officer. Yet. So I guess she’s going to be a recurring character kind of like the ship’s doctor, when characters have personal issues they can go to the counselor to work through them?
The man cast will never have personal issues or conflicts among each other. They are the elite best of the best that humanity has to offer, they’re all pictures of perfect mental health and they work flawlessly as a team. …so why did they bother bringing a therapist on board with them?
She’s going to spend most of her duty day on the bridge sitting next to the Captain Ah, so she can use her empathy skills to aid in negotiations with outside characters, aliens and such, tell if they’re lying or upset or something, giving the Captain an amazing upper hand in pretty much any interpersonal situation.
…Shit I hadn’t thought that through. That does eliminate any plot that relies on deception to work. Well she’ll nearly never say anything actually useful, she’ll just sound smart. Okay…so the character is basically pointless?
She’s going to wear a short dress like Uhura did, but this time she’s going to sit in a chair facing forward with no console in front of it so the camera can always see her legs. Ah, there it is. None of the other two women on the crew are wearing such a uniform though, they’re wearing onesie jammies like the men, the doctor even has that really practical coat. Isn’t that kind of sexist even for the late 80’s?
We’ll have some male extras wearing the same uniform in the background sometimes. …Okay sure. So is this counselor a civilian serving aboard ship? She dresses different than everyone else on the crew, and has a purely personnel support role like the teacher and the barber characters.
No, she’s a commissioned officer, a Lieutenant Commander, fifth in command of the ship after the Captain, the first officer, the chief engineer and the navigator. Okay, is she going to command the ship while her superior officers are away, will she be on watch while the others are relieved, play a part in the chain of command?
Of course not, she’s a womanNo, in fact several seasons in she’ll be thrust into that situation and the only enlisted man on the show will have to explain to her that she’s even an officer in the first place, and in one of the movies she makes we’ll have her fly the Enterprise, and she’ll immediately crash it. She’s completely useless as a commanding officer. …Okay…so moving on I see you’ve hired Whoopi Goldberg as a recurring guest star, what’s that character like?There’s going to be a crew lounge on board with big windows, and she’s going to play the wise bartender, Guinan. Interesting. What does she do?
She’ll dispense sage advice, offer to talk to characters who are vexed by the current situation, act as a sounding board, sometimes re-contextualize their problems so they have a revelation, you know. Bartender stuff. Shouldn’t the ship’s counselor do that kind of thing?
Hey speaking of the counselor, what do you think of this spandex aerobics suit instead of the mini dress?
Makeitstop@lemmy.world 1 year ago
They really could have done themselves a favor by adding some clear limitations to her abilities.
There you go, she can still use her abilities to help the crew, and sometimes to solve problems, but you can also get stuff past her without making her seem oblivious. Then all they have to do is consistently write her as an intelligent and competent member of the crew, and we’re good.
MrPoopyButthole@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Her and Riker were the ones chosen to be there for their attractiveness. It was a showbiz rule that at least one female character has to be fuckable and in this case we got a male character too. Too bad the writers created such weak episodes for her, like S2 E1 “Child”. I agree that they didn’t think through her plot spoiling abilities properly. She even senses “a unifying consciousness” from Moriarty, a holodeck character made of literal photons of light… I wonder how much cocaine those writers were doing in the 80s…
lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Well at least they justified her existence when Barclay showed up. That guy needed an entire therapist all to himself.
usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
I would like to subscribe to your newsletter
GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
I agree with most of your analysis except for her outfits. Every other woman on the ship wears a standard uniform, no other woman on the ship is vaguely sexualized. We have plenty of opportunity to see that women aren’t just ditzy accessories for men any more but equals.
It feels weirdly regressive that there can’t be a woman with cleavage on the show else it’s sexist and reductive. Obviously women aren’t just there to be sexualized by men, but some women enjoy it and that’s okay too. Basically you’re slut shaming Deanna.
wizzor@sopuli.xyz 1 year ago
Is there a /bestof in Lemmy? This comment deserves to be framed for reframing Troi.
HawlSera@lemm.ee 1 year ago
The real reason she wasn’t a telepath was because of fans screaming that psychic powers was “validiating psuedoscience!”
ESP was a thing in the original series but back then mainstream science took such things more seriously. Didn’t have skeptics yet.
Ser_Salty@feddit.de 1 year ago
Saying the obvious actually is very useful. Yes, it might seem obvious that they’re angry, hiding something etc., but what if they weren’t and are just really good liars and actors? Troi is there to confirm if they’re honest or not.