Meme: Just gonna post this again...

[kiffie]

In case anyone wants to try another round.

Post with a character from a fandom I follow, and I'll respond with...

* How I FEEEEEL about this character
* All the people I ship romantically with this character
* My non-romantic OTP for this character
* My unpopular opinion about this character
* One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Feel free to post any character I've not gotten to, from past memes. I think Toro was in there, at some point?

Or repeats, if you want a new/updated opinion. Hey, sometimes things change!

Comments

[eliyes]

Hmmm. Data.

[kiffie]

Since DW has a longer post limit, let's see if it'll let me do this without having to break it up.

How I FEEEEEL about this character:

Is it really a surprise to anyone that Data is my favorite of the TNG crew?

He's a wonderful outside-looking-in character that gives a different perspective on the decisions made by the majority-human crew.

He's also a truly good-hearted character, which I absolutely adore. Granted, most of the TNG crew are good-hearted, and have a glorious squishy center. They can be flawed (Geordi stop creepin' on people you've never met, it's weird as fuck), but when you get down to it, they're always going to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do.

But Data, who could simply act on cold mechanical logic and percentages of success, chooses not to, time and time again, if it means that he's doing what is morally right.

And this isn't something that's been learned or taught. It's simply who he is. When he'd lost all his memories, in "Thine Own Self," he still chose to try and save the town from radiation sickness, even though doing so put his own life at risk from the angry mob.

(This is also why I don't really find fault with his actions at the end of Nemesis, because this sort of tunnel vision has happened before. More on this later.)

Also, this android loves cats. And we all know how I feel about androids with pet cats.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Really, I don't?

I mean, yes, Tasha and Data had... something... during 'The Naked Now,' and it remains extremely important to Data. He very much felt a deeper connection to Tasha after it happened. But, had she lived, I don't think they ever would have worked as a couple. (For multiple reasons.)

And there's not really anyone else that I think Data would work with, romantically. He doesn't seem to have any real interest in romance, in that he desires that sort of connection with someone else. There's a scientific curiosity-- to 'try it to see what it's like' --mixed with a desire to meet cultural expectations, but neither of those are rooted in a true want for romantic companionship.

He seems much more desirous of friendships. Which brings us to...

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Geordi is the obvious one.

Everyone has that best friend who they do everything with. Who's involved in all your plots and schemes and dumb ideas. Who doesn't even blink an eye when you say, "Let's go to Taco Bell!" at 3am, because, dude, it's not any fun if you go alone!

Geordi is that, for Data.

The best friend who he's best friended so hard that they're practically family.

It's a nice relationship, too, because we get to see it from the very beginning. We don't come into the show with Data and Geordi being pre-established as bros, having past history, or even having a passing knowledge of one another. Everything we see has grown from them getting lumped together by fate aboard the Enterprise. From Engineering Bros to Holodeck adventures to being able to communicate with just a shared look and a wom wom. It's a wonderful thing to see happen over the course of the series and movies.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

I remain perfectly okay with his throughline, in Nemesis. He died, B4 lived, and though B4 has his memories, this smol robobeen is not Data.

It wasn't particularly well done, but it wasn't horrible, either. Not his part of the story, at any rate. Say what you will about Shinzon and how hamfisted that was, and how it wasn't really up to par for a movie script (though it might've made a fair episode script), but I really don't have many complaints about the basic outline for Data's part in the whole thing.

I don't like to see a favorite character die. But there are way worse ways to go than saving his captain, and the action wasn't out of character at all for Data.

That being said, the storyline(s) presented in the comics and ST:O, where Data's consciousness supplanted B4's and he went on to captain the Enterprise-E, are also kinda neat.

I am okay with two contradictory timelines both being considered worthy of continuation.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

I really enjoyed whenever Data showed emotion, despite his repeated insistence of 'not having emotions,' and 'needing' the Emotion Chip to experience them. He's shown pleasure, grief, embrassment, and anger over the years, all without the aid of the chip. They're much more subtle than human emotions, but they clearly make a profound effect on Data's own thoughts and actions, so they're obviously valid and real to him -- even if he doesn't see them for what they are, because they don't match 1:1 with human emotions.

Frex, in "Gambit," he gets visibly aggravated and annoyed at Worf, when Worf isn't giving him the proper respect as Captain that he feels the position deserves. He's very obviously feeling annoyance (and also regret that he has to speak to Worf like this), even if he doesn't seem to realize that's what's happening.

This is much more apparent in "Redemption," when he tells the second-in-command of the Sutherland exactly where he can stick his insubordination. Data honestly looks like he's barely stopping himself from throttling the little shit.

But they don't ever address this!

He's given the Emotion Chip as a plot 'out,' and everyone suddenly acts like now Data is capable of exploring emotions? What? No, dude, this robobeen's been exploring emotions this whole time. Where the fuck ya'll been?

By the time the movies came along, and Data was using/not using the chip like some sort of weird drug, I really wish they'd had someone-- Picard? Troi? --point blank tell Data that he had been feeling emotions all along, because his positronic skull is clearly too damn thick for him to get that on his own.

[eliyes]

Love that android. And his cat! Who was briefly an iguana, but whatever, that was a weird day for all involved.

100% with you on the emotions thing. He was experiencing emotions from the get go, it was silly to say otherwise.

[kiffie]

Teratorn!Jim: *happily preens his iguanas*

Data: *confused head tilt*

[eliyes]

You know, we've discussed Jim fanbotting the ST cast members at cons, and we've made the Invaders (and then some) into ST versions of themselves, but I don't remember us ever just having Jim et al meet the actual StarFleet peeps? Maybe my memory is just shoddy, but I am experiencing some joy just imagining Jim & Data having a long chat, possibly while grooming cats.

[kiffie]

Chatting while chatting, if you will.

[eliyes]

Look at you, making bilingual puns!

[kiffie]

The only kind I can make involve kitters.

[eliyes]

*nods* Fair enough. Stick you what interests you~

*used Lionet icon for felinity reasons*

[kiffie]

At some point, we should just write a crossover.

I have no clue how that would even work, though.

Time travel? Some sort of dimensional rift (and also time travel)? Something to do with the multitudes of planets full of gangsters/Nazis/etc.? (Which Bucky will be oh so happy to punch!)