Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
So I'm just going to come out and say it: My favorite episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation is "Conundrum." It's episode fourteen of season five, and I just deeply love it.
I don't know if it's because I literally just assumed Erich Anderson's Commander McDuff was a random Enterprise officer of the week (which we saw quite often during the show) when I watched it as a kid during the original run, so the twist actually worked on eleven year old me. I don't know if it's because I just like a good "everyone has amnesia" story. I don't even know if it's just because it's a good Ro Laren episode. I don't know if it's just because we learn that Starfleet doesn't give a crap about lasers.
I just like it. It's neat.
And I rewatched it last night, and feel that it holds up -- which is why I found it deeply weird that the folks who wrote the episode actually think it's not that good. My favorite episode of the entire seven season run of the show was a failure according to the folks who wrote it.
And maybe, as a writer and creator, I should remember that.
Like the hardest part of releasing creative works to the public is that often, after a while, I'll start to judge those things far more harshly than when I first made them. Or I'll compare it to the potential I thought an idea had in my head. And if I don't reach that potential, I'll think of it as "bad" -- when it might just be slightly different than that idea. I have one hundred percent published stories that I thought were just sort of okay and later had someone tell me how much it meant to them to read it.
*cough*I Hate November*cough*
So I should make sure I remember Conundrum. That one of my favorite things to rewatch is considered one of those failures by its creators. That the things I make might have value, just not in the way I originally thought they should.
It's just sort of how things work out.
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Was waiting for a “but I’m really so and so from some anime” as there are some costumes out there that at a distance look pretty nazi, but then I found Trae’s article and thought “Yikes”
There are plenty who will go “Oh, it’s from X” with it, but no. It’s 2018, if you’re dressing as a Nazi, you know what you’re doing. My “Favorite” was the middle aged dude wearing a full uniform, with a 5′ flag, and a 3 year old in a Captain America outfit. The swastika was larger than the child. Because I’m sure that’s purely about the Avengers, right?
There’s an article?
yep
http://www.nerdandtie.com/2018/04/03/dear-congoers-of-america-stop-wearing-nazi-uniforms-seriously/
Oh wow, sweet. By Trae’s standards (historical atrocities) I get to kick out pro-socialist and pro-communist edgelords wearing Communists stars, Hammer and Sickles, and Che shirts, from all the Florida conventions. Bonus!
What about someone cosplaying Man in the High Tower? As a Jew MHT and Red Skull cosplay don’t bother me, real Nazis do. Is there something I’m missing with MHT & Red Skull being refused at some cons?
Yes, many conventions have outright banned anything Red Skull, Hydra, 40k Commissars, Nazi Werewolves, etc
No Hydra?
No Hydra? According to Agents of SHIELD series Hydra pre-dates Nazis by 500 years at least.
What’re being banned are Nazi uniforms.
If someone is dressing up as a Hydra member from 500 years ago, they wouldn’t be wearing anything close to a Nazi uniform.