aldora89:tacosmells:#that’s not friendship spock that’s a bonerOkay, so there are a couple different
aldora89:tacosmells:#that’s not friendship spock that’s a bonerOkay, so there are a couple different levels to this (yes I am seriously turning a joke tag into meta).You couldn’t say “boner” on 1960s television. Duh. If you want Spock to admit some kind of intense feeling for Jim, it must appear platonic.“Friend” was used as code or cover for homoerotic subtext in entertainment during intolerant time periods. While perhaps not the writer’s intention, that context exists.“Friendship” isn’t really a feeling anyway. Which adds to the sense that Spock is confused and struggles to identify and label emotional urges.He is “ashamed” of the feeling. Not just feelings in general, but this specific one. Yet in later episodes, he seems to have no problem labeling Kirk as a friend. So again, it stands to reason there’s not just “friendship” at play here.Years later, Roddenberry would invent a word for Kirk and Spock’s relationship that translates to some mysterious combination of “friend/brother/lover.” i.e. he allowed for ambiguity.Therefore, in hindsight it’s conceivable that Spock was referring to a t’hy’la-like feeling in this scene - a nebulous jumble of intense platonic bonds and potential romanticism.Conclusion: a compromised Spock is confessing that he feels drawn to Jim. But the ship is in danger, Spock dislikes/suppresses the emotion, and Jim probably doesn’t realize what he’s saying anyway.…so they’ll be doomed to spend the next seven years dancing around each other until Spock figures out how to accept his feels.Q.E.D.(✿◡‿◡)…also this is the climactic scene of the episode, and THE most charged moment of that scene. And Spock can’t stop trying to explain himself, even in the midst of the important technobabble:”Understand, Jim. I’ve spent a whole lifetime learning to hide my feelings.”A line that summarizes the major conflict between them for years to come.But if imminent danger wasn’t there to interrupt them - an emotional Spock bent on pouring his heart out to a lonely Jim - who knows what this confession would have turned into? -- source link
#star trek#spirk#lgbt