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Difficult Terrain
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this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2023
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Risa
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I mean... to be honest, the very first moment I saw her, I knew she will eventually removed from the crew. Her character was just... too empty.
but the way she died... come on, man
Wait wait wait, are you trying to say that a character whose first big episode s1e4 saw them, as the head of security, get kidnapped for a forced marriage and had a character background of [checks notes] planet of rape gangs wasn't enough of a character?
Early TNG wasn't great, not surprising Denise Crosby asked to be released from her contract early. Fully agree they did her dirty with that death story but glad they still brought her back a few times
I can't be sure were you sarcastic or nor, in text it's not easy to determine; but yeah. she was... way too cliché-y compared to... anyone else.
after TOS, bullshit deaths wasn't such an unexpected thing, but the way she died, especially as the head of security...
idk. also, she was my gf's favorite, so this also way a giveaway that she will die eventually...
by the way, saw lots of people saying early TNG is shit, but aside FROM THAT FUCKING RIKER MONTAGE SEASON ENDING EPISODE (wtf man?), it was fine IMO. sometimes a little bit rough on the edges, tho, that's true.
but that's also true that we didn't really had any illusions, we were so hyped on Star Trek after TOS and being drunk by the fact that there's a lot more Star Trek to watch helped us through on the lesser good episodes of TNG. (but the montage, man...)
partially sarcastic, Tasha Yar as a character had big potential and was intended to be cooler but they started off on the wrong foot, never corrected, and never developed her.
The wikipedia rabbit hole for Tasha Yar and her actor Denise Crosby is an interesting one. Some of the creators thought she was the most interesting character in the "show bible" so maybe it was the episode writers that missed the message and gave her such empty stories and flubbed what could have been a cool character. Either way it would have been interesting to see a woman in the role of chief of security and another big leap in the progressiveness of star trek.
TOS had post cold war russians, and showed that black people are part of the future. Aside from briefly having a woman in charge of security I can't think of any progressive traits on TNG other than negotiating and 1st contact (are Picard's bag and) better that fighting. Don't get me wrong through I still hold a special place for TNG, just finished a rewatch not too long ago, but on second-ish watch, with the rose tinted glasses off, it is disappointing they had an opportunity to make a statement about a brighter, freer, more equitable future but ended up going with rape gangs and forced marriage (oh and fucking Data) instead.
So yeah the character ended up weak but was originally intended to be a bad ass. missed opportunity for something cooler and bigger.
Sadly it is the old assumption that rape is just "One of those things that happens to women, like periods."
It's getting better now, more editors are catching it (Laura Croft was supposed to be a "innocent flower" at one point who only became badass because she got raped... this was not only removed from the final game but the person was fired)
But... the idea of rape as a "Female Problem like broken finger nails and not being able to go to the mall" is definitely a major sign that the writing you are looking at is from the 90s when they want edge and they want women, but no idea how to do both.
I've even done it once and I'm not even a man... and even then it was in something meant to be sleazy with a B grade horror vibe and as an homage to I Spit On Your Grave
man, I completely forgot about that :D
but I see. and I can aggree that there was potential in her.
Can you add more on this please? There are too many unanswered questions there.
You've literally heard almost all of it. She mentions there being drugs, and there's a couple places where she talks about having to escape the rape gangs. I think maybe one brief flashback in a dark cave. AFAIR there was no explanation. I think it was meant to explain why she's a "badass", but everyone in Star Trek is a badass and they didn't need rape gangs to explain it.
It was a weird time for women in media.. we were being written for the first time as something other than a housewife... but most writers are men and have no idea how to do that.
So there was this idea early on that a housewife is "Normal" and any deviation is an oddity that needs to be explained.
In media for adults this tended to be rape in media for kids it was more subtle...
You had the "Dumbass In Distress" character, an evolution of the damsel where she is competant and badass in the first two acts but once we get to the third... "Time to forget everything I know about common sense and fighting prowress so that someone with a penis can save me!"
A great example of this is Sonya Blade in the 95 Mortal Kombat flick. Throughout most of it she is a badass hypercompetent take no prisoners character who even kills her rival Kano.. something she keeps trying to do and failing in the games.
But in the third act? Nope fuck that. Shang Tsung kidnaps her and takes her to Outworld so that Earthrealm will be tempted to give up to save her.... even though she's supposed to be just as good of a fighter as Johnny Cage..
This isn't even something you can blame on the games as Sonya only had the damsel role once, and it was in MK2 where not only was Kano also in the exact same predicament, but we got Mileena and Kitana neither of whom are damsels. Heck Mileena is even a rare example of a female villain that DOESN'T wind up joining the good guys (Until the most recent reboot, but basically everyone did a Heel Face Turn in that so it really isn't misogyny)
I've been watching One Piece (the anime) for a couple of months now and, while I know that it's shonen, watching the obviously badass female characters suddenly turn into sexy wimps is consistently disappointing.
That's literally Tasha's shitty/lazy backstory, grew up orphan style on a busted ass plant, hiding from all the rape gangs that were running round. I forget which episodes she mentions it in but there's a surprisingly few references to it: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rape_gang https://memorydelta.fandom.com/wiki/Natasha_Yar [1) ctrl+F Rape 2) say "damn, wtf!"]