to be so annoying: sevencoded

Star Trek: Discovery + Prime & Mirror Universe » Hugh Culber

And you pushed us closer.

Yeah. It was not pretty.

It never is.

Hugh getting the therapy he needs

Feels good, feels cathartic, We Stan A King

Also I think “love is a choice” is something he really needed to hear. I think a part of him needed to hear that it’s okay to choose to love Paul again and that it’s okay to be confused

I really love the potential of a Hugh & Ash friendship (or a “we’ve both been through uniquely horrifying situation that have left us unsure about our own identities and now we can’t connect with anyone else” -ship).

On Hugh’s side he gets someone who understands that it’s not enough to just be glad you’re not dead. With Ash he can lash out and feel all the ugly emotions he wants, around someone who gets it. And as we saw in the fight scene, if Hugh gets to the point where he became a danger to himself (”the pain is the only thing that makes me feel real” is a worrisome line), or others (tho I don’t think he’d intentionally be dangerous to anyone except Ash), Ash is able to subdue him with minimal risk.

Likewise with Ash, he gets someone who knows what it’s like to be a stranger to your own body. Someone else who got a second chance but no longer feel like their body is their own, who has memories they feel belong to someone else. Additionally, Hugh has already experienced Ash at his worst. Ash can pour out all his thoughts openly because what could he say that was worst than what he did (and it’d likely help Hugh to hear them). He also can finally make amends for his worst act as Voq, and let go of some guilt.

So yeah, I hope this get’s explored further (if not in the show than in the fic).

The moment when the bridge crew hears that Hugh is still alive and for a moment it cuts to Ash Tyler and you can just see the relief and hope and confusion in his face for a fraction of a second between the action? Poetic cinema.

I keep seeing misconceptions in the discovery tag that bringing culber back was a response to fan outrage after his death in s1 and I want to just real quick clear this up

Wilson Cruz and anthony rapp and all the writers made it VERY clear from day 1 that Culber was not permanently dead and that he would be back and had a significant role in the story later on (they did this with georgiou too, coincidentally) because The writing team and cast for discovery understood the importance of representation and not killing your gays

I don’t want us to forget that, and to discredit the effort and time that went into crafting this storyline. This has been planned from the beginning

As traumatic as Ash and Hugh’s first meeting will for sure be, it’s interesting to me that they’re probably the only two people in the whole universe who are now sharing the unique experience of being reborn in a new body made with their DNA, and with their personalities and memories intact. 

hugh culber + character tropes

This really should have occurred to me earlier, but in most of the musings about how Hugh will return, it’s been focused on how Paul will figure out a way of getting him back. However, I just realised that Hugh may be a far more active participant and instigator of his return than has been thought about so far. 

He was the one who found Paul when he was in the Network, led him away to a safe place to talk to him, got him to wake up and then guided him home when they escaped the MU. He was the driving force behind the whole encounter between him and Paul in the first place.

Now if that spore that landed on Tilly’s shoulder is connected to Hugh, his soul, consciousness, spirit or what have you, then maybe he is actively pursuing a way to get back to Paul and to live. His perspective on things will be very different to those in conventional reality who understand him to be dead.

I think he is forging his own path where he can and Paul and maybe Tilly and Michael will be catching up to him along the way. I just think as much as they love each other, Hugh will want to fight for his life and for Paul as much as Paul would fight to get him back.

Full Recaps / Requests for Individuals

The Discovery writers were right about one thing. On the After Trek following Episode 10, they said that they didn’t think the audience would be so invested in Culber and Stamets until that episode. Yes, their cold-blooded murder of Dr. Culber did increase my investment in him as a character.

It went from

“What a total sweetheart who is also hella smart and good at sass and cute with his partner. Aw, I hope we see more of him.”

to

“THERE IS NO JUSTICE!!! SAVE THIS MAN IMMEDIATELY, YOU SADISTIC FUCKS. WHY IS HUGH CULBER NOT A LEADING CHARACTER? ANY EPISODE NOT CONTAINING WILSON CRUZ AS LIVING, BREATHING DR. CULBER IS AUTOMATICALLY LESS INTERESTING, REGARDLESS OF ANY OTHER FACTORS.”

haven’t the writers and Anthony Rapp both said that the Culber story isn’t over?  I mean I was similarly angry when Georgiou was killed in the pilot, but I trusted the process and it all turned out good.  They’re asking us to trust the process again, and since most of my complaints related to this show were resolved within the first season. Culber’s death happened late S1.  I’m sure the story isn’t over, even though everyone in fandom seems to think the deadline for fixing it ended at the end of the season.

Anthony Rapp said, AFTER the season finale:

I trust them.  They’ve earned my trust at this point.

I know all of this, don’t get me wrong. It’s not about trust to me. I’m just impatient. I wasn’t keen on the whole Culber dying storyline, I thought it was a bad writing choice, and I hope it doesn’t take too long into the 2nd season to bring him back. And have him stay on Discovery where they will all happily serve together for a minimum of 6 more seasons.

Wilson Cruz interview from 2/22/18, emmys.com.

Text:

Without giving spoilers, what did you think of your character’s twist?

Aaron and Gretchen explained what was gonna happen and told me I was part of the story for next season. This is a longer, epic love story and this is just a part of that that we have to do in order to tell it. I know what that story is and as an actor, I’m really excited about it. But even as a viewer, I think that’s gonna be fun to watch!

How did fans react?

We’re letting people know I’ll be back because there’s this “bury your gays” trope that’s out there. People are concerned about the way that LGBTQ characters, especially those of color and women, continue to be killed off in a very random and dismissive way.

We wanted to make sure that people stayed engaged with the show because this isn’t that. They should just know there’s a bigger plan. It’s gonna pay off and it’s a great story to tell.

Love has a way of telling its own story.

Source List on the Return of Hugh Culber (aka the “Masterpost of Hope”)

The unexpected loss of Hugh Culber in Episode 1x10 of Star Trek: Discovery has been a difficult thing for me to process, and I know it’s the same for many of us in the fandom. I’ve certainly experienced stages of anger, sadness, and disappointment in trying to cope with the direction this storyline has taken.

There have been a lot of comments made to various media outlets by Executive Producers Berg and Harberts, and by actors Wilson Cruz and Anthony Rapp, asking us to trust the storytelling and proffering us some hope for a return for Culber in Season 2. I’m gonna try and collect these articles, interviews, and posts on this topic here as a resource for us.

I intend for this to be a “living” resource, updating with new links as we inch along to the premiere of Season 2. Please feel free to send me links to add! Thanks @fyeahdiscoverytrek for sending several links along already!

One last thing because I can’t help myself: evaluate the sources! Consider the context of that comment. Who is the target audience of that periodical? As fans we have a tendency to put more trust in the actors; they are the ones who bring our beloved characters to life, we see them on screen and thus feel more of a connection with them. (Plus, WC and AR are very active on social media and have gone ABOVE and BEYOND trying to reassure worried fans.) Remember that the actors are only given so much information (as of first posting, 2/16/18, WC and AR have not seen any Season 2 scripts) and are obligated to be equivocal about what they reveal, and that it’s the showrunners who have the final say in which characters make it onto the screen, and when.

On to the list (after the cut)!

Keep reading

Important info that is keeping me vaguely on an even keel here! Thanks for getting this started.