getting to know each other
Star Trek (2009) dir J.J. Abrams
#see#now this is the thing that bothers me with this exchange.#look at how aos kirk slaps spock on the shoulder#tos kirk would have no issue whatsoever gently placing his hand on spocks arm keeping it there and letting the moment linger#but in aos they just had to speed up this interaction and make it more aggressive to make it less ‘gay’#kirk and spocks relationship in aos feels so forced bc they never allow them to have any tenderness or real connection#its all just snide remarks and quick broslaps which diminishes so much of what their tos relationship was and it breaks my heart#*crosses my arms* (via @nonbinarysaavik)
ok but….
these characters are different from tos. they’re at a younger, less mature point in their lives. not to mention that they have only JUST MET. aos kirk grew up without the loving, supportive family that tos kirk did. so of course he’s going to show his friendship and love in different ways. we see him smack bones so many times, because that is how this jim shows his affection. he’s afraid of losing those close to him but doesn’t know how to properly show that.
if you take this scene in context, spock literally threw jim off of his ship. he didn’t send him to the brig, he didn’t confine him to his quarters, he marooned him on an ice planet. jim doesn’t think that there’s any hope of he and spock ever being friends at this point. when spock prime calls him ‘friend’ he goes so far as to say that aos spock HATES him.
when spock prime mind melds with him he feels the full extent of the pain and horror spock felt when Vulcan was destroyed and he begins to realize that there’s a lot more going on under the surface of spock than he’s seeing. being with this older version of spock who had such a close relationship with the other version of himself gives him a new perspective. maybe there is another path for them.
so when he pushes spock, sees him lash out in pain that he himself has just felt and sees that spock STILL comes back to the bridge and wants to help save earth because it’s the only home he has left… that’s when jim sees the glimmer of hope that maybe they can be friends. that this person who is in so much pain and has just lost his mother, still wants to do what is right… that’s someone he wants at his side. and he decides right then that he chooses to hope. to believe in spock. just as he’s coming to trust and believe in the rest of his crew.
“i’m coming with you.” the one thing that he wanted growing up, was to not be abandoned by the people he cared about. to know that he has someone on his side, no matter what happens. unconditional support and love. he offers the beginnings of that to spock.
spock has seen jim with bones, he knows the rough physical affection that jim exudes. he’s baffled that his human who he had just marooned and then choked on the bridge would be not letting him go alone. and that he would offer physical affection in any form to him after what he’d just done.
right after this on the narada, jim tells spock he’ll cover him. “are you certain?” spock still finds it hard to believe that jim doesn’t hold a grudge. “ya, i got you.” and he does.
while a lingering gentle touch would have been nice, it wouldn’t have made sense for these characters, in this universe, at this point in their relationship.