Fic: Knighty knight. PG.

[roadstergal.livejournal.com]

The whole Ace conversation prompted this one. Spoilers up through Stoke Me A Clipper.

"I did something right!"

Crit is always good. Written for fanfic100. Little Damn Table.

Comments

[zekkass.livejournal.com]

Aww. It hurts, and yet it's good to see Rimmer-as-Ace happy...

I loved the OOT reference. For one of my least favorite episodes, it really did change Rimmer (and everyone else) a lot. Hm. Now I'm wondering which episode factored the most in Rimmer's growth. It's probably SMAC, but what else factored into making him capable to become Ace?

[roadstergal.livejournal.com]

Well, pleased for a moment, fer sure. But when he comes running into the room - from the time Ace grabs his hand all of the way through the time Lister shoves the light bee in his face, Rimmer looks fecking shellshocked. The expression on his face as he looks at Lister is the most unreadable I've seen on him, but it is not a pleased one. I like to speculate on what he's thinking. The episode is just so thick.

I think that the biggest single factors (aside from just being forced to be with Lister, and being intangible for so long) are Rimmerworld and Out Of Time. Six hundred years is a long goddam time to take a good hard look at yourself and decide you don't like it. And seeing what your future self can become - I think that really taught him something. But it was the previous experiences that put him in a place where he could use it. He's a different man, in Tikka. In some ways, I prefer the ending they gave to the one that was originally shot - the one where they celebrate with recyc in the midsection. There, Rimmer is haughty and snooty. In Tikka, he seems almost - at peace. As if he finally understands that what he did mattered in terms of what it meant for him to do it. I think that's such a massive step for Rimmer. He's still a snide bastard, but he's so much more of a man than he was previously.

[zekkass.livejournal.com]

Hm. Yes. I agree. Rimmerworld was a giant mirror that he was forced to live with for years on end, and Out of Time was a mirror that could see into the future that also tried to kill them.

I've always liked Red Dwarf for actually letting him grow up like that. He could have easily been left static, but they put the effort into making him better. The only other character I can think of where they did that was MASH's Margaret Hoolihan.

Thanks for the insight!