Anyone annoyed with Kirk's mischaracterisation ?
I firstly want to apologyze about the long and messy text that's going to unfold before your eyes :,)
In the Fandom people seems to looooove to represent Kirk (from the og show) as this overenergized AND dumb child that acts purely on instincts, which is just not the case.
Kirk is very much responsible, thoughtfull and smart. He does THINK before acting. Like, sure he does act more on instincts than Spock but he isn't illogical lol. I mean technically everyone acts more "crazy" compared to spock (and then it isn't even that true bc he very much lets his human side takeover quite a few times). Also Kirk's witty and sassy but without going overboard, he's still in a high position after all and has to act as such. But allas that obviously can't go with his fanon characterisation, so they in fact make him go overboard to the point where it's annoying. Actually, they make him go overboard with every ounce of his og characters that can work in his fanon version. It's like he isn't a complex character anymore and just... A ball of electricity that bounces around a lot, very one note and irritating if you ask me. Seriously everytime I see this characterisation it's like it's not even the same character, it's insane.
Also usually with this characterisation of Kirk comes a Spock that is deeply annoyed with him (but always in a cute way bc "uwu he's his top space boyfriend") and that has to hold him on a leash, which, again, not the case. He deeply respects him as a friend and capitain. Sure they have different views on things but Spock does agree with Kirk on some things and listen to what he has to say. And Kirk in fact does listen to Spock too bc, yk, he's his second in command and friend ? And he knows that Spock is an intelligent men ? And different point of view are needed to deal with a situation ? Doesn't sound like an irrational man to me. Besides, Spock doesn't always have the best solutions all the time, his logical thinking can sometimes get in the way (Which is why Kirk is needed as a balance).
I feel like those characterisations comes from the J. J. Abrams movies actually. It's like a part of the fandom took the Kelvin Timeline Kirk and Spock, exagerated them a bit and then put them in a tos setting.
Anyway, I dislike it. But what do you guys think about it ? And does anyone has any idea as to why they're characterized this way ?
PS : I know I don't have a lot of exemples to back up what I'm saying bc it's been sometimes that I haven't watched the show lol, so if anyone has some don't hesitate
/ Edit : I just wanted to highlight Erin Horáková's article about Kirk's mischaracterisation in fandom and pop culture (that was kindly shared with me by user FakeFrehley) :
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/columns/freshly-rememberd-kirk-drift/
And the dramatic reading by Tiritiribobiri :