madimpossibledreamer

I am *astounded* at how much hammy William Shatner managed to convey subtle character stuff with James T Kirk.
James T Kirk is:
*A professional, first and foremost (if you're off duty, feel free to goof off, and it's not an awful 'you're not allowed to talk' work environment, but if your actions/words are getting in the way of your job he WILL tell you off-
gently if it's unintentional or you didn't mean any harm by it, harshly if you're putting others in danger or hurting others or really SHOULD KNOW BETTER)
*An absolute nerd (I'm sorry, if you're geeking out about the Starfleet expert you're going to meet, you're a nerd
which by the way is awesome)
*A default flirt (with everything and everyone, seriously, you will not convince me he isn't flirting with the pilot
and the interrogators in Tomorrow is Yesterday)
*So...yeah, he's canon bisexual??  (But he's only had previous relationships with women)
*But...he's also a complete romantic.  (He prefers long relationships.  He remembers not only the names but
EVERYTHING about his exes.  And WHY doesn't he have a long term relationship?  No, you got it wrong, it's not that he doesn't want one.  He DOESN'T HAVE THE TIME.  Being a Captain takes a lot of time, and he doesn't want to neglect either his duties or the (lady?) in question [or the Enterprise, he's pretty much married to the Enterprise])
*Uses his charisma in the same way that females are usually written-his grin and flirting are a weapon or tool
to be used.  (It's AWESOME that this is being written as a trait for a guy because it shows that isn't a gender-specific trait and it's challenging gender norms.) (Also that's most of his flirting on the show.)
*A reader.  (Including Shakespeare, which, judging by the acting troupe's efforts in Conscience of a King, is kinda
uncommon.  People in the future DON'T KNOW SHAKESPEARE. Kirk is the weirdo who collects old Earth PAPERBOUND BOOKS and reads ancient classics like SHAKESPEARE wearing GLASSES when most people just get their eyes fixed and it's beautiful.)
*Not a jerk.  (Seriously, if you need any more proof of this, look at EVERY SINGLE TIME he apologizes to his crew for yelling at them.  They all look at him fondly like 'what, you thought we were upset, you thought we took you seriously?  It's FINE captain.'
*Supportive. (For each and every member of his crew. You're in trouble, you need to speak to your boss about
something, GO AHEAD he's there for you.)
*respects all forms of life.  (Unless you're hurting others, in which case, you've just earned your place on his >:( list.  I swear that's half of why he dislikes Klingons. Diversity?  Bring it on, it's awesome!)
*An intellectual.  (He manages to WIN GAMES OF CHESS with Spock.  He manages to outsmart about as many enemies as he seduces.  He manages to come up with plans to break evil computer enemies.)
*A history nerd.  (Especially early astronomer programs. Which...here's a guy who's a starship captain, he has all the exploration of space he wants, and he STILL DOESN'T HAVE ENOUGH SO HE NEEDS TO READ MORE ABOUT EARLY SPACE PROGRAMS.  we found the space!sphere)
*Sometimes suave, sometimes awkward (seriously, have you seen him trying to give the Talk?  It's really awkward until the possibility of nonconsensual comes up at which point it's still slightly awkward but really important GET USED TO NOT GETTING EVERYTHING YOU WANT)
*The type to remember every single crew member's name and little details about them and their lives are IMPORTANT TO HIM.
*Boss of a really cool workplace.  (He'll make sure things get done and listen to complaints and fix things but if you think it's not a fun place to work just watch the crazy crew goof off.)
*A survivor.  (Who doesn't ANGST about everything seriously we need to see more of that asap but goes and appreciates life just that much more and smells the flowers and watches sunsets with a smile and loves his friends and family and the Enterprise.  Who hurts and sometimes just lets himself hurt without *men can't cry* ugly things that we shouldn't inflict ourselves with and is that much stronger for it. Who understands how awful it is for other people suffering because he's been through it himself and thus refuses to let others suffer if he can help without making it worse, because yes, he understands that.)
*A complete and utter idealist (but hasn't lost sight of the practical side of things and knows that things can be
better but you need to WORK HARD to get there).
*Really smart (could use/fix most of the stuff on the Enterprise, wouldn't want to even try on his own because
he's)
*Lonely (and really worried about yelling at his subordinates in moments of stress and they're all like 'what seriously we know you're a tribble harmless until provoked')
*REALLY DISTRACTED BY FLOWERS (so he's supposed to distract this woman and yeah okay there might have been attempted seduction in there but it's not a romantic dinner or anything like that THE MOST DISTRACTING THING HE CAN THINK OF IS A FLOWER GARDEN YES THE MOST MACHO MAN YOU WILL EVER SEE)
*An out of the box thinker (when most people are like OH YES THE MASTER STRATEGY THINK OF CHESS he's like uhhhm. okay chess is not working in this situation LET'S TRY POKER)
*A democratic or participative leader (who listens to all his subordinates when they have something to say and only really puts their ideas down harshly when they're dangerous--such as bigotry get that out of here son)
*A good quasi-military man (the only times I can really think of him breaking the rules are a) TRIBBLES and b) to protect his crew/family and there aren't too many cases of those during the series.  i mean, you might as well compare him to Gibbs, who probably breaks more rules and actually was in a military group.  He really has respect for Starfleet and the chain of command [not entirely sure why; they haven't exactly demonstrated themselves to be incompetent/on occasion corrupt] but what have you.  A couple occasions of breaking
the Prime Directive [which is a really weird/problematic concept anyway] but these are usually to protect his crew/get offworld/he TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEM IN HIS REPORTS LIKE AN ACTUAL CAPTAIN *COUGHINTODUMBNESSCOUGH*)