I don't get the Captain Robau Love

[JonnyQuest037]

Seriously. Don't get me wrong, I don't really see anything wrong with the guy, and the "Facts About Captain Robau" thread is very funny, but I'm really not understanding why Trekdom is having a collective geekgasm over him.

The thing I'm really not understanding is why people are saying he's such a badass when he gets killed in about 5 minutes of screentime.

Is this like a Boba Fett thing, where everyone thinks he's cool just because he looks cool? Can someone please explain it to me?

[Herkimer Jitty]

Well, for one, he's one of the few non-main character captains who isn't a complete, utter tit (Esteban, Harriman, anyone?). And he talked smack. Harriman would have shat himself and Esteban would have called Starfleet to see if they had any ideas.

He doesn't just look badass, though. He clearly knows his shit.

[M'Sharak]

JonnyQuest037 wrote:

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Seriously. Don't get me wrong, I don't really see anything wrong with the guy, and the "Facts About Captain Robau" thread is very funny, but I'm really not understanding why Trekdom is having a collective geekgasm over him.

The thing I'm really not understanding is why people are saying he's such a badass when he gets killed in about 5 minutes of screentime.

Is this like a Boba Fett thing, where everyone thinks he's cool just because he looks cool? Can someone please explain it to me?

If you'll check the start date for the "Facts About Captain Robau" thread, you'll find not only that it began long before the movie hit the theaters, but that it began just after the casting of Faran Tahir for the role had been announced and we found out the character's name (previously given only as "Federation captain".) Also, you may notice, at the beginning of that thread, a certain similarity to the "Facts About Chuck Norris" lists which were proliferating on the interwebs two or three years ago (do a Google search if you've not seen these.) Basically, the "Captain Robau" thread is a parody of those lists, or started off that way.

You might, if you looked, find previous threads in this forum posted by people asking the same questions you're asking here. We try to explain, but in a sense, you really had to be there; coming on it a year and a half or two years later just isn't the same.

As for the Boba Fett thing, I never got that one.

[JonnyQuest037]

M'Sharak wrote:

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If you'll check the start date for the "Facts About Captain Robau" thread, you'll find not only that it began long before the movie hit the theaters, but that it began just after the casting of Faran Tahir for the role had been announced and we found out the character's name (previously given only as "Federation captain".) Also, you may notice, at the beginning of that thread, a certain similarity to the "Facts About Chuck Norris" lists which were proliferating on the interwebs two or three years ago (do a Google search if you've not seen these.) Basically, the "Captain Robau" thread is a parody of those lists, or started off that way.

Yeah, I got the Chuck Norris parody aspect, but I just thought there was an additional reason. I wasn't on here much at that time, so I guess the joke was a bit lost on me.

Does Faran Tahir really have that much of a reputation as a badass, though? The "killed in five minutes after passively following the badguy's orders" thing kinda kills any badassery for me.

M'Sharak wrote:

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As for the Boba Fett thing, I never got that one.

Me neither. It's fine to look cool, just be sure to, you know, actually do something cool to back it up. Boba only looks badass from the waist up, anyway. The dude's wearing sweatpants & sneakers.

[JonnyQuest037]

Herkimer Jitty wrote:

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Well, for one, he's one of the few non-main character captains who isn't a complete, utter tit (Esteban, Harriman, anyone?). And he talked smack.

He doesn't just look badass, though. He clearly knows his shit.

Can you explain this a bit more, Herkimer Jitty? I rewatched the movie just a couple of nights ago, and I don't recall ANY Robau smack-talking. He just followed Nero's orders when he was told to fly over in a shuttlecraft and then got killed a couple of minutes later. Outside of leaving George Kirk in charge, how did he know his shit?

And I have to say, if being a badass is defined as "being more impressive than Esteban or Harriman", then the bar's being set WAY low.

[muzzleflash]

JonnyQuest037 wrote:

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Can you explain this a bit more, Herkimer Jitty? I rewatched the movie just a couple of nights ago, and I don't recall ANY Robau smack-talking. He just followed Nero's orders when he was told to fly over in a shuttlecraft and then got killed a couple of minutes later. Outside of leaving George Kirk in charge, how did he know his shit?

And I have to say, if being a badass is defined as "being more impressive than Esteban or Harriman", then the bar's being set WAY low.

Basically, Nero and his gang were being all threatening and whatnot, and instead of begging for his life or something any rational person would do, Robau is all like, "lol wut"

[M'Sharak]

JonnyQuest037 wrote:

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Yeah, I got the Chuck Norris parody aspect, but I just thought there was an additional reason. I wasn't on here much at that time, so I guess the joke was a bit lost on me.

Does Faran Tahir really have that much of a reputation as a badass, though? The "killed in five minutes after passively following the badguy's orders" thing kinda kills any badassery for me.

Everything was going to be badass, back then. There were threads about how Spock was going to be badass, etc., etc.; badass was in the air, and Robau being badass was just part of a natural progression -- the filmmakers even told us he would be. The first picture we saw of him (on the now-vanished Intel "boldly go" website) was the one seen in this post. Looked pretty badass to us.

[number6]

And, as I predicted, the Romulans were totally Badass™.

[6079SmithW]

Yeah, it's kind of a random thread, but it's hilarious! I really didn't even know much about the Kelvin's captain and then I was looking for general trek XI info and stumbled across this thread on BBS. I LOLed so hard that I created an account just for the thread. As for why everyone thinks he is badass and cool, I guess there was a need among certain trek fans to have a chuck norris of star trek character and Robau happened to fit the bill.

It's a cult of personality thing. Reading "Facts About Captain Robau" is on par with a religious experience.

[Kirk1980]

Funny thread....

Dummy of a captain.

"Just come to my ship and I won't kill you."

Uh, okay, I'll come right over!

"Shi....that worked?? You've gotta be...oh, is this thing still on?"

[Gep Malakai]

JonnyQuest037 wrote:

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Yeah, I got the Chuck Norris parody aspect, but I just thought there was an additional reason. I wasn't on here much at that time, so I guess the joke was a bit lost on me.

Does Faran Tahir really have that much of a reputation as a badass, though? The "killed in five minutes after passively following the badguy's orders" thing kinda kills any badassery for me.

Nope, not much more to it than that. Keep in mind, this was back in the day when we had essentially zero information about the film, and the biggest announcements were things like like "There's a captain at the start of the film. Here's a photo of him." All we had was speculation, rumor, fan in-fighting, and, finally – thanks to the forum being created six months earlier than it needed to be due to the film's release date being moved – in-jokes. It's the same reason we all wore sombreros for months.

You really did have to be there.

[Kirk1980]

Gep Malakai wrote:

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You really did have to be there.

....and drunk.

Massively drunk.

[Nerys Myk]

Kirk1980 wrote:

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Funny thread....

Dummy of a captain.

"Just come to my ship and I won't kill you."

Uh, okay, I'll come right over!

"Shi....that worked?? You've gotta be...oh, is this thing still on?"

He knew he was going to his death. Thats why he said to Kirk

Robau wrote:

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Use auto pilot...and get off this ship. You're Captain now, Mister Kirk.

[Kirk1980]

He did?

Why give himself up?

[Daneel]

How about to buy his crew enough time to evacuate?