Capt. Robau?

[Saxman1]

OK, I don't know where else to put this. Capt. Robau was in the last Star Trek film for about 4 minutes, tops. Why is he venerated as a god on this blog? Did I miss something? Is he big in the novels (which I've stopped reading a while back) or something?

There are entire threads dedicated to how bad-ass he is, but I have no clue. To me he's the first guy Nero picks off and that's about it. Thanks and forgive me if I've asked a stupid question.

 

[iguana_tonante]

"This is not a blog."

-- Captain Richard "Bad-Ass" Robau

 

[Saxman1]

OK, this web site. Why do I feel I'm going to get hate emails for asking this question in the first place? Wow.

 

[iguana_tonante]

No worries. You are not going to get hate or anything, just some harmless fun.

 

[USS Triumphant]

No worries. You are not going to get hate or anything, just some harmless fun.

Speak for yourself - how DARE he question The Robau?!



Seriously, though, I think the board response to the character has mostly been because he seemed like a competent captain, but had time to do so little on the screen - it almost makes it mandatory to imagine a more robust background for the character. And then those imaginings went the Chuck Norris / Bill Brasky route.

 

[T'Girl]

Yes his time on screen was brief, and yes he was killed. But he (like George kirk) made a impression on the audience, he was in control, he keep his cool under fire he walked into a situation were he likely knew he could be killed and he did it with his head up.

Robau is every last thing a Star fleet captain is supposed to be.

Plus the guy's a stud-muffin, and is probably hung like a hippo.

 

[Saxman1]

I was totally impressed with the character and the actor's performance, I just thought there was more of him in the books or something. George Kirk was great too, I think that actor he went on to play Thor? Haven't seen it, heard good things about it.

Sorry for getting defensive, I didn't get much sleep with the wife and daughter out of town....

 

[Yevetha]

I would love to see a book series about him.

Alnschloss K'Bentayr looks like a real badass.

 

[Gepard]

Why is he venerated as a god on this blog? Did I miss something? Is he big in the novels (which I've stopped reading a while back) or something?

The god-veneration began, as did most of the silly things in this forum, during the information vacuum prior to the film's release. When the release date got pushed down six months while Abrams and Co. sat tight on spoilers, we had a lot of time with not much to talk about. So naturally, the folks here began latching onto anything and everything they could to keep up the excitement. The only thing we knew about Captain Robau for those six months was that A.) he existed and B.) Orci had descried him in an interview as "badass." That was it. Devoid of any other information, we grabbed that and ran with it, as far and fast as possible That's how memes like the Sombreroprise/Sombrero avatars and Badass Robau got started: people were goofing around and it kept snowballing.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Seriously, though, I think the board response to the character has mostly been because he seemed like a competent captain, but had time to do so little on the screen - it almost makes it mandatory to imagine a more robust background for the character. And then those imaginings went the Chuck Norris / Bill Brasky route.

Also, I think the writers gave a lot of emphasis to the character during one interview, saying something along the lines of "in the previous movies, Starfleet captains have been portrayed as lousy to make our heroes look better. We won't do that: to us, all Starfleet captains are bad-ass."

EtA: here is the interview:

TrekMovie.com: One of the reported characters is a ‘Federation Captain’ was that Pike or just another captain?

Roberto Orci: It was not necessarily Pike. One of the things we are trying to do in this movie is introduce a general audience to Starfleet. Captain Kirk was not the only captain in Starfleet.

TrekMovie.com: That brings up a bit of a pet peeve of mine with previous Trek films. So often other captains were set up as patsies - like Harriman in Generations or Styles from Search for Spock. Perhaps it was a way to make Kirk look good, but it made it look like he was almost a fluke and the rest were losers.

Roberto Orci: Ya I totally agree with you and we don’t have that. Being a captain in Starfleet should be a special position and we don’t feel that another captain has to be diminished in order to elevate Captain Kirk. If you are a captain in Starfleet you are a cool motherfucker.

I didn't get much sleep with the wife and daughter out of town....

I'm not sure how to read this...

 

[USS Triumphant]

I didn't get much sleep with the wife and daughter out of town....

I'm not sure how to read this...

If he's like me, he can't sleep well without his wife there. My wife and kids once went to spend a weekend with her aunt in Atlanta, and I sat up all night watching TV and talking to a bowl of melted cheese I poked a face into.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I like iguana's "alternative" interpretation

And as for Robau, he asked the guy in charge of the five-mile long, three-mile wide war machine, "What gives you the right to attack a Federation vessel?". Totally badass.

 

[UFO]

And as for Robau, he asked the guy in charge of the five-mile long, three-mile wide war machine, "What gives you the right to attack a Federation vessel?". Totally badass.

There's obviously a very thin line between "badass" and stupid!

 

[Rush Limborg]

^He didn't have much to lose. I'd wager (as would the whole of his fans, here) that he knew he was going to die anyway. He wasn't stupid or naive--he harbored no illusions that they were going to let him or his ship go.

So--if he was going to go...he might as well go defiant, collected, contemptuous--and cool.

He showed no fear or indecision in his brief appearance--and that's bada-- enough for us.


(Hey, those Other Fans did something similar with Boba Fett. Heck--they even got the books to resurrect him! And Robau didn't lose his cool like Boba did when getting knocked by Luke....)

 

[Saxman1]

My son decided to put on the "Clone Wars" animated film at 1:30 a.m. For some reason, that put me to sleep and I am not saying that as a knock. Maybe it was something familiar that put me under.....prior to that, we had a TOS marathon (first 5 eps) and the 2009 film.

 

[NSTrekfan]

His new nickname is "martini olive".

 

[UFO]

^He didn't have much to lose. I'd wager (as would the whole of his fans, here) that he knew he was going to die anyway. He wasn't stupid or naive--he harbored no illusions that they were going to let him or his ship go.

So--if he was going to go...he might as well go defiant, collected, contemptuous--and cool.

He showed no fear or indecision in his brief appearance--and that's bada-- enough for us.
...

That maybe so, but Pike survived long enough to be rescued. Maybe he was bright enough not to provoke the crazy "man" with the trident?

 

[Cyke101]

^He didn't have much to lose. I'd wager (as would the whole of his fans, here) that he knew he was going to die anyway. He wasn't stupid or naive--he harbored no illusions that they were going to let him or his ship go.

So--if he was going to go...he might as well go defiant, collected, contemptuous--and cool.

He showed no fear or indecision in his brief appearance--and that's bada-- enough for us.
...

That maybe so, but Pike survived long enough to be rescued. Maybe he was bright enough not to provoke the crazy "man" with the trident?

Pssh, Pike ended up in a wheelchair. Robau became an internet meme. Robau definitely won

 

[G2309]

Even people who hate the movie seem to like Robau.

 

[Deckerd]

Robau didn't actually do anything deliberate to provoke Nero. Somebody asked Robau the stardate, which he gave and the fact they were a couple of hundred years back in time was what sent Nero into a rage.