Ace Rimmer – What A Bastard

[Dave]

Time for a long-overdue reappraisal of whether Ace is actually a nice guy or not.

Topic

[Dave]

This is a dickheaded thing to say.

[Dave]

Not very understanding, Ace.

[Dave]

Taken together, this implies that after meeting Cat and learning he doesn’t have a name, Ace still thinks it’s more important to give Lister a nickname than sort out a proper name for Cat. What an arsehole.

[Dave]

Sexually harassing a woman and implicitly conditioning her rescue from her Nazi captors on future payment in kind. NOT OK, ACE.

[Dave]

And of course the all-time number one.

[Warbodog]

I remember in this otherwise thoughtful episode ranking (at 26:00, maybe the same guy who made the Tiermaker template), he seemed to treat Ace Rimmer as if the show was sincerely selling him as a perfect role model and not a parody. Though you can still get a joke and hate it at the same time too.

I feel like this may have been common for both the love and hate extremes. Dimension Jump’s one of my favourites, but he’s clearly a tool.

[Ben Saunders]

But Rimmer is a weaselly maggot who probably can’t smoke a kipper. Ace considers giving somebody a nickname a great honour, and Cat already has one, so giving him another one is redundant. He says “hopefully” some sex, which is just a very forward way of asking for consent. And mechanoids aren’t people, so decking one is fine. Please remove this inflammatory post immediately.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Doesn’t he know it’s the height of bad manners to turn down the offer of sex?

[loadoftottnumb]

This is very similar to the Butler debate, whom I personally consider an insufferable smug Polaroid Head. 

Ace is no saint, he’s still Rimmer, just Rimmer with confidence. 

[Dave]

But Rimmer is a weaselly maggot who probably can’t smoke a kipper. Ace considers giving somebody a nickname a great honour, and Cat already has one, so giving him another one is redundant. He says “hopefully” some sex, which is just a very forward way of asking for consent. And mechanoids aren’t people, so decking one is fine. Please remove this inflammatory post immediately.

ACE APOLOGIST

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I said it once before but I still maintain Ace is a little homophobic 

[Ben Saunders]

So is Rimmer to be fair, therefore it’s in his DNA and arguably not his fault. Ace vindicated again

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

So is Rimmer to be fair, therefore it’s in his DNA and arguably not his fault. Ace vindicated again

Doesn’t this just excuse every homophobe ever?

[tombow]

I’ve said it before, but I think Dimension Jump would have been more powerful if Ace actually looked and sounded anything like “normal” Rimmer. Say if he was just normal Rimmer with more self confidence and a kinder personality. Him looking and sounding so different takes away from the concept that he’s someone our Rimmer could have been, imo. In fact, I wonder if the episode would still work if he wasn’t even Rimmer – just a travelling space hero (played by Rik Mayall or someone) who Rimmer hates for being everything he wants to be.

Or what if he’d been Rimmer’s brother, and genuinely remorseful? Like he tries to say “I’m sorry, Arnie. Father tried to turn us against each other. I should have been a better brother to you” and you can see he’s done a lot of work on himself and become a better person, and the rest of the crew love him, but Rimmer just doesn’t care about his apologies and just wants revenge. And as you watch you’re on his side, because you can see how much he wants to make amends, but Rimmer is too bitter (not fully my idea, something similar happens in the NZ comedy film Eagle vs Shark. In fact, in that film, the former victim’s petty revenge on the remorseful former bully is even darker)

[Jonathan Capps]

Are you sure you’ve exhausted absolutely all of your possibilities before you gleefully go for the “murder cat” option, you prick?

[Rushy]

This is a dickheaded thing to say.

Even the best people end up responding to negative energy with negative energy. 

[Moonlight]

Ace is just rubbing it in how useless he thinks Rimmer is by asking to perform a task he is physically incapable of and then mocking him for it.

That said, between this and the original ending I think Rob and Doug might’ve just forgotten Rimmer is a hologram while writing this episode.

[Dave]

Ace is just rubbing it in how useless he thinks Rimmer is by asking to perform a task he is physically incapable of and then mocking him for it.

That said, between this and the original ending I think Rob and Doug might’ve just forgotten Rimmer is a hologram while writing this episode.

Reminiscent of the bit in Backwards (the novel) where he eventually learns how to control something physical by bouncing his light bee on it.

[Rushy]

Reminiscent of the bit in Backwards (the novel) where he eventually learns how to control something physical by bouncing his light bee on it.

Could’ve done a great reverse Polymorph joke with that, with Rimmer’s hologram humping the console to get it to work

[Warbodog]

That idea only occurred to Ace because he was always putting his balls on stuff unsolicited.

[Ian Symes]

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