Kaylee might could run circles around most Starfleet engineers, LaForge included, but I bet she'd make B'Elanna uncomfortable with the way she hacked things together to make it work
In weird things I don't need to remember but do the patch notes for that included a change to the self destruct mechanism regarding whether it was only a bluff tactic or you could actually self destruct.
To make things more odd I can't recall which way the change was. I think it was to actually be able to self destruct.
I'll echo Stamet's statements (heh). The vitriol for the sequels, if anything, is softer in a lot of ways than it was for the sequels.
Jake Lloyd was massively bullied (by classmates and fans) to the point he wanted nothing to do with any of it. Ahmed Best has been pretty open about considering suicide. Hayden Christensen got a lot of hate as well. It's hard to find raw things from the era unless you happen to know forum links and such. The article below makes it seem a lot smoother but I think the quoted bit helps a little.
[In his home], he has a series of large metal letters that spell out a motto: ILLEGITIMI NON CARBORUNDUM. “It was a saying among soldiers in World War II,” he explains. “It means ‘Don’t let the bastards get you down.’”
As far as RotJ it's hard to understand how much the die hard fans hated the Ewoks now. Imagine the criticisms you raised above being focused onto a single portion of one movie. The anger I've seen over Canto Bight being unnecessary doesn't even touch it.
It's absolutely an age thing and I'm confident the sequels in twenty years will be largely as received as the prequels are now and you can have this side of the conversation with some young fan upset with the new thing that's ruining all of it.
I didn't want to come off dismissive asking how often you're talking about those specific kinds of plants but maybe it's a relevant question after all lol
I think you and I have very different experiences. I rarely see that kind of correction if ever.
When you're in a public space you never know when your words are being consumed by an ESL speaker. I think the best approach is natural yet accurate. They're going to encounter contractions when dealing with native speakers, but the difference between it's and its, for example, can be tricky so try to use them as taught.
Spelling mistakes can absolutely be an issue. It's already hard enough to figure out English spelling without native speakers making it worse. Add on to that the difficulty in any added language of working out near homophones, let alone actual homophones.
I knew someone who was pretty decent with English as their third language but had trouble keeping Texas and taxes straight. I know another guy who is American and uses no in place of know. That one threw me for a while before I figured out what he was trying to say.
I will admit, I do like that "technically" the plural for octopus is "supposed to be" octopods (pronounced like oc-tip-o-dees) but that's a fun "fact", not a correction I've ever tried to make.
90+% of the time you get common mistakes. Should ofs, they're - there - their confusions, apostrophes for plurals.
The kind of thing that confuses ESL speakers. The decent thing would seem to be to try and stick to the way it's taught rather than go with the "it doesn't matter" route when it absolutely matters to some.
I think we're, at least, led to believe that Starfleet officers are better adjusted than your average early 21st century human. For example, we don't see a lot of gossip behind Riker's back about how he gets around, but you very probably would today.
It may still not be ideal, but I think it would be less problematic than it would be for us.
Kaylee might could run circles around most Starfleet engineers, LaForge included, but I bet she'd make B'Elanna uncomfortable with the way she hacked things together to make it work