arcadia75

[arcadia75]

I'm so late to this, so tagging whoever wants to play!

EVERYONE ON TUMBLR NEEDS TO DO THIS

[arcadia75]

See my why Chakotay needs a therapist post. So much to unpack from his life!

The more I think about Chakotay being stranded on Ysida for full 10 years, the less sense it makes in the context of the story.

To add a disclaimer, two of my favorite Trek episodes are Last Flight of the Protostar, parts 1 and 2. However, I truly believe that narratively, it would have worked just as well if Chakotay had been stranded for 'only' a year. In fact, it makes more sense from a storytelling perspective than having him be there for the full 10 years for no good reason.

Why you ask?

He is a character who has suffered greatly throughout his life and was already stranded in the Delta Quadrant for 7 years. Chakotay's portrayal as a person of color unfortunately falls into a common media trope where marginalized characters are often made to endure significant hardship or trauma to justify their character arc and presence in the story. Prodigy should have done better than subjecting him to a cruel 10 years of isolation for no good reason other than to make him, and I quote, 'grizzled'.

The Protostar was rendered completely useless on Ysida, making his role as its 'guardian' meaningless. If someone had found him, he was alone and essentially powerless, so there was little he could have done to prevent anyone from taking the ship.

I believe Chakotay would have been in a much worse state after 10 years of isolation (possibly even dead) compared to how the kids found him. Did the creators consider the severe effects of such prolonged isolation on a person, regardless of their strength? Chakotay had already shown vulnerability and a tendency to slip. His return to the prime universe doesn’t accurately reflect the trauma of a decade alone. His behavior and condition would be far more believable if he had been isolated for just a year.

If the math is correct, Chakotay is 66 years old. Despite the extended human lifespan in the Trek universe, aging still happens naturally. Janeway planned to retire at a younger age than Chakotay's current one, especially considering his 10 years of isolation. Given this context, it seems implausible that Chakotay would be assigned command of Voyager-A so soon after a decade of trauma, even if some time has passed. Someone stranded for so long might indeed be eager to avoid staying in one place and go back to work to honor his lost crew. However, his deep survivor’s guilt and unresolved trauma from those 10 years should have made such a quick return to command problematic. The reality is that Chakotay, at 66 and with a decade of emotional scars, wouldn’t realistically be ready to take on the captaincy without addressing his past experiences in a more meaningful way. Chakotay bounced back to his old self the moment the 'Cracked Mirror' episode happened, and his hardships and trauma are never addressed or mentioned again. It was a significant and intense arc for Chakotay, involving deep trauma that could not realistically be resolved within just two episodes. Yet, the story completely disregarded this development once it was no longer needed.

All of this could have been avoided if he had been stranded on Ysida for just a year.

If they needed Adreek to be a skeleton to set up that scene, it could have been attributed to anything on the planet affecting him after he died. The planet was hostile enough that no one would question how this happened. If we assume Adreek decided to look for a solution after a couple of months and then went missing, that would give Chakotay enough time to end up in the state he was found in by the kids—scruffy hair, a torn shirt, and all. Spending an additional 6 months alone, reflecting on what happened to his friend and dealing with such a sensitive topic, is a significant amount of time.

[arcadia75]

Tagged by @cnrothtrek ❤️

Last song listened to: Immortal by Neffex

Favorite color: Sage Green

Just finished watching: House of the Dragon Season 2

Sweet/spicy/savory: Sweet

Relationship status: Married

Current obsession: Trump's meltdown

Last thing searched online:7in stair treads

Tagging: idk anyone who wants to play

[arcadia75]

yeah, idk they are so platonic, lol

Okay uhm TELL ME WHY this is Robert Beltran and Kate Mulgrew BEHIND THE SCENES!?!

On what kind of level do you need to be with your coworkers to just be able to walk up to them wrap your arms around their waist and KISS THEIR NECK?

[arcadia75]

"I was the first female Captain. There was no way I was going to say, 'Chakotay in my Ready Room for a little dingle dangle.'"

Did Kate ever get that we didn't want this? It wasn't Days of our Voyagers.

[arcadia75]

What’s going on in Janeway x Chakotay fandom;

Prodigy Producers: We’re definitely doing J/C 100%; you will love it for sure

Prodigy: (nothing happens)

Half of J/C fans: J/C is definitely canon I’m so happy

Other half of J/C fans: They’re definitely not canon and my day is ruined

First half of J/C fans: Yeah but here’s a bunch of quotes and also that one thing was a reference to Isabo’s Shirt so it’s deffo canon

Other half of J/C fans: If you have to cite Twitter and out of print non-canon short stories to to prove it’s canon it’s not canon

Kate Mulgrew: (says some bullshit)

Half of J/C fans: My heart is on the ground

Other half of J/C fans: . . . not to be all ‘we told you’ but. . .

Offshoot of first half set of J/C fans: She was misquoted. It’s definitely still canon

Reports from a convention: They said it’s definitely not canon you guys

Kate Mulgrew: Hey but maybe one day, right? I mean Robert is still cute

[arcadia75]

on the subject of voyager being absurd I need to talk about how insane of character Harry is like he's actually not just overacheiver career boy, he's overacheiver in Life because he felt like his parents loved him too much for what he was so he had to earn their love. he was literally in juliard youth symphony right. music was a very real viable career for him. more than that like yes he was also an absurdly skilled engineer. in a timeline where he never left earth he gets promoted to lieutenant in like 6 months, wins several awards, and designs a revolutionary engine. and still in the Canon Real World he graduated summa cum laude of his Starfleet class. Literally top of his class. he also has an award in piloting proficiency. and also ends up being a senior office on his first day.

but more than any of that, the most absurd thing to me is he was a star athlete. I think about this daily like he was captain of the Velocity team and also a fucking. three times champion in the stupid space racketball game. like that's so insane to me. just star athlete on the starship. it's like— okay what's an athlete gay people are likely to know. okay before Caitlin Clark was in the wnba she was really big in college basketball right. so it's like if you worked at NASA and one day Caitlin Clark just strolled into the office, and then due to a series of increasingly unfortunate events you ended up on Mars and Caitlin Clark was also there. on Mars. the whole time with you. am i getting this across does anyone else feel how insane this is.

[arcadia75]

All of this would be awesome.

I’ll add, I’d love to see Harry Kim in some way also.

Two episode ideas I want for a season three of Prodigy. And yes, I am going to proceed as if it's happening because dagnabbit, we DESERVE a season three.

One is a Seven of Nine appearance, seeing her early period of the Fenris Rangers - David Mack, the writer of the Seven-centric novel Firewall, was a consultant for season one, maybe they could get him involved in some way to keep the episode consistent and all, but... I mean, given the Prodigy crew's mission and Seven's goals, it seems like an obvious intersection. Plus it might be something to toss some crumbs to those calling for Star Trek Legacy and Captain Seven.

Two is a comedy episode where Holo-Janeway ends up locked in Queen Arachnia mode and takes over the ship. Because it'd be FUN.

[arcadia75]

I don’t think she’s ever watched an episode of Voyager, either. It bothered me on The Delta Flyers podcast, everyone else, even Beltran, seemed to go back and watch the episodes or at least revisit scripts when they were on. It was clear she did not.

The last few days have presented us with an interesting wrinkle in the "is JC canon?" conversation. In two interviews given after SDCC, Kate Mulgrew has shifted from her usual "Janeway should not be defined by her relationship status" stance to bringing up the beauty of the Janeway/Chakotay relationship without prompting. Including outright declaring "how deeply they love each other."

What changed since last weekend?

She actually watched a complete episode of Star Trek Prodigy for the first time ever.

On the Trek Culture podcast, she admits that the SDCC screening of "Cracked Mirror" was the first finished episode that she has ever seen. Ever. And that she was floored by the sophistication of the animation, the genius of the storytelling, and the emotions the episode stirred within her, especially when Janeway and Chakotay reunited at the end.

There's been a lot of speculation that Kate's non-answers about Janeway/Chakotay in Prodigy S2 reflect her lack of awareness of how modern animation works and its ability to tell rich, sophisticated, emotionally nuanced stories. And honestly, I think her post-SDCC interviews prove that was in fact the case.

Now that she's aware of the layers of meaning that can be built into animation, and she knows that Janeway's legacy is in fact in good hands with Prodigy, I wonder if her mindset will continue to shift. She ends the Trek Movie interview by acknowledging that she's protective of Janeway but her mind has been and can be changed. She's also going to watch more episodes of Prodigy with her grandkids.

[arcadia75]

In the spirit of JC having a deep, not quite platonic, but not quite romantic relationship, here's one of my favorite stories exploring that from one of my favorite OG JC authors.

[arcadia75]

So much this!

Believe what you believe, but do NOT force your beliefs on everyone else.

This is how fandom wars start.

Ok so I haven’t checked the tag for a while but why are my fellow shippers getting annoyed at other JC shippers for believing JC is canon or not canon?

Like literally who cares? If you believe it with what we’ve been given, then enjoy it. Don’t get hung up on opinions that don’t vibe with your view or criticise people for seeing differently.

If you don’t think it’s canon then no shade if you’re expecting more, just don’t killjoy someone else’s fun.

It’s not that hard.

I’m personally in the “I like to believe it’s getting there, but I’ll take whatever interpretation gives me good fic”.

It’s been almost 30yrs for some of us and I know it’s frustrating, but hey at least they didn’t revive C7? 🥳

[arcadia75]

idk about you, but I am always mentioning how hot my coworkers are.

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“Never say never and never say die. He’s cute. And by the way, let me tell you, Beltran has aged very well”

- Kate Mulgrew on the question of J/C in Star Trek Prodigy. 👀

[arcadia75]

Louder for the people in the back.

My good bros, hos, and nonbinaryios.

J/C are not canon. Even after Prodigy s2. Do they act like they love each other? Yep. Do they act like they’re in-love with each other? I think so! There are certainly many solid reasons to interpret their relationship that way, and if we get a s3 (fingers crossed 🤞), we may get confirmation.

But for now, the exact nature of J & C’s love remains undefined.

Listen, babes. If your “proof” that they’re a canon ship lies in interviews/panels/podcasts with actors who can’t even agree with each other or themselves (*cough*Kate*cough*) from one interview to the next, I hate to break it to you, but they’re not a canon ship. Actor opinions are not canon. Canon is canon.

(And sure, sometimes canon is stupid—that’s why we have fan works!)

So if you think J/C are in love, yay! Good for you! Make fanfic and art and share your joy!! And if you think they’re ride-or-die besties, yay! Good for you! Make fanfic and art and share your joy!! And if you think they are the very definition of “it’s complicated,” yay! Good for you! Keep pumping out that slow-burning angst!

But for the love of Wesley fucking Crusher, please stop trying to force your opinions and interpretations on everyone else. This is how fandoms get torn apart. The unconfirmed relationship status of two fictional characters is not an argument to be won with one singular correct answer. Art is subjective. Everyone is allowed to have their own opinion, and it is valid.

Got it? Good.

Now, mirror J/C… we all agree they’re fucking, right? 😉

[arcadia75]

Does the math, math?

According to Memory Alpha, Seven was born in 2344.

According to Endgame, Chakotay was born in 2329.

So there is a 15 year age difference between Chakotay and Seven.

According to the Janeway statue in Bloomington, Janeway was born in 2336

So there is a 7 year age difference between Chakotay and Janeway.

But now according to Prodigy, Chakotay spent an additional 10 years in the past stranded on Ysida.

So now there is a 17 year age difference between Chakotay and Janeway?

Is she too young for him now? Cuz that was a big argument against C/7. ;)

[arcadia75]

As someone who's been out of the J/C fandom loop for...[checks watch] 20 years, I'm curious about these civil wars that have broken out over the years 👀

Oh I'm sure people can explain it better than I can. The most recent one had a whole website about it that no longer exists that I can't find in the wayback machine either.

It really boils down to fans that gatekeep JC and make it the be all end all of everything, feel like they deserve the ending they want because they have suffered all these years, can't imagine any fan who happens to be creative and pair either J or C with anyone else, dares to explore facets of C/7, cuz maybe if the writers had actually spent some time developing a relationship between them it wouldn't have felt so out of left field in Endgame. These type of fans attack anyone who thinks differently than them and it drove away some really smart, thoughtful, and talented people from the fandom in the past 4 years.

After Voyager ended in 2001, I didn't follow Trek for awhile. Then in 2017 I kinda started poking around and found great new J/C fic and found a community here on tumblr, twitter and discord. I know I personally walked away from participating actively in the fandom again near the end of 2020 because I was just made to feel like not a real J/Cer because I either explored other pairings, liked other non-J/C stories, dared to question why J/C might end up as anything other than #married with 2.5 kids. When Voyager was originally on, I was 19-26. I was naïve and believed there were only ever happy endings. Since then, I've been thru shit in my life right? Good and bad relationships, loss of parents and friends, ya know life? I don't happen to look at JC the same anymore and sure, while I like the marriage and puppies and fluff occasionally when I'm in the mood, I also like the deep emotional introspection and I'm mature enough now to realize that maybe there isn't a happy ending. And that is more interesting to read for me now.

[arcadia75]

Welcome to VOYAGER WEEK!

Voyager Week will begin on 10 January, 2025 and end on 16 January, the 30th anniversary of the airing of the first episode! This week is for any and all fans of Star Trek: Voyager and will have daily optional prompts. Art, edits, fic, meta, playlists - any and all kinds of fanwork will be accepted! Guidelines on posting will be provided when prompts are announced in August.

[arcadia75]

Oh, well.