#.she IS tempremental and critical but she's also very strong and intelligent and devoted.

[dreamerdrop]

She's the wife of a popular male character in Star Trek. She's hated for a number of reasons, mostly because people think she's whiny and temperamental but- This got REALLY long but I love her so much, so-

Look, she fucking LOVES her husband. But she is also VERY MUCH like him. They are both almost ALLERGIC to being straightforward with their sentiments and emotions.

Her husband hides it with typical "I am too manly to be soft and sensitive and gentle" but he is so very, very soft and gentle at heart. Keiko hides it in her own way, she can come across as critical and defensive, but...

Keiko gets moved out into the middle of nowhere, to a planet recovering from a long, painful war. Months away from her home, her family, from everything that is known to her. She's left without much in her life aside from being a housewife, basically, and yet...

When her husband offered to give up his promotion so they could move elsewhere, somewhere she might be happier, she turned him down immediately. She refused to let him give up his happiness for her sake, and instead became determined to find a purpose for herself alongside his job.

She might complain, and she's not always wrong in her complaints, she's fierce as hell about her devotion to her husband. She will NOT leave him, she will NOT betray him, and she will NOT ask him to trade his happiness for hers.

She's a scientist, a botanist, and she thrives on research and leadership. She's a natural-born leader, really, which is part of why her relationship with her husband works, because he's a humble low key kind of man, who is happiest to let someone else take the reins and for him to follow, and he is VERY devoted to her too.

They bicker, of course, they're both different people, they have their fights, but their relationship IS strong. It's built on a mutual refusal to give up on each other.

Keiko would follow her husband into hell, and he would follow her just as easily. She proves that, as does he.

Keiko's BIGGEST problem is that the writers didn't know what to do with her, never gave her friends, or plot lines for herself. But her personality and potential shine through regardless. We get little hints through the show about the kind of woman she is.

She also gets flak from people who view her as like, some kind of obstacle between her husband and his best guy friend. Which is beyond ridiculous because Keiko, canonically, is EXTREMELY supportive of her husband and his relationships outside of her. She often pushes HIM into acknowledging his feelings for someone else.

Keiko is an AMAZING woman, played by an actress who carried her perfectly, but let down by a writing team that sort of. Sucked at writing established relationships and fumbled with writing women in general, honestly.

Also there's some hints in canon that Keiko is into some real kinky weird role-play stuff in the bedroom which is just delightful to me, but that's beside the point.

Nobody could ever make me hate Keiko O’Brien, I don’t care what anyone says, I love that woman, I love her.