#JUSTICE FOR MY GIRL B'ELANNA | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bumblingbabooshka · 1 year ago

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What sort of relationship do you imagine Tuvok has weith B'Elanna? During and after the maquis undercover ordeal. Side question: Favorite Tuvok episode and/or line?

X : Web weaving thing I did regarding B'Elanna & Tuvok's self-destructive habits (and secrecy regarding those habits) in the face of grief. X: A series of lines taken from the show which can be summed up as "What if your co-worker who you were trapped on a ship with for ostensibly the rest of your life reminded you of your estranged mother, your childhood bullies and yourself all at once?"

In the Maquis I doubt they would have had much of a relationship. Afterwards I can see B'Elanna being enraged at the betrayal but trying to keep it as professional as she can (I can also imagine Tuvok poking at this - 'I can see you're angry at me. You need to put that aside.') which only makes her angrier. B'Elanna is an incredibly passionate person and Tuvok is not. I imagine she'd see him handing them over to Starfleet as an extreme betrayal. They were fighting for something in the Maquis. They had values, they believed in something - how could he do this? The fact that the answer is 'easily and without difficulty, remorse or second thought' is -!!!!!!! There's a scene in an episode....I don't remember which exactly. Learning Curve maybe? Or Meld? When someone from the Maquis is angry with Tuvok saying something like 'you sold us all out to Starfleet' and Tuvok says 'It may be difficult for you to believe but I did not have to feel anything to do that.' <- I think this lack of passion would make B'Elanna confused and upset. I can see her thinking he doesn't truly BELIEVE in anything. Because of this and his earlier betrayal I think it would be hard for B'Elanna to trust him and Tuvok is not a comforting or particularly empathetic person. He isn't cruel but isn't 'sweet' you know? An example is when Neelix tells him about how a childhood trauma led to his fear of something outside the window Tuvok suggests he draw the blinds. He isn't saying this to make fun of him but he isn't connecting to the problem emotionally, bc he's Vulcan, but B'Elanna is an emotional person. Tuvok also in general doesn't seem to think highly of Klingons or B'Elanna in particular.

Here he's speaking about something that took place decades upon decades ago but more recently concerning B'Elanna he makes comments about her which make me believe he doesn't think very highly of her.

This is from 'Random Thoughts' and it's possible to argue that Tuvok is just providing a counterpoint to Janeway as like a good investigator explores 'all logical options' (as he later does tell Nimira that he has a responsibility towards both B'Elanna and actually doing his job which supersedes his admiration for the Mari's culture) but his admittedly personal comment about the Mari is interesting. A facet of a Tuvok's personality is that he's pre-disposed towards relating more to Vulcans and Vulcan-ity thus seeing it (and himself) implicitly as better. Humans also do this. Really, most star trek Vulcans vs Humans arguments are just both of them thinking they're superior because that's the way they live their lives. There's a certain unwillingness there (especially demonstrated by Humanity BECAUSE we see Humans interact with other species much more) to see other points of view as equally valid. Basically like: 'This [alien] is good because it shows [Humanity]' <- thereby subconsciously labelling Inhumanity as bad. Here, Tuvok does the same thing but for Vulcans. I think what I'm seeing implicitly in his exchange above is more explicitly stated in the exchange between him and B'Elanna below (same episode: Random Thoughts)

Really saying the quiet part out loud with the line "Burdened as you are by your Primitive Klingon psyche" eh, Tuvok? B'ELANNA.....KILL HIM!!!! HE SAID 'YOU'RE WELCOME' !!!! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A COMPLIMENT??? KILL HIM!!!!

He does say in 'Juggernaut' that Emotion itself is primitive so he COULD be saying 'Your [emotional] Klingon psyche' but it's still a HUGE red flag to be going around calling an entire species primitive. Tuvok isn't the only person who basically does this exact thing - attributing all of B'Elanna's perceived faults with her Klingon side and condemning them or feeling more threatened by any negative emotion she expresses than other crewmates BECAUSE she's Klingon but it's insane to me that the writers just have Tuvok SAY that to B'Elanna STRAIGHT up and she THANKS him????? KILL. HIM. !!!!! AND THE WRITERS!!!! In 'Juggernaut' we see them interact more than we have before. I think this might be the only time we get scenes that are B'Elanna-Tuvok other than that one where they captured and held in a cell together? She tells him a story about a time she fell into a rage because of constant bullying from another child who kept calling her turtlehead.

Tuvok seems to grasp that her lashing out at the time was a coping mechanism. It protected her, gave her strength and courage. However he has no qualms with immediately throwing what he's learned back in her face to provoke her. I can see what he's doing - he's trying to show her: "This USED to be a source of strength but now it's a weakness. If you can be provoked so easily you're at the mercy of others, not strong" but his methods don't seem like something that would mesh well with B'Elanna. I'm sure this would just be hurtful and irritating to her.

Again B'Elanna's surrounded by this type of behavior. Even the man who supposedly loves her sees her this way.

Again in the same episode Tuvok plainly expresses that he has no faith in her. How is he supposed to be mentoring someone he doesn't believe in? There's also no (to my recollection) scene or moment after this where he realizes he was incorrect not to have faith in her and so I can't say for certain whether this has changed his opinion of her. Which is also wild because the episode STARTS with them but has no conclusion to their meditation or relationship plot. Unfortunately I don't think we really have anything that shows how B'Elanna views Tuvok other than her dream in 'Barge of the Dead' where she sees him as the arbiter of what is and isn't a Proper Klingon which I imagine stems from him being so staunchly a Proper Vulcan. Basically Tuvok & B'Elanna are so conceptually interesting...one is desperate to not be perceived as part of her species, estranged intentionally from her culture and associating it with all that is 'bad' about her ("My father left us because we were Klingon") and Tuvok is someone who is very much part of and proud of his culture BUT he also views B'ELANNA'S people as lesser which B'elanna also believes?? What would happen there - a feedback loop? They also have similar backgrounds in that they were forced into monasteries, were rebellious teenagers and have had poor experiences with Humanity & Starfleet but Tuvok...'recovered' from these experiences and B'Elanna did not? In that B'Elanna is still clearly ashamed of herself and self-conscious about others and angry and hurt and rejecting her Klingon culture while Tuvok is fine with those aspects of himself and found peace through embracing them. Given his distaste for Klingons it really is difficult to imagine him canonically doing anything except encouraging her to be more Vulcan while negging her the whole time which, you know, I'd kill him for. Humans & Vulcans shaking hands and in the middle it says 'Thinking Klingons are violent barbarians full stop' - finally some common ground between them! Hitting them all with hammers. That's more of a Star Trek in General issue but it applies here. I don't see how they could have like...a healthy dynamic, even JUST as mentor-mentee let alone friends or father-daughter as I've seen some people portray them. On paper it works because Tuvok is a Vulcan so who better to help control her emotions AND B'Elanna had an absent dad and Tuvok's a dad so he must be fatherly towards people! But given their canon interactions it would probably be a very condescending and bad mentorship. And honestly her having issues with her father would probably only make it worse since Tuvok doesn't believe in her and sees her as lesser because she's Klingon. For canon (meaning their canon regard for each other) the best I can imagine is them being strictly professional or B'Elanna falling into a mentorship with Tuvok which essentially just becomes her trying not to 'fail' another father figure by being too Klingon. If I were to write their relationship improving there would have be SO much unpacking of ALL of that which I showed above...like I don't even know dude it'd take YEARS and it'd effect the entire ship because again, just because this is centered on Tuvok given the nature of the question - Tuvok is NOT the only one who does this!!! EVERYONE does!!! It's infuriating once you start to watch for it v_v One of my favorite Tuvok lines is his big windup about how easy it'll be to win at pool like so easy, logically it'll be a goddamn breeze and then he loses at pool and is like "Hmm maybe the ship is off balance" or something. Sore LOSER!!!

#Tuvok & B'Elanna #st voyager #Q&A #Tuvok #B'Elanna #B'Elanna Torres #JUSTICE FOR MY GIRL B'ELANNA #It hurts the heart to see blorbo on blorbo violence but unfortunately I am going to throw Tuvok out an airlock for this #thank you for question sorry this is so long~!! <3 #Any relationship including B'Elanna will doubtless suffer from how Klingons are portrayed and treated in Star Trek #so much so that I feel like I may have completely derailed this ask I'm SORRY....!!!!#There's so much to their relationship both in canon and in its potential and it all needs to be unpacked over the course of several years

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