#batel/pike

[curator-on-ao3]

With all due respect to the Pike x Batel fans out there, I think she's the most boring Pike recurring love interest. We get to know Una because she's a main character character and while I don't ship Pike x Vina, I do think she at least has an interesting backstory. But Marie? All we know about her is that she's a captain and Pike's girlfriend whereas Una, Vina, Spock, etc. are bit more fleshed out and therefore more fun for Pike to ship with.

I hear what you’re saying, anon, but I want to remind you of something you already know: different people ship differently.

The few Pike x Batel shippers I’ve seen (and I’m applying the “shipping” concept generously) have fallen into three main, sometimes overlapping categories:

people who will ship pretty much any canon ship

people who identify with Pike and/or with Batel

people who ship them based on the shipper’s headcanons (of Batel and/or reasons why Pike treats her so poorly).

Particularly in terms of headcanons, I can see why someone would want to ship Pike with a character the shipper can somewhat invent. For example, we know Batel wanted that promotion. We don’t know why. Is she ambitious? Tired of space travel and wanting a post at a more static location? Connected to a place and/or people near where the commodore posting would be and wanting to spend time there or with them? The opposite of ambitious and perceives flag officer work as less demanding than captaincy? Frustrated with flag officers and wanting to fix them? Admiring of flag officers and wanting to emulate them? Wanting access to different kinds of cases as an attorney? Does she have a mentor influencing her choices? A Starfleet family legacy? A first officer she can’t stand and wants to get away from or a first officer ready for captaincy whom she wants to help by opening up a captain’s seat? How would Pike figure or not figure into … any of this?

To some shippers, exploring potential character dynamics with a huge range of options is attractive.

These choices also can help shippers who want the canon to make sense. And if that means, for example, giving Batel emotional trauma from the Klingon War that causes her to stay with a partner she knows is lying to her, then that’s the shipper’s choice. It’s not canon (just about any headcanon I’ve seen has been better than the canon for this pairing), but it is shipping.

So, as of this break between seasons two and three, while I’m not interested in exploring this ship (and actually have disgust toward it for many, many, many deeply personal reasons that don’t have to do with Star Trek), we all come at fandom with our own wants and needs and desires. I respect that this pairing doesn’t work for you or for me, but people should ship what they like and hopefully have fun doing so.

Hugs to you if they’re welcome, anon, and I’m glad you’re enjoying digging into established characterization for your style of shipping. ❤️

[evviejo]

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS // S2E2 Ad Astra Per Aspera I knew it meant we must endure hardship to get to the stars. But I like to think that it also means that the stars could deliver us from anything. That in the mystery and vastness of space, we might not just satisfy our curiosity, our need for exploration, but that in it, we might each also find... salvation.

[sevnofnines]

STRANGE NEW WOLRDS 2.10 Hegemony

[startrekuniverse]

STRANGE NEW WORLDS

[dearemma]

[whatimdoing-here]

...what just happened?

BONUS

[whatelsecanwedonow]

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS S02E10 | Hegemony

[elen-aranel]

In the snw pilot, Batel left before she finished eating the pancakes Pike made for her while she slept.

I don’t want to fall into the trap of disliking a female character just because, and I don’t particularly ship Pike with anyone else, but…

She’s left without eating his food since then, and I feel like cooking is how he expresses his love for people. For me there’s significance in her turning that down.

I’m uncomfortable, and I think Pike is subconsciously too, about him deepening a relationship when he knows and has been willing to talk about his future with others on the crew. Even if he probably shouldn’t have according to what I understand from discovery. I wonder if that’s behind his repeated pulling back then feeling guilty.

But aside from that, they just don’t seem to match. Him wanting to camp, her wanting room service. Yes, she understands what being a Captain is, but I would hope most people in the fleet understand that a captain can’t put them first.

I think I could like Batel as a character. But I don’t think she and Pike are right for each other.

I’m kind of anxious that they’re building up to killing her off in the gorn war or something so I wanted to ramble about this first

[myenterpriseisparked]

Strange New Worlds: Pike and Batel are starting to more seriously date.

Me: Oh really?? Then what's Captain Batel's first name, huh? C'mon, what's her name? Just tell me her name.

[aenslem]

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS 2.10 "HEGEMONY"

[trek-daily]

[phantomstatistician]

Fandom: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Character: Christopher Pike

Sample Size: 768 stories

Source: AO3

[grissomesque]

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS 2.10 "Hegemony" 2.08 "Under the Cloak of War"

[startrekuniverse]

STRANGE NEW WORLDS

➢ Pike x Batel

[dearemma]

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS 2.10. Hegemony

[defconprime]