YCd wrote an excellent essay that I feel addresses the issue of J/7 (including the parent-child stuff) very well: http://www.littlereview.com/getcritical/trek/noj7.htm
Aside from my most obvious disappointment with C/7 (i.e. the loss of J/C), it really bothered me how there was absolutely no preparation, no groundwork laid for this relationship. If TPTB had done their job properly, I might have been more accepting (even though it still irks me how TPTB made Janeway a lonely and bitter old woman in the now-defunct future. Even if Chakotay had moved on, surely she'd find someone else who'd appreciate her. If ever there was a woman deserving to be loved, Janeway certainly did!)
As for 'infantilizing' Seven, you're right. They kept on repeating the same storyline for her--"Seven rediscovers her humanity"--over and over again. They never made a real effort to take her any further. (To be fair, TPTB were guilty of this with other characters: the Doctor was forever moaning about hologram rights, Tom Paris was forever bored and restless and suffering bad consequences as a result, B'Elanna Torres was forever struggling to accept her Klingon half...nobody ever advanced or broke free of their character-loop).
And you won't get any argument from me over how badly Janeway was marginalized; it got to the point where she couldn't do *anything* right, or so it seemed, and only Seven was able to step in and save the day.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 04:19 pm (UTC)Aside from my most obvious disappointment with C/7 (i.e. the loss of J/C), it really bothered me how there was absolutely no preparation, no groundwork laid for this relationship. If TPTB had done their job properly, I might have been more accepting (even though it still irks me how TPTB made Janeway a lonely and bitter old woman in the now-defunct future. Even if Chakotay had moved on, surely she'd find someone else who'd appreciate her. If ever there was a woman deserving to be loved, Janeway certainly did!)
As for 'infantilizing' Seven, you're right. They kept on repeating the same storyline for her--"Seven rediscovers her humanity"--over and over again. They never made a real effort to take her any further. (To be fair, TPTB were guilty of this with other characters: the Doctor was forever moaning about hologram rights, Tom Paris was forever bored and restless and suffering bad consequences as a result, B'Elanna Torres was forever struggling to accept her Klingon half...nobody ever advanced or broke free of their character-loop).
And you won't get any argument from me over how badly Janeway was marginalized; it got to the point where she couldn't do *anything* right, or so it seemed, and only Seven was able to step in and save the day.