purlturtle asked:
for the ship ask, since I didn’t go with them: B’elanna and Seven?
I have to be honest I hadn’t really thought about them too much until I saw some B7 posts. They interact so rarely 🙁
But the more I thought about them, and the more posts I read – I’m sorry I know I should link them but I’m not sure I reblogged them (I know, I’m mad at myself too) so they are long lost and tumblr search is garbage. Anyway, it just seemed to make sense.
They are outsiders – half Klingon, half Borg. Both struggle with that dual nature and that they don’t fit. For B’elanna she’s too human to be Klingon, but too Klingon to be human. I wonder sometimes how much of her famous “klingon temper” is performative, and more out of frustration than anything. One of the amazing metas I read talked about klingon courting, and how B’elanna was a poet (which is the role males take in klingon society).
As someone who has internalised a lot of societal bullshit, I feel like B’elanna doesn’t accept herself. It’s hard to say given when Voyager aired whether it was so heteronormative due to the time period, or if those attitudes do still have hold of parts of the Federation. Given how different B’elanna feels because of her heritage, I wonder if she didn’t do any sort of self-analysis, and pushed away anything that didn’t fit the very traditional mould, as she wants to be ‘normal’ (in her eyes) in one area. Hence clinging to her relationship with Tom even though it doesn’t seem to make her happy. Like she doesn’t think relationships should be happy.
Contrast this with Seven who as Borg I’d argue had no real concept of gender or sexuality – they were Borg and that’s all that mattered. But her guide to all things ‘human’ was the Doctor who was very cis hetero in what he pushed on her. I’d say she tried to adapt, thinking what the Doctor said was the way, only to learn later she had some stuff to unlearn. That the world wasn’t that rigid and she could make her own choices. That they weren’t wrong – that there is no wrong, only preference.
I would love to explore a concept of how B’elanna and Seven could have worked while still on Voyager. They definitely had their moments. I love how B’elanna respected Seven enough to be honest. There was that exchange where B’elanna told Seven she was rude but it was without judgement. Or when they talked about going back to Earth and B’elanna pointed out as a Marquis she wouldn’t be welcome either, aligning herself with Seven.
However, I feel that anything more than friendship with them is most likely to evolve post-return. We don’t know I think for sure (possibly novels covered it, but I don’t know how ‘canon’ they are?) what happened to B’elanna. I personally headcanon that she didn’t rejoin StarFleet but that Tom did. Instead B’elanna moved into some kind of R&D engineering because she is brilliant. At the same time we know that Seven started drifting and ended up with the Fenris Rangers. I feel like B’elanna and Tom’s marriage wouldn’t survive the long-distance, the pressure from Tom’s family, their different career goals etc. I think it’s possible they had a second “let’s stay together” child, and then realised they worked better as co-parents/friends.
Also I feel like B’elanna, away from Voyager, and faced with bringing up another part-klingon (or two), and as all good parents do wanting better for her kids, finally had the space and the inclination to do a little soul-searching. I think the Voyager crew maintained some sporadic contact. We know Harry gave Seven a model of Voyager. So B’elanna hearing Seven is in the sector and going “hey want to get drinks” is perfectly plausible. Not as a date, just as friends catching up, but then they talk (and drink) and they do have a lot in common. Going back to what I said at the start about not fitting in this world, not being any one thing, and so a foot in both camps and at home in none.
I can’t see them as a “happy ever after” type romance. I feel it would be more like “sometimes girlfriends” as everytime they are on the same ship/planet they’d hook up. Not serious, and not exclusive, but over time it becomes perhaps one of the more stable and long-term relationships that either of them ever have. They don’t live together, but if anything happens they know they can call, and the other will be there no questions asked.
So yeah I ship them.
