You know, Robin Williams was the reason that I started doing stand-up comedy? My personal hero. Knowing that he did this for Neelix, especially when he was getting a lot of hate? Robin is a saint. Also just a small thing because I wanted to honor the man…
Reason #72151.
7-21-51.
July 21st, 1951.
Robin Williams birthdate.
Carry on 💙
If people agree that Vulcans aren’t superior to humans because they live longer than us why are humans superior to ocampa because we live longer than them? No one has an issue with human Vulcan relationships even though the Vulcan can be several times their partner’s age. Humans might look just as naive to vulcans as ocampa do to humans
I agree that you can’t really compare years to years here. They clearly mature mentally and physically faster. It is altogether weird still, but so is the basic concept of dating aliens from another species.
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For me the problem isn’t so much in the concept itself, but rather how casually it’s treated by the writing. Almost nobody on the show ever delves deep at all into how strange it is from a human point of view. It’s taken as read, and the audience is just left to stew in their own notions.
Vulcans may live longer, but they mature at about the same rate, reaching adulthood in their early to mid 20s. I’m not saying humans (or talaxians) are superior to kes’s race, only that there’s only so much you can learn in 2 years. It’s more like a 50 year old human dating a 17 year old human, it’s creepy and exploitative.
She’s not a human though. If we treat all people as equals it shouldn’t matter what their lifespan is. Humans aren’t better just because we live longer. If she’s not mature enough to decide her own relationships I don’t think she would be mature enough to make most of the decisions we see her make. Deciding to leave home, choosing to stay with Voyager, learning to control her telepathy with Tuvok, etc
It’s not about “better”, it’s about power imbalance. When we meet her, when neelix has already been dating her for quite a while, she has the life experience of a very small child whereas he is a full grown adult who served in tne army and ran a trading business. It’s a classic example of grooming.
She has the life experience of a grown adult. Those experiences are different from you and me, but they’re not lesser