Re: VOY Fan Theories
Espaço-chica wrote:
I favor that twins and triplets are more common than singles. Although singles do happen.
The whole questioning, debate, and derision of the Ocampa's lifespan and how it is possible is a boring canard. No one ever says or really even suggests that the female is limited to one child, only that conception can occur during one brief period. Kes doesn't say it, nor does the Doctor or the Caretaker. I think that most people that emphasize the negative viewpoints do so because they find the limited lifespan of the species a ridiculous concept and so seek to impugn most aspects of Ocampan biology or continually pose questions or proffer theories that are completely unnecessary.
Whatever shortcomings they displayed in the execution of the show generally, I don't think the show runners were so stupid and/or oblivious to introduce a race that would come to extinction in so short of a time if a calculation not much more complicated than 1+1=2 hadn't been considered. That's why there was no dialogue confirming a one child limitation included. Why should there have been when it was stated that the disastrous encounter had occurred 500 years before IIRC. Also, while it's possible the Nacene's misstep on Ocampa could have had some impact on their reproductive biology, this is mere supposition as well with no support given. The Caretaker's expressed regret was limited to the drastic changes wrought on Ocampa's biosphere. I would imagine that if any elemental damage was done to the Ocampans themselves, there wouldn't be any reason for the Caretaker not to mention it and his sincere grief would be presented as all the greater. The idea that he had wanted to escape his self-imposed exile by eliminating the Ocampans, however benignly, is not supported by his attitude, words, or actions and seems to me to be just imaginary piffle.
I think the possibilities inherent in envisioning a species with such a basic limitation was one that could have been utilized in very creative ways if Kes had remained on the show, though I would admit that the example set during her three years would not necessarily lead one to think that these prospects would have been exploited.
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Espaço-chica Re: VOY Fan Theories
WarpTenLizard wrote:
Why Neelix was so insanely jealous of Kes
Why, in Kes's on words, "On Ocampa we chose one mate for life, and there's no jealousy or distrust!""
Hole in theory.
Absolutely right. Neelix's explicit jealous period effectively ended in Parturition, about a quarter of the way through the 2nd season, more than a year before the relationship's split. Even the evidence of this timeline is irrelevant to the basis of Neelix's behavior IMO as it had nothing to do with chemicals but rather the result of his self-doubt and complicated feelings of unworthiness. I don't know that he loosened up, was happier, or experienced any fundamental change in how he expressed his personality after Kes was out of his life. It seems more reasonable to say that those revelatory episodes about his history and inner life and perhaps drew other viewers to feel more positively about his character, simply did not have Kes around as a filter to draw attention away from or mitigate the primacy of the plot to be more tightly focused on Neelix himself.
I also don't see anything incongruent or grossly out of character in Tom's expression of devotion to Kes in the alternate timeline. If he didn't act that way along the path to domestication with B'Elanna, I think it's only reasonable to attribute that to the vast differences in the two partner's personas and that consequently it would only be natural that Tom's demeanor would diverge regardless of his ardor for both seeming ultimately to be of the same intensity.
Of course, Tom was very attracted to Kes for a time. But to think that this attraction differed in motivation than any of his numerous affairs in the past seems pretty illusory. When the Doctor cited chapter and verse as to the signs of Tom's desire for Kes, he said nothing about such a distinctive biological quality that she possessed. While it obviously would have no effect on him, I find it very unlikely that the Doctor wouldn't be aware that it was an elemental part of her makeup. Further, is it realistic to think that Tom could negate or resist such a supposedly powerful lure just by virtue of his bracing adventure with Neelix and some cold fowl afterwards? He was still around Kes a lot afterwards, so would one argue that he simply managed to develop some effective armor to be able to resist the unresistable? No.
Obviously, Kes spent a lot of time around others, specifically Janeway, Tuvok, and Kim. Foregoing any jibes about the latter's sexual orientation, did any of them show the slightest intimation of erotic attraction to her (Tieran's insistence notwithstanding)? No. Nor did we have any evidence of any other random members of the crew following her around because they were in some kind of artificially induced heat.
The pheromone fallacy simply obscures the obvious truth like much else about the Ocampa. Those that felt intense romantic feelings for Kes did so because she was a beautiful individual whose extraordinary gifts they very feelingly perceived. There was no need to impose some extraneous factor to explain away this simple equation.
