Star Trek is an Earth TV show made for Earth people. First rule of entertainment is to know your audience.
Gamerant article: Star Trek:" What Made Kes and Neelix’s Relationship So Inappropriate"?
- Thread starter rocketscientist
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Star Trek is an Earth TV show made for Earth people. First rule of entertainment is to know your audience.
It is entertainment (primarily) targeted to (Earth) fans of the science-fiction genre...people who are more likely to possess an open mind and people who can readily recognize mature behavior (when compared to human psychology, anyhow) in a fictional species. Granted, there are some oddball episodes in that respect (e.g., that time UPN brought on a wrestler to pull in...wrestling fans
?), but Kes isn't a one-off character for a Very Special episode; she was a main character for roughly half the show's run. Anyone complaining about the character's age hasn't seen Lien's performance or...they do know the score, but they complain regardless because the existence of an alien that is roughly as mature as a young adult yet chronologically two of our Earth years of age upsets their sensibilities.
I've mentioned before, unconventional extraterrestrial sexualities are old hat in literary science fiction, have been for decades. But mainstream TV audiences aren't necessarily accustomed to it, as they are used to the more watered-down televised sci-fi and react negatively to anything that isn't "safe/comfortable."
Kor
Kor
If the character had an age of fifty (Earth) years but behaved as an adolescent, would that be fine then? After all, they'd satisfy a hard numerical requirement...psychological maturity be damned. Yeah, the argument sounds absurd, but that is the ultimate "logic" I'm seeing here (not necessarily from you, Oddish).
In Arrested Devopment the delightful multi talented Charlize Theron played a developmentally challenged girl with a British accent.
5 year old brain in a 29 year olds body.
Because she spoke with a British accent, it was impossible to work out quickly that she was monumentally brain damaged, so Jason Bateman's character pursued a relationship with Charlize's character.
"I have made a huge mistake."
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If anyone here ever has the pleasure (I hope!) of finding themselves in a fantasy or science-fiction universe where fully sentient/sapient species other than humans exist, you may want to get accustomed to the ideas of both rapid maturation and vastly disparate lifespans compared to humanity.
Brian the Dog from Family Guy, and almost every human woman that he has attempted sex with, has been at least three times older than he is.
Does no one notice that he is a dog? Think he's a furry, or bestiality is legal in Quahog?
Meanwhile the super genius baby Stewie seems to be grooming Brian the dog for a sexual relationship sometimes, but most of the time their relationship is based on contempt and emotional abuse.
I've never had a problem with Kes being 2 years old, she was clearly sexually mature. The Ocampa apparently have an eidetic memory and an incredible capacity to learn that at least to some extent compensates for their rapid maturing process.
That said, Kes and Neelix's relationship doesn't work for me at all, mainly because there's no chemistry between the actors. The relationship dragged on too long, and I just wanted Neelix's jealous outbursts to stop. He doesn't treat her as an emotionally mature adult and his attitude is paternalistic and patronizing. While some women may enjoy being treated like that, I never have, and seeing it on screen quite frankly creeps me out.
I quite like Kes, and while I realize that there were real-life reasons for firing Jennifer Lien (which audiences didn't know about when the show first aired), I didn't like Seven much when she arrived. The Borg queen started the process of spoiling the creepiest Trek villains ever, and Seven completed the process. The fact that her arrival coincided with Kes's departure didn't exactly help.
That said, Kes and Neelix's relationship doesn't work for me at all, mainly because there's no chemistry between the actors. The relationship dragged on too long, and I just wanted Neelix's jealous outbursts to stop. He doesn't treat her as an emotionally mature adult and his attitude is paternalistic and patronizing. While some women may enjoy being treated like that, I never have, and seeing it on screen quite frankly creeps me out.
I quite like Kes, and while I realize that there were real-life reasons for firing Jennifer Lien (which audiences didn't know about when the show first aired), I didn't like Seven much when she arrived. The Borg queen started the process of spoiling the creepiest Trek villains ever, and Seven completed the process. The fact that her arrival coincided with Kes's departure didn't exactly help.
"Sexually mature"?
She can't have a baby until she is three years old.
Recreationally mature vs. functionally mature?
She may be emotionally mature enough to suffer a relationship, and physically stolid enough to withstand a ram of a man pounding away, but not all her tubes are in the right place or she doesn't have the exact right hormonal balance to procreate, or her skeleton is still growing into the right position, so god herself has designated that 2 year old Kes is not ready for boom boom.
Of course because of her false Elogium, Kes may never be able to indulge in mating season, and her body will never alert her that she is finally ready, so she will have to come to a decision all by herself about her preparedness for intimate indiscretions. If so then it doesn't matter if she decides that she is readying when she is one or when she is four, among friends, but probably not the moral authority and Ocampan fuzz.
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Your defense of Kes' maturity level and honor is commendable Guy. 
However, let's tamp the sexual grandiloquence down a bit please. Thanks.
However, let's tamp the sexual grandiloquence down a bit please. Thanks.
Honor be dashed.
I'm fairly sure that she is asexual and anhedonic.
I'm fairly sure that she is asexual and anhedonic.