Even with all of the tomfoolery on this thread, I feel the responsibility to speak up for Neelix. I don't see him as being weaselly in the referenced episode (or at all really). Lonely, feeling vulnerable as he's gone as far as he can in his original role, he meets an old friend out of nowhere and, as usual, is a bit too eager to please. But his innate moral sense ultimately prevails before he slides into total ignominy or worse.
When he was a primary plot focus, I think his background, motivations, and sensibilities were pretty tellingly drawn. Jetrel, Investigations, Rise, Mortal Coil, and Once Upon a Time, amongst others revealed quite a bit about the character. Lack of self-awareness? Sure. He was a loner before meeting Kes and encountering Voyager, though he likely hadn't been before the war. But that experience certainly pushed him to isolate himself from meaningful contact as much as possible. Obnoxious? At least in part, perhaps a dependable mechanism to ensure that solitude.
Anyway, I've long felt the facile concentration by many on his surface qualities rather tiresome and surprisingly myopic for people that, for the most part, really should know better. Just as the Doc observed about Seven's Borg architecture once, it's just like peeling an onion.
When he was a primary plot focus, I think his background, motivations, and sensibilities were pretty tellingly drawn. Jetrel, Investigations, Rise, Mortal Coil, and Once Upon a Time, amongst others revealed quite a bit about the character. Lack of self-awareness? Sure. He was a loner before meeting Kes and encountering Voyager, though he likely hadn't been before the war. But that experience certainly pushed him to isolate himself from meaningful contact as much as possible. Obnoxious? At least in part, perhaps a dependable mechanism to ensure that solitude.
Anyway, I've long felt the facile concentration by many on his surface qualities rather tiresome and surprisingly myopic for people that, for the most part, really should know better. Just as the Doc observed about Seven's Borg architecture once, it's just like peeling an onion.
