That is, if we exclude the fact that good fiction has to follow certain rules, whereas real life rarely follows them.
Hmm... That's an interesting thought, that good fiction has to follow certain rules. I mean, for the most part I agree that it ought to, but I wouldn't rule fiction out of the "good" category just because it bucks the rules occasionally. Would you say that it has to, or that it generally does (and generally for good reason).
Good fiction absolutely
has to follow some basic rules--all the time, without exception. Three of these rules are--good fiction must always have conflict, must always have dramatic action, and must always have resolution. Break any one of these rules, and you don't have a decent story. Try it. Without
conflict, we never get to know the character. Conflict makes the character take
action and reveal himself. The character wins or loses and we have
resolution.
Oh, building-block stuff. Ok, I gotcha. Well, two out of three I agree are always essential, that's
conflict and
action. I would argue that
resolution is the one element that you could conceivably go without and still have a good story. Not often, not even every now and again, but once in a blue moon, leaving a story unresolved can be effective I think. The only example I can think of, off the top of my head, is the end of Joss Whedon's "Angel." Or, and this one's actually better,
2001: A Space Odyssey.
Would the C/7 relationship have been more popular had it begun, say, mid-S7 and had some exploration, with the Endgame "out of nowhere" only being the beginning as KayArr suggests?
I think there would have had to have been more resolution to J/C for that to happen but given Seven's emotional state I don't think it has the potential to be wildly popular. Like someone above already said, "Human Error" pretty much ruined Seven's chances of a normal life. In fact, according to a Braga interview on the Season 7 dvd "Human Error" was setting up a tragic arc for Seven where she would die to save the ship in the finale.
Putting that aside one way they could have done it was to go ahead with the original "Workforce" idea where Chakotay was Janeway's lover on Quarra. This would have given the characters an arc going into the finale where they decide where they stand after coming back to the ship. If the Quarra relationship ended up demonstrating "all the reasons we should just be friends" then that would have been the end of J/C and they could have paired Chakotay with someone else.
As it was it seems most fans had similar "WTF" expresseions on their faces when the show ended.
Maybe the resolution of J/C was that they both decided the situation they were in precluded a healthy romantic relationship due to their respective positions? Sure, it would've been nice to have that spelled out, but that's a reasonable scenario and fits what we've been shown. That said, I think I much prefer where TrekLit has gone with that thread - I'm defending C/7 here, but it's only one possible option, and
Kirsten Beyer's done great in depicting (for while it lasted) the more popular pairing.
Regarding Seven's emotional state, is that so much different than Neelix with Kes? Regardless, there's nobody on
Voyager I'd trust
more with Seven's emotional state than Chakotay by the end of the show - aside maybe Tuvok, but he's married. And I think I have a different read of "Human Error" than you, especially the end of it - there's no suggestion that HoloDoc
can't do the surgery at some later date, just that Seven refused it - for now. Similar to Data's emotion chip, in fact, just more potentially lethal. In fact, that possiblity even ties in very nicely with Braga's proposed tragic arc. She has the implant rewired, is capable of experiencing the full range of emotions, begins a relationship with somebody (Chakotay, Kim, HoloDoc, Random Dude #3, take your pick), only to die heroically saving the ship.
