Brennyren said:
PKTrekGirl said:
Well, I think 'shipper stuff is a whole different can of worms than the rest of the issues surrounding the standard complaint of "We didn't get what we wanted!"
I disagree. I think the fact that Voyager got home by a deus ex machina rather than through their own efforts, and that the last episode of the show
ever focused on that whole damn "Janeway versus the Borg Queen" catfight nearly to the exclusion of everyone else, are
far more damaging to "Endgame," and to the series, than who ended up boinking whom.
You have to remember, you have a whole contingent of people out there who watch these shows almost PURELY for the 'ships. To you and me, that may sound funky....
Yeah, it does. Especially considering how badly Trek does most of the 'ships they actually
do.
but one read through the ENT forum of 2 years ago would have illustrated quite clearly that this issue is of PRIMARY concern to some fans.
I read through the ENT forum during the last couple seasons of the series, and I distinctly remember thinking that some people needed a major perspective check. That was another series with bigger problems than who was doin' it with whom. And as I recall, the mods actually felt the need to put a moratorium on 'shipper talk, and later to limit it, because some shippers were incapable of even being civil to those who preferred a conflicting ship. Does that kind of attitude (on the part of the 'shippers, I hastily add, not the mods) seem right or reasonable to you?
So when you spend several seasons
If memory serves, most of the J/C romantic buildup was in Seasons One and Two. And I distinctly recall reading a TV Guide Fall Season issue, pre-Season Three, where one of the producers specifically said that the decision had been made not to pursue J/C.
deliberately building up the fans' hopes for one thing...
The last J/Cish bit I recall was back in "Timeless" (Season Five), and nothing had happened between them for so long before that, that that candlelight scene seemed to me to come entirely out of the blue. In fact, I think that particular scene could as easily be interpreted as Janeway seducing Chakotay into agreement -- which is actually how I interpreted it at the time.
it's not just being 'unpredictable' to pull the rug out from under them.
Several years after the last tangible hint of J/C romance (and an arguable one, at that!), I don't think changing course constitutes "pull[ing] the rug out from under" anyone.
It's flat out dirty pool.
Some of these folks watched this show for 7 YEARS because of J/C. And the writers knew it.
They led these people on...and then pulled the rug out from under them, basically saying "Thanks tons for 7 years of loyal viewing! And by the way, fuck you!"
Yeah, yeah, they did it all just to piss off the J/Cers. Poor persecuted J/Cers.

I think you've got an inflated idea of the importance of J/Cers to TPTB. I honestly don't think they cared that much about the J/Cers one way or the other.
Seriously...that is the way this was seen by ALOT of fans. J/C fans...but also EMH/7 fans and 7/Unimatrix Guy fans.
Now they're persecuting Seven/anyone-other-than-Chak fans, too? Methinks some fans think they're far more significant in the grand scheme of things than they actually are.
Brennyren