The Parralel Lives of Harry Kim.

[Lynx]

I bet Jaguar will have a goatee too!

Or, if you have a goatee, Jaguar will not have one...

Wait, if you have a goatee, I'd like to know about that.

No, I don't have a goatee so I guess that "Jaguar" has one in that other universe.

 

[matthunter]

Play Star Trek Online and his story gets even weirder... in 2410 he's Captain of the Rhode Island and back in the Delta Quadrant helping you fend off a Vaudwaar invasion of the Kobali homeworld (the Kobali, to remind you, are the guys who use a retrovirus to reanimate the dead into new members of their own species, as they did with Voyager crewmember - and Harry's crush/best pal we never heard of before - Ensign Lyndsey Ballard).

Partway through this mission chain, we learn that the Kobali recovered the dead Harry from Deadlock, where Voyager got split into two quantum duplicates. Dead Harry is then revived as a Kobali (by Kobali!Ballard) and goes on a rampage, assuming he's been kidnapped from Voyager and trying to contact the ship (which actually IS in the Delta Quad, under Tuvok's command, but on a secret mission that Dead!Harry is close to fucking up by giving away its position). He's eventually talked down and goes off to explore a new life, having been convinced that he can't have the one Captain Harry did.

 

[hux]

I like that as an explanation for what happened to dead, floating in space Harry BUT since the Viddians were destroyed, surely they would have picked up the body. Seems cold to just say... "meh, we've got one Harry, screw the other one floating about out there.

Additionally, if they jettisoned dead baby Naomi, then maybe the Kobali found her too and twenty years later, Kobali Naomi meets her counterpart.

 

[Lynx]

And Kobali Naomi would never have heard of Flotter!

 

[Drone]

As for Harry Kim, unfortunately they made him the serie's "whipping boy".

The "whipping boy" syndrome sometimes shows up in certain series or movies. It's often about a certain type of character, a young, unsecure guy who mess up everything, gets cheated, beaten up and mistreated just for the sake of it so certain viewers should feel sorry for him. Sometimes it can be overdone in an almost embarrasing way.

Nothing of that for poor Harry. He continued to be something of Voyager's "whipping boy" during the series, ending up in weird situations (Emanations, Non Sequitur, Favorite Son), being beaten up (The Chute) and also killed off or almost killed off (Emanations, Deadlock, Scorpion) and forever the young inexperienced ensign.

He's actually better in the books where he is a more contributing member of the crew. However, the "whipping boy" syndrome is visible in the books too because in many of those he ends up in sickbay severely injured.

I just don't see that as the intent of the show runners for his character, or, frankly, as the outcome. I think that he was thought of as a male version of an ingenue type personality. Very talented, or else he wouldn't have been on the ship to begin with, and as you point out, wouldn't have proved to have become nearly as important in the technobabbly solutions he came up with, that might not have always been something that ultimately saved the day, but played a large role in reaching that conclusion. He was enthusiastic and optimistic about the possibility of accomplishing things that a veteran OPS person, perhaps chastened or jaded by experience, might not share the same perception about. At the same time, he could be socially awkward or clumsy, unsure of himself in romantic encounters (though not because of a total lack of prior experience), and often just coming across as the unlucky loser.

I don't know how much of a desire there was for the character to fundamentally change over time, or be openly acknowledged for his achievements (PROMOTION), but while his basic template wasn't really strayed from, I think one can positively say that he did develop a sense of surety about himself and the capabilities that he came to unquestioningly know were present when needed to be called upon.

I like that as an explanation for what happened to dead, floating in space Harry BUT since the Viddians were destroyed, surely they would have picked up the body. Seems cold to just say... "meh, we've got one Harry, screw the other one floating about out there.

Additionally, if they jettisoned dead baby Naomi, then maybe the Kobali found her too and twenty years later, Kobali Naomi meets her counterpart.

I think it's been long established by Guy, that those remains are in a stasis drawer for, well, I'm not sure what purpose really.