Who had the crappest life?

[F. King Daniel]

Inspired by recent events in Star Trek Discovery*, I'm curious which main character in Trek has had the crappest life? Kira, for all she endured during the Cardassian occupation? Picard, for being Borgified and forced to aid in the deaths of thousands at Wolf 359? Harry Kim for never being promoted? Spock, who worked for decades for Vulan/Romulan reunification only for Romulus to go kablammo and then watch his own world be annihilated in the alternate past before dying a few years later?

*

Spoiler: Discovery recent events

Michael Burnham recently found out the only man she's ever loved is a Klingon spy. Oh, and she's probably gonna have to kill the mirrorverse version of her mentor and best friend. And all this after that failed mutiny and botched away mission which started the series and Klingon war.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Tasha Yar in two time periods.

 

[φ of π]

Any redshirt who died simply to show how DRAMA! the threat of the week was.

 

[bigglesworth]

I'd have to go with Tasha Yar. She grew up in some hellhole colony starving and avoiding gangs who were intent on rape and murder (not necessarily in that order). She somehow escapes, gets into SF academy, is posted to the flagship under one of Starfleet's most decorated officers and then unceremoniously killed by a creature made up of an unknown alien race's bad vibes and tar.

 

[The Old Mixer]

O'Brien Must Suffer.

 

[Markonian]

Tasha Yar in two time periods.

To wit, STO reveals alt!Tasha wasn’t executed. Instead, she and the Enterprise-C survivors were secretly shipped off to a Tal Shiar camp. The Romulans abandoned planet Pictae, including some of the guards, after Romulus was destroyed in 2387. But they were survivors. When an Alpha Quadrant Alliance team, accompanied by Sela, investigates Pictae in mid-2411, they find vid-log recordings of an increasingly elderly Yar. Their band of survivors dwindled over the year. Tasha had to bury her mate, Richard. When she passes early in 2411, she’s buried by T’nae. Tasha says Richard would have been a good stepfather to Sela.

 

[bigglesworth]

Tasha Yar in two time periods.

I forgot about Yesterday's Enterprise... I haven't watched TNG in probably 5 years or more. Poor Tasha... Raped as a child and killed by a tar monster only to be resurrected in a different timeline and be raped and killed by a Romulan.

 

[Xhiandra]

Tuvok, for having to endure so many conversations with Neelix.

 

[alensatemybuick1]

Lazarus

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Hard to argue with Tasha, though what about Neelix and Kes?

Neelix’s Family was killed in an act of genocide. Then he drifted around Kazon space barely scraping by for years. His big escape was charming a crew of people whose intent was to take him farther and farther from his home. Then he meets other Talaxians and even though it was fulfilling for him he was still roughing it.

And Kes? The short lifespan, who knows what the Kazon did to her before Voyager came along and she ascends to another plane only to find miserable cold empty godhood and go insane.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

THERE. ARE. FOUR. LIGHTS!

 

[O_Kav]

Kira. Definitely Kira. She spent most of her life under a brutal occupation of her homeland by Fascist invaders. She had no option but to fight back and because of that decision some judged her as a terrorist. When the occupation was over, she still had to see her homeland being ripped apart by a Civil War and later on dragged into a major galactic conflict. She just couldn't get a break.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

Tasha Yar in two time periods.

Yeah. The obvious answer to me seems like Seven of Nine, and of living characters I'd vote her for the crappiest life. But Tasha definitely has her beat.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

Hard to argue with Tasha, though what about Neelix and Kes?

Neelix’s Family was killed in an act of genocide. Then he drifted around Kazon space barely scraping by for years. His big escape was charming a crew of people whose intent was to take him farther and farther from his home. Then he meets other Talaxians and even though it was fulfilling for him he was still roughing it.

And Kes? The short lifespan, who knows what the Kazon did to her before Voyager came along and she ascends to another plane only to find miserable cold empty godhood and go insane.

Kes definitely did not have it easy. But she seemed pretty emotionally un-damaged after being saved from the Kazon--and with her Ocampan biology, it's unlikely they could have done much sexually to her (unless the Kazon are more similar to Ocampans down there than to humans, I guess). Also, keep in mind that Kes spent a good portion of her life happy on Voyager; at least three years out of the six we knew her she was happy, and we don't know how recently whatever drove her over the edge by Year 6 occurred.

But now that I think of it, isn't it odd that Kes was elderly in season 6, when in the "Before and After" timeline she still seemed young and pretty all the way up to Andrew Kim's birth, which had to have been year 7 or 8. (I just re-watched that episode.) Maybe using her powers so much in the new timeline drained her body and sanity...

As for Neelix, he definitely had horrible things happen to him in his early adulthood. But it seems like his childhood was happy, and after he got over Kes dumping him, things turned up for him on Voyager and he eventually found a family with his own kind.

 

[XCV330]

Considering all the crap that happened to O'Brien including the years he spent in a virtual (but real to him) prison half-starved and beaten, I'd go with the chief.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Harry Kim, hands down. First assignment, he gets stuck in the Delta Quadrant, his fiancee ditches him, he's the laughing stock of the ship when it comes to his dating exploits and he's forced to remain an ensign for seven years while Tom Paris, a Maquis traitor and Starfleet washout, instantly received the rank of lieutenant, was demoted, then promoted again. Harry was sucked out of a hull breach to be replaced by his doppelganger and, most likely as a joke, was put in command of the night shift, where the most exciting thing that happens is his flute playing. To put the shit topping on top of a shitty career, he does eventually achieve the rank of captain of the prestigious command the U.S.S. Rhode Island (seriously, who DIDN'T want that command?!) only to have it taken away maliciously by Admiral Kathryn Janeway.

Runner up would have to be Lt. Joe Carey, who also lost his boys and family when he boarded Captain Janeway's ship. He also lost out on the chief engineer position to a Maquis traitor and hothead, B'Elanna Torres. Not only did he die seven years into the journey home, but aforementioned Admiral Janeway didn't deem him worthy enough to be saved when she came back in time a couple of weeks later to save her beloved Seven of Nine and Chakotay. "To hell with that son of a bitch. I guess if he wasn't so stupid, he would have died AFTER we passed that Borg transwarp hub." -Admiral Kathryn Janeway to the family of Lt. Joe Carey

 

[Pondwater]

Red Shirts and Voyager Crewmen.

 

[Markonian]

^ In the Strange New Worlds story “Widow’s Walk”, Carey’s wife asks the newly returned Janeway why her husband wasn’t saved.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Reginald Barclay: holodeck addict, social outcast and the Muhammad Ali of personality peccadilloes ... just an inferior character in most respects.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Probably what the crew of Discovery is dealing with. Geez, and I thought DS9 4th thru 7th season was terrifying, this new crew takes the cake.