Why did Chakotay Choose to be with seven instead of janeway?

[Guy Gardener]

Seven doesn't have friends.

She's an awkward, difficult and abrasive genocidal war criminal.

Sure there may have been random acts of charity and pity, but most of the time, Janeway had to assign duty shifts to keep her company.

 

[2takesfrakes]

All of the heavy promotion Seven got gave VOY the ratings Berman & Braga craved. But ... I just don't get it, with her ... you know? I just don't see what all the fuss is about. Why wasn't a similar ruckus raised for Jadzia Dax, for example? She was much more deserving, but ... "oh! Seven! ooh! ahh! Seven's so exciting!" .... what??? It's all hype! That's what it is. And that's why I never, ever, will understand all of this whinging when it comes to Seven and Chokotay getting together. He's had nicer looking women, in fact ... not many, but better looking, just the same.

 

[Logicpuzzle]

In

It's to be expected that when it came time for Seven to choose a crewmate she fancied ... Chakotay would be the one she should select. Assuredly, he was the Alpha Male onboard. And whilst I do not care so much for her looks, she was always played up as the show's Smokin' Hottie ... which limited her choices, onboard, actually. With Tom Paris off the market ... Chakotay was about all Seven would even be able to notice. I mean ... try to picture her with Vorik ... you know? Doesn't work. Seven may not be this great beauty, or anything, but she was way out of Vorik's league. And most, if not all of the other single guys left onboard by the time she came around were geeks ... nerds ... nothing she'd want to give a second glance to, that's for certain.

But she is a nerd herself.
And Chakotay is the most boring man on that ship for me, how much more boring would he be to Seven? They don't have any common interests apart of Janeway and some other crewmen. Chakotay is all about spirituality and that stuff and doesn't seem to be very interested in science and technique; for Seven it's the other way round. What do they talk about on dates? Janeway?

 

[2takesfrakes]

I wouldn't have noticed it, honestly, if Chakotay had never gotten with Seven of Nine. But he was never particular about his women, which was the foot in the door she needed.

I suppose she could be a nerd "deep down," but ... she doesn't look like a nerd. Kind of like how birds are dinosaurs, really, but ... they don't look it. Which gives Seven the advantage, in the sense that Men are more likely to notice her. But by the time she came along, Voyager's predicament was already years old and "all the good ones" were already taken.

Of what was left, Chakotay was the ram amongst the sheep. The stallion on the hill. He was the Alpha Male. Which meant that she was certainly going to notice him. So that's how that started. What they talked about, who knows? An erotic dialogue, whatever the actual scripted pages might read ...

 

[Catarina]

C/7 could work but it needed a key "hmm I wonder" moment. Too many of us were invest in alternate outcomes. And for those who said 'eww' about the age gap? You can't say that and imagine her with Janeway who is the same age. I think it's a bit skin crawly for me but I don't know how much of that is age or emotional maturity. but again, with an open mind and a beautiful dialog, who knows. It needed more than the island affect cliche to convince me. speaking of which, what is with Chakotay meeting women when stranded?

 

[2takesfrakes]

It's kind of like, tradition, in STAR TREK, where the old farts get thrown a bone, once in a while. Picard, for instance ... but he's also a Frenchman and you know their reputation! So ... here's Chakotay in a Sugar Daddy/pretty young thing-styled relationship. Undoubtedly, sexual experimentation was a motivation. Seven may have been Borg, once, but she's no different than any other women - she's just as inquisitive, as all the rest. And, besides - even on short rations in the Delta Quadrant - Chakotay still had years of experience.

Not only with women, generally, but with Borg women, specifically. There was Riley with her unfortunate taste in clothing. She used her Borg Magic on Chakotay, in fact, which would've put him on some wavelength with Seven that she could relate to. They may well have even used a transceiver/transponder thingy, themselves ... allowing their minds, their thoughts, feelings and fantasies to ... mingle. So, Chakotay went into this with Seven fully prepared ... and practiced.

Otherwise, Chakotay was certainly available to help Seven along, in her quest to rediscover her Humanity. Hell, for all we know, Seven even got herself an Animal Spirit Guide, with a cup of help from Chakotay. I'm not calling these two a match made in Heaven, or anything like that, but it sure beat their other fruitless searches for love in the vast wasteland of the Delta Quadrant. Who got the better end of the deal? The better part of the bargain? Your guess is as good as mine ...

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

1) Maybe Chakotay was the Alpha Male onboard, 2takesfrakes, but that doesn't mean that he was the right choice and more still, with someone like Seven.
To be honest, I would have rather seen someone, besides being sensitive and patient, a male (or female*) more... cerebral (who won't hesitate to challenge her, not to convince her that she is wrong but of the existence of the other possibilities with their advantages and pros and cons and let her decide what was best).

I'd like to remain that Seven - like Janeway - has the Cartesian spirit of the scientists that she is, not only because of her Borgness but maybe, due to her family heritage and IF she had to end with someone, it could be with a male version of Janeway or a human version of The Doctor (with less ego!), (both) who helped her to grow up and to build her own personality, effort that Chakotay has never made. Besides, he never made any effort to see Seven beyond her Borgness!

* ST: Voyager was made in 90s, when TV still force hetero-sexual relationships (remember the horrified reactions form some Trekkies after the kiss exchanged between Dax/Leonara in s1 of DS9). I'm pretty sure that if the show was made now, Seven - who, initially, had to be lesbian - , B'Elena or even Janeway could be as well openly lesbian as bi-sexual and of course, heterosexual). Besides, in the new series of ST franchise, Discovery, it is planned to have an openly gay character among the senior officers.

2) Again, when I read interviews given by Robert Beltran & Jeri Ryan - after the end of Voyager in 2001 and until recently - about in particular about Chakotay/Seven's romance in Endgame, both recognized that it was a bad idea because, unexpected (how 2 characters whose physical exchanges were very limited in the past and strictly of professional order, could fall in love as quickly?!).
If there had been a continuation, through a 8th season or a TVmovie, or even a reboot, it seems obvious to me that or Chak & Seven would split up or even, that their relationship would haven't survived once Voyager brought in on Earth. Besides, authors of books and fanfictions often choosed this way to favor J/C or J/7 ... though I'm well aware that some authors of fanfictions continued with C/7 because, well, they ship them and it's ok ok for me.

 

[Mareika]

I always asked myself:
Why would Seven choose Chakotay over anyone else?
From all the characters I found him most boring.

Why did Seven choose Chakotay? What a question!!! Because he isn`t only one of the best looking man in Star Trek, but also mainly and intelligent. A man every woman would choose!! Why should they talk about Janeway when they are alone??? There is no reason for this.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Had Seven and Chakotay served together in the Alpha Quadrant, some-how ... then, I would've been bowled over, frankly, at these two getting together, at all. I'd be all like, "seriously ... WTF?"

But these were two lost and lonely people, Ghislaine ... afraid of being alone, again. Chakotay's the kind of Man who doesn't sleep good, when he sleeps alone. And there were many nights he had to do that on this show. The Sexy Woman of the Week wouldn't always go to Chakotay, would it? Hell, even the EMH got the odd one or two, out of that lot. And there wasn't much love to go around, in the DQ. Seska must be pretty wild in bed ... she probably made B'Elanna's Klingon side look tame. And losing that must've put a hurtin' on Chakotay somethin' fierce!

There are so many logical reasons, due entirely to Voyager's situation, that make a Chakotay/Seven combination make perfect sense. Ghislaine, I know you want what's best for Seven, you've described her needing to be challenged, and so on. And I know that you disapprove of her involvement with Chakotay. It might even surprise you to know that I'm on your side. I'd love to turn back the page, to have Chakotay get with the Love of his Life, Kathryn Janeway ... but what's canon is canon.

 

[Mareika]

Jery Ryan about Seven/Chakotay (from Oz Trek) http://spacegypsies.com/archives/7054
"Jeri spoke about how she liked playing the romance with Chakotay in the episode ‘Human Error’ but there was no through-line to the finale, even though they asked if they should play the subtext and build-up between the characters."

Chakotay /Seven came out of the blue http://trekmovie.com/2011/03/31/jer...e-out-of-the-blue-new-abc-show-starts-strong/

 

[elamigodemiamiga]

Pretty simple. Janeway never saw him in that way.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Is there any chance that Seven marooned or murdered Chakotay, and replaced him with that hologram... and no one ever noticed?

And besides if Neelix was seduced by a salt vampire only to spend the next twenty years slowly being eaten... There could have been more than one salt Vampire.

It's just figuring out if it was Seven or Chakotay (or both of them) who was really the alien polymorph with a taste for salt?

 

[2takesfrakes]

According to certain others in VOY fandom, Chakotay's emotional range seems to have become increasingly limited, once Seven took over the show. So, there's a chance that Seven replaced Chakotay with a hologram ... but a chance is all there is. And it's not without possibility that The Salt Creatures were snatched up by The Preservers and seeded, throughout the Galaxy ... including the Delta Quadrant. Encounters with them must be uncommon and infrequent, nevertheless. And yet, Chakotay's joie de vivre seems to have been replaced by something quite ... astonishingly ... different.

 

[Logicpuzzle]

People really think Chakotay is so handsome?
Maybe I'm the odd out, but his look never did anything for me.
I always thought that the rest of the bridge guys were more handsome, even Harry with his baby-face charm. Or maybe it was because he never seemed to fit in the Star Trek theme for me.
Why did non of the human characters seem religious, but it is something completely different if he does his space shaman stuff. He seemed to be the merge of most Indio cliches they could find. It made me look at the character and think, what the hell is he doing there?

 

[Guy Gardener]

According to the Voyager bible, Chakotay's "cult" left for the rim of known space in the mid 22nd century to be deeply religious and practice their ancient traditions in peace without the Human atheists from the United Earth calling them fancifully mental.

Oh.

You know how in our universe, that his religion and tribe are totally made up?

What if the same is so in the Star Trek Universe too?

The remnant native Americans that could hold there shit together enough to ignore the modern world, world war three, and Vulcan colonization/assimilation... I don't see that they would have the numbers to maintain genetic diversity for 2 hundred years.

Isn't it more likely that 130 native Americans, from 20 tribes, mashed to together a fake history, they would lie to their children was real and where they were all from?

They (the) Villaged themselves.

 

[Logicpuzzle]

According to the Voyager bible, Chakotay's "cult" left for the rim of known space in the mid 22nd century to be deeply religious and practice their ancient traditions in peace without the Human atheists from the United Earth calling them fancifully mental.

Oh.

You know how in our universe, that his religion and tribe are totally made up?

What if the same is so in the Star Trek Universe too?

The remnant native Americans that could hold there shit together enough to ignore the modern world, world war three, and Vulcan colonization/assimilation... I don't see that they would have the numbers to maintain genetic diversity for 2 hundred years.

Isn't it more likely that 130 native Americans, from 20 tribes, mashed to together a fake history, they would lie to their children was real and where they were all from?

They (the) Villaged themselves.

That would actual be really funny.
But in the mean time, call me one of the Human atheists, that would call them mental.
They could have done so much to explain all this stuff, but they give this spiritual mumbo-jumbo and expect us to go with it.
Make his tribe real aliens, who a long time ago cashed on earth (then Chakotay's ability to destroy perfectly fine flyers his a cultural heritage ;-P) that had telepathic/telekinetic abilities and those a scientific measurable, make it a real thing and not that's the power of believe! Pretty much merge Chakotay and Kes into one character. It would have an improvement for both.

 

[2takesfrakes]

People really think Chakotay is so handsome?
Maybe I'm the odd out, but his look never did anything for me.
I always thought that the rest of the bridge guys were more handsome, even Harry with his baby-face charm. Or maybe it was because he never seemed to fit in the Star Trek theme for me.
Why did non of the human characters seem religious, but it is something completely different if he does his space shaman stuff. He seemed to be the merge of most Indio cliches they could find. It made me look at the character and think, what the hell is he doing there?

If Chakotay does not whet your proverbial whistle, then ... fair enough. He's "mature," for one thing. He's not the young studd he once was. And he does have a permanent tattoo on his face, which I'm sure can prove to be a turn-off. It's not even of anything, it's just stacked rectangles, with a curly-cue. Right ... on his frigging face ... and it's not subtle, either. He dresses like an old fogey, in his civilian clothes. And in a world without money, it's hard to find the "sugar" in the Sugar Daddy he was to the likes of Annika Hansen. Replicator rations certainly came into play, but beyond that there is doubt ... and uncertainty. He could have a 3rd leg, but if so ... it was never made canon.

Also, his taste in women was often ... questionable. Some were barely half-decent looking. I blame his situation on that, along with his not being choosey, to start with. All of these things might not add up to a female VOY fan having fantasies about him. But the fact remains, he was the Alpha Male, onboard. And for me, personally, I'm enough of a Chakotay fan, where I look forward to episodes he features in. When he Gets the Girl, so to speak and she's easy on the eyes ... even more so.

 

[{ Emilia }]

I suppose she could be a nerd "deep down," but ... she doesn't look like a nerd..

As a full-on nerd and historian but also fashion victim and photo model I'd love to know what a nerd looks like.

 

[Guy Gardener]

What happened to all your mirrors?

 

[Logicpuzzle]

As a full-on nerd and historian but also fashion victim and photo model I'd love to know what a nerd looks like.

First) My envy says, you really have it all... lucky girl
Second) Thank you. She is a nerd. It didn't matter that she looks like a sex bomb.