#all of this is isn't that original so probably didn't need to be resaid but it's my blog and i want to

[mylittleredgirl]

all the posts about harry kim getting shafted have me thinking about What Could Have Been and YES he should have gotten promoted and that is the LEAST they could do, but it should have been so much more than that. harry could and should have been the audience self-insert pov growing-into-hero character we deserved.

basically, he's perfectly set up to fill the wesley crusher role on voyager without the three things that pissed off tng fans (unfairly imho): that wesley was a literal teenager, a civilian who hadn't earned the right to be an officer, and that he was overpowered because he kept figuring out answers alone.

harry's strength isn't in his individual genius, but in his a) relentless starfleet optimism, and b) ability to collaborate and bring out the best in other people. his weakness is that he has been on the job for 14 hours when everything goes to hell.

if they weren't so allergic to continuity, voyager is set up to be theee individual character development show and they should have leaned into that hard (because tng was the "these characters are already the best starfleet has to offer" one and ds9 already had the "we all have to learn to collaborate with our different objectives and points of view" story well in hand). so let harry be the flagship character of that story!!

first off: he shouldn't have walked on board as the operations officer. almost nothing has to change for this. let his first conversation with janeway when he comes on board be about his potential. "it's a special privilege to be a starfleet officer's first captain," she says, which tells us a lot about her character right off the bat (she's great at spotting potential and loves to develop people). "your job is to do your best and watch and learn from the experienced officers around you, and one day you'll make a great one."

and then two scenes later we get flung into the delta quadrant and the senior bridge officers DIE, and in that moment of holy shit this is my first day on the job and all these people died and i don't know what's going on, harry steps up!! and in the ocampa arc he shows how he handles first contact like a starfleet officer even when literally dying. after the pilot we would totally get why janeway is like "welp i guess you're getting that chance to be a senior officer a lot sooner than expected." both he and the audience know that he's stepping into huge shoes he's not really qualified for (last held on-screen by DATA) but we want to root for him!!

and i don't think anyone else's story has to be sacrificed for this either. i know the EMH and b'elanna have fish-out-of-water senior officer stories already, but this is something different. those two are both fully confident in their individual abilities, but need to learn the interpersonal skills to work with others and lead a department. harry needs practical experience to offset his academy idealism and develop faith in his own skill.

and tom's story isn't competition because that's a "second chance" narrative and has a totally different arc.

so that's the setup, and THEN we get to go through all the things that actually already happen on-screen with harry (and more of the same -- a "nightingale" type story should have happened way sooner). there should have been more of the kind of scenes with janeway that we got at the end of "emanations" where she helps him process his experiences and recognizes him for his development. give the kid some medals! his night shift command could have been be a big deal!

and YEAH he finally gets promoted! i think it should come either after "the killing game," or after an unwritten episode where all the senior officers are captured somewhere and harry has to rally a handful of lower decks crewmen to save the day. that would be a fantastic episode in this storyline actually, because it could start with him kind of bemoaning that he's not really a command officer because he doesn't get to / can't make these bold command decisions on his own that janeway & chakotay do -- janeway especially gets a lot of individual heroism moments. but here you have him in charge of some scared crewmen and yeah he makes some decisions but also he leans into his strengths and raises them all up. in some nice narrative parallels, he gives them a speech that janeway gave him early on about how You Can Do It Actually.

and at the end of that, janeway gets to talk to him about how every captain has a unique style. she can't give him his own ship, but here, now he's one pip closer.

anyway since that did NOT happen paramount owes me money and they can pay me back by having the phrase "youngest admiral in starfleet history harry kim" spoken aloud and guys you literally have FOUR actively airing shows where this could happen.