#and voyager would've been so much better for it i'm still so mad

[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.

[jessmalia]

Thoughts on Lucy's arc in VotDT?? (your previous answer got me interested...)

Okay, here it goes! *cracks knuckles*

I'm not really familiar with the discourse surrounding this movie, other than people thinking it's a lot weaker than the other two, but people disagreeing on how much. Personally, I think Voyage of the Dawn Treader has more notable flaws than Prince Caspian, but I would still rate them on the same level, with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe being above both with quite a large amount. Mainly cause while VDT has many more obvious flaws, PC had less things I really liked.

So now I'm gonna answer the question you actually asked, lol. Like I said, not familiar with the discourse, so I don't know how mad people will be over this, but I think the concept of Lucy's arc is fine. Mostly because, unlike with Edmund, I can't come up with a better one myself, lol. And I understand that they really needed to add an arc, since expectations of media has changed. I think it's perfectly believable that Lucy could start envying Susan as she grows up. In fact, I think it's a very common feeling, just ask any younger sibling. So the concept is fine, I just think it wasn't executed very well. And I think it could of been fixed by changing 2 things.

Firstly, the less important thing: lower the fucking emphasis on Susan being pretty and good with boys or whatever, and make Lucy's envy more about how Susan is very well liked, good with people, and maybe (in Lucy's eyes) fitting traditional feminine roles very well. This detail of her arc is something I can imagine makes people hate this it, which, yeah... the whole thing feels very men writing women™ to me.

Secondly, the big thing: make it fucking lead somewhere. Ignoring the inaccurate portrayal that all girls are jealous of other girls who are prettier and more popular than them, I think the setup to the arc was pretty good. Perfectly acceptable. But the thing is, we see them show us Lucy wants to be Susan, we see her try to cast a spell to make her become Susan, she realises that their lives would be completely different and also worse if she didn't exist, Aslan yells at her a little bit etc. and Lucy learns her lesson... but then what?

If the lesson Lucy's supposed to learn is that she is needed, brings stuff to the table that her siblings can't, and that the world would be worse off without her, shouldn't the movie end by her saving the day in a way only she could? Yeah, you can reference the past and how they wouldn't even have discovered Narnia if it wasn't for her, but that's not enough. Unlike in life, everything in a story should have a point, but Lucy's arc doesn't have a point. Even if she didn't learn her lesson, they still would've won. You could just have her want to be Susan during the entire movie and it would end exactly the same, other than Lucy probably being pretty unhappy.

At least Edmund got to kill the big sea serpent and prove that he is in fact adequate. I mean, the closest thing we get to a pay off with Lucy is that little girl saying "I want be just like you when I grow up" and Lucy going, "No, you should want to be just like YOU when you grow up" which is very sweet and all, but... it's not enough.

And also the fact that this is the only movie where Lucy doesn't use her healing potion to save someone??? It's like they were trying to make it bad. And what's even worse, in the battle against the sea serpent, Lucy uses Susan's bow and arrows.

Let me reiterate, not only does Lucy not save the day in a way that's uniquely hers, she saves the day with Susan's weapon.

I'm reminding y'all that this is a movie. Symbolism like this, wether intentional or not, is very important. Lucy using Susan's bow during the final battle doesn't say that Lucy is important and needed, it says the literal opposite. I'm watching that like “Hmm... maybe Lucy should want to be Susan. I mean, she did what Susan would've done and saved Edmunds life, therefor saving the entire day. That must be what they’re trying to show me, right?”

I swear, the more I think about this the madder I get. 

Anyway, to conclude, Lucy should’ve contributed something to the final battle in a way no one else could, therefor proving why she should want to be herself. 

tldr: The concept of Lucy’s arc was fine but it was poorly executed. This could’ve been fixed by de-emphasising Lucy’s jealousy over Susan being prettier than her, as it is un-progressive and borderline sexist, and by adding an actual pay off to the arc by having Lucy save the day in a way only she could.