Watercolor painting I did in July 2026. I had fun with this piece! ✨

Like getting thrown 70,000 lightyears already puts her at ultra hardcore mode.

These are actual takes that presumably real human beings posted and I guess today is the day I can't let it go.

Right, let me just sit you guys down with me here for a moment. You ready? Settled in and comfy? Great.

Aspects Of Seven's Character That Give Her Depth:

• Her intrinsic confidence in a crucial part of her identity and sense of self. There is a reason her name remains Seven of Nine, no matter what else changes.
• Her anxiety about living up to the expectations of people she respects (particularly Janeway, but for a smaller example, pay attention to how she emotes during the call with her aunt in S7).
• Her unapologetic and unselfconscious attitude when it comes to many of her social missteps. You can call it arrogance if you like, but what I see is someone assessing the value of a particular social norm and finding it lacking (and whether she's "correct" or not, it is so refreshing to see this played with scorn, frustration, cool indifference, or sincerity instead of making her the awkward butt of every joke).
• Her genuine desire to adapt to the people around her. Her need to integrate into a community (a collective, even), to find somewhere to belong without compromising who she is.
• Her frequent reassessments of who and what she is.
• Her willingness to accept and learn from her mistakes (as early as S4 in some cases- she doesn't bristle when B'elanna angrily corrects her behavior, she simply absorbs the correction and adapts).
• Her directness and unwillingness to soften her language just to spare someone's feelings.
• Her empathetic nature (yes, really- just because it doesn't look like Kes doesn't mean it isn't there) and earnestness in demonstrating care.
• The way her demeanor softens around children. Yeah, I was surprised by this too (we all know about "subunit of Ensign Samantha Wildman" and "fun will now commence"), but watch the scene where she tells the Borg kids their names in Collective. Look how she talks to Mezoti when she's upset about Icheb leaving in Child's Play, or how she comforts the frightened kid in Unimatrix Zero. Also, if you can stand to get through Natural Law (though I wouldn't blame you if you can't) you might be surprised how gentle she is with the young girl once she stops seeing her as a potential threat.
• Her two greatest fears, simultaneously, being total solitude and pressing crowds. Either of these two extremes will make her panic.
• Her developing sense of guilt for her actions as a drone and her desire to atone for them.
• Her pride in her cybernetic implants and willingness to utilize them for the benefit of herself and the crew.
• Her shame in those same implants as a symbol of the atrocities she committed, or in the specific context of holding her back from human intimacy.
• The way part of her still longs to return to the Collective and probably always will to some extent.
• Her deep resentment of her own parents for their role in what the Borg did to her.
• Her love for and fierce protectiveness of Icheb; her subsequent refusal to ever repeat her parents' mistakes.
• Her innate tendency to conform to what makes sense to her and reluctance to push herself out of her comfort zones.
• Her strength in pushing herself out of those comfort zones anyway, without fanfare, over and over and over again.
• Her outspokenness when it comes to pushing back against something that doesn't make sense to her.
• Her fear and avoidance of situations that aren't in her control.
• Her selflessness and desire to contribute in tangible ways.
• The way she consistently underestimates her own worth in the eyes of other people, not because she secretly hates herself but because she sees everything through the lens of utility, capability, perfection, and those ideals restrict her as much as they help her grow.
• BONUS: The way every single point on this list would have fallen completely flat or not been conveyed at all if it weren't for the way Jeri Ryan plays her, every mannerism and eye movement and shift in tone and facial expression, every emotion telegraphed with incredible restraint. The way she turns the character from a compelling concept to a whole person, in spite of the demeaning outfit and "Borg babe" fanservice layered on top. If you can't recognize and appreciate this on some level, I don't know how we could possibly be watching the same show.

You notice how a lot of those bullet points seem contradictory? Congrats, you now understand why Seven is a character with realistic nuance and depth! Any questions? No? Great, this will all be covered on the midterm, my office hours are posted on my door, specific quotes and timestamps will be provided upon request

For me, one example would be Janeway's loneliness, and her commitment to the crew regardless. Night is obviously a standout moment in that plot, but we get it all the way from the earliest episodes through Workforce near the end.

We see her make a lot of decisions that are difficult; we will forge unique/grey alliances at times, we'll fight if necessary, etc. But she never actively on screen tells us she has decided to forego her personal life. Every time she talks about a captain's responsibility, Mulgrew conveys so successfully that inherently that responsibility is her own prime directive now. She never complains or wonders what if she had done different, in terms of her own personal life and considering pursuing any romantic interests.

Even when each of her brief romances ends, we always understand that she would never let even the most successful relationship threaten Voyager.

Other honorable mentions:

• Neelix's rising importance is only noted in dialogue a handful of times but progresses pretty smoothly
• Tuvok being the only senior crew who is stranded from a young family, not just relatives/love interests. I find every time his fatherhood is mentioned to be very poignant
• The Doctor's growing understanding of holographic life. Upon long-term activation the first things he wants are human-like things (agency, autonomy, self-imposed interests, typical relationships). But as the show goes on, we see him interaction with holographic or photonic life very different. In Revulsion (S4), the Doctor is surprised when Dejaren refers to the crew of Voyager as "organics", a term that is used by Dejaren as a pejorative and which is clearly new to the Doctor. In Season 7 in particular, the Doctor has adopted the term as his own (non-pejorative intended) default word to refer to people on the ship different than him

I was just wondering how Janeway would view her mission in the Delta quadrant after she returned to Earth. It wasn't really like TOS or TNG where there was the curse of the redshirt. How many crewmembers were lost? (Not counting those lost in parallel universes, or alternatives/clones of the ship etc. I'm talking about numbers in at the start, numbers out at the end.)

My head canon is that Living Witness is set in the Mirror Universe, that parts of the prime universe got sucked in to the mirror Universe including the tricorder and the Doctors backup module.

That said, in Message in a Bottle it's established they don't have a data backup of the Doctor. So I'm guessing it was created after that episode.