yk janeway and chakotay truly make me insane bc whilst chakotay is finding a new sense of purpose and inner peace and working thru his trauma and anger that he's been haunted by literally his whole life, janeway is slowly but surely feeling her identity being chipped away as she grapples with upholding her ideals and morals in the face of the reality of voyager's situation as well as trying to retain who she is outside of her captaincy even as she clings to it as the last vestige of protection against the sheer weight of her duty of care and the responsibility of 150 lives that she holds. and also they want to make out constantly. absolutely insane command duo.
This is exactly why they work for me, because they’re not just “opposites” or “slow burn” or whatever label people throw at them. They’re literally moving in opposite directions as people.
Chakotay is healing. He’s learning how to let go of anger, finding purpose again, becoming more grounded in himself.
Janeway is doing the opposite. She’s losing pieces of herself to command, to responsibility, to the weight of keeping everyone alive. She’s holding onto being “captain” because if she lets that go, there’s nothing protecting her from everything she’s carrying.
And the wild part is that they see this in each other.
Chakotay sees the person underneath the captain, even when she won’t let anyone else. And Janeway sees the man he’s becoming, even when he doesn’t fully trust it yet.
So it’s not just tension for the sake of tension. It’s two people who understand each other in a way that’s almost dangerous, because if they actually let that wall down, it changes everything about how they function.
And yeah, the fact that they manage to keep it together professionally while clearly wanting more? Is insane. Truly one of the most unwell command dynamics ever written. But, so very beautiful!
