[[For clarity’s sake as somehow people are still seeing this, this was posted after 2x04 “Watcher” with no knowledge of anything subsequent.]]
Can we just talk about how Seven is so dedicated to keeping Raffi on track, trying to support her, displaying more acts of self-initiated physical contact than we’ve probably seen in the entire rest of her character’s airtime put together
((((i tried to start literally counting it up: this episode alone or even all of S2 vs Picard S1 + all of VOY, but adult!me determined there are apparently limits to how much time I’m allowed to spend on blorbos when also accumulating hundreds of thousands of dollars of graduate school debt, so i guess just trust our collective Seven-stan memories here))))
and it’s all because Raffi with Elnor is Seven with Icheb and that went so terribly wrong; she spent 13 years just losing herself again until she could vaporize that bitch
and so when she says “losing him was not your fault”
– like, the fucking pain there that’s she’s suppressing for Raffi, because in so many ways (literally-directly, indirectly by leading Bjazyl to him, etc) losing Icheb was Seven’s fault,
and maybe, 13 years and a little bit of closure later it doesn’t hurt as much but afaik, even in the extended canon (i.e. No Man’s Land), there’s not been anything to suggest she’s fully told that backstory to anyone. So Raffi has no idea that Seven so viscerally understands and tbf in probably a worse way because even 13 years later, even finally getting her murder!closure, there’s no way to emotionally logically anything-ly ever really accept that it wasn’t her fault because it was
(and that’s not even getting into how – the show seems to be ignoring this so far, which is consternating, but Elnor family-bonded with Seven as well in season 1, and then also was killed by her “lover” – even if Seven wasn’t momfigure as much as Raffi, I kind of hate that they’ve ignored the repeated pattern in favor of her just supporting Raf. Holding out hope they address this, but definitely have faith that fanon’s gonna jump all over that because we love ♫♩trauma♩♫)
she just has to try to keep going, because … “every damn day of my life” etc.
talk about fucking character growth, and even just irl human inspiration – she fucked up and bad things happened and she’s gotten to a point that she can live with that and just try to keep helping people, but also allow herself to be open to emotional engagement (despite how that’s what got Icheb killed in the first place)
and so for her to be trying to support Raffi so much – they misdirected us with the “cellular photograph” scene that it would be Seven totally unable to fit in in the 21st century, but in this latest episode, it’s Raffi who needs Seven’s rationality and temperance (other than in driving skills lmao) to keep from blowing everything
and it makes sense – Seven still falls back on borgspeak sometimes, especially without her cortical node or other implants in this AU, can’t find the correct vocabulary and has to rely on honed skills of improvisation and charm (and privilege of being pretty and white in the 21st century); but her still tightly-regulated emotions so perfectly complement how Raffi’s are out of control right now
but just the fact that she can have that control when the parallels are so fucking obvious is … i mean, i’m really hoping it’s not just “this is something fandom noticed that they didn’t think of at the time” and we get some kind of scene where it all comes out, but either way
– anyway, this is way tl;dr but have my seven meta for the night
gummygunk
titsay
baratheonpilled
origamiaround
tangentwithtanner
snowghoul
romaincrisis
