I hate that in “Hope and Fear” they had B’Elanna say that she can only speak a few sentences of Klingon because taking this literally doesn’t make any sense, she lived with her mother for so long (on Qo’nos) and stayed at a Klingon monastery, I cannot imagine her not being fluent in Klingon. I can understand her mixed feelings about it, or Klingon being the victim of language attrition if what she’s spoken on a daily basis since her Academy days is Federation Standard, or Spanish, or whatever pidgin was spoken among the Maquis—but I’m sure she speaks Klingon very well. So the only interpretation that I can accept is her being defensive about it and unwilling to admit to just how much Klingon culture still influences her.
THIS.
I refuse to believe that B’Elanna does not know the Klingon Language. I also want to believe she knows Spanish as well. Everyone is always trying to get her to be or act more Klingon–so that is why she is defensive.
yes you’re totally right, the fact that everyone wants B’Elanna to be “more Klingon”, or the way they constantly comment on her supposed “Klingon aggression” (which, come on. I’ve never seen her actually overreact, it’s just people being shitty to her for no reason!) certainly can’t help have her less misgivings about her heritage om her upbringing!
I also agree with you about Spanish, I want to believe B’Elanna speaks it as well, if anything because I think it’s disappointing how Voyager always pretty much ignored that part of her character.
#i don’t think she’s overly aggressive. i think people see what they expect. i think she’s been super aware and in control of her anger #since what her father said and i think she’s probably shutting off an entire part of herself to avoid having the same reaction from other #people she cares about (via @gaygentkatz)
forgive me if I bring this out of the tags but I think you’ve totally hit the nail on the head here—B’Elanna knows about what people think when they look at her. I absolutely agree that she’s been hyperaware of it ever since her father, and she’s had to manage people’s expectations all her life, her time on the USS Voyager very much included. It’s such a heartbreaking side of her character and, to me at least, it clearly is the source of much of her own misgivings about being Klingon.
I so wish Voyager had had enough self-awareness to recognize just how much effort B’Elanna puts into trying to fit in, to make herself smaller for the sake of everyone else around her, instead of making easy quips about her being “angry because she’s Klingon” or whatever. It’s just an infuriatingly lazy approach, and the racism at the root of it also pretty evident, I think.
Taking a step into the sub text, can we talk about how by this point in Trek Klingons have been heavily coded as black including the use of literal black face in many cases.
Now lets talk about how comfortable the human (often white or male) characters feel in making assertions about her volatility, violence and anger management issues. Dropping casual comments about her heritage into professional conversation. How many times are her enthusiasm and passion criticized as being uncontrolled anger from her Klingon side?
I could write a dissertation on the casual racism Star Trek allows some of it’s beloved characters to enact regularly on the bridge often without censure and many times other characters’ tacit support. The racism is coded as being against another species, and is only questioned on rare occasions. Sometimes it takes years of character development before they ever acknowledge they were wrong, if they do at all.