Your thoughts mirror my own a lot. Early B’Elanna was rough. She mellowed out a little later in the show 😆

Weirdly, nowadays it’s Chkotay that makes me cringe, knowing what I know now about how his character was cobbled together by a racist scam artist memalpha link

I had a friend with a trauma-riddled past who identified with Neelix. He said he saw a lot of his own past struggles in the character, and that watching him go from bumbling joke to competent team member instilled a kind of hope. Turned my perspective around on him.