I Dont Car

obviously she canonically deals with depression and colossal amounts of guilt and that might inform her decision to hop in a shuttle in Night. however, I think more than that, Kathryn Janeway is the Starfleet captain that views herself most as a tool of Starfleet, an extension of an ideology before she views herself as a person with wants and needs. and if she finds herself in a position to acknowledge wants and needs, she filters it through protocol first. (side note: this is why I think Harry Kim is her golden child more than any real maternal instinct - he also prizes Starfleet ideology and she can work with that).

But back to business: Kathryn Janeway as an implement first and person second, at least in her own view. My primary textual reference that this isn’t just “any Starfleet captain would do the same in this situation” is the Omega Directive, where Chakotay points out that he highly doubts Starfleet’s actual orders were for Janeway to go on a suicide mission. Also directly referenced over the seasons is Janeway’s own insistence that others must uphold Starfleet ideology alongside her or risk the whole ship (Tuvok, Harry, and Seven receiving the brunt of this).

Chakotay knows enough about Starfleet to have become disillusioned with it and resigned in protest. Even he, a Starfleet skeptic, heavily implies that even though Janeway’s orders are to eradicate the omega molecule however possible, her proposed solution is too extreme. That Starfleet wouldn’t ask it of her.

Janeway begs Tuvok to not compromise his morals because she needs him. Loses it on Harry when he doesn’t follow protocol and falls in love with an alien, because he’s her proof that she’s doing something right. Espouses Starfleet ideals as synonymous with humanity to Seven because - I think - Starfleet and her own existence as a person are inextricably linked in Janeway’s own sense of identity.

Of course the captain should go down with the ship. Of course the captain should sacrifice themselves first, never ask their crew to do anything they wouldn’t do themselves. Take all the blame and reassign all of the praise. That’s all culturally quite acceptable in Starfleet throughout all of Star Trek’s iterations. What’s wild about Kathryn Janeway isn’t that she has Starfleet ideals, it’s that she carries them out every single time. That if her crew is unwilling or unable, her thought isn’t “let’s find a different way”, it is “I am willing. I am able.”

Kathryn Janeway is perfectly willing to view herself as “Captain” over “Kathryn”, as “Starfleet” over “person”, as “tool” over “human”.

And tools, when broken or made irrelevant, ought to be discarded. Tech, when too valuable, ought to be destroyed to prevent its misuse.

Let's just say I usually go with my instincts and sort it out later at the Board of Inquiry.

This is both out of the simple fact that Voyager can’t afford to lose too many people or it stops functioning, and also Kathryn Janeway has so much guilt that it’s basically walking with her in lockstep everywhere she goes - her albatross, her skeletons in the closet, her constant shadow? Just pick an analogy for inner darkness that appeals and you’ve got her guilt described. She HAS to get them home.

It may seem out of character, then, that any time a member of Voyager wants to leave Voyager voluntarily (See Kes, the Doctor, Neelix), once she gets past her initial stricken grief, she allows it every time. If Voyager can’t afford to lose too many bodies, she should theoretically refuse any attempt to leave with just as much gusto as she puts into rescue missions. Maybe you could skirt that with Kes and Neelix, but the Doctor was undeniably mission critical, and she WOULD have let him go if he hadn’t changed his mind.

Except that it’s perfectly in character because her guilt supersedes the minutiae of running a starship every time when it comes to her people. Every time. She knows full well that she trapped them there. She offers everyone chances to leave the ship (the 37s) or, at the very least, leave her behind (Night). She can’t fathom anyone wanting to stay trapped on her ship of the damned.

So even though she needs all hands, even though she would argue and reason and - depending on the person - plead, any person who genuinely wants to leave Voyager is going to get the patented “eyes full of unshed tears and a smile she doesn’t mean” look and her well wishes. because she’d rather ground the ship and disappear into the sunset like an old dog putting herself out to pasture than keep even one person trapped in a hell she views herself as making for them.