Neelix had met Kes just a single time a month prior to them being introduced in the show. If that’s grooming, then every vacation fling is also grooming

I agree with the anime trope part, but that only complicates your position.

Is it strange because the anime girl is physically young? Then there’s no issue with Kes.

Is it strange that she’s psychologically immature? Then there’s an issue with dating ANYBODY that is immature or sheltered, which is a much more difficult metric to gauge and standard to set.

Or is it an issue with her chronological age? Then nobody is ever allowed to have interspecies relationships, unless their aging speed matches.

I did actually watch the first and second season, and just never really enjoyed it.

And fair, I wasn’t trying to compare them directly, more pointing out that Star Trek has many episodes that have little to nothing to do with social commentary. And it seemed like that was the ONLY concept being explored in Orville, with sci-fi as a backdrop for funsies.

I didn’t really like the Orville. Or rather, I wanted to like it, but found myself getting bored with it extremely fast. Every single episode is a new social commentary, without exception.

Obviously, Star Trek has a TONNE of social commentary, so that itself is not the problem. The problem I had, is that Star Trek also has sci-fi mysteries, silly episodes, philosophical questions, etc. I found Orville was just social commentary after social commentary without any of the additional flavours.

My all time favourite episode is Measure of a Man, which of course is a social commentary, but it’s more of a philosophical question of what we consider sentients and “life” to be. Even with Zero, I think his name was? I didn’t get those same vibes.

How was she a child bride? She was in her psychological mid 20’s to 30’s?

Are you saying that nobody should be allowed to have a relationship with Ocampa, since their biology causes them to die of old age at 9 years old? Separate but equal?