VOY - Equinox

[Madner Kami]

I tend to agree. I feel early Voyager-Janeway is relatively consistent and coherent and if she veers off the road, it's caused by distress and her being in over her head. The character itself gets more grating as time passes though. Sanctimonious. Inconsistent. Hypocritical. And always making everything about herself.
The first time I really soured to the character back in the day, when Voyager was new to me, was in Season 2's Tuvix. I'll maintain for the rest of my life, that she murdered this man and had no good reason to. And the way everyone of the crew reacted to her final decission always struck me as odd and the older I get, the more I see the faces of victims of abuse, shying away from voicing their concern. To this day, I find it unbelievable that not a single person on the entire ship dared to speak in his favour and the way it's displayed, I feel awefully reminded of those spouses who know what comes, if they voice their opinion. It certainly wasn't the writers intent, but it's what they wrote. Not a single person was unhappy with Tuvix, except one. And she murdered him.

And was made an admiral... You wonder where those crazy Starfleet admirals come from? There it is.

And it only got worse over the course of the series. The character was always present, front and center in a way no other captain in the previous series was. She's like Michael. No matter what the episode is about, she'll get in your face. She'll be there. She'll lead the way... no plow herself a path come hell and high water. No survivors, no prisoners. No remorse. No regret. And she's always in the right, no matter how wrong. No matter how many bodies she leaves behind.

And as for the show itself, I know they dropped it relatively fast, but the first two seasons, give or take, at least occasionally paid lip service to continuity and overarching plots, the story of a lone traveler in a strange land without anyone to rely on but itself, a Voyager. It only got ever more irrelevant as time went on.