Spoilers: To me, when Sulu was asked to take the conn, he became one hell of a acting captain. The way he addressed Harrison was epic and seemed to me that he actually had more confidence than Kirk sitting in the chair. He was strict and meant business and he wasn't reckless. Also when he was hovering the shuttle over the volcano he had to make split decisions and decided to abort despite Spock's line snapping and Uhura's pleas to stay. He put safety first. Any thoughts?
I think it was about the same for both. Both Kirk and Sulu are young officers who arise to the occasion when necessary in that captain's chair. Half of being a good captain is being able to convince others you know what you're doing, even if you really privately don't, IMO.
On balance, Sulu is a better officer and a more realistic officer than Kirk. He's more like how I imagine Kirk Prime would have been at his age.
I think it just stems from Cho probably gave a better performance than expected. He did a great job with his limited screen time. Oh myyy!
We had nuExcelsior in this movie: it was called the USS Vengeance. But otherwise, it fit the bill: transwarp drive, bigger ship, etc... It was built for a different mission, of course, but I would think the Excelsior was on the drawing boards for at least a decade and some before it was actually built. So, it evolved into Vengeance instead.
Kirk's father figure had just been murdered. Kirk really wasn't thinking very clearly the entire time, and when Khan told him about Marcus, he was even more shattered that he had taken his crew into such a bad situation by falling for Marcus' ruse.
Sulu has alway been more secure in his self. Kirk has always ozzed over compensation and insecurity. Both have strenghths and weaknesses. If I was a admiral I would send Kirk on the finky missions that may need creative thinking but dammed if I would trust him on something I need reliable predictable results. Sulu I would use for jobs that would be out of Kirks skill area. He is more of a line officer who could be pretty trusted.
Sulu commanding Excelsior, Chekov his first officer, Saavik and Valeris take over the Enterprise's helm and navigation.
Oh, thought I'd add that Sulu is in command of the Enterprise for about an hour until Kirk and Spock get back and his only order is to make a speech and have torpedoes pointing Kronos. Kirk is in charge of this entire mission that not even HE feels good about until he has to go risk his life to save his ship...twice. A little different.
"If you test me, you will fail." "DAMMNNN, Roldy...!" Even Machete had to admit the dude had cojones.
Sulu here did a heck of a better job in the chair than poor Chekov did in Final Frontier.... "Wait! Come back!" lol
Alas we all know, Sulu is bound to be captain sooner or later. Its in him. At least he was captain in the other timeline ;-)