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Wesley Crusher... am I the only one not annoyed by him?

VulcanMindBlown

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I feel like such an outcast... I thought take Jake from DS9 was kind of annoying and stood up to adults, but that's his character.
 
Jake was a bit more realistic. Annoying at times, like any teen aged boy, but good hearted and polite. And it was good to see a teenager that wasn't back talking to adults.
 
You're not alone.

Except for a few specific moments in episodes ( like in "The Naked Now"), Wesley Crusher was a-OK.

Wesley was pretty human. I think Wil Wheaton gave a pretty good performance throughout. Even his " We're Starfleet- we don't lie" remark rang true of a naive, idealistic young kid.

I never got the Wesley hate. I think sci-fi fans have a tendency to be overly cruel and critical (yet when they meet those actors at conventions they fawn)

I'll add that Jake Sisko was one of the better DS9 characters. His relationship with his dad was one of the best relationships on the show.

In retrospect, Wesley was a better character than Troi, LaForge, and Dr.Crusher to me.
 
Never had a problem with Wesley. I enjoyed watching him choose Star Fleet as a career, and then ascend into a role much more than that with the Traveler. One of the more interesting characters.
 
I didn't like Wesley at the time, but after watching Wil Wheaton on Big Bang Theory, I have a new appreciation for the character, I guess knowing the actor better (sort of) makes a difference... plus time and perspective, he was at his worst only for the first two seasons, which most of us didn't like overall anyway.
 
Season one is where he's at his worst, but so was the rest of the cast. During my current rewatch, I think he was more toned down in season two, which was welcome. He's never going to be a favourite character but I don't think he's the worst either. Harry Kim? Travis Mayweather? At least Wesley was developed.
 
Wesley was terrible in season one, utterly cancerous, but by season three, I found him to be pretty bearable and actually didn't mind having him on the bridge.
 
I never had much of a problem with Wesley...mainly only with the original concept as presented in Season 1, of the boy genius meddling in adult affairs. Wil Wheaton was likable enough in the role despite what he was given, and once they gave him a regular job, I had zero issues with the character. In retrospect, the concept probably should have been that he was such a wunderkind that he'd already attended and graduated the Academy, but as a result of doing so on such a fast track, he was behind the curve in practical life experience and social development...just a really green ensign character, which is what they pretty much played him as from Season 2 on.
 
Wesley became less annoying in later seasons.

Icheb is more annoying than Wesley ever was. Too perfect. Too serious. But I don't really hate him, either. He's just not one of my favorite characters.....
 
Season 3 & 4 Wesley is OK.
I can't say for the earlier seasons much, its been a while since I watched them... I don't remember.
 
I liked him when I was a kid.

Now, he mostly annoys me when the adults have to look dumb for him to look smart. Especially Naked Now and Datalore. Also it really bugs me how 'Awww shucks' his personality is. Particularly when they try to show him interacting with girls or being a normal teenager, he doesn't act like a real teenager.
 
In terms of speaking to girls, I enjoyed watching The Dauphin the other day. I think his romantic story in that with Salia was nicely played, even if the rest of the story with the shapeshiting guardian was horribly repetitive.
 
Wesley became less annoying in later seasons.

Icheb is more annoying than Wesley ever was. Too perfect. Too serious. But I don't really hate him, either. He's just not one of my favorite characters.....
Icheb just wasn't likable.The best I could muster up for him was sympathy for being so out of place.
 
I didn't have an issue with him, but I could see why some people were annoyed by him (especially the first two seasons).

I think as the character got older, the writers sometimes struggled to make him seem more like his age (as in when he's off duty). For instance, I just watched the episode "Suddenly Human" the other day, and Wesley I'm assuming is about 17 or 18 in the episode (going by Wil Wheaton's age). He says something to the effect of "The banana split, perhaps the greatest invention ever". I'm around his age and I don't talk like that, and I don't know anybody else my age who does. I could understand if he was talking to somebody a lot younger, but he was talking to Jono, who is supposed to be about the same age.
 
Given the way that TNG-era Trek plays up how perfect and evolved humans have gotten, I could definitely see 24th-century human teenagers being a little more wide-eyed and innocent compared to current teenagers. The adults don't act like us, why should the kids?
 
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Never annoyed by him, just perplexed by the fact that he's flying the damn ship. Even the super powers didn't bother me all that much much since it was part of the whole ludiucrous TNG philosophy (if we close our eyes and concentrate hard enough, we'll eventually evolve into humans who transcend the physical plain).

Plus, I love the bit in Final Mission where a tearful Picard says... "Oh, I envy you, Wesley Crusher. You're just at the beginning of the adventure."

My go-to quote when I'm drunk.
 
I had absolutely no problem with Wesley Crusher, until his big reveal as The Next Step in Human Evolution. At least this aspect of the character took its sweet time to present itself to an unsuspecting public. The next character to be aggrandised in so ludicrous a fashion was Benjamin Sisko, who was hailed as (I can barely force myself to type it) ... The Messiah.
 
I had absolutely no problem with Wesley Crusher, until his big reveal as The Next Step in Human Evolution. At least this aspect of the character took its sweet time to present itself to an unsuspecting public. The next character to be aggrandised in so ludicrous a fashion was Benjamin Sisko, who was hailed as (I can barely force myself to type it) ... The Messiah.

I have to admit, the idea of Wesley being the next step in human evolution was very strange. But even that didn't bother me until later when he actually became a Traveler and took off, disappearing into spacetime as easily as we walk through air. That's not the "next step" that's like the next thousandth step.

But Sisko's story pales by comparison. I mean, he's not the Messiah, any more than the non-coporeal non-temporal aliens inside the wormhole are Gods. That's a misinterpretation based on observances by ancient Bajorans trying to make sense of things they had no way to understand -- a common theme in Star Trek.
 
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