How did Cirroc Lofton get away with it?

[Garak007]

Get away with not being the annoying brat on DS9. Or DS9's answer to Wesley Crusher.

I think we give Aron Eisenberg character Nog for helping out Cirroc here. He was annoying brat at the start and unlike Wil Wheaton he was unable to turn it around and actually made the character likeable.

The Writers had to come up with some BALLS*** to resue the Wesley character I.E "The Traveller". Not Nog

 

[Jono]

For one they didn't made Jake a super-genius who makes seasoned military officers and scientists look like incompetent 5th graders.

 

[Bones2]

^
Not to mention the most complex android ever created.

Jake was a likeable, normal kid. Also, his relationships with Sisko and Nog were very well played.

 

[happydave]

As the previous posters have said, Jake was allowed to be a kid of his age and not some kind of wunderkind. Jake and Nog would just run around and cause trouble for Odo, and you got a legitimate sense of fun rather than an irritating condescending 15yr old telling everyone how to fix a complex situation.

And then he grew up slowly and you actually saw him figure out what he wants to do in life and follow his dream.

Plus unlike Wesley who seemed to only have a few interactions with his Mum (and it always felt slightly forced to me), Jake and Ben showed a strong father/son relationship.

So basically, the writing was a lot better and Jake was given decent relationships rather than trying to play technobabble with the adults.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Jake, in DS9's season one, was trying to get to laid. In TNG season one, Wes, who was older, surrounded by scantily-clad blondes in "Justice," stuttered and stammered about not knowing how to play "some types of games," then went off looking for a stick so he could play baseball instead. What more do you need to know?

 

[nx1701g]

As the previous posters have said, Jake was allowed to be a kid of his age and not some kind of wunderkind. Jake and Nog would just run around and cause trouble for Odo, and you got a legitimate sense of fun rather than an irritating condescending 15yr old telling everyone how to fix a complex situation.

And then he grew up slowly and you actually saw him figure out what he wants to do in life and follow his dream.

Plus unlike Wesley who seemed to only have a few interactions with his Mum (and it always felt slightly forced to me), Jake and Ben showed a strong father/son relationship.

So basically, the writing was a lot better and Jake was given decent relationships rather than trying to play technobabble with the adults.

This is pretty much exactly why I like Jake. He was realistic.

 

[RichMerk]

One of the best aspects of DS9 was the characters. They were all extremely well-thought-out and well-written. Heck, even Worf became a decent character when he moved to DS9. The DS9 characters far outshine all the characters in all the other series. Yes, even my beloved TOS.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

As the previous posters have said, Jake was allowed to be a kid of his age and not some kind of wunderkind. Jake and Nog would just run around and cause trouble for Odo, and you got a legitimate sense of fun rather than an irritating condescending 15yr old telling everyone how to fix a complex situation.

And then he grew up slowly and you actually saw him figure out what he wants to do in life and follow his dream.

Plus unlike Wesley who seemed to only have a few interactions with his Mum (and it always felt slightly forced to me), Jake and Ben showed a strong father/son relationship.

So basically, the writing was a lot better and Jake was given decent relationships rather than trying to play technobabble with the adults.

This is pretty much exactly why I like Jake. He was realistic.

I totally agree. Plus, it was also cool to see him have a mind of his own and choose a career other than Starfleet. I think he was a bit undisciplined sometimes and did not necessarily work as hard for his goals as Nog did--especially once Nog got his heart set on Starfleet--but that's something I think he could still grow out of after the show ended.

And yet compared to Wesley, the existence of this flaw is actually a good thing, as far as the writing of the character.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

He was just a better-written character and Lofton made him likeable and believable. Plus there were those great scenes between Jake and his dad, which did a lot for Ben Sisko as a character.

 

[Brikar99]

I really enjoyed the sort of inversion of roles with him and Nog - Nog was the one that joined Starfleet, and Jake ended up in a civilian job. I think lesser writers would've taken the more expected road, and had Jake follow in his dad's footsteps.

 

[PSGarak]

He wasn't a Mary Sue. Nobody likes a Mary Sue.

He was a realistically written and depicted kid who had a realistic relationship with his father and those around him. That's rare to see in any fiction, not just Star Trek. Too often, kids are just plot devices, either objects that constantly get into peril to give their parents or other authority figures around them something to rescue and worry about, Mary Sues with all the answers that the stupid adults just don't see, or cutesy scene stealers played strictly for the "awwws".

As for the actor, I think he really grew into the role as time passed, figuratively and literally.

 

[John Picard]

One of the best aspects of DS9 was the characters. They were all extremely well-thought-out and well-written. Heck, even Worf became a decent character when he moved to DS9. The DS9 characters far outshine all the characters in all the other series. Yes, even my beloved TOS.

I have always argued that DS9 was the most realistic of the Trek franchise lines as well as the best written. People have been slow to come around and admit that it is.

Jake was a great character and not some annoying twit, like Wesley.

 

[Jefferies]

Another point that made is character work well was the fact they didn't force him into every episode. Lofton might have been in the opening credits but on the whole he probably had as much screen time as Andrew Robinson. They used his character when it made sense and served the story. As a result his episodes and story arcs tended to be of high quality. Good examples are "The Visitor", "Nor the Battle to the Strong", "Explorers", his relationship with his Dad and Nog and the arc about him becoming a writer and doing something that wasn't connected to Starfleet. They used him to explore issues and storylines that the more traditional Star Trek characters didn't work with. Whereas Wesley was just in your face all the time. I seem to recall that after only half of TNG's first season he had saved the Enterprise more than half a dozen times or something crazy like that.

 

[JarodRussell]

One of the best aspects of DS9 was the characters. They were all extremely well-thought-out and well-written. Heck, even Worf became a decent character when he moved to DS9. The DS9 characters far outshine all the characters in all the other series. Yes, even my beloved TOS.

Exactly!

 

[Shazam!]

Plus unlike Wesley who seemed to only have a few interactions with his Mum

I'd like to have a few interactions with Wesley's mum.

 

[Mr. Scott]

One thing in general I liked the most about DS9 was that it was about different families and relationships. O'Brien's family (well O'Brien was cool, but his wife was a *itch and his daughter was a brat.), Ben Sisko, Grandpa Sisko, and Jake. The Ferengi family of Quark, Nog, Rom, Moogie and Zek. (I loved the Ferengi episodes)

 

[Anwar]

50% Not being written as a Mary Sue

50% Double Standard.

 

[Bacl]

I think the smartest thing they had Jake do was tell his dad he didn't want to be in Starfleet. Instead, he wanted to be a writer. This was a great choice for the character.

Jake was great BECAUSE he wasn't super-smart (or even super neat). We could smile with him as his quarters were a mess and he spent his days dating dabo girls and playing dom-jock (sp?). In the end, Jake was like us, observing the world of Star Trek and dreaming about it. He was a normal guy.

Wesley would have been a more popular character with the fans if he was picked on by kids his own age. If they'd have written Wesley as a nerd, isolated, disliked, alone...then there'd be something more to him. As it was, he was as flat as the kids on Barney.

 

[Damask]

One thing in general I liked the most about DS9 was that it was about different families and relationships. O'Brien's family (well O'Brien was cool, but his wife was a *itch and his daughter was a brat.), Ben Sisko, Grandpa Sisko, and Jake. The Ferengi family of Quark, Nog, Rom, Moogie and Zek. (I loved the Ferengi episodes)

Agreed here. You also had people like Dax and Kasidy being part of the Sisko clan in a way. Even Kira and Bashir became part of the O'Brien clan etc.

I'm wondering if Jake's inability to pilot the runabout in the Jem'Hadar was the exclamation mark the writers were looking for to show that Jake isn't Wes.

 

[RyuRoots]

50% Not being written as a Mary Sue

50% Double Standard.

Because being frustrated by a kid being written as an obnoxious Mary Sue for two seasons (but eventually grew out of it) and liking a kid who was allowed to just be a kid is a double standard.

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