I always saw Wesley as having two automatic strikes against him, even before actually doing anything. He was a teenage male, and he was a Know-It-All. For those reasons, I always cut him some slack - I was there once, after all.
Actually, reminds me of a funny story. I am a major enthusiast of table-top role-playing games (Dungeons & Dragons, Traveller, 7th Sea, etc.). At a gaming convention many years back somebody ran several sessions of a Star Trek role-play, with all of the Characters being lifted directly from TNG.
Unfortunately for the person running this event, absolutely none of the groups who signed up were interested in the planned scenario. Every session was a '
Let's-All-Kill-Wesley' fest right from the start. Incarnations of Mr Crusher were blasted out torpedo tubes, met horrific transporter accidents, burned alive in warp-core "malfunctions", electrocuted by sabotaged consoles, subjected to medical experimentation, trapped in Holodeck scenarios with ALL safeties removed, etc., etc., etc.. Those unfortunates who randomly drew the Wesley character for play never had a chance.
The longest surviving "Wesley" got as far as hot-wiring a Shuttle for escape - before "Worf" got him.
The person who organized and ran this event was seriously freaked out, from all accounts, though I understand it is untrue that he was found crying and curled in a fetal position, on the last day of the convention.
