Am I the only one who likes wesley?

[WesleysDisciple]

I wont kid you, I liked wesley crusher.

Im not sure how much of that, was because I was maybe 11 or so when I started watching the show and enjoyed seeing a charachter who was closer to my age, dealing with issues involving control by gronwups etc, and proving himself smarter then them all.

 

[Lance]

I've long had a theory about Wesley and TNG. That it was really supposed to be 'his' journey. The series begins with him being something of an audience identification figure, with plots revolving around his rise through the ranks, his first ever 'official' away mission, etc. And one of the last episodes in the very last season is all about him leaving Starfleet, giving a nicely circular sense to his story.

I mean, TNG was always an 'ensemble' drama. But like him or not, Wesley clearly was always supposed to be a 'focus' character, and he is exactly that. A focus. Particularly in the early seasons.

(Does it sound like I'm trying very hard to find nice things to say about him? )

 

[heavy lids]

I'll admit that I once shit on Wesley every chance I could. These days, I don't find him so annoying. If you think about it, Wesley probably had the best possible environment to mature in, despite not having his biological father. However, you couldn't ask for better male role models than Picard and Riker.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

I always liked Wesley because I was the parent of a precocious daughter not much younger than Wes. I could identify with both Wes and Beverly from my observant father's perch.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I started watching TNG about the same age as you and I liked Wesley.

Now I still don't find him annoying except I think he should have been a little more like Jake. Not that he couldn't have been a boy genius, but he could have been a boy genius without acting like a Full House character. Maybe, a little less irritatingly nervous around girls, maybe making a few more mistakes that didn't revolve around science experiments.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Hijinks, he needed to have hijinks.

 

[jimbotron]

Early Wesley was pretty awful. Being given Gene's middle name, and the kid being a genius, it was obvious it was an ego thing for Gene. Once Gene took a backseat in the writing, Wesley became likable.

Season 3 onward, he became a much better character. A great start to season 3 showed that he was just as infallible as the next guy. He was good all the way up to his departure, and his occasional visit. He was great in The First Duty. Journey's End, though, what an ass.

 

[Lance]

Retrospective Wesley love is helped by Wil Weaton being adopted as a geek icon of late, too. The Big Bang Theory has helped us all appreciate him a little better.

 

[Relayer1]

The character is awful - that's no reflection on Will Wheaton who I find quite likeable.

The fault is all Gene's...

 

[Captain McBain]

Young Wes is sort of annoying, but older Wesley isn't bad.

 

[Jeyl]

I must admit, if I played a part in the story that no one liked and later found out that I was essentially being used as a Mary Sue, I would kind of feel violated. Wes feels less like a character and more like some guy's self-indulging fantasy who thinks he can do no wrong. Plus, Wesley was once planned to be a girl for reasons I can totally relate to (How many promising sons are there in fiction?). Unfortunately Gene said no because dang it, Wesley ain't a girl's name!

But despite that, I can understand how Wesley can appeal to others, so to each their own. Just be thankful that Picard didn't end up becoming his twist ending father.

 

[Dream]

Just be thankful that Picard didn't end up becoming his twist ending father.

That twist would have completely destroyed Picard as a character!

 

[FreddyE]

I don´t get all the Wesley-hate. I love him! Yes, he was written pretty cheesy at times, and maybe a bit less of "wizz-kid" would have been good...but I still like him.

 

[Lance]

Wesley was once planned to be a girl for reasons I can totally relate to (How many promising sons are there in fiction?). Unfortunately Gene said no because dang it, Wesley ain't a girl's name!

I think it was Bob Justman who lobbied for Wesley to be a girl, because he felt that television hadn't really done much to explore "mom and daughter" stories, and that it'd make for an interesting dynamic change. The early casting sheet for the series, as well as at least one story outline of "Encounter At Farpoint" by D.C. Fontana, made the assumption of the cast containing a 'Lesley Crusher'. But as we all know, Wesley as a boy won out.

I agree, it's a shame. "Smart whizz-kid boy" is such a cliched trope in fiction it would have been far more interesting to have seen TNG do it with a girl instead.

 

[Trekker4747]

I liked him probably after the second season when he wasn't in a goofy-eyed doofus in ridiculous sweaters, when they had toned down him and his "genius" and saving/imperiling the ship every other week. When they treated him as a more "normal" person it worked a lot better for me.

 

[erastus25]

I've long had a theory about Wesley and TNG. That it was really supposed to be 'his' journey. The series begins with him being something of an audience identification figure, with plots revolving around his rise through the ranks, his first ever 'official' away mission, etc. And one of the last episodes in the very last season is all about him leaving Starfleet, giving a nicely circular sense to his story.

I mean, TNG was always an 'ensemble' drama. But like him or not, Wesley clearly was always supposed to be a 'focus' character, and he is exactly that. A focus. Particularly in the early seasons.

(Does it sound like I'm trying very hard to find nice things to say about him? )

I agree that S1 was the Picard and Wesley show. And I'll admit that I actually kind of liked it!

But, unlike others, I would have enjoyed the "Picard is Wes' dad" plot that they seemed to possibly be setting up in S1. Anything to make characters look like real people and not perfected caricatures of reality.

 

[Jeyl]

But, unlike others, I would have enjoyed the "Picard is Wes' dad" plot that they seemed to possibly be setting up in S1. Anything to make characters look like real people and not perfected caricatures of reality.

Oh, wait a second. There's real people, and than there's THE WORST PERSON IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE. If Picard was in fact Wesley's Dad, this would mean that Picard had done a lot of unforgivable things that only a person with absolutely no positive attributes would commit. It also wouldn't help the fact that,

A. Beverly had not only cheated on her husband, but also lied to him that Wesley was indeed their son.

B. Picard took no measures to make sure this was just a one night fling and instead chose to go all out on this encounter, despite the fact that she was married to an officer under his command.

C. Picard was the one who sent Mr. Crusher on the away mission that resulted in his death. Not to get him out of the way, but when you consider the fact that Picard had knocked his wife up, been lied to that Wesley was his child, and was sent to his death by the real father who will no doubt get your wife for real, you are the unluckiest person in the whole franchise.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I wont kid you, I liked wesley crusher.

Im not sure how much of that, was because I was maybe 11 or so when I started watching the show and enjoyed seeing a charachter who was closer to my age, dealing with issues involving control by gronwups etc, and proving himself smarter then them all.

No, my music teacher in high school loved him. She had several black-and-white pictures of Wil Wheton in her classroom.

It's only all these years later I look back and see how weird and inappropriate that was.

 

[Mirror Sulu]

I've liked Wil Wheaton since Stand By Me, yet I hate Wesley. When I see Wheaton outside of Trek, I'm able to divorce Wesley from the equation and view the two as completely separate entities.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I like that Wesley was a whiz kid but I wish he'd had a more believable social life for a teenager.

Like, he really had no idea why some people used drugs? I've never used a drug stronger than alcohol but it certainly does not bewilder me that other people want to. And if 24th century anti-drug programs are anything like DARE he probably secretly programmed the replicator to produce it the day after.

And then his attitude toward girls, like in Justice, he really made no effort to get laid?

He seemed like a kid from a show like Full House, except a genius.

If he'd been more like a genius version of Jake, I'd have liked him a lot better.