On the one hand, viewers generally wish to view characters that are, to some extent, larger than life. Non-adventures of average people are (by most people) not seen as something that would make an interesting show/movie/book. There is a preference for people who show competence and who get into situations that are non-trivial (outside certain "high art" works that probably aren't popular with the general public, maybe).
On the other hand, generally the audience doesn't want perfect characters either. Characters who know everything, who are the best at everything, who defeat the opposition every time and who are never in the wrong also tend to end up being boring, because it's so predictable.
Succesful shows tend to have an ensemble, in which the spotlight is shared among several characters rather than having one single star who does everything that is meaningful. This is true for every Star Trek show, with the possible, partial exception of Discovery (or parts of it). Even in TOS, Kirk shared the spotlight at least with Spock, and to some extent with McCoy and Scotty.
Prodigy is very much an ensemble show that makes sure none of its protagonists are there as background filler; everyone of the crew gets their moment to shine and it's not limited to a single episode per serie of 10. However, it does seem to me that the ensemble feeling has been strengthened in season 1B, compared to the first 10 episodes (1A) where Dal and Gwyn got a lot of attention, and especially Jankom wasn't developed that much (yet).
As a fan of the character of Gwyn from the first episode one, it seems to me (subjectively) that she was underused during much of season 1B. I'm going to attempt to do a semi-objective analysis (corrections/remarks welcome!) of that, looking at the skills shown and used (or not used) and her general prominence (impact on the ongoing story and/or the outcome of the individual episode).
When introduced, Gwyn was a reluctant villain. From the end of episode 2 till about the middle of episode 5, she acted as the main antagonist for the rest of the crew, simply by value of being on board while Drednok and the Diviner were absent, distant threats for most of that time. As a result, I think they actually may have "overpowered" her a bit relative to the other characters, because they wanted her to be seen as a credible threat to the others even while being a captive and being outnumbered 4-to-1 (and physically dwarfed by Rok).
This made it possible to have a scene in episode 3 where she actually scares the hell out of Dal merely with words, and to have several scenes in episode 4 where she even had her own, menacing musical cue when she was busy taking control of the Protostar.
I suppose partially due to the need to make her a credible threat, the writers gave Gwyn the following as main strengths:
-quick thinking and generally intelligent
-able to communicate clearly and effectively
-uncanny ability (from our POV at least; maybe this is relatively normal for a Vau N'akat) to learn and speak languages
-sufficiently trained in IT/programming to hack her way into the Protostar systems (aided by the earlier Vau N'akat infiltration)
-trained, to some extent, in general starship operation including navigation and probably other relevant systems; this implies she also has been at least introduced to some scientific and mathematic principles
-trained in some form of martial arts
-able to use her heirloom, which includes the ability to command/steer it from a distance of dozens of meters and to change its shape in such a way that she can slice virtually everything she wants (for example, to break out of cuffs)
-also empathic enough to generally be able to say the right thing in a given situation
However, Gwyn is certainly not perfect and her main problems seem to be that she is somewhat naive in general (like for example, how she believes she is competing with Drednok for the Diviner's favour when she is a distant 3rd in the Tars Lamora pecking order, way after Drednok in 2nd) and of course, that she starts on the wrong side and takes a while to admit that. Much like Dal, Gwyn early on also has a tendency to pretend she's stronger and meaner than she really is and she has her pride, which hampers her ability to sweettalk her way out of (strict) captivity (Dal being the same or worse doesn't help either).
In the first 10 episodes, Gwyn is generally front and center.
-Ep 1-2: though here Dal is the focus (and Zero and Rok have their moments) and Gwyn is largely undergoing the plot (both Dal and the Diviner keep her largely unaware of what is going on), her ability with languages, her empathy with characters like the Caitian and her combat ability are highlighted.
-Ep 3: Gwyn's rather formidable retort to Dal allows her to be seen as a menace, even while being a secured captive. It wasn't the best call if she would have wanted to talk her way out of the brig, though. The episode also shows her combat abilities against Rok, this time being strictly defensive. Plotwise, Rok also puts her on the defensive regarding Tars Lamora, and it is Rok who's probably largely to thank for Gwyn opening her eyes to the truth.
-Ep.4: probably the strongest display of her skills in the entire series so far, Gwyn uses the heirloom in a very cool way that hasn't been equalled or surpassed since, hacks the Protostar computer like it's nothing and subsequently resets holo-Janeway. She also quickly realises her father is an illusion (much like Dal also quickly sees through the deception). On the negative side, she lets herself be manipulated by holo-Janeway into a dangerous flight with the shuttle, when she could simply have remained on board and be safe(r).
-Ep.5: a big episode for her story arc, here she puts aside her pride after Dal's initial hostile reception and shows empathy again (calmly explaining things to Rok, ignoring Dal's hostility and taking their stories in while in the Bird-of-Prey), she uses her heirloom in multiple ways and she saves them all when the murder planet attacks under the cover of a projected nightmare. As icing on the cake, she activates the Protodrive despite barely having been on the bridge.
-Ep.6: after being helped through her depression by Zero, she again hacks the systems of the Protostar, this time breaking through a layer put up by the Vau N'akat to hide crucial information about what happened to the ship. Plotwise, she completes her switch from team-Diviner to team-Dal by admitting her part in it.
-Ep.7: her communication skills and general knowledge are put to use to communicate with the aliens; plot-wise, Gwyn is shown getting closer to Dal. On the negative side, she isn't any smarter than the others in realising the whole scheme is a bad idea.
-Ep.8: for the first time, Gwyn isn't quite as competent as in other episodes. She neglects to tell the others about the properties of the nebula, nor does she take action to avoid it. While all the others (but Murf) are doing very useful things in their "bubble" (even Dal manages to build the required warp matrix!), Gwyn fails at her initial task and also fails against Drednok. She manages to kill him with a workaround, but that costs them the completed matrix. On the positive side, she does manage to motivate Rok and to give her decent instruction (with exception of that one last detail: where to put the completed product).
-Ep 9-10: plotwise, those episodes largely resolve around Gwyn as ep 1-2 did around Dal. She is the co-author of the mad plan to thwart the Diviner, together with Rok she manages to give solid upgrades to holo-Janeway, she correctly predicts (some of) the moves of the Diviner and she is again shown as capable to hack computer systems when she is well on her way to lower the shields of the Protostar (with the controls locked by Drednok). Her reaction to the story of the Diviner shows she has the right reaction ("you should talk to them") and empathy for both her people and the Federation. On the negative side, she is easily bested in combat by the Diviner, but given he has better control over the protomatter (and would not be willing to kill him anyway), this is very excusable.
After that, it's season 1B and some things shift:
-other characters more often get to save the day or are otherwise the main spotlight (Zero in ep 12, Jankom in eps 13 and 16, Zero and Rok in ep 17, Zero and Dal in ep.18)
-with her nascent knowledge Rok is now more often explaining things to Gwyn rather than the other way round
-Gwyn's main outstanding ability, her knowledge of languages, - much like she said in ep 6 - plays little to no role during those episodes (with the obvious exception of ep 19) because the universal translator is there and is even better as she makes the occasional mistake while speaking languages "natively" without the aid of the translator
-Gwyn's second outstanding ability, her IT skills, AFAIK go entirely unused and are not referenced from ep 11 up to 19. A bit surprising considering the Living Construct would be motivation to go look at all the systems, especially once they realise holo-Janeway has been compromised. VA Janeway resets her instead.
-Despite her being trained in general starship operations, and probably because she was the last to get a role on the ship due to being a captive originally, Gwyn for the longest time has the most useless station on the bridge:communications. Since there is little need for internal comms (most of the time they are together in one room) and external comms almost always have to be refused, she is virtually "technically unemployed" on the bridge during most of episodes in 1B. Only from ep 18 on is she shown to be monitoring the ships environment, in a role that seems to be closer to the "tactical station" of other shows (though without responsibilty over shields and weapons).
-Though communication is usually a strong point for her, she fails to inform Starfleet of the Construct, but admittedly her reaction to Ascencia may have been the correct one (as Ascencia could have been capable of forcing her to reveal the location of the Protostat, right then and there, if she would have managed to get Gwyn apart)
What remains is her combat ability (but this is only in ep.15 semi-decisive) which sees some use, and the empathy which is developed further in season 1B. However, with Dal as captain and the others taking the specialist roles (engineer+weapon control, science, navigation and medical, security), Gwyn is limited to taking over from Dal as de-facto first officer when he is unable or unwilling to act for some reason.
Ep.11: one episode where Gwyn arguably does have focus, because the weapon and what she knows about it is the center of the plot. Along with Zero, she communicates clearly with Frex. She is shown to be more effective than the others in solving her own problem in sickbay. Earlier she makes mistakes with the whale thing, but this is excusable due to her blackouts (but she shouldn't have been at the controls, if they knew about that).
Ep.12: Like the others, Gwyn is making a dire mistake by not listening to their advisory hologram. She is marginally more effective than the others in combat (I think she could have used her heirloom more creatively than making it into a bat'leth; she can hurl it at her enemies or make it attack them from behind, theoretically) but her temporary escape is also possible thanks to Dal. Walking among the Borg drones shows she can control her fears admirably, and also that she trusts holo-Janeway. It ultimately doesn't help, though. Her speech to Zero was nice but I think Zero deserves the points for refusing the collective.
Ep.13: one of the episodes that shows her in the first officer role, and even briefly more as a commodore overruling Dal ("we came here to help"). Takes over the lead of the mission after Dal gets sick. Credit for solving the problems goes to Rok, Zero and especially Jankom, though.
Ep.14: again briefly overrules Dal when meeting Okona for the first time (Dal is already jealous and wants nothing to do with him). Arguably shows good judgment when running away from Ascencia, though the ideal solution would have been to agree to go to the Dauntless and then talk with other Starfleet personnel (but she couldn't know that). Dal and Okona get the crew off the planet and into the neutral zone, respectively.
Ep.15: in this episode, Gwyn for once looks as competent as in season 1A. She takes the lead from Dal when he is pretty much a no-show and protects the others, with an assist from Rok and the final intervention from Murf. A cool new use of the heirloom. The episode also shows that Gwyn can have fun, and that she is very loyal to Dal by this point (in spite of his antics in this episode). Plotwise, Dal and Murf are having the main developments.
Ep.16: I guess only Jankom really shines in this episode (as the person most responsible for repairing the drive, plus the coolest and most heroic background story), though Gwyn again demonstrates empathy for all of the others and even gets Dal on board with that.
Ep.17: Gwyn mostly trundles along with the others and does not much in this episode (she kinda saves Jankom at one point, I guess?), it's Zero and Rok who get the clues and Zero who finally realises the truth.
Ep.18: Though Gwyn can finally communicate in this episode, and probably does, we're barely shown anything of it and who said what to Janeway remains open. Action-wise, this episode is all Janeway, Dal and Zero.
Ep.19: Probably the first Gwyn-centric episode since ep.11. It's a bit uncharacteristic that Gwyn allows Dal to hide her on the bridge (a move to protect her - Dal is a real gentleman in this episode) while the others face her father, though fortunate given her tactic from ep 5 (putting herself in between Drednok and the others) would not have worked with Ascencia. Loses to Ascencia, but that is no dishonour. Finally has a decent role on the bridge during the evasive manoevres, and there is of course her big moment when the universal translators fail. I wonder who will be captain next, assuming there is still a ship to be captain of. Maybe Dal and Gwyn will share the honours and the responsibility (given that Dal wasn't exactly obeyed without question while being theoretically "undisputed" captain). Storywise, seems to set her up with a big role regarding Solum (present or future).
So, I do think that Gwyn was toned down in S1B (at least up to ep18), in order to improve the ensemble aspect of the show. Zero and Jankom especially profitted from it, and to a lesser extent Rok. I do hope though, that Gwyn's more neglected abilities from S1A are not forgotten or ignored in S2 and that she gets more to do than in most episodes of S1B.
On the other hand, generally the audience doesn't want perfect characters either. Characters who know everything, who are the best at everything, who defeat the opposition every time and who are never in the wrong also tend to end up being boring, because it's so predictable.
Succesful shows tend to have an ensemble, in which the spotlight is shared among several characters rather than having one single star who does everything that is meaningful. This is true for every Star Trek show, with the possible, partial exception of Discovery (or parts of it). Even in TOS, Kirk shared the spotlight at least with Spock, and to some extent with McCoy and Scotty.
Prodigy is very much an ensemble show that makes sure none of its protagonists are there as background filler; everyone of the crew gets their moment to shine and it's not limited to a single episode per serie of 10. However, it does seem to me that the ensemble feeling has been strengthened in season 1B, compared to the first 10 episodes (1A) where Dal and Gwyn got a lot of attention, and especially Jankom wasn't developed that much (yet).
As a fan of the character of Gwyn from the first episode one, it seems to me (subjectively) that she was underused during much of season 1B. I'm going to attempt to do a semi-objective analysis (corrections/remarks welcome!) of that, looking at the skills shown and used (or not used) and her general prominence (impact on the ongoing story and/or the outcome of the individual episode).
When introduced, Gwyn was a reluctant villain. From the end of episode 2 till about the middle of episode 5, she acted as the main antagonist for the rest of the crew, simply by value of being on board while Drednok and the Diviner were absent, distant threats for most of that time. As a result, I think they actually may have "overpowered" her a bit relative to the other characters, because they wanted her to be seen as a credible threat to the others even while being a captive and being outnumbered 4-to-1 (and physically dwarfed by Rok).
This made it possible to have a scene in episode 3 where she actually scares the hell out of Dal merely with words, and to have several scenes in episode 4 where she even had her own, menacing musical cue when she was busy taking control of the Protostar.
I suppose partially due to the need to make her a credible threat, the writers gave Gwyn the following as main strengths:
-quick thinking and generally intelligent
-able to communicate clearly and effectively
-uncanny ability (from our POV at least; maybe this is relatively normal for a Vau N'akat) to learn and speak languages
-sufficiently trained in IT/programming to hack her way into the Protostar systems (aided by the earlier Vau N'akat infiltration)
-trained, to some extent, in general starship operation including navigation and probably other relevant systems; this implies she also has been at least introduced to some scientific and mathematic principles
-trained in some form of martial arts
-able to use her heirloom, which includes the ability to command/steer it from a distance of dozens of meters and to change its shape in such a way that she can slice virtually everything she wants (for example, to break out of cuffs)
-also empathic enough to generally be able to say the right thing in a given situation
However, Gwyn is certainly not perfect and her main problems seem to be that she is somewhat naive in general (like for example, how she believes she is competing with Drednok for the Diviner's favour when she is a distant 3rd in the Tars Lamora pecking order, way after Drednok in 2nd) and of course, that she starts on the wrong side and takes a while to admit that. Much like Dal, Gwyn early on also has a tendency to pretend she's stronger and meaner than she really is and she has her pride, which hampers her ability to sweettalk her way out of (strict) captivity (Dal being the same or worse doesn't help either).
In the first 10 episodes, Gwyn is generally front and center.
-Ep 1-2: though here Dal is the focus (and Zero and Rok have their moments) and Gwyn is largely undergoing the plot (both Dal and the Diviner keep her largely unaware of what is going on), her ability with languages, her empathy with characters like the Caitian and her combat ability are highlighted.
-Ep 3: Gwyn's rather formidable retort to Dal allows her to be seen as a menace, even while being a secured captive. It wasn't the best call if she would have wanted to talk her way out of the brig, though. The episode also shows her combat abilities against Rok, this time being strictly defensive. Plotwise, Rok also puts her on the defensive regarding Tars Lamora, and it is Rok who's probably largely to thank for Gwyn opening her eyes to the truth.
-Ep.4: probably the strongest display of her skills in the entire series so far, Gwyn uses the heirloom in a very cool way that hasn't been equalled or surpassed since, hacks the Protostar computer like it's nothing and subsequently resets holo-Janeway. She also quickly realises her father is an illusion (much like Dal also quickly sees through the deception). On the negative side, she lets herself be manipulated by holo-Janeway into a dangerous flight with the shuttle, when she could simply have remained on board and be safe(r).
-Ep.5: a big episode for her story arc, here she puts aside her pride after Dal's initial hostile reception and shows empathy again (calmly explaining things to Rok, ignoring Dal's hostility and taking their stories in while in the Bird-of-Prey), she uses her heirloom in multiple ways and she saves them all when the murder planet attacks under the cover of a projected nightmare. As icing on the cake, she activates the Protodrive despite barely having been on the bridge.
-Ep.6: after being helped through her depression by Zero, she again hacks the systems of the Protostar, this time breaking through a layer put up by the Vau N'akat to hide crucial information about what happened to the ship. Plotwise, she completes her switch from team-Diviner to team-Dal by admitting her part in it.
-Ep.7: her communication skills and general knowledge are put to use to communicate with the aliens; plot-wise, Gwyn is shown getting closer to Dal. On the negative side, she isn't any smarter than the others in realising the whole scheme is a bad idea.
-Ep.8: for the first time, Gwyn isn't quite as competent as in other episodes. She neglects to tell the others about the properties of the nebula, nor does she take action to avoid it. While all the others (but Murf) are doing very useful things in their "bubble" (even Dal manages to build the required warp matrix!), Gwyn fails at her initial task and also fails against Drednok. She manages to kill him with a workaround, but that costs them the completed matrix. On the positive side, she does manage to motivate Rok and to give her decent instruction (with exception of that one last detail: where to put the completed product).
-Ep 9-10: plotwise, those episodes largely resolve around Gwyn as ep 1-2 did around Dal. She is the co-author of the mad plan to thwart the Diviner, together with Rok she manages to give solid upgrades to holo-Janeway, she correctly predicts (some of) the moves of the Diviner and she is again shown as capable to hack computer systems when she is well on her way to lower the shields of the Protostar (with the controls locked by Drednok). Her reaction to the story of the Diviner shows she has the right reaction ("you should talk to them") and empathy for both her people and the Federation. On the negative side, she is easily bested in combat by the Diviner, but given he has better control over the protomatter (and would not be willing to kill him anyway), this is very excusable.
After that, it's season 1B and some things shift:
-other characters more often get to save the day or are otherwise the main spotlight (Zero in ep 12, Jankom in eps 13 and 16, Zero and Rok in ep 17, Zero and Dal in ep.18)
-with her nascent knowledge Rok is now more often explaining things to Gwyn rather than the other way round
-Gwyn's main outstanding ability, her knowledge of languages, - much like she said in ep 6 - plays little to no role during those episodes (with the obvious exception of ep 19) because the universal translator is there and is even better as she makes the occasional mistake while speaking languages "natively" without the aid of the translator
-Gwyn's second outstanding ability, her IT skills, AFAIK go entirely unused and are not referenced from ep 11 up to 19. A bit surprising considering the Living Construct would be motivation to go look at all the systems, especially once they realise holo-Janeway has been compromised. VA Janeway resets her instead.
-Despite her being trained in general starship operations, and probably because she was the last to get a role on the ship due to being a captive originally, Gwyn for the longest time has the most useless station on the bridge:communications. Since there is little need for internal comms (most of the time they are together in one room) and external comms almost always have to be refused, she is virtually "technically unemployed" on the bridge during most of episodes in 1B. Only from ep 18 on is she shown to be monitoring the ships environment, in a role that seems to be closer to the "tactical station" of other shows (though without responsibilty over shields and weapons).
-Though communication is usually a strong point for her, she fails to inform Starfleet of the Construct, but admittedly her reaction to Ascencia may have been the correct one (as Ascencia could have been capable of forcing her to reveal the location of the Protostat, right then and there, if she would have managed to get Gwyn apart)
What remains is her combat ability (but this is only in ep.15 semi-decisive) which sees some use, and the empathy which is developed further in season 1B. However, with Dal as captain and the others taking the specialist roles (engineer+weapon control, science, navigation and medical, security), Gwyn is limited to taking over from Dal as de-facto first officer when he is unable or unwilling to act for some reason.
Ep.11: one episode where Gwyn arguably does have focus, because the weapon and what she knows about it is the center of the plot. Along with Zero, she communicates clearly with Frex. She is shown to be more effective than the others in solving her own problem in sickbay. Earlier she makes mistakes with the whale thing, but this is excusable due to her blackouts (but she shouldn't have been at the controls, if they knew about that).
Ep.12: Like the others, Gwyn is making a dire mistake by not listening to their advisory hologram. She is marginally more effective than the others in combat (I think she could have used her heirloom more creatively than making it into a bat'leth; she can hurl it at her enemies or make it attack them from behind, theoretically) but her temporary escape is also possible thanks to Dal. Walking among the Borg drones shows she can control her fears admirably, and also that she trusts holo-Janeway. It ultimately doesn't help, though. Her speech to Zero was nice but I think Zero deserves the points for refusing the collective.
Ep.13: one of the episodes that shows her in the first officer role, and even briefly more as a commodore overruling Dal ("we came here to help"). Takes over the lead of the mission after Dal gets sick. Credit for solving the problems goes to Rok, Zero and especially Jankom, though.
Ep.14: again briefly overrules Dal when meeting Okona for the first time (Dal is already jealous and wants nothing to do with him). Arguably shows good judgment when running away from Ascencia, though the ideal solution would have been to agree to go to the Dauntless and then talk with other Starfleet personnel (but she couldn't know that). Dal and Okona get the crew off the planet and into the neutral zone, respectively.
Ep.15: in this episode, Gwyn for once looks as competent as in season 1A. She takes the lead from Dal when he is pretty much a no-show and protects the others, with an assist from Rok and the final intervention from Murf. A cool new use of the heirloom. The episode also shows that Gwyn can have fun, and that she is very loyal to Dal by this point (in spite of his antics in this episode). Plotwise, Dal and Murf are having the main developments.
Ep.16: I guess only Jankom really shines in this episode (as the person most responsible for repairing the drive, plus the coolest and most heroic background story), though Gwyn again demonstrates empathy for all of the others and even gets Dal on board with that.
Ep.17: Gwyn mostly trundles along with the others and does not much in this episode (she kinda saves Jankom at one point, I guess?), it's Zero and Rok who get the clues and Zero who finally realises the truth.
Ep.18: Though Gwyn can finally communicate in this episode, and probably does, we're barely shown anything of it and who said what to Janeway remains open. Action-wise, this episode is all Janeway, Dal and Zero.
Ep.19: Probably the first Gwyn-centric episode since ep.11. It's a bit uncharacteristic that Gwyn allows Dal to hide her on the bridge (a move to protect her - Dal is a real gentleman in this episode) while the others face her father, though fortunate given her tactic from ep 5 (putting herself in between Drednok and the others) would not have worked with Ascencia. Loses to Ascencia, but that is no dishonour. Finally has a decent role on the bridge during the evasive manoevres, and there is of course her big moment when the universal translators fail. I wonder who will be captain next, assuming there is still a ship to be captain of. Maybe Dal and Gwyn will share the honours and the responsibility (given that Dal wasn't exactly obeyed without question while being theoretically "undisputed" captain). Storywise, seems to set her up with a big role regarding Solum (present or future).
So, I do think that Gwyn was toned down in S1B (at least up to ep18), in order to improve the ensemble aspect of the show. Zero and Jankom especially profitted from it, and to a lesser extent Rok. I do hope though, that Gwyn's more neglected abilities from S1A are not forgotten or ignored in S2 and that she gets more to do than in most episodes of S1B.
