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Jake Sisko - Completely Unlikeable

Revolutionaries fail more often than they succeed. And I think sometimes we forget the awesome power of the modern state and its apparatus. The dominion certainly qualifies.

Sometimes once can profit from being a "doormat." It isn't the most honorable of things but sometimes self preservation overrides principle. It is an eternal fact of human existence.

"I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other". Harriet Tubman
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/harriet_tubman.html
 
I really liked the Jake character. He represents one of the strengths of the show by having a character defy what people most likely expected, going into the show and that he would grow up to be a proper Starfleet character. Another thing is he more than anyone else on the show had the best chemistry with Sisko. You can tell the actors in reality must care about each other and they felt like the most realistic father/son relationship in all of Trek.

Jason

Nowhere was this apparent than in the offscreen relationship Cirroc had with Avery, which was like a kind of mentorship if I remember what I'd read about it someplace.

The one episode where Jake's absence jumps out at me every time is "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang." The one big last family caper before the final arc and he's MIA. It's weird, he would have fit in the action perfectly.

Maybe the writers felt that Jake would be out of place in that episode.
 
I don't hate Jake, he had his place in the series.
But sometimes I do find him a bit dull.
 
Post-season 3, I found Jake Sisko outstandingly annoying and rather unlikeable as a human being. To the point that it almost defies belief that Captain Sisko, caring as he was, wouldn't have disowned him as a son. (Ok, that's hyperbole.)

Some characters are meant to be unlikeable, of course. But I don't the writers intended Jake to be such a twerp. I hate to say this too, but he couldn't have been so unlikeable without Cirroc Lofton being a bona fide terrible actor too.

I love DS9. Have watched the whole series probably 5 times.

Anyone else despise Jake Sisko? :-)

SPIN
Totally agree. The whole investigative reporter angle was just forced to give the character something to do.
 
I was being sarcastic. They did set him up as interested in writing seasons earlier. (I believe it goes back all the way to season 2.)
 
I got a degree in English Writing and I work at a bank doing mostly spreadsheet and computer application work all day (I'm a Business Analyst). I suppose I get to use my English skills when composing sensitive emails...
 
Something that is interesting is that three of the most iconic episodes, The Visitor, Far Beyond the Stars, and Pale Moonlight all originated as Jake vehicles.

An episode idea originating as a Jake story and ending up without him even in it seems to have happened a lot. The "Honor Among Thieves" Memory Alpha entry describes the same thing.

That's clearly where "The Muse" went wrong. They just didn't reach the realization that they needed to turn that alien brain vampire deal into a female buddy adventure for Jadzia or whatever.

Maybe it would have worked better if they had already set up seasons earlier that he was interested in writing.

Ha! As much as I wondered "if the writers have lost interest in Jake this completely, why is he still here?", I always thought his continuing presence on the station was so well-justified from a story standpoint. The reporter thing was inspired.
 
That's clearly where "The Muse" went wrong. They just didn't reach the realization that they needed to turn that alien brain vampire deal into a female buddy adventure for Jadzia or whatever.
Isn't it an unwritten rule that the more sophisticated a story becomes or the more expectations placed on it, the more producers will look to more senior and popular episodes to carry it?
 
I never found Jake unlikable. In some cases I found him a little bit of a narrative third wheel. They made a good character decision giving him no interest in Starfleet, but in the same move, that made it difficult for him to really be part of most of the episodes without being a tagalong. Also unlike Quark, due to his personality he couldn't really be a narrative agent as a tagalong either. He doesn't cause things to happen, things happen to him and he reflects.

The writers occasionally made it work like with Nor The Battle To The Strong, but you can't have Jake tag along and reflect on stuff that happens too often without wearing out its welcome.
 
I never found Jake unlikable. In some cases I found him a little bit of a narrative third wheel. They made a good character decision giving him no interest in Starfleet, but in the same move, that made it difficult for him to really be part of most of the episodes without being a tagalong. Also unlike Quark, due to his personality he couldn't really be a narrative agent as a tagalong either. He doesn't cause things to happen, things happen to him and he reflects.

The writers occasionally made it work like with Nor The Battle To The Strong, but you can't have Jake tag along and reflect on stuff that happens too often without wearing out its welcome.

I think that was one of the reasons in the early seasons he worked as a engineer. They wanted him to have a job and function but I think they gave him that job before they established his interest as a writer. Maybe they should have allowed to stay in that job while also trying to learn about writing. Better yet why allow him to work at Quarks like he even suggested once. Instead of a bunch of no name extras as bartenders you could always have around when characters are at the bar. PLus it would be a fun twist to have the human working for Quark and the Ferengi Rom working with Starfleet.

Jason
 
I was being sarcastic. They did set him up as interested in writing seasons earlier. (I believe it goes back all the way to season 2.)

I think it was late season 3 (explorers) that he started having the interest in writing.
 
I think it was late season 3 (explorers) that he started having the interest in writing.
My bad, you're right. Season 3. Although he was already writing poetry in early season 3 (The Abandoned). Even though that may have been only to impress Mardah it still counts. ;)
 
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