Not even close. Jake is not some wunderkind genius who can do no wrong. He comes across like a pretty typical kid his age, and unlike Wesley, he is never shoehorned into episodes just to show off how great and wonderful he is. His relationship both with his dad and Nog comes across as natural, not without conflict, and a nice dose of, well, normalcy amid all of the heavier drama or space anomaly of the week happenings.
Jake was great because the writers never mistook him for a major character. Plenty of shows would have eventually felt they needed to give him some big storyline, but DS9 never gave him more than the odd episode and minor storyline. Instead of seeing some dull love story or 'Jake joins Starfleet' or whatever they realized he works best mainly as Sisko's son, so we get a look what a pretty average kid might be doing in the Trek universe. Just part of what made DS9 feel a little more realistic than other Trek shows.
Jake is often defended by attacking Wesley. Both characters had their highs and lows. I quite liked Jake during the first three seasons. He was a very believable 14 year old. Sometimes the way Cirroc Lofton played him in the later seasons seemed a little superficial and smug and annoying but the character's relationship with his father remained the heart and soul of DS9.
I mean, you're very welcome to your wrong opinion about Jake Sisko. But your comment about the traits you perceive as negative being more believable if he was a girl really makes me feel sorry for the women in your life.
I don't mind him. He's pretty decent, nothing special about him to make him one of my favorite characters but nothing that bad to make him piss me off
I liked most of the kids and teens in the shows. Got to see the future thru young eyes. I liked Jake, Nog, Molly (a favorite), and the baby (can't spell the name) but kids add a lot to the shows I think. Naomi on Voyager was pretty good too. Didn't go for the borg kids though. I liked Wesley sometimes. I enjoy him as an adult when he was on Big Bang Theory and Eureka (loved him on Eureka) he still looks young but he is pretty funny. I enjoy thinking of how he was on Next Generation. Well, that is how I feel about the Trek Kids.
My biggest complaint about Jake is how painfully naive he is. Two main examples stick out. His writing an anti dominion column while on dominion occupied DS9, and his begging for a doctor to the woman who shot Mirror Sisko. Jake even by federation standards seems to have had a very sheltered upbringing, and it seems like he can’t comprehend both the hard realities of how the universe works(the dominion and column) and the fact that some people are just evil-like Intendant Kira.
Jaysus—even I’m surprised at how cold the Intendant is, and I’ve seen her kill Nog, Brunt, Quark...several times. Jennifer is still good. The Intendant looks just like Kira— can’t really blame Jake for hoping there’s something of her still in there after his mom is SHOT. Cut the guy some slack.
Well, I actually agree that Jake could be a bit naive, but perhaps optimistic would be the better word choice?
To me Jake (and Alexander) and his relationships to others felt the most real of any kids on the shows
Aside from the occasional guest star, nearly all humans in Trek are Starfleet officers, or aspiring to be so. It's refreshing to see someone who's path didn't lie in that direction. He's more like the vast majority of us. Watching Jake and Nog together especially seemed one of the more realistic friendship portrayals of the series. Watching them drift from best friends to simply a friend or friendly as Nog headed toward Starfleet and Jake away from it seemed so... relatable.
Because he's a kid at the start? Kids are frankly naïve in general. This was an honest portrayal. Unlike a certain TNG "know it all" character.
Why would you want to think that? I prided myself on being worldly-wise, and not being taken advantage of(and whenever I was, I was ashamed). But cynicism has been an aspect of my personality, oh since middle school.