Lets kill Wesley
- Thread starter topcat
- Start date
"accidentally"... at least that's what Geordi wrote on his official report.
The Traveller tires of his whining and "forgets" to teach Wesley the most important part of safe personal supra-luminal travel. Sadly Wesley's genetic material spurs the evolutionary process of a nearby planet, and 4 million years later an entire race of Wesley Crushers is born.
Kate had a wide skill set, but no wider than Locke who didn't do any more to earn it. He could hunt boar because he studied for a walkabout while paralyzed. And she screwed up the most out of the long term survivors.
We never saw any hint raising a child was easy for her and Jack lived with her for the first two years. She lost track of him at a supermarket. The only character who really bled at all in the show without dying is Sawyer. Most of the cast barely bled. And Juliette had Other training and was no more competent than the other Others.
Sawyer is he only character in the show, male or female who didn't barely bleed.
@StephonIT
I think your reaction to Kate exemplifies why characters like Wesley evoke such extreme negative reactions. TNG and Lost are both shows where the entire cast is super competent with extremely wide unrelated skill sets and the ability to bloodlessly and gracefully execute those skills. But it only bothers people for women and kids, not for the men. Locke is allowed to magically be able to track animals and predict the rain with little hunting experience, because Locke is male, Kate isn't. Wesley would have been equally hated as an adult female.
I think your reaction to Kate exemplifies why characters like Wesley evoke such extreme negative reactions. TNG and Lost are both shows where the entire cast is super competent with extremely wide unrelated skill sets and the ability to bloodlessly and gracefully execute those skills. But it only bothers people for women and kids, not for the men. Locke is allowed to magically be able to track animals and predict the rain with little hunting experience, because Locke is male, Kate isn't. Wesley would have been equally hated as an adult female.
I liked how Wesley was handled becoming a companion to the traveller. It was an inventive way of getting rid of the character without killing him off.
He did become a well rounded character after he left as a cast member and returned for guest starring episodes.
Ashley Judd's character I thought was a nice counterpart for Wesley; I felt she should've returned to more episodes with him.
I have no difficulty believing in hypercompetent characters. I know a guy who was a Marine, then taught two disparate subjects (Chemistry and Psychology) to high schoolers, and built a 4 bedroom house basically on his own while managing a farm, and any time he joins a new organization he ends up running it (which was a lot easier after he retired - at 53.)
How good was Welsey as a pilot and a computer geek?
I didn't want to see Wesley killed or anything, but if he had to go I thought it would have been a good idea to have Hugh the Borg kill him. Since it was Beverly who was so against using Hugh to destroy the Borg. Or just any Borg killing him at a later date would have worked I guess. Just to see if Beverly would still be so compassionate towards the Borg.
I disagree with a lot of what's been said about Lost... a ton of the characters "bleed" in the story. Most of them are seriously injured at some point or another. And certainly not all of them were skilled.
I wouldn't say Kate was infallible but a lot of her character is hard to believe, and she also felt invincible compared to other characters due to her importance in love triangles. I'd put Kate into a different category than Wesley / Rey, because instead of being infallible she's just sort of annoying. I wish the writers of Lost had used Kate to her full potential but her motivations became really thin after the Oceanic Six plot line.
This isn't really a good comparison, because Locke is nothing like Wesley. Locke had deep character flaws. This was a part of his character from the very first episode when he hunts the first boar and we're shown his troubled past. A lot of Locke's choices turn out badly for himself throughout the course of the series, he's not perfect. Meanwhile his "magic skills" are explored by the show with his connection to the island and they aren't guaranteed to always work. The difference is as clear as day and has nothing to do with gender.
On topic, personally I don't think there's a way for the writers to kill Wesley without it being a huge depressing moment. He's supposed to represent like.. the future of Starfleet or something. If he dies then a lot of the main characters would be seriously troubled by it. I don't think the writers could have smoothly pulled it off.
I wouldn't say Kate was infallible but a lot of her character is hard to believe, and she also felt invincible compared to other characters due to her importance in love triangles. I'd put Kate into a different category than Wesley / Rey, because instead of being infallible she's just sort of annoying. I wish the writers of Lost had used Kate to her full potential but her motivations became really thin after the Oceanic Six plot line.
This isn't really a good comparison, because Locke is nothing like Wesley. Locke had deep character flaws. This was a part of his character from the very first episode when he hunts the first boar and we're shown his troubled past. A lot of Locke's choices turn out badly for himself throughout the course of the series, he's not perfect. Meanwhile his "magic skills" are explored by the show with his connection to the island and they aren't guaranteed to always work. The difference is as clear as day and has nothing to do with gender.
On topic, personally I don't think there's a way for the writers to kill Wesley without it being a huge depressing moment. He's supposed to represent like.. the future of Starfleet or something. If he dies then a lot of the main characters would be seriously troubled by it. I don't think the writers could have smoothly pulled it off.
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