Wesley Crusher... am I the only one not annoyed by him?

[UnknownSample]

He's a bit "loping", a bit awkward, a bit heart-on-his-sleeve, vulnerable. A lot of us were like that, but to the rest, there was some compulsion felt to lay into this kind of teenager. We respect the wrong qualities generally, I think. Toughness is admired, exhibiting human vulnerability is a weakness.

Some people wanted him to be a "typical teenager". Holy crap, I didn't. Wesley isn't my favorite character, but there can't be any more obnoxious age/social group than "typical teenagers".

 

[Capn Nick]

Personally, I just didn't like him because he was a kid. I had nothing against Wil Wheaton exactly (though he does have a painful whine voice). I was a kid when TNG was on, so if you want to ascribe a psychological aspect, it's probably because I didn't want to be reminded I was a kid. I wanted to be like Riker and Picard. Not like some child. I don't really understand the kids will identify with kids thing in shows. All my heroes as a child, real and in fiction, were grown adults. When I played Cowboy games I didn't imagine myself as a child cowboy but as an adult cowboy. Anyway, for me it had less to do with anything he did wrong as an actor and more to do with that he brought a Saved By the Bell aspect to a show I took really seriously.

 

[JesterFace]

From season 3 onwards, are there really any reasons to hate Wesley...

Its been a long time since I watched seasons 1 & 2 (apart from few episodes) and after those he hasn't been annoying.

 

[VulcanMindBlown]

Could Trek have a child character without most of the fans getting annoyed at him or her?

 

[DigificWriter]

I've always liked Wesley, even in the early seasons, with my favorite early focus episodes for him being When the Bough Breaks and Coming of Age.

 

[Seven of Five]

Could Trek have a child character without most of the fans getting annoyed at him or her?

It all depends on the writing. Wesley was poorly conceived and was awful at first, and that is a pretty bad first impression to shake. Coming of Age was certainly a turning point, and I would say by season two he was more tolerable.

I loved Alexander in Reunion, but when they recast him and had him recurring, he became very annoying. Up there with Lwaxana Troi and Zek as one of the most annoying characters in Trek of all time. Easily worse than Wesley.

I liked Jake Sisko and Nog when they were young, but Jake was left in the shade as a character by Nog. He spent long periods not even appearing and no one really noticed.

Molly O'Brien was cute as a button, but I suppose she didn't have a huge role.

Naomi Wildman varied. Essentially, I thought her relationship with Seven was intriguing, being as in some ways Seven was childlike herself. Some of their scenes together were a bit cloying. Of the Borg kids, I only remember Icheb being interesting.

So yeah, kids are only as good as the writing at the time, but that goes for any character really.

 

[Dilandu]

Well, I never was particulary annoyed by poor Wesley... IMHO, his character just haven't got enough development in later seasons, and the development he eventually got were jerky and not well-shown. He MAY became an interesting character, but it seems that this opportunity was missed.

 

[JayTheTrekkie]

I didn't care much for him at first during the first 3 seasons but started to get use to him by season 4

 

[jgalley]

It was so long ago that I don't quite remember how much I liked or disliked Wesley as I was watching as each show came out. But he certainly get's more hate then is deserved.

He suffers from the same brainless hatred (not from everyone but from most) that Hayden get's for his portrayal of Anakin in Star Wars. While Hayden was nowhere on the caliber of Ewan et al, he's not even half as bad an actor as people portray him to be.

Wesley's problem was the direction and dialogue given, NOT the fault of Wheaton's. Another example of this is Jeremy Irons...Go watch the first Dungeons and Dragons movie that he's the antagonist in. Irons is a GREAT actor, yet his role and lines in the movie are some of the worst I've ever seen in a movie. Esp in the "and their blood shall rain from the sky" scene. Absolutely horrific. And if you see the "behind the scenes" of that you can see Irons deliver that line and then the scene cuts, and as it does a total and utter look of disgust immediately washes across the actors face.

My point being, bringing those up, (again) is it's a shame there are far too many people that blame Wheaton for how bad Wesley was when it most likely wasn't his fault, but the fault of the dialogue, script, and director(s).

 

[TheAdmiralty]

I don't really have a problem with Wesley either. He was a little annoying and a bit of a Gary Stu in the early episodes but was okay for most of his run on the show.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

I started rewatching TNG this year and I expected to find Wesley super annoying because...well, he's just annoying! Right? It had been a long time since I'd consistently watched TNG, so that was my expectation. But I ended up quite liking his character. He gets under my skin only occasionally, like how he sometimes talks down to people, or even borderline bullying stuff like the "Broccoli" thing. But in general I liked him and I didn't find him nearly as annoying as people say he is. In particular I loved his character portrayal in "Final Mission." I prefer seeing Wesley find his courage. We already know he's smart, and I do like that he solves the fountain problem by himself. But I love the scenes he has with Picard in "Final Mission." Really made me think we were losing something by Wesley departing.

 

[StarLore]

I never minded Wesley. Sure, he was occasionally annoying, but his arc gave the show a sense of continuity.

 

[Galileo7]

Wesley was written to be annoying. I don't know if it was Wheaton's acting.

 

[Lynx]

I have nothing against Wesley.

OK, he could be a bit annoying sometimes but it didn't bother me that much.

I never understood the hatred against the character.

 

[Fleet Captain Garland]

Wonder kid...I was glad to see him go

 

[Griffeytrek]

The only real benefit I can see from Wesley was they at least learned from the failures of the character, and used those lessons to make some rather strong recurring kids in the later shows. Jake Sisco was the example of how to largely do it right. He wasn't a "strong independent point of view of self insertion" character. He was there to inform and add depth to Sisco. The writers largely understood that and so Jake mostly felt organic to the story. Just a kid out on the frontier. I am convinced that the DS9 showrunners intentionally flipped Nog to essentially give him Wesley's story and character arc, just done better. "See wonder boy! The illiterate street rat does it better!". and they showed with Naomi Wildmon that "A little goes a long way. Don't overplay the character".

 

[GabyBee]

Good perspective on the Wesley character from Wil Wheaton himself, as well as perspectives on acting, gaming, and politics.

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[Voth commando1]

I always felt Wesley was way less annoying than Jake.

 

[TheTraveler]

I think Crusher is given an unfair bad rap. And it's become so cliche to hate on him.
The Crusher character was a teenager, and a intelligent needy one at that. Most teenagers are irritating in one way or another and think they know it all. Until they mature. He was also raised without a father. TNG is often derided for having neat little perfect milqtoast characters, everyone got along, no real conflict etc. Crusher kind of stepped out of that mold yet he is the one slammed the most.
In my Trek world (non Canon of course) I like to imagine that Westley matured into strong leader, a Captain of his own ship. Having been mentored by the best, Picard and Riker, he grew and matured to emulate the good example of leadership and manhood he learned from them.

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[TheTraveler]

Pretty irritating I can't post image