I watched TNG from beginning to end and throughout it tried to see anything to be critical of about Wesley and couldn’t find anything. What’s the big deal?
Well, at the time the main complaint people had was more about him being shoehorned into things in a way that didn’t make sense combined with him being “superkid”.
But yeah, I always thought the character was more of a positive than a negative, even when he was badly written. If nothing else, it gave younger viewers/fans a bit of a viewpoint character that was pretty rare in sci-fi that wasn’t kid oriented to begin with.
Plus, Wheaton did damn fine job considering the scripts were sometimes not really good dialogue for him. Stilted, a bit too “I’m an adult trying to write a teenager, but can’t actually remember what it was like”; and often not really about his character as much as they needed someone to do the things he was doing, and Wesley’s turn came up. Hell, if you factor in the shit the guy was going through at home, he was amazing.
The whole show, including his character, dramatically improved as it went on. Wesley was awesome in that later episode with pre-Tom Paris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UHlXzddaM8&t=120s
Had to look it up. That’s just good goddamn television.
Did you see the episode of lower decks that brought back “not tom paris”? Great episode they even put a lamp shade of him looking like tom.
I’m unfamiliar with his home life. I know he’s publicly discussed mental health issues, has he been open about whatever happened at home?
Oh yeah, he went into it on his blog, and in more detail in an autobiography rerelease back in 2022. Plus a good bit of it in interviews after that.
Physical and mental abuse from his parents is the short version. Which is the root of his PTSD and related issues.
