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?
There is nothing wrong with the character—it’s just generational hatred of the idea that there could be new star trek content and latching on to weird shit to complain about. Lots of “fans” complained about TNG when it first started airing.
He honestly has a pretty interesting character arc for the era and show he was a part of— being a young princeling, fucking up in school and ultimately realizing that he needed to go his own way and become a The Traveller (over the course of 7 seasons of episodic story telling admittedly so it’s a little woobly).
He’s a Mary Sue. I know that term gets misused by misogynists for, “female character I don’t like,” but it was originally a term for Trekkies’ self-insert fan-fic characters, and Wesley fits the trope perfectly: the youngest, smartest person to graduate Starfleet Academy/serve on a Starship, with unusual skills or special talents, who the ingratiates himself with the main cast, and finds himself at the center of major events despite his young age and low rank.
The only thing I really hate about the character of Wesley Crusher has nothing to do with the character himself, but the whole “chosen one” bullshit surrounding him.
I liked him that episode where he almost got mauled to death by Kai Winn.
Because it awakens the bullies who don’t like smart kids. During that era it was common to pick on ‘the nerdy kid’ and it was considered the right of passage to be ‘cool’. Wesley embodies the type of victim a bully goes for.
The hate you refer to is more the issue with the bully rather than their targets. Wil Wheaton did a great speech about bullying.
Wesley Crusher was a wish fulfillment character for Gene Wesley Roddenberry (yes, that’s his real middle name). We don’t have a problem with smart kids, they just gotta stay in their lane: focus on school and hobbies, having fun, and chipping in the occasional good idea. When the “smart kid” gets written to be the ship’s last hope and miraculous saviour (on more than one occasion) it turns the show into a farce.
We don’t have a problem with smart kids
Who’s this ‘we’ you speak of?
You sound like an adult baby with a bruised ego. Bullying kids who you perceive smarter than you especially as an adult is just a shitty look no matter how you’re trying to cut it here.
“We” being the Trek fans who are not Wesley fans. He was written very poorly and it reflected badly on the show. I don’t have a problem with Wil Wheaton’s acting and Stand By Me was one of my favourite movies as a kid.
The only bully here is you.
