Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Wesley Crusher minifig

Minifigs are a line of tiny figurines that work as LEGOS. The whole crew of ST:TNG is represented and they're cute. Except what they did with the Wil Wheaton's character, Wesley Crusher. His character was the genius child of Enterprise medical officer and another officer who died. He was usually getting into trouble by his experiments onboard but became useful over time. Eventually his character attended the academy where he got into more trouble over a dangerous piloting maneuver and by protecting the lead student who dragged the rest into the graduating stunt.

I liked this character. It was one of my favorites. I do not recall the captain telling Crusher to shut up. While I do recall the captain constantly telling Data to shut up and always at the point where Data was becoming interesting, if a little bit irrelevant to the task at hand. Data was a walking encyclopedia. And I admit the present day Wil Wheaton is more annoying than he is interesting. He failed to grow up. He seems stuck in adolescence. He is a friendly nerd while also annoyingly malevolently politically progressive. Such a cool character on t.v., such a ponce in real life. We see him on nerd-type talk shows and modern game shows. Presently he runs a game show on t.v. where people younger than himself play digital-type or roll-playing, Monopoly-type and Battleship-type games.

I do not understand this minifig. I believe it misrepresents the television show character, while others see it as perfectly representative. I do not understand this entire Twitchy discussion. Did we even watch the same show? I do not understand a few simple straightforward remarks by Wil Wheaton the actor, characterized as a "huge wall" of text. I simply don't understand all the ill-feelings. Must the previous character be ruined because the present-day actor is annoying?



Wesley Crusher is an awesome character. Not a crybaby. He was not told constantly to shut up. That was Data, the android, another interesting character, not Crusher. Maybe the captain did tell Crusher to shut up. Maybe he did a few times. But that would be overwhelmed by the number of times Crusher impressed the whole crew and the number of times his genius was pivotal to the story.


This is present day Wil Wheaton. Less cool than his earlier character, Wesley Crusher. His ridiculous political views are a matter of some discussion online on the right wing sites that I read.  He's not nearly the genius he presumes from his character. None of that carries over. He's not half as smart as that. He's an actor. A dumb one-time actor who has let himself go, and that's all. 

Incidentally, the actor Brent Spiner who played Data the android is a much better actor, intriguing to watch whenever he's on-screen, as an actor as much as his characters, who is seen in tons of roles since his tenure as Data. But not Wil Wheaton who seems to have flamed out. Wheaton used to be adorable. Now he's not.

Look how cool Wesley Crusher character is in every shot and then ask yourself why they chose this one to represent him. Wil Wheaton makes good points in his "huge wall" of Twitter text. I agree with him. They did him and the fans of his character a disservice. And that does it! Slam. I'm not going to buy any of the minifigs.

Of all the great shots they pick this one.


10 comments:

The Dude said...

I had a cubic yard of legos including many minifigs. I gave a couple of minifigs to a woman who uses them in her work, kept the glow-in-the-dark ghost minifig for myself, and once my grandchildren came along I gave the entire yard of legos to my son. Take these pointy bricks, begone!

Now my grandchildren leave them on the floor for their parents - victory is mine!

Amartel said...

He's drafting off his fame playing a character that people liked - or at least didn't hate - to push his own political character which people generally don't like. Actors should shut up and not try to be famous for themselves unless they are actually accomplishing things under their own steam and not drafting off a character that someone else wrote and financed and produced. It's not nothing but all you did is say lines and look authentic. You inhabited the character you didn't invent it.

Amartel said...

Ponce! What a great description.

edutcher said...

Q was the only really cool guy in the whole franchise, so, if he isn't there, why bother?

But it does look like somebody heard you.

Methadras said...

Will Wheaton is a fucking asshole and if I ever ran into him, I'd just kick his ass on principle alone. Wouldn't even say a word to that piece of shit. Fuck that guy. Fucking asshole.

deborah said...

Q was great, but Picard was also pretty cool.

deborah said...

Also Ensign Ro.

edutcher said...

Picard was a stuffed shirt.

Kirk was a tad neurotic (Khaaaaaaannn!!!!), but Sisko, from what little I saw of DS9, was pretty good.

I must confess to being something of an Avery Brooks fan ever since he did a History Channel gig called Greatest Mysteries Of the Bible, one of the few shows where I can actually say I something learned something from every episode.

deborah said...

______ ______ was an unbearable pain. (Not Wesley.)

Christy said...

I always hated Ensign Crusher. His character always struck me as whiney and entitled. I found the actor stiff. Liked him, though, in The Guild.