this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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This always seemed like the cheapest way to manufacture tension for me.
There are serious core philosophical differences between Sisco and Picard. There are multiple avenues that could have been used to create conflict and tension.
Instead we get Sisco hating Picard because he blamed him for that shit with the Borg. At best the first impression of Sisco is that he's kind of an idiot. If you dig deeper Sisco is a victim blaming asshole who hates Picard for serving as a meat puppet after getting brutally violated by the Borg.
You could have just switched the reason for Sisco to hate Picard to the fact that he had his chance to strike a fatal blow to the Borg and refused for reasons Sisco would see as sanctimonious.
First, it's Sisko. Not giving you shit, just letting you know.
Second, I didn't mind it that much but you're right that there were a lot of avenues but Sisko is shown a few times to be insanely emotional in comparison to Picard. JL tends to be a bit more methodical and logical about stuff, almost going down a Vulcan-like path of logic. Sisko, on the other hand, is not really like that. Sure he thinks things out. He will plan shit out. He'll try to be methodical but he's also incredibly prone to just outbursts of emotion. Sisko has a very basic level of control over his emotions. He can keep them in check but often he doesn't. Look at the intro between Picard and Sisko as an example. He loses his shit at Picard because of the Borg stuff and it takes him a while for him to get it in check enough to have a discussion with Picard without lashing out at him.
He was so upset at Michael Eddington that he goes on a fucking revenge tour with a barely functioning Defiant to try and take him down and that's ignoring the gassing a planet part because one could argue (although I disagree with it) that he was making a logical decision there due to his bit earlier about realizing he needs to play the villain. Sisko realizes that Garak killed the Romulan Ambassador and fucking assaults him in his store, throwing him around and punching him in the face. Speaking of punching people in the face, HE PUNCHED GOD IN THE FACE. I'm sorry, but that's not logical. That is one hell of an emotional decision to be so annoyed you punch God.
Sisko being set up in that opening with Picard as an emotional hothead honestly feels pretty true to character. While they had differences in philosophy, they were way more different in the sense of who was more emotional than the other. I liked the highlighting of that personally but I can see why one did not.
I’m more disappointed that ‘Movie Picard’ and then ‘Picard show Picard’ abandoned, or at least lost the emotional regulation that enabled him to hold onto, many of the principles that made him so admirable and exasperating.
It doesn’t seem like Picard in season three of Picard would have had any of the same qualms, or at least his emotional attachments would have overtaken them.
I wonder what Ben Sisko’s reaction to Picard’s choices in season three would have been. I definitely think he would have called him out, and made Shaw’s critiques look tame.
Picard show Picard, or at least Season 3 of Picard, I don't mind as much simply because there was a new and major influence. A son. We don't know as much about Sisko prior to his wife being killed so it could be that that moment is what set off his highly emotionally charged state. After being assimilated, tortured, nearly assimilated again and nearly dying a hundred times for Starfleet, I can see Picard being exhausted when they just give up on helping the Romulans. I can see why he got pissed there. Then Season 3 comes around and he's now got a child as well as the infinite amount of shit he's gone through? Frankly I'd have been disappointed if he retained that level of emotional control after going through everything. They've shown numerous times that Picard isn't pure strength. He has his limits and he's reached the breaking point on more than one occasion. Him being an old man and just done with holding back now? Makes more sense to me than seeing Starfleet and others fail him time and time again and having to always be the beacon of strength. Speaking from experience, it gets exhausting being the one that everyone comes to needing stability. That wears you down. Being the Captain of the flagship of the fleet? Representing not just your own species but every species in the Federation? In certain cases, representing the entire quadrant or galaxy?
I can understand the journey, what I don’t understand is the lack of self-awareness around it.
Early trauma and the violation of the Borg explain the change in emotional regulation, but the arrogant lack of ability to take a step back and evaluate his behaviour from the perspective of his own values and previous expectations about behaviour are what I find surprising.