It's interesting how I've been seeing posts about how Steward-as-Picard exemplified goodness. Sure he was a really great actor, but he was... an actor, tasked to help bring to life a universe envisioned by Gene Roddenberry. And there's like nothing about the latter.

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layer8 a day ago | parent | next [-]

The characters you see on screen are a mix of the writing and the acting. In long-running shows like TNG, the writers pick up on how an actor plays their character, and it informs their writing. TNG is generally considered to have come into its full form only after Roddenberry’s involvement leveled off. It might have become a very different show with an actor other than Patrick Steward as Jean-Luc Picard.

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cm2012 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And there are 1000 other actors the world would have loved just as much reading the same script.

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andrewinardeer a day ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

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skeledrew a day ago | parent | next [-]

It's quite possible he has a non-standard conception of what marriage means. Heck I can't think of any episodes pee even scenes in Star Trek that touches on marriage in any way. I'd say it's possible that he sees it as it is: an institution born out of social structure, which is objectively unnecessary to life. Doesn't change whether he's good or bad because it's a subjective measurement.

	▲	cm2012 a day ago \| parent [-]
		Lol he didnt, he just cheated on every spouse he had and lied to them and felt bad about it in his 80s in his book

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nstents a day ago | parent | prev [-]

It's hard to know enough details about the three people most closely involved. To make matters more difficult, a person being "good" or "bad" is a very subjective viewpoint. No, he was probably not good to his wife, and no he admits he wasn't a good father.

At the same time, he was a pro, and his abilities to inspire belief in the goal of being a better person helped countless people believe in something bigger than themselves.

Not to create a strawman out of thin air, but I'd argue that he did more good for far more people than he did to hurt and estrange his family. If there is an equation for such a comparison.

There is no way to condone the damages he caused. I just think it's better overall that we had him as he was, than not at all.

	▲	cm2012 a day ago \| parent [-]
		Actually he gave all the details in his book. They are pretty bad tbh. He admits he has zero relationship with his adult children. The book just made me sad.