Why is Picard... French?

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Seriously. why? It doesn't make much sense to me, not really. he worships Shakespeare. He mentions Trafalgar, the freakin' accent...

[Aaron]

Seriously. why? It doesn't make much sense to me, not really. he worships Shakespeare. He mentions Trafalgar, the freakin' accent...

In universe? He's from France but his parents are English, he's the bastard son of a servant, accents have become interchangable amongst regions?

OOU, the writers screwed the pooch. Again.

He might be bragging that his ancestor survived the Trafalger massacre.

[Mikey]

er... because it wouldn't make sense for an Englishman's family holdings to include a French vineyard? Well, not as much sense, anyway.

[Teaos]

To help explain their poor tactics.

[Aaron]

To help explain their poor tactics.

Him being French explains the tactics and there being no wine onboard, he was fragging gooned all the time.

[Mikey]

I just thought of something - wouldn't a Frenchman's ancestor having survived the Battle of Trafalgar mean that said ancestor was on a ship that at best hung back and at worst ran away? I mean, it was bad enough that Villeneuve was afraid to look at Nelson since the Battle of the Nile, but with more French dead than captured, Picard's ancestor would have either been or served under a particularly cowardly commander.

[Aaron]

I just thought of something - wouldn't a Frenchman's ancestor having survived the Battle of Trafalgar mean that said ancestor was on a ship that at best hung back and at worst ran away? I mean, it was bad enough that Villeneuve was afraid to look at Nelson since the Battle of the Nile, but with more French dead than captured, Picard's ancestor would have either been or served under a particularly cowardly commander.

They took alot of prisoners dude. He could have been one.

[Mikey]

The British killed twice as many Frenchmen as they took prisoner.

[Aaron]

The British killed twice as many Frenchmen as they took prisoner.

That's still alot.

Edit: According to the incredibly inaccurate Wikipedia, the Brits took 7000 prisoners, killed 3243 French and Spanish and wounded 2538.

[Teaos]

Did he mention a year? It could have been a different battle.

Trafalgar 2024 - The French fight back.

[KuvahMagh]

I mean, it was bad enough that Villeneuve was afraid to look at Nelson since the Battle of the Nile, but with more French dead than captured, Picard's ancestor would have either been or served under a particularly cowardly commander.

Even assuming that his Commander was a Coward, that does not invalidate his Crew's service.

[Aaron]

Even assuming that his Commander was a Coward, that does not invalidate his Crew's service.

Your quite right. In fact there's every possibilty that Picards ancestor was an exile and fought for the Brits. It certainly wasn't uncommon. And if he had the misfortune to fight on the French side, he still did his duty.

[JudgeKing]

Picard moved to France 62 hours before joining Starfleet and moving elsewhere.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Because "Jean-Luc" is such a sexy name 8)

(No, I'm not gay)

[Teaos]

Nothing wrong with finding a nam sexy... Bruce