#captain microaggression

I don’t like Shaw, but I’ve got a headcanon on why he’s presented as a huge jackass that he is in S3E01 of Star Trek: Picard.

Shaw looks like he’s in his late fifties at minimum, but in a setting where humans can live to be 130, that might not mean much. However, that still means he was probably a young officer when Wolf 359 happened. He remembers Locutus, he remembers the Borg slaughtering his friends and crewmates. Even if he wasn't onboard a ship at Wolf 359, it’s likely he was affected by knowing someone who was.

Then he went through the Dominion War, the attempted Borg invasion of Earth, and the AI rebellion on Mars. Did he have family and friends on Mars? Not impossible.

So throughout all this time, he’s experienced technological and genetic augments trying to kill him (and any loved ones if he’s got any). If that context is taken into account, it makes sense for him to be rude and brusque towards Seven, Picard, et al, because on some level, he blames them for unleashing hell on his life.

Captain Liam Shaw, basically, has the average life experience of a late 23rd to early 24th Starfleet flag officer by the time S3E01 rolls around. And it’s not a nice one.