Headscratchers / Star Trek: The Next Generation S3E3 "The Survivors"

• Kevin refuses to kill. He won't even create a working phaser to use as a bluff. But he will attack the Enterprise with enough force to damage it and fling at least one crew member off his feet. This is a ship filled with children as well. Kevin is apparently OK with some amount of violence.
  • There is nothing new about someone being squeamish about using violence when they have to look the victim in the face, but being okay with it as long as their victims are faceless and at one remove.
  • He said he wouldn’t kill, not that he wouldn’t use violence. The attack on the Enterprise is largely illusory. Even before that, he is using a form of violence on Troi.
    • It's possible he may not have known it would have such an extensive effect on her - he merely meant to distract her, after all.
  • Kevin is not omniscient, as the episode clearly demonstrates multiple times. He may not have realised that there were children on the Enterprise, or the effect his illusory weapons were having.
• Picard’s closing log that he didn’t know if Kevin should be praised or condemned for what he’d done... Well, condemned is problematic as he may well have broken no laws under the Fed’s jurisdiction, and certainly they can’t do anything to him anyway. But, I’m pretty sure we can scratch “praised” right off the list.
  • He's speaking about Kevin himself. Kevin committed genocide in a moment of rage, but in spite of being nigh all-powerful, he's also a deeply moral being who refuses to become Drunk with Power. Given Picard's brushes with other reality-warpers, I think Picard would naturally find aspects of Kevin to be praised in addition to others that he'd condemn.
  • Kevin also has accepted full responsibility for what he has done, and even though no-one has the power to judge or punish him, he has removed that burden from others by punishing himself for as long as he may live. Admitting fault and accepting the consequence (even if you have to be the impose it) are praiseworthy traits, even if they don't excuse his crimes.