Something I like at the end of Encounter at Farpoint is that scene when Q is standing behind Picard while everyone on the Bridge is watching the two space jellyfish rise up. I love how Q just stares at it with a flat, emotionless expression bc it's nothing special to him, while Picard looks fascinated.
But, then notice when everyone is marveling at the jellyfish, and Picard gives orders to beam energy towards the aliens to comfort them, Q keeps looking at Picard. 😏
At the end, when Picard orders him to leave his ship, and Q replies,
"I do so only because it suits me to leave."
Q flashes in front of him to say the line about not promising to never return again, and he is standing pretty darn close to Picard and speaking in a more seductive tone.
Q may have been a jerk in Farpoint, but from the get-go, he was interested in Picard.
Throughout all of Q's appearances on the Enterprise, why didn't Troi sense Q's feelings for Picard?
Tbh, I don't think one would need a Betazoid (Okay, HALF Betazoid, if I'm giving Troi a break.) to know that Q had the serious hots for Picard all along.
@yourbuerokrat2 Q really wants all of Picard, but considering how obsessed and in love he is with him, I can see Q accepting that he might have to get as much as Picard is capable of giving (ie Q would have to accept that Starfleet and/or Humanity will always be a part of Picard's life)
"Having most of Jean-Luc is better than having none." -Q
'Be mine'
A request from a godlike entity that would leave many either flattered or terrified.
Jean-Luc Picard felt neither.
He did not know how to feel about it.
Even now that he had indulged Q the demands still continued.
Because Picard could never give Q all of himself.
Because the other parts of him already belonged to so many others.
And Picard realized, that for Q this would never be enough
That when a self-proclaimed god says 'be mine' what they mean is
'Be mine. Entirely. Forever'
Picard was not sure he could or wanted to give Q this.
To think how ancient, omnipotent, and powerful Q is, and just how cruel and dangerous he could be if he really wanted to,
and yet, he cherishes and loves Jean-Luc Picard so much that he goes out of his way to better Picard's life and even sacrifices his life to save this mortal man.