Well, to be fair, the T2 John Connor had been recieving all of that training from his ma, right up to the point where she was incarcerated. You could say that T3 John Connor had slacked off, that all of that leadership stuff had been forgotten. They'd hypothetically beaten the machines, right?
I liked Nick Stahl because he had a strong resemblance to a young Michael Biehn. Future T2 John Connor did look pretty mean, though. Scars are cool. That old age makeup on Stahl was kinda cheesy, though. Thankfully it was only a brief shot.