dragojustine | Yeah, okay, I'm VERY obsessed by the Stargate 'verse.

ryuutchi linked to the utterly awesome Your Friends Are Not Watching The Same Show You Are, which makes me go "Hee!" in a big way.

Not really because there is anything new there, but because I really think the alternative title game is a hoot and should become standard in fandom.

For the record: I tend to enjoy "The Witty Banter Show" and I often find myself (but not as often as some) watching the "No, Seriously, Did You Learn Your Gender Studies in the Boys' Lockeroom? Show," but easily 80% of what I watch is the "Fucked-up, Emotionally Constipated, Deeply Damaged, Heartbreaking, Psychologically Fascinating And Improbably Attractive Woobie Hero Show."

I watch that one with four or five casts, actually. There's "The Woobie Hero Show: Don't fuck with the Teaboy!" and "The Woobie Hero Show: Making Incest Look Good," and "The Woobie Hero Show: Daniel Jackson, Marry Me" and "The Woobie Hero Show: Just a Browncoat and his Spaceship," but it's all the same damn show if I'm honest. Because if there's one thing people are good at, it's seeing narratives through the lenses that appeal to us emotionally.

Frankly, I think 90% of the disagreements in fandom would be solved by clarifying what show each person is actually watching.

This show is doing worldbuilding and sense of place very very well- much better than SG1, and in fact than any SF show I can come up with other than the early seasons of BSG. I really really like SF with a very strong sense of place, which "planet of the week" shows basically never achieve- but the city of Atlantis? Well, the city of Atlantis, as SF setting design, ROCKS. I'm just saying.

Oh Rodney. I love you so much. You make me laugh so hard. And it's all in the delivery, too- David Hewlett is doing SUCH a likable, idiosyncratic, appealing job with a character who could just be so very annoying.

I really kind of love the fact that the first we see of Rodney and John being all buddy-buddy is John... throwing Rodney off a balcony. With a huge delighted grin on his face. I really love that A LOT.

I love Carson.

Also, I love Zelenka. Or however you spell it. He's cute.

I do not yet love Aiden Ford, because so far he does not have quite enough personality to love. But he is calm and level-headed and very competent, which is good, because Rodney takes a lot of evening-out, you know? And his first trace of lovableness- begging for John to take him out flying around the planet- is very promising. And he is so very, very, very pretty.

With John, I am suffering a case of elevated expectations. I've absorbed so much through fannish osmosis about HOW AWESOME he is, that there was really no way to live up to it. I find him appealing, so far, but he is one of those characters who grows on me more slowly- he doesn't wear it all out on the surface like Rodney. Hopefully there are hidden depths. I assume so, or he wouldn't be loved so much. I certainly LIKE him quite a lot, and he is indeed also very very pretty, so I think I just need to let him percolate a bit, read some fic written in season one, just wallow in his head for awhile.

Very very soon now I am going to need an icon of Rodney saying something snarky and condescending, and an icon of John being very very pretty.

Since I admitted to mom that what I'm doing really is depression, things have been looking up a tidge. Articulating it helps at least a little. Since Wednesday, I've managed to go to the laundromat, buy healthy food, go to the gym twice, do a tiny bit of writing, and apply to two temp agencies. I know this is basically NOTHING for five whole days for a normal person, and I feel a bit stupid going "I managed to actually shower and dress myself before noon for five straight days! I deserve a cookie!" but when you're depressed that does actually feel like a big achievement, you know? Anyway, looking up, though I still think things will be awkward till after I go back to LA and deal with the last of the breakup/move.

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SGA, hurrah! I'm thrilled that you love Rodney, too. It's funny about John, for me I love him because of the way he is with Rodney, if I'm being honest. [g] Because Rodney is awesome, and, yes.

P.S. Love that throwing Rodney off a balcony thing, too. ♥

Oh, I so agree with you re: John. I love Rodney by himself but I love him more with John, although John without Rodney is only "meh" unless he's going to find/save/join Rodney. In which case, yay!

EVERYBODY loves Rodney. It's so wonderful. How can someone so objectively annoying be so universally beloved? I don't know, but I love him too!

Everybody, it seems, except my BFF who cannot for the life of her seem to stand him. I think she's a little too objective for her own good. Ahahahaha.

Oooh, you've made it to Atlantis. Yay!

I love Rodney. I love that John can handle Rodney in a way that no one else has tried/shown us/etc.

The whole personal shield thing is a good clue into their relationship. They want to try the cool toy out and they both agree that using a gun is a gret plan- shoot him and see if it really works. This isnot a bad plan, to either of them. Soul mates. Seriously.

The episodes "The Storm" and "The Eye" will give you a lot about John and opens up who he is a bit more, at least I've always thought so.

Read anything by Rageprufrock- I love her John and Rodney. Here is the link. She writes some great AU's, including "Ladies Night At the Boom Boom Room" that you need to read.

One of the things that I adore about John is that he doesn't wear things on the outside like Rodney does. But he shows a lot through his actions. How he treats his team, how he can say one thing but do another to show how he really feels.

His desire to protect and defend because it's not only his job, it's his duty- he put them in the position where he was suddenly in charge and now he needs to step up and do the job Sumner was supposed to. He wants to keep them safe and until they get back into contact with the SGC, he needs to use any and all means at his disposal to do so because they don't know if the cavelry is coming.

When you get to "The Seige" and the ball starts rolling for the big season finale, you get to see what John is made of and what he's made of is AWESOME. As is Rodney, I might add.

I canNOT wait until you get to "Duet". No, really. "Runner" comes first and when you meet Ronon, well, that'll be the end of that but "Duet" does a few things that I'm pretty sure you'll love. Also, David Hewlett is amazing.

Realizing that you are depressed is incredibly important. My sister struggled with it for a very long time and it isn't easy to fox. But, know that you are loved no matter what and that people around you are willing to help, all you need to do is ask. *nods*

They want to try the cool toy out and they both agree that using a gun is a gret plan- shoot him and see if it really works. This isnot a bad plan, to either of them. Soul mates. Seriously.

I KNOW! I love how INDIGNANT he was when Elizabeth called him on it. "I didn't just push him off the balcony- I'm not stupid- I shot him first!"

I just DIED at that.

So far John has a real "if there is going to be a chance to make a heroic self-sacrifice, I'm going to be the one taking it" thing going on. Depending on how they spin that psychologically, it could be the key to turning him into a really good woobie hero. (Look. It's just the way I work. If I'm going to love him, he's going to have to be damaged, okay?) But I do like that he's not all on the surface- I like that a lot, it just means I need more time to get to know him.

Oh yeah, he's a woobie. Trust me. Rodney also has woobie tendencies but John, yeah, he's The Woobie.

I am right there with you. My heroes need to be damaged- that's kind of why I totally fell in love with Tony Stark/Iron Man this weekend.

The thing about John is that they don't give a lot of his back story, at least not until the past season. A lot of fanon was created to fill in those gaps and I'm not sure, now that we have some of the missing pieces, if I liked the fanon or the canon better.

With John, I am suffering a case of elevated expectations.

Easy to do. He's delightfully ambiguous, to the point where the fanonical insights to character are almost essential to understand him and his motivations in the canon. As

adelate wrote above, a good deal of his appeal is his relationship with Rodney, which just makes me smile any time I think about it. The other part of the fun of John, I think, is trying to figure him out.

Well, the city of Atlantis, as SF setting design, ROCKS. I'm just saying.

Totally. It becomes a character in its own right, after not too long.

Totally. It becomes a character in its own right, after not too long.

Yaaay. Seriously, I have... sort of... meta-ish thinky thoughts about this, which will probably come out not nearly as intelligent-sounding as they are in my head, when I post them. But I love those times in SF when things like that- by which I mean ships, mostly- become characters in their own right, and I've been thinking a lot about when it does and doesn't work for me and why that is. I'm glad I'm not imagining it, with Atlantis.

(I think this deserves the Impala icon. For obvious reasons. Heh)

Heh. I did the same thing, at the beginning - I came into SGA via fanfic (though I'd been a fan of SG1 from the first season) and I expected this huge dashing hero, and got - this kind of boy-next-door with floppy hair and snarky dialogue.

It took me a while to warm up to him; I think it finally clicked when I started seeing him as canon!John and not fanon!John.

I always did love Rodney though *smishes him and his neuroses*

Congrats on starting the climb out of depression. Recognising what the problem is is always the hardest part; purely being able to function somewhat normally is a huge step. Have that cookie!

Exactly! Well, I was expecting the floppy hair and snark, I'd gotten that from fanon. But I was expecting... somebody... bigger. You know. Larger than life, more obviously central, just generally bigger and more obvious. I'm actually kind of glad that he's not, he'll probably be a better character in the long run this way. I just have to, you know, start with canon!John and not skip steps.

(Thank you. *eats cookie*)

And see, to me "The Woobie Hero Show: Just a Browncoat and his Spaceship" is the "Gina Torres and Alan Tudyk Are The Best Couple in the History of Ever Show".

And I can't stand Rodney unless Carson's his foil. (But that one I think I'm alone in. So, you know. :D)

But we like the same series!

Yeah, okay, I'm VERY obsessed by the Stargate 'verse.

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