Why, when Atlantis is otherwise a competitive environment, and the other characters all have had to prove themselves in, does Keller get and keep a position that she is definitely not qualified for, and that she didn't want to begin with? That's the question I can't get around. I can't figure her character out because I keep getting stuck on this.
What drives me nuts is that they could have answered it pretty easily. They could have given Keller some esoteric skill or talent - maybe she did her thesis on alien healing devices (the SGC's internship program?) or maybe she had the ATA gene and was gifted with Ancient medical technology. Or else they could've given some other reason - hell, they could've made her Beckett's niece, so he was pushing her through the program (on SG-1, Dr. Lam replaces Frasier; she's pretty young, but she's also the daughter of General Landry. He insists she got the job through merit, but it's obvious why she would've come to the attention of the SGC to begin with. She also appears to want the job.) Some obvious reason why the SGC would recruit her, and push her through the ranks faster than she was comfortable with.
Or else they could've made Keller ambitious. If she were really eager to rise in the ranks, to attain a senior position, then she's young, she's very smart, she probably could have fought her way up. I frankly do not understand why they didn't just have her reassuring Elizabeth that she was going to be great. That she got the position because there was a space and she leapt to fill it before someone else could.
Instead, the writers gave her two big obstacles: inexperience, and lack of ambition. But they gave her no specific qualities to counter these massive road-blocks - either of which should be enough to keep her from getting the job - instead dealing with them by utterly ignoring them. They're character traits but not actual flaws, because they don't ever interfere with her life or her career; Keller doesn't have to struggle to overcome them, because they're just handwaved aside.
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winterfish
Part 4 of 4 OMGWTFBBQ
Date: 2008-09-25 01:48 pm (UTC)What drives me nuts is that they could have answered it pretty easily. They could have given Keller some esoteric skill or talent - maybe she did her thesis on alien healing devices (the SGC's internship program?) or maybe she had the ATA gene and was gifted with Ancient medical technology. Or else they could've given some other reason - hell, they could've made her Beckett's niece, so he was pushing her through the program (on SG-1, Dr. Lam replaces Frasier; she's pretty young, but she's also the daughter of General Landry. He insists she got the job through merit, but it's obvious why she would've come to the attention of the SGC to begin with. She also appears to want the job.) Some obvious reason why the SGC would recruit her, and push her through the ranks faster than she was comfortable with.
Or else they could've made Keller ambitious. If she were really eager to rise in the ranks, to attain a senior position, then she's young, she's very smart, she probably could have fought her way up. I frankly do not understand why they didn't just have her reassuring Elizabeth that she was going to be great. That she got the position because there was a space and she leapt to fill it before someone else could.
Instead, the writers gave her two big obstacles: inexperience, and lack of ambition. But they gave her no specific qualities to counter these massive road-blocks - either of which should be enough to keep her from getting the job - instead dealing with them by utterly ignoring them. They're character traits but not actual flaws, because they don't ever interfere with her life or her career; Keller doesn't have to struggle to overcome them, because they're just handwaved aside.