No, I'm sorry, no - I can't agree with this. My apologies - I've been staying in the sidelines on this argument, although watching it with interest on both you and gnine's journals. There's a lot I agree with on both sides of the discussion. I may regret jumping in here like this, and I hope you'll forgive me, but I've got to say - my perspective on it is completely different.
Honestly, the whole Shrine concept disturbed me HUGELY. And I'm not in the least surprised that Rodney reacted like he did - I personally would have reacted in exactly the same way. In my mind what they tried to do to him was nothing more or less than euthanasia without consent, and frankly I think he had every right to be furious with all of them. IMO they had absolutely no right to do what they did (and they never even apologized), and while I understood it coming from Ronon with his deeply ingrained "die with honor" mentality, and maybe even from Teyla who comes from a similar culture, I was very disturbed that only Keller voiced any protest to the idea. Why no argument from John, or even Woolsey? The episode got so hung up on the whole issue of whether the Shrine was real or not, and ignored the huge glaring issues of consent and whether the team had the right to make decisions for Rodney about how and when he would die. And I don't think they did! The way I see it is, if Keller hadn't figured out the reason for the Shrine working (and frankly yes, all of them should have clued in a little earlier), Rodney's beloved team would have been responsible for putting him to death. And personally, I wish they'd dealt with that a little more, because I think Rodney has every right to be holding onto some resentment about that.
Sorry - it's just that this whole aspect of the episode was really really disturbing to me. Even Jeannie seemed to blame Keller for not letting them take him, which makes absolutely no rational sense to me, because if Keller hadn't protested and the Shrine had worked like they thought it did, Rodney would have been dead when Jeannie arrived (because for some reason they all seemed to forget that she was on her way in their rush to give him the "gift of...a quick death" - Teyla's words). Jeannie should have thanked Keller for at least stopping them until she got there, if for nothing else.
I understand that there are problems with Keller, and I agree with a lot of the points that you and gnine have made. But I did have to put in my two cents worth on this one point - I hope I haven't offended you though. :(
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winterfish
no subject
Date: 2008-09-26 10:56 pm (UTC)Honestly, the whole Shrine concept disturbed me HUGELY. And I'm not in the least surprised that Rodney reacted like he did - I personally would have reacted in exactly the same way. In my mind what they tried to do to him was nothing more or less than euthanasia without consent, and frankly I think he had every right to be furious with all of them. IMO they had absolutely no right to do what they did (and they never even apologized), and while I understood it coming from Ronon with his deeply ingrained "die with honor" mentality, and maybe even from Teyla who comes from a similar culture, I was very disturbed that only Keller voiced any protest to the idea. Why no argument from John, or even Woolsey? The episode got so hung up on the whole issue of whether the Shrine was real or not, and ignored the huge glaring issues of consent and whether the team had the right to make decisions for Rodney about how and when he would die. And I don't think they did! The way I see it is, if Keller hadn't figured out the reason for the Shrine working (and frankly yes, all of them should have clued in a little earlier), Rodney's beloved team would have been responsible for putting him to death. And personally, I wish they'd dealt with that a little more, because I think Rodney has every right to be holding onto some resentment about that.
Sorry - it's just that this whole aspect of the episode was really really disturbing to me. Even Jeannie seemed to blame Keller for not letting them take him, which makes absolutely no rational sense to me, because if Keller hadn't protested and the Shrine had worked like they thought it did, Rodney would have been dead when Jeannie arrived (because for some reason they all seemed to forget that she was on her way in their rush to give him the "gift of...a quick death" - Teyla's words). Jeannie should have thanked Keller for at least stopping them until she got there, if for nothing else.
I understand that there are problems with Keller, and I agree with a lot of the points that you and gnine have made. But I did have to put in my two cents worth on this one point - I hope I haven't offended you though. :(