I just don't want to see this argument progress any further, TBH. I've already lived through this once with the Jack/Sam, Jack/Daniel canon-vs-fanon ship wars in SG-1 and it was extremely unpleasant. Can't we all just get along? *g*
I'm definitely having flashbacks. D:
I think that's probably a main cause of the narrative dissonance: he didn't see the need to explain/show the relationship further because it was so clear in his head.
That's actually a fantastic insight! And I wonder how much it explains the problems that people had with the episode? One of the recent discussions I was involved in (maybe at sga-talk, I can't remember) had to do with unspoken assumptions in fic, and the fact that a lot of John/Rodney fic relies heavily on the assumption that most of the readership expects the characters to get together, so the writer doesn't have to do much work to sell the pairing. This is fine for people who are already on board, but it makes the stories very jarring and somewhat OOC for people like me, who still need the groundwork to be laid.
If one has proper groundwork for an episode like "Brain Storm", most of the problems evaporate (well, leaving aside the plot-level problems, of course). I mean, if it takes place within an established relationship, then Keller's declaration of love at the end doesn't come out of the blue at all.
SGA has always been a show where most of the emotional arcs take place offscreen. Carson and Cadman appeared as a couple *once*; Teyla and Kanaan weren't even hinted at until the episode where her pregnancy was revealed; John and Rodney's game-playing was retconned three seasons into the show. I think people tend not to complain about retcons that fit with how they want to see the characters, but do notice it when the retcon jars their semi-canonical, semi-fanonical idea of how the characters supposed to be. (Like "Game". I *do* remember people getting upset about "Game", but the ones who objected to it were those who didn't see John and Rodney as close friends, maintained that they did not hang out off duty -- which, up to that point, had never really been seen in canon -- and were upset when their impression of the characters was retconned by canon. Something vaguely similar is happening with Keller/Rodney here, I think.)
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winterfish
Re: Comment got too long, oops! (edited)
Date: 2008-11-25 10:59 am (UTC)I'm definitely having flashbacks. D:
I think that's probably a main cause of the narrative dissonance: he didn't see the need to explain/show the relationship further because it was so clear in his head.
That's actually a fantastic insight! And I wonder how much it explains the problems that people had with the episode? One of the recent discussions I was involved in (maybe at sga-talk, I can't remember) had to do with unspoken assumptions in fic, and the fact that a lot of John/Rodney fic relies heavily on the assumption that most of the readership expects the characters to get together, so the writer doesn't have to do much work to sell the pairing. This is fine for people who are already on board, but it makes the stories very jarring and somewhat OOC for people like me, who still need the groundwork to be laid.
If one has proper groundwork for an episode like "Brain Storm", most of the problems evaporate (well, leaving aside the plot-level problems, of course). I mean, if it takes place within an established relationship, then Keller's declaration of love at the end doesn't come out of the blue at all.
SGA has always been a show where most of the emotional arcs take place offscreen. Carson and Cadman appeared as a couple *once*; Teyla and Kanaan weren't even hinted at until the episode where her pregnancy was revealed; John and Rodney's game-playing was retconned three seasons into the show. I think people tend not to complain about retcons that fit with how they want to see the characters, but do notice it when the retcon jars their semi-canonical, semi-fanonical idea of how the characters supposed to be. (Like "Game". I *do* remember people getting upset about "Game", but the ones who objected to it were those who didn't see John and Rodney as close friends, maintained that they did not hang out off duty -- which, up to that point, had never really been seen in canon -- and were upset when their impression of the characters was retconned by canon. Something vaguely similar is happening with Keller/Rodney here, I think.)