would you like a little RAGE with your RAGE?

[xparrot]

So Martin Gero made some comments on the most recent episode of SGA.

"For five years, we didn’t even know it, but all [Rodney] wanted was for someone to tell him that they loved him in an unconditional way."

I want to...I want to kick Martin Gero's head in with a big spiky boot. OF LOVE.

So the love of friends and family (because doesn't Jeannie love him, too? or was she lying when she said "I love you" in "Miller's Crossing" and faking her tears in "The Shrine"?) counts for snot, because it's not romantic, sexual love.

And unconditional love is quoting a guy's own brain-damaged love confession back at him (six months later), and then offering him sex on a plane to make him shut up.

I have no boyfriend! I HAVE NO LOVE! What do I do??? My life is empty! Meaningless!

*cue total fucking mental breakdown*

Okay, now I'm going to do my best to forget this episode ever happened. There's been other eps I haven't enjoyed, but this is the first one that's seriously in danger of spoiling my fanning. It pretty much ruined Rodney's character for me even when I was ignoring the McKeller (I swear, I'd've been almost as outraged if the ep had gone the same way only with John instead of Keller, though at least then I'd have some McShep making out), and now that I am meant to think that banging Keller on the plane is the most significant and important event of Rodney's life in the past five years - yeah. Someone tell me how to hold onto my SGA love, because I don't want to lose this fandom, but the show seems pretty determined to use its dying breath to drive me away.

ETA: I gotta say, SGA these days is really making me appreciate NCIS. NCIS has one s5 ep that is explicitly the 100% opposite theme as this.

Comments

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

Could it be a broken rule-of-three?

- Maybe it makes sense that when they first mingle, he reverts to his old accusatory self -- the High School Reunion Effect.
- Then, in the lecture hall, he stands to be awesome but caves to Keller's "play nicely" pressure.
- Then, at the end, Tunney says "you're smarter" and Rodney answers "... I know" but runs off after Keller anyway.

For balance, instead of that last one, should there instead have been a scene in which he realizes his kick-ass-itude and marshalls the entire crowd into a functional plan? (Instead of that, we get two other crowd scenes -- Rodney addressing them as Tunney's backup and basically just saying they need to fix it; and Keller chastising them all for squabbling.)

(We also get the "remember that 'humble' thing we were going to try today?" scene that simply turns my -- and apparently Tunney's! -- stomach, but since I don't ship weird-submissive-Rodney/his-kindergarten-teacher, I'm trying to forget that whole hot mess.)

You totally don't know me, btw. I found you while tentatively poking my nose into SGA fanfic (I haven't read all your stuff yet but love "Any Port"), and I find I agree with pretty much every single thing you've said about Brain Storm. May I friend you? Correction: I'm a bad LJer and didn't check your profile page first. So: friending you, thanks!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I was really expecting some kind of recognition of Rodney's mad science/head of science skills; I was looking forward to him showing up his peers. Instead, even Rodney himself thinks taking an axe to a door is cooler than thinking up the solution to save the planet; his brain really isn't that awesome after all, I guess.

--Not to be forgetting that in addition to Rodney acting like Tunney's backup, at the end Tunney takes credit and Nye and Keller let him have it, even though they know Rodney saved the day. And we're supposed to think this is funny and kind of what Rodney deserves, rather than unconscionable behavior in professional scientists. Because, y'know, Rodney's desire for acknowledgment from his peers is a total joke, isn't he an ass for wanting something every other notable scientist gets? ARGH!

...Umm, and now I will quit ranting. Glad you've enjoyed the discussion, and hope you like the fic (there's a lot of *great* fic in SGA fandom, have fun with it!) - and welcome to the flist!

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

And we're supposed to think this is funny and kind of what Rodney deserves, rather than unconscionable behavior in professional scientists. Because, y'know, Rodney's desire for acknowledgment from his peers is a total joke, isn't he an ass for wanting something every other notable scientist gets? ARGH!

Hmmm. The one part of the episode that felt real to me was the teasing Rodney got from the other scientists. I *don't* get why he gives a damn what they think of him (I don't see why Daniel Jackson seems to care either.) The hazing, I've done - it's not actually that odd for bright young things to disappear, and the assumption is that they're working for Fidelity or Boeing or something and making major money and dabbling a little in pure science on the side.

(The one time I've ever wanted to hit another adult in public was at a conference - Cal Tech prof. Arrogant SOB.)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

What bothered me wasn't that the hazing was unrealistic, but the way it was presented - like it was totally okay for those scientists to be looking down at Rodney, like he really wasn't any better than them, even though we know he is. From the way the episode was written, I got the impression that the viewer was supposed to be laughing at Rodney there - oh look, he's so pathetic, hahaha - rather than laughing at the ignorant scientists who have no idea who they're talking to. And I'd much rather laugh with my favorite characters and at their antagonists, rather than vice versa (a problem I have with a lot of Gero's "humor", really...)