(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

OK I GIVE UP, I HAVE TO KNOW.

WHERE IS THE CANON THAT SAYS JOHN (Sheppard, SGA) COMES FROM A MILITARY BACKGROUND? where where where where where? Did I miss it in my marathoning? was it one of the tidbits you miss when you watch television at four in the morning? Or did the SGA fandom make some kind of collective decision? Have some kind of hallucination/revelatory vision? What?

Comments

[blademistress.livejournal.com]

It's fanon as far as I can tell. We know pretty much nothing about Sheppard. I think it came around because of the assumption that he would have been kicked out had his father not pulled strings and got him to Antarctica to save from a dishonorable discharge.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*tears out hair* So why does EVERYONE write him coming from a military background? I desperately wanna read something now where, like, his parents are teachers. Or surfers. Or hippies. Or, really, anything but military!

[blademistress.livejournal.com]

Have you read that fic where his parents are both hippy teachers? It's really good.

And apparently the novelisation of Rising does play up the Super Specialness of Sheppard's thing with Atlantis, so that's not all fanon.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Oh, dude, no! (or I don't think so, I have been on a massive fic binge the last three weeks.) Who's it by/how can I hunt it down?

Oh. Well... okaaaaay, I guess.

[blademistress.livejournal.com]

A Better Fate (http://chelle.slashcity.org/atlantis/betterfate.shtml). One of my favourite comfort pieces.

Yeah. It's not my favourite thing ever, either. Have you read Three Fates? There's that one and this other one I can never remember the title of which have freaked me a bit out with the Sheppard/Atlantis thing. The second one is about an Atlantis that has become part of a culture of aliens, and Sheppard is a hologram and Rodney lost an eye. It's ohgoddepressing.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Awesome, something to read in bed tonight :) thanks.

It doesn't bother me tooooo much, but I confess I'm not thrilled by it the way some people seem to be. I haven't read either of the ones you mentioned, I think because I uh. Well, I'm following my normal fandom reading pattern, which is: pick an OTP (or occasionally OT3). Read EVERYTHING. pick a minor pairing probably starring one of the OTP, read EVERYTHING, rinse, repeat, and I picked McShep as my pairing and, well, I don't think I'm going to be done for a month? And I read well over 100,000 words a day. Next time I think I'll pick a smaller OTP, but yeah, that does sound HORRIFYING. I hate it when my favourite characters a random creations of alien AI life-forces. :-/

[blademistress.livejournal.com]

Tannhauser Gate (http://trinityofone.unrealwords.com/tannhauser.html) summary: Atlantis didn't love him any more than Troy loved its wooden horse.

I do pretty much the same. I didn't even know was SGA was when I read my first McShep (daemonolgoy. So much win.) I blame SGA fic for my inattention and crappy grades. I've been in the fandom for over a year and a bit now, I should have run out of fic.

I've been rewatching early seasons and S3 on Prime. If they do go for Teyla/Sheppard in season 4 it'll be really, really out of left field. In the scene in Common Ground when they first get the view of Sheppard tied to the chair (heh, producers: your kink is very much okay) when the torturing starts they have Rodney object first, reactions shots of Elizabeth, Rodney, and Genii man. You don't see Teyla's expression (and then with Ronon) until the end of the shot. Over thinking yeah, but just something I noticed on rewatch.

[flotternz.livejournal.com]

I've read one that's AU where Sheppard's mother is a scientist and he has no idea who his father out (I could say more but it'd spoil the fic), and his mother loathes the military...

Prob not really what you're after, but it's a good read -- and it has Jeannie too...

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

Heheheheh. I remember that one. (Um, but have only been reading in the fandom for...a week? Maybe two? So it would be surprising if I didn't.) Very enjoyable, really. And hilarious.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Oh, is that the one where John and Rodney are secretly brothers? Yeah, I've read that one (and liked it :P) But it's an AU, so I wasn't counting it.

[flotternz.livejournal.com]

LOL - yup that's the one!

Well, if you find any more non-AU send them my way! I'm always on the lookout for more McShep fic!

[ariastar.livejournal.com]

...My god, it really is just fanon.

As far as I know, the only canon stuff we know about him is [a] he was in Afganistan, where he screwed up bigtime and consequently got sent to Antarctica, [b] he used to be married (!!!), [c] he likes American football and Ferris wheels and things that go very very fast, [d] he's indecisive enough to make life-changing decisions on a coin-flip, and [e] Ancient chicks dig him. Fanon provides him with [f] Rodney McKay, [g] mystical powers somehow relating to his insane hair, and [h] that damn military background.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Oh, he's so cute in your icon. I really gotta get myself one of these.

YEAH, it is! It makes me crazy! I mean, I am fond of fanon and everything, but I would like to know where fandom gets these things.

re: [b]: yeah, and he wasn't very good at it because he is gay gay gay gay gay. Actually, that scene was AWESOME, y/y? "Are you... seeing anyone?" "What, like a woman?" "Or a man..." DUDE. (I'm still in new-fandom high in SGA, sorry for random spazzing. Whereas my love for YW is mature, like a fine cheese, SGA right now is like SPARKLY BALLOONS. Ahem.)

Fanon provides him with [f] Rodney McKay, [g] mystical powers somehow relating to his insane hair, and [h] that damn military background.

You forgot [i], Atlantis loves him and thinks he's special. :P

[ariastar.livejournal.com]

:D! Have one of McKay, too!

Uh, I think it may be some combination of just going for the lowest common denominator because we know nothing about his background and the fact that the one time we do see Sheppard back on earth he's in a fake apartment with his dead friends and the girl who wouldn't date him and that teacher he had that one time, but not his parents, which clearly means they were Emotionally Distant Military Types.

[b] So so gay! (I am just secretly terrified that when they pull in Sam Carter next season it will suddenly be all Sam/Rodney and John/Teyla and I don't think I can handle watching Sheppard be awkward and clueless at Teyla for a whole season. On Rodney it is endearing; on Sheppard it is just his way of saying I AM GAY.) And yes that scene was made of pretty much sheer awesome, and I loved Ronon's confusion. (Your fandom spazzing makes me happy! My SGA love is about a year old but since I have put it away on a shelf since Sunday aired I am happy to shake it out again.)

...How could I forget [i]! Perhaps [j] the real OTP of the fandom is actually an OT3: McKay/Sheppard/Atlantis?

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Awww, he's so cute when he's silent sleeping... *pets inappropriately*

I def. understand where people get it from. it's just astoundingly universal. I mean, I know there's pervasive fanon in every fandom, but SGA seems to have certain things that are just universal, and in many ways they're totally detail things, too - John's dad is military, McKay's parents fought a lot... I just keep worrying I've missed some canon!

(Oh wow, yeah, I'm TERRIFIED of Sheppard/Teyla. They have such a cute friendship vibe! I love it! Actually, I was really digging the team vibe lately where Teyla apparently has the hots for some random dude, and they're all mocking her about it, and it's hilarious. And awesomely happily gen. I like it.) I was just AWESOMED by John saying "or a guy", it made me happy in ALL my pushbutton areas, including the ones that have nothing to do with fandom... the ones about GENDER and IDENTITY and yeah, show: awesome. (*does the happy little fandom dance* I understand why you would be sad about Sunday, but it was SUCH a great episode I can't contain myself - and I was spoiled for it before I even started watching the show, so I think it got me in a different place emotionally - I never let myself get too attached to Carson.)

[j]: wow, SO TRUE.

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

So count me really surprised that that's not canon. I guess that's what you get when you've seen precisely six episodes out of three seasons of a show and read a lot of fic, but I sort of assumed it had to be canon because it's in every damn fic. The fact that the details varied wildly clued me that it had to be a reasonably late-canon or sketchy detail, but I never guessed it was just fanon.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Exactly, right? I just watched the whole freakin' show and I still had significant amounts of self-doubt.

Hilariously, a family detail of mckay's that IS canon, but SG-1 canon, is actually LESS prevalent - the one that his parents hated each other and fought all the time. Apparently that comes from one of the SG-1 rodney episodes (pre-Atlantis), but you'd never guess by comparing it to John's-dad-is-military.

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

Hilariously, a family detail of mckay's that IS canon, but SG-1 canon, is actually LESS prevalent - the one that his parents hated each other and fought all the time. Apparently that comes from one of the SG-1 rodney episodes (pre-Atlantis), but you'd never guess by comparing it to John's-dad-is-military.

Almost all the references I've seen in fanfic to Rodney's parents include this detail, but I guess people are just more interested in fleshing out John's background because there's less canon about it.

Incidentally, how much of a run does Rodney get in SG-1? I figured he had to have had one, but fanfic makes it sound like it wasn't that great an experience for him, and references to him having a thing for Carter just make me cringe, so I have no particular urge to check it out.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

That makes sense, actually, although that's seriously ALL that's known about it.

He did three episodes pre-SGA in which, yes, I believe he a) had a thing for Carter, which actually is not that bad. I can deal with Rodney het. but b) he was also a total asshole, I believe, although... I haven't actually watched the episodes yet, so who knows, but yeah, that is the impression I get. I probably will watch them someday anyway, but honestly, more likely to be the ones post-SGA.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

er, he's done four episodes of SG1 post-SGA.

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

Ah, right. I just heard that Carter is joining the cast for season four. Between that and the fact they're apparently dealing with the pregnancy of the actress who plays Teyla by _writing it into the show_...I worry. Not that I actually watch, but because it might decrease the slash fanfic output or make it all angsty and anti-female, and that? sucky.