Shipper Sanity-Take Two
My Sam/Jack brain wants to write about Daniel today.
What does Daniel have to do with Sam/Jack? A whole heck of a lot. First off, let me say: Sam and Daniel are not actually related. (For more clarity on this radical idea, please see
linnet_101's post for diagrams and such.) You may personally see nothing sexual between the two, and that is completely within your rights. But please, in the name of all sanity, don't qualify your personal taste with 'ICK' or cries of incest. Exercise your right to free will, skip Sam/Daniel fics, and move on. It is not your duty to single handedly maintain the 'values' of fandom (or make everyone agree with you). Obviously I prefer Sam/Jack to Sam/Daniel or Jack/Daniel. But that doesn't mean that I see Daniel as some sort of threat to my OTP (on either side) and therefore hate on him publicly. And at the same time, just because I consider myself a dedicated S/J fan does not mean I am incapable of writing Sam/Daniel or imagining situations where the pairing makes sense. That's the joy of fanfic, the endless possibilities.
With that out of the way, it's time for some Daniel love. The optimist. The answer seeker. The warm, caring, open man who is still somehow completely emotionally crippled (show me one canon romantic relationship with man or woman that was not completely twisted from the start). Tragic orphan, failed academic (isn't it so like him to be so enamored of The Truth to sabotage his entire career?), civilian thrown into a military world, hero willing to sacrifice everything for what is right. Daniel sees so much when he looks at others, but almost nothing of himself. I find this fascinating and endearing. His capacity for caring seems to extend just as much to complete strangers as to the adopted family he has been throw into (SG-1 wasn't his choice in the beginning, not that he doesn't love them unconditionally). Oh, yeah. And he's drop dead gorgeous. And talk about a character that changed over the seasons. I find his transformation from somewhat hapless civilian guy to ascended guy to weary vet guy to shooting first and asking questions later guy fascinating. (Although, I do have something to say about the 'take a hot guy and put him in glasses to make him a geek' thing. :P)
So, big time Daniel fan. I think 'Crystal Skull' may be one of my favorite eps ever, and I have cued up 'Watergate' far too many times just to hear him say, "But it's Swiss!" Hahaha. But lately I've been thinking about how I use Daniel in my writing, particularly in my Sam/Jack fics. Because he is usually there in some capacity. I think this links back to the main reason I consider myself a shipper. I am interested in relationships. And I find the relationship between Sam and Daniel and Jack and Daniel just as fascinating, and pertinent, romantic or not. If my fanon is that Jack loves Sam and Sam loves Jack, that doesn't belittle or change what they feel for Daniel (yes, yes, I can hear the rowdy OT3 crowd catcalling in the back. :P) I find the dynamic between any two people in the team interesting and worthy of exploring in fic. So it sort of feels wrong (or empty) to have a fic without the rest. (Though Teal'c, poor neglected Teal'c...I fail him far too often in my writing. A topic for another day perhaps.)
Anyway, so maybe this fascination with relationship dynamics leads me to include Daniel a lot of the time. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I tend to use Daniel in two specific ways. First off, one of my main ficcish predilections is the use of third party POV. I love using Daniel to observe my pairing. I'm sure this is linked to some sort of voyeuristic fetish. (I absolutely love
rowan_d's A Simple Change. This is a great example of using Daniel to observe Sam and Jack, but also demonstrating a great deal of respect and care for Daniel's own feelings. He isn't just instantly ecstatic, but has real feelings of jealousy, happiness and a little bit of abandonment. One of my favorite examples of this type of fic.) Daniel makes a particularly great choice for an observer because he's an anthropologist, a student of humanity (even though Teal'c is the real standing back observer of the group. Anyone know of any S/J fic in Teal'c perspective? I really want to read some).
The second main way I use Daniel in my S/J fics is a bit more problematic. I have used him as the 'matchmaker' to some extent. I say this is problematic because I can't really believe Daniel would ever push the situation. Do I think he is aware of the S/J subtext? Yes. But I just find him being overly invested in getting them together out of character. But I still have him address the situation with either Sam or Jack at times. It's a fine line to walk and I'm not sure how successful I have ever been. I used Daniel as quasi-matchmaker in Out of Context, Egeria's Legacy, and AU Daniel in String Theory. I like this because sometimes it feels like Sam and/or Jack get so far into their heads that they can't see what is going on right in front of them and they need someone on the outside to shock them out of it, whether directly or indirectly.
So these are the reasons I love Daniel and include him in most of my S/J fics. What do you guys think? What are your preferences?
What does Daniel have to do with Sam/Jack? A whole heck of a lot. First off, let me say: Sam and Daniel are not actually related. (For more clarity on this radical idea, please see
linnet_101's post for diagrams and such.) You may personally see nothing sexual between the two, and that is completely within your rights. But please, in the name of all sanity, don't qualify your personal taste with 'ICK' or cries of incest. Exercise your right to free will, skip Sam/Daniel fics, and move on. It is not your duty to single handedly maintain the 'values' of fandom (or make everyone agree with you). Obviously I prefer Sam/Jack to Sam/Daniel or Jack/Daniel. But that doesn't mean that I see Daniel as some sort of threat to my OTP (on either side) and therefore hate on him publicly. And at the same time, just because I consider myself a dedicated S/J fan does not mean I am incapable of writing Sam/Daniel or imagining situations where the pairing makes sense. That's the joy of fanfic, the endless possibilities.
With that out of the way, it's time for some Daniel love. The optimist. The answer seeker. The warm, caring, open man who is still somehow completely emotionally crippled (show me one canon romantic relationship with man or woman that was not completely twisted from the start). Tragic orphan, failed academic (isn't it so like him to be so enamored of The Truth to sabotage his entire career?), civilian thrown into a military world, hero willing to sacrifice everything for what is right. Daniel sees so much when he looks at others, but almost nothing of himself. I find this fascinating and endearing. His capacity for caring seems to extend just as much to complete strangers as to the adopted family he has been throw into (SG-1 wasn't his choice in the beginning, not that he doesn't love them unconditionally). Oh, yeah. And he's drop dead gorgeous. And talk about a character that changed over the seasons. I find his transformation from somewhat hapless civilian guy to ascended guy to weary vet guy to shooting first and asking questions later guy fascinating. (Although, I do have something to say about the 'take a hot guy and put him in glasses to make him a geek' thing. :P)
So, big time Daniel fan. I think 'Crystal Skull' may be one of my favorite eps ever, and I have cued up 'Watergate' far too many times just to hear him say, "But it's Swiss!" Hahaha. But lately I've been thinking about how I use Daniel in my writing, particularly in my Sam/Jack fics. Because he is usually there in some capacity. I think this links back to the main reason I consider myself a shipper. I am interested in relationships. And I find the relationship between Sam and Daniel and Jack and Daniel just as fascinating, and pertinent, romantic or not. If my fanon is that Jack loves Sam and Sam loves Jack, that doesn't belittle or change what they feel for Daniel (yes, yes, I can hear the rowdy OT3 crowd catcalling in the back. :P) I find the dynamic between any two people in the team interesting and worthy of exploring in fic. So it sort of feels wrong (or empty) to have a fic without the rest. (Though Teal'c, poor neglected Teal'c...I fail him far too often in my writing. A topic for another day perhaps.)
Anyway, so maybe this fascination with relationship dynamics leads me to include Daniel a lot of the time. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I tend to use Daniel in two specific ways. First off, one of my main ficcish predilections is the use of third party POV. I love using Daniel to observe my pairing. I'm sure this is linked to some sort of voyeuristic fetish. (I absolutely love
rowan_d's A Simple Change. This is a great example of using Daniel to observe Sam and Jack, but also demonstrating a great deal of respect and care for Daniel's own feelings. He isn't just instantly ecstatic, but has real feelings of jealousy, happiness and a little bit of abandonment. One of my favorite examples of this type of fic.) Daniel makes a particularly great choice for an observer because he's an anthropologist, a student of humanity (even though Teal'c is the real standing back observer of the group. Anyone know of any S/J fic in Teal'c perspective? I really want to read some).
The second main way I use Daniel in my S/J fics is a bit more problematic. I have used him as the 'matchmaker' to some extent. I say this is problematic because I can't really believe Daniel would ever push the situation. Do I think he is aware of the S/J subtext? Yes. But I just find him being overly invested in getting them together out of character. But I still have him address the situation with either Sam or Jack at times. It's a fine line to walk and I'm not sure how successful I have ever been. I used Daniel as quasi-matchmaker in Out of Context, Egeria's Legacy, and AU Daniel in String Theory. I like this because sometimes it feels like Sam and/or Jack get so far into their heads that they can't see what is going on right in front of them and they need someone on the outside to shock them out of it, whether directly or indirectly.
So these are the reasons I love Daniel and include him in most of my S/J fics. What do you guys think? What are your preferences?