In defence of Jonas Quinn
The SG1 fandom lost me before season 6, and it wasn't until after Daniel's retun that I even spared two thoughts together for the unfortunate character who had to replace him for a whole season. Hell, when Jonas showed up and Daniel turned into a giant glowing jellifish, this was supposed to be a permanent solution. Michael Shanks had declared that he was done. No more SG1. Well, we all saw how well that went.
I was most definetly a Danny darling fangirl, so the advent of "Meridan" cued my tactical retreat. I never saw the episode. I lived for a bit in the fanfic world of denial. But then season seven rolled in, and Daniel came back among enthusiastic cheers, and... I ended up falling head first into Harry Potter fandom, which is every bit as soul-sucking as any sci-fi fandom around. I was peripherally aware of Jonas' fictional existance, and that most fans hated him, and that was it.
Recently, I felt an urge to seek him out. Not sure why, actually, but it might have something to do with House M.D. and the Stacy character, who's almost universally hated in fandom, but gets some pretty awsome fanfic workouts.
Jonas, in this respect, is the real underdog. And you have to love the guy who has absolutely everything stacked against him.
Jonas, in fact, never had a chance. From his canonical treatment to the fandom's reaction, you have to wonder what TPTB were even thinking.
First of all, he was introduced in the same episode where Daniel goes glowy. Actually, he's directly responsible (through inaction) for Daniel's Most Heroic Death. There's already a pretty big problem with that.
Fans usually take their cues from their favourite characters. And the rest of SG1 initally stonewalls Jonas, sometimes treats him with outright resentment. Over the course of the season Sam managed to create a good working relationship with him (we see her going to fetch him for lunch quite often), and Teal'c learns to trust him, but Jack never really warms up to him. The only real smile of affection he gives him is when he's leaving SGC and Earth to go back to his planet, after having saved Daniel's life who, by the way, is already back at his geek helm. Geez.
In addition to this, the character was grossly mis- & under-used. They gave him the "eager puppy" character trait, which is the worst card in the deck of character trait cards you can get. It's generally dull and uninteresting, which is exactly what Jonas was accused of being by those fans who could go beyond their "Daniel-replacement" rage.
Which is stupid, really, because he actually had other things going for him that could have made him a pretty interesting guy, but they were always just touched upon, and never explored.
He was considered a traitor on his planet, and knew that he could never go back, but we know almost nothing of what he left behind. This is explored a bit in the episode "Shadow Play", but outside of it it's almost as if it doesn't exist. It's never mentioned and hell, it couldn't have been easy to live with something like that.
(Continued in the next post)
I was most definetly a Danny darling fangirl, so the advent of "Meridan" cued my tactical retreat. I never saw the episode. I lived for a bit in the fanfic world of denial. But then season seven rolled in, and Daniel came back among enthusiastic cheers, and... I ended up falling head first into Harry Potter fandom, which is every bit as soul-sucking as any sci-fi fandom around. I was peripherally aware of Jonas' fictional existance, and that most fans hated him, and that was it.
Recently, I felt an urge to seek him out. Not sure why, actually, but it might have something to do with House M.D. and the Stacy character, who's almost universally hated in fandom, but gets some pretty awsome fanfic workouts.
Jonas, in this respect, is the real underdog. And you have to love the guy who has absolutely everything stacked against him.
Jonas, in fact, never had a chance. From his canonical treatment to the fandom's reaction, you have to wonder what TPTB were even thinking.
First of all, he was introduced in the same episode where Daniel goes glowy. Actually, he's directly responsible (through inaction) for Daniel's Most Heroic Death. There's already a pretty big problem with that.
Fans usually take their cues from their favourite characters. And the rest of SG1 initally stonewalls Jonas, sometimes treats him with outright resentment. Over the course of the season Sam managed to create a good working relationship with him (we see her going to fetch him for lunch quite often), and Teal'c learns to trust him, but Jack never really warms up to him. The only real smile of affection he gives him is when he's leaving SGC and Earth to go back to his planet, after having saved Daniel's life who, by the way, is already back at his geek helm. Geez.
In addition to this, the character was grossly mis- & under-used. They gave him the "eager puppy" character trait, which is the worst card in the deck of character trait cards you can get. It's generally dull and uninteresting, which is exactly what Jonas was accused of being by those fans who could go beyond their "Daniel-replacement" rage.
Which is stupid, really, because he actually had other things going for him that could have made him a pretty interesting guy, but they were always just touched upon, and never explored.
He was considered a traitor on his planet, and knew that he could never go back, but we know almost nothing of what he left behind. This is explored a bit in the episode "Shadow Play", but outside of it it's almost as if it doesn't exist. It's never mentioned and hell, it couldn't have been easy to live with something like that.
(Continued in the next post)