Fandom character meme!
Leave the name of a character/person from a fandom you know I'm in, and I will tell you--
* How I FEEEEEL about this character
* All the people I ship romantically with this character
* My non-romantic OTP for this character
...* My unpopular opinion about this character
* One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon
I ( Read more... )
* How I FEEEEEL about this character
* All the people I ship romantically with this character
* My non-romantic OTP for this character
...* My unpopular opinion about this character
* One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon
I ( Read more... )
I've been thinking about this one all day! Okay, here goes...
1. I am often baffled by my feelings for John Sheppard. I think this comes from not being able to pin down the character very easily. On the one hand, you have this very affable, easy-going, dorky guy who "never sees it coming", in terms of romance and, you know, life; but on the other hand you have this guy who can be the total opposite of all that: Scary, unyielding and calculating. I would like to think this is because he's a complex character and yay writer but...I am in the SGA fandom. I so know better than to think that. I assume that my frustrations with the character are due to poor writing and development, even after 5 years of show. There's a joke in the fandom that after 5 years we know only 3 concrete things about John Sheppard and he told them to us in the pilot (that he likes football, Ferris wheels and things that go over 200 mph)! And that is only a *slight* exaggeration.
2. McShep (John/Rodney McKay) is my OTP for SGA, but a very close second is John/Cameron Mitchell. Mmm flyboys. I also shipped John/Teyla Emmagan during the early seasons, when the show seemed to be going in that direction. I'm also down for some Team!fic OT4s and OT3s too. Hottest. Team. Ever. Oh, and John/Ronon Dex. So hot, so laconic, so quiet!
3. Honestly, same as ships, just with no romo. Wow, haven't used that since X-Files fandom! lol Oh, John/Elizabeth Weir too. I hate, hate, hate that romance pairing (ugh, "Sparky"), but totally am okay with them as friends. I liked their dynamic which was basically older!sister/little!brother-ly.
4. *takes a breath* Okay, here it is: I often thing that John is a complete asshole. And not a lovable one, just a regular one. I'm so afraid to say this in SGA fandom. The fandom will criticize all characters willy-nilly, but don't you DARE talk shit about the Golden Foursome--even when they totally deserve it. It's so frustrating! Selective character blindness does not make you a good fangirl! You can love or like a character w/o glossing over or handwaving away their shady bits.
So, one good example. Or maybe two. First, the ep where John's dad dies and he has to go back to Earth for the funeral. The first thing his brother asks him is if he's back because of the will. All the fans are like "OMG WE HATZ YOU, DAVE SHEPPARD!!" Even though his own ex-wife (also not beloved in fandom for similar reasons) says in the ep that NO ONE has seen or heard from him in YEARS and that even she stayed in touch with his family after the divorce. And when relatives show up out of the blue at a funeral, it is usually about money and rarely good. I don't blame Dave ONE. BIT. for being suspicious.
He can also be a misogynistic asshole. I will only say watch the ep/scene where Teyla tells him that she's pregnant. I was actually really uncomfortable watching that scene. It felt threatening. And she looked nearly scared in it. Unpredictably, it caused a big divide in the fandom. Those of us who were like OMGWTFJOHN!? and those who were like "it's his military-ness and justifiable!" I'm not saying all of the fandom is like this...just. A lot is. Or they recognize how potentially sociopathic he is/might be and just roll with it. Though there is some really, really awesome dark!fic out there that does amazing things with that concept.
5. God, where to begin. How about some backstory, TPTB? Or focus on *inner* stuff? Or character growth/change? Or at least offering up some sort of explanation for his behaviors that very clearly spoke of something needing to be talked about. Like, gee, why doesn't John like to be touched? Why does everything about him seem like a studied facade? Why has he not had a relationship, or attempt at one, for the last 5 years??
Uh...I am going to assume that you are very, very sorry that you chose this character. I'm soooo sorry!!! *is ashamed*
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I mainly asked because I do see him as a really enigmatic and complex character, in a way that's sort of accidental - just, bad conception and writing, and weird casting with Flanagan that actually ends up being more interesting than it would have been with nearly any other actor, because J.F. has such an odd, dorky energy and takes the character to some subversive places, I think. And then this intersection with an extremely smart and meta fandom means that the character got analyzed in really interesting ways, and...yeah, IDK, but it fascinates me.
So, thank you! Because I'm always interested to see what people have to say about Sheppard.
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Also, I am *very* interested in your feelings about John. I totally agree that most of what we like and/or love about John Sheppard (which is really the *possibilities* with the character) would not be possible w/o Joe's performance. I think he *saved* the character, honestly. The writing is so often fail with his character that he has had a totally uphill battle with having so little to work with.
I often say that SGA is unique in that it's a hyper-literate and smart fandom that surrounds a very mediocre show. I am so amazed by what this fandom does with so little. But that's also what makes it such a pot of gold for fic writers. It's like a bucket of Legos! This could be why I don't often feel compelled to read fic for shows that I think are well-done and complex on their own--like LOST or BSG or Alias.
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