Discussion: Every Fight is a Fight For Your Life by liviapenn; Gen

[lunabee34]

This is the discussion post for liviapenn's Every Fight is a Fight For Your Life, a Sora-centric gen piece that's rated PG-13.

Let's make this inaugural conversation a good one, y'all!

Comments

[lunabee34]

First let me say how much I enjoyed reading this fic. I like many kinds of stories, but some of my favorite stories are stories in which not much happens except the exploration of character. I am also extremely partial to stories that slide neatly into canon, stories that offer new and exciting ways of thinking about the bits that canon often elides.

Sora is a fascinating subject for a piece like this. I've often wondered what happened to her after she was taken into custody. Unless I'm mistaken, she's never mentioned again after that episode. I don't know if the show intends for us to assume that she's still a prisoner on Atlantis or perhaps the Alpha site (which seems highly unlikely and impractical to me) or that they released her at some point to Radim's new regime. In any case, I appreciate a delve into her psyche as well as some nice outsider perspective on our favorite characters.

I love how Sora paints the Lanteans' actions with her own Genii perspective. She assumes that Rodney might torture her even though Elizabeth assured her she wouldn't be tortured because that's a distinct possiblity in Genii prisons. perhaps McKay had his own followers, his own faction, and certainly there would be some soldiers who would follow him, if only to get payback for their fallen comrades. This is an interesting look at the tenuous nature of Genii politics. Sora has a really difficult time believing that the Atlantis expedition works of one accord.

I also really like that this story is very much about masquerade. Who is the real Sora? She has so many personas, which one can we say actually belongs to her? I like that Teyla realizes Sora is pretending to be something she's not, only she thinks it has to do with Sora's gender and with power dynamics.

Finally, I enjoy that Sora is not entirely comfortable with any of her roles except for that of simple farm girl. She is uncomfortable in her own skin and unable to make sense of herself now that the necessity for these personas is gone.

My one criticism for this piece is that fandom has taught me to expect things in fives. :) This is super arbitrary, I know, LOL but I would have liked this to be the five people Sora encounters in Atlantis.

[sholio]

Unless I'm mistaken, she's never mentioned again after that episode. I don't know if the show intends for us to assume that she's still a prisoner on Atlantis or perhaps the Alpha site (which seems highly unlikely and impractical to me) or that they released her at some point to Radim's new regime.

Apparently there was a cut scene in Siege where they traded her back to the Genii for the nukes. Now that it's been cut, of course, it isn't canon, but I really wish they'd left it in, because it would have provided closure for her story. As it is, I sometimes imagine that she's doing a "man in the iron mask" thing down in the bowels of Atlantis, and every once in a while they'll look at each other on a mission and go, "Hey, has anyone fed Sora lately?" "Oh ... dammit."

[lunabee34]

Oh, wow. I wish they'd left that cut scene in or just added a line of dialogue to explain because that whole story arc is just left hanging. And it's such a good one.

Heeeeeee re: your vision of Sora. I can see her in an In the Mouth of Madness incarnation with the gate symbols home carved all over the floor and scratched into her skin.

[liviapenn]

Thanks for your comments! I sort of replied to a lot of the discussion in a batch comment here.