With Bloodied Swords (SGA/SG-1, Cameron Mitchell/John Sheppard, PG-13)

[skieswideopen]

Title: With Bloodied Swords
Author: skieswideopen
Fandom: SG-1/SGA
Pairing: Cam/John
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: They're not mine.
Summary: Fighting the good fight after the Ori invade Earth.
Notes: This is a sequel to Under One Moon. The fic title is from a lovely poem called "Guinevere at Almesbury" by Guy Gavriel Kay, from the collection Beyond This Dark House

Comments

[lirielviridian]

Oh. Oh. Thank you.

This was... ouchy in all the right places, with a well-planned assassination and the fact that of course, of course the Ori would pick up all of Earth's worst ideas. Except of things like gas chambers and work camps, because these are nowhere near flamboyant enough - the bastards would prefer ritual burning with live feed to something only horror stories could be whispered at all

[skieswideopen]

I often it a little troubling--and not just on this show--that the main characters, who are portrayed as good and decent people, manage to do all sorts of horrible (if necessary) things and don't seem to have much of a reaction to it. And yeah, compartmentalization, and you can't have your main characters suffering constant breakdowns, but...hmm, maybe I should peruse some psych journals and see if anyone has done a study on what really happens to people in these situations.

Thanks for reading. :)

[lirielviridian]

For the 'verse you are reading right now, I think that any relations from actions of the Polish Home Army during WWII would serve well. Or any other guerrilla warfare in an occupied country, really.

WWII would probably be best, because it is probably the best-documented, and there is a lot material available from both civilians' and soldiers' POVs alike.

On the topic of basically decent people in such situations - have you read Vonnegut's Mother Night? That's one hell of an insight, I think. And one hell of a moral.

[skieswideopen]

I've read some other Vonnegut, but not Mother Night. I will make a point of looking that up. Thank you.

I've read a little about the Dutch resistance during WWII, and a little about the French. We also covered occupied Poland in a course I took on occupied Europe in undergrad. (My professor expressed great admiration for the way the Polish people managed to maintain their culture under Nazi oppression.) But I think I may take your advice and do some more serious reading since I plan to write more in this 'verse.

[lirielviridian]

Dutch resistance? Care to share some titles I might be interested in? Because it's a topic which didn't get covered much during my history courses. We focused rather on the Eastern European Countries and did a bit on France, but the Dutch? Not so much, which is a pity and which I intend to rectify as soon as I know where to start.

Um. If you're looking for a fictionalized account of basically good people becoming inured to atrocities, you would do well to start with Nalkowska's Medallions, especially Professor Spanner, which deals not only with straight-on killing, but a... betrayal of intellect, of sorts.

Mother Night is wonderful. It made me forgive Vonnegut for treating his readers like idiots in Slaughterhouse 5, and that took some doing. As a matter of fact, even the movie adaptation was good, although changing the ending... I'll let you find it out for yourself, though. It is not something which should be spoiled too much.

[skieswideopen]

Thanks for the titles; I'm making a list. :)

The book I remember best in regards to the Dutch resistance is Corrie ten Boom's autobiographical The Hiding Place. It's a relatively narrow look--focused mainly on her family's efforts to hide Jewish people during the occupation--but consequently it offers quite a bit of detail about that aspect of life in the Netherlands at that time. (I'll warn you that it also has a certain evangelical Christian quality--I don't know how you feel about that--but I found the story compelling regardless and basically overlooked that part except insofar as it give insight into actions.)