Yeah. There's a reason that the McShep dynamic of choice post season 5 is pining!John/cluless!Rodney. The way he acted in that particular scene was way too easy to read as jealous.
Definitely! It was no doubt meant to read that way, but John was so prissy about it so it's easy to take it in a slashy direction. Me, I just work with the assumption that John is weird about losing friends and go on shipping him with other people. ;)
Maybe there was an element of John having assumed that he wasn't really at risk of ever losing Rodney's attention in Atlantis. (Not terribly flattering to John, but not completely inconsistent with how the character was portrayed.)
I'm going to chalk it up to jealousy that Rodney gets to spent time with his girlfriend on Atlantis, while John rarely gets to see Cam.
I do think it could be like that. He didn't take it well when Teyla and Ronon considered leaving the team either, her to be a mother, him to be with his old friends. It's perfectly possible that he always thought that it would be the four of them against the universe forever, and he's having problems accepting that it's in the process of changing. He's at that age too, when being single is starting to feel like it'll be permanent (especially since he's already been married once). It goes a long way towards explaining why he was so desperate in his dealings with both Larrin and that shorts-wearing botanist.
Poor John. I wish he wasn't such a fail-bot in my head. :/
Frankly, they weren't always very good at consistent characterization on SGA. Or explaining how someone could become a major or lieutenant colonel while being that emotionally immature.
I like the John in my head better. I can selectively edit things that way. Because if I go with the on-screen John without ignoring anything, then I start to think maybe Cam can do better. ETA: Although there's probably some fic to be found in John addressing his own insecurities while in a relationship with Cam. Because really, he does seem terribly insecure in personal relationships. Unless, of course, you watch him with Mitch and Dex, when he's all relaxed. But maybe that's how he wanted things to be, rather than how they were?
(BTW, do you remember ever seeing something where Joe Flanigan said he thought Sheppard was gay. Someone said they'd seen it, but couldn't remember where.)
I've always thought of Mitch and Dex as anomalies, not because John's relaxed with them, but because they're so different from the people John seems to choose to surround himself with. From his recollection of them, they seem to be such... dude-bros. But I guess that's war zones for you; you make friends you wouldn't otherwise. Holland was more serious, and I think they might have been tighter too? But I guess he got to know him later on, after having lost Mitch and Dex already. Maybe he was more like them then, or maybe he wasn't.
Hmm, I don't remember him saying that, at least not seriously. If you read the con reports, there's a lot of innuendo and joking around. If we were to take everything the actors say there as truth, John is fucking Todd. ;) I don't think Flanigan's ever really seriously talked about John's sexuality as such.
I think John's social skills are one of the most inconsistent things. Because on the one hand, you have Mitch and Dex (who may, as you say, be anomalies), plus things like the first meeting with the Athosians and his birthday gift for Elizabeth, which was done pretty smoothly, as I recall. Not a lot of awkwardness there. But then you have his interactions with women he finds attractive (and I like your explanation for why he's so awkward and desperate, btw) and his petulance whenever he might lose a teammate to real life, and I don't know. Maybe he changed as he got older? Or maybe, as you say, in a war zone you work with what you've got? Or maybe he's better at putting on a front in some situations than others?
I've always thought that he is good with people in every situation except romantic ones (which is why he's usually pretty good at mild flirting too - when it's just for fun, there's no pressure). ;) The man is able to handle such different personalities as Rodney, Ronon and Teyla on a daily basis, he seemed to understand Elizabeth really well too, and he was able to befriend both Sam and Woolsey during their times on Atlantis. I think he's actually really good at being a friend.
As for romantic relationships, maybe the divorce made him lose confidence in himself on that front? He seemed to primarily blame himself for the end of their marriage. My guess is that he wants to find someone, but he's convinced he's going to fuck it all up, just the way he did with Nancy. That could also tie into his weird possessiveness issues with his team.
Sorry, got sucked into visiting the Lindt factory outlet and putting up our tree.
So yes, I think you're right. John is mostly good with people unless it's serious-romantic. And I'm interested in the possibility that he lost confidence after Nancy. There could be interesting fic in that.
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I'm going to chalk it up to jealousy that Rodney gets to spent time with his girlfriend on Atlantis, while John rarely gets to see Cam.
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Poor John. I wish he wasn't such a fail-bot in my head. :/
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I like the John in my head better. I can selectively edit things that way. Because if I go with the on-screen John without ignoring anything, then I start to think maybe Cam can do better. ETA: Although there's probably some fic to be found in John addressing his own insecurities while in a relationship with Cam. Because really, he does seem terribly insecure in personal relationships. Unless, of course, you watch him with Mitch and Dex, when he's all relaxed. But maybe that's how he wanted things to be, rather than how they were?
(BTW, do you remember ever seeing something where Joe Flanigan said he thought Sheppard was gay. Someone said they'd seen it, but couldn't remember where.)
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Hmm, I don't remember him saying that, at least not seriously. If you read the con reports, there's a lot of innuendo and joking around. If we were to take everything the actors say there as truth, John is fucking Todd. ;) I don't think Flanigan's ever really seriously talked about John's sexuality as such.
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Gotcha. That makes sense.
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As for romantic relationships, maybe the divorce made him lose confidence in himself on that front? He seemed to primarily blame himself for the end of their marriage. My guess is that he wants to find someone, but he's convinced he's going to fuck it all up, just the way he did with Nancy. That could also tie into his weird possessiveness issues with his team.
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So yes, I think you're right. John is mostly good with people unless it's serious-romantic. And I'm interested in the possibility that he lost confidence after Nancy. There could be interesting fic in that.
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