oh come on!

[thingswithwings]

I'm eventually going to have to remake that vid, aren't I? MY GOOD GOD.

very spoilery pictures for SGA 5x15.

Comments

[fiercelydreamed]

This may be one of those times that I state the obvious because I'm writing this while throwing breakfast together and don't have time to stop and realize that it is, in fact, the obvious. But regarding what TPTB think they're doing: thinking over the last five seasons, it seems like almost every time John Sheppard's put on his knees, what the bad guys are actually trying to subordinate is:
1) his mind (they want in), and/or
2) his free will (they want him to do something he doesn't want to do).

I can't think of a time he's tossed to his knees because someone just wants to fuck him up physically while he's down there. If they threaten to harm him or kill him, it's mostly as part of the tactic to break him down. Even the Wraith don't generally want to feed on him -- they will, but only if they can't get what they really want. This is an extension of the mind>body duality you discussed above, and the writers/directors seem to be deliberately treating the hero's physical subordination as the way to soften him up (at least, so the bad guys hope) for mental subordination.

So this gives us two take-home messages, neither of which I imagine TPTB explicitly set out to frame, but both of which are pretty clear and consistent:
1) The body is the weak link you exploit to get to the mind.
2) The highest-stakes risk for Our Heroic Male (oh John Sheppard) is mental subjugation. No one is be interested in subjugating his body for its own sake.

Want to get creeped out by the gender politics? Contrast this with Teyla or Elizabeth, who are rarely put on their knees or in similarly sexual positions of impending subordination (for which, show, I thank you), but whose bodies people seek to transform or hijack all the f'in' time. Granted, this isn't something the male characters are spared (c.f. John Sheppard in Conversion and The Long Goodbye), but overwhelmingly, that's the major threat to our female leads other than simple death.

It'd be interesting to do a thorough analysis of the patterns of threats, damage, and violence that the characters receive -- when it's physical, when it's mental, when it's one in service of the other, and whether it breaks down along gendered lines. I'm thinking, for example, the ongoing Elizabeth-->Replicator plots that start in S3, the Teyla-->Wraith plots that start in S1, the many times that Rodney either augments and/or starts to lose his mind, all the John Sheppard imperilment, the Michael plotline (starting with what is done to him and extending to what he tries to do), the Ronon vs. Wraith plots, the Ford-->enzyme addict plots ...