It's Like Watching Children Juggling Flamethrowers, Isn't It?
Wow. Just--wow. I'm--okay, well, first of all, I'm sorry to confess that I continue to be more horrified by the acting than the morality, but you're not going to change my essential nature! Being a drama queen is not a disease! You can't--wait, sorry, channelling Michael, who continues to act everybody else the fuck off the screen. Weirdly, I thought Flanigan acted better in his tough-command decision mode than he did in his 'banter with Elizabeth' mode*, and when you're being out-acted by Torri Higgenson, god help you, really.
I'm also still horrified by the stupid, more than the politics--we open wormholes to earth on a dime now? You left Beckett and a couple of guards alone with 200 wraith and a nuclear weapon? (Did John Sheppard never play Resident Evil??!) What happened to the other hive ship at the end? Where's the NUKE??--do you really want to leave that lying around somewhere?? (as dsudis put it in chat: "Because you definitely want your angry, betrayed Wraith enemy to also be a nuclear power.") How could you not know if you hit anything? How bout some recon there, buddy, huh? Are we supposed to believe that the Wraith still don't know about Atlantis? Auditor!dude decides that everything on Atlantis is tickety-boo (?!!) and--I'm so sorry that this ticked me off more than anything, but it did--he decides this by patronizingly giving Elizabeth credit for John Sheppard's decision. ("I'm sure you would have thought of it dear," *pat, pat*) thus implying that's she's a Sheppard-puppet and that it's Sheppard's excellent (*coughcoughcoughhackcough*) leadership that's really being rewarded. I mean, the gender politics of that really do make me want to break something.
That being said, I'm going to go against the flow and say that my favorite moments were Sheppard's "Kill them all" scenes--first asking Rodney to blow the nuke (I love that we're just World O' Nukes, like we have 'em in the fridge for, like parties; "Honey, bring out the nukes, the Richardsons are coming over!") and then asking Rodney to fire on the planet and kill everybody--and Rodney does it both times**, and Ronon's right there with it, backin' up ol' John. I mean, yes, do not get me wrong--it's kind of horrifying as applied to any real world scenario whatsoever***, but as a fanficcer, well, way to show your team is a unified group of tightly-knit, mutually implicated badasses. And I can work with that.
It's like--the worst, most addictive badfic ever. I mean, it's beyond guilty pleasure--I might actually hit the back button, and then go back, and peek, and then hit the back button again. I'm not doom and gloom about it, but then again, I'm like--canon! it's what's for raw material! I am entirely capable of taking what I want out of it and tossing the rest, at least until they aggressively shut down all my most pleasurable readings or insult me as a fan.****
*I've seen this banter described as air quotes flirting, but I seriously thought it was one of the gayest things I've ever seen, and this from metrosexual!Flanigan yet. What the hell was he playing? I mean, in a way, I continue to be charmed by JF's Sheppard--okay, fine, not charmed, madly infatuated with, shutttttup!!--because everything he says implies its opposite: he says everything with so much irony that he couldn't undo it more if he held up a sign saying "Do Not Believe A Word I'm Saying." That's what makes it so gay, actually; "I wanna knock his block off," (Holds Up Sign: "No, I don't. I really just want a turkey sandwich.) "Because he questioned your decisions." (Sign: "Yeah, like you made any decisions. And put mustard on that.") "So I guess I can't hit him. (Sign: "Except I will if I want to. Or not. You'll never know. And pickles--pickles are great on a sandwich. I mean, in the sandwich. Sliced.") "This is me flirting with you, Elizabeth." (Sign: "I'm heading for the men's showers now, kthanxbai.")
** Is Rodney Sheppard-whipped or WHAT???!
***And I mean any real world scenario. Please to not apply terrible badfic scenarios to any actual political scenario on our planet or any other we might ever ever encounter. Though I mean, actually, this would explain a lot of US foreign policy, really.
****Yes, Aaron Sorkin, I'm talking to you! Yes, I'm still bitter!!