Canon vs. Fanon, part 15: Daniel's glasses
(Hah, Aurora! Told you I'd get this done by the end of January! Just squeaking in, mind you, but it still qualifies!)
Welcome to the next edition of Canon vs. Fanon! There are a lot of recent newcomers to my flist, and you're all most welcome. I hope you'll drop a comment to say hello, and please feel free to agree or disagree with what you read here - as far as I'm concerned, the discussions that evolve in the comments are much more interesting than the posts themselves. :) If you're new to this series, you can search the canon vs fanon tags or follow the links in the LJ Index to find the earlier sections.
Originally, this entire essay was supposed to be only a section within a larger post. But it turned out to be longer than expected - what else is new? - so Daniel's glasses get a Canon vs. Fanon post of their own.
Here we go, then: How nearsighted is Daniel? And how often are his glasses a victim of circumstance?
Quick recap: Canon is defined as anything directly shown during Stargate: The Movie or episodes of the show; show supersedes movie when there's a contradiction. (I've sort of run out of examples of contradictions by now, sorry!) Fanon is defined as widely-accepted concepts that appear in fanfic, but do not have any real basis in canon. The purpose of these posts is not to mock or denigrate the writers who use fanon, but to point out what is fanon; after all, it's often hard to tell!
We begin with the most common fanon tropes, compare them to the reality of canon, and arrive at a (hopefully unbiased) conclusion on how much fanon has drifted from the actual show.
Daniel is very, very nearsighted, to the point where he gets bad headaches and is nearly incapacitated if he's forced to go without them for long periods.
Daniel works in a field that demands good eyesight, even as the painstaking nature of it causes plenty of eyestrain. It only stands to reason, then, that Daniel would wear glasses to ensure he could properly read alien and ancient scripts and properly interpret their meaning and nuances. When he's reading, typing, or studying, his glasses are invariably firmly in place. But that doesn't mean he has to wear his glasses to see three feet in front of him, as the following episodes from the first two seasons show:
TBFTGOG. Daniel spends a great deal of time in the alternate universe with his glasses off, but any time he needs to see something properly - for example, when he sits down at an available computer to do a search for his own name - the glasses go back on.
The Gamekeeper. Daniel is probably quite happy to have things just a little out of focus at the post-briefing, even if it turns out that they're still trapped.
Secrets. At the pre-mission briefing, Daniel is not wearing his glasses. He puts them on for the journey to Abydos, but he removes them again shortly thereafter, when he retreats outside the tent to sulk. They stay off when he returns to comfort Sha're and discuss the possible options with her and Kasuf. Daniel's wearing them again when they try to take Sha're through the Stargate, and when she first goes into labor, but he takes them off again after that - which means he had no trouble delivering his wife's baby without glasses!
Message in a Bottle. Daniel, exhausted and bleary-eyed, takes off his glasses after staying awake for nearly 48 hours. It's only when he's squinting at the computer screen, suddenly alert to a new possibility - that the orb is trying to communicate - that he puts his glasses back on.
Other episodes in later seasons follow the trend, but this should be enough, I think. Feel free to suggest further examples in the comments!
Conclusion: While Daniel certainly needs his glasses to read and type, and he does better with his glasses than without them, his eyesight seems to be good enough to get around without them if necessary.
Daniel's friends and teammates keep spare pairs of glasses around for Daniel, because they're always getting lost or broken; whenever Daniel gets knocked out and captured by an enemy, the team invariably finds his abandoned/damaged/broken glasses left behind.
From reading fanfic, you might expect Daniel to go through a dozen pairs of glasses every season. Every enemy, from random Goa'uld to angry natives, deprive Daniel of his glasses as a matter of course; it's routine for another member of SG-1 to find his cracked or shattered glasses underfoot after he's been abducted by the current villain. But how often does Daniel really lose or damage his glasses?
Let's take a look at the canonical numbers:
COTG. Included for the sake of completion. When Jack, Sam, Kawalsky, and Ferretti return to Abydos, Daniel's glasses are held together with either twine or tape. Speaking as a glasses-wearer, I'm a lot more concerned about the condition of the lenses after eighteen-odd months in a sandy environment.
Broca Divide. Daniel loses his glasses when he's snatched by the Touched; Teal'c finds them, and gravely returns them when Daniel comes back to himself.
Fire and Water. Daniel awakens in Nem's underwater lab without his glasses.
Tin Man. Also included for the sake of completion, because the real Daniel doesn't lose his glasses at all. It is a bit strange, though, that robot!Daniel never seemed to notice that his glasses were missing and that his eyesight was apparently perfect anyway - at least, not until they realized they were robots.
Need. Daniel's glasses (and body) are badly damaged when he's caught in a rock fall. Shyla offers him the glasses, complete with cracked lens, and he wears them anyway. After the second sarcophagus hot wash, though, he no longer needs them, and presumably tosses them away.
Holiday. Included for the sake of completion. The glasses stayed with Daniel's body; unfortunately, Daniel didn't.
Out of Mind/Into the Fire. Daniel wakes up in Hathor's mock SGC without his glasses, and remains glassesless throughout the two-parter.
Legacy. Included for the sake of completion. "They took away my glasses in case I broke the lenses and, uh, tried to... hurt myself." When Jack brings him back to the SGC, though, they've been returned.
The Devil You Know. Apophis swipes Daniel's glasses when he administers the Blood of Sokar. Meanie.
Foothold. Included for the sake of completion, because by rights, the lobster impersonating Daniel ought to have taken his glasses. But since lobster!Daniel switches from sunglasses to regular glasses effortlessly, and when Sam wears the Daniel disc she has glasses and when she takes it off she doesn't, yet the glasses are apparently part of the disguise and can still be handled as a separate physical object... I'm going to just quietly shuffle this one under the rug, thank you.
New Ground. The Bedrosians confiscate Daniel's sunglasses when SG-1 is first taken captive. Fortunately, he has a spare pair in a pocket of his vest so he can see what he's doing when he dials the DHD at the end of the episode.
ETA: I stand corrected on this one! Those aren't separate glasses and sunglasses, but a single pair of glasses with clip-on shades. Either they made him take them off but let them keep them in his pocket, or (and it seems more likely to me) his glasses were kept with the other confiscated equipment on the table in the tent, and he snatched them back when they made a break for it. The rescue scene cuts away from him a second too quickly to tell.
The First Ones. Chaka knocks Daniel's glasses off when he clubs him into unconsciousness.
Beneath the Surface. Daniel's glasses were taken at the same time he was mind-stamped.
The Light. Included for the sake of completion. They're in such a tearing hurry to get Daniel back through the Gate that they don't bother to stop for his glasses, but Hammond ships them over as soon as Daniel asks for them.
Meridian. Daniel loses his glasses when he dives through the lab window on Kelowna.
Meridian/Season Six/Reckoning/Threads. It's an interesting look at Daniel's psyche to see that no matter what clothing he visualizes for himself - the Existential Sweater ™, Abydon robes, even awful green shirts that we can hopefully blame on Oma - he pictures himself without glasses. Reckoning is a bit iffy, in that Replicarter put him into the Vis Uban scenario, where he didn't have his glasses; still, even after he breaks through her illusion, he still isn't wearing them. In Shifu's vision, in Absolute Power, he apparently gets laser surgery or some such, since he's not wearing glasses then, either. Sha're, on the other hand, visualizes glasses as very much part of her husband, as we see in Forever In a Day; and so does Teal'c, who definitely pictures a pair of glasses on the face of Doctor Daniel Jackson, hospital psychiatrist, in Changeling.
Lifeboat. When Daniel first wakes from the download, his glasses are gone.
Evolution. Daniel loses his glasses in the frantic swim to the surface after they recover the Fountain of Youth.
Icon. Daniel loses his glasses in the explosion that nearly takes his eyesight.
Prometheus Unbound. Vala stows Daniel's glasses somewhere when she first zats him. When Daniel gains the upper hand, he also regains his glasses, although he prudently doesn't wear them when he's impersonating "Hans Olo" with the aliens.
Moebius. Included for the sake of completion. AU Daniel loses his glasses when the team is captured with a flash grenade. Also, his vision is apparently a lot worse than regular Daniel's, considering the amount of squinting he does when he tries to talk to Teal'c in the dungeons on Chulak. On the bright side, though, he seems to have bypassed the allergy problem entirely.
Season Nine spoiler! The Ties That Bind. Vala hops onto Daniel's desk and manages to sit squarely on his glasses, breaking them.
Season Ten spoiler! The Quest, part 2/The Shroud. After Daniel takes the download and passes out, Vala and Mitchell remove his glasses. He doesn't get them back until he's reverted post-Shroud. End spoilers.
Just for the fun of it, here are the times when Daniel ought to be wearing his glasses, but isn't:
Within the Serpent's Grasp. Going on a black ops mission without perfect vision isn't my idea of a good move. Possibly he was wearing contact lenses and the Goa'uld flash grenade damaged them, forcing him to revert to glasses? That's only guessing. What we do know is that he went through the Gate without glasses, but put them on in The Serpent's Lair after he got his eyesight back.
Prisoners. At Jack's behest, Daniel spends his time on Hadante without his glasses. It doesn't help him avoid getting assaulted, though.
Upgrades. Included for the sake of completion. Daniel's glasses disappear when the Atenik armband kicks in.
The Curse. He's driving through the blinding Egyptian desert with his (possibly prescription) sun-goggles slung around his neck instead of fitted over his eyes. Don't ask me.
Double Jeopardy. The absence of glasses, like the longer hair just barely visible under the bandana and Teal'c's use of a firearm instead of his staff weapon, are good hints that the SG-1 team that first appears on Juno aren't the SG-1 team that we think they are.
Summit/Last Stand. We see Daniel actually putting in contact lenses - the only time in the series we actually witness this. It does suggest, however, that on other occasions when Daniel goes undercover, he is probably wearing contact lenses, too.
Season Nine and Ten spoilers! Avalon/Origin. The absence of glasses is because while we're seeing Daniel on our screens, he's actually occupying someone else's body. Interestingly, when Vala occupies Daniel's body in Crusade, she doesn't bother with the glasses - even though Daniel's body presumably still needed them to see properly. Perhaps Daniel really could have used his glasses in Avalon/Origin, but couldn't get hold of them in his out-of-body experience?
The Ties That Bind/Off the Grid/Company of Thieves. Per Summit/Last Stand, Daniel was probably in contact lenses when he went undercover. And I find it a little depressing that Daniel went undercover only once in eight seasons (well, twice if you include SG-1's temporary impersonation of priests in Bloodlines), but had to do it three times in the last two. Sloppy writing, that.
Flesh and Blood. Daniel ditches his glasses to complete his disguise as an Ori soldier on the Ori ship. End of Season Nine and Ten spoilers.
This doesn't include times when Daniel has his glasses propped on his forehead or tucked into the neck of his shirt for no apparent reason other than that the actor really doesn't need glasses and tends to think of them as a prop rather than a necessity. :) Nor does it include episodes when Daniel pulled off his glasses momentarily - from exhaustion, frustration, and the like. And while it doesn't fit any of the patterns, 2010 intrigues me; despite all the technological advances of the Aschen, Daniel is still wearing glasses. And I find it just a bit creepy that the frames he's wearing would actually fit today's styles rather nicely. Nice projecting, there, props people!
Let's look at the totals, then:
Daniel lost his glasses twice in Season One (Broca Divide, Fire and Water), once in Season Two (Out of Mind), once in Season Three (The Devil You Know), twice in Season Four (The First Ones, Beneath the Surface), once in Season Five (Meridian), twice in Season Seven (Lifeboat, Evolution), and twice in Season Eight (Icon, Prometheus Unbound) for a total of eleven times in nine seasons. (Season Six isn't counted, since he had no glasses to lose.)
Daniel had his glasses broken twice, in Need and in The Ties That Bind. (Whether you consider the latter to be a hostile act of an enemy depends on your opinion of Vala.)
Daniel's abandoned glasses were found after abduction only once, in Broca Divide.
A look at the numbers shows that on many of the occasions when Daniel is deliberately deprived of his glasses, it's an all-inclusive thing: all of his equipment is taken, as in Fire and Water or New Ground or Lifeboat or Prometheus Unbound. The other trope of Daniel losing his glasses when he's under attack does happen with slightly more frequency: the Touched and Chaka knock them off his face when they knock him off his feet, they are lost in the flurry in Meridian and Evolution and Icon, and they are broken by the rock fall in Need. They are deliberately removed to perpetuate a ruse in Out of Mind and Beneath the Surface, although I don't think I've read any fanfic that uses that motive. Yet the most popular fanon usage of Daniel losing his glasses - the villain deliberately taking them away, either to unnerve Daniel or to demonstrate power over him - is never used during the entire series. The closest we get is Daniel losing his glasses on Netu when Apophis administers the Blood of Sokar, and that might have been more a case of their being lost in the scuffle than a deliberate act. That is also the only time that a Goa'uld takes Daniel's glasses away; yet to read fanfic, you would think that it's the first act of aggression that any Goa'uld takes whenever he takes SG-1 prisoner (after forcing them to their knees, of course).
Conclusion: While Daniel did lose his glasses once or twice a season, it is hardly inevitable that it happens, especially when captured by the Goa'uld. In addition, Daniel's glasses broke only twice in the entire series, and his lost glasses were discovered post-abduction by a teammate only once. Writers should take note of the actual frequency and adjust their stories accordingly.
My personal fanon opinion? I've always seen Daniel as near-sighted, although I've probably thought of his prescription as being stronger than it actually is. My own glasses prescription is relatively powerful, but even my daughter, whose prescription is half my own, wouldn't be able to manage as easily as Daniel can without glasses. Part of it, to break the fourth wall, is because Daniel is played by Michael Shanks, who doesn't need glasses; and, for example, reaches out without hesitation to pick up his glasses from where someone else put them in TBFTGOG. If I'd been a similar situation, I would've been groping around for a good two minutes; as it is, I often call my kids into the room to find my glasses for me! But if we ignore the MS aspect - and I do prefer it that way! - then we have to accept that yes, Daniel is nearsighted - but while he wouldn't voluntary deprive himself of them, he can usually manage without his glasses when he needs to do so.
Regarding Daniel losing his glasses through misfortune or deliberate sadism: many writers have their villains swipe Daniel's glasses in a deliberate effort to increase Daniel's discomfort, and that always seems odd to me. The perception of glasses representing a sign of weakness is Terran-centric. To be honest, I would expect spectacles to be found elsewhere in the galaxy; after all, they've been around on Earth in their present incarnation for over 700 years, and the concept dates back for close to a millennium. But since glasses are apparently unknown outside our little planet, why would the bad guys automatically associate them with the notion of weakness? Jack, in Prisoners, removes Daniel's glasses as a precaution; but why would the denizens define Daniel's glasses as a symbol of frailty or weakness, rather than, say, a totem of authority or power? Perhaps Daniel had the chance to explain this to Jack afterwards, which is why he doesn't try to take away Daniel's glasses before they make planetfall on Netu.
There's great drama in discovering Daniel's shattered glasses, with dismayed and determined looks exchanged by the rest of the team. But please do remember: it happened once, in the very beginning of the first season. And while Daniel does lose his glasses eleven times over the course of ten seasons, it's still not an everyday occurrence. So use these tropes sparingly, and with caution!
"Anyway, I'm sorry, but that just happens to be how I feel about it. What do you think?"
