Discussion: Every Fight is a Fight For Your Life by liviapenn; Gen

[lunabee34]

This is the discussion post for liviapenn's Every Fight is a Fight For Your Life, a Sora-centric gen piece that's rated PG-13.

Let's make this inaugural conversation a good one, y'all!

Comments

[lunabee34]

First let me say how much I enjoyed reading this fic. I like many kinds of stories, but some of my favorite stories are stories in which not much happens except the exploration of character. I am also extremely partial to stories that slide neatly into canon, stories that offer new and exciting ways of thinking about the bits that canon often elides

[sholio]

Unless I'm mistaken, she's never mentioned again after that episode. I don't know if the show intends for us to assume that she's still a prisoner on Atlantis or perhaps the Alpha site (which seems highly unlikely and impractical to me) or that they released her at some point to Radim's new regime.

Apparently there was a cut scene in Siege where they traded her back to the Genii for the nukes. Now that it's been cut, of course, it isn't canon, but I really wish they'd left it in, because it would have provided closure for her story. As it is, I sometimes imagine that she's doing a "man in the iron mask" thing down in the bowels of Atlantis, and every once in a while they'll look at each other on a mission and go, "Hey, has anyone fed Sora lately?" "Oh ... dammit."

[lunabee34]

Oh, wow. I wish they'd left that cut scene in or just added a line of dialogue to explain because that whole story arc is just left hanging. And it's such a good one.

Heeeeeee re: your vision of Sora. I can see her in an In the Mouth of Madness incarnation with the gate symbols home carved all over the floor and scratched into her skin.

[liviapenn]

Thanks for your comments! I sort of replied to a lot of the discussion in a batch comment here.

[lunabee34]

Ooooh, great insights.

I agree with you that the last two sections worked better than the first. I think that's because as you say, that initial section with Ford is much more subtle than what follows. It's titled Fighter which like all the other section titles serves a dual purpose. We're looking at a Fighter (Ford) but also seeing Sora in that role as well. I think the vignette is about her learning that she is in a situation she simply cannot fight. It's about her relinquishing that role (whereas the last vignette, Killer, is about her having to deal with assuming that role). It's also an uncomfortable section because, as you say, her perception of Ford is skewed based on the treatment she would expect in a Genii prison.

[lyrstzha]

I agree about Rodney's voice. I believed his reaction of hurt and shock when Sora said, ""We don't all spill our guts as easily as you do, McKay"; that part was incisive and fit perfectly for me. And I feel he'd definitely have said something angry in response to that---I just didn't think it would be in precisely that phrasing either.

[sholio]

I'm absolutely with you on Rodney's part in the story; thank you for summing it up so well! Rodney has plenty of flaws, and I actually really like negative outsider views of Rodney because I think most people's impression of him probably is fairly negative, but the trouble is, I didn't feel like the Rodney in this story had the right flaws. The scene itself wasn't really wrong (I mean, I can see it playing out much as it does here) but it's just mildly off, like you said; a few little tweaks to the wording would have nailed it, but as it was, I felt like it missed the mark.

[lyrstzha]

I really like stories told from the POV of minor or underdeveloped characters. For me, that can add a depth and richness to canon when it's done well. I think this story does just that. I quite enjoy that Sora is presented as a three-dimensional character, who is both sympathetic and infuriating by turns. Shades of grey like that make for a villain who is a lot more interesting and real to me. Also, another strong point of stories with a POV like this one is the chance to see what core characters and events look like from a wildly different perspective. I found the view of Atlantis through the filter of Sora's perception to be well thought out and intriguing.

I also have to mention how much I liked Teyla's characterization. Her voice and actions worked just perfectly for me; I felt that her calm strength shone through excellently. The culmination of her interaction with Sora in But Teyla's mask never slips. is nicely powerful and builds beautifully on their previous conversation

[lunabee34]

It's interesting that you use the word villain. I never thought of Sora as a villain. Kolya was always the villain for me in that piece; I think she's really another victim.

[lyrstzha]

I guess I see her as both, which is what makes her more interesting than Kolya for me.

[sholio]

I read this story a long while back, in the first flush of my fandom *g*, and it's interesting to compare my impressions of it now to my impressions of it then. I remember back then being more disturbed than anything else, because I'd just fallen for the Atlanteans and I didn't really want to see them through a hostile outsider's eyes, showing only their darker side.

Now, though ... after working my way through a metric ton of SGA fic over the last couple of years, I've fallen hard and fast for outsider POV, and I enjoyed this much more on the re-read. I think it did a wonderful job of capturing Sora's really different perspective on things -- how she sees them through her own cultural lens, and also how she brings some of her mistreatment on herself because of those differences, which the Atlanteans will never understand. Even Teyla, who used to have so much in common with her, has become an alien to her

[lunabee34]

Love your pickup on Sora's cultural reference. That's the main reason I adore comms like these--smart people picking up on stuff I didn't even see when I was reading.

:)

I like what you say about characterization in earlier seasons differing. It is really interesting to see where writers take characters when they only have a handful of episodes or just one season under their belts. Everything's so wide open; we have so little to extrapolate from that so much more seems possible than in later seasons when canon has honed the character more finely.

[helsmeta]

I hadn't thought about the characterizations reading differently because of the time the story was written -- I inhaled the first two seasons in a couple of months and was all caught up by the tail end of season 3. They still really read off to me, but I'm curious what kind of context I could put them in if I went back, watched up to Sora's appearance, and tried to extrapolate what these characters were like at that point. We really didn't know them very well back then!

[sholio]

Yeah, it's really interesting to go back and look at season-one stories, because the characterizations (in fanfic, much more than on the show) are very different. Sheppard's colder, McKay's sharper-edged; they just "read" very differently in fanfic. There's a softness and sweetness to a lot of later SGA stories that isn't really present in most of the early ones. I think part of it is the shift in the tone of the show itself, but it also seems like, with less to define the characters, the fanfic writers picked up and ran with different aspects of their personalities.

[liviapenn]

It seems like this conversation's died down a bit, so let me chime in

[lunabee34]

Thank you so much for allowing us to discuss your story. This was a wonderfully successful inaugural conversation and I think everyone had a great time reading and talking about what you've written. I'm glad it was a positive experience for you as well.

Thanks also for commenting on your writing decisions. One of the things I enjoy most is hearing a writer talk about why he/she did certain things in a piece and your answers are fascinating.

(And, the conversation is technically never over. Many times I had people come into club_joss and post on old story conversations, so you never know.)

:)

[helsmeta]

My thoughts were along the lines of... lifelong habits don't go away that quickly; the I'm-so-cute act is probably instinctive.

I had no trouble with this bit at all, and I'm not the least bit surprised she gave it her best shot. That makes a lot of sense for all the reasons you state here, and also because -- as a woman in the military -- she would know damn well that one of the ways to manipulate people, and especially to manipulate men, is to try to cultivate an image of yourself as harmless and needing protection. She's trying to get Ford and the others on her side, and even though it isn't working, I think it's a perfectly legit thing for her to do. (Another one of the reasons this was my favorite section.)

Perhaps, in a similar situation among the Genii, she could manage to convince her captors that she'd only unwillingly participated in the raid, but she was secretly on their side all along, etc. Of course this isn't how things work on Atlantis.That's a really cool idea, and I wish I'd thought of it while reading. ^_^