Which Daniel is Mine?

[tejas]

princessofg has asked some fascinating questions about Daniel and it got me thinking. She's looking at the range of Daniel characterizations in fic and trying to get a handle on what they are. (She's ignoring obvious bad!fic.) You've got Inexperienced!Daniel and Snarky!Daniel and Pissy!Daniel and Pragmatic!Daniel and... and... and... Most Daniels encompass

Comments

[tejas]

I think that's the kind of inexperienced that was under discussion. Though, I don't remember if "virginal" was mentioned, just not very sexually experienced. I confess, that's a characterization I have difficulty with, too.

[tejas]

Agreed.

[tejas]

I'm very definitely an S7 Daniel writer. So much potential there.

Philosophical!Daniel, hum? Interesting and very much in line with something a friend once said to me: You could over-intellectualize *peanut butter*! :-)

What can I say? If you can't think deep thoughts about peanut butter, what's the point of living? :-)

[sg_wonderland]

Boy, this is such an interesting subject! I can't prove it but I do think Daniel has to be the most ficced person in the SG fandom. Which kind of begs the question, why? Maybe I'll tackle that in my own journal

[tejas]

One of the world's most perfect foods.

Unless you're allergic to it. :-)

"Adaptable". That works for me, too. That's pretty much how I see Daniel on the show. He rises to whatever the occasion is, does what needs to be done, and can do so with what many see as cold efficiency. The Daniel we saw in Absolute Power was *still*, essentially, Daniel. Just slightly twisted by the Goa'uld knowledge. I think we saw that part of him very clearly in Prototype, for example.

I think one of the reasons he's the most popular to write about is that he's, by far, the most complex character from the show.

[sg_wonderland]

He's certainly very complex and I do think part of that is down to how Shanks was ultimately allowed to portray him. After two season of admittedly doing a Spader, he got a bit more license to take Daniel out of the intellectual/geek box and we got a more realistic Daniel.

Season Three, for me, is where Daniel really comes into his own. Forever in a Day, is where the course of his entire life changes, where what he'd basically been living for is yanked away from him and he has to build an entirely new future from the shakiest of foundations.

And one of the reasons that 'Absolute Power' was so chillingly believable was that there was just enough 'real' Daniel there for us to buy that our Daniel could become this Daniel.

'Prototype'! One of the finest examples of a Daniel who thinks precisely and intellectually about how to solve a problem and calmly applies his conclusions with devastating results. He doesn't tell any of the designated soldier-types what has to be done, he simply does it.

[tejas]

And the only remorse he feels is that it was necessary in the first place.

[sallymn]

Hmmm. I do like your Daniel, I agree with much of what's above but would also add an emotionally deep but quite cool character - but then, I see all of them that way, not at all unemotional or less feeling but... I'm not sure how to explain it, Stargate itself is an emotionally temperate show per se than some others (Mag7 is a team show with a warmer emotional feel, for instance, although not for one minute do I think that the SG1 characters feel any less deeply or have any less close bonds. In fact some of the warmest Mag7 characters and yes I do mean my darling Ezra, or ex-preacher Josiah, are considerably less inclined to closeness :) Criminal Minds is one where the emotional temperature varies a lot from season to season and character to character, but again is, I think, warmer over the whole (Hotch is actually one of the emotionally warmer ones, for all he's the Great Grim Stoneface)

It's hard to explain, and maybe it's partly the military background, it's just that I like a touch of self-conscious distance in my SG1 characters

[tejas]

I *love* your take on the emotional tone of the shows! And I think you're right. SG1 does have a cooler "surface" emotional tone. I wonder how much of it has to do with the difference between saving a planet and saving one person at a time?

[sallymn]

That's probably a good 'in-universe' place to start... I'm not sure. (The RL one, of course, is simply the different writing teams: how they constructed the characters and what they find comfortable).

Some of it may also be that the SG1 characters are designed on a slightly larger-than-life 'heroic' basis, the regulars and the small number of important recurring ones alike, and the show itself tends to avoid bringing them down to 'regular people' status (Jim Ellison is larger than life, but he also canonically bitches about bathroom smells, gets narky when he's got the sniffles, and sulks right royally over small things. The SG1 team don't really have much in the way of 'small things' except Jack's fishing successes and Froot Loops... even what we see of their daily lives has that slightly larger-than quality)

And actually, I thoroughly enjoy fanfic that fills in the small stuff :) but it has to be done carefully. Kitchen sink drama (or comedy for that matter) doesn't quite fit naturally with the show's feel, it needs care and

[tejas]

Agreed. Jim's connection to the here and now is far stronger than Daniel's. And much as I love the whole "spend the day across the universe and stop at Kroger on the way home from work for eggs and milk" thing, it *does* have to be done carefully or you lose the characters in the mundane details of daily life.