Possibly unpopular post-Tabula Rasa Katie and Rodney thoughts

[telesilla]

First off, I loved "Tabula Rasa" for the same reasons everyone else did. I'm not going to do a review because there are so many good ones out there and for the most part my review would be nothing new.

But I want to talk about Katie and Rodney because...well I just do.

Comments

[amireal]

I think it would all go down a lot better if she wasn't mentioned for plot device purposes and that's it. It's just-- if he's supposed to be in love, then I think we'd get maybe-- 3 more mentions of her than we do get. I understand that episodes need to seriously convey what they have time to convey and that's it-- but. Something about the lack of her elsewhere makes it seem odd.

Also, I don't necessarily buy Rodney as that crappy in a romantic relationship. I think he's over trying, which I totally get his reasons for, but it doesn't seem-- something.

And yes, it would be really nice if we saw her outside of her romantic context. Though I have a theory about what would happen if/when we finally do.

[liviapenn]

Also, I don't necessarily buy Rodney as that crappy in a romantic relationship.

... But he's been exactly that crappy-- if not worse!-- in every single canon romantically-charged interaction we've ever seen him in. He was horrible to Sam, clueless with Allina, bumbling with Noreena... what is there that makes you think he *wouldn't* be crappy in a romantic relationship?

[amireal]

Sorry, badly expressed. (Drugs)

I think that if he ever got past that part where he thinks he has to act, he wouldn't be so bad. I just-- while your examples are valid, it doesn't seem like his interactions with Katie are indicative of his usual sorts of bumbling. Sorry I'm not explaining this well. Maybe it's that I think by several months in-- it would get smoother in some respect. While romance =/= friends, we've seen him get much smoother with his friends over time. Maybe he needs more for romance, I dunno. I just can't help feel that something about their interaction feels off.

[liviapenn]

Oh, no, I see what you mean-- you think Rodney would be better in a *relationship* as opposed to just a romantic-type interaction with a woman. I... don't really know about that either, honestly.

I mean, looking at his closest relationships in canon (not counting the team OT4) -- there's Carson, Zelenka, and Jeannie, and it seems like those relationships are mainly built on snark, competition and conflict, you know? Which can be a great basis for a *friendship*, but I'm not really sure it works as a model for a *romantic* relationship-- not for people like Rodney and Katie, who both seem like the kind of people whose feelings can be really easily hurt by offhand comments.

[apple_pi]

That's... pretty much exactly how I felt about Rodney and Katie. (Although I phrased it differently in my dissection.) :-)

[liviapenn]

It's totally been my secret theory for a while that Katie Brown is the raging, shouting, bossy, sarcastic queen of the Botany section, just like Rodney is the raging, shouting, bossy, sarcastic king of Physics. It's just that when they get around each other, they suddenly turn all shy and helpless, like baby ducks. But that's a side that they ONLY show to each other. Really, they're not like that at all in their other interactions! (After all, there must have been a reason why Cadman and Katie were BFF. *G*)

[mecurtin]

Cadman & Katie weren't just BFF, they shared SGA's canonical same-sex kiss, in my book.

[liviapenn]

Well, yeah, there's definitely Cadman/Katie subtext, but I was really discussing canon relationships.

[crimsonclad]

Um, AMAZING. Does that mean that Parrish is Katie's Zelenka??

[lilysaid]

to be annoyed with Katie for her mannerisms and not be annoyed with Rodney for the slightly more male version of the same thing isn't being fair to her at all.

I don't know. we've seen Rodney brave, heroic, vulnerable, brilliant, tired, cranky, and any number of things, so of course we're not going to weigh his behavior evenly against Katie's--we've only seen her a couple times, and she always looks like she's on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

in this fandom, it's basically impossible to express dislike for a female character without everyone assuming you just don't want anyone coming between your OTP, but for me, John has nothing to do with it. I just hate her wide-eyed babytalking manner.

[telesilla]

But that's my point. We ONLY see her around Rodney, so I really don't think it's fair to extrapolate that she's like that all the time. He's certainly not stumbly and flaily like that when he's not around her (or some other attractive woman who he's interested in), so why not make the assumption that she's actually a competent scientist who simply sucks at this whole dating thing as much as Rodney sucks at it

[lilysaid]

this is the same fandom that has a slash pairing that includes a guy who had maybe five minutes on one show and fans have to do a hell of a lot of extrapolation there.

that bugs me too. a LOT.

but it also bugs me that we're not allowed to dislike any female characters without this huge "shame on you!" backlash. because fair or not, sometimes characters are just going to rub you the wrong way.

[mecurtin]

As I said in my post, I am actually baffled at figuring out what TPTB are trying to convey. Some of the comments there suggest that the writers (show runners?) have one idea, DH/Brenda/possibly directors have a different idea.

I will continue to note that the one *canonical* same-sex kiss on SGA so far is Cadman/Brown.