fandom pet peeves

[thingswithwings]

friends, I have some pet peeves in SGA fandom. Perhaps you have heard me mention them once or twice. BUT I am going to do it again, because I am still really irked. IRKED! I say.

Comments

[cathexys]

I've ranted long and hard about the mathematical abilities!=doing calculations in your head before...I even used to have an icon to that effect :)

I've also often feel weird about military hospital stays in Germany, but that may just be because I grew up seeing every former hostage and hero and whomever always land at Rhein Main AFB rather than Rammstein.... They may indeed have just as many injured there :)

My biggest pet peeve are John and Rodney's bright children. I actually have a list of things that even Rodney as a three year old or their three year old Atlantean baby WOULD NEVER DO!!! (like read Principia Mathematica)

[thingswithwings]

oh wow, how did I forget the "John once calculated a factorial, and therefore is a math GENIUS" fanon?

and yeah, the kids thing is weird. I'd actually like to read fic where they have some dumbass kid who picks fights and gets all their stubbornness and none of their skills.

[cathexys]

I think the thing that gets me with the kids is that even with all the intelligence and brilliance, it still takes actual learning for many things.

Yes, Srinivasa Ramanujan basically independently recreated large parts of higher math, but it took him a bit!!! I doubt that any 4 or 5 or 7 year old would have the EXPERIENCE if not the intelligence to equal people with PhDs...sorry!

[thingswithwings]

pssst, Ramanujan is my mathematician boyfriend! he is my favourite historical figure in mathematics! just fyi. I love him almost as much as Hardy did.

[amireal]

Constant harping on DADT, literally, complete with acronym. IN DIALOG.

[thingswithwings]

ahhhhhh good one. everyone needs to read 30toseoul's posts on the subject, I think; I learned a lot.

[amireal]

I mean I can totally understand the need to address it in some manner, after all it IS an influencing factor on a soldier not being openly gay. Yanno. But man, some of the fic just abuses the whole notion.

[elzybub]

Not trying to start anything, but I actually have had conversations with friends about how they view their sexuality on the Kinsey scale. I believe that sexuality is a fluid thing for some while for others it is strictly categorical.

I do understand your exasperation because I do feel that it is used to much in fandom, but I think it's a bit harsh to say it shouldn't be used at all. That is just my opinion. I understand that every one has things that bug them in fic that wouldn't bug someone else (like I hate it when people say that full grown men giggle in fic) so I'm not trying to say you're way off base or anything just sharing my experiences.

[thingswithwings]

well, okay, fair, but I still can't imagine John or Rodney bringing up Kinsey, seriously. It strikes me as vastly OOC. Plus I suppose I think it's a harmful way to categorize sexuality, though that has nothing to do with the characters.

[elzybub]

Yeah I totally get where your coming from.

[amberlynne]

I have a weird thing about condoms. I mean, if you're, like, in space, fighting against space vampires and every time you go through the gate, you have to get a medical check up, it seems to me the last thing you are going to worry about in the five minutes you have to spare between crises to get your fuck on is condoms. Yeah, I get that some guys prefer it or, like toomuchplor just wrote Rodney, weird about Putting That There for other OCD reasons or whatever. I get that people are trying to write gay sex responsibly but...gay sex in space? Maybe I just hate it when it's a huge plot point (not being played for laughs). Or maybe I just want everyone to die of a horrible STD. I dunno. But it's a peeve. *shrug*

Also, John saying "I love you" without first having some sort of torture device used on him or almost passing out.

[amireal]

Hmm, this may be TMI, but I'm fairly sure it's recommended for anal sex because no matter how clean, it's much more likely you'll get a UTI from that sort of activity. So I see where you're coming from, but for me it's not about STDs but other embarrassing medical issues. Depending.

[amberlynne]

Strangely, in all of the gay pron I've read, I've never ever seen that, uh, come up as an issue. Which is not a bad thing, I don't think, because I am not really in it to learn about all of the complications of mansex. But if that is a big concern and the majority of men think that way, then I guess I'll just have to suck it up (ha!) and deal.

[amireal]

Well, not to you know, poopoo on the subject (HAHAHA) but a lot of gay pron either:

1. Sort of fuzzes over some of the more complicated matters, simply for you know, pleasing to the eye reading. Which I don't mind at all.

2. Just really badly researched.

I just-- once you know these things, you can never go back. *G*. I sadly, got really well edjumucated. I can hand wave it, but to me it's kind twitch worthy when the author goes out of their way to say that they're clean so of COURSE they have nothing else to worry about. And I'm all "Gay sex, she is complicated!" Etc. Its never thrown me out of a fic, but you know, knoooowledge is evil sometimes.

[anatsuno]

Hee, your Kinsey rant thing (fake science! appalling!) is exactly what was lurking in my head when I wrote my 3 bits of Rodney canon here, though now that I reread I notice how his personal hatred of the stupid thing is not even laid out clearly in there. Anyway. validashun!

[thingswithwings]

I love your three bits of rodney canon! Especially the bit where he rolls his eyes at IQ scores and ENTP and so forth, because, YES. How much do I hate SGA for showing us a genius physicist who is impressed by MENSA scores? Argh.

incidentally, I imagined Rodney's parents similarly, sorta: in my personal canon, Rodney and Jeannie's parents were both psychologists. Their mom was a Lacanian and their dad was a Jungian. SRSLY, it explains so much!

[anatsuno]

Their mom was totes a Lacanian in my head, yes! (that's, um, possibly because I know these people too well). But for some reason I thought his Dad would be a non-psy soft science guy. Anthropologist or something, I never really decided.

This is about my only snippet of sga written - oh, no, there's another thing about books Jeannie sends to Rodney in Pegasus, but that's it. I wish I could write again... Perhaps someday. And then Rodney can roll his eyes a lot at all this psychometric bullshit, and say scathing things to Heightmeyer or her replacements about their ignorance of Tobie Nathan's groundbreaking work and the contemporary importance of cultural studies. SO THERE. *g*

[thingswithwings]

heeeeee. I WISH Rodney would rant about cultural studies, I wish. I also agree that it would be fabulous if you were to start writing again, though I must say I have been enjoying your recent podfic. :)

I like both of Rodney's parents as shrinks because it would explain so nicely why he's so compelled to report on his body and his psychological state - it's what he was told to do, growing up! It also explains kind of a lot about his relationships with pretty much everyone. I imagine his mom holding him up to a mirror when he was a toddler so that he could transition into the symbolic order etc. :)