resonant: Ray Kowalski (Due South) (Default)
[personal profile] resonant
[personal profile] wychwood, "Something about SGA! What's the one fic you're sorry you never wrote? What was your favourite episode? Do you still love John/Rodney? How gay WAS John Sheppard? Where in Atlantis would you live if you could pick any room you liked? Pick one or a topic of your choice."

A RL friend of mine recently shared a not-yet-published het fanfic crossover she wrote, and it was hilarious the difference between her characterization of John Sheppard and the one that this community seemed to agree on.

Her John Sheppard was strong, silent, sarcastic, and sexually dominant -- not in a negotiated kink way but like a romance novel hero from the seventies, the kind of guy who pins his lover's hands with one hand while he rips her shirt off her with the other, and she swoons because he's so forceful, and then in the morning he slips out of her bed and leaves her sleeping and it's because he's a Loner who Goes It Alone.

Fandom's John Sheppard was goofy, socially awkward, boyish, and deeply closeted. If he slipped out of a bed and left a lover sleeping, it was because he didn't have the emotional wherewithal to deal with how he felt, and the story would end with the lover chasing him down and forcing a confrontation of the kissing sort. I loved it that he was earnest with women who were teammates or bosses but fairly indifferent to women who were supposed to be love interests, that he really seemed to want a friend, that he was a guy who couldn't quite connect with humans and then an alien city fell in love with him.

Probably neither of those characterizations is 100% canon-accurate -- it always seemed to me that the writers and Joe Flanigan were envisioning the character quite differently -- but I sure like ours better than hers.





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(no subject)

Date: 12/27/18 03:55 pm (UTC)
mecurtin: John Sheppard, cutest little signifier ever (John is the cutest signifier)
From: [personal profile] mecurtin
My memory is that we had people using that first characterization during the first 2 seasons, but some time in S3 our collective perception of Sheppard shifted. I have the dim impression that someone did a widely-linked analysis arguing that Flanigan's acting wasn't *bad* (which a lot of us were feeling up to that point) but that he was acting a version of Sheppard that was counter to the "text" the writers/showrunners were giving him.

(no subject)

Date: 12/27/18 04:58 pm (UTC)
norsellie: (Default)
From: [personal profile] norsellie
Yes yes yes!

(True story: I and a gay male friend of mine almost fell out over John Sheppard. He was convinced he was a 1000% het frat boy. I was convinced he was 1000% closeted gay gay gay. Both of us used as our primary point of evidence Sheppard's conversation with Ronon where he asks, "...or a guy...". I saw it as Sheppard's first tiny, tentative step at coming out. He saw it as Sheppard setting up a teammate to rag on if Ronon said he was into guys.)

needs SGA icons
Edited Date: 12/27/18 05:26 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 12/28/18 12:31 pm (UTC)
norsellie: (john/rodney)
From: [personal profile] norsellie
Very true! (I wasn't actually that fussed, just a little puzzled by his interpretation. He was downright angry. It was weird.)

Yey, I have an SGA icon!

(no subject)

Date: 12/27/18 05:00 pm (UTC)
cesperanza: (Default)
From: [personal profile] cesperanza
Oh I LOVE this answer--yes, wow, that's such a wild difference of characterization! I might have to steal and quote this it's that good, but as someone professionally interested in different readings, I mean, that's a doozy.

It reminds me--I still have the poster in my office--of the Sentinel, where Richard Burgi was posed, muscles bulging, in a sleeveless t-shirt, with the caption THE MOST SENSITIVE MAN IN AMERICA. I mean....aside from anything else, obviously no history of "sensitive" as a euphemism for "gay" for most of the mid-20th century--sensitive and artistic! :D (Also, hello Steve Rogers but I digress...:D)

(no subject)

Date: 12/27/18 05:46 pm (UTC)
northern: Ronon and John walking in a forest. text: "follow me" (sga follow)
From: [personal profile] northern
That was good, to be reminded of the power of fanon. Thanks!

(no subject)

Date: 12/27/18 08:36 pm (UTC)
isabellerecs: Loveday in Blue Eyes Rolling (Default)
From: [personal profile] isabellerecs
I gotta say, I don't recognize your friend's John at all. :P *shakes head* LOL, wild.

(no subject)

Date: 12/27/18 08:37 pm (UTC)
jesse_the_k: John's sneaky face seen through a keyhole (sga Shep is sly)
From: [personal profile] jesse_the_k
TRUE THAT!

(no subject)

Date: 12/28/18 01:45 am (UTC)
out_there: B-Day Present '05 (Default)
From: [personal profile] out_there
That's a very different interpretation of Sheppard but I feel like it's a valid summary of how Sheppard appears to outsiders and girlfriends interpret his bad connections with people (of course he's into me, he's just the strong and silent type -- as opposed to the whole he doesn't seem interested or particularly invested, and yet he's so much more engaged when talking to his teammates).

"If he slipped out of a bed and left a lover sleeping, it was because he didn't have the emotional wherewithal to deal with how he felt, and the story would end with the lover chasing him down and forcing a confrontation of the kissing sort."

I've read that story many times and loved it every time.

(no subject)

Date: 12/28/18 05:41 pm (UTC)
mekare: Flower patterned Japanese paper (Default)
From: [personal profile] mekare
Seeing as I spent most of my recent travel time reading sga fic this was the perfect post for me to read today. Also, I really do need to go back and watch canon because I can't for the life of me make sense of that first characterization?

(no subject)

Date: 12/28/18 09:25 pm (UTC)
wychwood: chess queen against a runestone (Default)
From: [personal profile] wychwood
Hahaha, that is super amazing!

I mean, OK, I definitely know that my mental versions of the characters are heavily influenced by slash fandom, but even so, the idea of John being, like, super DOMINANT and MANLY like that is just so weird to me. The goofiness is definitely there in canon! Awww, John.

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resonant: Ray Kowalski (Due South) (Default)
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