December Semi-Daily: SGA
Dec. 27th, 2018 09:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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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)(no subject)
Date: 12/28/18 01:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12/27/18 04:58 pm (UTC)(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
(no subject)
Date: 12/28/18 01:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12/28/18 12:31 pm (UTC)Yey, I have an SGA icon!
(no subject)
Date: 12/27/18 05:00 pm (UTC)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: 12/28/18 01:32 am (UTC)I love Skinny Steve the Art Student so much.
(no subject)
Date: 12/27/18 05:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12/28/18 01:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12/27/18 08:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12/28/18 01:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12/27/18 08:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12/28/18 01:45 am (UTC)"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: 12/31/18 02:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12/28/18 05:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12/31/18 02:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12/28/18 09:25 pm (UTC)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.
(no subject)
Date: 12/31/18 02:49 am (UTC)