December Daily: the Wraith

[resonant]

mific - "what about the Wraith in Stargate Atlantis? Ever tempted to write John/Wraith fic?"

Considered as monsters, the Wraith were cool and pleasingly icky, and I remember the first glimpse of a hive was seriously creepy. The hand thing was weird and seemed not fully thought through, since why would a creature like that have a mouth? -- but it got points for creepy scars.

Considered as characters ... Michael and Todd had their moments, but I had long since bonded with Hugh the Borg, and they didn't have that early Trek heartstring tug.

The Wraith wanted immortality, which isn't a particularly interesting motivation. The Borg wanted to absorb knowledge and learn to improve, which I seriously relate to, though you'd think that at the point where you're saying to people, "Resistance is futile," you'd think, hey, maybe instead of conquering galaxies we could satisfy our curiosity with a nice student exchange program?

Anyway. Admittedly John Sheppard was very pretty when he was suffering, but mostly I wanted him not so much to be drained of life force as to have nerdy fun, step out of his closet, and feel a straightforward feeling for a change.



Specify a date if you want; otherwise I'll just answer them whenever.

This year, in addition to the usual kinds of questions, I'd also love to get storyish prompts. Storyish meaning you never know what you might get: two sentences of a story, or a description of a story that will never exist, or a love song about how much I like that trope, or a rant about my pet peeve about that trope, or I know nothing about that canon except what I see on social media and here's what I think it might be about, or Ten Reasons Why I Love/Hate/Am Indifferent To that character, canon, or trope, or ...

As always, I'd love to hear about it if you're doing the meme too.

3. clevermanka - "How are Brian Johnson and John Bender are doing these days?"
4. pauraque - "Something fannish (a character, a ship, a show, a trope) that you initially disliked, but that grew on you. What changed?"
5. terminally_underwhelmed - "What's a popular trope that doesn't do much for you, and an unpopular one you love?"
6. runpunkrun - "something you recently learned about yourself"
7. muccamukk - "Favourite power couple(s) and what makes them work so well together. Can be storyish or not."
8. armadillo1976 - "I'd appreciate a few words about navigating the issues of kids growing up and having the "mommy writes fanfic, mainly erotica, and mommy's using this word just because it sounds better than porn" conversation. My kiddo is only 5 now, and I have only written one story and am in the middle one the second one, but I see myself writing more, so I've been wondering how this conversation goes."
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10. mific - "what about crossovers? Have you written any?"
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12. marginaliana - ghost stories
13. runpunkrun - "a new thing you tried "
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15. china_shop - Guardian as described by someone who only knows it via social media
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17. ride4ever's birthday prompt - "Storyish prompt: for any due South fic you've written, write a prequel or sequel snippet for the fic or meta about the before-or-after that can be imagined about the fic's story arc."
18. mific - "the genderswap trope where a character's gender is changed. Yes? No? Maybe?"
19. runpunkrun - "fake dating: yes or no"
20. minoanmiss - "One of my favorite tropes is Then Let Me Be Evil. What do you think of it/have you explored it/so on and so forth?"
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24. runpunkrun - "John and Rodney in 2020"
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Comments

[lunabee34]

That is a really good point I had not considered. Why would they have mouths? Mind blown.

[resonant]

Right? I mean except for the way they have to be played by human actors ...

[panisdead]

feel a straightforward feeling for a change

Right for the jugular!! :D

Man, I love John.

[resonant]

Oh, I know. He was so much fun because nobody had access to his mind, including him.

[kass]

mostly I wanted him not so much to be drained of life force as to have nerdy fun, step out of his closet, and feel a straightforward feeling for a change.

Right there with you, honestly.

:-D

[resonant]

The reason I love this hobby is because I can get hugs for fictional characters, but I have to emotionally torment them first.

[kiezh]

What, "whee! flying!!!" isn't a straightforward feeling? :D

[resonant]

Well ... you make an excellent point.

[kiezh]

Seeing china_shop's prompt, I feel inspired to offer a thematic followup prompt, maybe for the next day if that's still open:

What have you heard about MDZS/The Untamed, and what did you think of what you heard?

[resonant]

These are gonna be challenging.

[mific]

Oh yeah, the Wraith were poorly thought through physiologically, for sure! I hadn't thought of them as wanting immortality as a species, more as having the usual species drive for survival and domination of their ecosystem, and as obligate predators. They happen to be near-immortal, sure, but was that their doing or an accident by the idiot Ancients who created them?

And totally with you in wanting John to have nerdy fun and (eventually, after delicious shenigans) get what his heart desires.

[resonant]

I had forgotten that the Ancients were to blame. Well, all bets are off, then!