![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
SGA: An Essay on Keller
This wasn't meant to be quite so long, it kinda got away from me. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
xparrot and I have been spending a lot of far too much time discussing one of our growing frustrations with SGA: the character of Keller. Finally, enough was enough, and I realized I just had to get it all down on paper, to get it out of my system, if nothing else. And thus, this monstrosity was born:
A Question of Motivation
First off, I want to be clear: this isn't meant as character bashing. It's a question, a fundamental issue with the character that's been bothering me more and more.
Also important to establish right off the bat: I was never a particularly big Carson fan. I didn't dislike him, but he was in no way my favorite. I say this to make it clear that while yes, I was sorry to see him go, I wasn't heartbroken, and his loss didn't bias me against Keller. Just the reverse: when I first heard that Jewel Staite would be replacing him, I was ecstatic. I loved her in Firefly, enjoyed her portrayal of Kaylee-Wraith in "Instinct," and was enthusiastic to see what she would add to the Atlantis assemble. Sadly, while I continue to love the actress, I don't think the writers have delivered in terms of character.
That said, on to the question: What is Keller doing on Atlantis?
This is really a two-fold inquiry: Why did Atlantis/SGC/IOA bring her on board? and What was Keller's own motivation for going there? For all the other major (and many of the minor) characters, we can easily answer at least one of those two questions, and in many cases, both. But Keller?
I've seen several people cite her ordinariness and her lack of confidence as pluses. Something "normal", "believable" amidst a cast of "superheroes." In other shows, I might agree. But what place does "normal" have on Atlantis? As your Head of Medicine? At that young an age? In that prestigious, not to mention dangerous, a place? She better be damn special, better outshine them all. Because that's how you get and retain a position such as that. Atlantis is not a mundane place and neither are the people on it. Is Keller?
People argue that Keller is no worse off-world/in battle/outside of her standard duties, etc. than Carson or early Rodney. And I agree. She's no worse, but she's no better, either. And she *should* be. Why? No double standard, just a fundamental difference: Carson and Rodney both were on Atlantis from the beginning. That first year was different. They didn't even know if there would be other gates in Pegasus, or if they'd ever need to go off-world. Additionally, they were both *vital* to the mission. No one (except perhaps Carter, who couldn't be spared at the time) knew more about Ancient tech than Rodney, and Carson had the gene, the second strongest manifestation of it after John. Plus there was his research on the gene therapy. Weighed against these skills, their lack of experience in the field was moot.
Keller, on the other hand, joined the project late in the game. By the time she came, everyone knew what they were getting into. Medical personnel had been sent off-world multiple times, not to mention there were all the dangers on Atlantis itself. Back in "Intruder", when Carson is picking new staff, he's bemoaning the fact that all these people are more qualified than him, especially noting their physical prowess: "hobbies include judo, horseback riding and base-jumping". Totally reasonable. The SGC is looking to recruit civilians with varied skill sets, beyond their chosen field. People who will do well in *any* situation Pegasus can possibly throw at them. And Pegasus certainly pitches a lot of extreme ones. What are Keller's "extra" skills?
Then there's her age. Being SG, which is notoriously bad about giving characters' ages, we can't know for sure how old she is. In at least one case (David Hewlett) we know the character is meant to be the same age as the actor. If this holds true with Keller/Jewel, that puts her somewhere around twenty-six. *Maybe* they could bump that up to thirty, but even so, that's awfully young to be the head of anything, especially the Head of Medicine at an international, highly elite facility. Keller mentions skipping grades (which one would assume would be true of virtually everyone on Atlantis) but still, head positions are usually based not just on smarts, but *experience*. 'Quarantine' suggests she got her bachelor's at seventeen. Which means she might have gotten her MD by twenty, so she has six years' experience tops, including her internship. Every other position of authority on Atlantis has been filled by people in their mid-thirties or older.
Now, they might overlook Keller's lack of field experience/physical ability, not to mention her youth, if she had something else going for her. Something beyond 'competent doctor'. But so far we have never been given an example of any special skill, nothing that makes her "vital" or "unique" to the project. Yes, she's a good doctor, I'm not denying that. But there are a LOT of good doctors out there. What separates her from the crowd? Why did the SGC single her out? And not just for any position, but a position high in the command structure, later granting her Head Medical Officer of *Atlantis*?
Moving on to the second part of the question: Keller's own motivation.
When we first meet Keller, she's *begging* Elizabeth to find her a replacement, and Elizabeth denies her request. Leaving aside the question of *why* Elizabeth has faith in her , if Keller didn't want to be in charge, didn't feel she could handle it, why did she take the position? One that placed her one step away from being in command? In a place as dangerous and unpredictable as Atlantis, the odds that you're going to have to step up and replace your boss are *high*.
Personal ambition could explain it (like with Kavanagh, who is a much greater coward, but keeps returning regardless because his ego demands it. He believes, however misguided, that he's got the chops). But Keller wants *out* of command, eager to give it away. The very opposite of ambition.
Carson, beyond the needs of his gene, comes because of his research. He states in "Hide and Seek" that the ATA gene therapy couldn't be tested back on Earth, too many regulations. He's come to Pegasus to play mad scientist. But we haven't seen Keller really engage in research, beyond what she did in "Kindred" and "The Seed", which was borne not of personal interest but a desperate need to save Carson and the Athosians, and which was entirely based on Michael's and Carson's previous research.
Doctor Porter, in "Whispers", states she's interested in adventure, exploring, meeting strange new people. Considering Keller's reactions in "Missing" and "Trio", adventure and exploration are the furthest thing from her mind.
Conversely, she's been given several reasons to stay back on earth. Besides her seeming lack of love for danger/adventure/physical exertion, all things she should have expected to face on Atlantis, she mentions her father back in "Missing". She's "all he's got left." Why take a position as far from home as you can *ever*, in any realm of the imagination, get? One in which the odds of coming back from aren't so hot. You'd need some pretty hefty motivation to overcome that. We've never gotten even a hint.
She first tells Elizabeth she hopes the IOA will make a quick decision, she'd like to go back to being "a regular doctor." You can *never* be a regular doctor as the head of medicine on Atlantis. Circumstances won't allow it. What made her want to stay after the grand FUBAR that was "Adrift"/"Lifeline"? What made her want to go in the first place? She's certainly not military, she wasn't assigned there. Atlantis, canonically, has a very rigorous application process. Why struggle through it when you can be a regular doctor in the comfort and safety of your own galaxy?
The reason these questions matter so much to me, besides the obvious fan-urge of "I need to know," is that a character's goals, their motivations and passions, are how I form emotional attachments to them and thus to the show.
Teyla leaves her people for her people. She feels Atlantis is her people's best hope of salvation. She will do *anything* for them, and when she loses them? You can empathize, fully support her drive to find them, cheer when she's reunited, because they are her passion, her focus.
Ronon will keep fighting until "every Wraith in the galaxy is dead". When he's forced to work with them, when they get the better of him, you wince for him, you understand his anger and frustration, and you cheer when he turns the situation back around, kicks some Wraith ass, because you *know* how damn satisfied it's making him.
Rodney's passion, his life, his reason d'etre, is his science, his intelligence, his hope of a Nobel. Every brilliant break-through, every discovery, you know he's a bit closer to that goal. And when it fails him, when his smarts betray him (Trinity), it *hurts*, and the audience sighs/whimpers/writes copious amounts of tag fic.
John never really wanted to come to Atlantis in the first place, had to be talked into it, in face of resentment from his CEO. But he overcame that, made a home there, a family, people he will do *anything* for. His team, his 'family' is John's motivation. And every time he goes batshit crazy determined to help/save them, we cheer (or squee) over his loyalty, his dedication, his ability to protect what he loves.
Their traits, their passions and goals are defined and focused. A clear path for the characters to walk on, for the writers to build upon, for the fans to latch onto. What is Keller's drive, what is her character's destination? What are her obstacles and pitfalls along the way?
Her ambitions are murky and her flaws? Superfluous. Her lack of confidence, which comes and goes, could make for a character arc, except she never has to overcome it.
Professionally, she's told over and over she's doing a great job and never once has she had to face consequences for her fuck-ups. Using the nanites on Elizabeth was originally her idea, but Rodney takes all the heat for it. It's ironic that the decision Elizabeth so loathed started with the person she had such faith in, an irony that's never once touched upon. In "The Shrine", *Keller* blames herself for missing what happened to Rodney, and as his doctor, she's right. It's her fault she didn't diagnose it sooner. But no one else accuses her. On the contrary, they reassure her. Every other character on the show has had their actions questioned, doubted. Argued against. Forced to prove they're correct, or give in in the face of irrefutable fact. Most of them have had their jobs directly on the line, the IOA demanding justification.
In "The Shrine", there's disagreement, but they never outright state they think Keller's wrong, that she won't cure him. They imply it, considering their one want is the chance to say goodbye, meaning they've given up on her finding a cure, but they don't accuse her directly. When tensions run high, the characters often turn the professional personal. "Hot Zone" (John and Elizabeth), "Trinity" (John and Rodney, Teyla and Ronon), "Adrift" (John and Rodney). They get angry with each other. But in "The Shrine", no one gets angry at Keller for refusing them, just frustrated at the situation. Jeannie is the only one who can resist the Keller-love enough to directly point out her failing, that she's no closer to a solution.
Which brings us to her social "flaws". She tells Ronon it's "the story of my life", never fitting in. But she's been accepted into the inner circle of Atlantis faster and closer than any other character except Jeannie (and she's Rodney's family.) By "Doppelganger", only her third ep, Keller's already eating lunch all chummily with the team, in a way that we never saw even Carson or Elizabeth doing, let alone Zelenka, Lorne, Heightmeyer, etc. Ronon, who hasn't felt ready to be with anyone in nine years, starts expressing interest. Teyla's ready to open up to her about her personal life. Keller's feeling comfortable enough to tease Rodney about his hypochondria by "Tabula Rasa". Her interaction with Carson in "Kindred II" suggests a fairly close relationship with him before he died. She doesn't have to struggle with being accepted; they all love her and welcome her into the group immediately.
Comparatively, Sam, who already had personal connections with Rodney, never gets that close. It takes until "Kindred" for her to feel comfortable enough to invite Teyla to address her by her first name.
So much of Keller, her strengths and her weaknesses, her confidence and her competence, her social awkwardness and familiarity with the main cast, vary wildly from episode to episode. I believe most of this stems from the lack of direction. She has no clear problem to overcome, no obvious goal to strive for, no dream to fulfill, no passion to indulge in. Every writer, in every individual script, has to answer that question anew, instead of having it clearly before them. Here her purpose is as love interest, there it’s being a doctor. Here it suits the plot for her to be meek, there flirtatious is the key. It makes for screenwriter schizophrenia to the extreme, the cure for which, at least in part, would have been to answer, at the character's conception: What is she *doing* here, and why does she stay?
xparrot and I have been spending A Question of Motivation
First off, I want to be clear: this isn't meant as character bashing. It's a question, a fundamental issue with the character that's been bothering me more and more.
Also important to establish right off the bat: I was never a particularly big Carson fan. I didn't dislike him, but he was in no way my favorite. I say this to make it clear that while yes, I was sorry to see him go, I wasn't heartbroken, and his loss didn't bias me against Keller. Just the reverse: when I first heard that Jewel Staite would be replacing him, I was ecstatic. I loved her in Firefly, enjoyed her portrayal of Kaylee-Wraith in "Instinct," and was enthusiastic to see what she would add to the Atlantis assemble. Sadly, while I continue to love the actress, I don't think the writers have delivered in terms of character.
That said, on to the question: What is Keller doing on Atlantis?
This is really a two-fold inquiry: Why did Atlantis/SGC/IOA bring her on board? and What was Keller's own motivation for going there? For all the other major (and many of the minor) characters, we can easily answer at least one of those two questions, and in many cases, both. But Keller?
I've seen several people cite her ordinariness and her lack of confidence as pluses. Something "normal", "believable" amidst a cast of "superheroes." In other shows, I might agree. But what place does "normal" have on Atlantis? As your Head of Medicine? At that young an age? In that prestigious, not to mention dangerous, a place? She better be damn special, better outshine them all. Because that's how you get and retain a position such as that. Atlantis is not a mundane place and neither are the people on it. Is Keller?
People argue that Keller is no worse off-world/in battle/outside of her standard duties, etc. than Carson or early Rodney. And I agree. She's no worse, but she's no better, either. And she *should* be. Why? No double standard, just a fundamental difference: Carson and Rodney both were on Atlantis from the beginning. That first year was different. They didn't even know if there would be other gates in Pegasus, or if they'd ever need to go off-world. Additionally, they were both *vital* to the mission. No one (except perhaps Carter, who couldn't be spared at the time) knew more about Ancient tech than Rodney, and Carson had the gene, the second strongest manifestation of it after John. Plus there was his research on the gene therapy. Weighed against these skills, their lack of experience in the field was moot.
Keller, on the other hand, joined the project late in the game. By the time she came, everyone knew what they were getting into. Medical personnel had been sent off-world multiple times, not to mention there were all the dangers on Atlantis itself. Back in "Intruder", when Carson is picking new staff, he's bemoaning the fact that all these people are more qualified than him, especially noting their physical prowess: "hobbies include judo, horseback riding and base-jumping". Totally reasonable. The SGC is looking to recruit civilians with varied skill sets, beyond their chosen field. People who will do well in *any* situation Pegasus can possibly throw at them. And Pegasus certainly pitches a lot of extreme ones. What are Keller's "extra" skills?
Then there's her age. Being SG, which is notoriously bad about giving characters' ages, we can't know for sure how old she is. In at least one case (David Hewlett) we know the character is meant to be the same age as the actor. If this holds true with Keller/Jewel, that puts her somewhere around twenty-six. *Maybe* they could bump that up to thirty, but even so, that's awfully young to be the head of anything, especially the Head of Medicine at an international, highly elite facility. Keller mentions skipping grades (which one would assume would be true of virtually everyone on Atlantis) but still, head positions are usually based not just on smarts, but *experience*. 'Quarantine' suggests she got her bachelor's at seventeen. Which means she might have gotten her MD by twenty, so she has six years' experience tops, including her internship. Every other position of authority on Atlantis has been filled by people in their mid-thirties or older.
Now, they might overlook Keller's lack of field experience/physical ability, not to mention her youth, if she had something else going for her. Something beyond 'competent doctor'. But so far we have never been given an example of any special skill, nothing that makes her "vital" or "unique" to the project. Yes, she's a good doctor, I'm not denying that. But there are a LOT of good doctors out there. What separates her from the crowd? Why did the SGC single her out? And not just for any position, but a position high in the command structure, later granting her Head Medical Officer of *Atlantis*?
Moving on to the second part of the question: Keller's own motivation.
When we first meet Keller, she's *begging* Elizabeth to find her a replacement, and Elizabeth denies her request. Leaving aside the question of *why* Elizabeth has faith in her , if Keller didn't want to be in charge, didn't feel she could handle it, why did she take the position? One that placed her one step away from being in command? In a place as dangerous and unpredictable as Atlantis, the odds that you're going to have to step up and replace your boss are *high*.
Personal ambition could explain it (like with Kavanagh, who is a much greater coward, but keeps returning regardless because his ego demands it. He believes, however misguided, that he's got the chops). But Keller wants *out* of command, eager to give it away. The very opposite of ambition.
Carson, beyond the needs of his gene, comes because of his research. He states in "Hide and Seek" that the ATA gene therapy couldn't be tested back on Earth, too many regulations. He's come to Pegasus to play mad scientist. But we haven't seen Keller really engage in research, beyond what she did in "Kindred" and "The Seed", which was borne not of personal interest but a desperate need to save Carson and the Athosians, and which was entirely based on Michael's and Carson's previous research.
Doctor Porter, in "Whispers", states she's interested in adventure, exploring, meeting strange new people. Considering Keller's reactions in "Missing" and "Trio", adventure and exploration are the furthest thing from her mind.
Conversely, she's been given several reasons to stay back on earth. Besides her seeming lack of love for danger/adventure/physical exertion, all things she should have expected to face on Atlantis, she mentions her father back in "Missing". She's "all he's got left." Why take a position as far from home as you can *ever*, in any realm of the imagination, get? One in which the odds of coming back from aren't so hot. You'd need some pretty hefty motivation to overcome that. We've never gotten even a hint.
She first tells Elizabeth she hopes the IOA will make a quick decision, she'd like to go back to being "a regular doctor." You can *never* be a regular doctor as the head of medicine on Atlantis. Circumstances won't allow it. What made her want to stay after the grand FUBAR that was "Adrift"/"Lifeline"? What made her want to go in the first place? She's certainly not military, she wasn't assigned there. Atlantis, canonically, has a very rigorous application process. Why struggle through it when you can be a regular doctor in the comfort and safety of your own galaxy?
The reason these questions matter so much to me, besides the obvious fan-urge of "I need to know," is that a character's goals, their motivations and passions, are how I form emotional attachments to them and thus to the show.
Teyla leaves her people for her people. She feels Atlantis is her people's best hope of salvation. She will do *anything* for them, and when she loses them? You can empathize, fully support her drive to find them, cheer when she's reunited, because they are her passion, her focus.
Ronon will keep fighting until "every Wraith in the galaxy is dead". When he's forced to work with them, when they get the better of him, you wince for him, you understand his anger and frustration, and you cheer when he turns the situation back around, kicks some Wraith ass, because you *know* how damn satisfied it's making him.
Rodney's passion, his life, his reason d'etre, is his science, his intelligence, his hope of a Nobel. Every brilliant break-through, every discovery, you know he's a bit closer to that goal. And when it fails him, when his smarts betray him (Trinity), it *hurts*, and the audience sighs/whimpers/writes copious amounts of tag fic.
John never really wanted to come to Atlantis in the first place, had to be talked into it, in face of resentment from his CEO. But he overcame that, made a home there, a family, people he will do *anything* for. His team, his 'family' is John's motivation. And every time he goes batshit crazy determined to help/save them, we cheer (or squee) over his loyalty, his dedication, his ability to protect what he loves.
Their traits, their passions and goals are defined and focused. A clear path for the characters to walk on, for the writers to build upon, for the fans to latch onto. What is Keller's drive, what is her character's destination? What are her obstacles and pitfalls along the way?
Her ambitions are murky and her flaws? Superfluous. Her lack of confidence, which comes and goes, could make for a character arc, except she never has to overcome it.
Professionally, she's told over and over she's doing a great job and never once has she had to face consequences for her fuck-ups. Using the nanites on Elizabeth was originally her idea, but Rodney takes all the heat for it. It's ironic that the decision Elizabeth so loathed started with the person she had such faith in, an irony that's never once touched upon. In "The Shrine", *Keller* blames herself for missing what happened to Rodney, and as his doctor, she's right. It's her fault she didn't diagnose it sooner. But no one else accuses her. On the contrary, they reassure her. Every other character on the show has had their actions questioned, doubted. Argued against. Forced to prove they're correct, or give in in the face of irrefutable fact. Most of them have had their jobs directly on the line, the IOA demanding justification.
In "The Shrine", there's disagreement, but they never outright state they think Keller's wrong, that she won't cure him. They imply it, considering their one want is the chance to say goodbye, meaning they've given up on her finding a cure, but they don't accuse her directly. When tensions run high, the characters often turn the professional personal. "Hot Zone" (John and Elizabeth), "Trinity" (John and Rodney, Teyla and Ronon), "Adrift" (John and Rodney). They get angry with each other. But in "The Shrine", no one gets angry at Keller for refusing them, just frustrated at the situation. Jeannie is the only one who can resist the Keller-love enough to directly point out her failing, that she's no closer to a solution.
Which brings us to her social "flaws". She tells Ronon it's "the story of my life", never fitting in. But she's been accepted into the inner circle of Atlantis faster and closer than any other character except Jeannie (and she's Rodney's family.) By "Doppelganger", only her third ep, Keller's already eating lunch all chummily with the team, in a way that we never saw even Carson or Elizabeth doing, let alone Zelenka, Lorne, Heightmeyer, etc. Ronon, who hasn't felt ready to be with anyone in nine years, starts expressing interest. Teyla's ready to open up to her about her personal life. Keller's feeling comfortable enough to tease Rodney about his hypochondria by "Tabula Rasa". Her interaction with Carson in "Kindred II" suggests a fairly close relationship with him before he died. She doesn't have to struggle with being accepted; they all love her and welcome her into the group immediately.
Comparatively, Sam, who already had personal connections with Rodney, never gets that close. It takes until "Kindred" for her to feel comfortable enough to invite Teyla to address her by her first name.
So much of Keller, her strengths and her weaknesses, her confidence and her competence, her social awkwardness and familiarity with the main cast, vary wildly from episode to episode. I believe most of this stems from the lack of direction. She has no clear problem to overcome, no obvious goal to strive for, no dream to fulfill, no passion to indulge in. Every writer, in every individual script, has to answer that question anew, instead of having it clearly before them. Here her purpose is as love interest, there it’s being a doctor. Here it suits the plot for her to be meek, there flirtatious is the key. It makes for screenwriter schizophrenia to the extreme, the cure for which, at least in part, would have been to answer, at the character's conception: What is she *doing* here, and why does she stay?
Re: second part
Oh, absolutely! Actually, I think that's the best point anyone has made so far. Fans ABSOLUTELY do this. It's a huge part of why I didn't like Jonas in SG1, or Alex in Invisible Man. It's irrational and unfair and totally, totally a part of fanning. The new character feels like an interloper and they're resented for taking screen time away from established characters. It has nothing to do with the character's personal qualities and everything to do with the fact that they're not established and they feel out of place in the established cast.
And I honestly think I'd feel better about this whole debate if people would just admit that this is a big factor in what's going on here, rather than trying to rationally prove that the character is poorly written, poorly acted, poorly conceived, etc. This makes those of us who have warmed up to her feel as if we are being criticized, because if this character is objectively bad, and we still like her, what does that imply about us?
The only place where I'm going to disagree is that I really do think it comes down more to fan reaction than to the writing for the character. Granted, mistakes were made (to use politics-speak), but I'm really not sure if there was any way they could have written Keller that would have won over the fanbase with the character as conceived. Maybe the problem is that the character concept is flawed, but when I look back on, say, Jonas, I'm not sure what they could have done with that character to make the fans like him.
Re: second part
But...it's not that irrational. It's part of being human; we have trouble adjusting to new things replacing what we were used to. And part of writing a TV show well is writing to this, is making sure you account for this. Making sure you craft a new character that the fans can accept, putting extra work into their development.
There are always going to be some fans who will never accept a new char - but no char is beloved by all fans. The writers have been able to manage substitutions before - Ronon's a replacement char and most of us have embraced him. And the total retooling of SG-1 in s9-10 did win a lot of fans over.
This makes those of us who have warmed up to her feel as if we are being criticized, because if this character is objectively bad, and we still like her, what does that imply about us?
Yeah, that's always the trouble with these debates - because it always feels so personal, like you're being judged for your tastes. I don't think the Keller char is exactly objectively bad - just, um, not very good. And those of you defending her here, I think are seeing the positive parts of the character, while having a higher tolerance than most for ignoring/explaining the not-good parts. (The thing is, the character Keller that you seem to see, does seem to be a decent character. It's just not the character I'm seeing when I watch the show!)
The only place where I'm going to disagree is that I really do think it comes down more to fan reaction than to the writing for the character. Granted, mistakes were made (to use politics-speak), but I'm really not sure if there was any way they could have written Keller that would have won over the fanbase with the character as conceived.
But I think the character concept is, in a large part, what the writing is. Putting aside that I actually liked Jonas (not as much as Daniel but I thought he was sweet) - I was primed to like Keller from the beginning. I wasn't that attached to Carson, I was looking forward to seeing Jewel Staite in the show. I actually enjoyed her well enough in her first few episodes (even though I was baffled from the very beginning by what she was doing there - I kept expecting explanation, for some special skill to be revealed, and got increasingly frustrated as nothing came up) but the more I saw of her, the more bored with her I became; and the more screen-time she got, the more I began to resent her for being there instead of my team. I didn't so resent Carter, and I don't so resent Woolsey (on the contrary, I want to see more of Woolsey, maybe even at the expense of team scenes!)
A lot of the people who commented on this post say the same - that they didn't mind her at first, but have come to dislike her - or even that they still like her, but have problems with her, and this post explained them. So I can't help but think that there are genuine problems in the writing of her, or in her basic concept, beyond a stubborn and unaccepting fanbase.
Re: second part
Anyway, the essay she's referring to...which of course I haven't yet posted, is something I'm thinking of tweaking slightly and actually posting on Fanthropology. Not in terms of SGA, but in fandom in general.
Cause I think, in part, it is a duty the writers must over come. As neechan says, it IS human nature, to compare, to question, to have a knee-jerk reaction to change. But, and this is somewhat where my previous essay comes in, I think what's important to do is have the character who's coming in have two clear things established: why the show needs them and why the other characters need/accept them. Does it always work, do they always succeed. Debatable. Take Alex, for example. We were not particularly fond of her, especially on first watching. Second rewatching, a few years later, we found her actually amusing/tolerable at times. For a simple reason. Do they really give her a good reason to be joining the show. Meeeeh. It's kinda flimsy, and kinda random and you're like, baby? Okaaaay? But in terms of the other characters (and this is where we started liking her more the second time around). The other characters...like a lot of the audience, they don't really like her either. And they speculate why's she there. Their own group kinda closes in, never fully reaches out to her...at times, when she has the better equipment, etc, doing the Mary Sue thing, all kick ass...they kinda mock it. The characters we know from the beginning, the ones we *do* like, are voicing our doubts, are questioning her place, and having to struggle with excepting her, just like the fans. Did it work, as I said, debatable. But on rewatching, seeing that arc play out, she was more tolerable. New characters are usually questioned, doubted by the already established ones. They have to prove themselves to the present cast. And as (hopefully, if the writing is handled well) the cast we're used to, our proxies, learn to accept, so, too, the fans.
Err...I really actually have no idea if a word of that made sense. Sleeeep. Yes, sleep now. Um...*hangs head* I suck so SO much ^_- Oh GOD, this is why I need to go back to school oh so BAD! I miss seminars and discussions so badly it HURTS! ^_-
Re: second part
Looking back on it NOW, after six(?) years, I really can't remember why I disliked her so much. I strongly suspect that if I watched the show now, I wouldn't dislike her at all. But I remember how I felt about her then, and I'm seeing a lot of the same arguments in people's reactions to Keller. I wouldn't be at all surprised if, 10 years from now, none of us can figure out why anyone used to hate her. What you said about the characters questioning/mocking Alex -- I specifically remember NOT getting that from the show at the time; I felt like everyone on the show loved her and she could do no wrong.
Which is not to say that I think you're wrong or being overly emotional/irrational about Keller. I just think we might all be too close to the show right now, with emotions running too high over the cancellation, for this kind of commentary to avoid becoming a partisan battleground. I honestly don't think you're *wrong* to have posted it (and I'm sorry for getting so argumentative in your post) but I do think that the whole situation on the show might look a little more positive if we all stepped back a bit and took a deep breath ...
Re: second part
(er, yes, I'm jumping in all over the place - Gnine's off at work so won't be able to respond for a while) - I think a lot of it depends on how the show ends. One of the reasons we don't hate Alex in retrospect (because I do remember the hatred, though I don't think we were quite as involved in the show ourselves...there was that mermaid chick first season, though, and whoa the vitriol she inspired!) - anyway, one reason we didn't mind Alex, rewatching the show, is because we knew she left before it was over; she was booted from the cast and in the end she's a nonentity, easily ignored. (And I think I sympathize with characters better, knowing their fates? I swear I like Elizabeth more now than when she was ever on the show, and I actually even enjoy her more when rewatching episodes than I used to. I'm not sure what's going on there, actually...!)
Our future feelings on Keller depend entirely on how the show's end shakes out...because I'll admit, if the final scene of the finale is Rodney & Keller out on a balcony while John & Teyla & Ronon are laughing with each other in another room - I'll never, ever forgive the writers or the char. I'm stubborn that way XP I don't think that's how it's going to go (and I don't have spoilers) but I can't help but worry (mostly because "The Shrine" would be my favorite episode ever, if it had a team tag instead of what we got...there's so much gorgeous team stuff in the ep, but no resolution to any of it, and it makes the end as frustrating as most 2nd season eps were. And Keller's the scapegoat there, it's really the writer's fault, but...she's a convenient scapegoat!)
(and yeah, Gnine does read spoilers, and operates from that prescient perspective, and I yell at her about this all the time...!)
Re: second part
*laughs* And, see, that honestly wouldn't bother me -- we *know* the characters are friends, so we don't have to see it all the time, and I don't think that would bother me any more than John spending his day off in "Sunday" with Teyla and Ronon rather than Rodney. I've enjoyed the team-bonding scenes we've gotten, but I also enjoy seeing the characters have lives outside the team (e.g. Rodney eating lunch alone or with Elizabeth in "Tao"). In all honestly, I actually prefer when they aren't joined at the hip all the time, and when we see them do things without the whole team being involved. I used to groove more on the team scenes in the early seasons, when we didn't get so many of them and the friendship was more implied than stated, but since both the team friendship and the John/Rodney friendship have been amply canonical over the last couple of seasons, I've actually been preferring seeing the team divided up in various ways (e.g. Ronon and John in Outcast, or Rodney and the girls in Trio). Not that I don't still enjoy the solid team eps, of course, but for me "Shrine" delivered that in spades, and I didn't feel the need to have more than we did.
This definitely doesn't mean that I'd rather see romance than friendship, of course (I am still ME, after all!), but scenes with other characters don't take away from the team friendship for me. On the contrary, like I've talked about in the past, I don't like the "soulmates because we have no one else" trope; I find it claustrophobic and scary, and I'd rather see the team choose to hang out together some of the time than watch them spending all their time together because they don't have any other friends! *g*
But of course that's just me.
Re: second part
Eh. Different strokes! And I have a thing about finales; for a lot of my shows, the final scene is the one that puts the cap on my feelings for the entire show, and I like to be left with a satisfying feeling (I prefer status quo happy endings to anything else, with my type B fandoms.) For me, the show is still about team-love first and foremost, and that's what I'd like the final image to be. Like the end of ST:TNG, which is one of the most satisfying finale scenes of any show I know...that's what I want.
Re: second part
I want a "status quo" ending, too, and I suspect that we'll get that, because that's what the finale of SG1 gave us. (Brad Wright, hello! *g*) Of course, time will tell, but I strongly suspect that we'll end with a "going through the gate forever" together kind of feeling.
And, actually, that's one of the big reasons why I'm okay with the cancellation happening now. I know that Jason Momoa had expressed a desire to leave the show (and for his character to go out in a blaze of glory) and if they'd actually gone that road, a season 6 might well have spelled the end of the team as we know it. *That* would have been hard to take.
Re: second part
And, actually, that's one of the big reasons why I'm okay with the cancellation happening now.
Actually...the one plus to our anti-Keller feelings is that we're becoming a bit more acclimated to the idea of the series ending. At least if M&M are stopped now, they probably didn't have time to marry anyone off XP
Re: second part
Sorry for fucking with your love of the show, in all its silly badly written dorktastic glory. I hope it's not permanent...
Re: second part
Oh, god, no, and I sound like a bit of a whiny brat in that last comment, don't I? ^^;; I'll be fine (though I do apparently need a break from the John/Rodney, it seems). And, really, I *do* think you guys are entitled to your opinions, honest I do. I think my least favorite thing about this kind of fan-partisan bickering is how it forces people to take sides and makes us all settle into more hard-line positions than we might otherwise have taken.
Re: second part
(Gnine also regrets these arguments happened on lj instead of in person - she's a very passionate person and a great debater, but she's the opposite of me; she's more comfortable talking out her ideas than writing them down, and I think some of the frustration in her posts stems from the impediment to self-expression more than any aspect of the argument.)
Um. Yes. Truce? *group hug!* And we can all make fun of Carson together, at least. Carson, you ass! Stop pretending to be Rodney's best friend and just piss off to China! XP
Re: second part
I really do enjoy debating for the most part (as you've no doubt noticed...) but it's also good to be able to disengage before it starts to affect my enjoyment for the subject under debate ... and before I start committing myself to stupidly reducto-ad-absurdem versions of my own argument! So, yeah. Truce. :)
PS
Re: PS
I do really appreciate that we can argue these things and still like each other at the end! (And I still like