Canon vs. Fanon, part 7: "No more beer for you."

Finally, the section you've all been waiting for! …Okay, some of you. At least one or two. Maybe.

We'll make a brief detour into Daniel's junk food habits, but the primary focus of this section will be Daniel and drinking: his preferences, interactions with his teammates, and his capacity for alcohol. This one turned out to be a bit more analytical than some of the others, and the conclusions might be surprising for some. As always, pointers to what I've missed, and discussions/disagreements with my analyses, are more than welcome.

Special thanks to the following people, who helped this non-drinker work out accurate details for the various members of SG-1: aurora_novarum, green_grrl, princessofg, redbyrd_sgfic, and shutthef_up. While much of it is mentioned in the post below, anyone interested in greater details can check out the comments listed here. Any mistakes included in this post are entirely my own.

Recap: Canon is anything shown onscreen in the movie or show; show supersedes movie, when necessary. (Daniel is married to Sha're, not Shau'ri.) Fanon is defined as popular concepts that occur regularly in fanfic, but have little or no actual canon basis to defend them.

( Candy is dandy... )

( ...Is liquor quicker? )

My personal fanon opinion? These concepts are actually a classic case of fanon: a single point or two of data in canon is seized upon and exaggerated beyond recognition, or, in the case of beer-drinking, twisted out of context. Yes, Daniel likes chocolate – a lot. But he isn't a chocolate addict. He does like beer on occasion; he prefers darker ones, and he has no need to "educate" Jack on the quality of beers, since Jack is a big boy and is perfectly capable of drinking good-quality alcohol when he feels like it.

As for Teal'c… I have no idea where the "symbiote metabolizes alcohol" fanon came from, but it's so pervasive that I assumed it was true until it was pointed out that canon contradicts it. So no, Teal'c doesn't drink. He can play "designated driver" all he wants, though, because yes, Daniel will get tipsy faster than the others… but not as much as fanon would suggest.

"Anyway, I'm sorry, but that just happens to be how I feel about it. What do you think?"