Redial the Gate: Abyss

Why, yes, I've seen this one before! Raise your hand if you're surprised...

::looks at empty landscape::

Sadly, because this isn't a new one for me, I did not make the time to rewatch. I hope to do so before the end of the week, though. In particular, I always more or less skimmed over the SGC bits and concentrated on the Jack and Daniel bits. I want to watch again now with pro-Jonas goggles!

I will still probably skip over the Jack-getting-tortured bits. Yes, I did the same thing for Serpent's Venom and Talion. Urgh.

In the meantime, here's a question for discussion:

The monk told Bra'tac back in Maternal Instinct that he couldn't Ascend until he dumped his symbiote, with the inference that it was evil and thus blocking his Ascension. Of course, that was back in the day when Ascension was percieved as a "higher" plane of existence that one needed to be worthy to achieve, rather than just a question of brain activity. (Sorry to insult Stargate like this, but it's rather the way Lucas retconned the Force into midichlorians, with the obvious supposition that there was a thriving black market in Jedi blood transfusions.) Then we discover that Oma actually Ascended Laundry Pile Anubis once upon a time.

So: is there something about the Goa'uld/Tok'ra that makes them biologically incapable of Ascension? Is this Oma not wanting to risk another Anubis again, or just pique at being tricked once by a Goa'uld?

rydra_wong's powerful Walked Right Out of the Machinery touches upon this a bit, actually, but from a different angle. But do you think a Tok'ra or a reformed (or even non-reformed!) could Ascend, with or without the Oma booster?

...

That's where you're WRONG!

Oh, yeah. Must sit down and watch this one again. :)

Canon vs. Fanon, part 20: Infirmary fanon, part 2

Ten months since the last one, you say? Really?

Welcome to the latest edition of Canon vs. Fanon! Pull up a chair, poke around, and jump into the discussion. If you're new to the series, you can read older entries via the tags or the LJ Index.

Briefly, the purpose of these essays is to explore canon issues, contrast them with common fanon usage, and determine how far fanon strays from canon. Canon is defined as anything directly shown during Stargate: The Movie, episodes of the show, and the SG-1 movies, with show superseding the original movie when there's a contradiction. (O'Neill with two Ls, for example, or Cheyenne vs. Creek Mountain.) Fanon is defined as widely-accepted concepts that appear in fanfic, but do not have any real basis in canon.

There are varying degrees of fanon, and these essays have touched on all types. Some fanon is completely unsupported by canon; some is actually contradicted by canon; and some is only a question of emphasis or degree. The point is not to condemn authors who use fanon, or even to suggest that there is something wrong with extrapolation of common plotlines. The purpose is simply to reach an understanding of what is and isn't canon. Once the facts and conclusions are presented, you are welcome to argue them, agree them, or ignore them completely - the choice is entirely up to you. :)

This time, we are going to explore a few more common fanon tropes associated with the infirmary. We've covered many of these in the past, including the first infirmary post and Daniel's fangirl nurses. Now we'll take a look at the team's attitude towards various medications and the presumption that they like to check themselves out of the infirmary without approval.

( Daniel, medication, and incompetent medical staff )

( Sam, Daniel, and pain-killers )

( Get those scary needles away from me! )

( Jack and morphine )

( Lying to Janet, and ducking out )

( Personal fanon opinion )

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

To keep any discussion in one place, please comment over at the LJ post.