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An interesting link in The Wall Street Journal that instantly reminded me of Daniel: Professors on the Battlefield. Without getting into the politics (please, don't get into the politics here!), the "Human Terrain System" is a new Pentagon initative in which the military is consulting anthropologists to get a clearer idea of the expected cultural response to their behavior in the field. When quotes like,"serve as cultural advisers to brigade commanders" and "a willingness by military officers to learn from civilian academics" immediately flashed me on Stargate, I came to the conclusion that the round thing on the bottom of Cheyenne Mountain has taken over my life entirely. This may, or may not, be a good thing. :)
I rewatched certain episodes of SG-1 last night, as research for an up-and-coming ficathon. I haven't quite decided which episode to work with, as yet, but I did come up with the following two observations:
Can someone please explain to me why this fandom isn't full of fantastic Teal'c and Daniel friendship fics? In episode after episode, in season after season, these two are framed together, standing side by side and reacting to dialogue from Jack or Sam. Do Sam/Jack shippers tend to write Daniel and Teal'c together, as many Jack and Daniel friendship authors tend to write Sam and Teal'c together, and I'm just missing all of it because I don't read Sam/Jack ship? There is so much potential between those two: Daniel as everything that Teal'c has not been taught to honor, Daniel's unwavering support in Cor-Ai, their friendship and loyalty to each other despite Sha're's abduction and subsequent death, working through alt-Teal'c shooting Daniel in TBFTGOG, Avatar, the struggle to save Jack and Sam during Divide and Conquer, Bra'tac's growing respect for Daniel through the years (I've mentioned this before one or ten times), Daniel calming Teal'c in Fair Game - gah, the possibilities are endless. So where is all the fic?
And on a lighter note, one of the episodes I scanned was Urgo. Despite Dom DeLuise's frantic chewing of the scenery - or maybe because of it? - that episode is solid gold. Marvelous Janet and George scenes, hilarious team scenes, the poor SFs assigned to trail SG-1 in a pile-up when Jack bolts back to the commissary for one last slice of pie - and, of course, "I wanna live, I wanna experience the universe, and I wanna eat pie." That, my friends, is SG-1 in a nutshell. (Tallulah Rasa picked up on that delightfully in the final chapter of her excellent So Long, Farewell, See You Around.)
At any rate, I noticed something during the scene in the infirmary, after Urgo first reveals himself and they're trying to explain him to Janet. It's after Teal'c has turned on the defribillator, so there's already the charm of seeing tiny Janet next to towering Teal'c (and knowing that Teal'c is utterly cowed by her, as is everyone on base). Daniel is explaining how Urgo seems to work: "He also seems to be able to enhance our enjoyment of certain experiences in order to motivate us." As Daniel is speaking, it cuts to Urgo, standing next to Janet, staring at her very intently. Not, however, at her face...
This is the ultimate Gen Girl speaking here, and it still screamed at me! Heh. My own take on Daniel/Janet is that over the years, they became quite close, even affectionate; but I have never really shipped them. Urgo, apparently, thought overwise. :)
I rewatched certain episodes of SG-1 last night, as research for an up-and-coming ficathon. I haven't quite decided which episode to work with, as yet, but I did come up with the following two observations:
Can someone please explain to me why this fandom isn't full of fantastic Teal'c and Daniel friendship fics? In episode after episode, in season after season, these two are framed together, standing side by side and reacting to dialogue from Jack or Sam. Do Sam/Jack shippers tend to write Daniel and Teal'c together, as many Jack and Daniel friendship authors tend to write Sam and Teal'c together, and I'm just missing all of it because I don't read Sam/Jack ship? There is so much potential between those two: Daniel as everything that Teal'c has not been taught to honor, Daniel's unwavering support in Cor-Ai, their friendship and loyalty to each other despite Sha're's abduction and subsequent death, working through alt-Teal'c shooting Daniel in TBFTGOG, Avatar, the struggle to save Jack and Sam during Divide and Conquer, Bra'tac's growing respect for Daniel through the years (I've mentioned this before one or ten times), Daniel calming Teal'c in Fair Game - gah, the possibilities are endless. So where is all the fic?
And on a lighter note, one of the episodes I scanned was Urgo. Despite Dom DeLuise's frantic chewing of the scenery - or maybe because of it? - that episode is solid gold. Marvelous Janet and George scenes, hilarious team scenes, the poor SFs assigned to trail SG-1 in a pile-up when Jack bolts back to the commissary for one last slice of pie - and, of course, "I wanna live, I wanna experience the universe, and I wanna eat pie." That, my friends, is SG-1 in a nutshell. (Tallulah Rasa picked up on that delightfully in the final chapter of her excellent So Long, Farewell, See You Around.)
At any rate, I noticed something during the scene in the infirmary, after Urgo first reveals himself and they're trying to explain him to Janet. It's after Teal'c has turned on the defribillator, so there's already the charm of seeing tiny Janet next to towering Teal'c (and knowing that Teal'c is utterly cowed by her, as is everyone on base). Daniel is explaining how Urgo seems to work: "He also seems to be able to enhance our enjoyment of certain experiences in order to motivate us." As Daniel is speaking, it cuts to Urgo, standing next to Janet, staring at her very intently. Not, however, at her face...
This is the ultimate Gen Girl speaking here, and it still screamed at me! Heh. My own take on Daniel/Janet is that over the years, they became quite close, even affectionate; but I have never really shipped them. Urgo, apparently, thought overwise. :)
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Which ficathon?
Can someone please explain to me why this fandom isn't full of fantastic Teal'c and Daniel friendship fics?
Um. Because the big ships are Sam/Jack and Jack/Daniel and thus most of the fic falls there and in general, fandom likes ship?
Because Teal'c doesn't get written enough?
Because while it is everywhere, it's often quiet and understated (but, to add to your list, "Orpheus"!)
I can say that I don't recall seeing Daniel and Teal'c together much in the Sam/Jack that I've read. But, yes, more fic would be good. (I'm still mulling over the five things prompt you gave me Months Ago).
hee :) On your Urgo observation. Though, I think that could easily have just been Urgo leering without help from Daniel - and I think Urgo would have been happy if any of them did anything "interesting"
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And yet I point you at my master list, which is nearly at 250 fics at the moment - and perhaps ten of those are not gen. So gen fic certainly exists, but the Daniel and Teal'c gen fic doesn't. ::sniff::
Because Teal'c doesn't get written enough?
Heh. Goes without saying, doesn't it?
And yes for Orpheus! So so many fantastic Teal'c and Daniel moments!
And keep mulling! I'm reccing Teal'c and Daniel friendship fics next month (I hope) because I have finally accumulated another four of them. Pathetic, innit?
Hee! Yes, Urgo wouldn't need any help to do any leering! It was just hilarious - a single second's frame, but just as Daniel was talking about "enjoyment of certain experiences."
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I didn't love Orpheus that much, but I loved the moments between Daniel and Teal'c so, so, so much.
*mulls* Hopefully when I get a break from ficathons (except the team one is coming! gah!) Really only four? I would have thought there'd be more than that...*is sad*
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I think there is something to that. Certainly a lot of J/D slashers in this fandom double as gen writers, and of course because it's that relationship that interests them, they tend to write mostly Jack-and-Daniel focused gen. (Sam and Jack friendship-not-shipfic is, sadly, a whole lot rarer. I would kill for some good SJ buddy-fic, dammit.)
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But, yeah, I agree with what you mean - you write the characters/relationships that interest you and that you're comfortable writing - so it makes some sense that the commonly explored characters/ships influence the gen side of the fandom.
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Yeah. And it's frustrating, because even if you find a good one it's then difficult to rec to other gen fans who are more pairing-paranoid than you, because you've got to be all, "Yes, I know it says it's Sam/Jack UST in the header, but there's not really any evidence of it in there anywhere, honest..."
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However,
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*sigh*
Crazy fandom categorization.
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I understand the desire to coax a ship's readers to read your fic, I do. But how about all the non-shippers, who might enjoy your fic but are wary of the shipping?
Sigh. It's lonely here, on the moon... :)
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I've grown to hate the "pre-ship" label - I can't figure out what it means. Half the time it seems to end with me thinking "Okay, that was totally gen why the label?" and the other half "OMG Jack and Daniel are kissing - that is so ship"
And, really, I don't care that much - I'm not going to flip out or want to bleach my eyes I just...don't get it.
*hands you spare oxygen tank and digger-thing for moon-rock golf*
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I'd personally call it "trying to cover all the bases but probably offending everybody" myself. :)
Yes, the "pre-ship" label can be highly annoying, indeed. Let readers find their own subtext and decide - or, if it's blatant, call it ship.
It's nice and peaceful up here. Cool, too. And the view, as your Sam icon attests, is just lovely.
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The Jaffa backstory kinda bores me, because while they did an amazing job of making me really really care about Teal'c and Bra'tac and Ry'ac and even Rak'nor, they didn't do all that good a job about making me care about the Jaffa in general. But Teal'c's struggle to recover his "mojo" and the friendship with Daniel? That part was made of wow. :)
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But that stuff with Teal'c dealing with his first big injury post-symbiote and helping Daniel re-find himself and all was SO GOOD. Of course, I also watched the episode with a cat named Mojo sitting on my lap so when Jack told Teal'c he had to get his mojo back I might have laughed really hard and told the cat not to worry - we wouldn't be sending him through the big glowy screen.
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To be honest? If they'd done a better job with the Free Jaffa in S9-10, I might have retroactively cared more about the Jaffa in earlier seasons. Imagine if Almost a Statesman was canon! As it is, though, I really don't think the Free Jaffa deserve the awesomeness that is Teal'c. Or Bra'tac!
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And in my experience, in Sam/Jack fic the buddy duties tend to get split up so Teal'c is Jack's confidant, Janet is Sam's, and Daniel bounces between the two of them playing the Follow Your Feelings Fairy. I think that's partly because Sam/Jack fics tend to have less in the way of standard off-world missions than Jack&Daniel stories do (since in-character Sam/Jack generally requires some kind of special circumstances to get past their canon "leave it in the room" stance) so it's less necessary to write in the "and meanwhile, while all this is unfolding, Sam and Teal'c are three clicks away experiencing a convenient B-plot" style cast division.
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Teal'c doesn't flow easily, because none of us can exactly "write what we know" when it comes to the Jaffa. :) But how many of us were in Special Ops, or are astrophysicists or linguists? Or walk through a Stargate on a regular basis, for that matter?
Follow Your Feelings Fairy
::snorfles::
So, it seems I'm not missing any good Teal'c and Daniel stories by avoiding the Sam/Jack writers? Sigh. There must be someone out there writing about those two!
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It's true. But I can go to the library or the internet or possibly people I know and find out what it's like to be an astrophysicist or a soldier or a linguist and I have some understanding what it was like to live and grow up on Earth in the back half of the 20th century and what events might have been formative and what their culture is like and such. So I may not step through a stargate regularly (unfortunately) or know anything about linguistics and I've only ever held a gun to use the scope to see the moons of Jupiter but...I know where Daniel and Sam and Jack are coming from, at least generally.
I don't have that knowledge or set of resources to use to better understand Teal'c or Jaffa. Which doesn't mean I can't write him or whatever, just means I have less context to build on. Canon doesn't really give us all that much beyond the surface of Jaffa culture and history.
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But he STILL deserves awesome fic. With Daniel! So there. :)
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You get three different prompts to choose from, so lots of options! One turned out to be SGA, unfortunately, but I can still work with the other two. :)
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I love Urgo! Dom DeLuise over the top is a blast! *uses icon*
MS has been quoted as saying he and TR started adding in little meaningful looks for Daniel/Janet subtext, but my reaction on hearing that was "Huh?" The only thing that comes remotely close, to me, is when Cassie's in the infirmary and Daniel offers Janet his support, but that just as easily reads close friendship.
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The "add some meaningful looks" thing started in S4, I believe, with 2010. And Urgo is in S3. It's not anything that I personally see when I watch SG-1, but it was seriously funny to see what Urgo apparently had in mind! :) Like you, though, I see Daniel and Janet as having a very close, even affectionate friendship - but not being shippy.
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That is also my motto in life. ;)
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When it's not all about the hair, it's all about the pie!
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Daniel and Teal'c usually get paired up only as buddies in a yenta capacity.
Hee! Teal'c and Daniel with Yiddish accents, urging Jack and Sam to go for it! You're not helping, here. :)
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And now for something completely different: if I may be permitted to do a little self-promotion, I've got a "Shades of Grey" missing scenes story with Teal'c as the central character and Daniel having an important role; I hope it works as a friendship fic: Better than Revenge.
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And yes! I was ever so gleeful when you switched from S9-10 fic to classic SG-1 fic! (Not that you shouldn't write what you like! But I like the classic team.) Better Than Revenge got recced over here.
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And double sorry! I completely forgot that you'd rec'd the story! In fact, I forgot that it had been rec'd *at all*; I got very little feedback on that story (even for me; I never get a lot), which surprised me, because I thought people would like a season 3 story; it's arguably the best season.
I've written more for later seasons because I think a lot of good stories have already been set in the earlier seasons--it's on the later ones I have things to say that I haven't seen anyone else say yet.
revenge story
I absolutely hated that Jack appeared to be a traitor, and hated what he did to Daniel to try to convince him of that fact. I made myself read this tonight, though, and though it was hard to read because of all the "E'"s that kept popping up all over the text for no reason that I could discern, I stuck with it and was rewarded with a very good story, very plausible reactions by all the team, and a satisfying ending.
One reason you may not get too much feedback is that there is no handy-dandy thing to click on to give that to you (which is why I decided to post this comment here).
Thanks for the story. There should definitely be more Teal'c stories, but most of all, just more team stories. When I started in this fandom, I gravitated to Jack/Sam (I love Jack most of all, but enjoy all the team). With time, I've come to love team stories more, and luckily I find some, thanks to the stargate fic recs site.
Again, good job with this story.
Melissa M.
Re: revenge story
Re: revenge story
My email is: tom@asde.net, if you want to write me to help me in my computer ignorance, then I'll go back and look at the story again to explain better about the "E'"s that I kept seeing.
Melissa M.