Canon vs. Fanon, part 14: A Sam Carter Edition

[fignewton]

This is going to be a little shorter than usual. I could claim that it's because the next two topics on my Sam list are too huge and detailed to add to this one, but I'll be honest here and confess that a certain complete box set arrived in the mail this morning, which means that my fandom time has been rather abruptly and gleefully diverted elsewhere. Sorry about that. [Heh. Not really.]

Welcome to the lastest edition of Canon vs. Fanon! I offered you a choice of four different topics, and the Sam Carter edition received the most votes. So here we go: some common fanon tropes about Samantha Carter.

Recap: Canon is anything shown onscreen in the movie or show; show supersedes movie, when necessary. (Catherine Langford speaks with an American accent, not a German one.) Fanon is defined as popular concepts that occur regularly in fanfic, but have little or no actual canon basis to defend them.

 

I’m going to ramble a bit before we get to the actual canon vs. fanon, because Sam fanon is very dependent on fic genre. So before we begin, I need to clarify just what Sam fanon I’ve chosen to analyze here, and my attitude towards Sam herself.

 

Unless you’re a relative newcomer to this LJ (and if you are, you’re welcome to poke around!), you’re probably aware that I am a most emphatic gen girl. That means the fanon discussed in these essays are those concepts found commonly in genfic.

 

For Daniel, my usual subject [for some odd reason], that doesn’t seem to matter too much; Daniel fanon apparently crosses multiple genre lines. I’ve only done one Jack edition, so far, but reaction in the comments indicates that Jack fanon is also pretty universal. Teal’c fic, sadly, is such a rarity that there really isn’t any fanon about our favorite Jaffa. (I know of exactly two – Teal’c carrying an unconscious Daniel cradled in his arms and Teal’c’s inability to get drunk despite drinking to excess, thanks to Junior – and I’ve debunked both of those in previous sections.)

 

Sam fanon, though, is an entirely different story.

 

There are lots of Sam fanon tropes that seem to exist in shippy fics that don’t appear in gen. Since I don’t read slash or het, this is only what I’ve picked up from comments and observations in meta posts from other people LJs, and I’ll be happy to be corrected if I’m wrong. But there seem to be some common fanon ideas in ship fics – Sam the homophobe, for example, or Sam the hussy who dares to date Pete instead of waiting patiently for her One True Love, or Sam who hates Daniel for daring to come between her and her One True Love.

 

I’m not going to comment on fanon concepts like those, because I haven’t read the stories that use them. But I will say this: I unabashedly love Sam. I love her for her struggle to be successful in “this man’s army,” to quote Janet’s ex. I love her for her enthusiasm and her strength and her bright-eyed approach to life, and most of all, I love her for being human. She makes lots of mistakes over the years, yes – but just as I despise the fanon trope of Saint Daniel, I hate the veneration of Perfect Sam.

 

Sadly, the Perfect Sam trope is actually sometimes canon, thanks to some very poor writing; I think all of us winced when Felger, in Avenger 2.0, gushed that “even your mistakes are perfect!” But we forgive Jack for RDA’s tendency to make him act a lot more stupid than he possibly could be and still be half-way competent, don’t we? Instead of blaming Sam for the writers putting irritating words into the mouths of the likes of Felger and Bregman and Landry, I prefer to ignore the poor writing and focus on Samantha Carter: a very human person, with foibles and fumbles and a rather pathetic inability to keep a successful relationship going. Good thing she’s got her marvelous friendships among her teammates (and her motorcycle) to keep her occupied. :)

 

On to the fanon! Let’s take a look at some common Sam fanon concepts and compare and contrast them to the reality of canon. (I should mention that tejas suggested a superb addition to the fanon list, but it’s one that demands a lot of research [oh, the humanity!] and will have to wait for the second Sam edition.) I would like to remind you all that I’m not out to denigrate or mock any fanfic authors who might use these fanon concepts; my purpose is to show what’s fanon, and what is actually canon.

 

Sam has known General Hammond since she was a child, and sometimes calls him “Uncle George” in private.

 

While writers might think that this is reasonably extrapolated from what we know from canon, we have no actual proof of this; in fact, the evidence actually contradicts it.

We do know that George Hammond and Jacob Carter know each other well. They are chatting quite amicably in Secrets; Hammond is in Jacob’s hospital room when he goes into crisis in The Tokra; Hammond actually calls Jacob “old friend” in Show and Tell.  However, that doesn’t automatically mean that they met each other’s families. Military officers who served together can develop very close bonds of friendship that need not include their familial lives.

 

Let’s take a closer look at what happened in those first few episodes:

 

Secrets. We meet Jacob for the first time. A smiling Hammond tells Sam, “I invited Jake myself, Captain. I thought you might enjoy the surprise.” Note that the casual use of the nickname implies a close friendship, yet George is clearly unaware of the possibility of any animosity or discomfort between father and daughter.

 

After Sam, with a rather forced smile, thanks Hammond, Jacob clarifies, “George and I served together back when the Air Force really was this country's first line of defense.” Why would Jacob have to specifically tell Sam this, if George was an old friend of the family? Jack hadn’t yet joined the group; he’s clearly talking to Sam.

 

Later, just before Jacob tells Sam about his cancer, she tells him, “General Hammond's going to present us with our medals at a private ceremony back at the base.” There is no “Uncle George” here.

 

The Tok’ra. When Sam tells Hammond she’d been speaking with her father, it’s clear that he already knows about the cancer – which means that either Jacob or Sam have previously told him about it. Considering how private the matter is, I can’t imagine Sam telling Hammond about it no matter how close they might be. That suggests that Jacob told George himself. Again, proof of George and Jacob's closeness, but...

 

“Sam, I've known Jacob a long time.” Why would Hammond have to tell her this, if she personally knew it already?

 

Later in the episode, when Sam goes offworld to meet the Tok’ra, Jacob calls Hammond directly to tell him that he’s been hospitalized. George drops everything to see him. He’s still there when Jacob goes into crisis. All this clearly indicates a close friendship, but there’s no suggestion of any family connection.

 

1969. Looking at things from the other side, so to speak: it’s Jack who knows details of young Hammond’s personal life, not Sam. And she certainly shows no sign of recognizing him as a young man, which would be a reasonable possibility if she’d grown up knowing him.

 

Conclusion: While Sam’s father certainly had a long and close friendship with General Hammond, there is no canonical basis for the suggestion that George knew Sam when she was growing up, or that she ever calls him “Uncle George.” 

 

Jacob affectionately calls Sam “Sammie.”

 

Nope, nope, nope.

 

Jacob calls her “Samantha” in Secrets, when he’s trying to convince her to try out for NASA. He greets her as “kid” in Show and Tell, Seth, and Death Knell, and calls her "kiddo" in Threads. But Sam is called “Sammie” only once throughout all of canon – not be Jacob, but by Urgo.

 

(I would be willing to entertain the notion that Sam’s Uncle Irving – “Sam. Sammie. You like me. I remind you of your Uncle Irving.” – might be the source of Urgo using that particular nickname. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the only usage throughout all of canon.)

 

Even in The Devil You Know, when we catch a glimpse of Sam’s childhood, Jacob is calling her Sam.

 

Conclusion: While Jacob sometimes calls Sam “kid,” he never addresses her as Sammie.


Sam frequently exclaims, "Holy Hannah!"

This is another prime example of a single instance of canon seized by writers and exaggerated out of proportion. Considering how often the expression crops up in fics, readers might assume that Sam is saying, "Holy Hannah!" in every other episode. But how many times did she say it, really?

Cold Lazarus. Daniel panics when the fragment of crystal partially morphs into his own face, and calls for "Captain Doctor" and Teal'c to come and take a look. As Sam leans closer to the crystal at Daniel's prompting, the crystal entity morphs into a miniature blue version of Sam's face. Sam jumps back and blurts, "Holy Hannah!"

Sam uses the expression in early Season One. Fair enough. After that, however, we have to wait a decade to hear it again, in Season Ten:

Spoilers for S10! Uninvited. As they track the other-dimensional creature outside the cabin, Sam exclaims, "Holy Hannah, did you see that thing?"

I have a certain skepticism towards late season canon that meshes with fanon, as it's quite likely to be the writers influenced by the fans, rather than the other way around. Whether or not that's the case, though, it still remains a fact that Sam uses the expression only twice over a period of ten years.

We do know that the expression was probably picked up from Jacob, as he uses it twice within a single episode:

The Tokra, part 2. When Sam and Hammond tell Jacob that her job actually entails travel to other planets, and he finally believes them, Jacob exclaims, "Holy Hannah!"

Later, after he and Selmac are fully blended, he slides off the bed and tests his balance for the first time. He says, "Whoa!"

Sam, alarmed, asks, "What?"

"No more arthritis!" Jacob easily bends his knees and laughs. "Holy Hannah, no more arthritis!"

Conclusion: While Sam probably picked up the expression, "Holy Hannah!" from her father Jacob, she actually uses it only rarely.

 

Sam thinks fondly of Daniel as her kid brother.

 

While this might come as a surprise to some, there is never a single instance, in ten years of canon, when Sam or Daniel express any kind of familial sentiment. An amnesiac Daniel asks in Fallen, “Samantha Carter, was there ever anything between us?” But there is never a single line of dialogue that suggests that Sam and Daniel think of themselves as brother and sister.

 

Aside from that slight contradiction to this common fanon trope, there is one other minor complication: Sam is actually younger than Daniel.

 

We know that Daniel calls himself “four and a half years old” in August of 1969. That means he was born in either ’64 or ’65 (with most fanfic writers choosing the latter). In Entity in S5, however, we’re given a quick glimpse of Sam’s record; and that includes her date of birth, which is December 29^th, 1968. Here's a screencap, courtesy of niamaea, who actually spotted this:

 

I will admit that this canonical fact is not one that I like very much. If Sam is really that young, then her accomplishments – not only a doctorate, but advancement to Captain (not to mention having flown in the Gulf War) – seem like too much in too little time. Unlike Daniel, who at least has a quasi-canonical background of attending college at sixteen (from the book Stargate: The Movie), Sam probably experienced the normal childhood of any army brat. Nevertheless, it’s solid canon: Sam is actually three years younger than Daniel.

ETA October 16th, and again on October 21st for clarity: Thanks to aurora_novarum for getting me in touch with Codger, the same expert I quoted extensively in the Jack O'Neill edition. He has given me permission to use the information I've added below. Codger offers proof, in Air Force terms, that while December '68 doesn't work as Sam's birthday, it's also impractical to suggest that Sam is really older than Daniel (even if I would personally prefer it that way...).

There's been a lot of discussion in the comments as to whether or not it's actually possible for Sam to have been born in December '68.

First of all, let's clarify exactly what Sam was doing in '91. Many people focus on Sam's lines in the pilot episode, when she first meets Jack at the briefing before they went to Abydos to get Daniel. If Sam flew during the Gulf War, the theory goes, she has got to be older - possibly even older than Daniel.

Let's take a closer look at what Sam actually said, and what those statements mean:

Kawalsky challenges her, "Have you ever pulled out of a simulated bombing run in an F-16 at 8-plus G's?"

"Yes," Sam answers calmly.

Later in the conversation, Sam states, "Colonel, I logged over a hundred hours in enemy airspace during the Gulf War."

That's actually two separate statements: that Sam has undergone battle training in an F-16, and that Sam flew in enemy airspace in '91. Many of us, however, have put those statements together to form the conclusion that Sam must have flown in battle in enemy airspace during the Gulf War.

That's not what Sam said, and it isn't actually possible. There were no female fighter pilots in the Gulf War. Women were not flying fighter aircraft until 1993. If Sam flew in enemy airspace during the Gulf War, she was flying a C-130 cargo plane. One hundred hours of flight time means thirty to fifty missions, but it was not in combat situations. (That doesn't take away from the courage demanded to fly in enemy airspace, though.)

So much for the Gulf War. I'm actually happy to have that clarified for me, since Sam-the-fighter-pilot seemed a bit much, combined with everything else. But where does that leave us in determining Sam's age?

I've always understood that canon dialogue takes precedence over canon visuals. tejas clarifies why in the comments below: dialogue is written specifically by the writers, but props and visuals are often created without detailed input from the writers. This can lead to contradictions and inaccuracies. Of course, if there is no canon dialogue, we need to be satisfied with canon visuals, like the screenshot I've used above. But Codger points out that we do have some very solid canon regarding Sam's Air Force career, which, in turn, allows us to extrapolate her age.

Sam was promoted to Major in 1999. In the U.S. military, officers are up for review for promotion after ten years of commissioned service, from the time they are first made 2nd Lieutenant. If they are rejected by the selection board and fail to make Major - something that happens only to those captains below the twentieth percentile - then they are brought up before the board once more the following year. If they are rejected again (and 98% of those who are rejected the first time don't make it the second time, either), they are decommissioned, with no exceptions.

Conclusion: Sam was commissioned in 1989. (No one here is going to suggest that Sam was in the twentieth percentile or below, are they?)

Working backwards from there, we know that Sam went to the Air Force Academy from 1985 to 1989.

Since a person must be eighteen years of age by July of that year to be admitted into the Academy, that means that Sam must have been born in 1967, not December of 1968. If she'd been born in late '68, she couldn't attend the Academy until after her eighteenth birthday in '86, which essentially means starting the following year in 1987 - which would have her graduation from the Academy in June of 1991, after the Gulf War. Even if we allow her to skip a year of high school and enter the Academy at 17 in 1986 (admissions to the Air Force Academy at seventeen, after high school graduation, are allowed today; there's no reason to assume it was otherwise in the 80s), that would only have her graduating in June 1990, which would hardly allow her time for sufficient training to be involved in the Gulf War.

Conclusion: Since Sam's verbal statement that she flew in the Gulf War in COTG directly contradicts the screecap from Entity, we have to discard that canon as invalid.

Since she needs to be born before July 1967 to enter the Academy in 1985 and graduation with her commission in 1989, Codger suggests moving her birthday to May 1967, which dovetails neatly with the birthstone Orlin made for her in Ascension: "I read about how humans associate certain materials with their birth month. Yours is emerald, right?" If you prefer Sam to be as young as possible, you can move her birthday forward by having her enter the Academy at seventeen - but her birthday must be before July 1968 in order to enter the Academy in 1985. Again, if you want to reconcile as much canon as possible, you might want to consider making her birthday in May.

Codger also mentions that some fans have tried to suggest some reasonable explanation for a delay in Sam's commissioning, which would allow her to be older. These include the following theories, each of which Codger disproves:

Sam was not only out of the Academy by '91, but also post-Ph.D. - with her high test scores, the military would have postponed her training in their eagerness to have her complete her education.

No one ever gets their training postponed in the military to complete graduate school, no matter what.

Sam was serving as office personnel for several years, and therefore on a slower promotion track in her pre-SGC days.

It doesn't matter whether or not Sam worked as office personnel; under the DOPMA law mandated by Congress in 1980, all military officers have the same promotion timeline, regardless of where and how they served. 

Sam left the Air Force long enough to get her Ph.D. and then rejoined, leaving her college years out of the equation for her commission track.

In the 1980s and 1990s, this was not actually possible. Unlike today, after 9/11, the military was trying to downsize at that time, as part of the Peace Dividend from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Officers were even offered early retirements, and any person who had left was certainly discouraged from returning. In such an atmosphere, Sam - who tells "herself" in Point of View that "I can't imagine not" joining the military - wouldn't have risked the possibility of not being allowed to resume her commission.

Sam's years in graduate school did not count as time-in-service.

If you're in the military, it doesn't matter whether you're attending graduate school or flying fighter planes; the time counts for commission track, no matter what.
 

Final conclusion: Not only did Sam and Daniel never express any brother/sister feelings on the show, but Sam is actually younger than Daniel. The December 1968 DOB from Entity doesn't quite work, but Sam is still at least two years younger than Daniel, who was born in 1964 or 1965.

 

My personal fanon opinion? Nearly all of the fanon concepts mentioned here have no basis in canon whatsoever, although the “Uncle George” trope only ignores a few canonical contradictions, and the "Holy Hannah!" one is actually only a problem of proportion. It’s the last fanon trope on the list, I think, that I find most annoying; Sam and Daniel’s friendship with each other is much too complex and fascinating to be reduced to simply “brother and sister”! [Yes, I know that it drives Sam/Daniel ship fans insane. And yes, I know about the NC-17 fic that disproves it. I’d prefer that it wasn’t linked here.] Much as I still tend to think of Sam as being older than Daniel, I defer to canonical proof and the experts - she may not be so young as to be born in '68, but she's still younger than Daniel. As for “Sammie,” that's one bit of fanon that I’d actually assumed was true, to the point where I suggested that “Sammie” might explain Jacob’s usage of “Danny” - and my thanks to jenniferjf for pointing out my mistake. Bad Fig Newton! No biscuit!

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

Comments

[splash-the-cat.livejournal.com]

I think all of us winced when Felger, in Avenger 2.0, gushed that “even your mistakes are perfect!”

See, this is what I don't get about people taking this as a cannonical comment about Sam. Felger is the quintessential unreliable narrator. And he has a huge intellectual crush on Sam. Of course he's going to say that. It's perfectly in character for Felger to say that. And Bregman, he's trying to market the SGC, so yeah, playing up the perfect pretty smart woman angle works for him, too. But neither of Bregman or Fleger are speaking to the truth of Sam.

Though I will grant you poor writing with Landry. But the others make perfect sense.

[surreallis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. You can't really take another character's opinion of Sam as evidence of her truth. Isn't that technically hearsay? Although, you could certainly use it to form your own opinion, I suppose. Or at least, no one can stop you. ;)

[splash-the-cat.livejournal.com]

Um. Also, please ignore my inability to spell canonical...

[6beforelunch.livejournal.com]

Felger makes sense, I agree. He's not supposed to be rational or objective, that's the point of the character.

I think they've gone overboard with other characters praising Sam, though. And it's not that I dislike having other characters say that she's awesome, because she is, but...well, this is totally a personal reaction, but I hate when people go on and on about me. And maybe it's a case of over identifying, but when Bregman or someone else starts talking about how great she is, I wince. Not because of Sam, but for Sam, if that makes sense. She looks uncomfortable to me when people do that.

YMMV.

Also, I'm trying to remember when Landry went overboard praising Sam. The only one I can think of talking about Sam being brilliant in seasons 9/10 is Cam and I tend to like that because Sam seems so much more comfortable when Cam does it than when other people do it. But, again, JMHO. :)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Felger is the quintessential unreliable narrator.

So I understand. ::scuffs toe:: I haven't actually... watched the Felger eps yet. Read the scripts, read the meta, sniggered at the commentary from various fans. Watched, no.

And I agree with what you're saying - Felger is the fanboy, Bregman was a professional trying to put her at ease. It's only fair, yes. OTOH, I can't help feeling that it's the writers fangirling Sam via the characters' dialogue.

This may not be fair. I still think it, though. :)

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Excellent post! :-)

One opinion (not factual) note on the last bit of fanon you disprove: I don't find the designation of the Sam&Daniel friendship as fraternal annoying at all. Maybe that's because I don't 'ship them, and because I myself sometimes compare my platonic friendships with guys to my relationships with my brothers. *shrug* Their relationship is definitely complex and interesting, and if someone's using brother/sister as a shorthand to avoid dealing with the complexity, then that would annoy me. But not the *concept*.

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

Likewise, here. My relationship with my brother is many things, but it's definitely not simple. I guess it all depends what you'd categorize as a fraternal-type relationship. My definition spans from "guy friend that I feel very close to on a platonic level" (my husband's best friend, one of my brothers-in-law, frex) to "just because I love you doesn't mean I don't want to strangle you most of the time." (my brother, at least one of the other brothers-in-law)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't ship them, either. I think it annoys me because it feels like such a shallow designation: "Oh! They've both got light hair and blue eyes and they're brilliant and talk fast and they both have doctorates! They're like brother and sister!"

That's possibly terribly unfair of me, and certainly too sweeping. OTOH, it's not listed under the canon analysis, but under "my personal fanon opinion." :)

[6beforelunch.livejournal.com]

Aside from that slight contradiction to this common fanon trope, there is one other minor complication: Sam is actually older than Daniel.

I think you meant to say Sam is actually younger than Daniel.

If Sam is really that young, then her accomplishments – not only a doctorate, but advancement to Captain (not to mention having flown in the Gulf War) – seem like too much in too little time. [...] Sam probably experienced the normal childhood of any army brat.

I don't know. It's possible she had a normal childhood, but it's also possible she skipped grades. She might have started college early, maybe around 15 or 16, then went to the Air Force academy and later went back to finish her Ph.D. It's still a lot for someone to have accomplished by 30, but in SG1, land of Rodney I-can-re-write-alien-computer-programs-in-fifteen-minutes McKay and Daniel I-can-learn-three-alien-languages-before-breakfast Jackson, I'll run with it. *g*

Actually, the thing that I find most unrealistic about Sam's backstory is that she's an accomplished pilot. I can see her having some piloting ability--it is the Air Force *g*--but the scene in CotG where she supposedly logged so many flight hours in the Gulf throws me, especially since they were (I assume) referencing the first Gulf War which was in '90/'91 when Sam would have been barely 20.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I think you meant to say Sam is actually younger than Daniel.

Yes, I did, thank you! Mistake fixed now.

She might have started college early, maybe around 15 or 16, then went to the Air Force academy and later went back to finish her Ph.D.

It seems a little far-fetched though, doesn't it? It's frustrating, because she practically would have had to do something like that.

Actually, the thing that I find most unrealistic about Sam's backstory is that she's an accomplished pilot.

I think the writers eventually recognized that it was a little too much to give her all that and make her log so many flight hours during the Gulf War in '91 (when she would've been 22), because women weren't allowed really in mortal combat back then. At least, we see her utilizing her skills very rarely - and by S6/7, when she is flying spaceships, we can postulate that she's learned her skills via her work on SG-1.

randomfreshink suggested that she wasn't flying combat missions in '91, but rescue/medical missions, maybe - that would explain why she's more or less the resident medic on the team (and yes, that one's on the list, too!)

[redbyrd-sgfic.livejournal.com]

Do they actually ever say she's a pilot? I always thought she was flight crew.

I'm trying to remember a single episode where she flies *anything*. Um. The 302 with Alec Coulson in S8? Are there any more? Usually it's Jack or Teal'c flying, while Sam is working with the engine or something.

[tejas.livejournal.com]

Ah, you're using a prop to supercede dialog canon. I've always counted dialog first, and props only get provisional canon status and then only until contradicted by dialog. Otherwise, we'd have to say that Jack was demoted and promoted a couple of times in The Shroud since the number of stars on his uniform kept changing.

Actually, no, she wouldn't have started college early. She went to the Academy (as shown in the first one with Hailey) and they frown on cadets who come in having already been to college. They want to train them up their way. The youngest she could have started there is 17. That means the earliest she could have graduated is 21 (there's no accelerated program for any of the military academies). Somewhere there's a great timeline that an AF vet put together showing how Carter's career must have gone to accommodate everything that's been mentioned in dialog (including the stuff with the Gulf War). I wish I had the url handy. Mostly, though, it shows that there's no way she's younger than Daniel. At the very least, I think she had to have been born in '63.

[surreallis.livejournal.com]

I too suspect the Sammie thing came from Jacob starting the Danny thing. As I tend to run in the circles of both ship and gen Sam fic, I can say with confidence that when 'Sammie' appears in fic, usually 'Danny' is not far behind, regardless of which character is doing the calling. Once Jake used the term 'Danny' it was just a hop, skip and a jump to 'Sammie'.

Thank you for the fanon verification of Sam and Daniel as siblings thing. Gah. *flails*

[surreallis.livejournal.com]

'as *not* siblings'. Upon re-reading my comment looks a little unclear.

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

I actually liked that line of Felger's in Avenger 2.0, but that's because I view both Felger episodes as only quasi-canon eps made mostly for the purpose of spoofing the show,* and I thought that was just the writers poking fun at themselves and the fact that they can be wildly inconsistent and/or implausible when writing Sam because they are men.

I remember finding out for the first time that Sam was supposed to be a few years younger than Daniel and was kind of puzzled. As you say, that doesn't really wash with everything she's already done. I think the writers were just being lazy. I always thought of her as being a few years older than Daniel. But whatever.

*I would say the Felger eps are about as canon as some S2 eps, definitely more so than 200 but less so than your average ep. And how completely bizarre is it that I have tiers of canon where some things are more canon than others? I need, like a color-coded excel spreadsheet or something. That's what this fandom does to you. Your brain is never the same after Stargate.

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

I meant to say "S1 eps" in that last bit. Stupid typing fingers.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Jacob never calls her Sammie? Really? I've been captured by fanon! Holy Hannah! [/tongue in cheek] Wow, I'd really thought that he had a couple times. He doesn't often do Danny in canon either (I think the grand total is twice.) But he never does Sammie? Really? *checks myself* Dayum. [wanders off muttering]

For the canon of SuperSam, I've seen more people complain comment on Jack in "Lost City" calling her a "National Treasure" than using Felger...who is canonically batshit and plausibly a stalker. As for Jack, well, he is piling it on a bit thick there, but he was contemplating impending death and was entitled to get a bit sappy about any/all of his team.

My opinion is "Sam's not bad Super, she's just written that way...sometimes." [/Jessica Rabbit]. Personally, my favorite is Sam's response in Reckoning (paraphrased). "Geez, you blow up one sun, and everyone thinks you can walk on water!" That's MY girl. :-)

As for "Uncle George". Wow, I've never run across that one, as fanon, but I have seen a variety of spins on Hammond maybe running across Jacob's kids (constantly or in passing). I think it's interesting that Hammond calls her Sam all of one time in canon, when he's talking to her about her father in the quote you used above. I would argue that maybe the others knew things about Hammond, but it is JACK who says them (and knows about the widowhood, and the granddaughters names, and knows the granddaughters--Tin Men, and that S4 episode I always forget the title of where Hammond retires).

1969 does have some arguable canonical basis for Sam knowing Hammond prior to (re)assignment in Cheyenne.

CARTER: I don't think so, Teal'c. But after the Abydos mission, when we couldn't figure out a way to make the Gate work again, I was asked to research alternative applications for the Gate. Including time travel.
O'NEILL: What'd you come up with?

DANIEL: Okay, if they're impossible to predict, how do we get ourselves home?
CARTER: August 10th, 9:15 A.M. It's in the note.
O'NEILL: The time and date of the next flare?
CARTER: Yeah. General Hammond must have used my own research to figure out what we needed.
DANIEL: Or maybe that's the reason he asked you to do the research in the first place.

It's Daniel that's assuming Hammond ordered Sam to do this research, but he would likely know a bit more about the background of the program (he was watching all the videos from 1945 for crying out loud). Sam didn't correct him, and she also seemed confident that Hammond knew of her research, which would also lend credence to the fact that Daniel's assertion was right. Granted, there are some assumptions here (which is why I said arguable canon), but it's not completely out of sync.

And in any event, this is only showing she has known Hammond professionally. It does not dilute your point that he is not a close "family friend" of the Carters. :-)

Six caught my typo catch on the not older/younger thing. :-) There is question about Sam's birth month since Orlin thinks it's in May in Ascension (and some choose spoken canon over written canon which...I still don't quite understand), but I reconcile it as Orlin was mistaken and Sam was too wowed by the big honkin emerald to dispute it.

Since I've always thought Sam was younger than Daniel, I'll just float around in a bit of canon happy glee for a bit. :-D



P.S. You broke down and got the super ten set?! Is that what you're talking about? If so, you have to give a full report of the new extras, you are aware of this, right? Right?!!!!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Yes, "Danny" was only in Summit/Last Stand. Don't ask me.

I actually saw Jack with the "national treasure" line keeping them on a more professional basis, despite her visiting him in civvies in his own home. And, as you say, he knew he was going to die. A little extra praise for his subordinate isn't entirely out of line in the cirucmstances.

Ooh, I like your 1969 suggestions. Except that "after the Abydos mission," Sam was already transferred to the Pentagon. We can probably safely assume that Sam and Daniel are right, that it was Hammond who ordered the research; but with Sam already in Washington, that order would have been filtered down to her, not given directly.

this is only showing she has known Hammond professionally

At the very least, they must've met once before the briefing room scene. :)

regarding your P.S.: I didn't break down! I didn't it! It was, um... practical! Yeah, that's it. I didn't actually own the ones I had; they were on semi-permanent loan. And anyway, it's for exercise, so it's fully justified.

Or something. :)

It'll take me weeks and weeks to wander through it, though. Which extras are officially new, so I'll know to check those out first?

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

SAM!
*goes to read*

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Hi. I have to say, I really love all of your Canon vs. Fanon essays. (I once spent a few hours reading through all of them. I have to admit that I wasn't aware of the saturation of some of them, but then again, hi, new kid here.)

One thing I feel the need to point out is in terms of Sam's promotion track, at least up until Lt. Col. I sat down and tried to figure this all out once (I was having to rewrite rules for something), and to be honest it does seem a bit far-fetched, if you don't realize that she was probably in the rank of Captain for a relatively long time. (To be promoted to 1LT, the minimum time is 18 months, to be promoted to Captain is 2 years and 4 years total, to be promoted to Major is minimum of 3 years and 10 years total.) I always handwaved it as that being the time when she finished grad school, considering that there are programs that let you get a Masters in 1 year.

However, I claim to have no knowledge of how the military works beyond whatever research I've done, so I will cheerfully admit to being wrong. :)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the kind words! Glad you enjoy the posts. :)

I don't know the military, either, but she was a major for five years before she made LC, and three years more before she made full bird. Surely that's not too "fast track"? Especially with the amount of times she's been on the front lines, wounded in battle, saved the planet... that has to help just a little bit, come promotion time. You'd think. ;)

[caladria.livejournal.com]

I was completely convinced of the "Sammie" until jenniferjf pointed it out to me...

But as to the Sam and Daniel being like siblings...

Depends how it's meant. If the intention behind the words is "they're closer than any two people have any right to be, and yet there doesn't seem to be any hint of sexual tension there", then I'd have to agree ("they can't have the pr0n because it's incest!!!" is a different story). Of course, the only two that I remember off the top of my head that express the fraternal bond are Jack and Teal'c (Tangent, though Jack's is limited to "back atcha"), but it doesn't necessarily preclude the rest of the team feeling that way about each other. I wouldn't write off Sam treating Daniel like a younger sibling because she's younger, either (I don't see it, but I wouldn't write it off) - chronological age doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

jenniferjf gets this month's Canon vs. Fanon award! :)

If the intention behind the words is "they're closer than any two people have any right to be, and yet there doesn't seem to be any hint of sexual tension there", then I'd have to agree

That's fair enough, certainly. It's mostly how I look at it, too, although I do think Sam had a bit of a crush on Daniel in the early years, when he was "safe" and married.

It's because it's used as lazy shorthand, though, that it's an annoying bit of fanon. If it was only used as you suggest, I don't think anyone would care - even the S/D shippers, who don't find people not following their OTP bothersome as long as they're not screaming incest at the same time. ;)

I wouldn't write off Sam treating Daniel like a younger sibling because she's younger, either (I don't see it, but I wouldn't write it off) - chronological age doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it.

I agree with this too, actually - especially in S1-2, when Sam was conscious of protecting the civilian. That would automatically give off an older vibe, so to speak. Sam is a whole lot closer to Daniel than she is to Mark, and if she sometimes interprets that as familial...? That's fine, even if we don't know if Mark is younger or older than Sam. But do you really think that post-Ascended Daniel still gives Sam the "little brother" feeling? Or even S4-5 Daniel? Because I've read plenty of fics set in those seasons that use this bit of fanon, and it's every bit as annoying as someone referring to someone in their mid to later thirties as "the young man."

But yes. All of SG-1 is family. No arguments from me. :)

[uniquinum.livejournal.com]

Sam has known General Hammond since she was a child,

See I always found that weird, the Air Force is a big place and depending on where they served their families wouldn't even be there with them. Your right in saying that if they really were closer than what were were shown then George would've know about the strain in Jacob and Sam's relationship.

I unabashedly love Sam.

She's such a fantastic character.

Also a friend of mine once described Sam and Daniels friendship as being "their intensely intimate platonic relationship"

Something more than brother/sister. Two of my favourite scene's of theirs are in "Cold Lazarus" when they are studying the Crystal entity and in "Arthur's Mantle" after Daniel gets moved to the same plane as Sam. They are very similar scene's two scientists trying to solve a problem, but the change in their relationship over the years is shown so well.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

the Air Force is a big place and depending on where they served their families wouldn't even be there with them

Yes, exactly! Don't get me wrong - 1969-based stories that include Hammond getting the shock of his life when he meets Sam - or even suggesting the name "Samantha" to Jacob when they get the news of her birth - they really do charm me. I don't mind them. They're just not, y'know... canon. :)

And yes, Sam is a wonderful character!

a friend of mine once described Sam and Daniels friendship as being "their intensely intimate platonic relationship"

Ooh, I like that! And it's very very much the way I see them, too.

Nice comment, there, about contrasting the Wonder Twins aspect in Cold Lazarus and Arthur's Mantle. They are so totally comfortable with each other, including the simultaneous shrugs and the poking!

Love them both, really. :) (And your icon, while we're at it! Yeah Sam and Teal'c friendship, too!)

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Sam thinks fondly of Daniel as her kid brother.

You know, I didn't realise that this was a 'thing' - I thought the more common (and irksome) trope was just that they thought of one another as brother and sister. I've not noticed the younger brother aspect in there.

Then again, I've tended to assume that they're around the same age, give or take a couple of years, and - like my brother and me, two years' difference in age - once you're past childhood, the whole older/younger thing doesn't matter so much.

So if Sam treats Daniel as younger, sometimes (i.e. taking care / being protective of him in some way), that wouldn't annoy me because I'd assume that he'd treat her as younger (take care / be protective of her) in other situations.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I've not noticed the younger brother aspect in there.

It tends to crop up in the same fics that refer to Daniel as the "young man," which is probably why it annoys me so much. ;p

once you're past childhood, the whole older/younger thing doesn't matter so much.

That's most definitely true. Which makes the constant "kid brother" thing even stranger, don't you think?

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Sadly, the Perfect Sam trope is actually sometimes canon, thanks to some very poor writing; I think all of us winced when Felger, in Avenger 2.0, gushed that “even your mistakes are perfect!”

...wait a minute, haven't you never even watched Avenger 2.0? :)
I, um, strongly disagree with using this as an example to prove that "perfect Sam" is canon. Felger is a canonically over the top character who clearly idolizes and worships SG-1 (he has action figures of them...) and who also fantasizes of Sam, um, snogging him in his lab. It is part of his character that he puts Sam on a pedestal, worships her, and is jealous of her but he also does not know her all that well. He also says that line while very depressed after a HUGE mistake that disabled the entire 'gate network (and endangered Daniel) and convinced he's going to lose his job with SGC. I, will, think it's very unfair to Sam to use that prove that to be canon.
(it's also possible that I really don't buy into the "perfect Sam" thing because I don't see her shown any more or less perfect than any of the other hero characters we see, as you point out)
(I think Sam is pretty blatantly not perfect at anything, and one think I love about her is she does own her mistakes, even if other characters try to take the responsibility from her)

Re: Uncle George
As for "Secrets" it's very possible for George to have known Sam and her dad and still not necessarily know about the animosity, depending on how good the Carter clan is at hiding their dirty laundry (I suspect pretty darn good). (though very good point about Jacob having to explain to Sam about where he knew George from - that's pretty damning evidence).
And, yeah, the "Uncle George" thing has always felt odd.

And, wow, I'm still surprised about the Sammie thing. Seriously. It never occurred to me that Jacob doesn't say it - in fact, I feel like I can clearly hear him saying "Sammie" in my head so the fact that it doesn't happen in canon is really surprising me. I guess, given his propensity for nicknames and such, it feels so possibly in character for him to say it that it doesn't phase me.

"Holy Hannah" on the other hand drives me nuts. I didn't really catch it in "Cold Lazarus" so I kept reading fics where she says it every third line and not being able to figure out where people are getting it from. So not a Carter line and so weird that fandom grabbed it so strongly.

As to Sam and Daniel....okay, I have no siblings, but it seems like if someone was your brother/sister you wouldn't run around saying "he's just like a brother to me" and similarly, it's certainly possible that in Sam's head she thinks of him as "like a brother" but, well, I think she's closer to Daniel than she is to Mark and I don't think she thinks Daniel *is* a brother and I agree the fanon is way exaggerated and that their relationship is way more complex to be that simplified and....I think I might be arguing with myself here.

I don't know lots of details about exactly how military stuff works in terms of PhDs and promotions and such, but I'm not convinced Sam's age is all that unbelievable (also, I'm loving the irony that Sam is younger than Daniel but Amanda Tapping is older than Michael Shanks by a larger margin). I tend to handwave having "flown in Iraqi air space" as being flight crew, not pilot and I firmly believe she's the type who could believably earn her PhD in 4 years and, well, generally I think she could have a believable history/background - certainly no less impossible than Daniel's or Jack's.

(yay Sam! Sorry it took me so long to jump in)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

...wait a minute, haven't you never even watched Avenger 2.0? :)

I've read all the transcripts, and I've caught snippets of Felger in all his, er, glory from a few sources.

Regarding "perfect Sam" - I'd hoped I'd made it clear that "perfect Sam" was something the writers tried to thwap us with, but that the "human Sam" that actually shows up on the screen is infinitely more interesting and likeable. I mention the "perfect" trope for two reasons: because I think the writers do themselves, and Sam, a huge disservice by harping on it; and because those fans that use the "perfect Sam" trope as an excuse for disliking her are doing themselves a disservice, because it's not Sam claiming the label - it's others doing it for her.

And never feel uncomfortable about disagreeing with something in these essays! Debates in the comments are half the fun. :)

how good the Carter clan is at hiding their dirty laundry (I suspect pretty darn good)

Heh, yes!

And the Sammie thing...! When jenniferjf commented that it was pure fanon, I went and searched through every single manuscript with Sam and Jacob. No Sammie at all! Fanon can be scary sometimes. :)

I've gotten hold of some info re Sam's timeline that seems pretty conclusive, but I'm waiting on permission to quote it.

And yay Sam! :) :) :)

[niamaea.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you thank you thank you for the 'Holy Hannah' mention. It ranks only just below 'Danny' on my list of phrases I never, ever, ever want to see in a fic again. (I admit to being totally convinced of the 'Sammie' thing, though, at least as far as Jacob is concerned. Huh! I've actually seen 'Sammie' spoken by characters other than Jacob more than a few times in fic, too, which never fails to flabbergast me. She would kill Jack or Daniel for calling her that.)

It's weird, though, that the 'brother/sister thing' doesn't tend to annoy me so much. Well, let me clarify that: I don't mind the brother/sister thing when it's not being used to argue why Sam and Daniel shouldn't be sleeping with each other. In, say, a true-gen fic, if a writer portrays the two of them as having an almost-sibling-like closeness (especially because their ages are so close, and I often get an 'unconditionally supportive, but still slightly competitive' vibe off of them that reminds me very much of some sibling relationships I've known, all of which can be extremely complex on the interpersonal politics, sometimes.) and they do it well, I can totally get behind it. Not the only interpretation that's valid, of course, but I don't think it's too much of a fanfic sin and of itself. (It's when it crops up in ship and slash fic that it really drives me nuts, because then it's oversimplifying it. Nifty catch-all: "They're siblings, so I don't have to explain why else I don't like them together." Uh, no.)

And Sam-the-older-sister is largely another symptom of the kidification of wee-Danny, I think.

Yay for a new canon vs. fanon post! You know I love them so. :)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

It ranks only just below 'Danny' on my list of phrases I never, ever, ever want to see in a fic again.

Hee! It's got even less canon basis than Danny, so who blames you?

And the Sammie thing...! It drives me crazy. My brain still thinks it's canon for Jacob to call her that, but no - it was strictly an Urgo thing. And heh, yes. Sam wouldn't just kill Jack or Daniel for calling her "Sammie" - she'd use a zat. Thrice.

I do agree with that interpretation of the brother/sister thing: unconditionally supportive, but still slightly competitive. But it's become so pervasive and all-inclusive - including as a sort of lazy shorthand - that it gets on my nerves horribly.

Sam-the-older-sister is largely another symptom of the kidification of wee-Danny, I think.

Huh. That does seem very likely. Good catch, that.

Yay for a new canon vs. fanon post!

Thank you! :)

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Thanks for the extra details! Yeah, my husband (a military brat himself) told me that Sam would never have gone straight on to her grad degrees; I'd been assuming the opposite, being an academic and not very familiar with the military.

I still get kind of a sibling vibe from Daniel and Sam, though. And it's not always the older sibling who acts like it; my older brother has a distinct lack of common sense, and I've complained many times that I feel like the older sibling (and in fact my parents would sometimes say, when we both got in trouble together, "You should have more sense!" Hey! I'm two and a half years younger!). We're both all grown up now, obviously, but I still feel like the older, more responsible one (because hey, I am!).

1969 did seem an awfully late birth date for Sam. I can live with May, 1967!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

You're right that a person can feel "older" even if they aren't, of course. I didn't mean to suggest that there's something inherently eeeeevil in suggesting that Sam and Daniel sometimes have a brother-sister vibe to them. The problem, though, is that it's become such a tired cliche that it can often set my teeth (and others') on edge, even if the writer didn't mean to imply any of the more annoying aspects of the fanon.

I still picture Sam as older than Daniel, but I defer to the experts here. Hurray for Codger! :)

Sam Carter's history/biography

[extrabadpenguin.livejournal.com]

Hi, guys! I'm Codger (Aurora_Novarum can vouch for me.)

I hear there's some question about the the place in the bio I did for Sam where it says she got her doctorate in three years and some folks think that's too quick. (the bio is here: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/ExtraBadPenguin/Star%20Gate%20SG1/03-Carter.jpg )

In the bio I did, you'll note her time getting a PhD says, "University of Heidelberg, Olmstead Scholar, (Wilfred Goodson program), Doctorate in Theoretical Astrophysics" That is not by accident. For reference I used the official USAF biography of Brigadier General Wilfred L. Goodson (basically the real-life Sam Carter). He graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1960 with a bachelor of science degree in basic sciences and engineering sciences. He then began service with a year of pilot training, a year of gunnery school (advanced fighter training), then 1 1/2 years as a fighter pilot. Then he was selected as an Olmstead Scholar and went to the Defense Language School to learn German in February 1964. In September 1964 he transferred to Germany and entered the University of Heidelberg where he received his doctorate in theoretical astrophysics in 1966. So in fact, in real life, HE COMPLETED the program I listed for Sam in TWO YEARS, whereas I gave Sam three years to finish her doctorate in theoretical astrophysics at the same school.

In January 1967, as a Captain, he transferred to Vietnam and flew 128 combat missions in F-100 Fighter-Bombers. In January 1968 he was assigned to Air Force headquarters, where he served as an operations research scientist in the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Studies and Analysis. (This is the same job I list for Sam after she gets her PhD, during the time she was at the Pentagon helping figure out the Stargate.) After four years there as a scientist, he went on to spend eleven more years in operational assignments as a fighter pilot. In September 1983, as a Brigadier General, he came back to take charge of the same science office, this time as the actual Assistant Chief of Staff for Studies and Analysis. He retired from the Air Force in 1985. His biography is here: http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=5582

One nitpick above, where sg_fignewton quotes me as "Sam was commissioned as Captain in 1989." That should read "Sam was commissioned in 1989." She would have started out as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1989, made 1st Lieutenant after 1 to 2 years, made Captain about 1993 or 1994, and Major in 1999 (as she did on the show) made Lieutenant Colonel in 2004 (also as she did on the show) and made Colonel in 2009 (the show jumped the gun on that one.)

Re: Sam Carter's history/biography

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

I'm stating publicly what I told you privately. I am wowed by the amount of research you've done, and am amazed at the biography of General Goodson.

P.S. You really need to swing by LJ more often. LOL. As in more than once every two-three years. ;-)