Canon vs. Fanon, part 15: Daniel's glasses

[fignewton]

(Hah, Aurora! Told you I'd get this done by the end of January! Just squeaking in, mind you, but it still qualifies!)

 

Welcome to the next edition of Canon vs. Fanon! There are a lot of recent newcomers to my flist, and you're all most welcome. I hope you'll drop a comment to say hello, and please feel free to agree or disagree with what you read here - as far as I'm concerned, the discussions that evolve in the comments are much more interesting than the posts themselves. :) If you're new to this series, you can search the canon vs fanon tags or follow the links in the LJ Index to find the earlier sections.

 

 

Originally, this entire essay was supposed to be only a section within a larger post. But it turned out to be longer than expected - what else is new? - so Daniel's glasses get a Canon vs. Fanon post of their own.

 

Here we go, then: How nearsighted is Daniel? And how often are his glasses a victim of circumstance?

 

Quick recap: Canon is defined as anything directly shown during Stargate: The Movie or episodes of the show; show supersedes movie when there's a contradiction. (I've sort of run out of examples of contradictions by now, sorry!) Fanon is defined as widely-accepted concepts that appear in fanfic, but do not have any real basis in canon. The purpose of these posts is not to mock or denigrate the writers who use fanon, but to point out what is fanon; after all, it's often hard to tell!

 

We begin with the most common fanon tropes, compare them to the reality of canon, and arrive at a (hopefully unbiased) conclusion on how much fanon has drifted from the actual show.

 

Daniel is very, very nearsighted, to the point where he gets bad headaches and is nearly incapacitated if he's forced to go without them for long periods.

 

Daniel works in a field that demands good eyesight, even as the painstaking nature of it causes plenty of eyestrain. It only stands to reason, then, that Daniel would wear glasses to ensure he could properly read alien and ancient scripts and properly interpret their meaning and nuances. When he's reading, typing, or studying, his glasses are invariably firmly in place. But that doesn't mean he has to wear his glasses to see three feet in front of him, as the following episodes from the first two seasons show:

 

TBFTGOG. Daniel spends a great deal of time in the alternate universe with his glasses off, but any time he needs to see something properly - for example, when he sits down at an available computer to do a search for his own name - the glasses go back on.

 

The Gamekeeper. Daniel is probably quite happy to have things just a little out of focus at the post-briefing, even if it turns out that they're still trapped.

 

Secrets. At the pre-mission briefing, Daniel is not wearing his glasses. He puts them on for the journey to Abydos, but he removes them again shortly thereafter, when he retreats outside the tent to sulk. They stay off when he returns to comfort Sha're and discuss the possible options with her and Kasuf. Daniel's wearing them again when they try to take Sha're through the Stargate, and when she first goes into labor, but he takes them off again after that - which means he had no trouble delivering his wife's baby without glasses!

 

Message in a Bottle. Daniel, exhausted and bleary-eyed, takes off his glasses after staying awake for nearly 48 hours. It's only when he's squinting at the computer screen, suddenly alert to a new possibility - that the orb is trying to communicate - that he puts his glasses back on.

 

Other episodes in later seasons follow the trend, but this should be enough, I think. Feel free to suggest further examples in the comments!

 

Conclusion: While Daniel certainly needs his glasses to read and type, and he does better with his glasses than without them, his eyesight seems to be good enough to get around without them if necessary.

 

Daniel's friends and teammates keep spare pairs of glasses around for Daniel, because they're always getting lost or broken; whenever Daniel gets knocked out and captured by an enemy, the team invariably finds his abandoned/damaged/broken glasses left behind.

 

From reading fanfic, you might expect Daniel to go through a dozen pairs of glasses every season. Every enemy, from random Goa'uld to angry natives, deprive Daniel of his glasses as a matter of course; it's routine for another member of SG-1 to find his cracked or shattered glasses underfoot after he's been abducted by the current villain. But how often does Daniel really lose or damage his glasses?

Let's take a look at the canonical numbers:

 

COTG. Included for the sake of completion. When Jack, Sam, Kawalsky, and Ferretti return to Abydos, Daniel's glasses are held together with either twine or tape. Speaking as a glasses-wearer, I'm a lot more concerned about the condition of the lenses after eighteen-odd months in a sandy environment.

 

Broca Divide. Daniel loses his glasses when he's snatched by the Touched; Teal'c finds them, and gravely returns them when Daniel comes back to himself.

 

Fire and Water. Daniel awakens in Nem's underwater lab without his glasses.

 

Tin Man. Also included for the sake of completion, because the real Daniel doesn't lose his glasses at all. It is a bit strange, though, that robot!Daniel never seemed to notice that his glasses were missing and that his eyesight was apparently perfect anyway - at least, not until they realized they were robots.

 

Need. Daniel's glasses (and body) are badly damaged when he's caught in a rock fall. Shyla offers him the glasses, complete with cracked lens, and he wears them anyway. After the second sarcophagus hot wash, though, he no longer needs them, and presumably tosses them away.

 

Holiday. Included for the sake of completion. The glasses stayed with Daniel's body; unfortunately, Daniel didn't.

 

Out of Mind/Into the Fire. Daniel wakes up in Hathor's mock SGC without his glasses, and remains glassesless throughout the two-parter.

 

Legacy. Included for the sake of completion. "They took away my glasses in case I broke the lenses and, uh, tried to... hurt myself." When Jack brings him back to the SGC, though, they've been returned.

 

The Devil You Know. Apophis swipes Daniel's glasses when he administers the Blood of Sokar. Meanie.

 

Foothold. Included for the sake of completion, because by rights, the lobster impersonating Daniel ought to have taken his glasses. But since lobster!Daniel switches from sunglasses to regular glasses effortlessly, and when Sam wears the Daniel disc she has glasses and when she takes it off she doesn't, yet the glasses are apparently part of the disguise and can still be handled as a separate physical object... I'm going to just quietly shuffle this one under the rug, thank you.

 

New Ground. The Bedrosians confiscate Daniel's sunglasses when SG-1 is first taken captive. Fortunately, he has a spare pair in a pocket of his vest so he can see what he's doing when he dials the DHD at the end of the episode.

ETA: I stand corrected on this one! Those aren't separate glasses and sunglasses, but a single pair of glasses with clip-on shades. Either they made him take them off but let them keep them in his pocket, or (and it seems more likely to me) his glasses were kept with the other confiscated equipment on the table in the tent, and he snatched them back when they made a break for it. The rescue scene cuts away from him a second too quickly to tell.

 

The First Ones. Chaka knocks Daniel's glasses off when he clubs him into unconsciousness.

 

Beneath the Surface. Daniel's glasses were taken at the same time he was mind-stamped.

 

The Light. Included for the sake of completion. They're in such a tearing hurry to get Daniel back through the Gate that they don't bother to stop for his glasses, but Hammond ships them over as soon as Daniel asks for them.

 

Meridian. Daniel loses his glasses when he dives through the lab window on Kelowna.

 

Meridian/Season Six/Reckoning/Threads. It's an interesting look at Daniel's psyche to see that no matter what clothing he visualizes for himself - the Existential Sweater ™, Abydon robes, even awful green shirts that we can hopefully blame on Oma - he pictures himself without glasses. Reckoning is a bit iffy, in that Replicarter put him into the Vis Uban scenario, where he didn't have his glasses; still, even after he breaks through her illusion, he still isn't wearing them. In Shifu's vision, in Absolute Power, he apparently gets laser surgery or some such, since he's not wearing glasses then, either. Sha're, on the other hand, visualizes glasses as very much part of her husband, as we see in Forever In a Day; and so does Teal'c, who definitely pictures a pair of glasses on the face of Doctor Daniel Jackson, hospital psychiatrist, in Changeling.

 

Lifeboat. When Daniel first wakes from the download, his glasses are gone.

 

Evolution. Daniel loses his glasses in the frantic swim to the surface after they recover the Fountain of Youth.

 

Icon. Daniel loses his glasses in the explosion that nearly takes his eyesight.

 

Prometheus Unbound. Vala stows Daniel's glasses somewhere when she first zats him. When Daniel gains the upper hand, he also regains his glasses, although he prudently doesn't wear them when he's impersonating "Hans Olo" with the aliens.

 

Moebius. Included for the sake of completion. AU Daniel loses his glasses when the team is captured with a flash grenade. Also, his vision is apparently a lot worse than regular Daniel's, considering the amount of squinting he does when he tries to talk to Teal'c in the dungeons on Chulak. On the bright side, though, he seems to have bypassed the allergy problem entirely.

 

Season Nine spoiler! The Ties That Bind. Vala hops onto Daniel's desk and manages to sit squarely on his glasses, breaking them.

 

Season Ten spoiler! The Quest, part 2/The Shroud. After Daniel takes the download and passes out, Vala and Mitchell remove his glasses. He doesn't get them back until he's reverted post-Shroud. End spoilers.

Just for the fun of it, here are the times when Daniel ought to be wearing his glasses, but isn't:

 

Within the Serpent's Grasp. Going on a black ops mission without perfect vision isn't my idea of a good move. Possibly he was wearing contact lenses and the Goa'uld flash grenade damaged them, forcing him to revert to glasses? That's only guessing. What we do know is that he went through the Gate without glasses, but put them on in The Serpent's Lair after he got his eyesight back.

 

Prisoners. At Jack's behest, Daniel spends his time on Hadante without his glasses. It doesn't help him avoid getting assaulted, though.

 

Upgrades. Included for the sake of completion. Daniel's glasses disappear when the Atenik armband kicks in.

 

The Curse. He's driving through the blinding Egyptian desert with his (possibly prescription) sun-goggles slung around his neck instead of fitted over his eyes. Don't ask me.

 

Double Jeopardy. The absence of glasses, like the longer hair just barely visible under the bandana and Teal'c's use of a firearm instead of his staff weapon, are good hints that the SG-1 team that first appears on Juno aren't the SG-1 team that we think they are.

 

Summit/Last Stand. We see Daniel actually putting in contact lenses - the only time in the series we actually witness this. It does suggest, however, that on other occasions when Daniel goes undercover, he is probably wearing contact lenses, too.

 

Season Nine and Ten spoilers! Avalon/Origin. The absence of glasses is because while we're seeing Daniel on our screens, he's actually occupying someone else's body. Interestingly, when Vala occupies Daniel's body in Crusade, she doesn't bother with the glasses - even though Daniel's body presumably still needed them to see properly. Perhaps Daniel really could have used his glasses in Avalon/Origin, but couldn't get hold of them in his out-of-body experience?

 

The Ties That Bind/Off the Grid/Company of Thieves. Per Summit/Last Stand, Daniel was probably in contact lenses when he went undercover. And I find it a little depressing that Daniel went undercover only once in eight seasons (well, twice if you include SG-1's temporary impersonation of priests in Bloodlines), but had to do it three times in the last two. Sloppy writing, that.

 

Flesh and Blood. Daniel ditches his glasses to complete his disguise as an Ori soldier on the Ori ship. End of Season Nine and Ten spoilers.

 

This doesn't include times when Daniel has his glasses propped on his forehead or tucked into the neck of his shirt for no apparent reason other than that the actor really doesn't need glasses and tends to think of them as a prop rather than a necessity. :) Nor does it include episodes when Daniel pulled off his glasses momentarily - from exhaustion, frustration, and the like. And while it doesn't fit any of the patterns, 2010 intrigues me; despite all the technological advances of the Aschen, Daniel is still wearing glasses. And I find it just a bit creepy that the frames he's wearing would actually fit today's styles rather nicely. Nice projecting, there, props people!

 

Let's look at the totals, then:

 

Daniel lost his glasses twice in Season One (Broca Divide, Fire and Water), once in Season Two (Out of Mind), once in Season Three (The Devil You Know), twice in Season Four (The First Ones, Beneath the Surface), once in Season Five (Meridian), twice in Season Seven (Lifeboat, Evolution), and twice in Season Eight (Icon, Prometheus Unbound) for a total of eleven times in nine seasons. (Season Six isn't counted, since he had no glasses to lose.)

 

Daniel had his glasses broken twice, in Need and in The Ties That Bind. (Whether you consider the latter to be a hostile act of an enemy depends on your opinion of Vala.)

 

Daniel's abandoned glasses were found after abduction only once, in Broca Divide.

 

A look at the numbers shows that on many of the occasions when Daniel is deliberately deprived of his glasses, it's an all-inclusive thing: all of his equipment is taken, as in Fire and Water or New Ground or Lifeboat or Prometheus Unbound. The other trope of Daniel losing his glasses when he's under attack does happen with slightly more frequency: the Touched and Chaka knock them off his face when they knock him off his feet, they are lost in the flurry in Meridian and Evolution and Icon, and they are broken by the rock fall in Need. They are deliberately removed to perpetuate a ruse in Out of Mind and Beneath the Surface, although I don't think I've read any fanfic that uses that motive. Yet the most popular fanon usage of Daniel losing his glasses - the villain deliberately taking them away, either to unnerve Daniel or to demonstrate power over him - is never used during the entire series. The closest we get is Daniel losing his glasses on Netu when Apophis administers the Blood of Sokar, and that might have been more a case of their being lost in the scuffle than a deliberate act. That is also the only time that a Goa'uld takes Daniel's glasses away; yet to read fanfic, you would think that it's the first act of aggression that any Goa'uld takes whenever he takes SG-1 prisoner (after forcing them to their knees, of course).

 

Conclusion: While Daniel did lose his glasses once or twice a season, it is hardly inevitable that it happens, especially when captured by the Goa'uld. In addition, Daniel's glasses broke only twice in the entire series, and his lost glasses were discovered post-abduction by a teammate only once. Writers should take note of the actual frequency and adjust their stories accordingly.

 

My personal fanon opinion? I've always seen Daniel as near-sighted, although I've probably thought of his prescription as being stronger than it actually is. My own glasses prescription is relatively powerful, but even my daughter, whose prescription is half my own, wouldn't be able to manage as easily as Daniel can without glasses. Part of it, to break the fourth wall, is because Daniel is played by Michael Shanks, who doesn't need glasses; and, for example, reaches out without hesitation to pick up his glasses from where someone else put them in TBFTGOG. If I'd been a similar situation, I would've been groping around for a good two minutes; as it is, I often call my kids into the room to find my glasses for me! But if we ignore the MS aspect - and I do prefer it that way! - then we have to accept that yes, Daniel is nearsighted - but while he wouldn't voluntary deprive himself of them, he can usually manage without his glasses when he needs to do so.

 

Regarding Daniel losing his glasses through misfortune or deliberate sadism: many writers have their villains swipe Daniel's glasses in a deliberate effort to increase Daniel's discomfort, and that always seems odd to me. The perception of glasses representing a sign of weakness is Terran-centric. To be honest, I would expect spectacles to be found elsewhere in the galaxy; after all, they've been around on Earth in their present incarnation for over 700 years, and the concept dates back for close to a millennium. But since glasses are apparently unknown outside our little planet, why would the bad guys automatically associate them with the notion of weakness? Jack, in Prisoners, removes Daniel's glasses as a precaution; but why would the denizens define Daniel's glasses as a symbol of frailty or weakness, rather than, say, a totem of authority or power? Perhaps Daniel had the chance to explain this to Jack afterwards, which is why he doesn't try to take away Daniel's glasses before they make planetfall on Netu.

 

There's great drama in discovering Daniel's shattered glasses, with dismayed and determined looks exchanged by the rest of the team. But please do remember: it happened once, in the very beginning of the first season. And while Daniel does lose his glasses eleven times over the course of ten seasons, it's still not an everyday occurrence. So use these tropes sparingly, and with caution!

 

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

Comments

[tejas.livejournal.com]

I, too, have always reacted to Daniel without his glasses as a glasses wearer: with shock and dismay. ;-) I usually wear contacts, but am currently relegated to my backup glasses. I knocked them off the shelf this morning as I got out of the shower and it took me about five minutes of patting around on the floor before I found them again. ;-);-) Some fic writer or other had Jack hand Daniel his glasses rather than watch him pat every flat surface in the room looking for them. I can relate, even if Daniel's eyesight isn't apparently that bad. ;-)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I, too, have always reacted to Daniel without his glasses as a glasses wearer: with shock and dismay. ;-)

Well, with me it's always been more like bewilderment. :) Too much of how Daniel handles his glasses reminds me of my own nearsightedness, so I can't call him farsighted. But it must be a very, very low number, because otherwise the constant headaches that MacKenzie mentioned would be totally explainable!

[eve11]

Foothold. Included for the sake of completion, because by rights, the lobster impersonating Daniel ought to have taken his glasses. But since lobster!Daniel switches from sunglasses to regular glasses effortlessly, and when Sam wears the Daniel disc she has glasses and when she takes it off she doesn't, yet the glasses are apparently part of the disguise and can still be handled as a separate physical object... I'm going to just quietly shuffle this one under the rug, thank you.

lol! You are awesome.

I figure Daniel's prescription is relatively like mine. I wear my glasses all the time, but generally still think of myself as glasses-less because my vision isn't all that bad. I have like a -1.5, and -1.75 grind with very mild astigmatism. I need them for seeing very minute detail, eg watching TV, and in certain lighting conditions things look fuzzy or float mildly in and out of focus without them, enough to be annoying. In a pinch though, I could function perfectly well without them --ie, running and/or hiding for my life, escaping from prison/Goa'uld/Unases; I could even drive without them if pressed, albeit carefully. And definitely a ha'tak or tel'tak since those are mostly by instrumentation, right? ;) All of this does not negate the fact that I do wear my glasses about 95% of the time.

[nomadicwriter]

I have -3.5, -1.25 and ditto. While I wear my glasses all the time, I can function 100% fine without them; my only issue is reading and recognising faces at long distance. I can see everything, locate everything, I just can't make out the fine detail of everything. Within the scale of your average indoor room, there's no problem I can't resolve by squinting to focus and taking half a step closer. The only trouble I have reading from a book or looking at a screen is that my eyes get tired more quickly. (And this may be, come to think of it, down to the fact that if I've taken my glasses off and put them away, odds are I'm about two hours overdue on going to bed.)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's about what I picture Daniel's prescription to be: relatively low, but necessary for his work, and easier to wear on a nearly constant basis. And an astigmatism would also likely explain why he doesn't bother with contact lenses on a regular basis, as those are a lot more expensive - and, I think, much less comfortable?

::squints through -6.5 and -9.5::

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Given that Daniel can function without the glasses (in situations where it's not close-up detail work), doesn't that imply that, if anything, he's far-sighted?

Eh, I dunno. I'm extremely myopic myself, so much so that I can't even begin to do detail work, read, or focus on anything more than an inch from my eyeballs without my contacts or glasses. So maybe a light myopic problem would account for the fact that he does wear them when he's not actually reading, etc....

Nice research! *applauds*

[tejas.livejournal.com]

Far-sightedness in folks Daniel's age is fairly uncommon (not unheard of, but uncommon enough for it to be a stretch here). Even little kids who are far-sighted tend to grow out of it as their eyes mature. And then they (and the rest of us) grow back into it when we get *REALLY* "mature". ;-)

[shutthef-up.livejournal.com]

Interesting!

I've always entertained the notion (which I realize is pure speculation based on my personal experience) that Daniel is farsighted, rather than nearsighted. And yes, perhaps with an astigmatism. Those type of eyestrain headaches from trying to read without glasses can be pretty bad.

Depending upon degree, farsightedness really presents no problem for anything but reading, typing, etc., but most of us wear our glasses most of the time anyway. I had to wear glasses as a kid and then not at all in my middle years. Now I'm back to them and they're much improved on the older versions.

Either way, however, yes, I think we have to assume that Daniel isn't massively dependant on them.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

From what I understand from farsightedness, that's pretty much par for the course, isn't it? Glasses when you're younger, then nothing for decades, then back again? Because if that's the case, Daniel doesn't really fit the pattern. I don't think.

Nearsighted or farsighted, though, I think we can all agree that Daniel isn't blind without his glasses. Unlike most of us. ;)

[superhero-specs.livejournal.com]

Within the Serpent's Grasp. Going on a black ops mission without perfect vision isn't my idea of a good move. Possibly he was wearing contact lenses and the Goa'uld flash grenade damaged them, forcing him to revert to glasses? That's only guessing. What we do know is that he went through the Gate without glasses, but put them on in The Serpent's Lair after he got his eyesight back.

I've always hated this, both the absence of glasses in the first part and the out-of-the-blue replacement of them in the second.

The Ties That Bind/Off the Grid/Company of Thieves. Per Summit/Last Stand, Daniel was probably in contact lenses when he went undercover. And I find it a little depressing that Daniel went undercover only once in eight seasons (well, twice if you include SG-1's temporary impersonation of priests in Bloodlines), but had to do it three times in the last two. Sloppy writing, that.

Especially since historically, one of any government's favorite things to do with archaeologists and linguists is to use them as spies! He should have been putting his anthropology (ability to learn about other cultures and blend into them) and linguistics in this manner much more, much earlier.

I hate how much MS's dislike of the glasses seems to come into play. Every time I see Daniel without glasses (unless it makes explicit sense, like when he's undercover or has had his eyesight altered for the better, or has just deliberately taken them off in a situation that makes sense to me as a glasses-wearer), I think, Jesus, Michael, suck it up already!

It would make most sense for Daniel to be nearsighted, because reading a lot really will do that to you; that's how I got this way! Strangely, Michael Daniel frequently leaves them on to read even when he would have the leisure of taking them off, which is in my mind inconsistent with mild nearsightedness. *shrug*

Thanks for these Canon vs. Fanon posts. They're made of awesome.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say MS disliked the glasses. They were talking about ditching them after "Need", and MS insisted they keep them for Daniel. Production kind of found them annoying because they always had to keep track of the glare of the set lights off his glasses. MS had to be very careful how he tilted his head sometims.

A theater director friend of mine has noticed how MS uses Daniel's glasses for effect. At profoundly emotional or intense times he will take them off, or sometimes futz with them.

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

It is a bit strange, though, that robot!Daniel never seemed to notice that his glasses were missing and that his eyesight was apparently perfect anyway - at least, not until they realized they were robots.

I just assumed Daniel didn't notice. We take our ability to see for granted, and as long as he could see, I'm betting it didn't occur to him to check and see if he was wearing glasses (esp. given the fact that all four of them had bigger worries at the time). I know I'll actually try to find my glasses while wearing them because I'll forget I put them on and my brain just isn't paying enough attention to go "Ah, the world is in focus! I must be wearing my glasses!"

Foothold.... I'm going to just quietly shuffle this one under the rug, thank you.

Can't say I blame you. *laughs* I had never noticed that about the glasses and how exactly they are incorporated into the disguise thing. That...really doesn't bear thinking about too hard, does it?

AU Daniel loses his glasses when the team is captured with a flash grenade. Also, his vision is apparently a lot worse than regular Daniel's, considering the amount of squinting he does when he tries to talk to Teal'c in the dungeons on Chulak.

Since the AU Sam in Moebius also has poorer eyesight than her counterpart in the "proper" universe, I think we can safely assume that this universe suffers from...well, I don't know, exactly. Most people's eyesight (or lack thereof, heh) is the result of genetics as opposed to outside influence, though you can certainly damage your eyes with things like insufficient light, and such. So since AU Sam and Daniel presumably still have all the same DNA as "our" Sam and Daniel (with an added Loser Sequence, evidently) then perhaps this means the Moebius AU is very short on book lights and Sam and Daniel both busted their eyes reading in bed with nothing but the moon and the street lamp outside for illumination. Or maybe the bad eyesight is part and parcel of the Loser DNA Sequence.

Regarding Daniel losing his glasses through misfortune or deliberate sadism: many writers have their villains swipe Daniel's glasses in a deliberate effort to increase Daniel's discomfort, and that always seems odd to me.

This strikes me as odd, also. Probably because the only glass-wearing people I know who willingly go without their glasses occasionally (two different people of my acquaintance) do so because taking off their glasses makes everything fuzzy enough that they feel removed (and in some subconscious way, safe) from whatever is going on in front of them. They say they feel less vulnerable with their glasses off. *shrug* This is, by the way, how I hand-wave some of the stranger instances of Daniel being sans glasses by choice: I decided that he took them off to distance himself from something he didn't like. It doesn't always work, since sometimes there's no obvious reason for him to feel threatened, but...it's all I've got. *grin*

[nomadicwriter]

I just assumed Daniel didn't notice. We take our ability to see for granted, and as long as he could see, I'm betting it didn't occur to him to check and see if he was wearing glasses (esp. given the fact that all four of them had bigger worries at the time). I know I'll actually try to find my glasses while wearing them because I'll forget I put them on and my brain just isn't paying enough attention to go "Ah, the world is in focus! I must be wearing my glasses!"

I was going to say exactly the same thing. When I get distracted in the middle of my bed or bath routine, I inevitably have to put my hand on my face to figure out whether I need to take my glasses off or have in fact done so already. (Let's not talk about the time I poked myself in the eye trying to take them off when they weren't there.) I'm so used to the feel of them that it doesn't really register whether I have them on or off until the point where I'm struggling to see something.

[nomadicwriter]

It's an interesting look at Daniel's psyche to see that no matter what clothing he visualizes for himself - the Existential Sweater ™, Abydon robes, even awful green shirts that we can hopefully blame on Oma - he pictures himself without glasses.

That is interesting - especially since, if Gamekeeper flashback canon is to be believed, he's worn them since eight if not younger. I've had mine since thirteen and would never picture myself without them. (In fact, a school friend who's known me since eleven steadfastly refuses to believe that there was ever a point that I didn't wear glasses.) So it's interesting to me that Daniel apparently sees his as a flaw that would be erased in a perfect world rather than a part of his visual identity.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I wonder if he sees it as a flaw as much as not part of himself. We've been talking about not even realizing we're wearing our glasses sometimes; maybe Daniel carries that so far that he doesn't think of them at all, and that absence of thinking carried itself into how he pictures himself of Ascension?

I'd think he thought of himself allergy-free! Maybe Oma took pity on him and descended him with a lower histamine count. :)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

YAY! It's done!

Actually, I'm surprised (well, not really surprised because that would lend itself to insane) that you didn't address the is Daniel nearsighted or farsighted, because that's a common fanon debate.

Like you, I agree that he's probably nearsighted. Whenever they've shown Daniel's blurry vision--I recall Absolute Power and possibly FiaD, that could just be the "waking up in the infirmary blurriness, and they're both just DREAMS anyway."

If "Moebius" is to be believed that alt-Daniel has the same vision issues as regular Daniel, he's nearsighted, based on the squinty vision and waking up in Chulak. But that vision was VERY bad (and alt-Sam had glasses too, so...)

Daniel has put on glasses as you've noted to read and see the computer screen sometimes, which would maybe indicate farsightedness. But then, he's put on his glasses other times to see things far away or taken them off to see things close up (like I and my nearsighted but don't remember the prescription way), like when he did that for the artifact when Vala sat on them.

With Serpent's Grasp, I figured he couldn't wear his glasses with the goggles on, and then they were so busy running around/shooting/that kind of thing (hey another quote for pepper_field!) he didn't dig them out again, since his prescription is not that severe.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, I thought of the nearsighted vs farsighted thing and tried to make sense of it and just... gave up. :) I do think that nearsighted, but with a relatively low prescription, fits most of the situations, anyway.

Blurry vision is all "wake up in the infirmary" vision, and I always did associate it more with concussion or awakening than his actual ability to see. It's definitely part of Solitudes, and Teal'c is leaning in so close he's practically in his face. :)

Serpent's Grasp is hugely annoying and self-contradictory! If he'd had them in the control room and then taken them off when they put on the goggles, then yes, I'd go for your suggestion. But as it is...? ::throws up hands:: Either he was wearing contacts at first, as I suggested, or the flash grenade made his vision more blurry than usual, and he put on the glasses to manage for the rest of the mission.

Either way, we love him, right? ;?)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Daniel lost his glasses twice in Season One (Broca Divide, Fire and Water), once in Season Two (Out of Mind), twice in Season Three (The Devil You Know, New Ground), twice in Season Four (The First Ones, Beneath the Surface), once in Season Five (Meridian), twice in Season Seven (Lifeboat, Evolution), and twice in Season Eight (Icon, Prometheus Unbound) for a total of twelve times in nine seasons. (Season Six isn't counted, since he had no glasses to lose.)

Daniel had his glasses broken twice, in Need and in The Ties That Bind. (Whether you consider the latter to be a hostile act of an enemy depends on your opinion of Vala.) Hee hee!

Daniel's abandoned glasses were found after abduction only once, in Broca Divide.

Huh, it has happened more often than I thought, but nowhere near to the frequency seen in canon. And yes, as you point out, it's part of the taking all equipment. And I can see aliens not being sure of the glasses' purpose, rather than say 1969 or the TBFTGOG universe where they took a lot of stuff but gave them back.

I am just so full of joy you actually posted this! (And I still need to think of other episodes where he's taken off his glasses to read stuff. I *know* I've seen it at other times.)

As much as I love those mimic devices, I've kinda wondered why Jack in stasis is in BDU's but Jack in D.C. is in civilian clothes...I figure they have alterate accessory settings and stop thinking further because...boyz pretty. :-)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Losing the glasses, yes - but it's much more rare that they're left behind to be discovered, even if someone looked for them! Aside from Broca Divide, the only time someone might have found his missing glasses was in The First Ones, and they were a bit distracted by the dead bodies.

And yes - since prescription glasses apparently exist nowhere else but on Earth, aliens would simply assume they're every bit as much a piece of equipment as his Beretta or GDO (or pens and journals.)

Um... they raided their lockers and incorporated them into the devices? Because Daniel's partly-unbuttoned shirt (::what were we saying...?::) was still unbuttoned when Sam tried on the mimic disc. Who knows? As you say: boys pretty! Brain turns off. :)

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I think this is different for me because I wear contacts instead of glasses. *shudders* It's interesting, because it would make sense for this to bother me, and it doesn't, really. I notice when Daniel doesn't have his glasses, but I don't really think about it too much.

These posts are absolutely some of my favorite things. I really appreciate the hard work you put into them!

I never want to go back to glasses, although I may have to here soon. (Damn insurance).

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! So glad you enjoy them. :)

I wore contact lenses constantly for years until about sixteen months ago, when I had to switch to gas-permeable ones. Glasses are suddenly not as annoying as they used to be!

I think that glasses are so much of our Daniel-consciousness that it stands out when he doesn't wear them. And really, I think Daniel-with-glasses is a lot prettier than MS himself, which is... weird.

[maevebran.livejournal.com]

I love this debate.

I take my glasses off when I throw pottery because I got tired of splattering themwith clay and scratching them when I cleaned them off. I can see just fine up lose but at a distance things get blurry. I can move around the house and stuff just fine without them. I've been in several plays with out the glasses both in high school and college (I got glasses just before my senior year in high school.) just fine. The instances with Daniel with out the glasses don't bother me much because there mostly when I'd have them off myself and I could get around ok.

As to the whole having the glasses on without realizing it, I once stepped into the shower only to realize I still had my glasses on when water got on them. Doh!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Looks like you're another person with vision like Daniel's - poor enough to require glasses, but manageable without them.

I'm glad you're enjoying the discussion!

[iamrosalita.livejournal.com]

I've always assumed that Daniel's eyesight is like mine. I'm nearsighted. If I don't wear my glasses, things are a little blurry, but I'm not walking into walls or anything. I can even drive if I have to. Of course, I'm at the age where I can't read small print even with my glasses, but I can see into middle distance just fine.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Yep, that seems to be more or less the consensus - can manage without 'em, but much happier with 'em!

[ivorygates]

Oh, this is so great! I love all these posts! And you know, until you mentioned it, I had *never* wondered why the Lobster!Jack was in civvies...

As for Daniel not wearing his glasses through the Gate in "Within The Serpent's Grasp," I made the assumption that they weren't all absolutely sure what they'd encounter on the other side (aside from that it would be dark there), so Daniel left his glasses off in order to protect them.

And not that this is precisely within the scope of "Canon or Fanon," but I've seen a lot of people say (over the years) "For heaven's sake, why doesn't Daniel just get laser surgery and ditch the glasses, already?" The answer is: he can't. Lasik surgery is (apparently) specifically counter-indicated if you're in a line of work where you're going to get hit on the head a lot (they specifically mention soldiers in active combat and football players.) FWIW...

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

So glad you like these posts! :) And sheesh, you'd think Lobster!Daniel would've picked a non-tablecloth shirt. I mean, as long as it was changing...

Re Serpent's Grasp - any suggestion makes at least a little sense, since none of them make complete sense! But it still doesn't explain why he wasn't wearing his glasses in the control room, before they sent the MALP through and discovered that it was dark.

Re the laser surgery: I always knew it wasn't for everyone, but this? specifically counter-indicated if you're in a line of work where you're going to get hit on the head a lot - this made me laugh and laugh and laugh. Because you know there's a subheading, written in tiny type, that adds, "And if your name is Daniel Jackson don't even bother to call."

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Perhaps even more importantly, Lasik and related surgeries can worsen close vision. I assume that Daniel is near-sighted. I will not get Lasik because I need my vision! I'm a medievalist; I have to read manuscripts, which are difficult enough as it is, without being farsighted (yet) and with a pocket magnifying glass!

I think Daniel would never consider eye surgery that could make reading more difficult.

I used to wear contacts, but my eyes got irritated too much--and I wore rigid gas permeable ones, the kind that I was told were least likely to cause infections and best for allergy sufferers like me.

Project? I never project myself onto a character! How could you suggest such a thing?

That said, there are some moments where I think the actor and directors simply blew it, but hey--I've gotten too much enjoyment from Daniel Jackson over the years to complain too much.

Let me add my thanks, Fig, for all the work you've put in on this, and the fascinating discussion!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I think Daniel would never consider eye surgery that could make reading more difficult.

Oh, yes, definitely! If there's any real risk, Daniel will smile politely and hang verrry tightly onto his glasses!

I've gotten too much enjoyment from Daniel Jackson over the years to complain too much.

Now that's a delightful sentiment I'll gladly endorse! And I'm very glad you're enjoying this. :)

[dunv-i.livejournal.com]

Just poking in!

My mom is about blind. Not actually, but you know. She drives fine without her driving glasses (if not happily after dark); its afterwards that she can't see anything. So in the Curse, I actually think he would prefer no glasses over sunglasses.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, a fascinating theory, that. I was just so surprised that he was driving in the blinding Egyptian sun without any protection, but that does make a lot of sense!

(and poke away, really)

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

YAY you wrote it!

I definitely agree that I think a lot of this has to do with MS not needing glasses and possibly sometimes getting annoyed with them and them ending up on top of his head or somesuch. But "Serpent's Grasp" will ALWAYS drive me nuts because if he needs them at all, he really ought to need them then.

Part of me does wonder if he's near or far sighted, but I'm thinking maybe he is just very mildly near-sighted or has a mild astigmatism.

(though if he doesn't really need them, why would he bother with contacts for Summit? Then he'd need the cleaning solution and stuff to go with them, right?)

(and the fact that I've only this past week started regularly wearing the glasses I've owned for 6 years now is making me rethink Daniel. My prescription is about as mild as they make lenses for (-0.5, -0.25) so I test at essentially 20/20 without them, but they help me read things that are REALLY far away and I've found that wearing them is helping combat the nagging headache/fuzzy head feeling I've been getting at the end of the day...so maybe Daniel just has a really mild prescription also, but he likes seeing things clearly and gets eyestrain without. It would explain things like how easily he can locate his glasses when he isn't wearing them and why he takes them off so often (I've been doing that too - especially to look at computers and such))

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Took me long enough, but yay! :)

I do think that he's very mildly nearsighted, as you suggest - and the general consensus seems to agree with that. We can handwave most contradictions, but I suppose it all really comes down to MS not knowing how to use glasses as glasses and not as a prop. Sigh.

In Summit, I assumed he was wearing throw-away contacts, that are only good for a couple of days and can stay in your eyes even when you sleep. No fuss, no muss. And come to think of it, he put in those contact lenses not a pro - amateurs need a mirror, and a lot of tries!

[randomfreshink.livejournal.com]

It is interesting that in Mobius, alternate time-line Daniel seems to have much worse vision. While Daniel in Egypt is getting around find without glasses at all. That sort of implies that perhaps the vision issue is not so much genetic as it is eye strain, or maybe other factors.

It's also odd that you really don't see glasses much of anywhere outside of Earth. But there's that scene in "Rules of Engagement" where the kid calls Daniel 'four-eyes' -- and I'm not sure if Daniel's reaction is more to the dated slang, or to the insult, or just to some green-kid calling him that. So obviously the concept of glasses has gotten around a bit there. But, then, given the deemphasis on writing and learning propagated by the Goa'uld maybe it's more that glasses mark you as someone who reads--or who does want to see things. So maybe it's the whole you don't want to stand out thing.

And, I figure by Netu, Jack was both more willing to let Daniel look after himself (which he did, in his own way, even if it did mean getting knocked around a bit), and frankly after seeing how little the 'glasses off' thing did in Hadante, I'd have given up that approach, too. (As in better to at least have Daniel seeing what was coming at him.)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Moebius thing fascinated me, too - poor Daniel so near-sighted, yet no sign of allergies. Trade-off, maybe?

Rules of Engagement - ooh, this one is on the list for the next part (or the one after, considering how these things expand!). Daniel really doesn't like bullying or condenscension, does he? Although I assumed the "four-eyes" thing was because of their indoctrination into Tau'ri culture, not that there were glasses out there. Because we have never seen glasses on anyone off-world yet.

glasses mark you as someone who reads

What a fascinating theory! Add the idea that the Goa'uld would have little patience with slaves, and prefer perfect specimens... It wouldn't explain why there are no glasses on non-Goa'uld worlds, though.

And yeah, knowing how wonderfully it worked on Hadante probably did factor into the decision to let him keep them on Netu. That, and sulfur probably isn't good for contacts!

[quarryquest.livejournal.com]

Very impressive ...

Although I do not wear glasses myself (long story) I come from a family who do. I have a soft spot for Daniel was there are parts of him that remind me of my own father (must be the glasses) but the way he treats his is daft beyond belief. I mean ... when I was a kid at home, as I was the only one with decent eyesight, I would spend my time running about collecting everyone's specs and getting them back to them when they lost them. 'Where did you have them last??' was the usual cry.

The other thing that annoys me is that he never gets them dirty and never has to clean them. How many times have I seen dad, mum, little sis, bf, etc etc doing that. I mean, Danny Boy does a job where there is a LOT of dust so you think they would be filthy.

p.s. Wasn't he worried his prescription would change on Abydos? Didn't it change in the the year he was ascended?

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Thank you, and welcome to the discussion! :)

I do agree that Daniel treats his glasses in a way no regular glasses-wearer would - including, as I cited above, the insanity of being able to actually spot his glasses in an unfamiliar room, when someone else put them down! But general consensus seems to be that his prescription must be quite low, with an anstigmatism more likely the cause than poor eyesight.

And yes, we never see him worrying about dusty or scratched lenses. Maybe Bill Lee came up with some kind of friction-proof polymer to coat them with? :)

Good and funny question about his changing prescription! Speaking as an adult slightly older than Daniel ;) I would point out that prescriptions don't change much at that age - very, very minor adjustments, for the most part. I'm not sure why ascension would change his prescription, other than Oma deciding to fix things, which she apparently didn't. Now, if the Daniel in Ancient Egypt somehow got back to the present, then yes, his prescription would definitely be changed after five years of doing without!

[sg-wonderland.livejournal.com]

The one time that comes to mind where I questioned why Daniel wasn't wearing his glasses was 'Message in a Bottle'. Daniel and Sam were trying to translate some pretty fine script and Daniel's glasses were planted firmly on the top of his head, where they would do the least amount of good!
I've always had a theory that the glasses on/glasses off had as much to do with who was directing that certain episode, as some folks had problems with the combination of light and glasses distorting Shanks' expressions, through his eyes.
Peter DeLuise speaks on the DVD commentary for 'Orpheus' about using Daniel's glasses for a night-shot that required keeping Michael on location hours after everyone else had gone, just to get a shot of Daniel turning and having the available light reflected off his glasses. So we know that at least one of them figured a way to use them to his own advantage.
And just a comment from someone who has worn glasses and contacts for about a dozen years, I've never worn them hooked in the front of my shirt. That's just asking for them to fall and get the lenses scratched.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Funny you mention MiaB as an argument against Daniel's nearsightedness, because that was exactly the way I behave when I'm peering at my computer screen at 4 a.m. to finish writing before the morning's deadline. Even with eyesight as poor as mine, when my eyes are aching from tiredness, I will often remove my glasses and squint exhaustedly at the screen. And MS certainly had the tired squinting down pat in that scene! :)

I have this vague idea that I've tucked the pair of sunglasses that I wear to protect my contact lenses into the front of my shirt once or twice. Then again, unlike Daniel, I'm also usually carrying a pocketbook, so I do have an easy plece to store 'em...

Interesting factoid re Orpheus! I don't think I've listened to that commentary of late. I'll have to go and watch it (such torture, I know).

[emerald14.livejournal.com]

I have one eye near-sighted and one far-sighted and use my glasses pretty much in the same pattern as Daniel is shown to. I like to be awkward ;)

Just adding my 2 cents to the conversation and saying hi! Newbie here! *waves*

Thank you so much for this series - it must have been hell to re-watch all those eps and read all that fic. You've really taken one for the team there ;) Long may it continue!

Emerald
x

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

::waves back::

You've really taken one for the team there ;)

Sheer torture, I tell you! :) Glad to have you with us.

[samantilles.livejournal.com]

I couldn't help but think of reading this meta when I was recently reading a normally quite good story with this horrific fanon line right in the middle:

He and Sam had once worked out that he had managed to get through around eighteen thousand pairs of glasses during his time on SG-1, through breakage and loss to alien removal like this.

This story takes place after the Atlantis Episodes First Contact and Lost Tribe, so approximately year twelve of the SGC. But the math itself doesn't work at all. In 12 years, if you include the year Daniel was ascended, he lost 18 thousand pairs of glasses?? That's 1500 pairs a year, and 4 pairs a day. If you take out the year Daniel was ascended, its up to 4.5 pairs every single day, including holidays. If you just count work days (minus the weekends) that number is up to almost six pairs a day. Call me crazy, but even I'm not that bad with my glasses, and if he is losing that many pairs a day, he's littering up the galaxy like there is no tomorrow and can probably look in any nook and cranny of the SGC and find a pair laying about.

I shuddered at the thought while reading and doing the mental math... and that was before I pulled out the calculator and confirmed my math skills...

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

18,000?! Oh, hilarious. With no offense intended to the author, may I have a link to see how much exaggeration was intended, or whether the author actually meant it seriously?

Your math, BTW, is made of win, just for the sheer incredulity of the statement... :)

Doesn't dietcokechic have an OC fic from the POV of Daniel's optometrist?

Just a thought!

[vikki.livejournal.com]

Conclusion: While Daniel certainly needs his glasses to read and type, and he does better with his glasses than without them, his eyesight seems to be good enough to get around without them if necessary.

Okay, I'm jumping in over a year late and without reading the rest of the post, but I'm going to suggest that Daniel isn't near-sighted at all ... but rather farsighted. It doesn't just happen to older people (although the majority of people who need reading glasses are older). My brother became farsighted at the age of 12, due to a correctible problem with how his eyes coordinated movement, but it still happened. And farsightedness can be induced, to some degree, by reading in poor lighting (Daniel's office, anyone? you're not helping yourself, Daniel!) and overstraining the eyes in the sun, etc.

I thought of this when I noticed that Daniel puts on his glasses in TBFTGOG to examine the map and use the computer, but isn't wearing them before that. Why? I wondered. I, as a near-sighted person, find that just perverse - when I sit at my computer I take my glasses off. But I'm going to read the rest of your post before going off to do a series analysis supporting my own theory, haha. ^^;;

Re: Just a thought!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

A lot of people also considered this theory here, so you're not alone in wondering about the nearsightedness! :)

However, as someone who is nearisghted myself, I'm not surprised at all at Daniel being able to manage without glasses for general purposes, but needing them in order to read the fine print, so to speak. It's an interesting exercise, to fit all the little quirks and the fact that MS doesn't really need glasses into a discernable pattern.