Canon vs. Fanon, part 10: Pre-series Daniel

[fignewton]

Finally, the post so many of you have been nagging me about asking for: Pre-series Daniel!

Backstory is a crucial part of understanding and writing a character. When you consider some of the more iconic fictional characters, nearly all of them reference pivotal moments in the hero's childhood or past to help us understand the driving force behind the character's motivations and actions. Elessar Telcontar, for example, is on a quest to not only redeem his ancestor's mistake, but to prove himself worthy of Arwen in her father's eyes; Clark/Kal-El is the lone survivor of an entire planet, and will do anything in his power to protect his adopted world. (I could go on and on and on in this vein, and thus introduce you all to my favorite books and fandoms, but I think I'd best stop there.) There are very, very few heroes that have made their way into our collective consciousness without giving us at least some glimpse into the backstory.  Sherlock Holmes is one, although we see him through the more immediate filter of Watson's eyes, and we do know Watson's backstory.

How about our heroes from SG-1, then? The details of their backstories are mostly vague, but we do have some basic broad strokes – enough to comprehend their motivations. Jack O'Neill lost his son and was chosen for his suicidal tendencies to be the leader of a suicide mission; Samantha Carter is an Air Force brat who was driven to be better than the best by her need to prove to her father that she was just as good as a son; Teal'c lost his father to the caprices of the Goa'uld and, under Bra'tac's tutelage, determined the falsity of the Goa'uld's claims to divinity and longed to do something about it. (Actually, Teal'c's backstory is probably the most complete of the four.) And Daniel? His motivations are introduced to us from the moment we meet him: brilliant but controversial, Daniel accepted a job when he was practically out on the streets and walked through the Stargate in a driving determination to know that he was right.

So much for the broad strokes. But if we narrow the focus to Daniel, how much do we know about his life before he met Katherine, and how much of the common themes in fanon have any basis in that canon?

My usual brief recap of defining canon and fanon won't do here, so let's study that in a bit more detail first. The definition of fanon hasn't changed; I still use that term to refer to widely-accepted concepts that appear in fanfic, but do not have any real basis in canon. For the purpose of this specific topic, however, some might choose a wider spectrum for their canon.

First and foremost, despite coming last, is the series. Anything we discover about Daniel's background during the episodes of Stargate: SG-1 is definitive canon.

Next comes Stargate: The Movie. As always, the canon of Daniel's life and experiences in the movie is invalidated if the series later contradicts it; but if there is no such contradiction, than the events of the movie are considered canon.

Finally, there is a third source – or, I should say, two sources that fit into the third category – the novelization of the movie (I'll use the term "the book" from now on), and the official press release issued by MGM when the show first began. Both of these sources can be termed as apocryphal.

That's my own judgment, of course. Others might look at those sources as more canonical. I call them apocryphal for three reasons: one, they're much less well-known (the only source I can find for the press release, as directed by the ever gracious shutthef_up, is RDA's website, and many many fans have never bothered to read the book, either because they're not interested or they can't get hold of it); two, they're often contradicted by canon; and three, they're not the final product, so to speak. The book, in particular, is astonishingly different in some sections and details, particularly characterization and descriptions. I understand from moonshayde that the book was written from an early draft, which makes things a lot more understandable.

So where does that leave us, with regards to using the book and press release as a canonical source for Daniel's backstory? My personal opinion is that they're too apocryphal to use. But since my personal opinions don't belong in this section, I will suggest that while they shouldn't be considered true canon, they're useful as springboards for creating an original backstory of the author's choice. (The discussion on a previous thread on this topic gives a nice example of how some fanfic writers chose to use contradictory aspects of the book to create some pre-series history for Daniel.)

Here is the press release issued by MGM, way back when the show first began, as taken verbatim from RDA's website:

Dr. Jackson joined the SG-1 team on a voluntary basis to study the cultures of other planets. He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology as well as a Ph.D. in Linguistics, and has prior experience with the culture of Abydos. He is an expert in ancient cultures and languages in addition to current ones; he speaks over 20 languages including ancient Egyptian. Originally he was contracted by the military to decipher a mysterious hieroglyphic cartouche. His subsequent translation of the cartouche allowed the Stargate to be opened for the first time. He married Sha're, an off-world human and native of Abydos, after he chose to stay behind on the planet following the first mission, and he became something of a deity to the people of Abydos. His humanistic, liberal approach is often in conflict with O'Neill's militaristic approach. Some see him as a soft, brainy, clumsy scientist who carries a wide-eyed enthusiasm with him through every mission.

Aside from the painfully obvious nature of this as being written by someone before the character was fully realized, there are plenty of things wrong with it. Daniel did not join the team to study the cultures of other planets; he joined it so he could search for Sha're, and it isn't until The Broca Divide that we see him pushing for the exploration of other cultures and learning more about Earth's past through them. Daniel translated the cartouche on the coverstone in his first two minutes on the project; it was his identification of the symbols as constellations, two weeks later, that allowed the Stargate to be opened. There has never been any suggestion that the people of Abydos looked upon Daniel as "something of a deity," although there was surely some hero-worship going on, as Daniel himself tells Jack on that first evening back from Abydos. And while Daniel did carry a "wide-eyed enthusiasm with him" during the first few seasons, "brainy" and "scientist" are legitimate labels for Daniel, but "soft" and "clumsy," despite fanon's frequent suggestions to the contrary, are not.

So much for the press release. For those of you unfamiliar with the book, I'm going to list a few of the more incredulous contradictions here:

Kawalsky, a lieutenant, is in charge of the Stargate Program under General West until Jack is called in. He was slated to lead the team, if there was one, though the Stargate. He's huge, physically intimidating, and deeply resentful of Jack, who has not only taken over the project, but is hugely irritating in the "need-to-know" department.

Katherine is the one who tossed out the question that torpedoed Daniel's lecture, rather than an anonymous voice from the crowd; the implication is that she did it deliberately. And instead of meeting him outside in a limo, she breaks into his apartment to talk to him. The picture she discusses with him is framed on his wall; when he walks into his apartment, he discovers her idly rifling through his things while she waits for him to get back from the liquor store, where he cadged a bottle from the owner to help him drown his sorrows after the disastrous presentation.

Daniel didn't get his inspiration from the guard's newspaper; he broke into Jack's office because he was frustrated from the constant refusal of West et al to give him the necessary information. He tore Jack's star map off the wall and actually used it in the presentation; it is implied, although not specified, that Jack and West actually knew that the constellations played a crucial part in figuring out the symbols.

Kasuf gives Sha'uri to Daniel because Daniel cannot take his eyes off her from the moment he sees her, to the point where Jack calls him on this on more than one occasion and tells him to stop staring at the pretty girl and get back to work.

Jack won't let Daniel taste the lizard-chicken because Daniel, at that time, is too valuable to risk, so Kawalsky eats it instead.

Ra loses his hand and wrist in the matter stream when Daniel and Sha'uri are ringed back down. He screams for his slaves to take him to the sarcophagus, but all the children flee to the rings and quite literally jump ship when Jack and Daniel activate the rings from below. This does have the advantage of saving Jack and Daniel from killing all those civilian children as collateral damage in the nuke.

Considering all this, how much can the book be taken as canon? Obviously, anything contradicted by the movie, or later by the show, has to be discarded. But what about extra details of Daniel's life that are not later contradicted? Should these be considered canon?

My personal opinion is that they should not. For the purposes of this discussion, however, I will reference them and allow my readers to draw their own conclusions as to their status as canon.

To be (hopefully) as clear as possible, information taken from the press release or the book will be in blue, with direct quotes in italics, and information from the movie will be in red. If this turns out to only make things worse, I'll edit the post accordingly.

Unlike most canon vs. fanon discussions, I want to start with the canonical facts and then analyze the common fanon themes to see if they have basis and/or merit. I also will detail exactly when we learn each bit of pre-series history. While I first discovered Stargate in the summer of 2005 and was thus presented with eight years of canon all at once, it's fascinating to consider how slowly real-time fans actually discovered much of Daniel's backstory.

Canon pre-series Daniel facts:

Birth. The book states that Daniel was just shy of thirty at the start of the movie, which would suggest a birthdate of 1966 or 1967. However, in the second season episode 1969, Daniel tells Jack that he was "about four and a half years old in 1969." Many of us like to snark about Daniel's puzzling concept of "half a year," considering that he was unquestionably born on July 8th and 1969 took place in August. To be fair, however, that piece of information was only gleaned in S3, during FIAD. So fans have to choose between 1964 and 1965 as Daniel's birth year; 1965 is more popular, but both choices are equally valid.

Then there's the question of where Daniel was born. I'll document the most popular choices below, but thanks to the brilliant aurora_novarum, we have confirmation that Daniel was, in fact, born in Olympia. Her full post is here, but I've reproduced a crop of the screencap here:

With Aurora's gracious permission, here are the stats, as she determined them:

ENLISTMENT RECORD NO: 00-404-226
ENLISTMENT RECORD: ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE

NAME: JACKSON, DANIEL DATE OF BIRTH: [ILLEGIBLE]
PLACE OF BIRTH: OLYMPIA, OR/GR (?)
SEX: MALE RACE: CAU
COLOR OF EYES: BLUE COLOR OF HAIR: BROWN
HEIGHT: 6'00"
WEIGHT: 175 LBS.

HOME ADDRESS: 4?00 [ILLEGIBLE STREET]
MARITAL STATUS: SINGLE

EDUCATION
HIGH SCHOOL: GRADUATED
FIRST SECONDARY: GRADUATED
FINAL DEGREE: PHD
DEGREE OF STUDY: ARCH ANTH

MAIN CIVILIAN OCCUPATION:
ACADEMIC - ARCHEOLOGICAL TRANSLATOR
DATE [ILLEGIBLE]: 11901-E

SERVICE NO: N/A : CIVILIAN
PHYSICAL CATEGORY: A-2
ENLISTMENT LOC: COLORADO

Is that Olympia, Washington, or Olympia, Greece? The text is too unclear to determine. I personally think the idea of Daniel being born in Greece is irresistible (Aurora's post includes a delightful comment to the same effect), but it might have easily been Washington State, or even a fictitious Olympia arbitrarily selected by the props department. (Aurora likes the idea of an Olympia in Oregon, since the Ballards, in any case, have some connection there - that's where Nick's psychiatric institution is located.) In any case, this information did not become available until the sixth season episode of Full Disclosure; and perhaps there are more Daniel fans out there like me – I never bothered watching more than three specific episodes of that season, and I missed this episode entirely.

The only time we actually witness Daniel and his parents interact is in Season Two, during the events of Gamekeeper. Unfortunately, the only time that we can be absolutely sure that Claire and Mel are wholly in character is the first loop, in which Daniel only watches and does not speak to them. In subsequent loops, when Daniel tries to stop their deaths from happening, the Gamekeeper is directly influencing their behavior and reactions; so it's impossible to say whether Claire is usually brisk and kindly dismissive or whether Mel is usually brusque and perfectly willing to have anonymous workmen haul his eight-year-old son off the premises. The only behavior that Daniel certifies for us as entirely in character for them is that his parents used to call him Danny when he was little.

ETA: Aurora comes through for us yet again! abyssinia4077 wondered about the canon source for Daniel's parents' name, and I panicked at the possible Ewok incusion! But Aurora found their names listed in the credits for Gamekeeper: Claire and Melburn. Sigh. That's actually why I always call him Mel; that spelling, to my eyes, is atrocious. But at least it's solidly canon, so we're safe from any Ewoks. :)

Our next bit of canon involves the deaths of Daniel's parents. His status as an orphan is already confirmed in the movie:

"Your parents, Jackson?"

"My foster parents."

We get a quick glimpse of the photograph that Katherine is holding. The child pictured in it is much younger than show canon's Daniel was when he was eligible for foster parents, so either movie canon suggests his parents' deaths at an earlier age, or the child in the picture isn't actually Daniel, but a foster brother. The book gives us the additional detail that his parents were killed in a plane crash in 1973, which makes the child in the picture the right age for a Daniel born in '66 or '67. In any case, Daniel's reference to his foster parents suggests that he had only one set of foster parents after his own parents' death.

It's not until The Gamekeeper that we discover that not only is Daniel orphaned, but he actually witnessed his parents' deaths when they were crushed by a falling coverstone. In late Season Three, we learn that this happened when he was eight years old and that he has a grandfather, Nicholas Ballard, who refused to adopt Daniel at the time, since he'd already found (and lost) the crystal skull in '71 and was obsessed with finding it again. Since the movie specifies foster parents and not adoptive parents, we can assume that Daniel was never formally adopted. Five years later, in Threads, that we learn that Nick took Daniel to a diner for waffles after the funeral. Threads does not specify that Nick told Daniel that he couldn't adopt him while they were at the diner, although many fanfic writers suggest this.

I have noticed that very, very few fanfic authors have a positive view of Nick.

Canon draws a blank on the next eight years for Daniel. Although the book tells us that he's a city boy with no experience with domesticated animals, we really don't learn any details about Daniel's life until we get to his academic history. This proves to be contradictory and confusing, so we'll take it step by step.

The book gives us a frustrated Daniel looking back at his previous successes after the lecture:

Wasn't he the boy who had won the scholarships in high school for his translations of Phoenician poetry, then had been accepted at UCLA when he was only sixteen? The young wizard with the triple major in languages, philology, and ancient history? How had he let so much promise slip through his fingers to end up a scorned, dead-broke, friendless, lonely, unemployed, and very wet ex-professor?

We are told that he taught at Columbia. His department chair was Dr. Ajami, who introduced him at the lecture as follows:

"He graduated with his Master's at the age of twenty… He has written several seminal articles on the comparative linguistics of the Afro-Asiatic language groups, and, of course, on the development of the Egyptian language from the Archaic Period to the Old Kingdom…"

The MGM press release tells us that Daniel holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology as well as a Ph.D. in Linguistics.

So our apocryphal sources give him three majors, which are either languages, philology, and ancient history or anthropology and linguistics, while in the movie, he is only identified as an Egyptologist. On the show, he most frequently calls himself an archeologist; the information onscreen in Full Disclosure in S6 gives his degrees as being in archeology and anthropology. His AU counterpart in the first mirror universe, at the end of S1, was known as a linguist; his AU counterpart in the Moebius-verse, at the end of S8, identified himself as an Egyptologist. We don't get a specific, verbal canonical statement about Daniel's academic record until the ninth season episode The Scourge (no specific spoilers):

"Doctor Daniel Jackson. Ph.D. in Archaeology, Anthropology, and Philology."

So much for his credentials. Where, exactly, did he earn them?

The book has him accepted at UCLA. In FIAD in Season Three, we learn that Robert Rothman was his research assistant when he earned his dissertation, but we don't know where that was. In Season Four, The Curse takes us to Chicago, where Daniel's former archeology professor, Dr. David Jordan, has been killed. That implies that he studied in the Oriental Institute there. However, we run into a contradiction in Season Seven, when we learn from Daniel's Osiris-induced dreams/memories that when Daniel and Sarah were at the Oriental Institute, they had both already earned their doctorates before they met. That would suggest that Dr. Jordan didn't teach Daniel, but mentored him, which means that Daniel didn't actually get his degree in Chicago… unless he studied there as a student and either remained or returned after earning his degree, which is when he met Sarah. That leaves us without clear canon for where he earned his degrees.

ETA: Thanks to green_grrl who points out that there is canonical evidence that at least one of Daniel's degrees was earned at UCLA! While the Air Force officers invite Daniel out of the pouring rain into the limo, Katherine is busy paging through his dossier, which includes a very brief glimpse of a diploma. The only detail I can personally make out is that he graduated in June; the year doesn't seem to be visible, nor does the nature of the degree. Someone with better eyes, or possibly more talent in making screencaps, might get further than me.

 

Then there's Daniel's flair for languages. The book gives him eleven, including Armenian and Greek; the press release suggests over twenty, with "Ancient Egyptian" cited as one of those. Daniel himself, in 1969, tells Jack that he speaks "twenty-three different languages." Whether or not Goa'uld or Abydonian was on that list is questionable, since the topic of discussion was Earth languages he might use to pose as someone other than himself when he met the Katherine Langford of 1969. The languages confirmed on the show are German (1969), Russian (1969, Watergate, and Full Alert), Spanish (Evolution), and Mandarin (The Scourge). (In regards to Mandarin, Daniel speaks at least one dialect; he needs a translator for a different dialect in Fragile Balance, unless the man in that case was speaking Japanese – I don't pretend to be even vaguely familiar with either of those languages. [ETA: redatdawn identified it from the script of Fragile Balance as being Cantonese.] And some people have cheerfully suggested that considering his atrocious accent in 1969, he probably shouldn't include German, either.)

 

ETA: Whoops! Forgot Daniel's experiences as an archeologist on Earth. We learned in Season One's Brief Candle that Daniel was part of a dig in the Yucatan and ended up delivering a baby when there was no one else to do it; after that, he studied with the local mid-wife, which is a nice nod to Daniel's love for knowledge in all shapes and forms.

What do we know of Daniel's life outside of academic pursuits?

Between the time Daniel earned his degrees and he presented his disastrous lecture, we know that he used to visit Nick regularly at the psychiatric institution. Nick disparaged Daniel's theories, much as Daniel did his.

Nick asserted that Daniel claimed the pyramids were built by aliens. Daniel did not claim that; he said that the pyramids were older than Egyptologists had assumed, and a jeering member of the audience caustically suggested that maybe Daniel thought they'd been built by aliens: "Martians, perhaps?" Orinarily, show canon supersedes movie canon; but since Nick also said that Daniel "hadn't published in two years," and it had been four years since Daniel had walked through the Stargate to Abydos, I'll take movie canon over Nick canon any day.

As for Daniel's personal life, the book suggests that he has no trouble striking up casual relationships with women. There's Svetlana, the girl who runs the office for his apartment building: They had joked and flirted and even gone around the corner for Thai food a couple of times. But just when things were starting to warm up between them, he'd run out of funds and had turned into "the problem tenant." In the movie, Daniel has no trouble initiating a kiss with a painfully shy Sha'uri. In show canon, we first learn that he had a girlfriend in Season Four, when we meet Sarah Gardener in The Curse; we don't discover that the level of intimacy in that relationship until Season Seven, from the dreams/memories that Osiris prompts in Chimera.

Daniel's final lecture in academia took place at the Park Plaza Hotel, with no city specified. (Thanks, moonshayde, for pointing that out!) The book puts the lecture in the Scottish Rite Temple on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. From that point, pre-series Daniel's story is over, and we have the canon of the movie and the show for his current events.

 

That's about all we have of Daniel's canonical backstory. It isn't much, is it? In some ways, that lack is a blessing; it invites the fanfic author to use imagination freely to create a plausible background for the man we know and love. But since we do have so much free rein, why do so many writers follow the same tired fanon themes, disregarding how implausible many of them might be?

In terms of Daniel's birth, I think it's only fair to recognize that Aurora's discovery of canon Olympia is actually a three-second glimpse at a screen prop at the beginning of a clip show in Season Six. Any fanfic written before that can hardly be expected to observe that canon, and even those authors writing after that show was aired can claim plausible deniability at missing it. But with an entire world to choose from, the vast majority of fanfic authors place Daniel's birth in Egypt, with New York running a close second – presumably because his parents died there. There are usually references to Arabic being Daniel's first language, with Dutch as a frequent second choice (because of Nick Ballard). None of this, of course, has any basis in canon.

We have no canonical information on the first eight years of his life: whether he was formally schooled, or had private tutors, or was taught by his parents; whether his parents took him with them on digs, or left him with friends or nannies; or even what kind of relationship Daniel had with his parents. Most fanfic writers present Daniel's childhood with his parents as idyllic, usually with Daniel running freely through the sand dunes while his indulgent parents teach him his hieroglyphics before he learns his ABCs. There is nothing that contradicts this, but there's nothing that confirms it, either; so why does everyone choose the same backstory?

Now, Daniel's birth and early years are, despite the sameness of the common fanon themes, not very controversial. But now we come to those blank years between his parents' deaths and his university years… and here's where fanon gets rather ugly.

I think that too few writers recognize the following fact: No adoption does NOT equal only temporary fostering. All we know is that Daniel had foster parents. The nature of those parents, or how long Daniel remained with those foster parents, is unknown.

As far as I can tell, the rampant fanon tropes of Daniel suffering from a series of successive, abusive foster homes is based on a single canonical fact: Daniel's tendency, especially in the early seasons, of self-hugging – wrapping his arms around his chest for what seems to be the need to provide himself with emotional warmth. From this habit, authors seem to have leapt upon the conviction that Daniel never received any kind of affection after his parents' death; that he has always been starved for approval, acknowledgment, and hugs; and that the show clearly failed to provide Daniel with enough angst, so it's the fanfic writer's job to supply lots and lots more.

There is no canon evidence that Daniel was abused during the years he was fostered. There is no canon evidence that he had more than one foster home; if anything, the movie implies the opposite. There is, in fact, no canon evidence about those years at all.

I'm not trying to disparage the many fanfic writers out there who choose to go this route. I am trying to point out that there's no canon for it, that Daniel has plenty of tragedy in his life without inventing more, and that Daniel couldn't possibly be the strong, self-confident Ph.D. who dared to openly express his controversial views before a skeptical academic audience if he had truly been downtrodden as badly as so many fanfic authors would suggest. To be completely frank, abused!Daniel seems to serve only one pupose: more whumping equals more comforting, so pile on the angst in order to get more hugs. The problem with that, of course, is that by the time many such writers have finished, their Daniel (or Danny) is no longer recognizable as the strong, competent Dr. Daniel Jackson of SG-1.

Another common fanon theme is Daniel-the-Innocent: a Daniel that has never dated, who was never in a relationship before Sha're, and needed to be taught and guided by Sha're into a successful marriage. By S4, with the appearance of Sarah Gardener, this theory was pretty much damaged; by S7, Chimera more or less demolished it. But even without Sarah Gardener, the movie itself disputes this assertion.

While Daniel didn't realize that he and Sha'uri were married until the boys mentioned it two days after the fact, this was because he had no way of knowing that Sha'uri-the-Gift was actually intended to be Sha'uri-the-Bride. Once he realized the truth and confronted Sha'uri, it was Daniel who initiated their first kiss; Sha'uri herself was shy and timid, believing that Daniel didn't desire her. Daniel clearly convinced her otherwise, because once Ra was dead, that same shy girl had absolutely no trouble kissing Daniel on the steps of the temple in front of the entire city of Nagada. And, as randomfreshink pointed out in a previous discussion, Sha're had certainly gained enough self-confidence in their year together to plant that searing kiss on Daniel in COTG – and someone had to teach her that!

My personal fanon opinion? The movie and the show have given us very little canon backstory for Daniel – just enough to give us an understanding of his motivations and characterization, and to tantalize us into wanting more. We have a mostly blank canvas on which authors can choose to paint an array of individual and original landscapes… so why, why, why do so many authors choose the easier route of following what so many others have done before – especially when those choices are a direct contradiction to Daniel's personality and character? I appeal to all you wonderful fanfic writers out there: create your own backstory for our archeologist, and make it one that can reasonably allow the delightfully stubborn Dr. Daniel Jackson that we all know and love to come into being!

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

Stargate was written by Dean Devin and Roland Emmerich. No copyright infringement is intended by quoting some of its passages in this post.

Comments

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

There has never been any suggestion that the people of Abydos looked upon Daniel as "something of a deity," although there was surely some hero-worship going on, as Daniel himself tells Jack on that first evening back from Abydos.

This has been hinted at but never explicitly stated. it took me by susprise when I first saw it.

S6's Full Circle. Teal'c and that kid are talking and it is made to sound that the kid saw Daniel as a god. Teal'c wasn't too happy about it.

*off to read the rest*

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oooh, good catch, that. Except that the press release is clearly either pre-series entirely or sometime in the first season or two. And to be fair, the perception of Daniel as divine was after ascension, not for his role in destroying Ra.

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry about the Anonymous thing, but I just can't remeber (or care to) re-open my account. I just think it's important to note that there is no "Olympia, Oregon" in the United States of America. There is however, a Olympia, Washington. It's the state capital. Kind of important to all the people who actually live there.

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

I am replying as I go...

Demons, S3. he could speak/read Old English.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Having fun, are you? :)

Speaking from my own experience, it is ever so much easier to read a foreign language than to speak it. I'm trying to remember if he translated aloud or actually read the words aloud, then translated them. In either case... Hm. Does Old English qualify as a language? I already discounted Latin because is he didn't know that "loci" meant "location" in The Fifth Race, he probably went straight to studying Ancient. :)

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

YAYAYAY! (I was excited for this post).

You're right - they really don't give us much, do they?

"brainy" and "scientist" are legitimate labels for Daniel, but "soft" and "clumsy," despite fanon's frequent suggestions to the contrary, are not.
Is *this* where that comes from? I keep seeing fanfics refer to Daniel as clumsy (dropping things, tripping over things) and I always scratch my head because I never notice him being especially clumsy onscreen.

The only behavior that Daniel certifies for us as entirely in character for them is that his parents used to call him Danny when he was little.
I realize, as you're saying, the gamekeeper was creating their actions - but he was also using the information in Daniel's brain to do so, so I think we should be able to assume that how his parent's behaved is somewhat on course with how Daniel remembers them. I thought it was interesting how quickly resentful Daniel was at his father - "he called me Danny, like I'm still a kid" - I could just be reading something into it though.

However, we run into a contradiction in Season Seven, when we learn from Daniel's Osiris-induced dreams/memories that when Daniel and Sarah were at the Oriental Institute, they had both already earned their doctorates before they met
My theory here, after I watched "Chimera" was that Daniel got his degree at UChicago and Dr. Jordan was his advisor. After earning his PhD he got a research position (possibly with occasional teaching...) at the Oriental Institute and chose to stay longer. Sarah got her PhD somewhere (England?) and got a job at the Institute, hence meeting her when they had PhD's. He already seemed very comfortable there. But again, theory.

Even if his parents did take him on digs (which I would find believable) archaeologists (especially the kind his parents seemed to be - PhDed, designing museum exhibits) spend a lot more time at "home" doing research and examining artifacts and writing grants than they do at actual digs, so it's unlikely Daniel bounced from dig to dig exclusively until they died.

Personally - I think Daniel bounced between a few foster homes - not an endless string, but more than one and while I don't think he had any truly bad experiences (he's remarkably open and trusting which I just don't see happening if someone had suffered all this fanon abuse) I don't think he had any that left enough of an impact for him to keep in touch.

And I think I wrote enough.
Yay for this post! Thank you doing it and being patient with us through our begging :)

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

Even if his parents did take him on digs (which I would find believable) archaeologists (especially the kind his parents seemed to be - PhDed, designing museum exhibits) spend a lot more time at "home" doing research and examining artifacts and writing grants than they do at actual digs, so it's unlikely Daniel bounced from dig to dig exclusively until they died.

Thank you! It annoys me to know end that it's thought of that Daniel and his parents were wolrd travelers. Doesn't work like that!

I get hyper about this subject, can you tell?

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

People have Daniel know Danish? Nick was Dutch, not Danish.

I honestly don't know why everyone must use the same backstory. I've made my own--one routed in canon, the excess non-canon stuff (press release and the book), and my own knowledge of how anthropology and archaeology work as a student of those fields. Let me tell you I bang my head up against the wall when I see fanon that goes way off the beaten path. I appreciate fanon and backstory that makes more sense. Then again, I would suck at writing backstory for Jack or Sam because I know I'd royally screw it up. While I get Daniel, basically because he studies what I study, I don't get Sam and Jack because military experience means nothing to me.

I always assumed that by Cimera, it was to be understood that Sarah and Daniel were post-docs at the Oriental Instityte. That would explain them working under someone while at the same time having already done their research. It's quite common to do that. You probably already knew that, though.

And if you look at the press release, ot says that "some" people thought Daniel as clumsy yadda yadda yadda. It's not saying that he is that way. This is actually true in canon if you read into how people sometimes treat Daniel. it's just not as exagerrated as would like to believe.

I agree that show canon and then movie canon must be taken and that the book and the press release don't count. But I do think it's nice to tap into those resources if you're stuck. It's much better (and in character) to find material that is closer to canon that something way out there. But you know me and fanon.

That's what I've done and I'm rather proud of it. But now you have me panicking. In the fic I'm working on now, I have via the movie that Daniel made his lecture at the Park Plaza Hotel. I didn't even realize that the book named a different place. Movie trumps book, imo, but now I have to go and check myself ;)

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

i agree with your post doc thing. and daniel would not have necessarily gotte n all his phd's at the same univ, either.

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

why does everyone choose the same backstory?

as a writer, i have to say that sometimes it's really fun to get on board with fanon, as a homage to the fan author who has used it so elegantly, or because one has arrived at the same idea as other authors.

i think that when one is talking about fanfiction we need to be lenient in judging people as lazy or copycat when people use fanon. i mean, we're in a derivative form of literature, right? what's wrong with using fanon?

I am all over the idea of always knowing the difference between canon and fanon, and making whatever choices we make INTENTIONALLY. But I love following the fanon of Daniel having learned Arabic very early. If he went to Egypt with his archaeologist parents and loved Egypt from an early age, it makes sense that he would know Arabic. Even if he were born in Greece or Washington State, USA, he might have spent a bunch of time in Egypt as a child.

I appeal to all you wonderful fanfic writers out there: create your own backstory for our archeologist, and make it one that can reasonably allow the delightfully stubborn Dr. Daniel Jackson that we all know and love to come into being!

well, maybe I will, and maybe I like some of the fanon. you know? using fanon is one way of shouting out that we're in fandom together; it's building on the collective opinions of fellow writers. it feels homey and fun, like canon does. like well worn shoes. It's NOT a bad thing. In fanfic, original does not equal better. That should be self-evident.

When it's cliche and silly, yes. But cliche and silly are in the eye of the beholder.

thanks again for digging up all these details. as always -- lovely and thorough.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

i think that when one is talking about fanfiction we need to be lenient in judging people as lazy or copycat when people use fanon. i mean, we're in a derivative form of literature, right? what's wrong with using fanon?

I do hope I haven't come across as overly judgmental, although I probably got a little snippy about the poor wee abused orphan fanon thing. Cliches exist because they're common, after all; and a good author can take the most common of cliches and make it real and fresh and interesting.

Like you, there are many parts of fanon I enjoy. I do think Daniel loves Egypt and speaks Arabic as fluently as a native. and I do agree that it's fun, sometimes, to be part of that collective whole.

But I want people to know that they're following fanon and not canon. If they're aware of that, and they want to use it anyway? That's fine by me. :)

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you that authors take the self-hugging and spin a whole psychological profile behind it, and that the damaged!Daniel is a very very popular characterization, and of course H/C is a very popular genre within fanfic, even outside slash.

But again -- I disagree with you in bemoaning this. In every fandom I've read there are fanon characterizations of the principles that take on a life of their own. damaged!Elijah in Lotrips and slash!Draco in Harry/Draco are probably the best examples. I don't think this is a bad thing. We want and love this characterization. that's why it becomes popular.

As long as we know we are jumping on a fanon bandwagon and can distinguish fanon from canon, what's wrong with that? Fanon is not bad in and of itself.

Also, you say: "Daniel couldn't possibly be the strong, self-confident Ph.D. who dared to openly express his controversial views before a skeptical academic audience if he had truly been downtrodden as badly as so many fanfic authors would suggest.

I have to disagree. I think it's plausible psychology that abuse in childhood could have made Daniel even more outspoken as an adult. I have more than a few real life examples of this. I do agree that the damaged!Daniel that we see in a lot of H/C fic goes way beyond canon to spin out this vision of Daniel, but it's not implausible, imho.

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

He looks like a priest in your icon and it's freaking me out...

[nomadicwriter]

Many of us like to snark about Daniel's puzzling concept of "half a year," considering that he was unquestionably born on July 8th and 1969 took place in August.

I never quite understood the kerfluffle over this. It's not as if he's calculating, "at this moment in time, August 1969, my other self is four and half" - Jack's talking about a car that's out in 1969, and Daniel's all, 'um, dude, I was four and a half that year.' He's definitely talking in the general case rather than the specific, so it doesn't seem unreasonable that he would count to the turn of the year rather than the exact date.

I have noticed that very, very few fanfic authors have a positive view of Nick.

I have noticed that it's a very, very common point of view in fanfic that any reason whatsoever for not having/raising a child is a form of selfishness and/or irrational anxiety (never rational or justified anxiety) that the character must be educated out of.

Personally, I feel that, given that Nick must have been sixty-ish, quite possibly had no practical experience of child-raising, and was (a) widely regarded as being whacko and (b) obsessed with chasing giant aliens, choosing not to take Daniel was probably more the responsible choice. Which is not to say that it wouldn't cause understandable trauma to eight-year-old Daniel, but still, it's a more complex issue than "Nick is a nasty evil man who wouldn't take in his poor woobie grandson!"

To be completely frank, abused!Daniel seems to serve only one purpose: more whumping equals more comforting, so pile on the angst in order to get more hugs. The problem with that, of course, is that by the time many such writers have finished, their Daniel (or Danny) is no longer recognizable as the strong, competent Dr. Daniel Jackson of SG-1.

The main issue I have with fanon backstories of Daniel being endlessly battered by abusive foster parents is his canon attitude to authority figures. Namely the fact that when Jack/Hammond/who-the-hell-ever attempts to lay down the law, Daniel is not just argumentative, but seems quite baffled by the idea that they expect him to accept an order without turning it into a debate. Certainly he could still have grown to be self-confident and assertive from an abusive background, but it's the fact that he seems to find the "do as you're told and don't argue" mindset so completely foreign that makes it hard for me to buy he spent his childhood being smacked around for stepping out of line.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

it's a more complex issue than "Nick is a nasty evil man who wouldn't take in his poor woobie grandson!"

That is a very intelligent point, and one that I never really considered. Daniel seems to have considered it, though, in that scene with Nick in his VIP room. Of course, as you say, the eight-year-old Daniel might not have recognized it.

Daniel is not just argumentative, but seems quite baffled by the idea that they expect him to accept an order without turning it into a debate.

Ooh, I love this! It makes ever so much sense. And Daniel is so used to keep arguing and arguing that when Hammond gives in to him, he kinda blinks with surprise about it. That's a wonderful insight.

As for the 1969 argument you have there... Ah, but snarking at Daniel is so much fun. :)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

late Season Three, we learn that this happened when he was eight years old and that he has a grandfather, Nicholas Ballard, who refused to adopt Daniel at the time, since he'd already found (and lost) the crystal skull in '71 and was obsessed with finding it again. Since the movie specifies foster parents and not adoptive parents, we can assume that Daniel was never formally adopted. Five years later, in Threads, that we learn that Nick took Daniel to a diner for waffles after the funeral. Threads does not specify that Nick told Daniel that he couldn't adopt him while they were at the diner, although many fanfic writers suggest this.

I have noticed that very, very few fanfic authors have a positive view of Nick.

But-but-but, it's so reasonable that Daniel was told it then. ;-) As you are well aware, I have most recently been very guilty of this same fanwank, but I wasn't aware it had become a common fanon. I arrived at it by wondering why the diner had such significance to Daniel, and extrapolated.

I think Nick gets a bit of a bad rep in the adoption regard. Though Daniel's bitterness about him not being a great grandfather is certainly canon fodder for the interpretation. I don't think his not taking Daniel was irresponisible, but it was a keenly felt rejection on Daniel's part, though not enough that he didn't remain in touch.

My *interpretation* of the discrepancy in Nick reading papers two years after the program started is that Daniel had some half finished writings on general linguistic/philology stuff that he published later, either as part of his cover for the air force or something else, and Nick kept up with academic writings for traces of his grandson, even though Daniel hadn't visited him since their big fight.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I arrived at it by wondering why the diner had such significance to Daniel, and extrapolated.

Like many many bits of fanon, this one doesn't bother me in the slightest - but people should know it's fanon. :)

I think the bad rep re the adoption thing has its roots in fanon as well. I've seen suggestions that the reason why Daniel was never adopted was because Nick not only refused to take him in, but also refused to allow him to be put up for adoption. To be honest, I don't even know if it's true that a grandparent can put the kibosh on adoption papers for a grandchild when that grandparent has refused custody. But I've seen that interpretation more than once, and if you add in that bit of fanon, then Nick's behavior certainly takes a more ugly turn than simply an older guy with his own private obsessions recognizing that he wouldn't be a fit guardian for his grandson.

I know it's relatively easy to come up with some kind of handwave for Nick's reference to two years - he's lost track of time, or, as you suggest, Daniel has published one or two papers that got past the rigid Air Force censors. I mentioned it to explain why, despite my insistence that show canon supersedes movie canon, I'm not accepting Nick's reference to aliens are superseding the movie's real-time presentation of Daniel's lecture.

[mark-and-roger.livejournal.com]

Thanks for doing these, I really enjoy reading them. The debates that follow are also always very well thought out and interesting by everyone. I was surprised by one point raised about whether Daniel's parents were ever named in canon. I can't actually think of anytime it would've happened in The Gamekeeper since Daniel would just refer to them as mom and dad unless I missed one of the people standing around the display calling out their names. Did Nick perhaps ever mention their names in Crystal Skull? I know their names are everywhere in places like the wiki, IMDB, and tv.com but I'm not sure where they originate from.

I do think it's funny that the book has both Daniel and Katherine breaking into places and going through other people's property.

The only thing I might disagree on a little would be this:

In any case, Daniel's reference to his foster parents suggests that he had only one set of foster parents after his own parents' death.

I know you're not saying that we take this as absolute truth but I don't think we can really say what that even suggests for sure from a canon perspective. It seems that the only way that it wouldn't be open completely up to fanon would have been if he'd specifically said they were his only foster family. A good friend of mine grew up in foster homes from age 6 and up never being formally adopted. He had a total of 5 of them and whenever he shows people pictures he says something like "these are my foster parents" then he'll hold up the next family and say along the lines of "these are more of my foster parents". Usually after that group or the next he'll make some kind of joke about it. (Heh, I've seem him do this exact same thing a few times so I've recognized his usual pattern for it by now.) Basically I'm just saying that I don't think we can really tell one way or another by that scene how many foster parents he's had since it's Katherine that brings out just one specific picture and we don't even know how or where she got that so really any suggested reading of that scene would still be fanon. Unless I'm remembering the scene wrong and he's more specific in some way.

Also based on what I've heard from the friend I just mentioned, out of the 5 foster homes he had, one he only stayed at a week because the foster dad was abusive. He didn't manage to get ahold of his caseworker and get out of there until a week had passed so it wasn't long but it still happened longer than it should have. However, that said, because it was such a short time, it didn't really affect how he interacted with others when grown.

Basically what that has to do with Daniel is, if a fanfic writer wants an abused Daniel in foster care, I could easily buy it if it's a short period of time because I don't think that would necessarily have a big effect on how Daniel turns out as an adult (or even as a college student). Of course that only really works if it's a story based during that time period because otherwise they'd have to make sure to give a good explanation as to why adult Daniel is still dwelling on it. But if they're making it into him staying with that foster family for 6 months or more then that author would have to work harder to convince me that he's still in character because I'm not sure how that'd coincide with what we know of adult Daniel. Though of course there are always exceptions to the rule when it comes to how a person survives any given thing. Heh, Teal'c does say in Chimera that he's surprised Daniel gets any sleep as it is given what he's been through. so as long as an author can convince me and have him stay enough in character, I'm willing to go with it.

As for the self hugging, I'm fairly open to different writers ideas for why he does that because really it could be anything from extremely angsty reasoning down to him just feeling like doing that. I'd have to re-watch the moments he does this to think of my own interpretation because at the moment I can't think of the specific times.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the party! Thanks for stopping by and joining us. :)

They're not mentioned by name in Gamekeeper or Crystal Skull, and quite frankly, I don't know where else to look for their names. I think aurora_novarum's discovery of their names in the credits for Gamekeeper is going to have to serve as the ultimate canon authority. :)

I do think it's funny that the book has both Daniel and Katherine breaking into places and going through other people's property.

Yeah, I noticed that too. Maybe Daniel was inspired by Katherine's behavior?

That's an interesting point regarding foster parents - that there might have been multiple sets of them. This is especially true of movie canon, where Katherine waves a 4X6 snapshot at Daniel and there's no way of knowing where she acquired it. The book references a framed picture on his wall, though; that would indicate that even if the foster parents in question weren't his only ones, they were surely the ones with whom he was closest, or at least lived with the longest.

if a fanfic writer wants an abused Daniel in foster care, I could easily buy it if it's a short period of time because I don't think that would necessarily have a big effect on how Daniel turns out as an adult (or even as a college student). Of course that only really works if it's a story based during that time period because otherwise they'd have to make sure to give a good explanation as to why adult Daniel is still dwelling on it. But if they're making it into him staying with that foster family for 6 months or more then that author would have to work harder to convince me that he's still in character because I'm not sure how that'd coincide with what we know of adult Daniel.

Reasonable enough. And I don't read much LD stories, so I might be missing on a few. But you're right - the system doesn't usually allow for appalling lapses over long stretches of time, and Daniel has never been one to take abuse lying down, so he would have objected. Loudly and strenuously. So it wouldn't have been for long, and if that's the case, why would adult Daniel reference it? And that's where it breaks down, as you yourself point out - either it was very brief, in which case it shouldn't come up, or it's out of character for both what we know of him now and how he became what he is now. If that makes any sense. :)

Though of course there are always exceptions to the rule when it comes to how a person survives any given thing.

Oh, sure. I've said before that even the most cliche of fanon tropes can still entertaining if they're written well. But why give yourself a handicap by writing something fanonisly cliched?

Re the self-hugging: First time ever is when Jack brushes past him and ignores his out-stretched hand to speak to Skaara instead. There certainly is a connotation of emotional self-comfort. How that leaps to "abused as a child," though, is beyond me.

[mark-and-roger.livejournal.com]

Lastly, about the age thing, I've never really bothered to wonder about his exact birthdate (though I do remember Michael Shanks joking when comparing Daniel and Mitchell's canon ages). But for some reason, I've always thought of Sam as older than Daniel even though I'm told that in canon Sam's younger. I honestly don't know what made me think of her as older but I can't seem to help still thinking that.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oooh! We covered this in a previous post. Sam is younger than Daniel, much to my disappointment (because I think she's done too much for her age). You can find the thread here.

[6beforelunch.livejournal.com]

His status as an orphan is already confirmed in the movie:

Tiny nitpick. Foster care doesn't necessarily mean orphan. Kids with living but really crappy parents end up in foster care all the time. It's not until the series that we know Daniel is an orphan for sure.

I know, I know. I'm reaching...

I'll take movie canon over Nick canon any day.

Well, Nick is in a mental institution. I think we can take anything he says with a grain of salt. ;)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I'll take your nitpick. Although a general rule of Stargate in regards to Daniel is that if there are two possible interpretations of a statement, the most angsty one will be true.

Well, Nick is in a mental institution. I think we can take anything he says with a grain of salt. ;)

Well, yeah. That was more or less my point. :)

And hey, thanks for the rec on your LJ!

Claire and Melburn Found!!!

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Daniel's parents names are fully listed in the ending credits of Gamekeeper, so then you get into the question of "onscreen" canon. ;-)

I can't "create" screencaps, but after the exec producer credits, it lists:

Col. John Michaels Michael Rogers
Technician Laara Sadiq
Claire Jackson Lisa Bunting
Melburn Jackson Robert Duncan

Re: Claire and Melburn Found!!!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I always shorten Dad's name to "Mel" because there are so many variants on the spelling of his full name. "Melburn" was my least favorite. Ugh.

So, whew! Technically canon!

The names were so bizarre they had to come from somewhere... :)

Logically speaking

[randomfreshink.livejournal.com]

If you put some logic against a few clues, you can tease out some bits of Daniel's history as they make sense. Now, the cavate here is that folks aren't always logical, but---

It's likely Daniel was born in the States, or some other civilized area. I'm not sure I buy that mum was nine months preggers and going on digs to Egypt--that sounds more than foolish. It's possible, but I'm going for not likely.

That said, it actually is also very plausible that Daniel was being dragged around on digs as a kid. The clues here are the find that Daniel's parents are putting together--that looks like something you'd take more than a few years to dig out of the sand (not to mention the paperwork to get it out of Egypt and to New York for display). Also, there's Nick's comment that he didn't think dragging a kid around the world was a good thing--seems to me that comes up with a bitterness of seeing it done and not agreeing with it. It sounds like an old family argument (as in Daniel's parents were doing this and Nick didn't approve).

This can also be held against the reality that it's damn hard to making a living as an archologist. You could argue that the Jacksons had some sort of grant or funding--some reason why their find should end up in NY. But it's very likely they had dig season, and then it was back to the States to teach or work at whatever would pay for their real work. Given that Daniel moves more often than anyone--hey, had anyone ever counted up his apartment/houses/living spaces--seems a background of a vagabond as a child is very likely.

As to the Foster Parents, it's hard to say on that. It is interesting that Jack and Daniel never really talk about their upbringing. We get clues for Teac'l--in that we see a little of Ryac's upbringing. And having Sam's dad around shows a lot of her past (plus, you actually get to see her interact with her family).

However, again, you can figure out a few things from Daniel's habits--he had to have grown up self-reliant, with some level of confidence (he's sure enough of himself to go against the established order both in the movie and time and again in the series). I would argue that he doesn't have a profile to really fit a heavily abused background--but then I've never seen in him any self-destructive streak (to my mind, Daniel's putting himself in bad situation usually seems to happen just because the danger doesn't really register with him as something you let stop you from doing something). And someone somewhere brought him up with a mile-wide streak of justice and fairness--I don't think he was born with that. There are some habits of courtesy in him that always seem a touch old-fashioned, too--someone taught him that as well. So there's strong arguments for someone in his life who at least saw to his education and upbringing.

I'd also argue that one Foster family seems indicated--there's no ties to Foster siblings. I think it's Fire and Water where Hammond notes that SG-1 is Daniel's closest thing to family of any kind. And it seems unlikely he'd go through multiple Foster families all of them without kids. Daniel also doesn't act like someone who has siblings--he seems to have to learn about how to deal being kidding and teased by Jack. His independence and being a bit of a loner all look like single child to me--same goes for that imagination of his.

And learning 23 languages has got to indicate a fair amount of time spent alone--with books.

But we're straying here into speculation again--taking the clues and jumping off, and it's just a matter of how plausible does it sound.

And this is my theory as to why so many of end up creating the same or simlilar background--we're all using the same clues (and, yes, there's got to be a fair amount of using fan stories for background, instead of going back to the series or movie). But either way you're using common source--so there's going to be overlap and similarities.

The real trick is to tease something new and fresh out of all this--no so new or so fresh that it's way out there. Unless it's AU. But there's always a new angle.

Re: Logically speaking

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I buy that mum was nine months preggers and going on digs to Egypt--that sounds more than foolish.

You'd assume so, wouldn't you? And yet someone clearly did that on the dig in the Yucatan, or Daniel wouldn't have ended up having to deliver her baby. :)

I like your suggestion re Nick. And heh, that turns all the usual Nick fanon on its head - Nick was the responsible one who understood the need for a child to have stability!

I also agree with much of what you say re Daniel's personality, and how it suggets a solid, stable childhood with a responsible upbringing. It's true that someone could endure difficulties and transient situations and even abuse and still come out whole and solid and self-confident, but the logical Occam's Razor thing, as you say, is that it makes a lot more sense to assume he had a decent, if very bookish, foster home.

we're all using the same clues (and, yes, there's got to be a fair amount of using fan stories for background, instead of going back to the series or movie)

But it's that parentheses that drives me to make all these posts in the first place. Certainly, we all have the same starting line. It's when the starting line gets fudged with fanon that so many authors' backstories run the same old rails, whereas retreating to the real canon might suggest new directions.

And I just ran that metaphor to the ground, didn't I? :) To quote Lois Lane, "There are no new stories, only new angles." And a good writer knows how to find those.

[pulsar4529.livejournal.com]

I've been waiting for this ever since I made a rant about his background and moonshayde mentioned that you were putting it together. Besides pointing to everyone above and going, "What they said", there's not a whole lot I can really comment on.

One of the interesting things is that in the screencap even it lists his hair as brown. There still seems to be an attitude for calling his hair color blond even in the later seasons (when it's most clearly not).

I've always thought that he was in maybe three or four foster homes. He was only in the system for eight years until he went off to college, so it really doesn't make a whole lot sense for more than that. Honestly, I base this all off the one foster family that was in school. The only kids that were shuffled frequently were the problem kids (the ones that were escaping from school to try and get drugs in Detroit). The rest of them seemed mostly well adjusted. I ran into one of them a few years ago and he's living about two blocks away from his former foster parents, but he doesn't ever see them. He didn't even mention them until someone brought them up. He said they weren't bad or mean, they just broke it off when he moved on.

As far as I can tell, the rampant fanon tropes of Daniel suffering from a series of successive, abusive foster homes is based on a single canonical fact: Daniel's tendency, especially in the early seasons, of self-hugging – wrapping his arms around his chest for what seems to be the need to provide himself with emotional warmth.
Maybe this is more of a closing himself off to the world in order to think better thing. Because if you do the self-hugging you have less tactile contact with outside influences, so then if allows for less external influences if you're trying to think. Or, it could just be cold. Plus, I've always thought that Daniel was private, and introverted (that doesn't equal closed off and needy though, so it is maybe a small defense reaction. But I never interpreted it as a big flashing sign of abuse or anything like that. But this is just from my experience of doing it myself.

Since there really isn't any canon evidence as to where he spent his foster home years, I've always wondered why fic writers never place him anywhere but the city. It's probably to create more "little boy lost in the big city" stories, but for me upstate NY (or somewhere close to border) would be a tad more interesting. Plus, you could use it to fanwank the Canadian accent.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Regarding the brown/blond thing: I think it goes back to those fans who came from the movie to the series, instead of the other way round. One of my absolute favorite fics is written by an author who still insists on describing Daniel in terms of James Spader, even if it's set after the Hathor-haircut. I put up with it because the rest of the story is worth it. :)

Your thoughts on the foster care system are reasonable and practical, which is why it would never satisfy most fanfic writers! :)

Like you, I never interpreted the self-hug as a sign of abuse. I merely suggested that it might be a sign for other authors. It's certainly true that the self-hug seems prompted by a need for emotional self-support - the two most vivid instances that leap into my mind are in COTG, when Jack brushes past him, and Shades of Grey, when he watches Jack "retire" to Edora. But a physical manifestation of emotional discomfort does not, in my book, automatically translate into a history of abuse.

for me upstate NY (or somewhere close to border) would be a tad more interesting

Hee! Then you should wander over to 6beforelunch and check out this, which was apparently inspired by this canon vs. fanon post. :)

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Yay! So nice to see this collected and posted! Makes me want to play with Daniel backstory. *g* Just a couple of notes.

The child pictured in it is much younger than show canon's Daniel was when he was eligible for foster parents, so either movie canon suggests his parents' deaths at an earlier age, or the child in the picture isn't actually Daniel, but a foster brother.

Or his foster parents were family friends who knew him as a toddler.

The book has him accepted at UCLA.

The flip through his file in the movie also shows a flash of a diploma from UCLA, but I've never been able to make out any more than that from it. Would love date/degree. *sigh*

(One more thing, IMDB and Stargate Wiki both list Catherine Langford as a "C" Catherine.)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Or his foster parents were family friends who knew him as a toddler.

Oooh, nice suggestion! I'll add that one to my mental list, because the commentees here have come up with quite an interesting variety.

The flip through his file in the movie also shows a flash of a diploma from UCLA, but I've never been able to make out any more than that from it.

Where? In the limo? I'll have to go back and re-watch (oh, the humanity!).

(One more thing, IMDB and Stargate Wiki both list Catherine Langford as a "C" Catherine.)

Hm. I know I'm just about the only person out there who insists on spelling her name with a K, and that I probably shouldn't do so. It just makes sense to me that a woman named Catherine, with a German background, would use the Germanic K instead of the hard C. Put it down to my personal peculiarities; I'm one of only a handful of fans who has absolutely no trouble calling Daniel's wife Sha'uri when it's movie-era and switching seamlessly to Sha're when it's series-era, because I rather like the idea of "Sha'uri" being her maiden name and "Sha're" her married name. Is there canon proof of that? Absolutely not. Is it my own personal handwaving version of fanon? Yep. Does anyone care? I doubt it. :)

[happydog57.livejournal.com]

I’ve been reading your canon/fanon series for a while, and I feel its high time I tell you how much I am enjoying it! Hours of wonderful, fascinating reading. Thank you so much for doing this much work and putting it here for everyone to enjoy.

Is it ok to post a comment in some of the oldest parts, even though I’m late in doing it? Just starting to figure out this LJ thing.

Would you mind if I rec’d this on a forum that I hang out at, if it’s ok?

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the lovely compliment! So glad to hear you're enjoying these. :)

You are most welcome to drop a commment or argument about older posts! I do enjoy revisiting these discussions. And as for reccing...? I can only point at the icon. ;)

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

Here via izhilzha who rightly guessed that I would totally dig your canon vs. fanon posts. Have friended you because verily, you are awesome!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thank you for the lovely compliment, and you're more than welcome to join the party! Settle back and make yourself at home. :)

And... wow. That's quite a rec from izhilzha. ::blushes::

[redatdawn.livejournal.com]

Here through...uh...a long meandering path of sg-related links.

Anyway, I got curious about the needing-a-translator-for-Chinese thing. Turns out that was Cantonese, according to the "Fragile Balance" screenplay (http://media.dave.tv/sites/stargatesg1/screenplays/s07e03.PDF).

Thanks for this wonderful, much-needed contribution to the body of canon fact-checking resources. I hate both Daniel-born-in-Egypt and Daniel-abused-and-unloved-by-foster-parents. That shit gets old.

I think I've used up my hyphen quota for the day. Cheers!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the info! Will edit and include.

And welcome! I love the organic feel of LJ, wandering from one place to the next until you suddenly get from Minnesota to the Emerald City, to channel Jack. :)

Glad you enjoyed the post!

[sg-wonderland.livejournal.com]

Oh, um, I know I'm very late to the party....whips out bouquet doubling as apology/hostess gift. But I have been tinkering with a very pre-Stargate Daniel/Sarah fic and have been rattling around, trying to find some hook to base it on and in my rattlings, I landed here.
Like most folks, I latched onto the Oriental Institute due to their Egyptology program and neat-o gift shop, (bookmarking that for my Christmas list) and I assumed it was canon. Much to my surprise, and delight, I find it isn't, because I couldn't find a way to put two doctorates in the position of research assistant.
Stil struggling with the fic, but this gives me a bit more of a direction now.
Loving all the canon vs. fanon stuff, interesting reading.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, late wander-past comments are fun things, too!

Yep, canon only tells us that post-doctorate Daniel was at the Oriental Institute. He may or may not have earned a degree there. I love how blank the slate is, even if most people latch on to the same (sometimes tiresome) fanon. My favorite current version is the fanfic that placed Daniel as growing up on Long Island... :)

Something I don't understand/an idea requesting commentary....

[anna-dannir.livejournal.com]

Daniel's in foster care at 16. In New York State. They don't recognize/grant 'official' emancipated minor status in New York.
How the heck did he get permission to go to UCLA at 16? (I'm not questioning the full scholarship angle, just the permission from NYDCS/NYDFS)
By this point Nick is in an institution. No way (even if we accept the concept that Nick still retained guardianship, which I do not)that they could have 'reliably' gotten Nick's permission to let Daniel go there, and on its own DCF would be adverse to letting him go out of their jurisdiction while he is still legally 'their problem'.

I thought about that and thought about that and came to the conclusion (granted, very fanon) that he initially went to Columbia (Columbia College: the undergrad arm of the University).
1. Has a needs based grant program (I'm not entirely sure it was in place in 1981, but it certainly is now) that pays out for all four years, and also has at least one scholarship available that is aimed specifically at orphans raised in NYC (a many decades old scholarship)
2. It is in NYC.
BTW: there's no indication that NYC 'farms out' their fosterkids to upstate as far as I can tell, so I'm figuring he stayed in the city after his parents died, because I'm assuming (I know! I know!) that they had gotten an apartment in the city while putting up the exhibit because commuting into/out of NYC is a pain even if a lot of people do it, which would make Daniel's commute to Columbia a breeze from nearly anywhere in the city because it has its own subway stop.
3. Columbia has a Anthro with Linguistics combined (not double) BA program that is (if I understood it properly) a 4 year degree, which could, if he did a lot of HS AP courses/tested out of low level core courses, be done in three years (and we know Daniel has no life and his addiction to Caffiene started in college (don't we?)). He might have even gotten permission to double-major Anthro/L with Arch and done all of it in 4 years, but that would be a stretch even for him.

So I'm figuring Columbia --> UCLA --> UChicago/Oriental Institute over 13 years with the UCLA stopover being his Masters/one PhD and UChicago being the other PhD/working toward his third.

So, what do you think?

Re: Something I don't understand/an idea requesting commentary....

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

First of all, welcome to the discussion! :)

Okay, so let's see if we can sort through this.

You've made three statements here: that Daniel was is foster care in New York State, that he was granted emacipated minor status, and that he went to UCLA at 16.

I'll grant you the strong probability of the first one; his parents died in New York State, so it makes sense that he came under New York State laws for fostering. But there's no proof that he remained in New York State. We know that Nick wouldn't keep him, but we don't know where he was fostered. It might have been in New York State, yes. But it might also have been family friends - possibly even as directed by Nick, who knows? - who lived elsewhere. I'm not familiar enough with state laws to know if foster parents are required to remain within the boundaries of the state where the child was orphaned and came under the auspices of the state's foster care.

However, I would like to remind you that "going to UCLA at the age of 16," whether or not it was with emancipated minor status, is not series canon or even movie canon - it's apocryphal, from the novelization of the movie. (That same book contradicts the movie repeatedly.) So while we're welcome to use it as backstory, and many people do, it's not something that a fanfic writer really needs to hesitate before contradicting. Movie canon does confirm that he earned at least one degree in UCLA, but not which or when.

I quite like your idea of Columbia, because you clearly know what you're talking about (and I don't, heh) with regards to the degrees offered, and the bit about a scholarship for orphans raised in NYC is fascinating!) There's also the added detail that the book has Daniel teaching at Columbia. It doesn't contradict canon, so who cares it contradicts half of fanon? That's the beauty of the blank slate: we can fill in those blanks as we'd like. So I'd say that you've offered a very plausible scenario, and one that could fit quite nicely into a pre-series fic if someone wanted to use it.

Are you offering it up for adoption...? :)

Dr. Jordan + Chicago

[darkladyz.livejournal.com]

"Daniel's former archeology professor, Dr. David Jordan"

While the man is in Chicago at the time of his *death* - it is possible that he was also teaching somewhere else earlier in Daniel Jackson's educational arc. ( Good academics do get better job offers - and while moveing after tenure is rare it is not unheard of.) He could then have brought Sarah and Daniel in as TA's, or worked with them in summer session. (When ABD's tend to to a lot of research travel) A mentor - or a decent job offer - is a terrible thing to waste.

Re: Dr. Jordan + Chicago

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I'd have to go back and re-watch Chimera (oh, the humanity!), but I'm pretty sure Daniel specifies his dreams as being in Chicago.

If I'm wrong about that, than you're right: it's a conclusion, rather than canon, that Daniel studied with Jordan in Chicago. On the other hand, as you yourself point out "moving after tenure is rare." Daniel's backstory is confusing enough that I'll stick to Occam's Razor, I think. :)

Thanks for chiming in! I always enjoy fresh comments.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

I saw that screencap of the UCLA degree too when I finally transcribed the movie. And the reason you can't read a year or anything is because the props department just grabbed a blank diploma form and NEVER FILLED ANYTHING IN!

Wow, it's fun to go back and read this.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

The movie's been transcribed? Really?

And oooh, they didn't! Lazy, lazy props writers. Didn't they know obsessed fans would be agonizing about it later?!

(And hey, remember that discussion we had re who rigged the bomb? I discovered why I had the military in mind - the book has Jack specifically refer "bitterly" to "military intelligence." Apocryphal, of course, but interesting, I think.)