(no subject)

[butterfly]

I read the SGA story that's being recced up and down (freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose), and it really made me realize how secondary my SGA love is to my SG-1 love. I couldn't buy that the SGC would go, well, asshole. I couldn't believe that Sam and Daniel and Jack (and Landry and Hammond and Mitchell) would ever let that happen. Because of that, I was jolted out of the story and was never able to re-enter it fully, reading it from a distance instead. Also, I wondered why the story mentioned Landry and yet didn't mention the Orii, leaving me at a bit of a loss as to where it departed from canon in the SG-1 universe. As these things apparently bothered no one else, perhaps it's just a 'me' thing.

The story itself is, as the recs imply, quite well-written and it delves quite deeply into Rodney's character. It's a good story. But it's not for me (just as Farscape was a very good television show, but just wasn't for me).

This is not the first time this type of story has failed to appeal to me (I have never finished reading The End of the Road, a due South story where RayK and Fraser's relationship fails to work out, but RayK stays up north and I believe ends up falling in love with Canada itself. (ETA: No, apparently the one where he stays up north is a different story that depresses me, as he does end up leaving in this one.)). Even thinking about it makes me kinda want to throw things. And certainly not because it's a bad story.

It's not even the type of story itself -- I read angst and the getting over of angst. I'm not opposed on principle to relationships not working out or John getting himself killed and Atlantis being abandoned. I've read and enjoyed stories about... well, actually, not that last one, as it's pretty specific, but about that kind of thing.

I think it's because when I read fanfiction, I like the vibe of the story to match the vibe of the show. That's part of why cesperanza's due South stuff works so well for me -- it's got the same sweet, slightly off-kilter vibe that the show has. When I'm reading fanfiction, I'm looking for more of what I love about the show, and that differs depending on the show.

Road and Freedom seem to inhabit slightly... less magical (more real?) realities than the shows themselves. And since a large part of why I love those shows is the sparkle and zing, I miss the gloss when it's stripped away.

Comments

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

I read the story and had a similar problem. I actually hadn't intended to read the story, since the warnings I'd seen had put me off. However, everyone was talking about it so much I ended up reading it anyway. It's very well-written, but I just didn't like it. Part of it is that, unlike you, I generally don't enjoy stories in which things didn't work out or someone died, but I have enjoyed others (frequently against my will) in the past. (I also never finished The End of the Road.)

But you know, I have to believe that if that sort of thing were going on with regards to Atlantis, that SG-1 wouldn't stand for it to happen. I actually have read more SGA fanfic than SG-1 and am more in the fandom for SGA than SG-1. However, I've been watching SG-1 since the beginning, and for all the SGA fanfic I've read, I still feel like I "know" the SG-1 people better. I spent the whole story kind of sitting back, not fully engaged, trying to figure out how all that had happened, and of course there was never any full - or even oblique - explanation. It just didn't seem consistent with what we know of SG-1. Of course, part of the problem with SGA fanfic writers referencing SG-1 is that sometimes means they haven't got the background in SG-1 to really know the characters, although I don't know that's the case here.

I think it's because when I read fanfiction, I like the vibe of the story to match the vibe of the show.

Yes, exactly. Even with AUs, the stories I prefer are the ones that still feel the same, even if they're set in some completely different place and time. If it doesn't feel right, the story usually doesn't draw me in and I'm left sitting there thinking, "Huh. That didn't work."

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Okay, I have to ask, what is it that SG1 did that put you off, because I read their visits as, just that. Them attempting to get back a supremely qualified guy and the fact that they didn't try any harder said something. The Rodney that was painted there probably wouldn't have taken an offer of "Can we help, no strings attached, we feel bad" even if I thought the SGC in the fic really understood the depth of the wounds Rodney carried around.

The Bad Thing that happened wasn't anything they could or couldn't have prevented but a theoretical natural course of events on Atlantis. At least, that's how I read it. Though I am with you on the lack of background itself. The place that Rodney ends up needed more grounding. I can see him getting there, and while I'm a huge proponant of subtle, this fic needed a few more seedlings to plany in my brain about the intervening years between our end knowledge of canon and where this fic starts.

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

SG-1 & the SGC almost certainly didn't have anything at all to do with the main Bad Thing (i.e., whatever got John killed), you're right. But if I was following the story right, it seemed as though there was this bureaucratic brouhaha that lead to other big problems on Atlantis (leading to Rodney telling Atlantis not to respond anymore). Knowing SG-1 and Generals O'Neill and Hammond, even if they did nothing to cause the problems, I have trouble with the notion that they did nothing to try to help stop whatever it was. I think mainly it's a matter in the story of distance from SG-1 and the SGC, and not really feeling like the story is actually set in the same universe with SG-1. It just didn't feel right to me. Rodney felt right to me, but the background situation felt less so, if that makes sense.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Right, yes. I know SG-1 and they would not let that happen to the program. We've seen them fight exactly that kind of change in Chain Reaction and, really, most of the episodes with Kinsey.

Even with AUs, the stories I prefer are the ones that still feel the same, even if they're set in some completely different place and time. If it doesn't feel right, the story usually doesn't draw me in and I'm left sitting there thinking, "Huh. That didn't work."

Just so, yes.

[millefiori.livejournal.com]

Road and Freedom seem to inhabit slightly... less magical (more real?) realities than the shows themselves.

I agree with this. I never read Road, but I did read and enjoy Freedom (ironically, it was cesperanza's rec of Freedom that convinced me to try it, since I knew her position on Road in particular and happy endings in general).

I should say that I don't watch SG-1, so I can't speak to that characterization, but I did experience this story as very realistic (far more realistic than I usually like my fanfic/entertainment to be, actually), and from that perspective I can understand and believe a good program losing good people, being overtaken by bad people, and fundamentally changing--I've seen it happen in real life. :-/

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I should say that I don't watch SG-1, so I can't speak to that characterization, but I did experience this story as very realistic (far more realistic than I usually like my fanfic/entertainment to be, actually), and from that perspective I can understand and believe a good program losing good people, being overtaken by bad people, and fundamentally changing--I've seen it happen in real life. :-/

Right -- if you don't know just how determined and damned stubborn the flagship team of the SGC is, it's easy to see how that kind of thing could happen. But they've fought against changes like that in episodes of SG-1, so I kept wondering how they could fail this time (SG-1 has a long history of pulling brilliant solutions out of their asses in times of crisis). Any normal operation, I could buy it happening. But not the SGC, not while so much as one member of SG-1 is still working for them (and we find out that Sam is not only still working there, but has been promoted all the way through Colonel and up to General, in only five years).

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

Also, I wondered why the story mentioned Landry and yet didn't mention the Orii, leaving me at a bit of a loss as to where it departed from canon in the SG-1 universe. As these things apparently bothered no one else, perhaps it's just a 'me' thing.

No, not just you. The thing with the SGC I chalked up to personal attachment, a kind of grumpy "hey, My Team is the good guys, dammit!" but the thing with the Ori not appearing and the Goa'uld getting several mentions I suspect may be unfamiliarity with SG-1 canon, since it wasn't signposted as an AU. I dunno. Anyway, I was willing to work with it, since it was part of the setup, but I did find it a little discomfiting.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Okay, that one I do agree with.

Pet peeve #4422: SGA writers feel understanding SG1 is a waste of time.

The above statement is cruel and a huge generalization but when I read a fic where the person uses a setup that's been used before (quantum mirror) but not all the rules (48 hours) it starts to annoy me.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

It does seem that many of them feel that way. And... well, as SGA often operates on the assumption that its viewers have seen SG-1 (see: Critical Mass), it's probably not the best way to go, if you want to be canon-compliant.

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

I mean, I can sympathize--there's a lot of canon to deal with. But it does tend to throw me out of stories.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

The thing with the SGC I chalked up to personal attachment, a kind of grumpy "hey, My Team is the good guys, dammit!"

Hee, yes, exactly.

the thing with the Ori not appearing and the Goa'uld getting several mentions I suspect may be unfamiliarity with SG-1 canon, since it wasn't signposted as an AU. I dunno. Anyway, I was willing to work with it, since it was part of the setup, but I did find it a little discomfiting.

Right. It felt a bit like the author had picked all of their SG-1 info from fannish osmosis.

I tried to work with it, but just couldn't. As my roommate will attest to, as she was the one who had to listen to me ask aloud, "If the Goa'uld are back, where's Jack (because, to me, the Goa'uld equal Jack's story in a lot of ways)? What happened to the Ori? Where does this story depart from canon?"

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I have never finished reading The End of the Road, a due South story where RayK and Fraser's relationship fails to work out, but RayK stays up north and I believe ends up falling in love with Canada itself.

I've read Road and found it beautiful and difficult and extremely emotionally wrenching because, as it warns, things do not work out for the guys. I can tell you, absolutely, that what you think happens at the end? Does in fact not happen. Geography is one of the great dividers - kinda like you fall for someone so completely different from yourself and in the end while you do love that person - it just isn't enough.

In the end - this isn't my favorite interpretation of F/K either - I like to think the surface differences are only superficial - but it was an amazingly effective story regardless.

And crap I wasn't logged in when I first tried to post that.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I was sure it was that one, because I remember reading the warning, reading the beginning and then skipping to end, but I see now that it's not the end that I remember. Which leaves me with the question of which story it was that I was thinking of, where Ray falls in love with Canada but it doesn't work out with Fraser.

Anyway, I do competely agree about how Fraser and RayK are only really different on the surface, on where it shows, and even in the series, we get to see how they are a lot more alike, under the skin, than Fraser and RayV were.