"I think Sam's suffered a lot of character assassination for the benefit of the Sam/Jack plotline, which is sad because I really like her some of the time."
You know, I see this sentiment a lot and I can't really get behind it because if it has been "assassinating" her character it's been doing such from the get-go or not at all.
Case in point, in the S1 episode 'The First Commandment' Sam and Daniel discuss Sam's ex-fiance Jonas, who's currently under the delusion (or maybe, better said, under the impression there is no difference between the delusion and the reality so long as he can go through with what he says) that he is a God in the same vein of the Goa'uld. In this episode, the sixth one of the entire show, sam says a number of things that blatantly come back over and over again in relation to her romantic identity arc.
The exchange goes as follows:
DANIEL Well, what did you see in him?
CARTER (grimaces) I dunno. I guess I've always had a soft spot for the lunatic fringe. He was…He was charming.
DANIEL Well, that's good. Charming is good.
CARTER I don't know, I should be more surprised by this than I am, but I'm not. You know, he had this in him Daniel. Too many years of black ops.
DANIEL (looks over his shoulder at Jack) Well, that's typical of our government's evaluation of soldiers. The crazier they are, the more extreme the situation they seem to be put into.
This exchange, like Jack's exchange with Daniel at the end of S1 regarding (the first) Alternate!DoctorCarter and a number of exchanges Daniel has had but especially the S2 'Secrets' exchange with Teal'c as well as exchanges Teal'c has had with all three of them regarding women, establishes that Sam has a romantic type. She's attracted to the fringe, the sort that she feels should be able to heal but is destined not to be able to. This is reinforced with Narim (whom she first meets in a time of crisis and whom eventually betrays his planet -- and that's what it was -- for her) and Orlin, who's fringy all in his own right even by Ascended standards.
[As a side note, Jack's type is those he's pre-determined to be distant from. See: Sara, Laira, Sam. Teal'c's is strong, mission-based women, mirrors of his own drive whom he's *going* to butt heads with because of. See: Dra'yauc, Ishta, Shan -- I can't remember how to spell it. And Daniel's is, of course, the incredibly strong-willed women, usually in the form of Goa'uld but not always. See: Sha're before Amaunet, Ke'ra, the Goa'uld.
Interestingly enough Teal'c and Daniel essentially have the same taste in types of women though due to differing focuses of their personalities it plays out completely differently.]
To get back on track, Jack is, of course, Sam's biggest failure in that regards because for one he isn't nearly as damaged as he seems -- a lot of that damage was already fixed by Skaara and Daniel during the first Abydos mission -- and for another his own type -- that of required distance -- is counterproductive to her type.Perhaps a different woman would have given up that particular ghost long ago, long before Grace -- which was only a false surrender -- and long before Threads, as we know that she did eventually disentangle herself from the mess that was Jonas Hanson, but there's other factors keeping her there as well.
And she certainly isn't the only one of the four that refuses to give up their particular ghosts in regards to romance.
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You know, I see this sentiment a lot and I can't really get behind it because if it has been "assassinating" her character it's been doing such from the get-go or not at all.
Case in point, in the S1 episode 'The First Commandment' Sam and Daniel discuss Sam's ex-fiance Jonas, who's currently under the delusion (or maybe, better said, under the impression there is no difference between the delusion and the reality so long as he can go through with what he says) that he is a God in the same vein of the Goa'uld. In this episode, the sixth one of the entire show, sam says a number of things that blatantly come back over and over again in relation to her romantic identity arc.
The exchange goes as follows:
DANIEL
Well, what did you see in him?
CARTER
(grimaces) I dunno. I guess I've always had a soft spot for the lunatic fringe. He was…He was charming.
DANIEL
Well, that's good. Charming is good.
CARTER
I don't know, I should be more surprised by this than I am, but I'm not. You know, he had this in him Daniel. Too many years of black ops.
DANIEL
(looks over his shoulder at Jack) Well, that's typical of our government's evaluation of soldiers. The crazier they are, the more extreme the situation they seem to be put into.
This exchange, like Jack's exchange with Daniel at the end of S1 regarding (the first) Alternate!DoctorCarter and a number of exchanges Daniel has had but especially the S2 'Secrets' exchange with Teal'c as well as exchanges Teal'c has had with all three of them regarding women, establishes that Sam has a romantic type. She's attracted to the fringe, the sort that she feels should be able to heal but is destined not to be able to. This is reinforced with Narim (whom she first meets in a time of crisis and whom eventually betrays his planet -- and that's what it was -- for her) and Orlin, who's fringy all in his own right even by Ascended standards.
[As a side note, Jack's type is those he's pre-determined to be distant from. See: Sara, Laira, Sam. Teal'c's is strong, mission-based women, mirrors of his own drive whom he's *going* to butt heads with because of. See: Dra'yauc, Ishta, Shan -- I can't remember how to spell it. And Daniel's is, of course, the incredibly strong-willed women, usually in the form of Goa'uld but not always. See: Sha're before Amaunet, Ke'ra, the Goa'uld.
Interestingly enough Teal'c and Daniel essentially have the same taste in types of women though due to differing focuses of their personalities it plays out completely differently.]
To get back on track, Jack is, of course, Sam's biggest failure in that regards because for one he isn't nearly as damaged as he seems -- a lot of that damage was already fixed by Skaara and Daniel during the first Abydos mission -- and for another his own type -- that of required distance -- is counterproductive to her type.Perhaps a different woman would have given up that particular ghost long ago, long before Grace -- which was only a false surrender -- and long before Threads, as we know that she did eventually disentangle herself from the mess that was Jonas Hanson, but there's other factors keeping her there as well.
And she certainly isn't the only one of the four that refuses to give up their particular ghosts in regards to romance.
- Andrea.