Stargate (SG-1) -- Daniel in four and five

[butterfly]

I think I have a handle on the Daniel arcs of seasons four and five. Four is about Daniel being distanced from the team -- he's feeling left-out, whether or not that is anyone else's intention (and I don't think that it is anyone's intention). So, he concentrates more fully on finding a peaceful 'Daniel' solution to any given problem. He's okay, because he's right. He has the moral high-ground. He's the good guy.

This arc peaks in Absolute Power, where Daniel sees one way that that path can lead. In the season five episodes that I've seen, there's an edge of desperation to his actions that I just don't sense in season four. He's losing confidence in his ability to make anything better. As the season wears on, his sense that he knows anything about the way to do things fades more and more and he compensates by throwing himself headfirst into finding a way to prove that he is right, is valid.

This peaks in Menace. Whether or not he was right, he couldn't fix things. He couldn't make things right. And he doesn't see how to change that. Everything that he's touching is breaking, possibly because he's holding onto things so very tightly. He's forgotten that you have to hold sand loosely and that clenching your fist only causes it to slip through your fingers.

In Meridian, he sees a way out, a way to truly make a difference on a level that he thinks he isn't capable of on this plane. Of being able to be in the right.

Then, of course, he finds that he still has rules and restrictions. He tries to abide, to not interfere. To follow Oma's teachings. Ultimately, he does choose to go against those rules.

But I haven't seen that part of his story yet.

In other news, my mom recently gave me the book Eats, Shoots and Leaves, which is further proof that she knows me well, as it's a punctuation book and I have an abiding interest in the English language.

Comments

[ngaio]

Eats Shoots and Leaves is *great*, my parents bought it for me and I'm reading it in my tea breaks at work. I do have an impulse to write to her though, as she says (of an Amazon review) 'there are no editors on the internet' and now I want to write and explain beta readers to her!

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I felt that urge, too. Beta readers are wonderful (and I'm certainly not saying that because I am one... well, not entirely).

Love the book. Plus, it's all British-y and I'm the sort of American who wishes, for example, that the Harry Potter books hadn't been 'translated for American audiences' (yes, just take away a chance for children to learn about another culture).

[ngaio]

Aren't they? (and ditto!)

How did they translate the HP books? I mean, they're so quintisentially (sp?) British. Damn, now I'm going to have to get my hands on a US version just to compare the two!

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Just... vocabulary, mostly. The Big Example is the title of the first book, wherein it was decided that Americans were too stupid to figure the 'philosopher' connection (bitter, me? nah).

[ngaio]

Eewww! I wonder who did the 'translation', patronising Brits, or the home team? They don't translate American books for Brits (for some reason all I can think of is the Sweet Valley High series) so why the other way round? Grrrrr!

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I've never been entirely sure. The books are marketed by Scholastic over here, I believe, which is big on kid-accessible stuff.

I don't get it, myself. You ruin the author's flow when you do things like that.

[ngaio]

Weird. JK Rowling used those words because they were the right words for the story she wanted to tell.

(I hate Readers Digest for roughly the same reasons)