Sanctuary is Awesome! (and other unrelated thoughts)

[holdouttrout]

Guys, I REALLY like this show. Like, a lot. I like AT's accent, I like Will, I even kinda adore Ashley's annoyingness. That's leaving aside all the other awesome characters. I just watched "Requiem." What an interesting episode. I have to say that mermaids are totally on my list of "what are you doing in my sci-fi show?" mythical creatures, but Sanctuary has moved beyond my initial, "Okay, you're trying too hard" reaction to, "Oh, so...that's the point." Anyway, the parasite taking over the host is an old concept, but done here rather well. Plus, I love seeing Helen's less-superior side (That is, the anger and the frustration and the being brought to evilness by a microscopic bug). I admit there were some eye-roll-inducing moments, but I like the dynamic between these two characters enough to overlook them all. (And no, I don't ship them. I might, later, but for now I'm just enjoying the ride.) For a show that's barely out of its infancy, I feel it has a pretty good grasp on its story and characters. I'm even more excited for next year, because shows mostly always get better in year two.



I was thinking today about shipping, and about writing gen as a shipper first. Let's face it, I am a ship whore, and really only came to love Stargate through the lense of Sam/Jack first, then team. I wrote a gen story a while ago during which time I told annerbhp that I couldn't write Jack thinking about Sam except as "Carter," because as soon as he refers to her as "Sam," it's a signal to me that there's ship somewhere in the story.

After I thought about it a bit more, I realized that it wasn't because I thought a gen Jack could never refer to Sam by her first name, but because a ship Jack couldn't. In my mind, Sam and Jack both don't use first names in order to distance themselves, and so first names are an indication of either that control slipping, or because there's no need for it any more. In essence, I was cheating at writing gen. :-) On the other hand, I still think a canon Jack wouldn't call Carter 'Sam,' so I got to cheat and write a gen story, all at once.

Some of the most character-driven, affecting stories I have read have been gen, and I wonder sometimes if I'm capable of writing to that depth without bringing in romance. I know that's one reason I'd moved to OTN--I could explore the relationships between these characters by expressing them in a sexual context. It's what made me finally understand why people slash, in a limited het-driven sort of way (before I slashed Tony Stark and Han Solo in my mind, I mean. Because whew. That's just inexplicably HOT.). It's not just about the hotness, but about expressing something beautiful and extraordinary between two (or more) characters.

...and it's hot.

*grins*

To clarify, I don't think gen writers or romance writers have any claim to be objectively better than the other group. I think both groups are working to explore a text, and play with it, and create wonderful things out of it. They simply go about it in two very different ways.



TL;DR= I'm bad at gen but like it a lot.

Comments

[mayogate.livejournal.com]

You are right about no one group surpassing any other in terms of objectivity.
But there IS a great deal of smug to be gained from being canon - sorry, couldn't help myself:)
I think though, that mostly they do go about it in the same way - the fruits of the labour might look and feel different, but motivations and the processes involved are probably very alike.
Also, I agree about the canon Jack not calling her Sam thing too;-)
And. Sanctuary IS awesome. AT IS awesome too. That ep was especially awesome.
I have much glee today, can ya tell??
xx

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Glee is GOOD. :-)

But there IS a great deal of smug to be gained from being canon

Ooooh, yes. Probably a little annoying to the other side of the debate, but it's so, so nice.

[a-loquita.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, I like the new look of your layout!

Sanctuary really is picking up and I agree with you, it takes time. I like seeing the progress so far and I think it promises a lot for the future. And like you, I am so far reserving my judgment on any ships. I have a feeling I may end up a little bit of a multi-shipper for this show, we'll see.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's growing on me--I loved the colors from the first, but the layout's not quite my usual thing. We're adjusting.

I'm actually thinking I might end up close to gen with Sanctuary. Something about the characters' ages bugs me a bit...and the interactions so far aren't quite pinging my shipping radar. (Watch, next week I'll fall for Will/Henry or something.)

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

After I thought about it a bit more, I realized that it wasn't because I thought a gen Jack could never refer to Sam by her first name, but because a ship Jack couldn't.

Hah - I do just that. It struck me a while back that most (or all) of my gen stuff should maybe really be classified as ship-isn't-happening-right-at-this-moment.

It's my default to assume that it's there, even when unspoken or subconscious. Writing them in a headspace where ship could never, ever, ever happen isn't as easy as I thought. Ship is surprisingly fundamental to my view of the characters.

"OTN"?

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

OTN==One True (Insert Number Here). Usually I write it OTⁿ. :-)

Yeah...writing without any sort of ship bias is HARD.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Yeah...writing without any sort of ship bias is HARD.

I have no problem with it at all. ;-)

*yay trout and pepper gen fic* (welcome to the underground side of fandom...on the moon).

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

P.S. Irony? Age is one of the twigs of why I've never been a fan of Jack/Sam or Jack/Daniel.

But Helen/Will on Sanctuary...not a problem. I find it a bit intriguing, although I'm not sold either way. (Although Will/Ashley? No.)

(Hmm, if I *have* to look for ship, I find Teal'c easy to ship with Jack or Sam or Cameron or Vala much easier than the other pairings. Maybe after they pass the century mark the age difference doesn't bug me so much?)

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I was well aware of the irony when I wrote that statement, actually. Helen/Will is more of the "Let's see where it goes in three seasons and maybe it'll be okay then" rather than "ew, icky," and it also doesn't bother me nearly so much as Will/Ashley.

(I think these days I have a slightly different perspective on age differences in relationships. I wasn't bothered by them so much before...)

[mrspollifax.livejournal.com]

You know, you've articulated one of the things about Sanctuary that I'm really appreciating, which is that it doesn't feel as much like the actors and writers are casting about trying to find the characters as a first season usually would. Maybe because they had the webisodes first to sort of get a running start. And I'm *almost* starting to get past the knee-jerk "Hey, look, that's a Sam face!" reaction I have with Helen sometimes. Almost. =)

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I think it's partly the webisodes, too--they're able to go back and "fix" some things while keeping the character base intact. Or something.

I don't really see Sam that much in Helen. A few times I've seen a certain grin, but it's usually in a little different context, so I can deal with it. :-)

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

I have the exact same damn problem with Jack and Sam's name and I emphatically don't ship them.

[when I was writing Eroding - my first SG-1 fic - I went NUTS in the third, Jack-heavy section, because I wanted to say "Jack" but it was Sam's PoV and she doesn't call him that. NUTS. Wrote in thing about how it's "Jack" in her head and then said "hell with it" and edited out all the "Jack"s)

But I have a mild obsession with being consistent with what characters call each other.

It is interesting. I think my ship is different, when I write it, for having come from a gen background. Slashers who suddenly write het often have het that reads different than hetter's het, and so on.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Yes! Exactly. It's different het than hetters' het.

(And see, in my head, Sam calls Jack by his name in her head, except maybe in the early seasons, and it doesn't mean anything shippy at all. This may be partly a rationalization for writing "Jack" rather than "The Colonel" all over the place.)

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

(hee! I can have her call him Jack in her head for the first season or two but no more and even then, only barely)

(it's not shippy for me so much as....just what they use.)
(and it is REALLY annoying)

[phdelicious.livejournal.com]

hehe... In my mind canon Jack always calls Sam "Carter" (unless there's a shippy reason for him not to). It's a good compromise being both her name and a nickname.

I do think Sam calls him "Jack" in her mind though.

I can write gen for certain fandoms cause I don't always ship, but in the fandoms where I ship it always ends up being at least as subtextual as canon even if the story isn't focused around the ship.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I can definitely write gen--at least, stories where other people can read it as gen--but I have to think about it. :-) Makes fandom fun.