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Finished up watching the first "episode" / mini-movie of Stargate SG-1 again.
Of course, I have a shipping agenda but beyond that I have to say that my favorite scene in the whole thing is when Jack takes Daniel back to his house and they're just talking.
There is something so... the world I was born into about Jack's house. Idk if it's 90s or not. You still see it around old mom and pop restaurants that haven't been really redecorated in years.
And the whole scene just feels so real.
Daniel's emotions throughout the episode are so real and raw when he's talking about Sha're and needing to get her back.
It also makes me wonder about Daniel's personality and character and stuff, because there are times when he is distracting himself or focused on a task at hand that those emotions don't seem to carry over much at all. For example, when they first arrive at the planet where Chulac is, he really wants to tell Jack what a particular symbol on the DHD represents, and it's pretty much the only thing he's thinking about rather than going on immediately to find Sha're.
I don't necessarily think this is character inconsistency. It feels a little disjointed, but I almost feel like that's part of Daniel?
I really want to make myself rewatch the original Stargate movie. I'm now extremely attached to the SG-1 performances of Jack and Daniel, but I am suddenly really invested in Sha're's original character performance. I remember reading a bit of meta about the original film years ago and how it was "Sha're's Revolution." I forget how they originally spelled her name. Sha'uri? or something?
I think they said they justified changing her name to something a bit easier to spell and roll off the tongue by saying it was some kind of unmarried versus unmarried naming convention. Sure, whatever.
It's strange when I look back at stuff from the "slash" era of fandom.
There has been a backlash in recent years against m/m-focused fandom in some areas. I'm pretty sure it's connected to radfem rhetoric, whether people realize that it is or not. It's sort of like there is this insidious undergrowth to fair points made in the tumblr-era of fandom that is actively harmful and genuinely hateful toward men/maleness/masculinity that is just... so not helpful. I will hate separatist rhetoric with a burning passion until the end.
But going back to the "fair point" bit.
I think that prior to mainstream media sometimes granting a sort of only-when-approved LGBT+ representation, the way in which people approached shipping same-gender couples together was quite different. I was on the SG-1 TVTropes fanfic rec page and noting this when I was reading a little bit. It's sort of like there was often (not always) little attention to gender itself and that sometimes this means that a character's internal voice will almost be transgressive to their outward/performed/canon gender in a way that I do not think is exactly conscious or intentional on the author's part. I'm not saying this is bad. It's just an interesting thing that exists.
Basically this pervasive attitude of a gender-blind kind of story-telling and reading of the relationship if not the sexuality involved.
I think this is kind of really common in a pre-mainstream-LGBT-rep world for several reasons.
It is true that a lot of this was fantasy and wish fulfillment on the part of at least het-socialized, AFAB people. In a world where this kind of thing did not have a lot of resources or public discussion yet, even online, this means you fold in the issues of things like AFAB people who are transmen expressing themselves, queer girls in general projecting their nascent experiences onto male characters, and, indeed, a naive sort of fetishization of m/m relationships on the part of het girls who had a lot of internalized misogyny and found a way around it through slash.
It's a really odd thing to see all of that still together in a blob in old but still accessible fandom and even within my own memories of being involved in the SG1 fandom a bit back about a decade ago.
At some point between then and now, largely around the time a lot of the tumblrites I followed where getting extremely disillusioned with their once-beloved BBC Sherlock in the gap between S1 and S2 of that show, there was a sudden push-back against the m/m centered world of fandom shipping. Fans were becoming more aware that sidelining all female characters for the sake of m/m ships was a vicious cycle.
The argument basically went that one reason homosocial, male relationships were "deeper" and "better written" in mainstream media is because that was what sold and that it basically hadn't changed since Ancient Greece when women were viewed as children/babymakers/property all in one and that a man's true loving relationships were to be with men while your wife was kind of like your pet.
And whew boy is there a Good Point (TM) but also a lot to unpack there.
And saying that, therefore, all people (especially women-aligned people) who ship m/m are some kind of gender traitors is beyond throwing out the baby with the bathwater, imo.
I do think there was something to be said, though, about the fact that people wrote off female characters as shallow, one dimensional, stereotyped, whatever, because of (internalized) misogyny and the fact that this did affect the "queer baiting" and overall treatment of female "love interest" characters in the days before companies started learning to follow the Trends on twitter or whatever.
I'm extremely happy that broader representation across the gender spectrum and sexuality spectrum is becoming more popular and accepted. On the other hand, until it involves the writers and the crew and everyone, it's always going to feel a little bit Writing By Committee and an aspect of corporate manipulation and cynicism.
And that is why I think that fan-writing for m/m or any queer/non-mainstream relationship (e.g. polyamory) has a heart to it that even out much easier to obtain "rep" lacks at times.
The point with regard to SG1 is that I have always been torn between my Jack/Daniel leanings and the fact that Daniel/Sha're is this weird but interesting example of something that lampshades its own issues in such a way that I find it heartfelt and real.
The fact that Sha're was a "gift" from her "primitive culture" to the White Savior that Daniel turned out to inadvertently become to these people is toned down by the fact that Sha're is clearly the driving force behind their relationship.
"Forever in a Day" is still one of the most haunting episodes I have ever seen on television because of what might have been, what could have been had, if Sha're had been allowed to remain a part of the show.
It seems like she was always meant to be the Fridged Girlfriend or Gwen Stacy trope, and yet one wonders what might have happened if personal matters behind the scenes hadn't gotten kind of weird.
But yeah, I really liked the fact that they sort of tried to acknowledge the White Savior trope and then tear it down a bit, though they still sort of treated Daniel and Sha're like their leaders. I mean, I guess Sha're is the daughter of their actual chief guy, right?
And Skaara is her brother? For some reason I believed this but they didn't actually mention it in this episode. Was that in the original movie, a show edition, or just a misapprehension on my part?
Of course, I have a shipping agenda but beyond that I have to say that my favorite scene in the whole thing is when Jack takes Daniel back to his house and they're just talking.
There is something so... the world I was born into about Jack's house. Idk if it's 90s or not. You still see it around old mom and pop restaurants that haven't been really redecorated in years.
And the whole scene just feels so real.
Daniel's emotions throughout the episode are so real and raw when he's talking about Sha're and needing to get her back.
It also makes me wonder about Daniel's personality and character and stuff, because there are times when he is distracting himself or focused on a task at hand that those emotions don't seem to carry over much at all. For example, when they first arrive at the planet where Chulac is, he really wants to tell Jack what a particular symbol on the DHD represents, and it's pretty much the only thing he's thinking about rather than going on immediately to find Sha're.
I don't necessarily think this is character inconsistency. It feels a little disjointed, but I almost feel like that's part of Daniel?
I really want to make myself rewatch the original Stargate movie. I'm now extremely attached to the SG-1 performances of Jack and Daniel, but I am suddenly really invested in Sha're's original character performance. I remember reading a bit of meta about the original film years ago and how it was "Sha're's Revolution." I forget how they originally spelled her name. Sha'uri? or something?
I think they said they justified changing her name to something a bit easier to spell and roll off the tongue by saying it was some kind of unmarried versus unmarried naming convention. Sure, whatever.
It's strange when I look back at stuff from the "slash" era of fandom.
There has been a backlash in recent years against m/m-focused fandom in some areas. I'm pretty sure it's connected to radfem rhetoric, whether people realize that it is or not. It's sort of like there is this insidious undergrowth to fair points made in the tumblr-era of fandom that is actively harmful and genuinely hateful toward men/maleness/masculinity that is just... so not helpful. I will hate separatist rhetoric with a burning passion until the end.
But going back to the "fair point" bit.
I think that prior to mainstream media sometimes granting a sort of only-when-approved LGBT+ representation, the way in which people approached shipping same-gender couples together was quite different. I was on the SG-1 TVTropes fanfic rec page and noting this when I was reading a little bit. It's sort of like there was often (not always) little attention to gender itself and that sometimes this means that a character's internal voice will almost be transgressive to their outward/performed/canon gender in a way that I do not think is exactly conscious or intentional on the author's part. I'm not saying this is bad. It's just an interesting thing that exists.
Basically this pervasive attitude of a gender-blind kind of story-telling and reading of the relationship if not the sexuality involved.
I think this is kind of really common in a pre-mainstream-LGBT-rep world for several reasons.
It is true that a lot of this was fantasy and wish fulfillment on the part of at least het-socialized, AFAB people. In a world where this kind of thing did not have a lot of resources or public discussion yet, even online, this means you fold in the issues of things like AFAB people who are transmen expressing themselves, queer girls in general projecting their nascent experiences onto male characters, and, indeed, a naive sort of fetishization of m/m relationships on the part of het girls who had a lot of internalized misogyny and found a way around it through slash.
It's a really odd thing to see all of that still together in a blob in old but still accessible fandom and even within my own memories of being involved in the SG1 fandom a bit back about a decade ago.
At some point between then and now, largely around the time a lot of the tumblrites I followed where getting extremely disillusioned with their once-beloved BBC Sherlock in the gap between S1 and S2 of that show, there was a sudden push-back against the m/m centered world of fandom shipping. Fans were becoming more aware that sidelining all female characters for the sake of m/m ships was a vicious cycle.
The argument basically went that one reason homosocial, male relationships were "deeper" and "better written" in mainstream media is because that was what sold and that it basically hadn't changed since Ancient Greece when women were viewed as children/babymakers/property all in one and that a man's true loving relationships were to be with men while your wife was kind of like your pet.
And whew boy is there a Good Point (TM) but also a lot to unpack there.
And saying that, therefore, all people (especially women-aligned people) who ship m/m are some kind of gender traitors is beyond throwing out the baby with the bathwater, imo.
I do think there was something to be said, though, about the fact that people wrote off female characters as shallow, one dimensional, stereotyped, whatever, because of (internalized) misogyny and the fact that this did affect the "queer baiting" and overall treatment of female "love interest" characters in the days before companies started learning to follow the Trends on twitter or whatever.
I'm extremely happy that broader representation across the gender spectrum and sexuality spectrum is becoming more popular and accepted. On the other hand, until it involves the writers and the crew and everyone, it's always going to feel a little bit Writing By Committee and an aspect of corporate manipulation and cynicism.
And that is why I think that fan-writing for m/m or any queer/non-mainstream relationship (e.g. polyamory) has a heart to it that even out much easier to obtain "rep" lacks at times.
The point with regard to SG1 is that I have always been torn between my Jack/Daniel leanings and the fact that Daniel/Sha're is this weird but interesting example of something that lampshades its own issues in such a way that I find it heartfelt and real.
The fact that Sha're was a "gift" from her "primitive culture" to the White Savior that Daniel turned out to inadvertently become to these people is toned down by the fact that Sha're is clearly the driving force behind their relationship.
"Forever in a Day" is still one of the most haunting episodes I have ever seen on television because of what might have been, what could have been had, if Sha're had been allowed to remain a part of the show.
It seems like she was always meant to be the Fridged Girlfriend or Gwen Stacy trope, and yet one wonders what might have happened if personal matters behind the scenes hadn't gotten kind of weird.
But yeah, I really liked the fact that they sort of tried to acknowledge the White Savior trope and then tear it down a bit, though they still sort of treated Daniel and Sha're like their leaders. I mean, I guess Sha're is the daughter of their actual chief guy, right?
And Skaara is her brother? For some reason I believed this but they didn't actually mention it in this episode. Was that in the original movie, a show edition, or just a misapprehension on my part?
