Various things (as the emails between me and my boss are always titled)

[bluflamingo]

1. I'm back (in case anyone noticed I was gone!) from 12 days volunteering at the Cheltenham Lit Fest, which was an amazing, if exhausting, experience (12 fourteen-hour days straight). Got to meet very many very cool people, and very many very famous authors (and had tea with Ruth Rendell, eee!).

2. Numb3rs 502 and 503:

502: Colby to David: You gave her our distress word?

Could they possibly be any more of an old married couple?!

503: Oh my God, Colby, did you recently sustain a terrible head injury?! What - what - just, what? With the girl (and what's up with stargate people showing up in all my other shows? First the Orici in this, then Michael in Criminal Minds...). Also, thanks so much for dropping a fully-formed angst-filled story in my head, in which David berates him for cheating on Lorne (who is, hello, offf risking his life, way to be a supportive partner) and refuses to lie to Lorne about it. At which point Colby is forced to confess and... yeah, much angst ensues.

3. Criminal Minds 403: So Emily was raped, right? That's where they were going with that? So how come the end was all about Reid? Grr. That said, Emily was so, so cool in that episode. I really wasn't sure about her at the beginning, but I totally love her now.

4. I have 2 fics to write before the end of this month (one for angopollyanna and one for _la_la_la) of which one will definitely be done and one... will be done shortly after. Sorry, _la_la_la - I was planning to write one while I was away, and, well, see 14-hour days, so I'm a bit behind. But it's in my head, swear.

5. Atlantis, last two episodes (forgotten what number they're on, sorry): Where are all the fics about (a) Rodney griping about John blowing up the gate room in his absence and (b) John being all angst-ridden about how Rodney keeps literally disappearing before his very eyes, a la all the fic with the reverse from season 1?

Also - could we *please* be done with (a) Carson randomly reappearing (why can't he go off and be dead, already?) and (b) the Jennifer-Ronon-Rodney love-triangle or whatever it is? I so so want it to turn out that Keller's "actually, I'm interested in someone else" means Teyla or Dusty or, hey, how about John? Who, sorry Rodney-fans, is far more attractive and pleasant that Rodney. I mean, since she can't be interested in Ronon, who really seems like an actual good match for her, if she must be paired off with *someone*.

OK, I'm done now

Comments

[bruinsfan.livejournal.com]

It seems like some people in the fandom assume that Rodney's personality is the result of being mistreated and misunderstood when he was younger, and anyone who doesn't immediately understand that and look past the rough exterior is being irredeemably shallow because really, underneath it all, he has a heart of gold and it only takes the right person to bring it out.

Oh, I think you've hit the nail on the head for at least a big part of the reason behind Rodney's popularity. The fans can imagine that they're the special person who can see past the surface to find (and bring out) the good, noble person underneath all the asshole-ish behavior and redeem their woobie. You usually see the effect applied to a character who's a dashing and cool bad boy (think Danny Zuko, or the character James Marsters plays in every. single. role) rather than a geeky type, but the same personality earmarks are there. I sometimes wonder if these fans spend go to sleep at night listening to The Crystals sing "He's a Rebel."

[bluflamingo.livejournal.com]

The fans can imagine that they're the special person who can see past the surface to find (and bring out) the good, noble person underneath all the asshole-ish behavior and redeem their woobie.

See, but here's what I don't get about those people (beyond the obvious): Rodney *is* a good guy, already. He saves people's lives, he doesn't complain about not getting thanked (I mean, no-one gets thanked, or complains about it, but fans seem to have a total thing for how no-one ever thanks *Rodney* for saving them, while not caring that none of the others get thanked either); when he's dying, he figures out *by himself* what he should do for his friends, and gets it right. He goes looking for John when John's dad dies, he's trying to be a better friend to Carson because he thinks he needs to be... I don't even like him all that much, and I can pick out plenty of ways in which he's already a nice person, alongside the snapping and the insults. There's no *need* to write him as having a secret heart of gold, we already see that he's a nice, good person.

I think maybe I just don't get Rodney-adoration, the same way I don't get people who hate Mitchell or Keller, or the one's who think Ford and/or Lorne are boring.

[bruinsfan.livejournal.com]

I think maybe I just don't get Rodney-adoration, the same way I don't get people who hate Mitchell or Keller, or the one's who think Ford and/or Lorne are boring.

I'll raise my hand and admit that I at least occasionally can't stand Mitchell, despite liking Ben Browder more than all the other Stargate actors combined. I blame inconsistent characterization, some of which involves him acting like a smug, overly entitled fratboy jackass. But he does have his moments, most of them involving Sam.