SG-1 is off-world and Sam sees something that reminds her of Pete -- okay. Daniel hopes for a sign that Sha're might be on this planet -- okay. Teal'c encounters someone that knew Ishta -- okay. But the moment the focus shifts from a team adventure or a character adventure, or whatever and concentrates on the ship, it stops being gen.
Sam/Jack -- in the fandom -- does not fall into this category. Why? Because there is a debate on its state in canon. This is in part due to TPTB playing it coyly and because of the issue with the regs they've been dancing around. Me, personally, I can't speak for all gen people. But I acknolwedge that as of S4 they expressed some feelings towards each other. I saw that drop off as they put their jobs first. I saw Sam move on and Jack move on. I saw Sam have doubts with Pete for reasons I don't think solely rely on Jack. But I haven't seen any other hint of feelings from Jack in years. I see scenes like Death Knell and Threads and Heroes and I see Jack caring for someone he loves. I can easily see him caring like that for Teal'c and Daniel. Not in the exact same way as man/man dynamic is different than man/woman.
But that is my interpretation. It doesn't mean that I'm right. But because Sam/Jack is not as definitive as say Sam/Pete, it falls into the grey area for people who don't ship them or view the events in the same way. I don't think either one of us is wrong in how we read these scenes. But for the purposes of the fandom, that lack of clarification makes them a grey area. It goes the same for Daniel/Vala or Daniel/Janet, the last of which had the actors playing ship on purpose.
2. I dislike the term anti-Sam/Jack.
I think this is dangerous. Many people like Sam and Jack, just not in the same way. It comes across so negative sounding. As a person who likes all of the characters and their unique relationships with each other, when I hear the term anto-Sam/Jack I feel like I'm being lumped into a category of people who think a certain way. And I hate labels ;)
3. "Forced" canon. When I describe forced, I am talking about from a writing point of view. This has nothing to do with subtly or subtext. And this has nothing to do with whose ship is more valid or better, which you unintentionally seemed in imply with the Sam/Daniel remark.
I come from a school of thought where I believe you just let the characters be who they are and things will fall into place. When the writers' create scenarios to try to jack up the drama, it can come off really poorly. The more the writers concentrate on these characters' love lives, the further we get away from the main premise of the show. I find many of these situations forced. I think it hurts the characters.
Why introduce Kerry? Why introduce Pete? It was a way to create more drama for Jack and Sam and I didn't think that was a good move. I liked Pete, don't get me wrong, and I don't mind the characters *having" lives. I'm very much a romantic at heart. But I don't tune into a show like this to watch the characters go on dates and stuff. I felt that time could have been spent in showing us Sam and Jack doing something else. Instead, I found all this orchestrated angst. If they wanted Sam and Jack to angst over each other, I think they could have found an idea that fit better into the overall plot. It just sort of was an aside.
I don't want Sam to be just the girl. :(
So...that's where I'm coming from. I know you probaly won't agree and I wasn't arguing with you, it's just a couple of things you said made me sad.
no subject
SG-1 is off-world and Sam sees something that reminds her of Pete -- okay. Daniel hopes for a sign that Sha're might be on this planet -- okay. Teal'c encounters someone that knew Ishta -- okay. But the moment the focus shifts from a team adventure or a character adventure, or whatever and concentrates on the ship, it stops being gen.
Sam/Jack -- in the fandom -- does not fall into this category. Why? Because there is a debate on its state in canon. This is in part due to TPTB playing it coyly and because of the issue with the regs they've been dancing around. Me, personally, I can't speak for all gen people. But I acknolwedge that as of S4 they expressed some feelings towards each other. I saw that drop off as they put their jobs first. I saw Sam move on and Jack move on. I saw Sam have doubts with Pete for reasons I don't think solely rely on Jack. But I haven't seen any other hint of feelings from Jack in years. I see scenes like Death Knell and Threads and Heroes and I see Jack caring for someone he loves. I can easily see him caring like that for Teal'c and Daniel. Not in the exact same way as man/man dynamic is different than man/woman.
But that is my interpretation. It doesn't mean that I'm right. But because Sam/Jack is not as definitive as say Sam/Pete, it falls into the grey area for people who don't ship them or view the events in the same way. I don't think either one of us is wrong in how we read these scenes. But for the purposes of the fandom, that lack of clarification makes them a grey area. It goes the same for Daniel/Vala or Daniel/Janet, the last of which had the actors playing ship on purpose.
2. I dislike the term anti-Sam/Jack.
I think this is dangerous. Many people like Sam and Jack, just not in the same way. It comes across so negative sounding. As a person who likes all of the characters and their unique relationships with each other, when I hear the term anto-Sam/Jack I feel like I'm being lumped into a category of people who think a certain way. And I hate labels ;)
3. "Forced" canon. When I describe forced, I am talking about from a writing point of view. This has nothing to do with subtly or subtext. And this has nothing to do with whose ship is more valid or better, which you unintentionally seemed in imply with the Sam/Daniel remark.
I come from a school of thought where I believe you just let the characters be who they are and things will fall into place. When the writers' create scenarios to try to jack up the drama, it can come off really poorly. The more the writers concentrate on these characters' love lives, the further we get away from the main premise of the show. I find many of these situations forced. I think it hurts the characters.
Why introduce Kerry? Why introduce Pete? It was a way to create more drama for Jack and Sam and I didn't think that was a good move. I liked Pete, don't get me wrong, and I don't mind the characters *having" lives. I'm very much a romantic at heart. But I don't tune into a show like this to watch the characters go on dates and stuff. I felt that time could have been spent in showing us Sam and Jack doing something else. Instead, I found all this orchestrated angst. If they wanted Sam and Jack to angst over each other, I think they could have found an idea that fit better into the overall plot. It just sort of was an aside.
I don't want Sam to be just the girl. :(
So...that's where I'm coming from. I know you probaly won't agree and I wasn't arguing with you, it's just a couple of things you said made me sad.