SG-1 Meta: On Gen, Ship, and Slash (Jack)

[moonshayde]

I don't get to meta too often because I am either too exhausted and too busy, but I decided to babble today. I do wish I could participate in more meta I see on other people's LJs, but again I'm often too tired of busy with RL bad stuff to participate much. Or by the time I get on LJ, the discussion seems to be over. Anyway...



As most of you know, I'm gen for SG-1 (and SGA when I watch it) and prefer gen fic in the fandom. Gen doesn't mean the characters can't have strong or intense bonds. Gen isn't just emotionalless action. Gen isn't strictly canon. Gen explores the friendships and other kind of relationships between the characters in complex and rich ways.

However, that doesn't mean I don't like to explore ship or slash in fanfic. It gives me a challenge and I'm an idea person. If I get a workable idea, I'll explore it even if it's not normally something I would write. If I find a story that is interesting and convincing, I'll read it.

Some characters I can ship/slash more so than others. I've written a lot of ship with Sam, but it's not because she's the girl. It's more personality based. The same with characters like Daniel and even Cam or Teal'c.

The character I have the most trouble with is Jack. This is both for the show and in the fandom.

Emotionally, Jack is a very closed character. Sure, he jokes around and will do anything for people he allows into his inner circle. He's a great leader and isn't to be underestimated. But he isn't a very open guy. He has trouble vocalizing his feelings and would rather not go there. Now, in extreme cases that wall breaks down -- Jack holding Daniel in Need, Jack taking Kawalsky's hand in Enemy Within, Jack hugging/touching Teal'c in Lost City, Jack supporting Sam in Death Knell. Jack can express emotion, but it takes something to move him. While he's always been a hands on guy and likes tactile touch, that doesn't mean he's an extremely openly emotional guy.

This is why I have a hard time buying ship or slash with Jack. Jack would not be the one to take the first step when it comes to relationships, especially with people he works with and who he is friends with. There would have to be something intense to break that wall to get him to move. If not, it really falls on the other individual to push him in the right direction.

This is problematic in certain pairings. While Sam tries to explore this, since Jack doesn't budge it often makes her look bad. But she also is reserved and an emotional mess in many ways so I have difficulty seeing this pairing hooking up. In fanfic, it would take something serious for me to get them. Plus, I feel these two characters have a lot of respect for each other which further restrains Jack from action.

Jack and Janet I can't comment on because I've only ever really saw some spark early in the series. I haven't read Jack/Janet fanfic, but I would be curious on people's thoughts on this pairing.

Jack and other random women...I have an easier time with this, actually. Jack is a bit flirtatious and he obviously has no qualms becoming involved with women. It may be easier for me to see Jack/OC because it's not within the team and it's not really the focus of the show. On the show, these relationships are fleeting and don't usually take away from the team spirit. However, unless it was really really well done, I doubt I could read fanfic with Jack/OC as the main focus.

I also don't have much trouble with Jack/Sara. I'm not sure why. Again, it's non-team so I can get past the interteam friendship/coworker issues I have with Sam/Jack, Jack/Daniel, and Jack/Teal'c. (I don't see any basis for Jack/Jonas.) Plus, it's also a past relationship so the awkwardness of "falling in love" is over. I loved when past Jack/Sara was referenced on the show because it added another layer to Jack. Now, I do have a special interest in rekindled Jack/Sara but I'm picky. This pairing has a lot of baggage and it has to handled well.

Jack slash is even a harder sell. Let's say that Jack had some buried feelings for Daniel or Teal'c. For me, he's too much of a guy to even go there. That would be up to Daniel and Teal'c to open him, and I see both of them having similar denial or buried feelings issues. Plus, the military thing. This is probably because none of them have been portrayed as nothing but straight (as far as I can see.) Jack hasn't had enough interaction with Cam for me for me to comment, though I can't really see it. And I think there was too much indifference between Jack and Jonas.

So, for slash fic, it takes something special to convince me.

This isn't a slam on anyone's preferences. I'm just saying that it takes a lot of work and some expert handling for me to buy Jack breaking through that wall he has around himself. Some fic writers can do it and I applaud them. I've even tried myself - sometimes with success and sometimes not. And I don't just have interteam issues with Jack. I have that problem with everyone. I just can bypass the issue easier with other teammates.

Maybe if Jack was more open, I could ship him more easily. But then he wouldn't be Jack. I love him just the way he is :)

Comments

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

ITA that it's hard to picture Jack making a first move with people. Not just because he's closed, but also he's not sure he'd be good for them.

Which makes it all the more significant that he is frequently the one to make subtle moves when Daniel's withdrawing. I'd need to rewatch for examples, but the sense I always had was that Jack had such thick boundaries with everybody else, but when it came to Daniel - nope, he had Daniel's back whether Daniel wanted him to or not.

To me, Abyss has always been the episode where we see the Real Jack O'Neill - who he is with defenses stripped away. And in it, Daniel has Jack's back whether Jack wants him to or not.

And yet, I resist slashing them because in my thinking the friendship between them is deeper than any romance I can think of, and making it sexual just seems a distraction. That's just my thinking, though - I do enjoy slash that's well-written and features Daniel pushing it toward sex, rather than Jack.

That's why your post here resonated with me. I immediately thought of my reaction to J/D slash where Jack pushes for a sexual relationship - I just can't buy it. I can totally buy Jack being bi-sexual, but I still can't see him pushing a friendship with a man or woman to a sexual point.

[paian]

I resist slashing them because in my thinking the friendship between them is deeper than any romance I can think of, and making it sexual just seems a distraction -- That's exactly how I feel about the onscreen pairings on the show. I always respected the preference for Jack-Daniel friendship, the way I respect anyone's preferences whether they're the same as mine or not, but I have real empathy for the longing for the friendship not to be (and here's where I can never ever ever find the right word) trivialized? muddied? with romance. The show injected romance into relationships that I was invested in as friendships -- it violated some kind of Friendship OTP, for me. It's like 'Oh, they were really falling in love all this time, or they really just had the hots for each other all this time, and all that apparent friendship-bonding stuff was just courtship' -- as if the friendship in itself wasn't enough, wasn't strong enough or interesting enough or wasn't valid in some way. Or something. I have so much trouble articulating how this feels like a betrayal or a letdown to me, and it really only pertains to what's onscreen (fic's always a different story, for me), but ... I totally hear you about that. The same feeling keeps me from shipping other characters in fics, except as experiments and challenges for five-things prompts or the like. I resist, because the friendship is so much more important to me. I know that friendship can be an important element of or precursor to a sexual relationship, but TV just loves to turn strong bonds between women and men into romance, and that annoys me and disappoints me again and again. The Jack-and-Daniel friendship is an extraordinary and wonderful thing, and I so totally get the desire to keep it that way.

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

It's like 'Oh, they were really falling in love all this time, or they really just had the hots for each other all this time, and all that apparent friendship-bonding stuff was just courtship' -- as if the friendship in itself wasn't enough, wasn't strong enough or interesting enough or wasn't valid in some way.

Very well said. That's just how I felt the writers saw it - "Hey, these friendships don't have any sex in them! Can't we retcon this as a love affair that was always waiting to happen?"

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

See, I got the sense that Jack had a unique and very deep relationship with Daniel, but that he also was there for Sam and Teal'c when they started to withdraw in their own ways. Since Jack was the central character of the show (billing wise) he tended to be focus when it came to any of the team having an issue. Sometimes this wasn't the case because there was quite a few bits with Sam and Daniel, but he definitely was for the team in general.

I'll read anything if it's done well enough where I can believe it. I've just read so much fic where I cannot buy what is being presented to me that I'm a bit jaded.

But for me personally, I much prefer to see all the characters as having these depe friendships of love that transcend the physical/sexual component. Doesn't mean I can't play with it in fanfic, but it's a hard sell. The writer really has to be good.

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

As I see it, Jack's there for Sam and Teal'c. But when they tell him to back off (Morpheus, Ascension), he does. With Daniel, he doesn't back off when he's told. Might help if I could think of examples, but I'd have to rewatch the whole series because just absolutely nothing concrete is coming to mind.

But it's just my sense of it anyway - I don't expect others to see it the same way or anything. :)