(no subject)

[ebonlock]

I finished up Dexter s. 2 yesterday and the end left me a little cold. They'd pushed Dex way out onto a ledge and instead of making him either jump or fly, they kind of cheated him back off it again. Usually the writers are better than that, so I was disappointed.

After that, and a lazy day wherein I picked up another sister's birthday gifts (being born into a family with birthdays all within a two month span of time right after Xmas is its own unique form of hell sometimes), ran a few other errands, and then curled up and did a lot of nothing except enjoying the rain from my nice dry, cozy couch. Did bake some "No Pudge" brownies, which turned out surprisingly well and made my entire apartment smell like chocolatey goodness. Then cyranocyrano popped by for our usual SG-1 night.

I apologized profusely before showing him "The Broca Divide", if you've seen it you know why. Aelf contends it's the worst ep of season 1, though I'm still an "Emancipation" hata' myself, at least TBD contains the one and only scifi plot point based on seasonal allergies, to the best of my knowledge. As an allergy sufferer myself I kind of enjoy that. We made it through 3 eps before calling it a night, and I commented to C- that re-watching the older eps is fun because I get to see again why all the rules and procedures most of us take for granted in the SG universe now came about in the first place. It's like SG-1 was an extended Alpha test and SGA has become the Beta test.

Comments

[moonlightnrain.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Emancipation is insulting to women, but has some genuinely funny lines. TBD has some really forced sexual attention from Jack to Sam and a plot that I can barely remember... tough call.

If forced to rewatch one of them... I'm leaning toward Emancipation, as crazy as its misogynistic tones make me.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

The Sam in a dress stuff just makes me want to hit a writer really hard. The boys having an "Oh hey, she's a girl!" moment likewise. I was amused by these earlier episodes in that Sam is all "We've got to do something!" and charging headlong into danger. I can't remember exactly when she exchanges that role with Daniel and he's the one charging off half cocked into danger, but it's gotta' be either soon or next season from what I can recall.

[moonlightnrain.livejournal.com]

I think Emancipation was the writer's answer to "we need to address the fact that the butchest human on our team is a woman" or something like that. And yeah, I think it's season two, but as I recall, I haven't seen all of season one yet. Someone convinced me to stop renting them from Netflix. ;)

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

So, being a man, I may be missing this. Was having an alien culture where women are opressed and then having the good guys Enlighten them the insulting and misogynistic part? Or were there parts I should have pointed out to me?

[moonlightnrain.livejournal.com]

In my opinion (I can't speak for Ellie), it was the fact that they put Sam in a dress and suddenly all the guys on the team started to treat her differently and make inappropriate comments. And the fact that, as I recall, none of the guys had any problem with the way they were treating their women until Sam was kidnapped. But you've seen the episode much more recently than I have, and maybe my memory hasn't retained the plot as well as I would like.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

No, I could see that. Thank you!
Yeah, I'm interested in seeing if there's a consistency to their 'we will impress our moral standards upon other races at *this* point' actions, or if it just sort of happens at each episode's plot need.

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

:: instead of making him either jump or fly, they kind of cheated him back off it again

That is the best way I have heard it put. After this, they really owe us something huge. I think it's about time that they have someone find him out. Like, not Doakes -- someone he CARES about.

[mister-sunshine.livejournal.com]

It's like the writer was watching 'I Love Lucy' re-runs and paying more attention to the TV when writing this episode. :)

Another thing that bothered me: that a modern soldier, in a knife fight, would be able to defeat a top fighter from a culture that solves its disputes by knife skill.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Dude they've been sitting on my shelf collecting dust for months, don't even start ;)

[moonlightnrain.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Oh, I'll start, but apparently I won't get to finish.... ;)

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I think the parts we're referring to are the not letting women talk and then making them stay veiled and so on, not the eventual enlightening aspect. It's just a really tired cliche plot, drop the team on misogyny world and let the female member show everybody that a) she looks good in a dress and b) can kick any guy's ass. It's been done to death and I find that more annoying than the team regressing to cavemen...but that's probably me.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

In my opinion (I can't speak for Ellie), it was the fact that they put Sam in a dress and suddenly all the guys on the team started to treat her differently and make inappropriate comments. And the fact that, as I recall, none of the guys had any problem with the way they were treating their women until Sam was kidnapped.

What she said too. The dress scene reminded me way too much of a lot of old films where the stodgy girl in glasses would take them off and let down her hair and suddenly all the guys would be like, "WOMAN!"

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

One of the things I've always kind of liked about SG is that they decided early on that ST's "Prime Directive" was just not a standard they were going to be able to hold themselves to. It was refreshingly honest of them, and some of my favorite moments tend to involve Daniel being torn between "We should do something" and "Well it's *their* culture and we should respect that".

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I'd really get a kick out of it if it were Deb, although I thought his scenarios of her possible reaction were right on the money. Still if he eased her into with, "Oh and the Ice Truck killer didn't commit suicide...uh, I kind of did that..." it might not end too badly.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Another thing that bothered me: that a modern soldier, in a knife fight, would be able to defeat a top fighter from a culture that solves its disputes by knife skill.

I can let that go in that a) he seriously underestimated Sam and b) she's been taught some moves that his culture hasn't even invented yet. Still it was a sad and tired plot that tends to make most women viewers groan and hide their faces in shame. I'm just glad they got all of this nonsense out of their systems in the first season.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was definitely a tired cliche.
But I also thought that the 'cavemen are violent and full of hate, cavewomen are agressive and full of lust' to be pretty sexist as well. As was the comment 'No, no, cavemen always have violent nonconsensual sex. That's just their way, don't interfere.' Especially the cavewoman in the pretty pink dress.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Oh no doubt about it, it was dumb in pretty painful ways too and cliche and misogynistic. And I do also want to kick the writer who had Daniel say that stupid, stupid line (again, suffice to say that Daniel stops acting this way fairly soon and you'll like him much more as time goes on). And I'm not even going to get into the whole histamine explanation for the parasite because it makes my head hurt.

But I will say that I love Dr. Janet and any episode she gets to shine in will tend to make me happy. And there were Minoans! And giant bulls! And yes I am enough of an art history geek to get off on that. As I said, I'd want to be assigned to SG-20, the art historical team that gets to go back with their one wise-cracking military liaison and ask people like this, "So hey, what's up with the bulls?"

[moonlightnrain.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God. I so want to write Mary Sue SG-20 fic for you right now just so I can use that line....

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Hell I'm tempted to write it. I did tell you I had an idea for a gay art historian character who worked as one of Daniel's underlings and occasionally got to go offworld right? This may be a story crying out to be told. Or maybe I'll just wait until Stargate Worlds comes out and create said character in the game. My team will go around attempting to figure out the true meaning behind the iconography of specific cultures throughout the cosmos and how it relates to our development on Earth.

And blowing shit up, of course.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

It's not just old films. Modern teen films are full of 'nerdy hot chick who gets a complete make over by taking off her glasses'.

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

I'd LOVE it if it were Deb. (That's actually the fanfic I'm writing right now, as a follow-up to the story I posted a few days ago.) I'm not sure she could take it, but yeah, if he eased her into it the right way, it might fly....

Even if someone like LaGuerta or Batista found out, it would be interesting -- because unlike Deb, they have more of a professional relationship with him, and there'd be a far greater chance they'd turn him in. Someone someone SOMEONE needs to find out. Seriously.

[moonlightnrain.livejournal.com]

And by underling you mean sex slave, yes??? ;)

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

You're right, and it should really stop, seriously, please make it stop.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

It's very frustrating, for someone who finds glasses really hot and lazy writing infuriating.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure it wouldn't break Angel (oh and the moment where Dex says if he could be human he'd want to be Angel was just too good), the guy's just too sweet. Unless...unless something happened to Angel's daughter and Dex got revenge on the sick fuck who did it in his own special way. That might allow him to be ok with it.

But I tend to think most folks would end up reacting like Harry did, while they would respect his work on an intellectual level the moment they really saw just what he was and what he did that would be too much.

BTW, can't wait to read your fic when I get home tonight! :)