ponderings on friends and friending memes

[tielan]

I put my name down on the SG1/SGA friending meme.

However, since my favourite SGA character is Teyla and my favourite SGA pairing is John/Teyla, I doubt I'm going to get any new friends out of it. The most-disliked character (or least-liked, anyway) and most-disliked pairing on SGA? Never let it be said that I in any way, shape, or form, run with the crowd! At any rate, I daresay that the other friending meme is going to be a bust for people like myself, who aren't McShep, Shweir, or Teynon (or whatever they're calling it).

I thought about running a friending meme for fans of Teyla: just for fans of Teyla. But I seem to be a bit of a black sheep in fandom these days. Hold the 'wrong' opinions. Say the 'wrong' things. Don't support the 'right' characters or the 'right' pairings in the 'right' ways. Hell, half my f-list avoids this LJ for one reason or another! Do I have any hope of getting total strangers involved in such an undertaking?

And even friends-of-friends would probably be a bust: the people I could count on to propagate this meme don't have large f-lists and aren't heavily involved in fandom. They might not even want to expand their f-lists.

Am I arguing myself out of doing this? Possibly. In fact, quite probably. But the fact is, a lot of Teyla's fans seem to have gone underground - and we who remain aren't exactly the cool kids. Now are we the uncool kids because we like Teyla, or is Teyla just liked by the uncool kids?

(No offence intended to any of my f-list reading this who are Teyla-fans. But you have to admit, we're not exactly a chatty, involved, super-popular bunch. Well, maybe you are! But I'm not.)

So what I'm basically asking is whether there's anyone reading this who'd pimp a Teyla-oriented friending meme, or knows of people who'd answer a Teyla-oriented friending meme run by me. (I think it's a valid question: there are at least three people I know of who are fans of Teyla but would rather slit their firstborn's throat than touch anything I'm involved in.)

It would be nice to expand the f-list with Teyla-fans (preferably productive ones) before the S4 spoilers start seeping out.

---

I was going to watch Heroes: Hiro tonight. But all I wanna do is sleep.

Comments

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I really do like Teyla. I just wish there was...more to her. Because at first I was realized she would just be Teal'c-as-a-girl and instead of making her something different, they haven't made her anything at all and I think that is desperately unfair. Atlantis seems to be stuck in this rut where only Rodney and John get to have character development and so, quite naturally, fandom has grown up around that. It's unfortunate, but I think it's also the nature of the beast.

In all honesty, how can someone who 'ships ANYONE on this show say that Teyla/John is about Teh Pretty? They're ALL pretty (well...except for maybe Rodney). And as for the boobage comment...clearly the lack imagination.

When I realized that my particular niches in the SGA fandom were never going to be full, I reached out. That's how I found you and how I read "Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose", both of which are well outside the reasons I got into SGA in the first place. I chose to focus on the people who could really write and ignore the 'shipping. And yes, if it's Sparky, I'll read it. But there are many cases where a non-Sparky story has been the better. Maybe if your section of fandom isn't filling in the way you would like it to you could try expanding into something else.

(It's hard to do tone in these posts...I am totally not trying to be all "Clearly, you need to grow up!", I am just trying to be helpful. Feel free to tell me to shut up.)

[tielan]

Well, my perception of Teyla is that everything about her is subtle. She's not an up-front, in-your-face, western-feminism kind of character. She's not known for snarky comments or big guns or having to make tough decisions or risky choices.

The thing is, she's done all that in the show at some stage or another - and done it well. But not so much that she has a niche in any particular. And people seem to get stuck on that. "Teyla doesn't do anything in the show!"

Well, sure she does! She manages the boys. She reins in Ronon. She teases Rodney and John deadpan. She reiterates the theme of "family is important" and challenges John in his own belief of the importance of family. She chooses the lives of 200 people over John's when given Caldwell's trust, and risks the fate of a dozen-plus people on her own ability to deceive a full-fledged Wraith. She limps through a forest with John going crazy, Ronon hunting them, so she can take a look at Rodney's work, and see in a glance that he was very close to shutting down the thing that's wrecking their perceptions on the planet.

I'll agree that none of her development has been 'up-front'. And that the fandom about her is going to be small. But to say that "she's not doing anything"? Is like saying that you don't need your computer motherboard because you can't see it doing anything.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Is like saying that you don't need your computer motherboard because you can't see it doing anything.

:D

God I love me some computer metaphers :D

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I should rephrase that.

We got a lot of character canon from Teyla in the first episode she appeared in. And it hasn't really changed or developed since then (contrast to Rodney, John and Ronon). So yes, she does things. That was never up for debate. But she does the same things over and over and I would like to see her develop a more three dimensional character. Yes, we know she has tradition and family and an understanding of the Wraith. We got that in "The Rising". We should get more.

[tielan]

I see what you're saying. Yes, we should get more background to Teyla. And indications are that, in Season Four, we will get more.

I guess I find people are willing to make excuses/reasons/background for characters like Zelenka and Lorne...whch leads me to ask: what's so different about Teyla?

[toasteronfire.livejournal.com]

I guess I find people are willing to make excuses/reasons/background for characters like Zelenka and Lorne...whch leads me to ask: what's so different about Teyla?

My guesses:

1)Secondary character vs. main character.

2)Zelenka and Lorne aren't getting in the way of any possible het ships...

3)She's a woman and women characters have always been subject to more scrutiny and fewer allowances than male characters by both Atlantis and SG1 fandoms.

[lacylaces.livejournal.com]

Aside from the episode where we saw into Ronon's past, has he really gotten that much more development than Teyla? I don't think he has.

But I also think that they could develop John more as well. It seems like so much screen time is focused on Rodney that all the other characters don't get as much development, outside of snarking/responding to McKay, that I think they need and deserve.

I absolutely believe that Teyla should be more developed. But I do believe that she has been shown to be a thoughtful, subtle, loyal and pragmatic person. It may be that I might have connected with her more than any other character on the show, beside John, and that's why I feel that way.