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It's rather interesting how polarizing this episode is for Teyla fans.
There seems to be largely two opinions held by the fandom on this episode:
My rundown of Spoils:
In military terms, John is quite within his rights to say that he won't have Teyla on his team. He's the commander, it's his decision. In personal terms, he was a bit of a bastard about it - which Teyla called him on in the mess hall scene. He ate his slice of humble pie, and then had to swallow when they discovered Teyla could fly the ship.
Military terms don't apply to Teyla since she's neither of the military, nor of the expedition. It may have been suggested or implied that she should inform the team of any change in her condition, but they can't force her to do so in any meaningful way without being really stupid about it. "If you don't tell us you're pregnant, we're going to sever contact with you and not help you find your people" has all the maturity of a five year-old throwing a temper tanty.
In personal terms, Teyla was well within her right and reason to keep quiet about her pregnancy. Given the status of her people and her need to find them, I think that she would balance up the need for John to know vs. her need to be out there, and make the call her way. I think Teyla was justified in wanting to keep going out on missions - in the 'jumper scene on their way to the hiveship, she more or less tells John that she can't stay cooped up or she'll go mad.
I understand that.
It did irk a little that the ending had a "John was sooooo right!" angle - one which certain portions of the fandom seemed to pick up and run with as "See? Teyla was WRONG WRONG WRONG to hide her pregnancy and want to be on the team!"
However, as a hardcore Teyla-fan where the secondary characters of interest are John and Ronon and only really if Teyla's there, too, I'm considerably more used to getting the bad as well as the good when it comes to Teyla; it's lowered my expectations of what TPTB will do with her. There is no episode in all of 80+ where Teyla's concerns are central to the plot, where her actions are central to the resolution, and her judgement is considered to be the right and correct way to go.
Considering that Spoils Of War got 2 out of 3, I'm cheering for all I'm worth.
In the end, I look at Teyla's decision to cease going out on dangerous missions like this: It was her decision.
At the point where they're on the balcony, it's Teyla who makes the choice to leave. Granted, John took her off the team at the start of the mission, but he brought her back on once it was seen she was needed. Would he have taken her off again? Maybe. Probably. But she has already decided she's not going to go back on missions for her son's sake. For her son's sake, not because John told her she couldn't. He might have made the call that ultimately prevailed, but Teyla chose it in the end.
Maybe it's sophistry; maybe I'm just not enough of a 'feminist' to be enraged about it. I understand the frustration at the implication that a pregnant woman needed to be told what she could and could not do by a man; I just think there are other angles at work here, and it's not the be-all and end-all of the way to interpret it.
Could TPTB do better? Yes. They could. But they haven't. C'est la vie.
There seems to be largely two opinions held by the fandom on this episode:
- It was an awesome episode for Teyla, where she overpowers a Wraith Queen and saves her team-mates, while still fighting and protecting her child.
- It was a dreadful episode for Teyla, where pregnant = helpless and needing to be told what a pregnant woman can/cannot do.
My rundown of Spoils:
In military terms, John is quite within his rights to say that he won't have Teyla on his team. He's the commander, it's his decision. In personal terms, he was a bit of a bastard about it - which Teyla called him on in the mess hall scene. He ate his slice of humble pie, and then had to swallow when they discovered Teyla could fly the ship.
Military terms don't apply to Teyla since she's neither of the military, nor of the expedition. It may have been suggested or implied that she should inform the team of any change in her condition, but they can't force her to do so in any meaningful way without being really stupid about it. "If you don't tell us you're pregnant, we're going to sever contact with you and not help you find your people" has all the maturity of a five year-old throwing a temper tanty.
In personal terms, Teyla was well within her right and reason to keep quiet about her pregnancy. Given the status of her people and her need to find them, I think that she would balance up the need for John to know vs. her need to be out there, and make the call her way. I think Teyla was justified in wanting to keep going out on missions - in the 'jumper scene on their way to the hiveship, she more or less tells John that she can't stay cooped up or she'll go mad.
I understand that.
It did irk a little that the ending had a "John was sooooo right!" angle - one which certain portions of the fandom seemed to pick up and run with as "See? Teyla was WRONG WRONG WRONG to hide her pregnancy and want to be on the team!"
However, as a hardcore Teyla-fan where the secondary characters of interest are John and Ronon and only really if Teyla's there, too, I'm considerably more used to getting the bad as well as the good when it comes to Teyla; it's lowered my expectations of what TPTB will do with her. There is no episode in all of 80+ where Teyla's concerns are central to the plot, where her actions are central to the resolution, and her judgement is considered to be the right and correct way to go.
Considering that Spoils Of War got 2 out of 3, I'm cheering for all I'm worth.
In the end, I look at Teyla's decision to cease going out on dangerous missions like this: It was her decision.
At the point where they're on the balcony, it's Teyla who makes the choice to leave. Granted, John took her off the team at the start of the mission, but he brought her back on once it was seen she was needed. Would he have taken her off again? Maybe. Probably. But she has already decided she's not going to go back on missions for her son's sake. For her son's sake, not because John told her she couldn't. He might have made the call that ultimately prevailed, but Teyla chose it in the end.
Maybe it's sophistry; maybe I'm just not enough of a 'feminist' to be enraged about it. I understand the frustration at the implication that a pregnant woman needed to be told what she could and could not do by a man; I just think there are other angles at work here, and it's not the be-all and end-all of the way to interpret it.
Could TPTB do better? Yes. They could. But they haven't. C'est la vie.
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I don't think that TPTB have utilized Teyla as much as they would have if... well, if you or I were on the staff ;) But I can't do anything about that, other than beg Joe for more, so I enjoy what we get. SoW made me happy in many different ways.
Atlantis - both the show and the city - gets to cherry-pick which regulations it follows and which it doesn't. Sam even kind of points that out in Midway. I think that John made the right decision, that he was a bastard about it, but how boring would it have been if everyone had had the same reason as Ronon? Plus in my happy land, he was a bastard because he was hurt and a little jealous and whatnot, so I didn't mind except that I wanted to hug Teyla. Besides, Teyla showed that she was still valuable to the team... and then came to the same conclusion, that going on like nothing had changed would be a mistake.
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Which a lot of fans (not you, mind) seem to miss: that both of them reacted in a way appropriate to their history, culture, and reading of the situation. The 'right/wrong' dichotomy isn't so clear-cut. What prevails is not necessarily 'right' - there isn't really a 'right/wrong' in this situation since that assumes an overarching moral standard, not two people from two vastly different cultures trying to come to a common ground on this matter.