SGA: The Prodigal

[tielan]

Wow. The show really has tanked during the season. *grimace*

Honestly? This episode had OMG! WOMEN SHOULD LOOK AFTER THE KIDS AND MIND THE HOUSE written all over it to me. Maybe it's just me and my feminazi views but...

The fact that Teyla doesn't actually do anything until right up at the end of the episode is classic example #1 of WOMEN ARE USELESS IN ATLANTIS, and Amelia Whatshername who does kickboxing is classic example #2. Women can kick ass, but should be left behind to mind the children and keep the house while the men solve all the problems of the city. AMIRITE?

Other than that...

Was it just me, or did Michael seem...OOC? Technically, it's not possible for a character in canon to be OOC and I've written Michael with a need for Teyla's approval - albeit tied in more with his Wraithness and the Wraith social structure of following a Queen, but...I don't know. There was something "wrong" about his portrayal. I can't quite put my finger on it. And...well, the fight-above-Atlantis scene was lovely and dramatic, but...somehow lacking. Truthfully, I'd have preferred to see Michael on the verge of winning everything: destroying Atlantis, taking Teyla's son, winning Teyla over to his side...and then having it all crumble in a split-second as the net closes around him. Success is in his grasp! Only...not. And his castles come crashing down.

If this was a fanfic, it would have been written by someone whose definition of 'team' means John and Rodney friendship, who doesn't know what to do with either Teyla or Ronon, and who believes that women are permitted a moment of awesomeness, but certainly not anything more than that. I could name names, but fandom would lynch me.

If this had been my fanfic, I'd have:
1. had Teyla stash her son in the access hatch, take out the hybrid who was coming after her in a kick-ass fight, take his weapon, and sneak back out and fight, while still carrying her son,
2. had Amelia go out with Ronon and the two guys, and help take on the control room before getting knocked out,
3. had John and Rodney show just a little more concern for Teyla, her son, and her sleepless nights,
4. ...written it with a Ronon/Amelia angle.

Did anyone else see the Ronon/Amelia thing? (Is her name Amelia? That's what I thought Teyla said.)

Overall, it wasn't a bad episode. But it could have been so much better.

Thoughts on The Fall Of Stargate Atlantis here.

Comments

[tielan]

Well, I enjoyed the episode more than some. A lot can be forgiven when Teyla gets to be awesome, however briefly.

But the underlying assumptions of gender behaviour and how they're played out disturbed me a lot in this episode.

One of my problems with Stargate canon and fanon is that, as a general rule, while the men are allowed to try things that would never work in RL and are lauded for it - in the show and by the fans, the women are only permitted to do that which would logically work in RL.

When they do do the fantastic, the unbelievable, or the slightly-exaggerated, there are a dozen fans screeching about OMG!SuperSam! or Too Much Teyla.

It's a blatant double standard, but most fans never bat an eyelash at it.

So, yes, I would have taken the "unrealistic" action and had Teyla take a risk and stash her son (who, until then had been utterly silent, and according to her comment at the end of the episode slept through the entire takeover), then go out and fight the hybrid, and succeed.

I think that people put too much emphasis on motherhood being all about the well-being of the child. We have a rosy view of self-sacrificing mothers, who will do anything for their children - and many of them will do anything for their child.

But I know that most of them will also do something for themselves, and I see Teyla as not only a mother but a person in and of her own right, and that she would protect her son, but she would also take the opportunity to kick some hybrid ass.

[bittybye2000.livejournal.com]

One of my problems with Stargate canon and fanon is that, as a general rule, while the men are allowed to try things that would never work in RL and are lauded for it - in the show and by the fans, the women are only permitted to do that which would logically work in RL.

It's not just in Stargate. It's in every Sci-fi show I've ever seen.

Doctor Who: The Doctor takes charge of a situation it's nothing, he's the Doctor. The Doctor solves a problem, it's noting, he's the Doctor. The Doctor saves the day, it's nothing he's the Doctor. But if Rose/Martha/Donna take charge/solve the problem/save the day OMG SHE'S A SUE!!!11! I find that Rose and Donna are especially picked on.

Star Trek was the same. Voyager was especially bad because of Captain Janeway then later 7 of 9. People complained that Seven was too perfect. Uh-huh, a former Borg. I think the problems was she filled out that skintight uniform and was smarter than anyone else. I mean; everyone knows; if your pretty and have breasts your stupid.

The only Sci-Fi show that I can think of that's not like that is Buffy. But then Buffy had it's own set of problems. Joss seemed to think Strong woman= Emotional torment. Like you can't be a strong woman who kicks ass without being emotionally tortured every other episode.

[tielan]

Oh, it's definitely a societal bias - particularly among the writers of TV shows (men) - but (like all forms of systemic discrimination) it's always a little disturbing to realise how many women internalise it, too.

[chyti.livejournal.com]

I understand what you are saying I was screaming for Teyla to put down that child and kick some butt and I know that if it had been one of the guys they would have stashed the baby somewhere.

Yes I think motherhood is only part of the person,but the strongest part and yes while Teyla would like to join the action I don't think she would have done so until she knew her son was safe especially in this situation.

I am not familiar with fandom I only have my viewpoints to go on but I will take your word on it however writers do tend to lend themselves to the man's perspective, the white man's one at that. I find it quite odd that this season's male Leader of Atlantis is given awhole lot to do while last season's female leader was hardly significant.

[tielan]

I know that if it had been one of the guys they would have stashed the baby somewhere.

That's my point. People are willing to accept that the guys would, could, and perhaps even should do this; but everyone's a-okay that Teyla ran and hid, even though it's not characteristic of her.

Motherhood changes your perspectives, yes; it shouldn't change you personality - and I believe that Teyla's personality is, at the core, a fighter and a diplomat.

[chyti.livejournal.com]

I think that the audience take their attitudes from the show itself, the writers seem to forget that teyla is a citizen of the pegasus galaxy and probably has been conditioned for the role of leader/warrior/diplomat all her life.

I suspect in the pegasus it is a do or die attitude, I would have loved to see that shown on the show but then the importance would had have to been place on the natives and we couldn't do that.

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

Actually, motherhood usually *does* change your personality, if you're doing it at all right, which frankly I don't think Teyla is (though I blame this on the writers knowing nothing about being a mother). Guh, I'd have had a boob in the kid's mouth!

[tielan]

Surely they'd have pacifiers in Pegasus?

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

I didn't use them, but I'd expect Teyla to, given her parenting style. But Michael's minions neglected to grab one when they nabbed Teyla and Torren, I guess.

[saeva.livejournal.com]

I think there's hundreds of thousands of examples which speak to motherhood not being the strongest part of a woman who has children. Where's your talk of fatherhood in this? Why would motherhood overrule all other characteristics so intensely?

We don't have the instinct to protect our young like some species do -- we also don't have the instinct to devour them, so it's pretty much a draw. Human beings don't have a lot of instincts period and you can't even cite post-pregnancy hormones as a cause, since with some women it causes intense feelings of protection and with others it causes them intense pain, paranoia, and, sometimes, the desire to kill the child. It's really a crapshoot as to which a birth mother will have and there's a million variations in between.

Teyla's personality, her individual self, is the strongest part of her person. She's been herself for some thirty years and a mother for less than one of those. Yes, it can change her priorities -- though she's always been protective of her people and always felt positively about children from what we've seen, so her priorities aren't all that changed if at all -- but it shouldn't change her. There is not some mass of Mother than all women who have children, or even ANY women who have children, become. To suggest there is suggests that women are not thinking, rational persons and that their biology overrules everything else once a child is born. There's many, many examples that show this is not true -- pretty much every mother, biological or not, on the planet to start with. No two women are the same when they become mothers.

Then there's getting into the fact that one of the guys would have settled Torren away, who would have slept through the whole action, gone on to save the day, come back to a still sleeping baby, and no one would bat an eyelash. For Teyla -- who is a warrior and protector of her people first extending BEYOND her single child, as she'd well know given how many of her people have been lost to the Wraith -- to run and hide when she could have helped her people, the people of Atlantis, is uncharacteristic. It's arguing that her identity as a mother overrules her identity as a protector and that leads back up to the above -- humans don't have instincts like that and each woman reacts to becoming a mother based on her personality.

[chyti.livejournal.com]

As i am not a mother I can only base my beliefs on what my mother and my female relatives have shown and taught me and for them it is mother first, all else including themselves second. Yet I know that is not the case in all mothers but I am only judging Teyla here and in this instance the safety of her child but most importantly keeping him out of michael's hand for the survival of the galaxy was Teyla's strongest objective.