Sheppard/Teyla - a rare pairing

[tielan]

You know, I'm beginning to think that Sheppard/Teyla should get rare-pairing status, canonically-inclined or not.

God knows that it's less-popular than both Sheppard/Weir and Teyla/Ronon, harder to find fic, icons, or photomanips for, and impossible to encourage anyone towards. There's no middle ground for the pairing: people either like it, or loathe it and won't touch it with a ten-foot pole.

And I'm getting tired of not being allowed to write or post it in ficathons and LJ comms because it's apparently 'popular'.

Popular, my ass.

If it's so popular, then someone point me to the fic. I've found two authors I trust to write it well in all circumstances and maybe three or four others who are reasonable. And then there's the cliched, badly spelled, grammatically incorrect, unbeta'd, labouriously-written stories by authors too 'precious' about their fics to entrust them to a beta reader or to take constructive criticism about their spelling and grammar, let alone their characterisation.

No, good fic is not the same as all fic, but the fact that there are only two really good, regular writers for Shep/Teyla is a simple mathematical indicator that the overall selection pool is pretty small.

If it's popular, then someone explain to me why the SGA newsletter regularly features Shep/Weir and Teyla/Ronon but very little Shep/Teyla.

If it's popular, then someone tell me why a het ship canon vs. fanon pairing poll turned up 183 people who wanted to see Teyla/Ronon in canon (against 111 people who wanted to see Shep/Weir) and 20 people who wanted to see Shep/Teyla in canon.

Shep/Teyla a popular pairing? Bloody well do the math, use Earth logic to compute rather than fan logic[*], and gimme a break.

And seriously reconsider the automatic exclusion of Shep/Teyla any time someone does something involving the phrase, 'we don't want the popular pairings.' Because Shep/Teyla is so very not popular.

[*]But I don't like Shep/Teyla! We can't let it into the pairing communities for rare pairings because I don't want to read that stuff! EW!

Comments

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Huh. I do see your point --

and I'm just not a John/Teyla shipper. To be perfectly honest, it's more of a canon pairing to me than Sheppard/Weir, mostly because we have canonical proof that there was or at least used to be some measure of sexual attraction -- their chemistry in "Rising" and Sheppard's rather unambiguous actions toward her during "Conversion" as well as the anvil in "The Long Good-Bye".

Interestingly enough -- at least to me -- John/Elizabeth are just the other way round -- I don't see any sexual desire or spark, but canon proves that Elizabeth cares deeply for John, and that John feels enough for her to go pretty much insane and kills sixty when he thinks she's dead.

...yeah, that's why I McShep. & ;-)

Back to my point, the one that's simply yours: Yes, there is very little John/Teyla, and treating it like Sheppard/McKay or Sheppard/Weir seems grossly unfair.

[tielan]

as well as the anvil in "The Long Good-Bye".

Your mention of the 'anvil' is one of the things that is pushing me to get the hell out of this fandom.

I know one of the things that scares me most about shipper wars is how very..."Harmonian" people are getting about their pairings.

(ref. Harry Potter community: Harmonians = Harry/Hermione rabid shippers who smushed 'Harry' and 'Hermione' together and got the name 'Harmony'. And by 'rabid' I mean 'not just fanon pairing, but canon!')

ie. "canon inclinations may say not, but I BELIEVE MY PAIRING WILL OVERCOME IN THE END!!" [/frothing]

It's one thing to say you prefer a pairing: quite another to keep insisting you're not only 'right' but that your pairing is the only reasonable pairing or that all others are baseless and the people who follow them, idiots.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Not very nicely put, I confess. It reflects how I view sudden yet ominously revealing moments of characterisation and/or foreshadowing, though.

I know one of the things that scares me most about shipper wars is how very..."Harmonian" people are getting about their pairings.

Read about that on Fandom Wank, yeah. Am quite fond of the Harry/Hermione dynamicin the books, personally, but this made me glad I wasn't a part of HP fandom at all.

ie. "canon inclinations may say not, but I BELIEVE MY PAIRING WILL OVERCOME IN THE END!!" [/frothing]

The frothing really gets me, there. I haven't really seen anything as bad in SGA fandom...but then, I came after The Ronon Debate and live in my quiet corner of McShepdom, mostly, where there are bouncing unicorns, and buttsex.

It's one thing to say you prefer a pairing: quite another to keep insisting you're not only 'right' but that your pairing is the only reasonable pairing or that all others are baseless and the people who follow them, idiots.

Well, yes. Does any rational, sane person disagree?

[tielan]

Does any rational, sane person disagree?

In actions and comments, perhaps; nobody would disagree with the statement outright.

[llorelei.livejournal.com]

... and live in my quiet corner of McShepdom, mostly, where there are bouncing unicorns, and buttsex.

The bouncy unicorns and the buttsex don't mean there won't be frothing coming from the quiet McShep corner if a decisive canonical direction is taken, pairing-wise.

If there's one thing SG-1 fandom thought me in six months is that, contrary to popular belief, slashers can froth as much as your garden variety Harmonian.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

The bouncy unicorns and the buttsex don't mean there won't be frothing coming from the quiet McShep corner if a decisive canonical direction is taken, pairing-wise.

Okay, I didn't make myself clear -- YES, ABSOLUTELY; I've observed many a kerfuffle: Frothing and freaking is something slashers do very well, too. It's an online fan thing and not dependent on preference.

Me, however? In a quiet corner of McShepdom. I don't even keep ranters on my flist.

...not that tielan doesn't think I'm an inconsiderate rabble-rouser, after my comment. & ;-)

[tielan]

Heh. It takes one to know one. *BEG*

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

& ;-)

[tielan]

For me???

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

If you want it!

Made it a while ago, but no one on my flist is a Teyla/John shipper, so...*g* Feel free to use it. & :-)

(I do think the scene in Rising is sizzling.)

[tielan]

w00t!

Thank you!

(where did you get the caps from, btw? It seems to be a slightly different shot to anything I've seen before...)

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Welcome. I do adore your fiction, after all, if obviously more of a Ronon/Elizabeth fan.

As for the cap -- ohh, Jesus, I can't remember. I have everything credited in my memories, but cannot pinpoint one source.