the trouble with Teyla

[tielan]

Most people in Atlantis fandom don't like Teyla.

I know that most of my SG-1 friends aren't fans of the character, which I find surprising since most of them were Sam Carter fen back in the day. No, Teyla isn't Sam, and Rachel isn't Amanda, but their characters in S1 have the same potentiality: I just doubt that Teyla will get the run in Atlantis that Sam did in SG-1.

There are objections to her background, her lack of scenes, her dress style, the fact that she was originally slated to be the primary love interest for Sheppard... It goes on.

I'm kinda saddened that she doesn't get half the airtime or half the story that she could if they'd use her properly. It's a bit like the waste of Teal'c in the first six seasons. (Then again, CJ got paid to appear in every episode, whether or not he had lines, so it worked for him.) And the kind of contempt that's reserved for Teyla by the John/Elizabeth fen is rather like the vitriol reserved for Sam by the hardcore Jack/Daniel folks back in SG-1 fandom.

"And it's all just a little bit of history repeated!"

Never let it be said that fen learn, change, and/or grow in their journey through fandom. It's a little saddening, especially since the people doing the bitching this time around seem to be primarily those who were doing the defending of Sam last time.

On the other hand, my last Teyla-fic (Five Men Who Never Wanted...) got good responses, so there is a market out there for the character. We just need a few more people who like her and are willing to write fic for her.

Comments

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

I'm sitting here going 'whu?' to a lot of responses. Mind you, I'm coming from the slash side of fandom, and there appears to be a *lot* more John/Rodney than there is, say, John/Elizabeth being written - and that's just going by the SGA newsletter. There's more onscreen, for starters, and the last few episodes have concentrated a lot on the John-Rodney relationship - trust issues and so on.

Over in the slash sector of the fandom, as well as all-fic like sga_flashfic, from what I've seen of the fic - I mostly connect through fic rather'n discussion - I'd have said that most of the fen love Teyla, and write her as dry-witted and fun. I haven't seen any Teyla hate. There's even been pointing out how practical her outfits are when it comes to fighting. As someone who's recently come over to the side of skirts, I'd say that skirts in the fashion that Teyla wears for stick fighting are much better to move fast and flexibly in than combat trousers. It's very difficult to kick someone in the face wearing combat trousers unless they fit perfectly.

And I like her recently expanded role as diplomat, so I just hope they keep going with it.

[tielan]

Possibly it depends on where you hang out.

The f-lists, communities, and mailing lists I read tend to gen and het rather than slash.

And, I suspect, Teyla's not in any danger of 'stealing' Sheppard from McKay (an implied complaint of certain Jack/Daniel fen regarding Sam), so she's 'okay'. As long as she doesn't start getting more scene time, otherwise I imagine she'll crash and burn among the Shep/McKays in much the same way as Shep/Weirs.