SGA: Critical Mass meta and

[permetaform]

lierdumoa's posted meta on Critical Mass, and since we brainshare, I was pretty much pointing at it and going, "YES, like that!"

The 'cause, y'know, the thing I love about SGA is that it has flawed characters and it has them unrepentantly. They are flawed in such a way that you are forced to go, "WTF, man, WTF." And there is NO redemption, there's no fixing, there's no castigating of the characters, there's no shame.

There is no higher force going, "Oh my god, that was a bad character trait! We must punish this character and make sure to show people what *good* character traits are!" And no, Rodney never really changes from Trinity (not in a major personality way, he becomes more cautious, true), Beckett never really changes from Poisoning The Well (he's still hopeful for gene therapy as WMD, and, y'know Conversion), and the effects of these irredemeable character traits will keep on causing waves and fuckups and I *love* that. Granted, the dialogue is sometimes cringe-worthy; but I love that characters are allowed to be fuckups and to be sometimes incompetent, I love that this show allows me to *hate* these characters sometimes because you're *supposed* to hate character flaws.

I love that SGA, not only a war show but a sci-fi show, allows character to be *average* in scary and frightening ways, imperfect. And in a way, this makes it darker than many texts I've come across; because it's not the brave Hero getting tortured and you know they're going to come out all shiny, but because Pegasus galaxy will FUCK these average people up. They will come out tarnished and stained and filthy.

w00t! ::adores::

[]

In other news, I...er. Insta-vidded?

I was planning on using this song for HP, but then this idea attacked me harder, and I was like yes, just like that, and 2 hours later I have a vidlet-thing. o.o It's just a little bit evil.
Arose, 3.6MB (temporarily offline)
Summary: Rodney has problems with things that ascend.

It's un-betaed, and it's short, and I'm strangely really really pleased with it. ::pets baby!vid:: Uses American Beauty soundtrack.

Comments

[kalikahuntress.livejournal.com]

Yes and yes to this post many times, i love my flawed heroes:)

[toniabarone.livejournal.com]

*L* Snagged vid.

[aurora]

Can I just add a huge WORD! to the SGA meta, cause, yes.

About the vid: first of all, omg Amearican Beauty OST!! Thomas Newman is perhaps my favourite composer ever. *content sigh* Second, it turned out great; I particularly love the zoom-in as intro, and John leaving full of determination-scene, that you made out of all these different clips. :X

[dualbunny.livejournal.com]

Pretty pretty movement! I don't watch, so that's pretty much all I have. ;}

[wistful-fever.livejournal.com]

I love that SGA, not only a war show but a sci-fi show, allows character to be *average* in scary and frightening ways, imperfect.

YES. As much as I loved Stargate SG-1, SGA works for me on this level in ways that show didn't. They can't be compared I guess, because while they come from the same universe, they FEEL different. And SGA feels right for me. It's not about extraordinary people doing extrordinary things. It's about average people (while they have their skills, and Rodney's giant brain, I find all of them so---like, outcasts, and geeky, and that guy I walk by in the store, bickering with himself about which video game he'll play first), doing extrordinary things by the seat of their pants. I love this show.

I can't download the vidlet just yet because my CPU is focused on uploading vids, but I'll check back tomorrow. :)

[wistful-fever.livejournal.com]

I can spell. Truly, I can. *facepalm*

[nel-ani.livejournal.com]

Aww! Poor poor Rodney!

[wistful-fever.livejournal.com]

Arose:

This was so fragile. The music, it was a very light, guiding touch. For some reason it reminded my of fairy wings, which makes a kind of beautiful sense when you see the Ancients lifting away. The focus on gentle flashes of light within the source was lovely, as was the internal movement. You really get a sense of John pulling inevitably away and leaving them all behind.

[zincpiccalilli.livejournal.com]

...because Pegasus galaxy will FUCK these average people up.

You know, oddly enough, the only thing I could think is that Pegasus is not so much fucking the SGA characters up as stripping away any delusions they might've had that they weren't fucked up to begin with.

This sort of ties in with what wistful_fever wrote about all of them being outcasts. After all, as others have pointed out, these are the people—best and brightest or not—who were sent on the one-way trip to another galaxy; if nothing else, this means they were completely expendable. Given just how brilliant some of them seem, I have to conclude that, well, there's something else wrong with all these folks, even if it's merely fanatic devotion to their work. I can't remember who coined the phrase, but Atlantis really is the Island of the Misfit Toys.

Except, when the expedition set out, everyone thought things would be okay. However you screwed up back on Earth, the slate is magically wiped clean again in Pegasus, and you can do better if you work at it. Only Atlantis and Pegasus didn't turn out quite how anybody expected, and irredeemable character flaws remain irredeemable except now that you're one of two hundred people running everything in a vast, unexplored city of dangerous technology and a vast, unexplored galaxy of unknowns those flaws tend to produce exponentially larger fuck-ups than you ever managed back home.

I think the Atlantis people are slowly coming to this realization.

Oh, I'm sure they'll succeed and save the day in the end (really, they have to every time they land in yet another life-or-death situation because otherwise there'd be no show) but usually not by being consistently competent (until it's time for the Hail Mary).

This probably made no sense whatsoever, but I pulled an all-nighter. In fact, I haven't gone to bed yet! ^^;;

[permetaform]

=D thank you! I'm glad that you got that from the vid! I was going for a really light touch with this vid and I'm glad that it came through!

[permetaform]

::nods:: =D

[permetaform]

They can't be compared I guess, because while they come from the same universe, they FEEL different.

::nods:: I think it was loligo that mentioned that the two shows are as different as they could possibly be while still in the same universe.


It's about average people (while they have their skills, and Rodney's giant brain, I find all of them so---like, outcasts, and geeky, and that guy I walk by in the store, bickering with himself about which video game he'll play first), doing extrordinary things by the seat of their pants. I love this show.

YES! ::highfives::

[permetaform]

eee! but that's *awesome* coming from *you* (Olivia *still* makes me cry)

[permetaform]

Ah! THAT's who composed it! ::glomps:: thank you! and yay for it working! and ::highfives you:: on the meta!

[permetaform]

That actually does make sense and are very very good thoughts ::highfives::

stripping away any delusions they might've had that they weren't fucked up to begin with.

[...]

Only Atlantis and Pegasus didn't turn out quite how anybody expected, and irredeemable character flaws remain irredeemable except now that you're one of two hundred people running everything in a vast, unexplored city of dangerous technology and a vast, unexplored galaxy of unknowns those flaws tend to produce exponentially larger fuck-ups than you ever managed back home.

I think the Atlantis people are slowly coming to this realization.

::bounces:: that makes a lot of sense!

[zincpiccalilli.livejournal.com]

That actually does make sense and are very very good thoughts ::highfives::

^_____^

Though I'm still waiting (probably fruitlessly) for the episode where SGA does courtroom drama. Weir, McKay, and Beckett recalled to Earth to face an international civilian board of inquiry, Sheppard a military tribunal, for every action they've taken in Pegasus that we've ever argued the moral implications of. It'd be a fantastic clip show! And, whoa, characterization and angst and all that good stuff! And, OMG, drama and suspense and intelligent television! What's going to happen to our beloved characters? Atlantis?

‹sigh› If only I could trust TPTB to pull it off without taking any easy outs on the messy questions. Bah. It'll never happen.

[stungunbilly.livejournal.com]

Beautiful bit of vidding, that.

[permetaform]

=D thank you!

[walkingshadow.livejournal.com]

i didn't realize this would have epiphany (?) scenes in it, but it's a haunting, beautiful little piece—all those moments lined up in front of rodney like a recurring nightmare. thank you. *g*

[the-green-sheep.livejournal.com]

They will come out tarnished and stained and filthy.

Oh, yes. Yes. *adores with you*


And, hey. Your baby vid is great. I love it. *pets it, too*

[permetaform]

ack! ::goes back and posts spoiler warnings:: thank you for poking me about that! I completely forgot.

all those moments lined up in front of rodney like a recurring nightmare.

YES. ::GLOMPS::

[permetaform]

=D thank you!

and gaaah, just, every ep comes out and I'm like "::stares at screen:: Oh no they di'n't!"