I feel like I should say something belatedly about "Harmony," even though I have relatively little to say. Because what every discussion needs is MORE ME
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What an excellent, excellent analysis, and interesting, and all sorts of other positive adjectives.
And absolutely about projection. The whole romance industry is built on to this concept of finding the ideal that can use to plug up all the holes (nudgenudgewinkwink) that exist - a people jigsaw puzzle where parts make a whole. But of course people don't work that way and nobody can really be someone elses saviour, and the best that you can hope for is to lean really hard on the pieces and smoosh them into something vaguely compatable which is also a fantastic way to cheat when you've got way too many blue pieces.
I've only had half a glass of wine - honest! :)
That's another reason why I've been hanging out for this epsiode, because there's so much of John that's the unattainable hero (regardless of how much geek seeps through from time and time) and I'm hoping that Outcast will chip away that and show more of the human being underneath. It's stripping apart the ferris wheel and having a look at the gears and what makes it tick.
Thanks! I'm hoping the same thing about Outcast -- I mean, for God's sake, it's been four years. Who the hell IS this guy? I feel like the writers are just now getting to Stage 3 with their own protagonist! *g*
I feel like the writers are just now getting to Stage 3 with their own protagonist! *g*
Oh god yes. In some ways I like it, because an enigma can be that much more interesting when you get handed slivers bit by bit, but to get an episode where hopefully there will be a whole lot more pieces for the jigsaw puzzle is fab.
I'm so exited about the next episode too, even though I'm uncompletely unspoiled about the specifics.
WRT Harmony, I didn't even find their custom weird or like a religion. I mean, beyond informing the queen about the weapons system and maybe making sure she can operate it or something like that, which was maybe the origin of the custom, it also tests for the lineage being legitimate, which makes sense for a monarchy. The Ancient gene isn't common, after all. And it's not like anyone can reasonably expect them to have that much solid knowledge of the Ancients after ten thousand years. We didn't manage to salvage a significant portion of the libraries from merely two thousand years ago, and forgot how to read most of the writing that's older, and that's without space vampires eating us.
I didn't even find their custom weird or like a religionExcept that it's exactly like a religion, because it's a pilgrimage to the Temple of Larris in order to meditate and "pray to be endowed with the knowledge and power to govern." It *doesn't* inform the queen about anything -- she has no idea what the weapons system is (she thinks it's a monster who will only attack enemies of the throne) and she doesn't believe John when he says things have gone haywire because it's a malfunctioning machine; she continues to insist that it has nothing to do with machines and everything to do with whether the gods have judged her worthy. She has an entirely misplaced *religious faith* in technology she doesn't even recognize as technology at all
( ... )
Yeah, that's true. I guess it doesn't bother me that much as a pattern in itself (as opposed to how it is connected to other annoying and/or offensive things with how other cultures are depicted), because as a non-spiritual atheist I see religions and spiritual/supernatural believes similarly. I mean, were I actually confronted with aliens with powers like the Ori/Ancients, I'd be rather more inclined to believe in religions than I am now, because they have superpowers and get energy from prayers, and they appear and give you proof of their might, they can't die either, and they have made humans look/evolve like them and distributed them over three galaxies, which is quite god-like for all intents and purposes, so I always find it hilariously funny when the SG people claim those are "false" gods like the Goa'uld (which I could see as an argument against those), opposed to some kind of "real religion/god" that is not based on anything but "faith" in its supposed existence.
Yeah, it's possible you have to actually be a religious person yourself in order to find it as actively offensive as I do. *g*
You're right about the weird definition of "real god" in the Stargate universe, though. Why on earth define "real" as interchangeable with "invisible"? The whole purpose of religion is to have contact with the Divine, to make the sacred *less invisible.* That's not a sign of failure! There's an excellent case to be made that the Ori are perfectly "real" gods -- they're just crappy gods! That gets into the whole Phillip Pullman territory, where the significant question isn't "is God real?" but "is there some reason we should care?"
(Now that I stop and think about it, I think projection explains...rather a lot about fandom, actually. Huh.)
This is perhaps not what you mean, but I attribute a lot of my good relationship skills to fandom, from both positive examples of grown up behaviour and cautionary tales of co-dependent madness.
Have you ever seen Boa vs. Python? I've always thought this movie was the novel Rodney's secretly writing on his hard drive. He gets the bimbo blond? All the military guys are idiots and get themselves killed? His sister died tragically at a young age? It's so his Mary Sue.
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And absolutely about projection. The whole romance industry is built on to this concept of finding the ideal that can use to plug up all the holes (nudgenudgewinkwink) that exist - a people jigsaw puzzle where parts make a whole. But of course people don't work that way and nobody can really be someone elses saviour, and the best that you can hope for is to lean really hard on the pieces and smoosh them into something vaguely compatable which is also a fantastic way to cheat when you've got way too many blue pieces.
I've only had half a glass of wine - honest! :)
That's another reason why I've been hanging out for this epsiode, because there's so much of John that's the unattainable hero (regardless of how much geek seeps through from time and time) and I'm hoping that Outcast will chip away that and show more of the human being underneath. It's stripping apart the ferris wheel and having a look at the gears and what makes it tick.
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Oh god yes. In some ways I like it, because an enigma can be that much more interesting when you get handed slivers bit by bit, but to get an episode where hopefully there will be a whole lot more pieces for the jigsaw puzzle is fab.
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WRT Harmony, I didn't even find their custom weird or like a religion. I mean, beyond informing the queen about the weapons system and maybe making sure she can operate it or something like that, which was maybe the origin of the custom, it also tests for the lineage being legitimate, which makes sense for a monarchy. The Ancient gene isn't common, after all. And it's not like anyone can reasonably expect them to have that much solid knowledge of the Ancients after ten thousand years. We didn't manage to salvage a significant portion of the libraries from merely two thousand years ago, and forgot how to read most of the writing that's older, and that's without space vampires eating us.
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You're right about the weird definition of "real god" in the Stargate universe, though. Why on earth define "real" as interchangeable with "invisible"? The whole purpose of religion is to have contact with the Divine, to make the sacred *less invisible.* That's not a sign of failure! There's an excellent case to be made that the Ori are perfectly "real" gods -- they're just crappy gods! That gets into the whole Phillip Pullman territory, where the significant question isn't "is God real?" but "is there some reason we should care?"
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This is perhaps not what you mean, but I attribute a lot of my good relationship skills to fandom, from both positive examples of grown up behaviour and cautionary tales of co-dependent madness.
Seriously.
I could be here for weeks, y'all.
If you gotta, you gotta.
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And if you can be fannish about your own life, Rodney is the guy who will manage it. *g*
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