icarus: Snape by mysterious artist (Rodney b-w by artconserv)
[personal profile] icarus
While I struggle through the next transition in Out Of Bounds ... gnnngh, why is this so hard? ... I tinker with my review of 2005 Stargate Atlantis fanfiction. I did one for 2006 and I hope to do one for 2007 as well.



What are the main themes of 2005 Stargate Atlantis and stories that exemplify them? Here are my initial notes.

John and Rodney are easy! Goodbye DADT --

- The very early soft romances. Stories by 2004 early adopters like [livejournal.com profile] thegrrrl and [livejournal.com profile] mmmchelle.

Initial confusion over loyalty to SG-1, a concern completely dispensed with due to --

- [livejournal.com profile] pegasus_b! (No idea what stories to include.)

Which led to SGA having a rep for --

- Wacky crackfic and AUs! I'm thinking the penguin stories. "It Stops Being Funny At Skirts." The story where Rodney is turned into a little dinosaur. The Harlequin Romance challenge, such as that mail order bride story, need to find two or three more Harlequin stories.

- Fandom's love affair with Rodney in fics like "Oblivious," and "Don't Tell."

Other early themes that are now standard to SGA fic, SGA's lighthearted tone --

- Ancient technology does something unpredictable. "Face Value." That one where John and Rodney explore the high tower of Atlantis and end up married. "Double Occupancy." "A Beautiful Lifetime Event."

- Atlantis' black market. Stories that reference Atlantis' drug subculture.

- Paranoid alien cultures, such as that one where John is imprisoned in the mountain and Rodney's the only one allowed to visit him. Other examples?

- Alien society does something to John because he's an ATA carrier (capture him, try to sacrifice him, make him participate in alien fertility rituals, often an excuse for "Aliens Made Them Do it"). I know I've seen this theme, but specific stories, hmm... the only two I can think of have something done to Rodney because of the ATA gene.

- Darker themes (especially in Gen for some reason) from Atlantis being cut off and taking drastic measures, such as [livejournal.com profile] ltlj's story, the name of which won't come to me right now, and [livejournal.com profile] rivier's Exigencies. The storm over "Transcendental" and the new, darker characterization in the previously light-hearted fandom.

Aha! [livejournal.com profile] auburnnothenna reminds of of the hiatus, which took things in a different direction from what happened in canon --

- Such as "Care Packages" and "A Different Fate" and Karen McFaddyon's "A Matter of Discretion."

Then after Atlantis reconnected with Earth --

- The scientists hazing the new military, such as in "Instructional," and that one that starts with Rodney saying, "If anyone asks, I've been sitting here the whole time." "Care Packages."

- Return to earth stories -- silly ones, romantic ones, and ones focused on recovery.

- [livejournal.com profile] iibnf reminds me that, good lord, I forgot the Post-Trinity stories.


Did I nail all the main themes? Disagree? Think I'm off my rocker? I could be missing a lot. It's tricky for me because I didn't start reading SGA until September 2005, so I missed most of the year.

Date: 2007-07-07 09:59 pm (UTC)
amalthia: (Default)
From: [personal profile] amalthia
seems like you got all the main themes. :)

Date: 2007-07-07 10:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] icarusancalion.livejournal.com
2005 should be a lot easier to do than 2006 -- far fewer stories, for one thing.

Icarus

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