SGA Rewatch: Outsiders
Jan. 27th, 2015 08:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sgatazmyWe are almost finished with our season five rewatch. The good news is that Bestie missed most of season one so we'll head back and watch those. Of course, Ronon is her favorite character so season one isn't going to be her favorite, but it should still be fun.
Outsiders:
I love anything that lets me see lots of Carson. I especially like anything that shows Carson and Rodney together. Add to this Carson playing hero on the Hive with Rodney explaining how he's mostly been rescued from Hives as opposed to getting out himself and we have awesomeness in spades.
In a lot of scifi there are these villagers who want to make a bad/unethical decision to save their own lives. It often helps further the plot but it can get very annoying. It usually involves a horrible amount of stereotypical responses and poor culture building. In this episode, I know that is exactly what they were going for. The only problem was that I truly understood where these villagers were coming from. I think the Lanteans often forget just what it is like to live in fear of your family being ripped of their lives by the Wraith. If it takes only handing over a dozen villagers to save so many, then it makes sense that some people would want to take that deal. It is not that they are bad people or that they are poor decision makers, it is that they have family and friends and these decisions are not as black and white as team Sheppard would have us believe. I hate how after everything team Sheppard has done that they still see themselves as so high and mighty above the rest of Pegasus.
Don't mistake what I'm saying though. I do believe it is wrong to turn the Hoffan plague survivors over to the Wraith, but I do feel the writing wasn't fair to write the "evil" villagers so one-dimensionally.
So we come to the end of the episode where I start getting really disgusted at the writers. So we are opposed to the villagers handing in the Hoffan plague survivors but somehow it is okay to lead the Wraith into a trap using the "evil" villagers and blowing ALL of them up? Including the misguided and violent villagers? It's okay to just sacrifice them like that? There was no other way? I think I might be a little sick after watching this.
All in all, however, I did enjoy the episode. I loved Carson and McKay especially. Bestie and I have been discussing the whole scene in Sunday where McKay tells Carson the he was his best friend. I always thought of John as his best friend or at least later I did. In this episode, however, I think we see that McKay really still sees Carson as a best friend. Maybe not his only best friend as we do tend to use that term loosely in our society, but definitely a very close friend who he desires to spend as much time with as he can. I hate that they killed Carson but I am glad we at least have Carson's clone.
I also like the developments of the Wraith wiping out the Hoffan plague survivors. It adds to the intensity of the season.
Aside: I finished Legacy book five. After it got passed sounding like vampire fanfiction, it was fairly awesome for a while. It was worth almost all the reading to see telepathic Rodney and the Wraith very confused by him. "What is wrong with you, Cleveman?" However, it then has to go with breaking up McKeller which is just not okay in my book. I need tv tie-in novels to leave everything as it was when they are done and now I'm annoyed. At the very least, they should be used as fix-it fics for things the author dislikes. Fanfiction exists for that.
I also hated that a lot of canon stuff was off in this (Cadman thinking of herself as not smart? Cadman? Really?) I was interested to see what McKay was up to in the next book since apparently he's hiding abilities and might be a bit insane or a sleep agent. In the end, I skimmed reviews to see how the next book ends and I'm now done. These are not season six as far as I am concerned.
Outsiders:
I love anything that lets me see lots of Carson. I especially like anything that shows Carson and Rodney together. Add to this Carson playing hero on the Hive with Rodney explaining how he's mostly been rescued from Hives as opposed to getting out himself and we have awesomeness in spades.
In a lot of scifi there are these villagers who want to make a bad/unethical decision to save their own lives. It often helps further the plot but it can get very annoying. It usually involves a horrible amount of stereotypical responses and poor culture building. In this episode, I know that is exactly what they were going for. The only problem was that I truly understood where these villagers were coming from. I think the Lanteans often forget just what it is like to live in fear of your family being ripped of their lives by the Wraith. If it takes only handing over a dozen villagers to save so many, then it makes sense that some people would want to take that deal. It is not that they are bad people or that they are poor decision makers, it is that they have family and friends and these decisions are not as black and white as team Sheppard would have us believe. I hate how after everything team Sheppard has done that they still see themselves as so high and mighty above the rest of Pegasus.
Don't mistake what I'm saying though. I do believe it is wrong to turn the Hoffan plague survivors over to the Wraith, but I do feel the writing wasn't fair to write the "evil" villagers so one-dimensionally.
So we come to the end of the episode where I start getting really disgusted at the writers. So we are opposed to the villagers handing in the Hoffan plague survivors but somehow it is okay to lead the Wraith into a trap using the "evil" villagers and blowing ALL of them up? Including the misguided and violent villagers? It's okay to just sacrifice them like that? There was no other way? I think I might be a little sick after watching this.
All in all, however, I did enjoy the episode. I loved Carson and McKay especially. Bestie and I have been discussing the whole scene in Sunday where McKay tells Carson the he was his best friend. I always thought of John as his best friend or at least later I did. In this episode, however, I think we see that McKay really still sees Carson as a best friend. Maybe not his only best friend as we do tend to use that term loosely in our society, but definitely a very close friend who he desires to spend as much time with as he can. I hate that they killed Carson but I am glad we at least have Carson's clone.
I also like the developments of the Wraith wiping out the Hoffan plague survivors. It adds to the intensity of the season.
Aside: I finished Legacy book five. After it got passed sounding like vampire fanfiction, it was fairly awesome for a while. It was worth almost all the reading to see telepathic Rodney and the Wraith very confused by him. "What is wrong with you, Cleveman?" However, it then has to go with breaking up McKeller which is just not okay in my book. I need tv tie-in novels to leave everything as it was when they are done and now I'm annoyed. At the very least, they should be used as fix-it fics for things the author dislikes. Fanfiction exists for that.
I also hated that a lot of canon stuff was off in this (Cadman thinking of herself as not smart? Cadman? Really?) I was interested to see what McKay was up to in the next book since apparently he's hiding abilities and might be a bit insane or a sleep agent. In the end, I skimmed reviews to see how the next book ends and I'm now done. These are not season six as far as I am concerned.
