i lied i lied i lied
i don’t ship mcshep on the show but the fic is bloody fantastic
I am hoping you are referring to Written by the Victors because it so happens to be my favorite piece of fan-written ANYTHING, holy fucking shit, and it’s also the reason I never finished the last season of Atlantis, because I refuse to believe the series could end any other way.
Also this author is the only reason I ever STARTED shipping McShep and I warn you if you read too much by her you will never unsee it and suddenly all the episodes are McShep episodes. Even when they’re McBeckett.
ignore all of this if you’re referring to another fic because if you are this entire post is useless and silly
nah, I scrolled through that terrifying sucker and resolutely filed it in the “terrifyingly huge, keep on kindle for travel entertainment” category. I’ll read it… far in the future. BUT! I have spent a good chunk of the past whatever hours reading all the REST of this person’s stuff (Speranza I guess?) and it’s all super top notch quality great.
The fic I made this post during was the one about a million weddings and McKay sort of adopting that kid Peter whom he saved from a space yak. It pressed all of the right buttons.
As for the shippery, I never DIDN’T see it. I mean, I’ve *seen* McShep since BEFORE I watched Atlantis. Since shortly after learning that there had been a spinoff to SG-1 that wasn’t done yet so I shouldn’t watch it until it was cancelled.
But I have a real serious hate-on for McKay (which I’ll admit is mitigated but i still cling stubbornly to my offense), and I have conflict about Sheppard. See, on paper, Sheppard is essentially my Perfect Fictitious Man. You can sum this guy up in sort of a combination of dudes: Harry Potter, Jack O’Neill, Quinn from mutherfuckin Sliders, Iolus from Hercules, Xander from Buffy. Basically: a) achingly sarcastic b) super smart but doesn’t flaunt it/is a secret savant that he doesn’t even realize/very streetsmart c) acerbic humor d) natural leader e) almost always the protagonist f) manchild who all the same possesses a super strong moral compass. There’s the added bonus that Sheppard SHOULD scratch all of my slight electra complex itches - crazy dark hair, blue eyes, slightly scrawny build, hell, even his EARS kind of remind me of my dad’s. I’m not saying I’m legitimately into my dad, I’m saying that I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m attracted to people who remind me of him because he’s such a good, kind, decent guy who taught me how to appreciate the really important things like art and experiencing the world and stuff and so when there’s someone who reminds me of Dad I’m predisposed to like him okay? ANYWAY THAT WAS A TANGENT.
I have a VERY defined “type” and have had this type since I was 14. I used to invent characters all the time and the prototype for my perfect man is named Jerateth and he has a lopsided grin and green eyes and wavy black hair and a giant broadsword with earth powers and lives in a land called Janobia in my head where the world has been broken up and rearranged like a jigsaw puzzle done wrong so sometimes the water flows uphill. Every character I’ve ever had a thing for can be connected to Jerateth. John Sheppard is essentially him but grown up and doing scifi instead of fantasy, it’s disturbing in a “did they go into my head?” sort of way.
My point is that John Sheppard is like a mathematical formula for my New Favorite Character Of All Time but apparently he’s missing the secret ingredient because I just give no fucks about him on the show! I mean sure I’m bemused by his antics and want him to save the day and all that, but I’m more than halfway through the run of the show and I have more emotional reactions when Zelenka’s having a bad day or when Canadian Chuck pops onto the screen and so obviously is pleased about having a line to say than to Sheppard’s reveal of suddenly being wicked rich and having daddy issues. WHICH IS SO WEIRD, BECAUSE DADDY ISSUES GOES STRAIGHT INTO THAT MATHEMATICAL FORMULA! I MEAN JESUS LOOK AT ARTHUR PENDRAGON! GODDAMN!
Anyway I totally see the McShep people’s PoV. I mean, they’re an odd couple but they’re not actually that odd, they have very entertaining banter, they clearly make each other better people, they have fucking lines like “we’ve gotten into the habit of saving each other’s lives and it’s my turn”, etc etc etc. It’s all well and good and obvious and Ment2B. I amuse myself when watching the show by making gay gay gay comments to my BFF about it all. I call them “boyfriends” out loud. But on the show, I just… I mostly am like “which Ancient hussy is John going to bone this episode?” and “Oh, another redemption moment for McKay? Call me when some other character gets some emotional depth.”
The beautiful thing about fanfic, of course, is that you can take the characters and tweak them to make them fit and I suppose the fact of the matter is, the fic that I like the most will likely be slightly out of character. Which is *spits on fingers* an abomination but whatchagonnado?
Part of why I can’t stop hating McKay is that I identify with him a great deal, which, haha yes, you also identify with Sherlock, gee, do you latch onto socially maladjusted intelligent characters? Is this a pattern? I’m SHOCKED! But also McKay reminds me even MORE of my BROTHER, you know, the one who’s ACTUALLY the theoretical physicist and also my BOSS at the moment. So there’s problems there not just because of the “oh god he hates women and i’m never gonna get over that” thing but also with the thing that I can’t put myself into the porny porn true love stuff too much, since while I love to read about great big whirlwind romances and sidekick adventures and all that I know that I wouldn’t in a million years DO any of that stuff - I’m the person who, when the TARDIS lands in my living room, I do NOT go in, and do the best I can to save the current day and probably die, but no way in HELL am I going traveling with the Doctor. This is a tangent again because I am very sleepy and obviously nobody is reading this far but what I’m saying is, I’m not feeling McShep on the SHOW because of various issues with both of the characters involved. But if you take the two of them and tweak them both slightly widdershins, so Sheppard really IS the personification of My Perfect Character and McKay is JUST enough unlike himself and thus unlike myself to go charge off and do a bunch of stupid shit like wanting to bone Sheppard and fight aliens, then the resulting fic is obviously like a naquada bomb of All The Things I Likey.
I type a lot sorry
