To take this question to a metaphysical place it was probably never meant to go, I think it's possible to dislike someone on their own but like them as part of a pairing/group, and vice versa. People aren't static and they change depending on their surroundings and who they're with, so it's entirely possible that Person A might be an asshat on their own, but as half of a pairing or part of a groups, Person A's good qualities take center stage and his or her bad qualities fade into the background. So while I haven't read sardonicsmiley's post, I think that her opinion, if it happens to be that she dislikes John on his own but likes him as part of a pairing with Rodney, is totally valid. And I happen to share that opinion to some extent.
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I think it's made worse by the fact that John does know people, and knows Rodney, and he has to know as he's being an ass what he's doing, and it's effects on people.
Now, this raises an interesting question I'm not sure we've talked about: does John like being with Rodney because Rodney's obliviousness excuses John from certain social niceties? In a way, John can be friends with Rodney easily and lazily because social interaction with Rodney takes much less effort than it would with anyone else.
On another note, I've seen several people mention (here and elsewhere) that a lot of John's character development has been due to JF's acting, which boggles me. I think JF is a pretty mediocre actor, all things considered (and this from a woman who actually likes David Caruso on CSI: Miami). I'm not sure if JF's early anti-sci-fi remarks are coloring my opinion or if there's something else at work, but I'd love to hear more about people's high opinions of JF's acting skills. Not that I'm asking you, necessarily, but just sort of tossing it out there in hopes I'll remember to make a post about it at some point.
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To steal a paraphrase, John's not a sociopathic asshole, he's just written that way.
This was from equusentric, but I wanted to comment on this to you. If I couldn't see John as a pretty psycho princess, he'd bore me to tears. Part of what makes canon!John work for me is that he can be viewed in nearly any light because at some point, all those lights have been shown to be valid in canon. Now, that boils down to a larger and much thornier question about authorial intent vs. authorial actuality on the part of the writers, but I like that John's a little crazy. If he weren't written that way, however unintentionally, I think he'd be a very one-note character.
On last note here, on John waking the Wraith: I think it was also equusentric who pointed out John's waking of the Wraith wasn't a calculated move, but I think that if John had known what he was getting into, he'd likely have done the same thing. John takes ridiculous risks, often not only to his detriment but that of others, and I think killing the queen is exactly the kind of thing he'd do, so the theory that John doesn't deserve to be blamed for waking the Wraith doesn't hold a lot of water with me. And that wasn't meant to be argumentative, but rather, "Huh. I'd never actually thought about that."
And I very much agree with you that I'd like to see John called out on his behavior more often. This last SGA tie-in novel was about that in a lot of ways but still, John mostly got a free pass and it made me a little crazy.
Great post here. You know how much I love listening to you talk about John. :)
Oh, John
To take this question to a metaphysical place it was probably never meant to go, I think it's possible to dislike someone on their own but like them as part of a pairing/group, and vice versa. People aren't static and they change depending on their surroundings and who they're with, so it's entirely possible that Person A might be an asshat on their own, but as half of a pairing or part of a groups, Person A's good qualities take center stage and his or her bad qualities fade into the background. So while I haven't read
Now, this raises an interesting question I'm not sure we've talked about: does John like being with Rodney because Rodney's obliviousness excuses John from certain social niceties? In a way, John can be friends with Rodney easily and lazily because social interaction with Rodney takes much less effort than it would with anyone else.
On another note, I've seen several people mention (here and elsewhere) that a lot of John's character development has been due to JF's acting, which boggles me. I think JF is a pretty mediocre actor, all things considered (and this from a woman who actually likes David Caruso on CSI: Miami). I'm not sure if JF's early anti-sci-fi remarks are coloring my opinion or if there's something else at work, but I'd love to hear more about people's high opinions of JF's acting skills. Not that I'm asking you, necessarily, but just sort of tossing it out there in hopes I'll remember to make a post about it at some point.
This was from
On last note here, on John waking the Wraith: I think it was also
And I very much agree with you that I'd like to see John called out on his behavior more often. This last SGA tie-in novel was about that in a lot of ways but still, John mostly got a free pass and it made me a little crazy.
Great post here. You know how much I love listening to you talk about John. :)