More Rodney Rambling
Jan. 19th, 2008 09:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annundrielEarlier today Mom and I had a bit of a discussion about Rodney, Katie, John, and SGA in general. Mostly Rodney, which prompted Mom to point out that "he's not real." My response was basically, "Look, I just spent four years talking about fictional people and situations as though they were real, bear with me."
Going back to my last post about interpretation and my own more laid back responses to a lot of the reading I did at SU, I see more and more that my classroom behavior carries over into my everyday behavior. Certain things I will get angry and bitchy about. But when it comes to most works of fiction, be it novel, movie, or show, I tend to get more twitchy than anything. A much lower level of annoyed. Because what good does getting angry about it do me? Not much. So I let things slide and I take what works for me and leave the rest. It keeps me from going crazy with annoyance.
Plus, I like discussing things and the more level-headed I can be, the more I can enjoy the actual act of discussion.
(What's under the cut kind of got away from me. My brain makes weird connections and jumps all over the place and sometimes I just like to type things out. This is what happens when I "think outloud." It can get confusing in person. But maybe some of it will make sense here.)
Anyway, we were talking about Rodney and Katie and their relationship or lack thereof. As much as Katie annoys me with her quiet voice and gee golly wide eyes, Mom pointed out that maybe that's what Rodney wants, someone soft and submissive. Which, sure, fine, maybe. Personally I don't think so, but I'll allow it. I think it's more of a case of Rodney thinking it's what he wants because it's one of those stereotypes.
I reminded Mom that the things you want aren't always the things you need. And sometimes once you get the things you thought you wanted, it turns out that you didn't want them that much after all. You were just doing what you thought you should do. Which makes me think of John Crichton and his relationships on a very superficial level. Little bit of a crazy leap, but it makes sense to me. It seemed fairly obvious that John's type was blond hair, blue eyes. There's the PK tech girl and the woman we see in flashbacks. (Dreams? It's been awhile since I saw that episode, but she was definitely blond.) The more stereotypical cheerleader type. But in the end, it's Aeryn that he wants and needs and loves. Mom said it was like he'd been going after cheerleaders and then decided he wanted the captain of the football team instead. Which made me laugh and gave me all sorts of weird visions of Aeryn Sun, football captain.
The point being that Crichton may have thought he was attracted to one thing and in the end it was in fact the opposite. How does that relate back to Rodney and Katie? Um. It doesn't really; it was more of an illustration than anything. And I could have seen the relationship between them continuing and Rodney eventually, one would hope, realizing that what he thought he wanted isn't really that. It's not what he needs, either.
Don't get me wrong. I want Rodney to have someone who's there for him and will take care of him and I don't want him to be lonely, but at the same time...He needs someone who's going to push him toward things. Judging from Katie's reactions to his "illness," had they continued to have a relationship she would have just enabled Rodney in his doom and gloom and hypochondriac tendencies. He'd just get worse. He needs someone who's going to occasionally tell him to suck it up.
Which is why I think I'll always maintain that he and John are made for each other. We've seen John take care of him, but we've also seen him call Rodney on his bullshit.
That reminds me of that line in As Good as It Gets where Jack Nicholson tells Helen Hunt, "You make me want to be a better man." Granted, the writers seem to want us to connect this kind of sentiment with Rodney and Katie, but Rodney's been working at being a better man since season one. And that's the influence of John more than anyone else. I'm sure Rodney has similar "What would Sheppard do?" moments as often as John thinks "What would McKay do?"
Unless he's trapped in a botany lab with Katie. At which point, because there's no one around to push him, he gives up. Which is just weird and wrong. In "Grace Under Pressure" he was trapped and alone but he still tried to save himself. So what gives?
The only difference I can see is that there, he thought no one was trying and/or going to save him. In "Quarantine," everyone was assuming someone else was working on the problem. Until John figured out that Rodney didn't have have anything to fix the problem with, at which point he took off like Batman up the tower. And then Zelenka saved the day and was thanked for it like we never see Rodney thanked for it.
And now I can't even pretend to have much of a point anymore. I lost it somewhere up there and have just been going with the flow, which is probably pretty obvious. :) I guess, really, all I meant was that Rodney needs people around him who will love him (no matter what his shortcomings are) and push him. Or who's presence simply makes him push himself.
ETA: I was just thinking, I know Katie must be pretty intelligent, so I'm sure she knows that Rodney's not easy to be around. But if "Quarantine" was her first time experiencing him like that first-hand and she decided she wasn't going to deal with it, well he doesn't need her.
I don't mean to make it sound like I hate Katie. I just don't like her very much.
Going back to my last post about interpretation and my own more laid back responses to a lot of the reading I did at SU, I see more and more that my classroom behavior carries over into my everyday behavior. Certain things I will get angry and bitchy about. But when it comes to most works of fiction, be it novel, movie, or show, I tend to get more twitchy than anything. A much lower level of annoyed. Because what good does getting angry about it do me? Not much. So I let things slide and I take what works for me and leave the rest. It keeps me from going crazy with annoyance.
Plus, I like discussing things and the more level-headed I can be, the more I can enjoy the actual act of discussion.
(What's under the cut kind of got away from me. My brain makes weird connections and jumps all over the place and sometimes I just like to type things out. This is what happens when I "think outloud." It can get confusing in person. But maybe some of it will make sense here.)
Anyway, we were talking about Rodney and Katie and their relationship or lack thereof. As much as Katie annoys me with her quiet voice and gee golly wide eyes, Mom pointed out that maybe that's what Rodney wants, someone soft and submissive. Which, sure, fine, maybe. Personally I don't think so, but I'll allow it. I think it's more of a case of Rodney thinking it's what he wants because it's one of those stereotypes.
I reminded Mom that the things you want aren't always the things you need. And sometimes once you get the things you thought you wanted, it turns out that you didn't want them that much after all. You were just doing what you thought you should do. Which makes me think of John Crichton and his relationships on a very superficial level. Little bit of a crazy leap, but it makes sense to me. It seemed fairly obvious that John's type was blond hair, blue eyes. There's the PK tech girl and the woman we see in flashbacks. (Dreams? It's been awhile since I saw that episode, but she was definitely blond.) The more stereotypical cheerleader type. But in the end, it's Aeryn that he wants and needs and loves. Mom said it was like he'd been going after cheerleaders and then decided he wanted the captain of the football team instead. Which made me laugh and gave me all sorts of weird visions of Aeryn Sun, football captain.
The point being that Crichton may have thought he was attracted to one thing and in the end it was in fact the opposite. How does that relate back to Rodney and Katie? Um. It doesn't really; it was more of an illustration than anything. And I could have seen the relationship between them continuing and Rodney eventually, one would hope, realizing that what he thought he wanted isn't really that. It's not what he needs, either.
Don't get me wrong. I want Rodney to have someone who's there for him and will take care of him and I don't want him to be lonely, but at the same time...He needs someone who's going to push him toward things. Judging from Katie's reactions to his "illness," had they continued to have a relationship she would have just enabled Rodney in his doom and gloom and hypochondriac tendencies. He'd just get worse. He needs someone who's going to occasionally tell him to suck it up.
Which is why I think I'll always maintain that he and John are made for each other. We've seen John take care of him, but we've also seen him call Rodney on his bullshit.
That reminds me of that line in As Good as It Gets where Jack Nicholson tells Helen Hunt, "You make me want to be a better man." Granted, the writers seem to want us to connect this kind of sentiment with Rodney and Katie, but Rodney's been working at being a better man since season one. And that's the influence of John more than anyone else. I'm sure Rodney has similar "What would Sheppard do?" moments as often as John thinks "What would McKay do?"
Unless he's trapped in a botany lab with Katie. At which point, because there's no one around to push him, he gives up. Which is just weird and wrong. In "Grace Under Pressure" he was trapped and alone but he still tried to save himself. So what gives?
The only difference I can see is that there, he thought no one was trying and/or going to save him. In "Quarantine," everyone was assuming someone else was working on the problem. Until John figured out that Rodney didn't have have anything to fix the problem with, at which point he took off like Batman up the tower. And then Zelenka saved the day and was thanked for it like we never see Rodney thanked for it.
And now I can't even pretend to have much of a point anymore. I lost it somewhere up there and have just been going with the flow, which is probably pretty obvious. :) I guess, really, all I meant was that Rodney needs people around him who will love him (no matter what his shortcomings are) and push him. Or who's presence simply makes him push himself.
ETA: I was just thinking, I know Katie must be pretty intelligent, so I'm sure she knows that Rodney's not easy to be around. But if "Quarantine" was her first time experiencing him like that first-hand and she decided she wasn't going to deal with it, well he doesn't need her.
I don't mean to make it sound like I hate Katie. I just don't like her very much.
