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SGA 2x13 - "Critical Mass"

  • Dec. 10th, 2005 at 3:31 PM
allaire: (forest)
I wish the fucking city had blown up.

I now officially hate Weir, Sheppard, Dex and McKay. The sanctioned torture.

It's not relevant that their victim turned out to be innocent in the end. It's not relevant that he fainted before he could actually be hurt by his torturer. It's not relevant that Weir might have had the slightest twinge of remorse afterwards. It's not important that McKay "only" kept silent instead of actually ordering it - like Weir (with her words) and Sheppard (with his nod).

This can't be excused or explained away. There is always another way.

Stooping to torture makes you less than human. It turns you into a monster.

I only watch a series whose characters I like, whose characters I root for. I cannot root for monsters. I was bawling the whole time since that first order by Weir and nod by Sheppard. I cried because I had to watch my heroes turn into people I no longer recognized.

And if anyone just dares imply that Kavanagh brought it all onto himself by being uncooperative, a jerk and by bashing poor Lizzie, I am gonna go mental. In contrast to everyone else, he had her pegged since "38 Minutes", and I applauded him when he accused her of being incompetent during his first "interview" in "Critical Mass". I always felt that when she tore into him during that jumper-stuck-in-the-gate fiasco, she was needlessly cruel, dismissive, unreasonable and just plain old wrong. He was concerned - there was no indication that he advised caution because he was a coward. That was only something she decided to interpret into his words and dress him viciously down for in public.

Atlantis is the SGC's Guatanamo Bay - be suspected, be accused, be held without access to a legal representative, be convicted without a trial or being heard, be tortured.

Somehow I am certain Kavanagh will not get ten minutes of grovelling and begging for forgiveness by Weir and her cohorts in the next episode. And they are the people I am supposed to be a fan of.

Strangely enough, I don't have the stomach for some McShep lovin' right now. Actually, I kind of wish their dicks fell off.

I had plans to write a post-"Trinity" fic in which Kavanagh had to correct the timeline by finding and working with an AU Rodney McKay, and they turned into something like friends - very much to Sheppard's consternation. I wanted to redeem Kavanagh, and show Sheppard that McKay did not depend on his friendship. Now I would have to redeem McKay, and I just don't feel like doing that at the moment.

And thankfully I'm not the only one broken up over this, as evidenced by this and this. The majority seems to be ignoring the issue, but at least not all of fandom does.

Comments

[identity profile] lillian78.livejournal.com wrote:
Dec. 11th, 2005 11:58 pm (UTC)
Here via the [livejournal.com profile] sga_newsletter. I'll qualify this by saying I haven't seen the episode yet but I've read all the spoilers in relation to the "torture" scene and I'm not as nearly upset as a lot of folks are. I think by writing it that way it delves quite nicely into the pot of human frailities. Since John, Elizabeth etc. are the official "heroes" of the show we want them to be above all that. But, in war (and in the show they're lives are definitely on the line) the lines tend to get blurred and even stomped upon. How much would a person be willing to do if it mean't saving lives? I'm not so sure I have any answers because I'm not sure I *wouldn't* do what they did in the same situation. Just another thought.
[identity profile] allaire.livejournal.com wrote:
Dec. 13th, 2005 09:15 pm (UTC)
I understand all about the need to make heroes more two-dimensional, give them a "dark side", fracture and splinter them up a little to make them interesting.

But this - this went waaay beyond the pale.

I can't equal torturers with heroes. Ever.

They never even attempted to find another suspect. They never attempted to verify Kavanagh's claims that he'd sent a message to his friends on Atlantis. McKay never went to his people and asked them whether they were friends with Kavanagh and/or knew someone who was.

They never tried to prove him innocent.

They automatically assumed he'd be the guilty one. And on that assumption -- standing on the weak legs it was -- they were willing to turn to torture.

If the people we are supposed to see as heroes are willing to do that, what does that say about your regular Joes around the corner? What does that say about our governments, or our militaries?

Either "hero" is way more elastic a word than it used to be, or torture is a light issue I should't worry my pretty little head about. Either way, the world is very much screwed.

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