![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Running Sam Carter through the Mary Sue Litmus Test...
Or something like that. Complete with snarky commentary...
Lets run through the standard Mary Sue Checklist:
1. Character flaws?
Is the character arrogant? Yes. Witness her "my ovaries trump your dick" from season one.
Clumsy? No. It would be hard for her to actually, y'know, manipulate tools if she were clumsy. Oh! But wait, I keep forgetting, everyone has to be clumsy.
Judgemental? Yup.
Have a bad temper? Even with all the crap that's happened to her, no. Which is impressive. But I guess having your mother die is worse than being tortured by a goa'uld.
1b. Is she gorgeous? Beautiful (exotic colored) Eyes? Great body...
Blonde. Blue eyed. Nope. Not exotic. And not gorgeous by everyone's standards (Claudia Black of Farscape isn't, either). She pretty much looks like the average girl next door.
2. Does she make mistakes (more than once a year)?
Let's see. Red Sky, anyone? How about Gemini? Did she let Earth get swallowed by a black hole? Of course, as a well-trained air force officer, I guess she should be making lots of mistakes. After all, our well-trained president makes mistakes. It's a human frailty.
3. Constantly saving the day! ...That would be her job, wouldn't it? Of course, she rarely does it on her own. Without the Colonel's Occam's Razor, or Daniel deciphering glyphs and symbols, or Teal'c being confident, she'd simply do the wrong, more-complicated thing and it would go BOOM.
Around for every emergency? She has no life. I'm sorry, let me repeat that: she has no life. If she had a life, she wouldn't be on base even on her off hours and downtime.
The right person for every job every time? Nope. She's an astrophysicist, not a doctor (I guess they figure a woman should always be field medic. *sarcasm*). She over-thinks situations, she doesn't always see the big picture (although I think the Colonel's influence should have helped that, but we have no idea since all we saw in season 8 was the fucking NID and stupid shit). She is NOT always right.
4. Exceptional talent? (such as ... erp... unusual intelligence or.. a
Naquadah-enhanced-mental-ability to detect the enemy...) She got the naquadah-sensing by getting mind-raped. I'm sorry, was that supposed to be a good thing? Yes, she thinks fast on her feet. She's been trained to do so.
5. Does she often have conflict with other [main] characters (meaning the heros) not just the villains? This one actually applies to NEW characters, but we'll take it in stride. She's worked with these people for eight years now. In that time, she's challenged her CO to arm-wrestling, argued with his orders, and disobeyed them (Bloodlines). Most of her conflicts have been with her CO, or with him leading the way and all four of them bucking the authority of the US government via the SGC. If in eight years she was still having conflicts with the people she works closely with? Something. Is. Wrong.
6. Does she fall in love with your favorite (main) character? Depends. Is it love or lust? Of course, some people prefer Daniel to Jack. Others prefer Teal'c to both of them.
By the way, this test? Is supposed to be applied to a 'new' character. So, if you apply it to season one Sam:
She's judgemental, temperamental, arrogant, disobeys orders, and doesn't love anyone but her ex-fiance.
And she's so green the shiny hasn't worn off of her.
Lets run through the standard Mary Sue Checklist:
1. Character flaws?
Is the character arrogant? Yes. Witness her "my ovaries trump your dick" from season one.
Clumsy? No. It would be hard for her to actually, y'know, manipulate tools if she were clumsy. Oh! But wait, I keep forgetting, everyone has to be clumsy.
Judgemental? Yup.
Have a bad temper? Even with all the crap that's happened to her, no. Which is impressive. But I guess having your mother die is worse than being tortured by a goa'uld.
1b. Is she gorgeous? Beautiful (exotic colored) Eyes? Great body...
Blonde. Blue eyed. Nope. Not exotic. And not gorgeous by everyone's standards (Claudia Black of Farscape isn't, either). She pretty much looks like the average girl next door.
2. Does she make mistakes (more than once a year)?
Let's see. Red Sky, anyone? How about Gemini? Did she let Earth get swallowed by a black hole? Of course, as a well-trained air force officer, I guess she should be making lots of mistakes. After all, our well-trained president makes mistakes. It's a human frailty.
3. Constantly saving the day! ...That would be her job, wouldn't it? Of course, she rarely does it on her own. Without the Colonel's Occam's Razor, or Daniel deciphering glyphs and symbols, or Teal'c being confident, she'd simply do the wrong, more-complicated thing and it would go BOOM.
Around for every emergency? She has no life. I'm sorry, let me repeat that: she has no life. If she had a life, she wouldn't be on base even on her off hours and downtime.
The right person for every job every time? Nope. She's an astrophysicist, not a doctor (I guess they figure a woman should always be field medic. *sarcasm*). She over-thinks situations, she doesn't always see the big picture (although I think the Colonel's influence should have helped that, but we have no idea since all we saw in season 8 was the fucking NID and stupid shit). She is NOT always right.
4. Exceptional talent? (such as ... erp... unusual intelligence or.. a
Naquadah-enhanced-mental-ability to detect the enemy...) She got the naquadah-sensing by getting mind-raped. I'm sorry, was that supposed to be a good thing? Yes, she thinks fast on her feet. She's been trained to do so.
5. Does she often have conflict with other [main] characters (meaning the heros) not just the villains? This one actually applies to NEW characters, but we'll take it in stride. She's worked with these people for eight years now. In that time, she's challenged her CO to arm-wrestling, argued with his orders, and disobeyed them (Bloodlines). Most of her conflicts have been with her CO, or with him leading the way and all four of them bucking the authority of the US government via the SGC. If in eight years she was still having conflicts with the people she works closely with? Something. Is. Wrong.
6. Does she fall in love with your favorite (main) character? Depends. Is it love or lust? Of course, some people prefer Daniel to Jack. Others prefer Teal'c to both of them.
By the way, this test? Is supposed to be applied to a 'new' character. So, if you apply it to season one Sam:
She's judgemental, temperamental, arrogant, disobeys orders, and doesn't love anyone but her ex-fiance.
And she's so green the shiny hasn't worn off of her.
no subject
Oh definitely. Sam sometimes forgets to see people as people, and not part of an equation.