Food for Plot Bunnies

[kriadydragon]

I think by now you all know how I feel about stories that involve Rodney yelling at John for stepping in front of that bullet, or Rodney yelling at John until John miraculously heals from his mental torment. And John, of course, grinning and enjoying it because "it's Rodney, it's what Rodney does, and it means that everything is okay."

With some stories, depending on how it's handled, I can buy it. With others, it leaves me rather frustrated because A: in terms of Rodney yelling at John for risking his life to save others, it's rather ungrateful and B: in terms of yelling at John until he heals or opens up, I'm a firm believer that such an action would only make it worse. Finally, even though ranting and raving tends to be Rodney's way of handling things, I feel there has to come a point where Sheppard has had enough - especially when the ranting and raving involves insulting John in some way. Going along with that, I just can't buy Rodney ever calling John an idiot or moron, at least to his face and at least not without John taking offense and fighting back.

However, I do find the potential consequences of such reactions intriguing. I've always wanted to read a story where John does become fed up with the berating, forced purging, insults, or ranting and raving. I've also wanted to write such stories. I've come up with quite a few ideas that involve the consequences of John being forced to open up (they keep turning into chapter fic, though, so it may be a while when or if I write them.) As for Rodney insulting John - getting after him for taking that bullet or what have you - I still haven't been able to come up with anything and doubt that I will. Like I said, I just can't see Rodney doing those things. Therefore, I can't bring myself to write him like that.

But I still find it a fascinating concept full of potential. The story wouldn't have to be centered around the consequences, but could be a subplot or maybe the catalyst to something bigger. Just an idea to ponder if anyone is in need of one. I'm still toying with the concept off and on myself. Hopefully it will result in a one-shot as I'm not ready to return to major chapter fics, yet.

Comments

[sholio]

See... as far as Rodney yelling at/insulting John, and the relative in-character-ness of it, I think it would depend on how it's done. For me, the way I see Rodney, he's a person with no verbal filters who talks a lot but hates admitting how he really feels -- it makes perfect sense that he'd react with anger and bluster in a situation where he's struggling with emotions he doesn't know how to express: for example, yelling at John for worrying him. That sounds like pitch-perfect Rodney to me. And John tends to see straight through that sort of thing -- I wouldn't see him being genuinely hurt by it any more than Rodney was hurt by John's mocking him in episodes like Echoes or Game.

What skews the dynamic is when writers have Rodney being his aggressive, blustery self but don't allow John to fight back. In situations like that, John reads as OOC as Rodney, if not more so, to me. The thing is, John (as I see him) is not a guy who wallows in guilt or cringes from an insult. It's just as bad as when writers depict Rodney as a doormat who has no ability to fight back against John's teasing. They both give and receive some pretty hard verbal punches, and are capable of rolling with it. On the other hand, if either one of them genuinely can't fight back, for whatever reason, they're both capable of pulling their verbal punches and do tend to do that in canon when the other one isn't able to give back as good as he gets. (The ending of Miller's Crossing comes to mind here -- Rodney starts out pushing hard, because he really wants to understand what happened, but pulls back when he realizes that John doesn't want to talk about it.)

Of course, different writers differ in how much they play up the characters' verbal aggressiveness. As a writer, I'm generally more wary of the "too nice" trap than the "too nasty" one, because the characters do have an edge to them and I'd rather err on the side of putting in more fight in them than less. In the whole series, the two of them have only had two serious fights that we've seen (in Trinity and Adrift) which, considering how much they snipe at each other, says a lot about their ability to take the verbal sparring in a friendly sort of way. On the other hand, that doesn't mean it's impossible to write a genuine fight between them. Honestly, I'd love to read more stories that deal with a serious difference of opinion between them -- or any of the team, really. It seems like most of what you find out there is fic in which everyone gets along well -- which I don't have a problem with, because it's total canon and, also, very sweet. But when writers do try to deal with differences in the team, it's often ham-handed and just plain bad, like the infamous Rodney-after-Trinity ones. I really like seeing the characters allowed to be flawed and human and imperfect in fic, and I would really like to see more stories where John and/or Rodney deal with physical/emotional pain in socially unhealthy ways -- because people do that. Actually, that's one thing I really like about Kodiak's stories, because her John tends to become a total ass when he's struggling with the after-effects of injury or PTSD, and that really rings true to me because a lot of people, especially really physically-focused and emotionally suppressed people like John, deal with trauma by snapping at and pushing away people around them.

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

Kodiak's stories, because her John tends to become a total ass when he's struggling with the after-effects of injury or PTSD, and that really rings true to me because a lot of people, especially really physically-focused and emotionally suppressed people like John, deal with trauma by snapping at and pushing away people around them.

You know its good to know that there are people out there who like to see that. The story everybetty and I are trying to finish is exactly just that. Our John is moody, snappy and to a degree an a$$hole towards his team in some instances. A couple of times we stopped and were a tad worried how people would react but its realistic a lot of the times in real life.

Everyone always tends to have John struggle valiantly with his team cheering on which is good and I enjoy that, but sometimes I think John might become depressed or even ticked off by his own struggles.

There are other circumstances that add fuel to the fire with what we're doing of course, but its kind of a big sigh to know that there are others who see this way.

Up sorry for the hijack. :D

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

"What skews the dynamic is when writers have Rodney being his aggressive, blustery self but don't allow John to fight back."

That's what bothers me. When Rodney insults and John insults right back, then it's all good. But when it's one of them insulting without the other ever saying anything in return, then it kind of bugs me because you "know" that, eventually, something will be said by one that the other just "has" to react to. It's who they are, and it's neither as fun nor even natural when they don't. And I just feel that if Rodney ever did call Sheppard a moron or idiot to his face, that would be something John would have to react to. It just doesn't seem like something he'd take so lightly as I've seen happen in some fics. But that could just be my view of things.

I fear I fall into the "too nice" category with Rodney, sometimes. I kind of have a low tolerance for uber aggressive, can-do-no-wrong Rodney. Mostly because his caring side ends up buried beneath his rock-solid ego.

"I really like seeing the characters allowed to be flawed and human and imperfect in fic, and I would really like to see more stories where John and/or Rodney deal with physical/emotional pain in socially unhealthy ways -- because people do that."

Man I so want to write something like that, just for practice. I tend to be a little wary when it comes to giving characters flaws, worrying over creating a character that is either over-flawed in a way that makes the character hard to like, or so under-flawed they're skirting the edges of Mary-Sue-dom. I think that's why I'm a little obsessed with writing a story where Sheppard reacts badly to being forced to open up about something terrible that happened to him. It has a lot of potential for deep, dark conflicts that would be interesting to tackle (having never really done it before, myself.)