why was teyla underused ?

[chrono trigger]

can someone explain why after the first season the writers lost interest in her character because there were episodes where she would only speak one sentence or not being in them at all which for the only female character to last all 5 seasons is a shame. i honestly think the writers played favourites to much in atlantis so do you agree or think another character was more badly treated than teyla

[jelgate]

can someone explain why after the first season the writers lost interest in her character because there were episodes where she would only speak one sentence or not being in them at all which for the only female character to last all 5 seasons is a shame. i honestly think the writers played favourites to much in atlantis so do you agree or think another character was more badly treated than teyla

Because Ronon pretty much fills the same character role as Teyla. I think thier are plenty of badly written in SGA but Teyla was probably the worse. The underlying problem is unbalance with all this Shep and McKay and little of the others

[chrono trigger]

Because Ronon pretty much fills the same character role as Teyla. I think thier are plenty of badly written in SGA but Teyla was probably the worse. The underlying problem is unbalance with all this Shep and McKay and little of the others

thats how i felt

[Pharaoh Atem]

Writers only write the characters that are intersting.

[jelgate]

Writers only write the characters that are intersting.

And whose fault is it that the character aren't interesting?

[Pharaoh Atem]

And whose fault is it that the character aren't interesting?

part actor/ part writers.

[cflat]

There was a reason why they (the writers) made the season 4 arc be about Teyla's people being missing.

[suse]

I agree that adding Ronon diminished Teyla greatly. She was not much more that agreeable wallpaper for most of the rest of the series. Adding him did duplicate her skill set and her connection to Pegasus Galaxy. After the initial adjustment period - I was quite annoyed when they got rid of Ford see? I *can* adjust! - he quickly became my favorite character, but it was definitely to the detriment of Teyla. What a shame. I liked her too. And not some of the overused characters. At all.

[Dex Luther]

I never really liked Teyla anyways. The arc about her baby was annoying and boring. IMO they should have gotten another actress and written the character very differently.

[JoeRocks]

One of the actors at a con commented on the writers and how they found it hard to write three-dimensional female characters and struggled to know where to take them. I kinda agree, but also there was far too much focus on McKay and then McKay/Keller (though I really like McKay as a character). Ronon was way underused too, especially in the latter half of season 5.

[kusanagi]

Teyla is bad written and the fact she is boring has nothing to do with the (or lack of) skills of the actress.

[Blencathra]

Actually I thought Teyla & Ronon complemented each other very well.

I thought there were many stories that could have been explored, for example, what about the baby? What happened to all the hype about Torren being some sort of prophet or whatever it was? IMO the writers simply lost interest in Teyla (and Ronon) and left all stories about her up in the air, preferring to concentrate on McKay. Though to be honest, I don't think the writers are capable of writing a decent story for a female character.

[Linda06]

Because they were far more interested in writing for their favourite character that they forgot they had other characters there that they should have been writing for also

Actually I thought Teyla & Ronon complemented each other very well.

I thought there were many stories that could have been explored, for example, what about the baby? What happened to all the hype about Torren being some sort of prophet or whatever it was? IMO the writers simply lost interest in Teyla (and Ronon) and left all stories about her up in the air, preferring to concentrate on McKay. Though to be honest, I don't think the writers are capable of writing a decent story for a female character.

I thought Teyla and Ronon had good chemistry with each other. But in the end they both ended up as wallpaper because TPTB were only interested in their favourite character. with the exception of Alan McCullough who really tried to use Teyla, and to a lesser extent Carl Binder

[Mongoletsi]

To be fair, Ronon was just a walking cliché, at least Teyla wasn't so pigeon-holed.

[maxbo]

Teyla was underused because, according to Paul Mullie, Teyla and Ronon were the hardest characters to write and, unfortunately, the Boys at Bridge either lacked the imagination or were too lazy to do the work needed to develop characters that they found difficult to write. A character like Teyla required writers who were up to the challenge of worldbuilding and writing outside of their comfort zone. Sadly, SGA didn't have writers like this - at least not in charge.

It's a shame that, even though Teyla and Ronon were such different characters, that the Boys at Bridge decided that it was easier to try to make them interchangeable than to explore their distinct backgrounds. Each of these characters had so much that could have been explored that I wish that SGA had writers who were up for the challenge developing SGA beyond the very narrow, very limited Rodney McKay point-of-view.

Unfortunately, SGA's writers liked to keep things easy and writing for Rodney was easy for them - even though in the end they didn't do poor Rodney any favors either by focusing on him so much because now that the series is over, Rodney is the character that I'm the least interested in.

Thank goodness for the upcoming SGA novels because based on what I've heard about the writers of these novels, they seem to be more open going beyond the series and exploring what the TV writers found too hard to write.