Was anyone else disappointed John and Teyla (spoilers)

[Alan Wake]

I always suspected Ronan and Weir would end up together.

[Burns]

I see pairings in Stargate like they are in horror films' a main character "hooks-up" with any other character they die off, It happened it both SG1 and SGA and it could be seen in SGU? So no john and Tayla not a good idea

[Ragitsu]

[Arica15]

No, I didn't really ever get a romantic chemistry between the two, they worked very well as two caring friends one of whom happened to be male and one female (after the initial attraction died out). Actually, it was one of the best things about the show, how the goregous guy and girl could manage to be just good friends.

I was sorry they didn't go anywhere with the Nancy plotline, the two actors had good chemistry and she seemed an interesting character

[bluealien]

Yes.

It had been building up for 3 years but then Rachels pregnancy threw them for a loop and we ended up with the invisble lover out of nowhere crappy storyline. Teyla and John were wonderfull together. Their chemistry was apparent from the very first moment they met. But towards the later seasons I don't think the writers knew what they wanted to do, and there was no direction or follow up to far too many of the storylines, including shipping. Or the writers were just concerned about their own favourite characters getting a happy ending, ie McKeller.

[nephtys59]

No, I wasn't disappointed, btw they had no chemistry together and it would have been a relationship coming out of nowhere, there was no buildup at all.

[Ragitsu]

btw they had no chemistry together.

They had more chemistry than Rodney McKay's lab.

[Atlantis4Life]

Yes.

I've never cared too much about the guy/gal relationships on shows until this one. The only other shows where I've cared somewhat about the romantic relationships are the few I've watched where the relationship is such a major part of the show that you can't get around it, like on Chuck. However, even on that show, I still thought that Chuck dating that hot brunette from The OC was just as good as him being with Sarah.

Shep and Teyla are the only "couple" that I've really rooted for in a show, and just look at how that turned out! Oh, well. It was a missed opportunity for sure.

Yes.

It had been building up for 3 years but then Rachels pregnancy threw them for a loop and we ended up with the invisble lover out of nowhere crappy storyline. Teyla and John were wonderfull together. Their chemistry was apparent from the very first moment they met. But towards the later seasons I don't think the writers knew what they wanted to do, and there was no direction or follow up to far too many of the storylines, including shipping. Or the writers were just concerned about their own favourite characters getting a happy ending, ie McKeller.

Blue, you know, I agree with you so much I should start calling you Green.

They had more chemistry than Rodney McKay's lab.

Exactly! They had a connection ever since Rising, but I can understand if supporters of other ships want to feel differently. However, Shep and Teyla would have been nice if handled properly. That's where the challenge would have been, in writing it well. The actors would have done a fine job. Like I said before, oh well...

[Ragitsu]

It just felt natural. It felt...right. It worked precisely because it wasn't forced, and it wasn't cheesy. I would have liked to see those two together.

Once again, this is coming from a viewer who isn't a "shipper". That goes to show you how expertly the characters were handled (at least, to start with) by writer and actor alike: because it managed to interest even me.

[Arica15]

I'm not surprised, Rodney was a physicist

(sorry, couldn't resist)

[Atlantis4Life]

Oh, but you know that McKay is like Carter in the sense that he probably got 15 degrees by the time he was 30! There's got to be a chemistry degree in there somewhere. LOL.

[Falcon Horus]

Captain Jack Sparrow says to Will Turner in that cave at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl:

"You know the moment." Will nodds. "That was it."

The moment for John and Teyla was indeed in the Rising in that cave-like structure...but that's all there is. That was it. For which I am not unhappy because the PTB have proven over and over that writing relationships in any form or size is just not something they're good at. They'll frak it up good. Friendships or romantic encounters... the first better between male characters than female characters (which they had just as much trouble writing for), the second a disaster to the nth degree.

McKay/Keller - odd pairing to say the least but more about McKay getting the girl than anything else, and had an equally lousy build-up as Teyla/Kanaan.

Teyla/Kanaan - if only the writers would have had the courage to spend more time on their female lead (all of them) and had the brains to actually develop these characters into 3D people, then this could have been a lot better. At present this is just another superficial relationship that requires the viewer to fill in the blanks (am happy to oblige even though it fraks up my OTP a little - which isn't the pairing of the topic but does involve Teyla)

But as is yet again proven in this very thread, people like to see what they like to see - what they prefer to see.

And now I'm going to sit back and relax, with a bag of chips and a big coke... and watch how this thread will end up in a [insert ship] vs [insert ship] fight.

The OP has no idea about the can of wriggly worms they have just opened... oh dear... this is going to be messy.

[Atlantis4Life]

Thank goodness this is not a thread about the multiple (failed?) relationships of SGA. That, unfortunately, really would be opening up can of worms.

I do not foresee WW3 happening on this thread if people just plainly answer the question. Some people are going to see the connection/desire that John and Teyla had for each other over the course of 5 seasons, like Shep dreaming about being with Teyla in S&R and many other instances, and some will choose not to. That is fine.

I will keep checking out this thread, but I do not expect to see a "show." In fact, I hope I don't... However, if people that have other specific preferences want to try to create a conflict, then there is nothing any member can do to stop that.

Cheers.

[Killdeer]

But as is yet again proven in this very thread, people like to see what they like to see - what they prefer to see.

And now I'm going to sit back and relax, with a bag of chips and a big coke... and watch how this thread will end up in a [insert ship] vs [insert ship] fight.

I would say people see what they see. It's not always what they want to see (for example, I would have preferred NOT to see Jack/Sam ship in SG-1, but unfortunately I still saw it). But the main point still holds true. There was an article I saw a while back talking about how we're all watching different shows - the point being that two fans can watch exactly the same show and come away with totally different conclusions. Neither is wrong - the only problem comes in when they try to "prove" that their perspective is the "correct" one to each other.

I don't think there's any need for ship wars, as long as people can stick to only stating their own experience and perspective, and restrain themselves from making assumptions and generalizations about why other fans might not share that perspective. That way is the way in which all ship wars start.

So to start with - in my own personal experience, I didn't become a part of fandom until very late in S3. I didn't have any knowledge of any of the pre-series press or any interviews or anything like that until late in S3, about the time SG-1 got canceled and we started hearing rumblings about all the changes afoot. So prior to that time, my ideas of the characters were based only on what I saw onscreen (I know others might have had similiar experiences and come to different conclusions - I'm just explaining my own background). So, in my own experience, I saw absolutely no indications that a John/Teyla ship was even an option. It honestly never even occurred to me, even after the Conversion kiss. I always thought of John and Teyla's relationship as being more comparable to Jack and Teal'c. Based on what I saw, I was pretty convinced that the ships the writers were going for were Ronon/Teyla and John/Elizabeth. Ronon/Teyla I would have been happy with, but I was not thrilled about John/Elizabeth, because I have serious issues with superior/subordinate relationships, and I wouldn't have been happy with a relationship between John and Elizabeth while she was still his boss. Nonetheless, based on what I saw on screen and after watching how the writers had done the Jack/Sam relationship over eight years, I was pretty convinced that was what they were going for anyway.

After S3, things did change, and I did see them trying to introduce a bit more of something between John and Teyla in episodes like Doppleganger (from Teyla's viewpoint) and Search and Rescue (from John's). But (again to me) it didn't really work because I hadn't seen any buildup for it. And honestly I would not have been happy about it, again because of my issue with superior/subordinate relationships. While Teyla is not technically in the chain of command, John does tend to (IMO) treat her and order her around as if she is - we saw that particularly when the issue of her pregnancy came up. I did not feel, especially in the later seasons, like they were on an equal basis power-wise, and so I never would have been comfortable with them being in a relationship because of what I felt were the power issues involved, just as I was never comfortable with the Jack/Sam relationship. So yes, I was relieved that they did not ultimately go with a John/Teyla relationship being canon, and I quite honestly like Kanaan. I would have been happier to see that relationship developed a little more, but I liked what little I saw of it, I like that it emphasizes Teyla's connection to her people, and I very much like that it reverses the traditional gender roles of a couple, with Teyla being the warrior/breadwinner of the two and Kanaan being the househusband/child caretaker.

[Atlantis4Life]

Just came back to this thread, and I couldn't agree more with people seeing what they want to see/having different perspectives being the case. That's a great point. No perspective is "correct" or "incorrect." However, what did or didn't happen in the show is what did or didn't happen.

That's where I think all of the "conflict" comes from: People try to say things that didn't happen did, or that things that really did happen didn't. We can all have our own opinions about what did or didn't happen, but we can't change what has already been filmed and aired on television.

I hadn't watched any SG-1 when I started watching SGA, so my personal experience wasn't colored by Sam/Jack or Jack/Teal'c. I just watched the show for what it was worth as someone new to Stargate at the time. So I suppose my perspective is different. I never saw John and Elizabeth as anything close to being a potential couple because I didn't expect it to happen based on what happened with Sam and Jack on SG-1. I had no expectations when I began watching SGA other than to see if it was a show worth watching for me, and for me it was.

I just watched the show and looked at where the writers were taking me - again this is my perspective based on what I saw in the show. So, I'm sure that's going to differ from the show that other people were watching based on their perspectives and expectations going into it.

This leads to why I was disappointed that John and Teyla did not get together by the end of the series. I saw the same slow build up that Ragitsu saw during the early seasons (1-3), and the same oxymoron of obviously-subtle interactions between the John and Teyla characters. It became more apparent (to me) in later seasons with things like the examples of the dreams that John and Teyla had in S&R and Doppelganger, or what a mutual friend saw (on and off camera) like Ronon. (I also never saw Ronon and Teyla as anything more than friends that were like brother and sister btw.) Kanaan came from nowhere to me, and that's something that I didn't like about the show. Teyla also never seemed happy with him to me. I got the impression that she stayed with him because they had a child together. Again, that's just me. Things started to fall apart in certain ways for me in season 4 (although it had its highlights and good parts), and John and Teyla were a part of that. I could also talk about how Katie and McKay sadly and too rapidly dissolved after a 2 year build up and near marriage proposal in 1 episode (Quarantine), but this wouldn't be the thread for discussing that.

Everyone sees something different, yes. And for me, with John and Teyla, I saw 2 people that I thought would have have been together by the end of the show, based on what I saw throughout the show. It is sad that it didn't happen. But that's just me and other people that I've spoken to and corresponded with, many of which were new to Stargate when SGA came along, and many of which were not.

Perhaps we were wrong about what the writers had intended for the show based on what we saw and perceived. Perhaps we were right. None of us will ever know if John and Teyla finally get together in the end. The show ended how it ended. And, it ended with a cliffhanger to me. Elizabeth was left behind by a space gate. I would have liked to have seen her find happiness with that guy in Sunday. Teyla has a child (Torren John) with her childhood friend, Kanaan. Shep is alone. McKeller is front and center. And Ronon is with Amelia (I think this covers all of the relationships, but I may have forgotten someone). Then there's the issue of Ford and Beckett (imo). Atlantis' fate hangs in the balance by the Golden Gate Bridge, along with the fate of those in the Pegasus galaxy that need the protection of Atlantis... A movie may or may not be made that will let us know how the story truly ends.

Cheers.