Rodney McKay/John Sheppard Friendship Thread

[Easter Lily]

I often wonder if both men weren't loners... which might explain why they connect so well in spite of the barbs... Many extremely intelligent people were/are social misfits... they don't see the world around them in quite the same light. Perhaps that is truer of Rodney than it is of Sheppard. It isn't too much of a leap to suggest that Rodney has adopted this abrasive personality in response to mistreatment as a child or to others shunning his company. With all our idealizations about children, I think we often forget that they are capable of great cruelty. Shep may have been a weedy, geeky mathematical genius for all we know.
I don't know that what they are now is necessarily an indication of what they were as children but in all probability that the experiences of life have moulded them into the men that they are now... for better or for worse.

[killer_tinkerbell]

What I don't get is why DID Sheppard choose McKay to be on his team? I understand why he picked Ford and Teyla he had freindly interations with them and was in battle with them in the pilot. But compared to Ford and Teyla there was very little interation between Sheppard and McKay in the begining.

The Rising ends with Weir telling Sheppard to choose his team and then next ep. McKay is suddenly on the team. Why? Was it just Sheppard needing to choose a sceintist and he happened to choose McKay or what? I'd really like to hear your theories.

[Easter Lily]

In short, I think he thought having a scientist on board would be a helpful addition seeing that their role was to find ZPMs. Rodney would have the technical know-how and could potentially play a significant role in tracking them down.
Of course... no scifi team is ever complete without a scientist...

[SaharaGate]

lol! Oh my goodness, I can totally see that! I can only imagine what parent-teacher conferences must have been like...Rodney McKay: does not play well with others.

LOL!

I bet the teachers were baffled when he got straight A's despite not being a 'team player' heh.

[SaharaGate]

I think you pegged them both right. Although as a kid I'm betting Rodney used his GENIUS to get what he wanted. Sneaky Bird. And Shep used his smarts too, then just smiled angelically and every female adult swooned and declared him too angelic to be naughty. They played to their strengths! LOL

lol

I think you're right.

Now what would have happened if the naughty angel and the naughty genius were put in the same room

I bet Rodney would have made John cry and John would have been all like 'what the? *I'm* the king of the sandpit'...

[SaharaGate]

I often wonder if both men weren't loners... which might explain why they connect so well in spite of the barbs... Many extremely intelligent people were/are social misfits... they don't see the world around them in quite the same light. Perhaps that is truer of Rodney than it is of Sheppard.

I'd say that's probably true of Rodney and to some extent Shep. As somebody else somewhere (possibly here) has said, John didn't like Antarctica for the social life

And yet I can't help seeing him as very friendly, outgoing and generally liked, especially when he was younger.

Which leads me to wonder if he isn't hiding something beneath that optimistic exterior.

It isn't too much of a leap to suggest that Rodney has adopted this abrasive personality in response to mistreatment as a child or to others shunning his company. With all our idealizations about children, I think we often forget that they are capable of great cruelty.

True, and he has said his childhood wasn't a happy one.

Shep may have been a weedy, geeky mathematical genius for all we know.

Strangely enough I can see that too. But I could see him growing out of that in his teenage years once girls started to register on his radar .

Because we all know he's a little hussy.

[SaharaGate]

What I don't get is why DID Sheppard choose McKay to be on his team? I understand why he picked Ford and Teyla he had freindly interations with them and was in battle with them in the pilot. But compared to Ford and Teyla there was very little interation between Sheppard and McKay in the begining.

The Rising ends with Weir telling Sheppard to choose his team and then next ep. McKay is suddenly on the team. Why? Was it just Sheppard needing to choose a sceintist and he happened to choose McKay or what? I'd really like to hear your theories.

Hmm there's probably a story in that (no doubt there are fics about it). I would love to see the 'missing scene' where Shep asks Rodney to be on the team.

I bet Rodney, on the surface, would have thought 'of *course* the military commander of Atlantis wants me on his team. I *am* a genius after all.'

But underneath, I bet he was very pleased to be asked to be on what basically amounts to the lead expedition team and I bet he was secretly surprised and/or humbled by it.

Not that humble is a word normally associated with Mckay but you get my drift heh.

Perhaps he even worried whether he would be adquate to the task.

[Elinor]

That scene always cracks me up:


SHEPPARD: Try to fly the “baby” in a straight line.
McKAY: I am flying in a straight line.
SHEPPARD: Not so much.

My fave McKay/Shep scene too! Hope we have more like that in season 2!

[Steve_the_Wraith]

The Rising ends with Weir telling Sheppard to choose his team and then next ep. McKay is suddenly on the team. Why? Was it just Sheppard needing to choose a sceintist and he happened to choose McKay or what? I'd really like to hear your theories.

Forgive me if I'm wrong but the next episode is Hide and Seek and Mckay isn't on the team then. I always thought he proved himself to Sheppard and everyone else in that episode

[Wordsmit2]

I often wonder if both men weren't loners... which might explain why they connect so well in spite of the barbs... Many extremely intelligent people were/are social misfits... they don't see the world around them in quite the same light. Perhaps that is truer of Rodney than it is of Sheppard. It isn't too much of a leap to suggest that Rodney has adopted this abrasive personality in response to mistreatment as a child or to others shunning his company. With all our idealizations about children, I think we often forget that they are capable of great cruelty. Shep may have been a weedy, geeky mathematical genius for all we know.
I don't know that what they are now is necessarily an indication of what they were as children but in all probability that the experiences of life have moulded them into the men that they are now... for better or for worse.

I haven't seen enough of Sheppard to really say.

But McKay is easy. Seems to me (from observations now and in my own experience) Rodney would have been almost exactly the same as a child as he is now. He applies logic to everything. Being very intelligent, he would have done so from a very young age, so he would have had virtually no tolerance for impulsive behavior on the part of other children. In the occasional irrational disagreement, he'd have declared everyone stupid and walked off. (But as with all children, things would have been back to normal in a few hours.) In any major incident which would have gotten a teacher or other playground supervisor involved he'd have outlined what had happened in accurate detail while the other kids wouldn't have been quite sure what had happened. Teachers were probably quite fond of him in his single-digit years, because he was coherent and interested and asked questions.

In fact, young Rodney was probably great fun for kids to be around. Can you imagine (or remember) the elaborate play fantasies he'd have constructed?

As he got knowledgeable enough to get argumentative, of course, he'd have been more of a trial to his teachers. In his preteen years he'd have begun to get so busy reading and researching he'd have drawn away from his peers. He wouldn't have missed them as long as he was busy. Also, if there were any sports he was fond of, he'd have just been a regular kid in that.

If he was a real person, McKay's abrasiveness would have developed in his late teen years or even well into adulthood when he was treading in intellectual territory few understood. As a child he might have quoted catchy insults from the books he read, but he'd have started to *mean* them in his teen years, and invented his own as an exasperated adult.

[Wordsmit2]

As somebody else somewhere (possibly here) has said, John didn't like Antarctica for the social life

And yet I can't help seeing him as very friendly, outgoing and generally liked, especially when he was younger.

Which leads me to wonder if he isn't hiding something beneath that optimistic exterior.

His

Spoiler:

party of dead people

in "Home" is probably a clue.

[Porthos1013]

I bet Rodney would have made John cry and John would have been all like 'what the? *I'm* the king of the sandpit'...

lol! I can totally see this happening. Poor John. And poor Rodney after John figures out how to take revenge on the little twerp! (j/k, I really love Rodney, but he had to have been a handful as a child!)

And I agree with everything you say, Wordsmit. I especially like your comment:

In the occasional irrational disagreement, he'd have declared everyone stupid and walked off.

I could see him doing this even now, actually.

[Porthos1013]

Hmm there's probably a story in that (no doubt there are fics about it). I would love to see the 'missing scene' where Shep asks Rodney to be on the team.

I bet Rodney, on the surface, would have thought 'of *course* the military commander of Atlantis wants me on his team. I *am* a genius after all.'

But underneath, I bet he was very pleased to be asked to be on what basically amounts to the lead expedition team and I bet he was secretly surprised and/or humbled by it.

Not that humble is a word normally associated with Mckay but you get my drift heh.

Perhaps he even worried whether he would be adquate to the task.

I think you've got Rodney pegged pretty well. Sounds a lot like him.

But what I also wonder about, along with killer_tinkerbell, is why did John want Rodney on his team? I suppose you could somewhat combine the two discussions we've been having here, and say that the two somehow sensed a bond with each other. In my opinion, they are both somewhat loners who cover their insecurities with a facade: a harsh facade in Rodney's case and a jovial, outgoing facade in John's case. I think they may have been able to sense this about each other, perhaps moreso in John's case since he seems less oblivious to people's feelings (like Rodney) so that might have given him the unique ability to see beyond Rodney's facade to the man beneath, and also allowed him to ignore the more abrasive side of McKay.

Forgive me if I'm wrong but the next episode is Hide and Seek and Mckay isn't on the team then. I always thought he proved himself to Sheppard and everyone else in that episode

I agree, I'm sure this had a lot to do with it. Probably moreso than what I just rambled about a minute ago.

[Girl Clone]

But McKay is easy. Seems to me (from observations now and in my own experience) Rodney would have been almost exactly the same as a child as he is now. He applies logic to everything. Being very intelligent, he would have done so from a very young age, so he would have had virtually no tolerance for impulsive behavior on the part of other children. In the occasional irrational disagreement, he'd have declared everyone stupid and walked off.
[snipped]
If he was a real person, McKay's abrasiveness would have developed in his late teen years or even well into adulthood when he was treading in intellectual territory few understood. As a child he might have quoted catchy insults from the books he read, but he'd have started to *mean* them in his teen years, and invented his own as an exasperated adult.

It's also entirely possible that Rodney just didn't like the other kids because they weren't very interesting. I am nowhere near as smart as McKay (I actually relate much more to Sheppard because I, too, passed the Mensa test and then couldn't ever be bothered to join) but my parents remember me in first grade where I just would not associate with the other kids at all. My parents took me to a psychiatrist to see if there was something wrong with me. Turns out I was just bored

So I can see Rodney being a loner for much of his childhood just as much as I can see him the way you've suggested.

[watcher652]

What I find funny is that Rodney is so intelligent, his mind is flitting from topic to topic even while he's talking on a particular subject. Then he latches on to something miles away from the original subject. Elizabeth has more than once told Rodney to focus on the topic at hand.

John is usually quite focussed, unitl he's with McKay. Then, if John himself isn't telling Rodney to focus, John is getting distracted with Rodney's sidebar comments and Elizabeth has to tell the both of them to focus!