What do you think of Weir? Why?

[[SGC_ReplicÅtors]]

nah for her stealing candy from a baby

[MarshAngel]

What I wish I saw in the leadership of Atlantis was a sense of trying to complete their mission. Weir is responsible for directing this. The goal of the expedition was to learn more about Atlantis and the city and find weapons and information that can be used to defend Earth.

However, since far too early in the series, Weir has treated Atlantis like a colony she governs than a mission she oversees. I expected a sense of home after a while but they forgot their goal to soon and she was responsible for making sure they didn't. I never got the sense that she has been directing the focus of her scientists and other experts into completing their goals. Her focus has been on defending against the Wraith, but if the city is so important and so at risk, they should be scouring every square inch for data and sending it to Earth at every opportunity and she should be focusing on that in case they do lose it.

She hasn't shown any inclination of planning for any future besides one of fighting the Wraith and blowing up the city. When they aren't under attack she relaxes and does nothing... as far as I've seen. Has she planned another escape route for her people besides Earth? What are their options if they're cut off from Earth again and or lose the Daedalus? These are just some of the things she should be focusing on. Sheppard should be handling the matter of the Wraith but all those other issues are hers to deal with. What she was doing at the outpost, is exactly what she should be seen doing more often.

[the fifth man]

I don't hate Dr. Weir at all. I think she's a great character doing the best she can in her role.

[Mitchell82]

I don't hate Dr. Weir at all. I think she's a great character doing the best she can in her role.

I do too. She has alot of tough decisions to make and I think she has done an excellent job in some very tough situations. Sure she makes mistakes, everybody does even military leaders!

[xfkirsten]

When they aren't under attack she relaxes and does nothing... as far as I've seen.

As a perfectly honest question, I'm wondering where you get that from. Because I see her working all the time, and who knows what she's working on? For all we know, it very well could be planning for the future.

[EdenSG]

I don’t hate Weir. For the most part I like the character. I do think she is more interesting this season.

A lot of comments have been made about bad writing. While I do think some of the writing for her could be better I also wonder if some what is called bad writing/decisions were deliberate by the writers.

Spoiler:

I think the character of Weir got pretty close to losing her position (No Man’s Land and Misbegotten). She was pretty much told that the reason the IOA was willing to let her stay was only because they wanted the military even less. Then in “Misbegotten” Woolsey says he is going to report to the IOA that she ordered Sheppard and crew to fire upon the camp with the Wraith humans, “thereby eliminating the threat.” He gave her credit for a military action that was aimed at trying to protect earth as justification that she should stay in command – at least “for now.”

In essence did this not send the message, hey make those tough decisions, defend earth, Atlantis at all costs or risk losing your job? So now I think her character is now trying to balance being the diplomat on one hand and a tougher – more military like leader on the other. And it is hard to do since for the most part the two are diametrically opposed. Perhaps this is part of what the writers are doing with her character; a challenge for her character and some change/growth in the character? I am not really sure myself if this is what the writers are doing but I think it could be possible.

As for most of the decisions she made, I don’t have a problem with them. Their backs were up against the wall, most situations were like a Catch -22, and ultimately the need to protect Atlantis and Earth came first. I really can’t fault her or the team for that. Now could some of those Catch-22 situations been avoided if better decisions were made in the very beginning? Yes! But the writers chose not to write it that way. They are making it tough on her and the rest of the Atlantis team. They are not giving them the easy way out. I rather like the challenges that they are facing. I think it makes for more interesting stories, more than just one dimensional characters, and a better opportunity for character growth as well as for a lot of interesting discussion on these forums.


There has also been discussion on the decision she made in "Progeny."
I think there was no other choice because:

Spoiler:

1. There was no guarantee that the upload of the rewritten base code would be successful.
2. It appears to me that neither Rodney nor Niam could initiate a sub space “merge” to spread the new code – as Rodney said, “…there are periodic collective program updates or merges where they exchange new information.”
3. They were running out of time – even before Rodney had rewritten the code the Asuran woman announced they were approaching Atlantis and would soon be coming out of hyperspace. They had little time to act.
4. Even if a merge occurred before they reached Atlantis and the new base load was successfully uploaded there I don’t think there was absolute certainty that Niam would have been able to keep Oberoth from destroying Atlantis.
When he was offering them the “deal” Naim said, “I believe Oberoth is attacking Atlantis as a result of that programming. If we can prove that it can be altered I will do everything in my power to persuade him not to.” Later John said, “Even if he (Niam) can honor his part of the deal there is no guarantee that he can stop Oberoth from attacking Atlantis.” And then when they were getting ready to rig the ZPM’s to overload, Niam said, “I said I would do everything in my power (to keep Oberoth from attacking Atlantis), Weir asked, “Can you promise me you will succeed?” Niam shakes his head no. It seems to me she gave him one final chance to offer her a solution so that she would not have to destroy the city and the Asurans on board.
5. They chose the only course of action that they knew had the best chance of succeeding. ( success defined as escaping and not having Atlantis destroyed)

[bluealien]

There has also been discussion on the decision she made in "Progeny."
I think there was no other choice because:

Spoiler:

1. There was no guarantee that the upload of the rewritten base code would be successful.
2. It appears to me that neither Rodney nor Niam could initiate a sub space “merge” to spread the new code – as Rodney said, “…there are periodic collective program updates or merges where they exchange new information.”
3. They were running out of time – even before Rodney had rewritten the code the Asuran woman announced they were approaching Atlantis and would soon be coming out of hyperspace. They had little time to act.
4. Even if a merge occurred before they reached Atlantis and the new base load was successfully uploaded there I don’t think there was absolute certainty that Niam would have been able to keep Oberoth from destroying Atlantis.
When he was offering them the “deal” Naim said, “I believe Oberoth is attacking Atlantis as a result of that programming. If we can prove that it can be altered I will do everything in my power to persuade him not to.” Later John said, “Even if he (Niam) can honor his part of the deal there is no guarantee that he can stop Oberoth from attacking Atlantis.” And then when they were getting ready to rig the ZPM’s to overload, Niam said, “I said I would do everything in my power (to keep Oberoth from attacking Atlantis), Weir asked, “Can you promise me you will succeed?” Niam shakes his head no. It seems to me she gave him one final chance to offer her a solution so that she would not have to destroy the city and the Asurans on board.
5. They chose the only course of action that they knew had the best chance of succeeding. ( success defined as escaping and not having Atlantis destroyed)

Why not warn Atlantis and tell them to evacuate. Millions of lives versus 200 when maybe those 200 could have gone through the gate to earth. How many people in the Pegasus galaxy will be wiped out to save Atlantis and the expedition. Are their lives worth the death of millions. Weir accused Oberoth of being arrogant but isnt it just as arrogant placing 200 living over millions.

The Asurans had lived peacefully for thousands of years and even with their agressive programming they seemd pretty chilled. So along come the Atlantis team and within a short space of time their whole city is destroyed. Who is the evil agresser here. Why did they have to destroy the city. They could have destroyed the Atlantis ship and that would have given them more time to try and rewrite the base code.

The Asurans could have been the answer to the Wraith problem - but none of this was considered. They are a threat to us so lets just get rid of all of them.

Who will want to make first contact with anyone from Atlantis again.!! Gates will need to post a warning . No Atlantians welcome as we don't want to run the risk of annialation if we piss you off.

[ladysarah]

Somewhat impressive?!

You're talking about one person, relying on words alone, getting your enemy to give you their most deadly weapon!

That's damn impressive if you ask me, and because of that, she was able to destroy a hive ship.

I used the word impressive in the same paragragh as Weir, if you know how I feel about the character, you'd be damn impressed about that. Take what you can get.

[MarshAngel]

As a perfectly honest question, I'm wondering where you get that from. Because I see her working all the time, and who knows what she's working on? For all we know, it very well could be planning for the future.

Well I'm not quite ready to fill in the blanks with my personal fantasy. If they haven't shown or mentioned other plans I'm not just going to assume they must exist. It's not my job to make that stuff up. If the writers want to tell us something about her job and character it's their duty to make it clear. I don't see that they have.

Weir sitting at her desk or walking around with a computer is not proof that she's making contingency plans or looking over experiment results etc. For all I know she's reviewing death certificates or signing requisition slips for more baked beans.

[xfkirsten]

Well I'm not quite ready to fill in the blanks with my personal fantasy. If they haven't shown or mentioned other plans I'm not just going to assume they must exist. It's not my job to make that stuff up. If the writers want to tell us something about her job and character it's their duty to make it clear. I don't see that they have.

Weir sitting at her desk or walking around with a computer is not proof that she's making contingency plans or looking over experiment results etc. For all I know she's reviewing death certificates or signing requisition slips for more baked beans.

I'm not assuming they exist, either. I'm just not assuming that she "relaxes and does nothing."

[ladysarah]

For all I know she's reviewing death certificates or signing requisition slips for more baked beans.

Nonononono, once she was playing solitaire.

[vaberella]

As a perfectly honest question, I'm wondering where you get that from. Because I see her working all the time, and who knows what she's working on? For all we know, it very well could be planning for the future.

Some of the few times we have thought she was working really hard, she was playing solitaire on the Atlantis computers. Caldwell even asked if she had chess...I wonder how that match went. I think as you do that solitaire is very hard work and will tell us a good deal about the future.

VB-ism.

Nonononono, once she was playing solitaire.

I didn't see this post until after I posted...great point LS, I'd have greened you if I could.

Well I'm not quite ready to fill in the blanks with my personal fantasy. If they haven't shown or mentioned other plans I'm not just going to assume they must exist. It's not my job to make that stuff up. If the writers want to tell us something about her job and character it's their duty to make it clear. I don't see that they have.

Weir sitting at her desk or walking around with a computer is not proof that she's making contingency plans or looking over experiment results etc. For all I know she's reviewing death certificates or signing requisition slips for more baked beans.

I agree with most of what you've said MA. I have one question MarshAngel...do we know if Weir can even dial the gate. Teyla has dialed the gate, we know Ronon has to know how to dial a gate, John and Rodney have dialed the gate. Has Weir ever dialed a gate. Does she know a single gate address?! Just one! I ask this because I only see Patrick (my name for him(aka. Chuck in fandom)) as the gate dialer.

[xfkirsten]

Nonononono, once she was playing solitaire.

Once. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find many people in this world who've never taken a break. I don't assume from one incident that it's a regular occurrence.

[ubiquitous1]

I do not dislike her but I think the casing director should be fired...The first Weir was a lot more attractive (IMHO).

This Weir looks like someone's mother....

eeeewwwww

[Adrius]

ah. i just saw all the progeny replys about weir hating. i will do that next time. i'm coming from forums that had a search function that was like a depleted zpm lol

IGN/VN?