McKay's Fighting Skills

[KindlyKeller]

in the defiant one he was shooting a 9 mil and a P90 in missing. theres more recoil on a P90

But then he was seen in "The Siege" fumbling with the 9 mil like an idiot and almost getting killed for it.

[jasminaGo]

McKay is a character writen from episode to episode and what ever works for the moment. Not just about his skills with weapons or hand to hand, but about everything. In one episode he's willing to sacrifice himself for his team and then in the next he's willing to push someone in front of him so that he can protect himself. One minute he's a nice caring friend the next he's the arogant moron that first showed up in 48 hours. And honestly all the inconsistencies are starting to go on my nerves.

[Linzi]

McKay is a character writen from episode to episode and what ever works for the moment. Not just about his skills with weapons or hand to hand, but about everything. In one episode he's willing to sacrifice himself for his team and then in the next he's willing to push someone in front of him so that he can protect himself. One minute he's a nice caring friend the next he's the arogant moron that first showed up in 48 hours. And honestly all the inconsistencies are starting to go on my nerves.

I can see what you're saying here, but I think we're all pretty inconsistent as human beings. Sometimes we don't learn from our mistakes and revert to the way we behave that isn't particularly how we'd like to. It's like a default setting. Other times we rise above our faults and overcome them, just to slip right back again.

I would agree, on occasion, McKay has been made to look a bit of a clown, but I think he'll always be like that. He's a flawed individual, as are we all. I also think he has changed a lot since 48 hours. The one time I think he was disappointing was in Quarantine. I didn't like the way he was written there, in a few scenes. He just was so self-centred and was pretty thoughtless towards Katie. It seemed out of character to me. But, that aside, I think McKay is McKay. Nice sometimes, othertimes not. Arrogant and brash, and conversely caring and sweet. He's complicated. He has good days and bad days. I just have to look here to see that people behave differently every day. Sometimes for the good, sometimes not. McKay isn't a man of consistency. He's mercurial, I think.

As far as the fighting skills and gun handling? Please DON'T make him good at them all. McKay isn't someone proficient in combat and he shouldn't be. He's a scientist. When would he have time to practice his skills? Why would he want to? As far as the gun handling goes - he's not going to win any awards for it that I can see, but so what? He's carrying it as a sort of last resort defense item, and he knows how to basically use it. So I'm not unhappy with that either. A gun toting all fighting McKay would not be who the character is, from my perspective. Just my two cents on the issue.

[ykickamoocow]

As far as the fighting skills and gun handling? Please DON'T make him good at them all. McKay isn't someone proficient in combat and he shouldn't be. He's a scientist. When would he have time to practice his skills? Why would he want to? As far as the gun handling goes - he's not going to win any awards for it that I can see, but so what? He's carrying it as a sort of last resort defense item, and he knows how to basically use it. So I'm not unhappy with that either. A gun toting all fighting McKay would not be who the character is, from my perspective. Just my two cents on the issue.

Think if you were asked to go on regular dangerous missions and you had no weapons training, wouldnt you constantly practice with firearms so when the time came you could not only defend yourself but your teammates aswell.

I think any person who goes on the types of missions McKay goes on would make the time to learn how to handle weapons correctly as it could be the difference between life and death. He may never be as good as the others on his team but he would practice constantly as it is a extremely important skill for him to have.

McKay is no idiot and you would have a hard time convincing me that he wouldnt have done alot of work with his P90 so he has a greater chance at survival when going off world.

[KindlyKeller]

I agree with everything Linzi said, excepting the firearms stuff. Do I want McKay to be ducking and rolling, then popping up with duel pistols and shooting two Wraith right between the eyes? No. I'd just like to see him improve as time goes on like Daniel did, because it's not only logical, but I think REQUIRED for someone going on missions like that.

But unlike with Daniel, McKay's progress with weapons isn't something that can be charted since TPTB have no clue what they're doing in that regard. When they desire to throw in a scene of humiliation, they make him fumble around like a 16 year-old new ROTC recruit, and then the rest of the time they make him competent. So who knows what THEY even think his progress has been.

[Jackie]

McKay's development in general goes up and down. One ep he's competent and in the next ep he's runs around like a panicked teenager.

I find it really hard to believe that any military organization would give a weapon to someone who cannot control that weapon. In order to even go off world the military should have required weapons training for those individuals. The training would be far more intense than just sitting on your back porch shooting 22's at tin cans on a fence too.

Overall I find the "joke" firearms displays of McKay's abilities rather annoying.

No one should be handed a weapon they cannot control. His eyes are closed half the time when he's firing...thus he doesn't know what his target is or where the bullets are going. It's amazing McKay hasn't shot one of his own team members so far.

When I watch McKay's "comic" gun handling, I just shake my head and grit my teeth. It's a prime example of everything a basic hunting firearms course will tell you not to do.

Of course in the film and TV industry firearms are nothing more than a prop and are treated as toys...which gives young and impressionable viewers the idea that "dad's gun" is a toy.

In real life many parents go to extremes to keep guns away from dangerous hands. I wish TV would reflect that more. TV never shows the guns locked in a storage facility, trigger locks, gun safes, locked up rounds of ammunition. That's not cool to show unless someone is breaking into it.

They never show instant background checks, permit process...many viewers have no idea what the gun laws in their own state are. That's frightening.

[ShadowMaat]

McKay is a character writen from episode to episode and what ever works for the moment. Not just about his skills with weapons or hand to hand, but about everything. In one episode he's willing to sacrifice himself for his team and then in the next he's willing to push someone in front of him so that he can protect himself. One minute he's a nice caring friend the next he's the arogant moron that first showed up in 48 hours. And honestly all the inconsistencies are starting to go on my nerves.

Well said! And you're right, McKay's fighting skills aren't the only thing about him that suffer mass inconsistencies. And I think you're right about the reason, too: TPTB write him in whatever way is convenient for an ep rather than looking into the long-term effects/possibilities. He seems to be their favorite character to write, but it hasn't done him any favors. Sure, he's in the spotlight in nearly every ep, but if you try to track his "progress" as a character all you get is a messy, uneven blob. Every time it seems like he's moving forward, another ep will come along to set him back- sometimes even further than he was in the previous ep.

McKay used to be my favorite character, now I can't stand the sight of him. Way to go, writers.

[KindlyKeller]

Couldn't possibly disagree with you more, Shadow. Outside of "Quarantine," which was a bizarre look at pre-Season 1 Rodney, his growth has been exceptional and -- I thought -- undeniable.

When the show began, he had blinders on. He was arrogant, tactless, and obsessed with work and work alone. As time went on, though, he realized the value of friendship, his relationships with John and Weir growing in both scope and importance to him.

His arrogance and tactlessness have ebbed away some too, as he's been humbled by episodes like Trinity, Sunday, McKay and Mrs. Miller (as much as I loathe that episode), The Tao of Rodney, Adrift, This Mortal Coil, Miller's Crossing, and Kindred.

What I saw in The Last Man was a character who has grown leaps and bounds -- in a way TPTB have consistently honored outside of Quarantine and their brief, annoying forays into humiliation -- and has shown what a good and evolving human being he really is.

[Jumper_One]

No one should be handed a weapon they cannot control.

what about Daniel?

[Falcon Horus]

what about Daniel?

He shouldn't have been given one either.

[KindlyKeller]

He shouldn't have been given one either.

Daniel COULD control it, though. Since he was never used for humiliation purposes, he got to be competent 100% of the time, as I recall. Rodney is shown being competent very early in the series, then being an idiot who's going to kill himself sometimes thereafter, as Jackie said. If they just had him be competent, but limited, like they started out with him, there wouldn't be a problem. It IS unrealistic to have him be worthless with firearms, since he's no doubt had at the very least a comprehensive basic training, and probably more than that.

[desh]

I think the inconsistencies in Rodney's character have more to do with his lack of discipline. He demonstrates resolve only in the most severe circumstances but usually executes things haphazardly. He can never sit still and clear his mind long enough to do things with precision and purpose. Although his undisciplined nature is what allows him to think of unconventional solutions, which is what differentiates him from Carter, it usually results in he wasting time and energy fidgeting and acting inconsistently.

By contrast, Daniel is usually sure of himself even in the most uncertain situations. Over the course of SG-1, he develops the discipline and understanding needed to reconcile himself with the conflicts that he faces. He ascends but descends upon realizing how politicized the supposedly enlightened ascended community is; this takes incredible resolution and discipline.

I think McKay is evolving as a character. He clearly values his friendships with his team members and will do anything for them, even if it means fighting. In "The Kindred, part 2," McKay enters a heated firefight in order to rescue Teyla and guns down some of Michael's mercenaries with his P90--quite accurately and with his eyes open.

No matter what happens to McKay, he will be always be himself and that means being egoistic and inconsistent. He is not Daniel Jackson and will never become Daniel Jackson.

[ykickamoocow]

The writers really need to come together and come up with what McKay's fighting skills are like because like others have pointed out his fighting skills are very inconsistent as different writers and directors seem to have different idea's on how well McKay can fight. I know McKay will never be as good a fighter as Teyla, Sheppard and Ronon but i would like him to become the sort of person who the others can count on during a firefight.

Also i would love to see Teyla trying to teach McKay some basic hand to hand (or stick to stick) combat in season 5 as she would be a far better teacher than Ronon was in that one episode in Season 3 where all Ronon was doing was hitting McKay with a big stick.

[PG15]

I thought Quarantine made perfect sense, actually.

We saw a backtracking in McKay, which I think we can all admit DO happen to us under various circumstances for whatever reason. Now, in Quarantine, McKay was indeed in an unique situation, in that he 1). didn't know anything, 2). couldn't have done anything, 3). was stuck with a girl that he was obviously nervous around before, and 4). was possibly facing death.

Put them all together, and you have a nervous wreck in someone like McKay. Remember how he always did a lot of work whenever he's stressful? That's to take his mind off of it, as he admitted in This Mortal Coil. Stuck with nothing to do but to THINK about the situation leads to an explosion in imagative horrors, which can easily overwhelm a person.

This, I know from experience.

[KindlyKeller]

Except that he doesn't respond the same way in other perilous circumstances. Plus, Katie wasn't someone he was nervous around. He was going to PROPOSE to her, after all. And he wasn't nervous about the proposal during the quarantine, because he totally forgot about the fact that he was going to until Katie found the ring.