The Fist bump

[Shan Bruce Lee]

It was a terrorist fist jab

[FallenAngelII]

Then he wouldn't be a major character, just a recurring one. He'd be a General Hammond or Landry. And the other team would be the Team. And the show would have other actors and characters.

In other words, it wouldn't be SGA.

Yes, because since it's SGA, nothing has to be realistic. You know how this could've been solved? The writers could've written a believable character! But noooo! They have to give him all of these responsibilities he's obviously grossly incompetent for.

And now that we've re-established contact with Earth (like, 4 years ago), he really shouldn't be doing what he's doing. They could've just made John the squad leader of SGA-1, that's it.

You might not be annoyed by it because you either don't know better or don't care, but what about those who do? How many people who've been in the army, navy, marines or whatever don't you think have seen the show and gone "What the...?!"? And I haven't even served in the army and I still know the show is way off and get ticked off by it.

"It's a TV-show!" or "It's Sci-Fi!" is not a Carte Blanche for writing in all kinds of BS and expecting the audience to swallow it. Especially not when the BS could've easily been dropped without any real loss to the story.

[rarocks24]

But Shep really IS grossly incompetant. Not for the position of Atlantis military IC, as frankly, in th majority of Air Forces it's pilots who end up in important command positions. But he is incompetant in the role of a field leader. Regardless of the lack of training that he actually has in that area, I think this is the first time since Rising that he's actually commanded a MILITARY unit. Usually his team is a bunch of civvies, ie, one scientist, and two alien warriors. Who don't act like military personnel, for good reason. So basically John gets his way, and John does what he wants, but then, how often does he think tactically? Usually he just goes into a Hive guns blazing and that's it.

Even in Rising he made the gash decision to be the one to go after Sumner. As the ONLY one capable of flying the jumper, he had an OBLIGATION to return to it and prepare to evac the rest of the forces, the OTHER team should have gone in for crying out loud.

Shep is a fine pilot, an an asset to the expedition, but NOT in a field leader role.

This is the whole reason Sheppard should have been placed in command of Atlantis, or given a ship (Sheppard made commander of the Daedalus, and Caldwell assuming command of Atlantis). It makes no sense for Sheppard to be in the field as the lead military officer on Atlantis.

[marty2006]

Its ridiculous this thread has reached 9 pages over somthing that quite frankly was so small and a bit of fun. Some people need to get a grip.

[Jeffala]

Aside: Am I the only one who uses 100 posts per page?

[DrJenniferDex]

Nope, you're not, Jeffala, I do, too.

And I agree, Marty, some people just can't stop trying to hammer their negative opinions about the show into everyone's mind until they agree, and using sarcasm when they don't.

[Suzieb]

Nope, you're not, Jeffala, I do, too.

And I agree, Marty, some people just can't stop trying to hammer their negative opinions about the show into everyone's mind until they agree, and using sarcasm when they don't.

And I agree as well. How do we know "the girls" didn't do a little fist bump of their own? Or at least a little 'wink-wink nudge-nudge' when they saw Sheppard and Beckett. Just because we didn't see it don't mean it didn't happen.

[DrJenniferDex]

Personally, I wouldn't have in that particular instance, but only because neither Beckett nor John appeal to me, but my friends and I have done that on work situations.

Imagine being one of only three girls, and one of the two straight ones, on a building team in Mexico with about a dozen guys, the majority of whom are absolutely gorgeous. Fist bumps did occur.

[Flyboy]

Indeed. And I can't speak for everyone, but I'm not contesting that. It WAS inappropriate. But of Shep and Beckett, not of the actors. You're right, it does happen, and I like realism in my show. But not EVERYONE does that kinda thing. Shep's a typical pilot, of course he'll do that. But Beckett? I thought better of him...

[DrJenniferDex]

Well, Beckett does have the thoughts and memories of a human right now, he's not perfect, as much as some seem to believe he is.

[kymeric]

I'm sorry, we said the fist bump meant this when?

We're specifically assuming that it means "Dude, chicks! Sweet!". And we're saying that they're men 40 years of age. And behavior like that is beneath them... like 20 years beneath them.

What's just "dude behavior" in your eyes is sexist and immature in the eyes of others... especially coming from men supposedly 40 years of age.


So if you were the military leader of atlantis and came upon an all-male squad of hot guys, you'd bump fists or high five your girlfriend? In the field?


The problem is that he does it at the wrong times and it's not realistic. Someone like him would've been court marshaled 29 times over in the real world. His behavior is beneath a man of his position, especially in the field.

Yes, it's entertaining but personally, I can only suspend my disbelief for so much.

If your standards are too high youll never find a husband XD

[DrJenniferDex]

I'd like to add something to what Kymeric quoted in his post. When did 'we' decide what the fist bump meant? We don't know, because we're not the writers or the actors, you're assuming it means that they're being sexist pigs, because you clearly want to believe that.

[HyperCaz]

Well I speak as one who loved the fist bump... and frankly, because many characters on SGA are so underdeveloped (Shep and Beckett inclusive), how can we know what's out-of-character for them anyway?

I thought it was a great little representation of the friendship between John and Carson. In my mind, that gesture was more to do with their friendship than actually trying to score women. In many ways, I think the show's characterisations could be improved by non-verbal cues like that.

This is not the first time there's been a trivial exchange on the show. I think back to Irresponsible and the discussion of superheroes...you'd have to ask "what person would do that on an off-world mission?" and then apply it to practically every fun little moment in every episode.

[Jeffala]

If your standards are too high youll never find a husband XD

My mother tells me the same thing.

[Yvie]

Its ridiculous this thread has reached 9 pages over somthing that quite frankly was so small and a bit of fun. Some people need to get a grip.

It's always the little things that get people talking.

I thought it was inappropriate and unprofessional. When I saw it, I rolled my eyes and moved on. But I do feel that it was made for a laugh, succeeded on that front to a certain extent and was ultimately harmless. Nothing else in the episode made me think that there were any kind of sinister or disparaging gender dynamics going on.

I was mostly annoyed because the show seemed to be making a point of presenting an all female team, supposedly to show its value, etc. so then it should treat the idea with respect. Introducing what amounts to adolescent boy humor (you know, boys will be boys around the pretty ladies) just isn't that appealing to me. It was disappointing. I understand that others have a different perspective but I just didn't care for it.