Question 'bout Pete (Shanahan)

[Stricken]

I'm not a Sam/Jack shipper yet i still hated Pete, A signature on a forum somewhere shows this *Goes looks*

[Fred]

... Why do some people ( on gateworld forums) "hate" Pete so much? ...

I don't 'hate' 'Pete', but I do have serious problems with the character, and those problems stems from the fact that the character was poorly conceived and poorly written.

The writers made him a police detective. A police detective who:

1. Did not understand that a person had to honor the rules of secrecy that their job required. (In my neck of the woods, police detectives are not allowed to discuss their active cases, even with their spouses.) - character flaw

2. Followed a member of the U.S. military for purely personal reasons. - character and professional flaw.

3. Abused the publics trust by doing an illegal background check on a member of the United States Armed Forces. - character and professional flaw.

4. Interfered with a stake out. - professional flaw.

And then the writers rewarded this behavior by making the character privy to extremely sensitive information and the 'best kept' secret on the planet.

" ...But What would you do when your GF/BF don't wanna say his/her occupation or/and what he/she actually does for that job. ... "

Respect them, and accept the fact that they are not allowed to tell you the details!

[sueKay]

I agree that most 'Pete-haters' are shippers, but not all of them.

I started off hating Pete, but now I see that he wasn't that bad...He was just naive, and probably knew that Sam wasn't that into him as he seemed to know that he was gonna get dumped eventually. I found the character of Pete to be actually quite intriguing, and he could have been used to far better effect. He could have become a more regular character, and he could have been used to examine how civillians not involved with the SGC cope with what they know. I've used Pete in several fanfics as I find him an interesting character. There's no denying that what he did in Chimera was wrong, but he wasn't a bad person...just the wrong person.

Here's an interesting fact - I love S/J ship, but I'd rather watch Chimera than Grace anyday!

[Atteria]

I don't 'hate' 'Pete', but I do have serious problems with the character, and those problems stems from the fact that the character was poorly conceived and poorly written.

The writers made him a police detective. A police detective who:

1. Did not understand that a person had to honor the rules of secrecy that their job required. (In my neck of the woods, police detectives are not allowed to discuss their active cases, even with their spouses.) - character flaw

2. Followed a member of the U.S. military for purely personal reasons. - character and professional flaw.

3. Abused the publics trust by doing an illegal background check on a member of the United States Armed Forces. - character and professional flaw.

4. Interfered with a stake out. - professional flaw.

And then the writers rewarded this behavior by making the character privy to extremely sensitive information and the 'best kept' secret on the planet.

" ...But What would you do when your GF/BF don't wanna say his/her occupation or/and what he/she actually does for that job. ... "

Respect them, and accept the fact that they are not allowed to tell you the details!

You have just stated everything I wanted too, but I'm sure you did a much better job than I would have. Thanx!

[jckfan55]

I don't 'hate' 'Pete', but I do have serious problems with the character, and those problems stems from the fact that the character was poorly conceived and poorly written.

The writers made him a police detective. A police detective who:

1. Did not understand that a person had to honor the rules of secrecy that their job required. (In my neck of the woods, police detectives are not allowed to discuss their active cases, even with their spouses.) - character flaw

2. Followed a member of the U.S. military for purely personal reasons. - character and professional flaw.

3. Abused the publics trust by doing an illegal background check on a member of the United States Armed Forces. - character and professional flaw.

4. Interfered with a stake out. - professional flaw.

And then the writers rewarded this behavior by making the character privy to extremely sensitive information and the 'best kept' secret on the planet.

" ...But What would you do when your GF/BF don't wanna say his/her occupation or/and what he/she actually does for that job. ... "

Respect them, and accept the fact that they are not allowed to tell you the details!

Well said.
I was open to him til he pulled that stuff about "you don't trust me b/c you won't fill me in on the details of your job". Geez, he thought she worked for NORAD--sounds pretty classified to me. I think he was a straw man for the writers. Since we didn't like him it was ok for her to break up with him. Personally, I thought she should have ditched him when he pulled that c*** on her so soon out of the gate. (no pun intended) Just a poorly written character, IMHO. I think the writers wanted to give Sam a life outside work, but for me they could have done that with references to dates, using little to no episode time. Even some scenario where she really liked Pete, (and he wasn't such a jerk) but he had to go back home. So in the end he didn't die, but *she* decided there wasn't enough there to keep seeing him.