Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[SamFan31]

Ok so I was talking to Uber tonight on MSN and I reminded myself of two things that happened at the con that I forgot to mention earlier.

Over the weekend, one of the men attending the con was reenlisting in the service. I believe it was the navy, but I'm not 100% positive. Anyway, I believe a high ranking officer came down to oversee the ceremony, but Amanda was given the honorary title of Lt. Colonel( again my memory is really bad so I may be wrong about the title so feel free to correct me ) and was to asked to be a part of the ceremony. Later that day during the Q&A, he thanked Amanda for being a part of the ceremony. It was actually quite touching.

Then later in the Q&A someone asked Amanda why Joe and Ben had both been asked to fly with the Thunderbirds, but she hadn't been to which she got this shocked look upon her face and said 'I know! What's up with that?? Then jokingly said that she couldn't have been any worse than Joe seeing as he had thrown up. She said that she had actually asked why she had never been invited to fly with the Thunderbirds and was told that they didn't think that she would be interested. She went on to say that she may be given her chance soon and she was really looking forward to it.

So there ya go. Our Amanda may soon be flying with the Thunderbirds.

Ahhh, the Thunderbirds... finally...

[Myrth]

Shhh don't warn her.. she might not come.... hahahaha ... actually I'll be the one at the back unable to speak most likely

Just caught up on the last few pages... wow.. thankyou so much to everyone sharing your stories. Whilst I'm insanely jealous of you all.. it's a jealously tinged with love and appreciation of the effort you spent to share with us all.

Well at some point next year I might be IN Australia finally... so Amanda!Downunder, here I come!!!

HAHA, can you imagine Me, You and AD at an Amanda con together.... buahahah.

[MajorSam]

Shhh don't warn her.. she might not come.... hahahaha ... actually I'll be the one at the back unable to speak most likely

then i'll just have to shove you in front of Amanda and MAKE you talk! That is if I didn't myself go all gloobily and start blabbing away to her...

As long as I didn't shove you INTO her cause then you might get your own ideas and...

[the dancer of spaz]

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences, guys! It's really great! All I know is, if AT's going to be there next year, and as many fans end up going as they did this year... I might have to make a little trip to Vancouver.

And Samo! It's so nice to see you front and center! Have you and Angel broken Canada yet?

[Lys]

As usual, I agree with you Sky, and I understand your frustation. I don't think I could be considered an elder, simply because I started watching too late in the game. At the same time, I can't stand it when noobs come onto the scene and presume to know what they're talking about, or assume that their meager experience is worthy of red-repping everyone who disagrees with them.

But at the same time, there are fans of other characters currently on SG-1 who justify their bashing of certain other characters by saying that it's happened to them. They belittle fans of the enemy character, because they've had bad experiences with other fans of the same persuasion. No one gives anyone a chance. We will all get screwed by other people in the long run, because certain fans are idiots. Plain and simple. But how do we keep ourselves from paying it forward to other unsuspecting fans of Cam and Vala, when all they want to do is join us in discussing how cool Amanda Tapping and Sam Carter are?

The common ground scenario has to work both ways. In a perfect world, we could purge the ones who are so enamored with their fave characters that they're incapable of seeing reason. This goes for certain fans of all characters, I think.

I will never stop ragging on the studio or the network, or any of TPTB who think that what they've developed is the New Legacy of SG-1. And there are certain fans out there whom I have no issues with mocking. The thing is... the sooner all of the fans realize that the issues we're currently facing are studio/network-driven, the sooner threads like SaGC can maintain its original motto again. Hopefully.

I know I'm late in the debate, but I wanted to share some thoughts.

I think Samanda can maintain its high level and motto. How ? It's quite easy. We can do constructive criticism, we're used to it. We're all different. Some are shippers, some not, some think Sam is first a genius, some say first "Carter is hot !" and yet we all agree within all our differences that Sam is a great character.

Bashing happens everywhere. Let's keep our level by not acting like the bashers, even if it hurts. Let's be open minded and use our geeky neurons to bring out some constructive criticism.

I remember when I joined this thread, we had a very passionate discussion about Grace. Many of you loved the episode while I didn't and yet you let me express why I disliked it, we shared our thoughts and we even all came to agree on some points. That's what I call being open minded and constructive criticism.

Later, in the heat of the Vala versus Sam debate, SunKrux joined us. Since then, I've noticed that there's not so much fear of Vala replacing Sam but mostly talk of how good it could be with those two together on the show. It's perfectly acceptable not to like Vala. Coley, I know you don't like the way she's written and there's nothing wrong with that. My point is that we willingly listened to a Vala fan. We heard what she had to tell us. We had the both sides of the story.

So far, it hasn't happened with Cam yet. In a way, he's more threatening to Sam than Vala ever was because of the leadership issue. I'm not very fond of the way he's been written in the last part of the season but I'd really like to hear the opinion of someone who likes both Sam and Cam, especially on their friendship. I really think there's potential here and it could be a way to glue the team, to make it feel real again. There has to be something, but somehow I don't see it...yet. I have the feeling it's within this coleadership thing. Maybe, if well done, it's what will bring us a relaxed Sam who doesn't need to call anyone "Sir" on the team and who doesn't feel like bossing around her teammates.

Oooops, went a little out of my way, here. Last thing I wanted to say is that while we all agree about how great Sam is, we may not see the other characters in the same light. Some think <insert character's name> is wonderful, best thing since sliced bread as Sky would say, some think <insert same character's name> is boring, useless. I suggest we always keep that in mind and try to convey our thoughts without hurting fans of said character. I don't know if I'm successful with this rule but before saying anything about a character I dislike or I think has done something stupid, I always ask myself what I'd think if someone said the same words about my favourite character. Language is such a rich and powerful weapon that you can say "X" is an idiot without hurting "X" fans. And you're all better armed than me when it comes to English. Well, just a suggestion, but wouldn't it be a nice way to bring more Sam fans playing in this thread ?

Last thing, a great thank you for the pictures and reports from Vancouver. Amanda was shining. It seems that you had all a great time. I can't wait to see for myself how a convention is.

[deepspace]

I echo everyone else, thankyou sooooooooooooooooooooo much to everyone who has shared their experience of the con. It's so great for us to be able to hear first hand accounts. BIG hugs to you all. It's muchly appreciated.

And... did someone.... mention... *goes a little jello quaky like* .........
Amanda might come to Australia?
*tries to contain a little squeal*
really?

[MajorSam]

I echo everyone else, thankyou sooooooooooooooooooooo much to everyone who has shared their experience of the con. It's so great for us to be able to hear first hand accounts. BIG hugs to you all. It's muchly appreciated.

And... did someone.... mention... *goes a little jello quaky like* .........
Amanda might come to Australia?
*tries to contain a little squeal*
really?

Well she didn't make promises, just said she really wanted to get out there next year sometime! I hope she does, everyone deserves some Amanda luuurve

[deepspace]

<>
I do like this pic though…



Lol, I was just incredibly lucky to get that dinner. I wasn’t the only one there, but we all had a great time, Joe’s awesome. I hope we represented the fandom well… Don’t be jealous! *blush* sheesh people… I'm just thankful I had the confidence to go talk to her at the times I did, trust me, she is the most understanding generous person out there, no matter how nervous or freaked out you are, trust me, i've been there, Amanda just melts your inhibitions away... the definition of "Warm and Fuzzy inside" I swear...

| I’m glad you liked all the stories, I’ve still got some more if anyone wants  I think… *tries to remember Amanda’s panel*

Great pic MajorSammy . A good SoldierSam one . And I'm glad the Orangerator only struck by writing your name in the pic in Orange this time. Ahh, I remember the days of the Orangerator. But it's so good that he finally left your lovely face alone for a change.
And you don't know how wonderful it is to have you back posting in this thread.

[deepspace]

Aww, I just dicovered the pic of MajorSam on the FRONT PAGE OF GATE WORLD!!! Wow. Do you know that you look exactly how I imagined you? It's almost odd how similar you are to my mental image of you! And you should give that Orangerator a good bash for keeping you from us for so long .

[deepspace]

I'm sorry I haven't posted my summary of the con, but unfortuantely Kallesta has been making me play Mario Party 6 with her all afternoon so I haven't had time to actually sit down and try to remember what was said during the Q&A.

I'm sure others have already mentioned these, but I'm just going off the top of my head.

When Amanda first came out on stage, she came out with Executive Producer John Smith. He told the audience how much Amanda meant to the Stargate Franchise. How she was considered their second next to RDA and had been there for all nine years and how they had always been able to count on Amanda to know her lines, ect. As others have mentioned, I think Amanda was really moved by his comments as she looked as if she was going to cry.

The first person to actually come up to the mic was a member of an Stargate fan group who gave Amanda an SG-1 jacket. As MajorSam stated it was very detailed, he named all the patches that were on the jacket and she put it on to show it off. Later during her Q&A, she took it off because she was too hot under the lights stating that she was glowing like a pig and said women glowed they didn't sweat.

Another person, who I now know was a Samandan, asked her about Sam and Jack and Amanda was extremely funny with her comments. She didn't actually state what we can expect to see in terms of Sam & Jack in S10, but she did state that we would see something.

Another fan asked her about the leadership issue and why she wasn't in charge of SG-1. I wish I could remember her comments in detail because she was so extremely witty about the whole thing and one of the best things about Amanda is that she expresses so much with facial expresses.
She went on for quite a bit answering the question with comical responses like 'I know! What's up with that? I mean I guess I can understand because he's the new guy and he did get the band back together and all; and I've only been on the show for like nine years. What-ever!?! I'm not bitter or anything. Well not a lot. I mean I've only saved the planet like what? A hundred times, but I'm not bitter. Whatever. As I said I can't possibly do Amanda justice in repeating what she said because it was her tone, body gestures and facial expressions that made it all so wonderfully amusing. Amanda has a true talent of talking to an audience. You never feel as if you are simply watching an actor answer questions. She is constantly walking across the stage and looking at everyone in the audience.

Another question that Amanda was asked was about Ripple Effect and why Sam would think about kissing Martouf when she was supposedly in a 'so-called' relationship with someone. Amanda joked a bit and asked which Carter had actually tried to kiss Martouf and how did we know that was really our Sam. I'm not sure if it was her or someone in the audience that said something about Sam being easy, but she later went on to say that Sam had been forced to kill someone she really liked and when she saw the AU Martouf again she had been overwhelmed by emotions so who could really blame Sam if she felt the urge to kiss him.

Someone asked her if she enjoyed working with David Hewlett in Grace Under Pressure. She said she had a great time filming that episode, but went on to say that the kissing scenes were a bit awkward because David has a gf/fiance whom she really likes. Her comments were very amusing as she said David was a very good kisser...lucky Jane ( I believe that was his gf's name. I'm sure someone will correct me if if my memory is incorrect ).

Oddly enough, Amanda discussed kissing alot in her Q&A. She mentioned David Deluise was a very good kisser and said that RDA was her first person she had kissed multiple times on camera so she would always be partial to RDA. She was later asked what her favorite kissing scene was and after asking on or off-camera and thinking for a bit she said it would have to be her kissing scene with JR Bourne in the unreleased movie 'Stuck'. JR later commented that that scene was rather hot and his favorite too.

Amanda gave a lot of hugs to people who came up to ask questions. One young woman gave Amanda a painting she had made of Amanda. I had been lucky enough to actually sit next to her during the Q&A sessions on Friday so I got to see her unfinished picture of Amanda as well as some of the other's she had made in the past and they were all quite stunning.

Another young woman asked Amanda if she would like some German chocolate and Amanda in her witty little way said 'Would I like some chocolate?? Then preceeded to pretend to shove the chocolate bar into her mouth. The young woman gave each of the other guests on the panel chocolate as well and was thanked by each with hugs. *Makes mental note to self that chocolate seems to be a good way of recieving hugs*

Several children came up and asked questions. I believe one little boy asked if she missed Jack and said he had thought Jack was very brave. Amanda said she did very much and she agreed that Jack was very brave. Each of the children who came up to the stage asked for hugs as well, which Amanda was more than willing to provide. One little boy named Carter actually told Amanda that his dad thought she was HOT which totally cracked her up.

Hmm, trying to think of some other funny things that happened during the day's Q&A's. Oh during JR Bourne and Cliff Simon's Q&A, Amanda was giving autographs behind the stage. A woman offered to donate four hundred dollars to the Make A Wish charity if Cliff would take off his shirt, which he agreed to do. Needless to say, the women in the audience went crazy and people were laughing and cheering and snapping photos as Cliff posed up on stage. Just as Cliff started to put his shirt back on, Amanda popped her head through the black curtain and was complaining because she had missed it to which Cliff responded that she didn't have to worry because she'd get her chance to see on Monday... in her trailer. To which JR jokingly responded that that was a dead-end that would go nowhere and that a year later he would be offed.

Unfortunately this is all I can really remember at the moment, but I'll try to think of more later. As for Amanda, what can I say, she was the highlight of my weekend. I don't think I would ever tire from listening to her speak. She's always so outgoing and charming and an absolute pleasure to meet. Unfortunately there were so many people at the con this weekend that we really weren't given much time to chat with the guests. At the brunch on Sunday, Amanda was only able to sit and chat for about two minutes and there were eight of us to ask questions. When Amanda first sat down, one of the women at the table gave her a gift she had bought for her in Sedona. Amanda seemed really interested in Sedona and mentioned that she had always wanted to go there. She also noticed that Tsaxlady was rubbing her head and asked if she was ok. Tsax had unforunately been plagued with a sinus headache that morning so the rest of us told Amanda. Amanda then preceeded to ask her if she had tried using pressure points in the hand and between the eyes. She explained that whenever she had a headache, Jan (the make-up coordinator) would use pressure points to help ease her headache and jokingly said that sometimes she would say it felt better so that Jan would stop causing everyone at the table to laugh. I wish I could remember everything that was said but unfortuantely my mind is a huge jumble of events right now. Hopefully after hearing other people's comments it will trigger some more of my memory.

I did however mention to Amanda that everyone on Samanda sent their love and support to her to which she thanked us all and said that whenever she felt down all the letters, cards, and kind comments she read up on the internet really raised her spirits.

Later that day I was able to chat with her briefly in the autograph line. I had two autograph tickets so I choose to have her autograph a Femme Fatale photo ( not the flag ) I purchased at Gabit as well as the T-shirt I had made with MiniGeek's sketch of Sam. I also brought her a gift for Olivia. When I finally got to the point where it was my turn to get my autographs, I set the photo down in front of her helper as well as the T-shirt and then handed her the gift I had brought. She pushed the gift back to me and told me to give it to Amanda. So I walked over to Amanda and waited for her to stop signing the photo. When she saw the T-shirt her first comments were 'Wow! That's...great.' ( Kudos to MG ) After she signed the T-shirt, she looked up and thanked me for coming. So I in turn thanked her for coming to the con and told her that the gift was for Olivia. MajorSam may be able to give a better recount of Amanda's expression because at the time I was in awe, but she seemed very touch by the gift and thanked me several times. Unfortunately, since I had two items signed and had given her a gift I was backing the line up so I had to go without being able to say more.

One thing I have to mention though is that I must have been at least the 800-900th person Amanda had given autographs to that day and yet she was still so kind, gratious and giving of herself. She could have easily just signed my photograph, smiled and moved on to the next person, but she was willing to give me my moment with her and I truly appreciate that.

Here's the photo of Amanda's signature on the T-shirt I had made.

Fabulous account Kat! I almost can't believe you've all gone to so much trouble to do such thorough writeups as this! Thankyou! And I can't stress that enough.
It's moments like your account of your giftgiving/signing that make me want to almost cry! Isn't that one of the things that makes Amanda so great, that after hours of signing, she still cares enough about her fans to make the effort to give each and every last one of them that special moment with her? I'm so happy for you all that you had these great experiences. It just makes me so warm to read about them.
And Lida, it sounds like you've truly had the best medicine ever! I'm so glad you went after all, I thik it was a very good choice. You totally deserved this special time off from all the worries that have been holding you down.
Again, thankyou all, for your accounts and photos. It's been a really fun night for me reading!

[deepspace]

Hello again I've been trying to catch up on posts, but I don't have the energy to read all of them he he.

Ok, as promised, here is my detailed account of meeting Amanda (because I know you have all been waiting for it ):

First off, I have to say Amanda was awesome, as I knew she would be. She was funny, and cool, and meeting her was a great experience, as I'll talk about later. I didn't get a picture with her unfortunately because I didn't have enough money by the time I was going to buy it, but it was all still a great experience Anywho, I wanted to ask Sally's question about Jack and Sam, so I decided I was going to ask that. I also wanted to say some comments which I'll get to. So I went up there and she answered 2 people's questions and then went to me. I wished Olivia a late happy birthday and said that maybe Michael's kid and her kid could have birthday parties together because their birthdays are so close together and then she joked about how they could all save a lot of money if they had joint birthday parties. Then I thanked her for contributing the autographed pictures to the Gateworld party and that we appreciated it. I also told her that 2 people at my table won them. She said "my pleasure" and I think I was talking kind of fast, so I hope I didn't cut her off or sound rude.

Then I decided to ask that question so I said something like "this is a question from a friend on Gateworld who couldn't be here, but I'm curious too and that is is there anything for Jack and Sam fans to look forward to in the future?" I heard the audience wooing and stuff lol. Then Amanda said "I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you" ha ha! So I could have said something witty here, but what did I do instead... I said something about how she could bring me back using technology... yes, hello, dork alert! I'll get to more of that later. Anyway, I was not exactly thinking clearly. So she said

Spoiler:

"there's a 5 word answer and a 3 word answer, I'll give you the 3 word answer... yes" then I think she said "the 5 word answer being maybe" or something to that effect. WOOOO HOOOOO!!!!! Ok, done so then after she told me she said "and now I have to kill you, everyone's expecting it" or something like that. I just laughed and said thank you

and then went back to my seat, but I think I may have stood there a little too long, I don't know. I have trouble realizing how much time is going by when I get up there After I went back to my seat, I started thinking about what I said, and I was like 'some type of tecnology to bring me back'? What the F was that? Not to mention the fact that the whole point is she didn't want to bring me back... then I thought of something that I should have said and I decided I would tell her during the autograph session. So I listened to the rest of the Q&A and then it was time for autographs. I was in row E and it took a while to get to us, but finally we were up. So I waited... and waited... and waited... and... just kidding he he. It didn't actually take that long once the row was called. I brought a birthday card for Olivia and a thank you card for Amanda because I just wanted to tell her how much I respect her and appreciate what she does for the fans. When I got to her I said "When you said you'd have to kill me after I asked about Jack and Sam, I should have said 'at least I'd die for a good cause'". She laughed when I said that. I made Amanda laugh! Pretty cool Then I said "I have a card for Olivia. There are animal stickers in there, which I know she's too young to use of course, but I thought she might like to look at them". I think she said "sure, thank you". Then I gave her her card and said "I also have a card for you, it's a thank you card" and she said "thank you" and finally I said "and I was wondering if I could shake your hand". I didn't want to ask for a hug because I thought it might be too much trouble and I'm not the type of person who asks for hugs during the Q&A. So she said "of course" and she shook my hand, but then, and this was the best part... she stood up and actually gave me a hug! I have shaken Torri's and Michael's hands at other cons, but neither of them went and gave me a hug too! Not that there is anything wrong with that of course, but it's just she didn't have to do that. It was such a thoughtful gesture. After we hugged I said "thank you" and she said "thank you, it was nice meeting you" and I said "it was nice meeting you too" and went away. That has to be the best experience I've had so far meeting someone from Stargate. Amanda was just the sweetest person and I am so proud to be a fan of hers, and of Sam, as Amanda brings such a heart and great presence to the character.

So that was my incredibly awesome experience that I will never forget and would never want to forget!

By the way, I may not have gotten all of Amanda's quotes exactly right. I was a bit nervous, even though I try not to be, I usually am

It seems like a number of Samandans got a special AMANDA hug . You are very lucky!
I'm also blown away by the way Amanda talks about this thread . Wow, we are all lucky!
Ah, I'm so glad I get to hear all this.

Sorry, do I keep repeating myself?
I'm just so hyper tonight. You're all rubbing off on me with all these exciting con stories.

Asks in a very small voice:
I don't suppose there might be any photos of other Samandans? I read that there was no group photo, but I was wondering if there were any just in general of people from this thread that those people would be willing to have posted? I understand if not though.

[crazedturkey]

Well Amanda is really hoping to make it out to Australia next year... there's no way she could have this year, but she's trying. When one actually see's how welcome and inviting Amanda is I've seen that they can't HELP themselves saying hello to her!!!

Are you serious????

*dies from excitement*

Wow!!!

Oh and thanks so much everyone for all the convention reports! It's been really lovely for this little Aussie who can't afford to leave the country

[scarimor]

Thank you for all the con reports chaps. It's been fun reading them.

[1speed4Sam]

Thanks everybody for your reports from Vancouver. They've triggered so many wonderful memories of meeting Amanda and various fellow Samandans at GABIT last year that I'm now sat here with a blissed-out grin on my face (which is a tad embarrassing seeing as I'm actually at work ).

[mudpuddle]

Hey kids, new to the forum and still feeling my way round. Just thought I would start by saying hi and i think carter/amanda are both awesome in a multiple personality kind of way.