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Wow, you gals are really making me blush a lot tonight. I'm glad you enjoy the sigs. I wish I had more time to make more, but unforunately it's near the end of the school year and I've been trying to finish up our studies. LOL, and yeah I was inspired by the Bob the Builder song one day after watching it with Kallesta. ;D
You're very gifted!
That's why we all come to you for our Carter, O'Neill or other SG-1 banners.
Just acknowledge it Kat...you've got a gift.
(((((((ForeverSg1))))))))
...You're ALWAYS Welcome in Samanda: Amanda's Community of New Fans and Old Friends...
I'm having a Sam Carter appreciation morning. And I'm shamelessly OK with that. LOL ACTUALLY... I'm rendering out some stuff and so I have about a half hour to kill here, and I figured what better way than to sign on and say something about SAM.
The thing about Carter that I adore in terms of her character for television (and which I just explained to one of my colleagues here), is that she's somehow managed to jump the bar on a character "type" (if you will), that normally ends up either:
* an over-the-top version of "I am woman, hear me roar and get the hell outta my way because I have more ISSUES than you have ideas..." feminist cliche [See "Starbuck" in BSG - sorry BSG fans ]
OR
* an under-the-top scientific genius / total social outcast lacking any social/interpersonal skills [See Dr. Temperance Brennan in BONES - sorry BONES fans ]
But Sam Carter is NEITHER of those extremes. Regardless of how abysmally the last season of SG-1 has played out, I do have to tip my acknowledgement to the writing team for engendering her character to begin with, smoothing out those cliche potentials and coming up (copiously assisted by Amanda) with a character who rings not only believable, but real.
Sam Carter is a (beautiful) woman, a (likely certified) genius, a (stand-up) soldier, and a psychological conundrum who (all things considered) could far more easily have turned into someone's ill-conceived Mary Sue than she might have become what she DID turn into - a guilelessly visceral female role model.
Quite frankly, I honestly admit that I'd never have given much credence to a television writingteam's ability to come up with such a character to BEGIN WITH, nevermind provide nearly a decade of her, in such a strong, well balanced light. Of course, Amanda played no small role in that development, either. She's the lifeforce behind Sam Carter. But there is a lot to be said for dodging the status-quo where the Carter character is concerned, and I think credit is due all around therein.
I'm certainly a tough audience to please when it comes to my "strong" female characters. Because far too often, the role is distorted, overcompensated for, and made glaringly fictional.
Before I 'met' Sam Carter, if anyone had told me they were writing a character who was:
* a genius
* a pilot
* a soldier (and a good one)
* proficient in high level hand-to-hand combat
* a physicist (PhD)
* a mechanical engineer
* an afficionado of motor sports and classic cycles
* drop dead gorgeous
I'd have said... "Oh yeah, that'll come out looking real."
But... Sam Carter DOES. She IS. Somehow, Amanda and the writers have managed to convince even me of the fact that not only can such a character exist in good narrative, she can grow (because lets face it, she started out pretty damn 'special' to begin with). They've convinced me that she's got flaws, that those flaws aren't huge and overstated to the point where they take over her life and make her into an emotionally unbalanced (necessarily loose-canon), but that she (like any other 'normal' person might choose to) deals with her issues on a case by case basis, and many of them emerge to surprise even HER.
I'm still surprised each time I watch an episode that features her character, at how MUCh they packed into a single soul, and yet how little it seems to affect her persona in any cliche sense.
That, to me is the biggest reason that Sam Carter is a great character. Because she raises the bar - without question. Because she's a hero without resorting to insanity or imbalance. Because she makes mistakes, and has to learn from them. Because she doesn't embody a burlesque. And because she tackles each of her fictional challenges from a Human perspective, despite the scientist in her, despite the soldier. Through the Sam Carter character, Amanda and the writers have engendered a personality (albeit a fictional entitity) who embodies both strength and femininity, not to mention the kind of down-to-earth rationale vis-a-vis problem-solving that we might all hope to achieve in ourselves. Perhaps despite all of that, she still comes across as real. I've said it before and I'll say it again:
SAM CARTER IS THE BEST DAMN FEMALE CHARACTER ON TELEVISION TODAY.
In my books at least, that is no small basket of potatoes to lay claim to.
Does anyone have a link to or access to other Sam gifs? I have a few like the jello one and the Grace kiss one. Man is that hot. Seriously...just way freakin'...what? Sorry...I got lost in teh hawtness.
Wait...where was I? Oh yeah. Gifs.
I like giving rep using animated gifs and I'd like to expand my repetoire. Any links or gifs to which I can be referred?
BTW, I feel like I'm spamming Samanda with my posts tonight...I guess that makes me a Spamander? Ooh...new word for the non-existent dictionary of Samanda. Yay. *giggles spaztically* I know. I amuse easily.
...You're ALWAYS Welcome in Samanda: Amanda's Community of New Fans and Old Friends...
Sam is at the center of my Stargate Universe, too. For all the reasons Mini so beautifully outlined in her post. If my first introduction to SG1 hadn't been a pretty Samtastic episode, I doubt I would have turned in a second time. (Despite the fact that RDA is one mighty fine looking man.) And as much as I have enjoyed the storylines, the Goa'uld and Replicator arcs; as wonderful as I felt the team interaction was, way back when, it's Sam that made SG1 "must see tv" for me. It's Sam's presense that had me coming back in Season 9 when my mighty fine RDA was gone, and the team interactions felt like nil, and the writing was, to me, sub-par with the plots driving characterization, and so much telling and not enough showing going around. But Sam had me turning in every week, and will have me turning in during season 10 as well.
It's the character of Sam-her wisdom, her strength, her integrity, her intelligence, her thrill seeking streak, her ability to balance right with rules, defiance, with honor, and her ability to be sexy without being ott with it that has made me a fan of Stargate SG1-not just a viewer.
i do like that. i like the fact that we've gotten rid of 'yes,sir, no sir'
which is why i very sincerely hope they don't promote cam or some crud like that. sam doesn't need to be sirring him
I'm also very happy to have episodes where Carter isn't the junior officer sirring everyone all of the time. She's done her time in that slot. She did it well, but it's sooooo time for her to get to be the one who get's 'sirred' or 'ma'amed'
Originally posted by Mandysg1
Okay mini I worked my fingers to the bone and finally finished the fic you asked for
and some others patiently waited for *cough*astro *cough*
The same holds true with acting. It's far more difficult to play a scene that requires subtlety of emotion than it is to rage or cry or explode emotionally. It's typical of a less experienced actor to applaud the raging scene before the subtler one, because well ... they just don't know any better.
mg
i still remember the moment i watched meryl streep have to make her 'decision' in 'sophie's choice'. only a small amount of actors have that ability to encompass so much with so little, and amanda is one of those ppl like meryl is.
I'm also very happy to have episodes where Carter isn't the junior officer sirring everyone all of the time. She's done her time in that slot. She did it well, but it's sooooo time for her to get to be the one who get's 'sirred' or 'ma'amed'
BTW, I feel like I'm spamming Samanda with my posts tonight...I guess that makes me a Spamander? Ooh...new word for the non-existent dictionary of Samanda. Yay. *giggles spaztically* I know. I amuse easily.
the only thing that disappointed me with 'death knell' was that there wasn't enough sam! i feel they wasted half the ep getting to what exactly was going on with sam.
Sistah!
Yes, I found myself yelling at the telly - "So where the $&£! is she, then!?!"
...yeah, that's what i read happened. not that i actually agree, but would you like to speculate on why BlackMitchell and BlackSam were closer than ours? get more insight on our guys relationship...
Hmm. Interesting question. Perhaps in the alternate reality, Sam wasn't waiting for the chance to become intimate with Jack, had accepted that it would never happen and moved on [more successfully than she did in "our" reality with Pete]. Or even that their friendship developed in the other direction: just friendship with no romantic leanings. Or, maybe something happened to Jack earlier. Maybe he did die on one of the missions and this brought Mitchell on the scene earlier - because I don't think they had time in one season to get to the comfortable part of the romance that they seemed to be in. Or maybe the past they had was romantic and when Mitchell joined the SGC and found Samantha again, they rekindled the romance.
...Or it was just the actors and the director playing around in an alternate reality just because they could.
I wished they had kept her in the lineup though - I was still waiting for another confrontation between her and Sam.
Hey, the "unofficial Samanda Dictionary" sounds cool ... let's compile a few more words or phrases.
Don't forget the old "Samtastic" - and "Samsational" which of course we all think she is!
Hmm, how about "Samwich"? What would be Sam Carter's favorite sandwich? I don't think it would be ham as the ham belongs to the guys, especially Cam, for all the hamming up they do. Sam does like turkey, we've seen that mentioned. But I don't know if Sam is really a "cold turkey" kind of gal either.
The "Samwich" ... feel free to concoct your special ingredients and share with us!
The thread should reach another epic milestone at 40,000 pages soon, maybe in time for the ShoreLeave weekend! Amanda was so psyched and told the crowd about her 20,000 pages at Gabit last November - so she may have more bragging rights at the July con if the prolific posting continues.
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