John Sheppard Whump

[FoolishPleasure]

There is something intriging about "whumping". I never miss an episode of my fav shows when I know there is a good whumping coming up. Maybe it has to do with making the hero more "human" and less perfect. Maybe it just brings out the "nurturing" side of us.

Whatever it is. . .it does make us watch.

[emily_reich]

The "thrill" , for me, is to finally "see" the feelings the other characters have for our guy. You get to see the concern they feel. Sometimes you get to see our guy show how brave he is --- don't worry about me kind of thing. The team first, my injuries later. Hurt me, not my team.

Our hero, be he a Major or an archeologist, gets whumped and our heart goes thud! The one thing we don't get enough of are the final scenes, the recuperation scenes. That's where all those great authors come in handy. I wish we could see more of that part. 38 Mins. gave us a good tag, but usually they get rescued and that's it. I would like to see the pain/angst of the recovery process as well.

wow... you definately nailed it!!! i too wish we could see more of the reaction of the people around him (shep in this case ) during his recovery, which SHOULD be much longer... i somtimes wish they would make someone who's whumped bad in one ep sit the next one out so we could see people coming in and caring for them intermixed with that next episode...

and FP, you are definately right!!! i know i always tune in when it looks like there's gonna be whumping of either emotional OR physical variety... i think it's both things ya said: the nurturing side AND it makes them more human in the way that it shows us their deepest emotions in a way because they can be dealing with things that normally they'd never have to deal with....

[FoolishPleasure]

... i somtimes wish they would make someone who's whumped bad in one ep sit the next one out so we could see people coming in and caring for them intermixed with that next episode...

Galactica recently did that with Starbuck, who crashed her fighter. The last 2 episodes she has only been seen in the infirmary with people stopping by to visit. Last week they showed her trying to walk with a brace. Eventually she will be back to normal, but it has been interesting seeing a *macho* character forced to sit in the background.

[emily_reich]

yeah... i must say i liked that they did that!! the closest i can think of to that in stargate was daniel out from.... what was it again?? an appendix rupturing... and THAT was only cuz it ACTUALLY happened to michael shanks!!

i think shep shoulda been out for the count a lot longer after 38 minutes!!

[Atlantis1]

I don't know about being considered a whumper but I do feel like climbing into the tv show and helping him when he is hurting and taking care of him.

[emily_reich]

i think that's close enough

[smallgirl]

I typed a whole massive post and it got wiped, I hate it when that happens
Now I need to try and remember what I put.grrrr!

I love it when a character gets whumped physically as with Shep in 'The Defiant One' and you see them relying on their inner strength to see them through when physically they are just about spent. I also love when they are emotionally whumped and you see the outward changes that take place as they turn to whatever reserves they have left to see them through to the bitter end. I have become increasingly more and more impressed throughout the recent SGA episodes with the character progression of Sheppard. It is partly due to consistent writing but a lot I think is due to Joe's fine acting because we are seeing a change in Sheppard due to the strain he is under. He is becoming both more vulnerable and yet harder at the same time. In 'Letters from Pegasus' he was quite harsh, cold and distant at times and in 'The Gift' which I watched for the first time tonight, he was even more so. In the earlier part of the season when Sheppard was being snarky, there were usually two sides to it, the playful side where he was geniunely having fun with a situation and the harder edge to it if the situation was tense where he was revealing what he was really feeling. The snark has decreased recently and when it does happen, the playful side is virtually redundant and his quips comes across as rather brutal. Sheppard is like a computer whose hard drive has overloaded and he is systemically shutting down the less important functions in order to direct the remaining energy to what's most vital.

It was said when SGA began that O'Neill and Sheppard were alike because of the humour. It became apparent early on that there were a lot of differences but the way their characters respond to whumping is a big indicator of their differences. When O'Neill is 'up against it' he brings out the full snark cannon both as a defensive mechanism to deflect attention away from how he really feels and because offence is the best defence in his book. Sheppard however raises the drawbridge and goes into a kind of seige mentality. He's not going to waste energy or time on snark or anything for that matter because he's focussing on survival. I prefer Sheppard's way of handling things, it feels more real and human.

[Buggy542]

Oh dear... I thought you guys were kidding when you suggested making a new thread!

I didn't even notice it, cuz I've been using My Controls to navigate through GW - I only just clicked New Posts, and this pops up.

Anyway, I support whumping!

[emily_reich]

wow!!!

EXCELLENT analysis, smallgirl fabulous!! i agree 100%!!! *goes to pass some green smallgirl's way...*

[Osiris-RA]

Okay, time to add another computer slang word to my collection.
What does "Whump" mean?

[emily_reich]

most simply...

whump: physical or emotional damage

[Osiris-RA]

Ahhh .. thank you.

*backs away slowly ..*

[emily_reich]

we scare ya off or something???

[Osiris-RA]

No, no, just ... observing from a safe distance - I mean ... it's all very interesting ... I think.

Carry on.


Edit: Actually, I do like seeing Shep get his keister kicked. especially by a girl. hehe.

[emily_reich]

lol... so ya must have liked hot zone...

feel free to watch from a distance... shep whumping is great from any distance