#ep. rising

[dr-futbol-blog]

Our hero, Major John Sheppard is stationed at McMurdo base in Antarctica at the start of the series. We learn that he likes it there. Sheppard himself tells Teyla in Sateda (S03E04): "Well, that [having no social skills] is why I enjoyed flying choppers in the most remote part of my world before all this craziness."

This is what John Sheppard tells us but we learn that what he tells us is not always the truth and certainly not the whole truth.

The alien AI that created a hallucination from Sheppard's own subconscious in Remnants (S05E15) poses him the question: "You're either someone with a death wish or someone running away from something. So tell me: what are you running away from?" Running away to the most remote part of his world, running away to another galaxy.

In fact, he has both been banished to and self-isolated in the most remote part of his world ("You torture yourself every day, John.") due to his "black mark" acquired in Afghanistan. We are never explicitly told what this black mark was, only that it bothered Gen. O'Neill and was something that Dr. Weir could live with. We are left wondering.

While we are shown something of what happened in Afghanistan during the episode Phantoms (S03E09), through the hallucinations from Sheppard's past of him failing to save Capt. Charlie Holland, it isn't until toward the end of the series that we find out what happened through the mirror of a parallel reality in Vegas (S05E19), where alt!Rodney tells us "You were a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan but were dishonourably discharged for disobeying orders and trying to rescue a field medic trapped behind enemy lines. You were shot down – obviously survived, but unfortunately the crash killed four American soldiers along with eight civilians. You avoided jail time; the record was sealed for various political reasons."

The field medic in the Vegas-verse, one where "infinite variations of our own known reality where alternate versions of you and I play out events", is female; this revealed in a mumbled 'ur' (I didn't even catch it on first viewing even though I knew about the gender swap in advance; it might just as well have been "knew 'em") in alt!Rodney's line: "That field medic – the one you defied orders to go back and try and rescue. You knew her personally. You were... involved."

This was one of the differences between the two realities, perhaps even the most defining one of them, the point of divergence.

Vegas Sheppard dies to the tune of Johnny Cash's Solitary Man because that's what he was, a recluse (and note that the importance of Johnny Cash was underlined in the episode by Sheppard taking nothing but his poster, the same Johnny Cash poster that our Sheppard had in his quarters for all of the five years, with him once he walked away from his job; it carries weight):

I know it's been done havin' one girl who loved me Right or wrong, weak or strong Don't know that I will, but until I can find me The girl who'll stay and won't play games behind me I'll be what I am

But our Sheppard is not a Solitary Man (he has self-confessedly found something of a family in Pegasus). He's the Man in Black (in fact, he is dressed in black throughout the series even in situations where other fatigues would have made more sense; it is only in the very last episode that we see him in lighter colours):

I'd love to wear a rainbow every day And tell the world that everything's okay But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back 'Til things are brighter, I'm the man in black

We know the background. When the series begun, DADT was still in full effect, the franchise had a long-standing co-operation with the USAF, Prop 8 was still several years into the future. The non-normative sexual orientation of an All-American Action Hero was never going to be main-text. Even heterosexual romance between characters was mostly eschewed by the franchise. But damn if the subtext doesn't lay it out thick for us.

There are so many obvious parallels and comparisons in the show that I need to write them down somewhere, and while this is a day late and a dollar short, this fandom could do with some meta. So this marks the beginning of my journey through Stargate Atlantis with an eye on its bisexual protagonist.

[cracklewink]

My Mane 6 Redesigns all together! I was going to post them separately but ended up finishing them all before I got around to it lol

[chiscribbs]

I had an idea for a one-off Rise episode plot and just wanted to quickly sketch up some visuals for it.

The plot goes as follows: Donnie attempts to invent a cloning machine and, due to some kind of science-y mishap, ends up cloning himself...a lot. But there's a catch to this - the clones aren't exact copies of Donnie, they each possess just ONE of the various facets of his personality (i.e. brainy, broody, sarcastic, passionate, dramatic, mischievous, etc.) and a small portion of his mystic powers. Don tries his darnedest to keep the whole situation under wraps while he searches for a way to fix it, but some of the more rambunctious Donnies quickly escape and begin stirring up trouble in the Lair, so it doesn't stay a secret for very long. To make matters worse - the real Donnie starts to slowly disappear (something having to do with his existence being divided among the Donnies or blahblahblah fake science explanation). So, while he and the scientist Donnies continue to look for a way to reverse the cloning effect, his brothers and Co. set to work gathering up all the other Donnies so they can put them back where they belong and keep Donnie Prime™ from vanishing.

Hilarity, wholesomeness (and some mild angst) ensues.

(Note: I meant to include April in that second-to-last image, but ran out of room. Just know that she, Splinter, and probably Casey Jr. are all there, as well.)

[nokmietarchive]

I also compiled the ROTTMNT: Wedding Crashers clips. I tried to prioritize better quality so it's a little all over the place. This is just for media archival purposes. If anyone has any cleaner or additional clips let me know and I'll be happy to throw them in!

[chippuyon]

I have something worth protecting too

[sammjammin]

trying to rewatch dragons rising and realizing how funny this is

like imagine getting your families' lore explained to you at your own memorial

[citristik]

Im still tryin to figure out how to draw them RIP me

[kunshokunsho]

HAPPY DR DAY!!!! can’t wait to see my wife(jay) and husband(nya) again

[ghostlypanda]

reasons to watch rise: leo's sickly face-man routine hahaha

[frosteaart]

"i'm glad that 'me' is who you all meet"

Note: this version of leo goes by Doe, uses she/her pronouns and was created by @sad-leon

[click image for higher quality]

[tervaneula]

“Dad?” 

Splinter is currently sitting on his bed, preparing to turn in for the night. He puts away the pillow he was fluffing up and turns to look towards the doorway of his room. 

“Yes, Blue?” 

Leo doesn’t answer, instead shuffling next to Splinter and sitting down on the floor, leaning his side against the bed. He lifts his face to look up at him. 

“I’m… just tired, dad,” he says, attempting to make light of it with a smile but his voice breaks in the end and that’s all it takes for Splinter to pull Leo into his lap, and as if on instinct the boy buries his face into the rat’s robes. He sobs, and Splinter feels his heart twinge with yet another crack. 

“Oh, oh baby Blue, it is alright,” he murmurs, petting his son’s shell and the back of his head. He knows Leo hasn’t been sleeping again and he had hoped it would pass, like it always does, but for it to go on so long that it gets this bad… Now, this settles it. No more training, no patrols, no strenuous activities aside from rhythm games for at least a week. 

All of his kids could benefit from a break, actually, and Splinter is glad that this is a fact – Leo won’t be singled out if they all are on a holiday of sorts. Brilliant. He knows he’s never been the perfect father, far from it, but he’s trying to do his best for his children and this time is no different. First thing tomorrow morning, he is going to tell his family of their impromptu vacation, and then take them out to Run of the Mill for pizza. 

It’s a great plan. 

Surfacing back to the present from his thoughts, Splinter realises that his musings must have taken longer than he thought because the turtle in his lap is now snoring quietly. With a soft chuckle, Splinter reaches back to grab his comforter and gently wraps it around Leo’s shoulders. He doesn’t mind acting as a pillow for his blue son and while he himself would be uncomfortable like that, partly on the floor, he’s witnessed enough turtle piles to know that the position is no hardship for Leo. 

He keeps petting the blanketed shell, leans back and lets his butt fall asleep, too. 

Just how he likes it. 

[dr-futbol-blog]

Hide and Seek

Finally, we get to Sheppard and McKay.

Lead characters, it is natural for them to be in scenes together. Their initial meeting is at the chair platform in the Antarctic base. The one notable aspect of this is that while McKay's jealousy of Beckett and his ATA gene was laid out real thick just moments ago, he displays only excitement watching the platform come to life at Sheppard's touch. He admires this man from the start.

The next time we see them together, it's in Atlantis. And for some reason, McKay seems to follow Sheppard where ever he goes. The major is walking around the gate room turning on lights around him and McKay is right on his heel. From the moment he steps out of the gate, he is following this man that is a stranger to him. They seem to keep winding up in the same places.

Rodney is also doing the looking but trying not to look thing. Looking everywhere else but where he clearly wants to be looking.

Make note that during this scene there was a clear focal point in the room in the bottle of champagne that had just rolled through the gate. Everyone else in the room was looking at Elizabeth holding up the bottle.

Their first proper exchange is the one where Sheppard reveals his math skills to McKay, which has been analyzed to death. Sheppard is cool and calculated, uses his charm to get his way. Rodney is only too quick to acquiesce. Unlike Col. Sumner and Dr. Weir, he is completely defenseless against it. Intuitively, Sheppard also knows what strings to pull. Weir is charmed through candor, Sumner (who does seem to warm up to him eventually) is charmed through the display of guile. Rodney McKay is charmed through intellect, so that's what Sheppard uses to manipulate him.

We get much more interaction between them in the next episode, Hide and Seek (S01E03).

The throwing off the balcony, shot him in the leg scene is familiar to everyone. There's certainly bonding going on, people seeking companionship marooned in another galaxy. McKay displays his admiration of Sheppard in multiple ways, the least of which is not volunteering for experimental and potentially dangerous gene therapy for the hope that he might become just a little bit more like the major.

(And note that while Sheppard and McKay are playing with each other, there are people still without living quarters because "the major seems to be taking his time" making sure they're safe. Priorities.)

There's a big lampshade moment in the scene where the two of them walk into the closet together, and then come out of the closet together. A closet is, in fact, explicitly referenced:

McKay: Someone thought it would make a nice closet. Sheppard: This is definitely not a closet.

This episode also marks the beginning of Rodney being oblivious to Sheppard finding double entendres and innuendo in something he says innocuously in a tense, potentially life-threatening situation.

Sheppard: Think we're going to need a bigger boat. McKay: Size doesn't matter. Sheppard: That's a myth!

My guy, is this really the time for this?

In fact, Sheppard never misses an opportunity to turn something McKay says into a sexual reference (and this is far from the only instance that reveals he is a total and utter size queen; what is he saying here? He's saying that a big dick is better, that's what he's saying here. He's saying that he prefers a big dick). It's pathological. It's Freudian. It's witness to Sheppard constantly having sex on the brain when it comes to this one man, and only this one man, as we never see him do it with anyone else.

All of this is really cute and fun, but what I actually want to highlight is Rodney's Big Damn Hero moment toward the end of the episode.

You see, John Sheppard is presented as the All-American Action Hero. We, as the audience, are supposed to see him like this and the people in-universe are supposed to think of him like this. Rodney McKay certainly sees him as the hero, idolizing him to the point of constructing an image of Sheppard that barely corresponds with reality. He is the protagonist.

Only, for John Sheppard, it is Rodney McKay that is the Hero.

This is lampshaded in the episodes Sateda (S03E04) and Tao of Rodney (S03E14). Rodney often surreptitiously volunteers information, masked in the guise of humour, that he means about Sheppard but would never confess out loud. In the former, he tells us (through describing to Beckett his relationship with Ronan): "We have an unspoken bond. I mean, there are things that go deeper than words, my friend. Deeper than words. But you wouldn't know anything about that, because you never look past the surface of anyone, do you?"

It is humorous when he says it about Ronan. It is absolutely true of his relationship with Sheppard.

Similarly, in Tao of Rodney he describes his relationship with Zelenka to Ronon: "He tries to hide it, but deep down, I'm the wind beneath his wings."

It is humorous when he says it about Zelenka. It is absolutely true of his relationship with Sheppard.

He is the wind beneath the wings of the flyboy, the pilot, the airforce major/colonel, the guy who thinks that people who don't want to fly are crazy. The guy with the wings. Rodney McKay has been the wind beneath them from the moment onward that happens at the climax of Hide and Seek that changes everything for Sheppard.

The lyrics of the song from Bette Midler, arguably the world's best known gay icon, tell us how Sheppard views McKay:

It must have been cold there in my shadow To never have sunlight on your face You were content to let me shine, that's your way You always walked a step behind

So I was the one with all the glory While you were the one with all the strength

Did I ever tell you you're my hero? You're everything, everything I wish I could be Oh, and I, I could fly higher than an eagle For you are the wind beneath my wings

It is obvious that Rodney thinks of Sheppard as his hero. Because we frequently see Rodney fear for his life, avoid conflict, think his way out of situations, his heroism is more difficult to recognize. But the thing is, Rodney feels the fear and does it anyway. He is not afraid to show that he is afraid.

John, on the other hand, is so full of fear every moment of his life that if he were to acknowledge it even for one moment, it would paralyze him. He cannot afford to entertain fear, let alone show it to anyone else, friend or foe. And it is not merely losing the people he cares about that he fears, he also fears showing other people who he is where Rodney is always unabashedly himself. John thinks that Rodney doesn't care whether people like him or not, which makes him free.

Conversely, John has consciously constructed himself into someone that people will like, he reflexively uses his charm as a weapon, as self-defense. He has spent his entire life pretending to be someone he is not, even going so far as to marry the woman his father liked, as a survival mechanism. In the episode, we learn that Sheppard thinks scary things (the masks of hockey goalies are scary while football "is a real man's sport") are unmanly. Fear is unmanly. Showing fear is the unmanliest thing there is.

For John Sheppard, Rodney McKay is a Hero.

We are shown this explicitly in Harmony (S04E14). Oh, we're meant to snicker at this. This is so counter to reality, is it not? This is not how the world sees it. This is not how Rodney McKay sees it, even though in the episode he jibes that this is how he remembers the events. But this is 100% exactly, entirely and fully the way John Sheppard views the two of them, and has done so since the end of Hide and Seek.

This is in contrast to Beckett and Peter making fun of McKay at the beginning of the episode by inventing hero names for him: Mister Invincible, Captain Untouchable. While everyone recognizes Rodney's intellect, no one else thinks of him in this way. The thread running through the episode is McKay conquering his fear which is highlighted by the ancient mcguffin that he is initially unable to turn off because his fear is too great to relinquish the protective barrier.

For John Sheppard, because of who he is and how he has lived his life, Rodney McKay is a Big Damn Hero. Rodney McKay is brave enough to not only feel the fear but to let his fear show, and go for the Hail Mary anyway.

At the beginning of the episode, John was mostly amused by Rodney and his antics; amused enough to want to spend time with him, invite him to share something very personal to him (the football game that was one of the few possessions he had brought with him), to repeatedly tease him knowing what buttons to push, to talk about him even when he wasn't there ("Don't tell McKay what I said about hockey not being a real man's sport ‘cause it's a Canadian thing; a little touchy about it."). Also, look at him smiling as he's thinking about McKay here! All of these classic signs of attraction, by the by.

And yet by the end of the episode it's transmorphed into something more, something genuine.

Where previously he mocked McKay for his fear ("He... fainted"; "That's okay, you might faint again"), he now reinforces Rodney's self-ascription ("Thank you for not saying the other thing"), displaying his respect and admiration for Rodney's willingness to and capacity for self-sacrifice even in the face of paralyzing fear. Sheppard recognizes that although he might undertake one suicide mission after another, Rodney is able to do something that he does not believe he ever could.

This is where it begins. This is why he falls so hard.

[lonelyzarquon]

Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart The Day of the Doctor

[what-am-i-doing-in-this-fandom]

"Was... a waste of your time...?"

Unbelievable how a crumb of Jay has me acting

[itzjazzyjazzin]

MIND MELD ‼️💥

[ilivelikeimtrying]

In 'The Clothes Don't Make The Turtle':

Leo's just casually vibing with Don while Raph was stressing out.

when Raph asks Donnie (who's still vibing) after another transformation scene if he's got any ideas on what could be going on, you can see how confused Leo is too till Donnie says "less talky talk more groovie groove", and you see it hit him,

He swiftly turns to the speaker, the dots connecting,

Where they're all looking at the box confused, worried, or a mix of both, and then you have Leo there looking at it suspiciously before realization hits him,

This also told me a lot about his character the first time I watched it, because even though they were all catching on (and did at the end) Leo was the one who felt it first, and all because he noticed how the music kept distracting his genius of a brother, because that's all Donnie talked about the whole time they were under the musical spell, how the music was basically "taking control".

It just showed me then how, even though he does good a lot, smart Leon actually is, because he does the joking (his coping mechanism), and the one liners and such, anything to make his brothers laugh

How much attention he's actually paying to everything around them.