RatCreature's Journal

...before I felt the urge to compile thematic lists for Star Trek. I asked for stories featuring the Ancient Vulcan trope on st_ficfinder, and between some links there and my own bookmarks and searching I have now have already about twenty or so. And I find myself thinking "hm, that would be enough to be worth a thematic list." Argh.

Because this gets asked for quite frequently on sgagenrefinders (like here, here, here and here...), I figured I'm not the only one with a soft spot for wereanimal stories, and a thematic list might be useful.

This is a SGA thematic list (i.e. not recs) for stories in which an SGA character becomes or already is a wereanimal. 'Wereanimal' here is not all that strict, but refers to any supernatural animal-shapeshifting as long as is not another kind of magical animal category, such as centaur!fic or dragon!fic. It is sorted by character, which kind of wereanimal is listed with the story.

As usual, if you know of any story that I've missed, please tell me about it.

Link: SGA thematic list: Werewolves and other wereanimals.

I've decided to start a new thematic list for another one of my favorite SGA fic tropes, an Atlantis that either by necessity or choice has to fend for itself in the Pegasus galaxy.

For a story to be included in this thematic list the Atlantis expedition has to loose contact with Earth permanently, or at least for a significantly longer time than in canon, declare independence from Earth, or be stranded as a colony in Pegasus after Atlantis is lost. I've divided the list in the following subsections:

1. Atlantis is involuntarily cut off from Earth, e.g. it's on its own because Earth has been lost or is too occupied in the Milky Way (overrun by Ori, Replicators or Goa'uld, blown up, hit by a natural disaster...), or has never (or only much later) reestablished contact in the first place; contact with Earth may or may not happen eventually, but the separation has had a lasting impact, and is somewhat central to the story.
2. Atlantis intentionally secedes from Earth, i.e. declares its independence, or its allegiance to one or more Pegasus cultures/alliances or develops into a colony city in the (far) future.
3. The Atlantis expedition members (i.e. more than just the team) settle as a colony somewhere else in Pegasus, e.g. because Atlantis the city has been lost to some enemy or disaster, or taken over by Earth officials the original expedition can't support in their goals leading to mass desertion, or similar scenarios.

I've listed about thirty stories so far, but there are probably more, so if you know of any I missed please comment with a title and a link.

Because it is such a common, recurring request on the SGA genrefinders comm (and because I love Bug!John stories), I decided to compile a proper thematic list for stories relating to Wraith/Iratus bug transformations. The majority is Bug!John, but I have included sections for stories in which another human character is transformed into a Wraith or Iratus bug hybrid, as well as a section for stories dealing with the reverse, i.e. Wraith transformed into humans. Currently it lists about forty stories, but I'd love add any fitting story that I missed. I did not include those Conversion tags that are set completely after John reverted, unless there were at least some remaining transformation related aftereffects.

To avoid having to update the list in multiple journals I maintain it on my website, like with my other thematic list:

SGA thematic list: Wraith/Iratus bug transformations

Once I posted my first attempt at a SGA thematic list to my LJ I announced it on the sga_noticeboard and at sgagenrefinders to spread the word, in particular I asked John/Elizabeth shippers for links, because I don't read that pairing at all, and my list is completely lacking in that direction. Unfortunately nobody responded with any J/E story additions. :/ Then yesterday I x-posted to stargate_search, and it's not that I didn't get replies either, just again no J/E (so far).

I'd really like the thematic list to be somewhat "pairing neutral" and I can't imagine that there are no J/E stories featuring alien cultures, but I'm a bit at a loss what I should do about it. Somehow joining J/E specific communities, when I dislike that pairing myself, feels vaguely like trolling, also, I'm kind of unfamiliar with the infrastructure in that corner of SGA fandom. I mean, I looked at the SGA overview at the newbieguide, and while there at least six different communities for that pairing only john_elizabeth has a really large membership, so I guess that would be the best venue, but I x-posted at three places (albeit non-pairing specific ones) already, and past a certain point it becomes obnoxious, and when I looked over john_elizabeth to figure out whether that community would even allow fic searches, I did come across a post with a reminder not to x-post excessively. Any advice?

I read quite a lot SGA fanfic and I'm starting to develop-- well, it's not quite a pet peeve, but this plot device in SGA fanfic that random alien "natives" capture/torture/sacrifice/chase the team with primitive weapons without ever being given proper motivation or even just common sense, it's staring to make me twitch whenever I see it. I get that the point of these stories isn't the alien culture but the h/c or sex ritual or whatever the author needs the spear waving natives for, but still.

For one it throws me out of the story, because it is so obvious that the Pegasus natives are only there for their effect on the team, that they aren't even real people. It's not that the team being the primary interest in the story was a problem, well developed cultures can serve the same ultimate purpose in a narrative, it just wouldn't be so blatantly obvious that they are only there as a plot device. These natives don't even get the minimal development of stock characters, who at least have a thin veneer over their purpose of just serving the heroes' plot. Even the traditional "exotic backdrop natives", problematic as they are for numerous reasons even when it's all filtered through being fantasy and not projected onto an actual culture, are at least, well, "exotic" and as such interesting or at least colorful.

Which leads me to the second point, i.e. it is reminiscent of the cringe-worthy and racist cliche of "primitive, non-rational savages vs. European explorers" in adventure fiction. Personally I think that they are so often complete non-entities is kind of worse than even if they were exotic backdrop for the protagonists (like in the typical "Africa movie") because they often don't get even that much minimal agency and presence as people.

That said, I wonder whether there would be any interest in an SGA thematic list with the topic "alien cultures" or something like that, kind of expanded from my earlier post to collect stories that give the Pegasus cultures at least a bit more room than to be just savages alternatively hurting the team or making them have sex.