Letters from Pegasus Week
Nov. 16th, 2012 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
em_kellesvig posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
sga_squeeLeadership.
Arguably, one of the toughest and most interesting jobs the writers had on SGA was "deconstructing" McKay's character. He appeared first on SG1 as a foil for Sam Carter; thus, he was supposed to be unlikable. Brilliant, yes. He had to match Carter in that much at least to be a worthy opponent, but he couldn't be a "good" guy, even if he wasn't entirely wrong.
The first thing they retconned was his nationality: On SG1, McKay sounds generically American. On SGA, he's most definitely Canadian in his speech and his flag patch makes it obvious.
But he's still an ass. They enjoyed writing him as an ass and Hewlett loved playing him that way. But the audience gets annoyed with a character when the writers showcase one trait and the character never grows beyond it.
In the first season, they did well showing more of McKay's character, more than just the sarcastic, pithy genius. Slowly and carefully, they brought him along, made him human: terrified, brave, petty, determined, clever, curious, jealous, and even reluctantly adventurous.
He became part of a community, part of a family, and in doing so, he realized he had another family that meant just as much to him: his sister, Jeannie. For the first time, we get to see Rodney McKay emotionally vulnerable, guards down, and open.
It doesn't last, of course.
Leadership.
"Letters from Pegasus" 1x17
Arguably, one of the toughest and most interesting jobs the writers had on SGA was "deconstructing" McKay's character. He appeared first on SG1 as a foil for Sam Carter; thus, he was supposed to be unlikable. Brilliant, yes. He had to match Carter in that much at least to be a worthy opponent, but he couldn't be a "good" guy, even if he wasn't entirely wrong.
The first thing they retconned was his nationality: On SG1, McKay sounds generically American. On SGA, he's most definitely Canadian in his speech and his flag patch makes it obvious.
But he's still an ass. They enjoyed writing him as an ass and Hewlett loved playing him that way. But the audience gets annoyed with a character when the writers showcase one trait and the character never grows beyond it.
In the first season, they did well showing more of McKay's character, more than just the sarcastic, pithy genius. Slowly and carefully, they brought him along, made him human: terrified, brave, petty, determined, clever, curious, jealous, and even reluctantly adventurous.
He became part of a community, part of a family, and in doing so, he realized he had another family that meant just as much to him: his sister, Jeannie. For the first time, we get to see Rodney McKay emotionally vulnerable, guards down, and open.
It doesn't last, of course.
Leadership.
"Letters from Pegasus" 1x17
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Date: 2012-12-23 05:17 pm (UTC)Yes, all those layers to Rodney, some really not attractive, but the others so human and humane that you just can't help liking him.
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Date: 2012-12-23 07:24 pm (UTC)And characters should be human, even if that means we don't like every aspect of them :) Loved all the different expressions in these caps too ^_^ Hewlett really made the character work.