HEE. I am forced to admit this is, for whatever button-pushing reason, my show, but it is not my pairing at ALL, but yeah, sucked in. I have a weird relationship with this fic, because I wasn't that much farther along than you were in SGU episodes when I started it, and then I finished up the second season after reading it.
I think the plot management was really good, and I too loved the ensemble moments, especially the science team. And Eli. I LOVE ELI. I love that he graphed the fraction of briefings he'd been doing! Chloe's mathematician arc is show canon, although the part where she gets to shoot things and disarm bombs is a nice riff that she doesn't get to do on the show (which tends to be a little more protective of her than I think is a good thing).
I actually rather liked the trust/backstabbing parts, I suppose because Young/Rush is so not my pairing -- it's rather hard for me to imagine them getting together in any way that doesn't involve a lot of questionable... something. So that didn't bother me, whereas I think it would have bothered me in a pairing that was supposed to be presented as a little more healthy.
Young: so I think Young's character in FoD is quite a bit more tortured, angsty, and obnoxious than canon!Young. Yeah, canon!Young left Rush on the planet -- but in later episodes this was presented as a serious but temporary lapse in judgment, and he sort-of-kind-of atones for it, and his later character arcs present him as a fundamentally decent guy who is usually fairly level-headed, sort of Adama-like. Fod!Young, I feel, is still stuck on the characterization of the guy who left Rush on the planet; I think latercanon!Young would probably have agreed to have TJ pull Rush out instead of him. (Part of this -- I exchanged a couple of PMs with CWR -- had to do with trying to make sense of canon Young/TJ, which really kind of MAKES NO SENSE unless you postulate Young has some odd relationship issues.) I like canon!Young rather better, but (as I said above) I kind of appreciate not whitewashing the relationship between two guys who are both really obnoxious.
Fod!Rush, I think, is also rather more tortured and angsty than canon!Rush (while still not an illegitimate reading of his character). Now, canon!Rush has issues from here to the moon, don't get me wrong, but I didn't get the feeling that he hated himself. That being said, I rather liked the idea of there being some central theme underlying his whole personality, and it dovetailed nicely with the plot in terms of Ascension and the AI and all that.
Oh, Telford. This is why I said you should start with "Subversion" once I knew you were reading FoD, even with the icky torture attitude bits, because those episodes are really Telford's arc, and Telford is the one character that I think is really a bit OOC in FoD. He's not particularly OOC for how he's presented early first season, which is why it didn't register on me while reading, and maybe the fic was plotted out before subsequent character developments, but Telford in second season is not at all the Machiavellian government antagonist he's presented to be in the fic. (I actually quite liked him in second season SGU.) That being said, I enjoyed getting Telford/Rush backstory. Um. I'm kind of a sucker for plot?
Hee, I didn't catch the Arlington thing (not knowing anything about it). I liked the last two chapters because it gave me a chance to catch my breath, by that time I'd watched more of the show and was therefore more invested in what happened to the crew once they got back, and I did actually like how everything pulled together, but -- yes, after the plot-heavy climaxes of the previous chapters, definitely a lot slower. I have to admit to being awfully relieved that Rush went back for Young, because he'd gotten himself so screwed up by that time.
Hm. I'm going to have to watch SGA, I think, and then ask you about your favorite SGA fic. I really like watching McKay, I must admit, at least based on his guest appearance on SGU - so slimy!
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-04 02:36 pm (UTC)I think the plot management was really good, and I too loved the ensemble moments, especially the science team. And Eli. I LOVE ELI. I love that he graphed the fraction of briefings he'd been doing! Chloe's mathematician arc is show canon, although the part where she gets to shoot things and disarm bombs is a nice riff that she doesn't get to do on the show (which tends to be a little more protective of her than I think is a good thing).
I actually rather liked the trust/backstabbing parts, I suppose because Young/Rush is so not my pairing -- it's rather hard for me to imagine them getting together in any way that doesn't involve a lot of questionable... something. So that didn't bother me, whereas I think it would have bothered me in a pairing that was supposed to be presented as a little more healthy.
Young: so I think Young's character in FoD is quite a bit more tortured, angsty, and obnoxious than canon!Young. Yeah, canon!Young left Rush on the planet -- but in later episodes this was presented as a serious but temporary lapse in judgment, and he sort-of-kind-of atones for it, and his later character arcs present him as a fundamentally decent guy who is usually fairly level-headed, sort of Adama-like. Fod!Young, I feel, is still stuck on the characterization of the guy who left Rush on the planet; I think latercanon!Young would probably have agreed to have TJ pull Rush out instead of him. (Part of this -- I exchanged a couple of PMs with CWR -- had to do with trying to make sense of canon Young/TJ, which really kind of MAKES NO SENSE unless you postulate Young has some odd relationship issues.) I like canon!Young rather better, but (as I said above) I kind of appreciate not whitewashing the relationship between two guys who are both really obnoxious.
Fod!Rush, I think, is also rather more tortured and angsty than canon!Rush (while still not an illegitimate reading of his character). Now, canon!Rush has issues from here to the moon, don't get me wrong, but I didn't get the feeling that he hated himself. That being said, I rather liked the idea of there being some central theme underlying his whole personality, and it dovetailed nicely with the plot in terms of Ascension and the AI and all that.
Oh, Telford. This is why I said you should start with "Subversion" once I knew you were reading FoD, even with the icky torture attitude bits, because those episodes are really Telford's arc, and Telford is the one character that I think is really a bit OOC in FoD. He's not particularly OOC for how he's presented early first season, which is why it didn't register on me while reading, and maybe the fic was plotted out before subsequent character developments, but Telford in second season is not at all the Machiavellian government antagonist he's presented to be in the fic. (I actually quite liked him in second season SGU.) That being said, I enjoyed getting Telford/Rush backstory. Um. I'm kind of a sucker for plot?
Hee, I didn't catch the Arlington thing (not knowing anything about it). I liked the last two chapters because it gave me a chance to catch my breath, by that time I'd watched more of the show and was therefore more invested in what happened to the crew once they got back, and I did actually like how everything pulled together, but -- yes, after the plot-heavy climaxes of the previous chapters, definitely a lot slower. I have to admit to being awfully relieved that Rush went back for Young, because he'd gotten himself so screwed up by that time.
Hm. I'm going to have to watch SGA, I think, and then ask you about your favorite SGA fic. I really like watching McKay, I must admit, at least based on his guest appearance on SGU - so slimy!