Blog

Here we are!

There isn’t too much left Ronon-wise to go. This post and maybe one more, to be honest, for this book anyways. After that I may go onto Jennifer and Rodney’s relationship because…ouch.

I should bring up the other people we haven’t seen in awhile, like Hocken, Cadmen, Radek and such.

We’ll see.

For now!

The peeps have gone to investigate a planet where Teyla believes a ZPM resides. An almost fully charged ZPM at that. Radek was supposed to go along, but Sheppard had already told McKay that when he was cleared for duty he was back on the team.

Carson cleared Rodney and though Teyla makes her position very clear quickly (she is all for Rodney joining them), Ronon is another matter.

It takes a pointed look from Sheppard and a reminder that they had had to trust Ronon again after he’d been addicted to the Wraith enzyme, to get his hackles down enough to get going.

I like how Sheppard handles this situation. He desperately wants his team back and I think he weighs a lot more than just Rodney’s well-being. He can’t leave Rodney behind, that’ll break something that won’t be able to be fixed, and he can’t ignore Ronon’s well-being either. In this situation, there’s no reason why Rodney can’t come along.

What’s interesting, actually, is that Ronon doesn’t seem to be seeing the parallels between himself and Rodney. After being addicted to the Wraith enzyme he had to have been in a bad place mentally about whether his teammates would trust him again or even want him on the team (of course they did, but the fear would be there for a while). Rodney is going through the same thing now and Ronon would be the perfect person to talk to about it.

Except that they can’t because of Ronon’s hatred of the Wraith.

Which makes the next moment we speak of interesting.

Locals send the team to ‘The Shrine of the Bride’ to see if she can help them. She can, actually, because she’s Guide’s daughter, Alabaster.

You know, the dead one?

Turns out she (obviously) didn’t die because her crew sacrificed themselves so she could live. The people of the planet she landed on helped her and have kept her and her son safe for twenty-one years.

Side note!! Darling (Alabaster’s son) looks about five years old. Wraith age REALLY slowly. We knew that of course, but this is a great reminder because we’ve only really seen Ellia as a representative of Wraith children. And she wasn’t really a child since she already had a feeding mouth.

The shock of seeing a child makes everyone react differently.

But we only care about Ronon right now and boy, does he react.

He keeps his gun aimed at the Wraith even after Sheppard and Teyla tell him to back off. He calls them ‘parasites’ and asks how many people Alabaster’s killed.

The answer, is zero.

Not surprising. She is Guide’s daughter after all and not stupid. She later tells Teyla that there are two reasons she hasn’t killed anyone (and Teyla can choose which one she believes) she would be hunted if she had, and how would the years have gone by with only her son as company?

Ronon doesn’t believe her. Sheppard has to stand between the gun and the child before Ronon stalks off.

Sheppard follows, of course, and finds him on the edge of a cliff. Not about to jump, don’t worry, he’s just having a tough time. Understandably.

The best Sheppard can do is tell Ronon that he’ll have to figure out who he wants to be now. He isn’t a Satedan Imperial, a runner or even a Wraith hunter. He’s grown too much and come too far to be any of that now. It’s not easy, never is, but Sheppard is still around because he believes they still need him. Because he believes there are people and places worth staying around for.

Ronon just needs to find his Gate, like O’Neill helped Sheppard find his.

With that, I’m going to leave you until next week because I work in the morning again.

See ya’ll later!

Isn’t character development fantastic?

Here we have our peeps needing each others company while Rodney is in surgery. Sheppard goes to find Ronon and, being the cute awkward guys they are, decide that Teyla needs company during this time.

Teyla is still in the infirmary after being de-Wraithified so they gather around.

Discussing the surgery gives them something to talk about and it’s here that Ronon says (after Teyla says it’s been three hours already which isn’t good news) it’s was probably a good thing that Keller let Rodney feed on her. With his current state and immense risk of infection, had he not fed so recently his chances wouldn’t be as good.

This is a huge step for Ronon. Letting Rodney and Jennifer go through with the feeding was so bad that he couldn’t even watch. His talk with Sheppard helped get his head in a better place then it was and I think that this moment, and the realization, helped even more.

That he was willing to say something like that out loud tells you how much he trusts his family. They’ve proven themselves to him over the years and he feels safe enough verbalizing something like that. Something that is deeply traumatic for him personally.

Not so intense for Ronon, is a moment on Sateda that comes up soon after Rodney is out of the woods with his surgery.

Ronon takes a team to meet with Genii who want a Lantean to activate a crystal for their Alteran ship. When Radek realizes the crystal is for a weapons array and not a simple navigational crystal as the Genii say, he tells Ronon.

It’s up to Ronon to decide whether or not to let Mel Hocken activate the crystal for the Genii.

On the one hand, it’s for weapons and the Genii haven’t been what you’d call the most reliable or trustworthy allies to this point.

On the other hand, chances are the Genii are more likely to use it against Death then Atlantis in the near future. With the crystal damaged it’s entirely possible that they won’t even survive an attempt to use it.

I think he made the right choice having Hocken activate it. It made the Genii owe them one and gave them a possible hand with Queen Death.

Mr. Woolsey agrees, by the way, and leaves Ronon almost speechless when he tells him so.

Until this point Ronon has really been portrayed as the muscle of the team. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, but it does leave people with the expectation that he’s not the brightest. We know that’s not true because we’ve gotten to see some of his conversations where he talks about his younger years and his quite impressive education.

Ronon isn’t stupid, but his years as a Satedan soldier and a runner left him with a pretty narrow view of things. Shooting and blowing things up is certainly a way to get things done, but not the only way. Here, he has to make the decision without input from a higher up.

He IS the higher up and this is a turning point, small, but a turning point.

I’ll leave it there for now and see everyone next week!

Yay Ronon!

So much growth for the little Satedan baby.

Seriously, the next book shows just how much he’s changed since the first episode. Fact is, even though he has every right to hate the Wraith, he started changing in the TV series first.

Remember Ellia?

He could have easily killed her. Or killed Guide on multiple occasions.

He chose, every time, not to. Some of that is because he didn’t want to cause problems with his new family and some of it was that he could see there were advantages to leaving the Wraith alive. Which seems cold, but it is a step forward from simply pulling the trigger.

Not that he agreed with the decisions, but I think that one of the reasons Ronon trusts and loves his Atlantis family so much is because they can treat enemies like people. Outside of how they treated him and welcomed him, the people of Earth have a tendency to want to help people.

Even after they’ve been betrayed or hurt.

One of our best qualities.

It’s a spoiler so I won’t be getting into what he does next book, but it makes a huge change for our peeps!

Moving forward!

After arriving back in Atlantis, Sheppard tells Ronon they need to debrief.

Why?

Cause Ronon isn’t looking so hot. He looks a lot like how he did when he first arrived on Atlantis and Sheppard knows that can’t be good.

Ronon tells him about Rodney feeding on Jennifer and how he should have stopped it from happening. He also talks about knowing what it feels like and asks Sheppard what he would have done. If he would have fed on the woman he loved.

I like that Sheppard thinks about it. He doesn’t just throw something out there to try and make Ronon feel better. In fact, Sheppard’s words aren’t reassuring really, considering both he and Ronon have been fed on multiple times.

He tells Ronon that he’d let any of them feed on him if they needed to. He’d give his life, literally, for them if need be.

Ronon is unsure, I think, about how to feel about that. Disgusted, sure, and upset about it being a possibility (seeing as the Wraith can turn humans Wraith it’s more fact than anything), but I think it was the best thing Sheppard could have told him. Any other answer would have made things worse because Sheppard doesn’t lie when it comes to things like this.

It would be worse than a nightmare for Ronon if he were turned into a Wraith. It’s one thing for Rodney, because of the circumstances he never fed on anyone other than Keller, but for Ronon the circumstances could (and most likely would) be far different.

The psychological toll it would take on him would be immense.

It doesn’t happen though, I won’t make such a comment and leave it there. The point is though, is that Ronon is trying to keep his friend in mind when he’s around Rodney, but his history of being hunted by the Wraith is devastating. Rodney simply walking around causes Ronon to shudder in fear and loathing.

Safe to say, Ronon has a ways to go and he keeps getting hit with things in this book and the next.

Until next time!

We’re back!

And so are our peeps!

Everything goes pretty much how it usually does. They land (crash, technically, but who’s keeping track?) and have to walk to the Gate. It’s about 31 miles. They use kilometers though so I had to convert since I’m American, but Ronon had to convert too because he’s Satedan (it’s faerings, for those who’d like to know).

Not a problem right?

Except that Rodney hasn’t fed in too long, he’s healing injuries still, and the fact that they have to keep walking isn’t helping. Before they can make it to the Gate, Rodney literally can’t go any farther without feeding.

Jennifer insists he feed on her.

Now. For those paying attention, you’ll remember that Keller took the retrovirus and it didn’t work.

Except, it did. It just took a bit to actually work.

At this point though she doesn’t actually know that but theorizes. And tells Rodney to feed on her.

Ronon, who has done his best to keep Keller and Rodney away from each other because he knew this might happen, can’t watch. He does what he can to persuade Keller not to allow Rodney to feed, but Jennifer is adamant and neither one of them succeed.

Please remember that it was insinuated in the tv series that Keller and Ronon dated for a bit or at least had some kind of relationship before Keller and Rodney became a thing. He might still have feelings for her outside of the usual ‘teammate’ feels.

Don’t get me wrong, they are not right for each other in my opinion, but that doesn’t stop Ronon from having the feelings and now having to deal with his friend feeding on another friend.

To continue – Ronon walks away for a bit and Rodney feeds.

Keller doesn’t die, but does pass out.

We’ll have to do some posts about Keller and Rodney’s relationship after Ronon because boy are things strained!

I mean, the feeding on and being fed on thing isn’t exactly helpful, but the issue actually started when Keller saw Rodney as Quicksilver. She can see the man he was, but who he is now isn’t who she knows.

Things get tense ya’ll, and I feel completely bad for Rodney because he literally had no choice or say in what’s happened to him and Keller kind of acts like a jerk not soon after this…

But, we shall talk about that later.

What you need to know, is that Ronon is having more trouble seeing his friend through the Wraith and blames Rodney for Keller’s condition even though Rodney blames himself too.

They do make it to the Gate without further problems (with the exception of Keller having cramps that I think was an electrolyte problem) and split up with Ronon being the only one not headed to the infirmary.

Okay, next week we’ll go back to Ronon being the main focus. I know I said the first few would be about him, but certain information is needed to understand how he’s growing. Especially cause he hasn’t had too much focus on his development since I think book 2.

Here we are onto book 5 already!

This ones a doozy (as if the others weren’t) and I can’t wait to really get into the relationships and upheavals.

First! We’re going to spend some time looking at Ronon because I haven’t for a bit and he’s truly an interesting person that the authors have continued to grow in the series.

Ronon wakes in the Wraith lifepod with Keller and McKay. McKay wakes up soon after but Keller is pretty much out for the count with whatever put her down in the first place keeping her there.

Ronon isn’t too happy about McKays new look. It sounds and acts like McKay but is definitely Wraith looking.

The author’s (Jo Graham and Melissa Scott) did a great job reminding people of the episode where Rodney had superpowers and healed Ronon’s scars. It’s a very brief mention but the fact that they brought it up here is fabulous writing!

If you haven’t seen the episode in awhile you need to because it adds a depth to this book and what Ronon is going through.

Ronon is hit the hardest by the new Rodney because of his hatred of the Wraith (with good reason) but love for his friend.

Seeing Teyla decked out as a Wraith Queen isn’t new to him, been there seen that, but her and Shepherd’s new ease with the Wraith and even friendship is making him rethink things.

Add in Keller’s eagerness to help Guide with the retrovirus and Ronon is definitely feeling like the odd man out.

The Wraith are the enemy. They’ve always been the enemy.

Right?

Poor Ronon! I honestly feel bad for everything he’s gone through and will go through. However! The authors of the Legacy series really did a fantastic job in writing these characters and Ronon’s reactions will definitely be on point for who he was in the tv series while also letting his character grow!

I close with that to tantalize, and I’ll see y’all next week as we make planet fall where Ronon, Rodney and Keller have to survive making it to the Gate with a hungry Wraith!

Did I say this week was the last post for The Furies?

…just kidding! It really is the last post this go around so buckle up!

The interaction between Ronon and Laura Cadman on the Hammond when they’re going to save Rodney (again) is awesome!

I love the fact that there’s something about her that can make Ronon happy, even if for a moment. He literally thinks about how when she smiles it’s like the sun coming out!

And he just likes to hear her talk.

My little romantic heart ships these two quite a bit because (pretty sure I’ve mentioned somewhere) she won’t back down just because Ronon is scary and he could definitely use a good bit of light in his life.

Onto the next peeps for this last review!

Jennifer and Ronon go after Rodney, and find him, but with the ship being fired on by Death’s cronies, escape gets questionable.

Ronon is able to get an unconscious Keller and Rodney into a life pod and sent off for the nearest planet. I’m pretty sure the next books starts with them but we’ll find out next week.

Teyla, for some reason, claims that Cadman is Carter’s heir! Not sure what she’s setting up but clever of her to do so.

Guide, always being clever, has figured out how to get a transport beam to work on a Hiveship and saves Sheppard and his people (again) before the Hive blows up.

The ZPM with it, unfortunately.

And that is where we end this short review. I need sleep because I work a couple days at both jobs and one of those days I also have a Dr. appointment so no nap between for me!

See y’all next week for Legacy 5: Secrets!!

Hello!

Next week should be the last post for ‘The Furies’, but this week is going to be short because of things.

I have vacation time coming up and in an effort to get things done before hand (to keep me from procrastinating) I’m spending the next few days to two weeks working on little things.

I am really going to try and get some writing done and since places are opening now, I can actually go and write. Because we all know that really doesn’t happen at home.

The list is rather long but if I do a little each day it should be doable.

One of the things on that list is scheduling more posts so these kinds stop having to happen because I was too busy to do a Legacy review.

Anyways, I’ll let y’all get back to your week’ and I’ll see you next week with the final entry for ‘The Furies’!

See ya!

Stargate Atlantis Legacy: The Furies

SGA #19

ISBN: 9781905586578

Wraith relationships, take 2!

…actually, I may have to go back and see what number this is because it’s probably more than a ‘take 2’ situation.

Anyways!

We’re just going to jump right in.

Guide and Teyla have a long talk that starts off not so good.

Teyla needs sleep, but isn’t keen on letting her guard down on a ship full of Wraith, so Guide says he’ll keep watch while she gets some rest.

Teyla’s fear that she’ll wake up with him on top of her leaks through and his reaction is of total revulsion and abhorrence, though it takes a bit to convince her of that enough to let him stay.

Apparently, to force yourself on a Wraith Queen is something so evil amongst the Wraith that any who would dare would be cast out and never allowed on a Hive again.

A death sentence, but longer and worse because they don’t do well alone.

Now, Guide likens humans to animals because of this (he does that quite a bit in this book actually), but when Teyla asks if rape is unheard of in their culture, he has to admit that amongst blades it does happen.

First thing – because of other books we know that not all Wraith females are Queen’s (though that was in a much earlier book that was read between the episodes so it’s possible they were still working on canon and decided later that didn’t fit so ignored it, but I like to think not all Wraith females are Queen’s because it would make more sense) so you’d think it would beg the question whether it wasn’t as much of a ‘sin’ if a non-Queen female, or a male, were raped.

The answer would be no.

Guide admits that it happens, but he isn’t happy about it. It could be because he doesn’t want to admit that the Wraith could act in such a ‘bestial’ manner as humans or it could be because he’s repulsed by the idea altogether.

Either way, it’s one more way Wraith and humans are alike. A not so good comparison this time, but I think a needed one. So far, they’ve each been able to see how they are alike but in an almost case by case basis as if to keep themselves distant from the realization as long as possible.

Guide even thinks about how he doesn’t feel like feeding on Keller and how it’s no doubt due to ‘knowing her name’. Once something has a name, it’s hard to put it back into a box of ‘insignificant’.

Second – Teyla points out that Guide desires her despite his protest to the contrary. Constantly reading his thoughts has let her in on that little nugget often enough.

Thing is, it’s not necessarily her as a person.

Guide explains that the Queen’s are special. Born different. Above. They are what the Wraith sacrifice for and happily. It’s most likely bred into them and as it’s such a part of their culture, definitely not something easily, if ever, broken free of.

Except for Guide.

Teyla wonders how it is that Guide is able to resist Death’s allure seemingly easily. His response is that Death isn’t his Queen. Since Teyla isn’t either (technically) and she points this out, he tells her of Snow.

Teyla can’t help but feel how much he loved Snow and admits to not knowing if she believes they actually can feel those emotions. (this scene is kind of ridiculous to me because you literally just felt it from the man himself!? How can you still be unsure about the Wraith having those kinds of feelings!)

Moving on, I wonder if Teyla knows about Alabaster? If it’s something she’s seen in his mind before?

I want to say no. I feel like that’s something he keeps buried very deep for his own peace of mind.

Having said all that, I really need to get going because this is even longer than last weeks.

We may continue next week, but I’m not quite sure what I want to talk about so we shall see.

Stargate Atlantis Legacy: The Furies

SGA #19

ISBN: 9781905586578

And we are back!

I’d like to talk about Wraith babies, as promised from last week, but also about relationships and taboos and such in general concerning the Wraith.

No doubt, considering a later book, I’ll do another Wraith relationship one later on, but for now ‘The Furies’ has some interesting pieces in it to explore.

I haven’t watched all of the deleted scenes or behind the scenes stuff so it’s possible some of my curiosity will be assuaged once I do. Now, however, I have theories and questions and observations.

Of course, it’s entirely possible the answers are in the books I just didn’t see it the first time.

In any case.

A conversation between Guide and Keller got me thinking about it because something he said seemed strange to me.

It’s been mentioned that Wraith babies grow within wombs on the ship, I’m guessing it’s not too different from an incubation chamber you’d see in a sci-fi movie, and so I thought that the Wraith didn’t actually procreate like humans did but used genetic engineering.

Seems logical right? It’s what they do for the Drones after all and we know that the majority of the Wraith males were bred specifically for certain traits during the war.

I am now of the thought that this is not true.

Guide tells Keller that he had sired a daughter once. Apparently to be chosen to sire a child at all was a great honor and then, in his mind, he was derisive about humans for not having a care in their choosing when it came to such things.

So, I’m going to say that the Wraith still do the whole ‘breeding for certain traits’ thing. It might just be a holdover from the war years or it could be that the Queens are simply selective, naturally, about such things in the hopes they have a daughter.

Not necessarily a bad thing, humans do the same to a certain extent.

Now, I’m guessing that at a point after conception the fetus is moved into the shipwomb to grow until, apparently, it’s time for them to be weaned.

We saw in the episode where Guide and his crew had cancer from the retrovirus, that their hibernation chambers feed them nutrients and such while they sleep (pretty sure it’s been stated or insinuated in any case). It’s not a stretch at all to understand that a shipwomb for babies would do the same.

It’s interesting to think about because if the Wraith procreate like humans do than they can also, presumably, carry to term.

So why don’t they?

Guide, while thinking about this during the conversation with Keller, also thinks about the fact that the babies in the shipwomb ‘learn’ from the constant hum of the hive.

I’ll go out on the limb here and say he doesn’t mean the ship itself, but the Wraith as a whole on whichever hive the baby is on.

Then again, it could also literally be that the baby learns from the ship until the point that the baby can learn in a more traditional manner.

I’m going to stop here cause this has gotten long.

Until later!

Stargate Atlantis Legacy: The Furies

SGA #19

ISBN: 9781905586578

Alrighty!

So last week I let ya’ll know that I had finished my 3^rd reading of ‘The Furies’.

That doesn’t mean that the posts for that book are done though, don’t worry, it just means that I am onto the next book.

There is still a whole bunch of stuff I want to talk about for this one.

Let’s start with more Wraith things for this post and we’ll see what happens shall we?

We all know how Wraith get their names and how they can evolve over time as the person does. One particular Wraith we meet briefly is called Heedless.

Heedless is apparently quite fond of explosives and has, several times, blown fingers off that had to regenerate. Twice his entire off-hand fell victim to his experiments and he’s now forbidden to do such research while on a Hive.

I like this entire exchange between Rodney and Heedless because it once again makes us see the Wraith as people.

Rodney notes that Heedless, as the conversation goes on, is obviously embarrassed as he tells his story and, had he been human, probably would have been very red at certain points.

Heedless is obviously passionate about his work to have gone through so many regenerations and continued. Showing that the Wraith can be just as determined to succeed as humans.

Technically a group for this next one, but it’s pretty dang funny.

Teyla, as Steelflower, joins Guide and his men when they go to meet with Death near the end of the book.

(We all know it’s a trap, but the good guys are planning on trapping the trappers.)

When Teyla first arrives on a planet to be taken up to the Hiveship, she’s met by an Honor Guard.

Being Teyla she plays her part well and one of the Wraith, Swiftripen, manages to get himself an invitation to sit next to her on the way to the Hive. What’s funny is that one of his brothers-in-arms, Gamester, rolls his eyes behind Swift’s back and another, Sable, grimaces.

Apparently it’s a very Swift thing to do and the others are used to it.

I have to wonder if Teyla was keeping track of their thoughts and had to try and not laugh at this. It’s a very normal team thing to do and SGA-1 acts like that on occasion too.

Every time we get to see a tiny snippet more about the Wraith, the more I like them.

Now, before I sign off, I should mention that I think the next book delves deeper into the origins of the Wraith. ‘The Furies’ tantalizes us with an idea of how they came to be, and for those reading along you’ve probably figured it out by now too, but the pleasure is in the telling and so we read on!

I’ll see everyone next week where I think I’ll talk about Wraith babies…