The thing is, the writers couldn’t get along on what to do with… or even what to think of the ship.
There were, disappointingly, quite a few anti/non shippers in the writer room. And turns out the Beneath the Surface writer was one of them, much to my utter surprise and disappointment (I mean… Beneath the Surface ? The episode with « feeling feelings » and all ? How ? Whyyyyyy 😫 ?) when the interview popped up.
The Thera/Jonah situation really didn’t scream or fit a « whoops, we’re actually just bros, my bad » scenario. Everyone (well, almost eh) always assumed they found each other again (and gravitated towards each other first) because SJ’s love was one of the rare things that endured memory loss… which will always come across as extremely romance coded (plus, I’m sorry but these characters were engaged/married twice before in AUs… implying they mistook the nature of their affection later on would have felt like a weird retcon if it had made it on screen). And any « this feels like we shouldn’t be doing this » vibes (which was definitely there during the cuddling scene) were about their « not allowed to be together » dilemma/personal tragedy back at home.
But, yeah, while one of the writers (Malozzi) was friendly to the ship, others were not.
Cooper, who did s9/10, didn’t seem to care one bit about them… and then there’s plain stated recent examples like that BtS writer we talked about… who seems to think it’s misogynistic for a main male and female character to hook up and be happy. Overdone ? maybe. But done really well ? rarely… but that’s why we need BETTER attempts , not LESS.
Brad Wright, who is probably the biggest writer of the show (I mean, if we have to pick a head chief among TPTB, I guess he was) is, I guess, what I would describe as ambivalent. He seems to agree something happened eventually between the two… but… Did it last ? Were they happy ? I was under the impression we would have gotten a « got together and separated off (ugh) screen » scenario (with a *will they/won’t they hook back up* tension on top maybe… or maybe not… I’m just theorizing based on whether or not they still care to dangle carrots in front of shippers’ faces… but it’s a known tactic to keep shippers watching in general, so… maybe yeah) if a new show had been made.
Because we STILL « can’t piss off the antis » (who’ll get pissed anyway if they have to watch them interact on screen), apparently. Yippee for sabotaging the writing before it even starts.
I really think the rules were a convenient excuse, not just for Sam but for the writers THEMSELVES because it obviously wasn’t the only reason they never made them properly canon. The SJ ship just wasn’t loved enough and disliked too much to receive good proper treatment… and it doesn’t help romance wasn’t the show’s forte either. It was mostly above all about the male characters vibing/bonding/snarking during whacky military space adventures in the end. Rest’s optional. Atlantis was even more obvious at this. Had a much bigger ensemble cast, slightly more women and diversity, but it was still mostly about Sheppard and McKay’s shenanigans in the end.
I don’t even believe it will ever happen tbh… the new show with Wright and co on board, I mean (with MGM putting more light on the old movie than the shows these days). Which is almost a blessing. Maybe it’s better not to potentially ruin things (further). But at this point, they either do it now or never because the SG1/Atlantis/SGU cast will continue to age and die as years go by… which leaves you with a reboot as the only distant possibility for this « universe » to come back. And whether they reboot the shows or the movie’s universes, it will never be the same as you remembered (we all want reboots/remakes until we don’t want them anymore and we get homesick for the familiar old).
Fanfics are good anyways.
