Stargate: Atlantis -- The Post-Trinity phenomenon

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Title: Stargate: Atlantis -- The Post-Trinity phenomenon
Creator: iibnf
Date(s): April 20, 2007, though updated with links until 2012
Medium:
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Topic:
External Links: Stargate: Atlantis - The Post-Trinity phenomenon, Archived version
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Stargate: Atlantis -- The Post-Trinity phenomenon is a short 2007 meta essay by iibnf.

It explains the "post-trinity" trope in Stargate: Atlantis and collects many links to fics with address this episode, as well as including commentary on the fiction.

Some tropes included are Fix-it, You Big Bully, Grovelfic, and Whumping.

Each fic is given a Lemon Chicken Rating which is an opinion about: "How angsty it is - like, is lemon chicken actually served or does the shunning just make Rodney feel like he wants to eat it and die..." The term "lemon chicken" refers to Rodney McKay's severe allergies to food that contains any sort of citrus.

This essay also includes links to fics that are close to fulfilling the trope but not quite, as well as some parodies, and vids.

There are 366 comments by fans to this post.

The meta post's creator, iibnf, includes this disclaimer: "Oh man, this post took forever to put together, weeks, as I had to keep stopping to read all the fics all over again! Now, before anyone gets offended by any comments I've made, or thinks I'm dissing the authors, you can stop that right now. I spent months hunting down every post-Trinity fic I could find not to mock them, but because I truly love them. Seriously, I'm addicted to Big Mean John/Poor Woobie Rodney fics! And if you don't like it, then screw you guys, I'm going to China! Screw you… China!"

Similar Lists and Commentaries

Excerpts from the Essay

What was Trinity? Potted for those who may not know, if that's at all possible.

Trinity was the episode of Stargate: Atlantis wherein the writers felt that McKay's genius had become too much of a dues ex machina. He could always be relied upon to pull a technobabble rabbit out of his hat and save a bad situation and they were losing tension, so he had to be made fallible.

In this episode, McKay thinks he's found a great weapon – one that the Ancients had abandoned as unusable – and that, being smarter than your average Ancient, McKay believes he can fix it and use it to defeat the wraith. Instead, things get out of hand, he insults people even more than usual, the weapon blows up, everyone escapes because of the other dues ex machina, the Daedalus, and everyone's very disappointed.

McKay apologies to everyone, and after Elizabeth chews him out (embarrassing in public), they accept his apologies. He apologises to John who gives him a 'you can earn my trust back in time' comment, Rodney looks devastated, the end.

Next episode, all is forgotten (until the episode with the Volcanoes, when John cruelly throws the whole thing in woobie Rodney's face again!), and life goes on.

But the fans don't forget, oh no!

What is a classic Post-Trinity fic?

Normally, in a classic Post-Trinity fic, John Sheppard (sometimes the entirety of Atlantis) cannot forgive Rodney for making a mistake, and proceeds to punish him, usually by shunning. A lot of shunning. Oftimes Rodney may also be served lemon chicken in the mess, his work may be sabotaged, people will be mean to him, generally his life is made more unpleasant. Poor woobie.

Now, yes, of course I know that John would never be that unprofessional or mean, and Rodney would either a) not care, b) not notice, or c) destroy them all, mwahahahahaha, but that's not the point. So shut up, okay?

Post-Trinity stories are like drag queens, they're just not dealing with reality. But they are fabulous!

So, they're mean to him, he may try to redeem himself. He may not. He might have a total breakdown, he might not. He might end up living in the heating ducts of Atlantis, scuttling about like a rat in the dry wall, he might not. Sometimes John realises what a big meanie he's being, bribes Rodney with coffee and cuddles and all is well and they make up and are friends again (blow jobs may ensue if it's a slash story). Sometimes John doesn't wise up, or he does too late, and Rodney ends up going to China to work on their Stargate Development programme. Or some sort of China-esque substitute.

The main point of these types of Post-Trinity stories is that Rodney suffers and John is mean. Actual realistic characterisation need not apply, and that's not the point! Oh, and there must be shunning. The shunning is very important.

(I think I might write a version where everyone shuns Rodney for weeks, totally cutting him off from their social groups, but after a month or two, John finally lets up and tells him the shunning is over and Rodney is all 'What? You were shunning me? Since when?' because, let's face it, Rodney isn't going to notice. He'd just keep talking to them loudly, waving his hands around, and getting on with the job, and while they thought they were shunning him, he thought they were being particularly good at listening to him and he had a great time! But that's not the point, like I said before, stop being logical, okay?)

The Stories

These are all McKay/Sheppard unless otherwise noted. This is not a list of recommendations, you can take it as a thematic list, instead. What I'm looking for is the classic Post-Trinity Mean JohnWoobie Rodney concept, not other stories that may be set after Trinity but don’t deal with that particular issue.

There are many more, but I never thought to keep the links, so to put this post together I just found a bunch quickly using LJ seek. If you find any others, let me know and I'll add them. There are a whole bunch where he goes to China, or plans on going to China, that I no longer have links for.

Lemon Chicken Rating: How angsty it is - like, is lemon chicken actually served or does the shunning just make Rodney feel like he wants to eat it and die...

The Fic Links

iibnf includes many direct links to fics in the essay, as well as some links provided by other fans. The links were updated until February 2012. There are 136 fic (44 in the main section) recs in total.

The main recs, ones which specifically fit the trope:

References

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