Hello jsc, nice to see you post again! I was concerned that you hadn't replied to my last two emails.....which is your perogative of course.....but that doesn't stop me being concerned about you. I hope everything is well with you and yours.
but getting back to Teal'c. Everything both of you say is true. However, I think that Jack is waking up to it.....and I also think that Daniel has been aware of it for some time. What strikes me is that there is very little they can do about it..... or would want to. As long as it's the 'bad guys' that Teal'c is exacting revenge from that is.
However, it is also true that you can't run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. Teal'c loyalties are divided by his own sense of overwhelming helplessness because his people are in slavery to another species. Very much the way racial feelings run high on earth today all of the time. Racial hatred is never far below the surface and is partly fuelled by a desire of the victims to be free of it. And indeed who can blame them?
I realise the reasoning behind the Stargte writers placing Teal'c in the position they have (i.e. part of an earth team, based among people who he is completely alien to) is a plot ploy, to give the struggling humans a fighting chance.....and in my view he is also the token 'black man' on the show. This latter point merely serves to emphasise that racial discrimination is alive and well and practised regularly especially in the TV and movie industry. They just utilise 'positive discrimination, but it's discrimination nonetheless.
Teal'c can't get over his conditioning....and realistically, someone like him would not be content to remain among the humans and fight their battles with them anyway. Considering the passion he feels about his people's slavery, I feel he would be with someone like Bra'tac and trying to cause dissention and insurrection among the Jaffa.....and considering the humans to be allies instead.... rather than be part of the human team. But the plot calls for him to be part of SG1 and in doing so all of these anomalies about his character raise their heads and won't be put down. And the further the writers explore his character the worse it would get, because finally they wouldn't be ABLE to justify him being part of the earth team. And this would destroy part of the premise of the script. I often feel that this is the reason why they haven't gone into his character too much. He is too much of an activist to fit comfortably into the pat and twee nature of the SG1 team as a whole.
Jean....if you do read this, please let me know that you are well. I have been worried and concerned that I may have upset you somehow (although I don't know how I would!)