Teal'c: The most stoic and manly of Stoic Manly Men

[meganbmoore]

As I watch Stargate, I cannot help but wonder what, precisely, they do to Christopher Judge to make him be so amazingly stoic and man(we are talking solid, never so much as the teeniest bit of weakness ever shown here)

Let us observe Teal'c and his story for a moment.



Is that  face not intense?  Is it not super duper stoic?

To sum it up in brief:  Teal'c betrayed his Evil Lord Apophis to save his people, but became an exile to his people and a Very Bad Word to most of them as a result.  Naturally, this also causes him to become estranged from his wife and son, who we and Teal'c both learn Fare Very Badly because of this, causing, among other things, his wife to marry another man for protection(as she had a kid to worry about, we can't really hold it against her TOO much) and his son to be kidnapped and brainwashed and sent off to kill Teal'c.  Does Teal'c complain?  Does he whine?  Does he make "how could you?"s to his wife.  No, he bears it stoically.

Fortunately, this paid off for him as New Husband was soon revealed to be Evil and Wifey returned to Teal'c, and they were able to free Son from brainwashing.  They live on another planet now.  We assume Teal'c is not so obsesively duty bound thaty he doesn't at least work in at least one conjugal visit every few months.  Hopefully, as I'm sure they'll kill her off eventually so he can bear it with stoic manliness.

But let's look at ep 3.19.  In this episode, Teal'c is blinded early in the episode, and then is shot, shot at, and hunted the rest of the episode, having been separated from the rest of the team, with only Daniel Junior as assistance.  Does he complain?  Does he whimper?  No, he does not.  He bears it with the stoic manliness he is known for and launches a rescue mision to save all the caged but not blind or shot humans that got captured.  I find this to be extremely admirable.

Then there's his mentor, Bra'tac.  He and Teal'c like to stand around and say extremely stoic and manly things including talking about dying well and swearing to honorably spread ashes after death and shooting off words like "strongest" and "bravest" and "greatest" and such all the time about each other and other people they know.  In fact, in a normal show, Bra'tac would be the most stoic and manly character ever, but Teal'c has learned from him and perfected it.  But that's ok.  For while he has not perefcted the art of stoic manliness the way Teal'c has, he compensates for it with well deserved arrogance.

As O'Neill put it a few episodes ago:  "Teal'c...well, Teal'c didn't say anything, but I could tell he disapproved by the way he arched his brow and tilted his head."  Oh yeah, those oh-so-stoic expressions say more than words ever could.

Comments

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I fear that Teal'c's stoicism is much better than the rest of the show. Is this true?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

like the show as a whole a lot. A whole lot. It takes a little while to get going, and a lot of season one is rather "planet of the week," but I like it. Teal'c is the best part, though...eriously...they gave Christopher Judge...something...to make him so manly and stoic.

I fear the manpain(of which there is a good bit) may be too suppressed and subdued for you, though.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

And the sad thing is: there's so little Teal'c fic. Sigh.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Maybe people are too in awe of his stoicism and manlinessto attempt to immitate it? He is a true work of art.