McKay/Weir (Stargate Atlantis)
Jan. 16th, 2005 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ship_manifesto[side note: I'm sorry this is late! It was due back in December, but I forgot to bring it home with me over Christmas break, and then it was due on Friday, but we all know what happened to LiveJournal on Friday. And of course I'm on MadCow so I couldn't sign in until about half an hour ago. But now, here it is, in all its glory.]
When Rodney Met Elizabeth: McKay/Weir Beginnings
Spoilers through "The Eye", which has not yet aired in the US.
by Ari
Last fall, it took me about two weeks to go from thinking McKay/Weir the best of a bunch of mediocre alternatives to 'shipping this really truly deeply. I'd like to take you on that journey with me, beginning with McKay and Weir themselves.
Elizabeth Weir
Weir was introduced in the Stargate: SG-1 episode "Lost City" as the new commander-in-chief of the SGC. She is an incredibly talented woman in her field, which is international diplomacy, and she is passionate and curious. It took President Hayes a matter of minutes to convince her that the SGC is the place for her, and her decision to go to Atlantis is her decision. Weir has a strong sense of responsibility for the people under her command, and she has a natural disposition for leadership that allows her to effectively lead a military base after less than a year of experience in this field.
When Weir went to Atlantis, she left behind her boyfriend Simon. In "Home," we learn something about how she feels about leaving him; she misses him a great deal, she feels guilty about the decision she makes, she's sorry that she ended it the way she did: but nowhere is there any true regret for the choice she made. She may love Simon a great deal, but her work, and the discoveries she is making, are far more important to her than this relationship, and probably than any relationship. Her unwillingness to abandon her people in Atlantis shows her loyalty and her deep sense of responsibility for the people she has taken under her command. This same sense of moral duty is exhibited by the primary motivations of the Atlantis team: to rectify the unintentional wrong they did in reawakening the Wraith.
We have mostly seen Weir interacting with people who are either above or below her in a hierarchy. In "Lost City," she is compassionate and deeply concerned about SG-1 and Jack's predicament, but she makes no efforts to become personally involved in their lives. The important role that Hammond served in their lives is highlighted when he shows up at Jack's house; Weir hasn't been with them nearly long enough to be so forward. She attempts to joke with them, but the stiltedness of this relationship is obvious. Weir hasn't been in a position of authority long enough to become relaxed around the people she commands: this is the lesson she is learning on Atlantis.
Weir is compassionate and humane, but her work in international diplomacy has given her skill at highly ordered social interaction, not day-to-day relationships. And while she has numerous skills, she is still struggling to adjust to the huge responsibility she has and the daily ethical dilemmas she must face.
In sum, Elizabeth Weir is intelligent, aloof, responsible, mature, dedicated, and more than a little of a workaholic.
Rodney McKay
McKay is almost as unlike Weir as possible. He is immature, arrogant, blustering, profoundly unselfconfident, and highly neurotic. Not to mention that, like Weir, he's intelligent and way more than a little of a workaholic.
McKay was introduced in the Stargate: SG-1 episode "48 Hours" as a foil and potential romantic interest for Sam Carter. His character and his relationship with Sam deepened in half a season later in both parts of "Redemption."
McKay's strengths include encyclopedic knowledge of, according to him, everything, as well as the sort of paranoid neurosis that seems to go hand in hand with sheer brilliance on many occasions. He is eccentric, immature, a caffeine addict, equally insulting to everyone. He considers the Ancients' technology just that many more toys to play with. His greatest weakness, according to what he told Sam in "Redemption," is a lack of creativity. While he has vast resources of knowledge, he lacks the ability to make the creative leaps necessary for real life problem solving. Science appealed to him because of its regularity and, one suspects, the potential for isolation from obviously inferior people. Ironically, it is McKay's scientific genius that has thrust him into situations where he is required to exercise both creative and interpersonal skills.
McKay interacts with people by immediately tying to wrong foot them. His severe and obvious arrogance is, I suspect, only explicable if one reads McKay as being deeply a deeply unconfident man who uses his surface egoism to cover for his perceived devastating inadequacy. This is particularly evident in "Redemption," when we realize that McKay actually deeply admires Sam and is envious of her natural talent.
The only thing more important to McKay than saving his own skin is exploring the universe. It is his sole reason for being in the Pegasus galaxy, and he is having an absolute blast doing it. As he well knows, he has very little to return to on Earth: an empty apartment, dead plants, a neighbor who finds him disgusting, and no friends. Like Weir, McKay doesn't do interpersonal relationships well. However, where Weir is aloof, McKay is forward. He tries to force his way into Sam's life, half-convinced himself that he is attractive enough to woo her.
And I cannot leave my discussion of McKay without mentioning how adorably eccentrically geeky he is. He finds hospital scrubs sexy (on further reflection and in light of the Atlantis characterization, I'd have to say he wasn't being sarcastic about that, either) and hospital food. He drinks seven cups of coffee a day. He has (or wants) a shirt that says "I'm with genius." He watches The Outer Limits. He's allergic to everything and is excessively paranoid. How could one not love him?
The Sam-Crush
Given how McKay entered the 'Gateverse with about two character traits and a crush on Sam, it's impressive how much he's deepened on Atlantis, and how little we do have to depend on his SG-1 characterization. However, it's impossible to escape the Sam-crush. It's there. It will always be there. As David Hewlett (who plays McKay) said, McKay is still carrying a torch for Sam; how could you not?
McKay's obsession with Sam is important in reference to Weir/McKay (you know I'd get back to it eventually, didn't you?) because it tells us something about how McKay acts when he's in love. It also provides a basis for comparison, and shows how much more foundation there is for a McKay/Weir relationship.
McKay is drawn to Sam because of her beauty and because of her intelligence, and though he's probably only aware of the first reason, the second one is the real clincher. Per the Sam-crush, McKay is drawn to strong, attractive, intelligent women who can hold their own against his slew of insults and bravado. Elizabeth Weir is all of these things. Her aloof persona would tend to attract McKay more than repulse him or turn him off.
Sam/McKay canon ends with Sam telling McKay she was more attracted to him when she hated him; alas McKay. I think it's important to note that Weir doesn't hate McKay, never did. She might laugh at him, disdain his immaturity, but from "Rising," she has been his colleague and friend and recognized the need she has to work responsibly with him. Because there was never that hatred or loathing between Weir and McKay, the chance of them developing a mature relationship based on mutual respect is much greater. While for Sam it's McKay's rudeness and obnoxiousness that's so appealing, Weir enjoys McKay on his own terms. Sam surely finds some part of McKay's quirkiness oddly alluring; in Weir's case, this part is more pronounced, and perhaps she's less afraid to acknowledge it than Sam was.
Odd Couple Dynamics
What appeals to me most about this pairing is probably the way McKay and Weir complement each other, how much they depend on each other and need each other--even in a strictly professional capacity.
As commanding officer of the Atlantis Base, Weir needs competent people surrounding her who will be able to perform functions she isn't able to. McKay claims that he is indispensable to Atlantis, and I think he has proven himself correct. While there are obviously many other scientists around, McKay has special importance, and I suspect he's also by far the most intelligent of the scientists who surround Weir. She needs to be able to depend on him to perform this function flawlessly, and the lives of her people depend on it.
As a scientist and an explorer, McKay needs a power structure from which he will be allowed to do the kind of work that he is driven to do. He needs Weir to authorize exploration and research. As a scientist who is often required to make judgments that could affect the health and well-being of hundreds of people, he needs to be confident that someone will follow his recommendations. Because he is her subordinate, McKay needs to rely on Weir to make decisions in his favor. And the incredible thing is, the characters do rely on each other in these ways, despite the difficulties inherent in two such differing personalities working closely together, not to mention the issues McKay has with working with anyone else.
Personally, Weir's and McKay's approaches to situations complement each other. At the beginning of "Suspicion," when McKay is shot, he lies in the infirmary, panicked, lonely and partially paralyzed. Sheppard tells Weir, "He'll be fine," and she says, with a hint of a smile, "I heard." I don't believe for a minute that Weir isn't concerned about McKay's health. But she knows that he'll be fine and she knows that he'll be worried. McKay worries; Weir is calm. McKay panics; Weir adjusts. Weir thinks things through; McKay is impulsive. While these differences have the potential to be intensely annoying for both parties, there also exists the potential for each character to balance the other out, and I think they both know it.
"Home"
"Home" was the episode that really sold me not only on McKay/Weir, but on Weir as a character and on Atlantis as a whole. Whatever it might lack in plotting or clever writing, Atlantis, like SG-1 before it, will be redeemed by the strength of its characters.
The McKay/Weir scene in "Home" emphasizes the extent to which each relies on the other, so instinctively that they don't even notice what they're doing. When not!Weir arrives in McKay's lab, McKay has already begun to panic. McKay counts on the laws of physics to hold, and when they don't, he isn't able to make sense of the world. His frustration with the science that fails him is coupled with a frustration at Weir's inability to understand. One of McKay's greatest needs is to make himself comprehensible to others, and he is often frustrated because of how quickly his mind works. He trusts Weir to be the person who understands, and he is absolutely livid when she fails.
Weir comes to McKay to tell him that Atlantis is being militarized; she is looking perhaps less for his sympathy, than for his moral outrage, his panic for his own position and agenda, hoping that his unhappiness will synchronize with hers. Weir counts on McKay to share her concerns as a civilian in a military world, and when he fails her, she becomes increasingly angry at him. Even when Sheppard, even when Earth itself, have betrayed her, she expects to come to McKay for solace and sympathy, and when she doesn't receive it, she starts pacing angrily, and eventually resorts to yelling, and then -- she realizes that it cannot possibly be real.
She says, "Okay, the Rodney McKay I know would never accept the militarization of Atlantis without putting up a fight! And I don't think Major Sheppard would agree to it either, at least without speaking to me about it first." While it's the physical impossibility of this universe that allows McKay to realize that something is wrong, and while it's inconsistencies with his backstory that tip Sheppard off, for Weir, the deciding factor is her knowledge of McKay and the absolute conviction she has that he would never act as indifferently as his doppelganger is.
This scene simply epitomizes the depth of their professional regard and personal need for each other. McKay and Weir rely on each other to an extent that neither one realizes, and their professional relationship is already tinged with personal aspects that set a favorable foundation for a romantic relationship.
Comrades Not In Arms
Elizabeth. Rodney. That's what McKay and Weir call each other, and one obvious reason is that both are civilians. Both have talents that were commandeered by the Air Force for the sake of planetary security, but both are civilian and both quite aware of this status. McKay has a disdain for the military approach to problems; Weir has difficulty adapting to having to make military-style decisions and to the fact that she is in the midst of a war. These parallel histories, and the time they spent together in Antarctica, and the professional respect each feels for the other, have provided a framework for the familiarity the two share.
While McKay has bonded with his team to some extent and has his own team of scientists, as well as his acquaintance with Beckett (but for more on that, see elsewhere in this community), Weir is finding out firsthand that it's lonely at the top. While she talks regularly with other people, it's about professional, not personal, matters. She is finding that her relationship with Sheppard is tenuous and often antagonistic. Weir needs a friend, and she needs a civilian ally in the strange military world she finds herself in. (Just for comparison's sake, recall that she was hoping Daniel, as a civilian and a scholar, would help to make her feel welcome at the SGC.) McKay is the obvious person to fill both these roles, and he has to an extent already begun to do so.
Weir also shows herself to be a profound judge of human character, and I would estimate that she knows McKay better than anyone else knows him, himself included. In "Hide and Seek," she is able to figure out how to get the device off McKay, not because of any scientific knowledge, but because of her personal knowledge about McKay. In "The Storm," Sheppard suspects that McKay's plan is his way of setting himself up to be the hero; Weir knows this is not true. These are just two example of the many small ways that these two work with each other every day, the ways that they have become more than colleagues and something of friends, the way that they are building towards something that could very well be love before we hear the last from the Pegasus Galaxy.
Archetypes and Metanarratives
While I was writing this essay, it occurred to me that this pairing as I have outlined it is an essential archetype in modern fiction and storytelling: that of the boyishly charming man paired with the mature yet standoffish woman. This is John/Aeryn (Farscape). This is Ron/Hermione (Harry Potter). And this is When Harry Met Sally.
While McKay is more childishly annoying than boyishly charming, he still fills the archetype. He is appealing to us as fans because we want to take him and comfort him and make him all better. He may well bring out the same instincts in Weir. Weir, conversely, has everything together professionally, but lacks personal motivation in her life. McKay is capable of bringing her inner child out to play. Her inability to resist his quirkiness is apparent in the small things: the smiles she cracks at his quips. ("Home in time for dinner!" in "Home," for instance), the way she has caught his infectious enthusiasm for things scientific, her amused smile when he favors her over Sheppard in "The Storm."
This is just one lens through which one can look at a very complex pairing, but the dynamic (that of mother/son, of childlike playmate paired with fully formed adult) is definitely there. Like Harry and Sally, McKay and Weir aren't going to have it easy, because they both have such strong, unconventional, difficult-to-mesh personalities. But like Harry and Sally, their relationship will/would/can be that much deeper for the work required to forge it.
Some Other Things, Silly, Serious, and Apologetic
Some people 'ship this pairing as a companion to Sheppard/Teyla, as the obvious counterpart, the secondary het pairing that is a foil to the Great Sheppard/Teyla 'ship, much in the spirit of many Daniel/Janet 'shippers in the SG-1 fandom. It's not my reason for 'shipping, but it's out there.
The obvious (if slightly ridiculous) argument for this pairing is the fact that Weir's already dating Narim and there's no reason why she shouldn't date the rest of Sam's discards as well.
I don't think this pairing is going to become canon. I don't really even hope that it does; I'm a big fan of the extra-canonical pairing, because then I can believe whatever I want about it without pesky canon interfering.
I don't think that Weir and McKay are going to hook up immediately right now or, in fact, anytime soon. Weir is still in love with Simon, and while at some point she will probably have to acknowledge that she has left that epoch of her life behind, she isn't simply going to ignore it, and nor can the 'shipper. McKay is more likely to give away his heart, but he doesn't have the emotional maturity yet to be part of any sort of functional romantic relationship. I think that how to be a functional human being, how to relate to other people, how to be vulnerable, are all things he's going to learn in the Pegasus Galaxy, and I think a lot of them he will learn from Weir.
Me and Atlantis
As for so many things, I blame my friend![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sage_theory for my interest in this pairing. Watching Atlantis this summer, I was not disappointed but not especially satisfied either. It was decent in places and trite in others. I had been looking forward to seeing McKay again, and wasn't disappointed. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that I liked Weir, that she was my second favorite character, even. I said if I had to pick a pairing, it would be Weir/McKay, mostly because they were the most tolerable characters.
And then that changed to noting the subtext when it appeared and nodding contentedly.
And then that changed to a desperate longing to pair McKay with someone, anyone. And the decision that Weir would be best for so many reasons.
And then "Home" aired and I was hooked completely. My love for Weir became a thing complete of itself, my need for McKay to find joy blossomed, and my appreciation of their canonical relationship just blew me away with its intensity.
Then I realized that this is my Atlantis OTP.
While I haven't dared try write it yet, what appeals to me about the idea is the long, slow struggle it would take for both characters, especially McKay, to get to a place where it would work, and the idea that the changes would be so gradual, so integral to their daily lives, that they wouldn't even realize how much they'd changed, just as they don't yet realize how much they care about each other.
"The Storm" and "The Eye"
I actually wrote this essay before "The Storm" aired, and long before "The Eye" came to Canada. I'd like to leave the above portion of the essay largely extant. To a large extent it says what needs to be said about why this pairing works. Now I'd like to say something about the beautiful hints of subtext we get in the mid-season two parter.
These episodes separate the team in a unique way, with Ford, Beckett, and Teyla on their own, and the three stars alone in Atlantis. McKay arranges the situation so that he and Weir have less work to do than Sheppard (his obvious favoring of Elizabeth because of her complaint about her knees a rare but becoming more frequent instance of him showing concern for someone other than himself), setting up their separation for the Genii attack.
From the time that McKay is tortured for information until the moment when Sheppard arrives, Weir and McKay are thrown together and forced to support each other. While they are counting on Sheppard to actually save the day, they rely on each other on a moment-by-moment basis. It is McKay who steps in front of a gun for Weir. It's Weir who tells McKay they must bluff their way through.
They touch each, hold each other, comfort each other, cuddle together for warmth, encourage each other, strengthen each other. Again we see their abilities meshing together: Weir has command codes; McKay has technical skills. Weir knows they must bluff; McKay turns out to be the one who is actually capable of bluffing.
Their closeness and shared fear during the attack goad McKay into attempting to tell Weir something - we don't know what - but she refuses to hear it. At the end of "The Eye," she reveals that she doubted McKay's plan many times, but she never let him see it, knowing that he needed her confidence in order to survive.
And that is just it: they need each other to survive.
Fandom
There is a Weir/McKay fanlisting here. It's called "Crossing Borders."
There is also a Yahoo! group here.
There's not an awful lot of fic out there, and I'm sure I'm missing some, but here's a list of what I know is out there, with absolutely no promises about quality (I haven't even read all of it.)
-Bonding by Robyn
-There are 16 stories available on The McWeir Fanfiction Archive
- untitled ficlet bynaushika
- Bedside Manners bysage_theory. This one, I can promise you quality. Also, it was written just for me. :)
[time spent writing essay: about four hours. Anticipated time spent searching for fanfic for this pairing: the next three years.]
When Rodney Met Elizabeth: McKay/Weir Beginnings
Spoilers through "The Eye", which has not yet aired in the US.
by Ari
Last fall, it took me about two weeks to go from thinking McKay/Weir the best of a bunch of mediocre alternatives to 'shipping this really truly deeply. I'd like to take you on that journey with me, beginning with McKay and Weir themselves.
Elizabeth Weir
Weir was introduced in the Stargate: SG-1 episode "Lost City" as the new commander-in-chief of the SGC. She is an incredibly talented woman in her field, which is international diplomacy, and she is passionate and curious. It took President Hayes a matter of minutes to convince her that the SGC is the place for her, and her decision to go to Atlantis is her decision. Weir has a strong sense of responsibility for the people under her command, and she has a natural disposition for leadership that allows her to effectively lead a military base after less than a year of experience in this field.
When Weir went to Atlantis, she left behind her boyfriend Simon. In "Home," we learn something about how she feels about leaving him; she misses him a great deal, she feels guilty about the decision she makes, she's sorry that she ended it the way she did: but nowhere is there any true regret for the choice she made. She may love Simon a great deal, but her work, and the discoveries she is making, are far more important to her than this relationship, and probably than any relationship. Her unwillingness to abandon her people in Atlantis shows her loyalty and her deep sense of responsibility for the people she has taken under her command. This same sense of moral duty is exhibited by the primary motivations of the Atlantis team: to rectify the unintentional wrong they did in reawakening the Wraith.
We have mostly seen Weir interacting with people who are either above or below her in a hierarchy. In "Lost City," she is compassionate and deeply concerned about SG-1 and Jack's predicament, but she makes no efforts to become personally involved in their lives. The important role that Hammond served in their lives is highlighted when he shows up at Jack's house; Weir hasn't been with them nearly long enough to be so forward. She attempts to joke with them, but the stiltedness of this relationship is obvious. Weir hasn't been in a position of authority long enough to become relaxed around the people she commands: this is the lesson she is learning on Atlantis.
Weir is compassionate and humane, but her work in international diplomacy has given her skill at highly ordered social interaction, not day-to-day relationships. And while she has numerous skills, she is still struggling to adjust to the huge responsibility she has and the daily ethical dilemmas she must face.
In sum, Elizabeth Weir is intelligent, aloof, responsible, mature, dedicated, and more than a little of a workaholic.
Rodney McKay
McKay is almost as unlike Weir as possible. He is immature, arrogant, blustering, profoundly unselfconfident, and highly neurotic. Not to mention that, like Weir, he's intelligent and way more than a little of a workaholic.
McKay was introduced in the Stargate: SG-1 episode "48 Hours" as a foil and potential romantic interest for Sam Carter. His character and his relationship with Sam deepened in half a season later in both parts of "Redemption."
McKay's strengths include encyclopedic knowledge of, according to him, everything, as well as the sort of paranoid neurosis that seems to go hand in hand with sheer brilliance on many occasions. He is eccentric, immature, a caffeine addict, equally insulting to everyone. He considers the Ancients' technology just that many more toys to play with. His greatest weakness, according to what he told Sam in "Redemption," is a lack of creativity. While he has vast resources of knowledge, he lacks the ability to make the creative leaps necessary for real life problem solving. Science appealed to him because of its regularity and, one suspects, the potential for isolation from obviously inferior people. Ironically, it is McKay's scientific genius that has thrust him into situations where he is required to exercise both creative and interpersonal skills.
McKay interacts with people by immediately tying to wrong foot them. His severe and obvious arrogance is, I suspect, only explicable if one reads McKay as being deeply a deeply unconfident man who uses his surface egoism to cover for his perceived devastating inadequacy. This is particularly evident in "Redemption," when we realize that McKay actually deeply admires Sam and is envious of her natural talent.
The only thing more important to McKay than saving his own skin is exploring the universe. It is his sole reason for being in the Pegasus galaxy, and he is having an absolute blast doing it. As he well knows, he has very little to return to on Earth: an empty apartment, dead plants, a neighbor who finds him disgusting, and no friends. Like Weir, McKay doesn't do interpersonal relationships well. However, where Weir is aloof, McKay is forward. He tries to force his way into Sam's life, half-convinced himself that he is attractive enough to woo her.
And I cannot leave my discussion of McKay without mentioning how adorably eccentrically geeky he is. He finds hospital scrubs sexy (on further reflection and in light of the Atlantis characterization, I'd have to say he wasn't being sarcastic about that, either) and hospital food. He drinks seven cups of coffee a day. He has (or wants) a shirt that says "I'm with genius." He watches The Outer Limits. He's allergic to everything and is excessively paranoid. How could one not love him?
The Sam-Crush
Given how McKay entered the 'Gateverse with about two character traits and a crush on Sam, it's impressive how much he's deepened on Atlantis, and how little we do have to depend on his SG-1 characterization. However, it's impossible to escape the Sam-crush. It's there. It will always be there. As David Hewlett (who plays McKay) said, McKay is still carrying a torch for Sam; how could you not?
McKay's obsession with Sam is important in reference to Weir/McKay (you know I'd get back to it eventually, didn't you?) because it tells us something about how McKay acts when he's in love. It also provides a basis for comparison, and shows how much more foundation there is for a McKay/Weir relationship.
McKay is drawn to Sam because of her beauty and because of her intelligence, and though he's probably only aware of the first reason, the second one is the real clincher. Per the Sam-crush, McKay is drawn to strong, attractive, intelligent women who can hold their own against his slew of insults and bravado. Elizabeth Weir is all of these things. Her aloof persona would tend to attract McKay more than repulse him or turn him off.
Sam/McKay canon ends with Sam telling McKay she was more attracted to him when she hated him; alas McKay. I think it's important to note that Weir doesn't hate McKay, never did. She might laugh at him, disdain his immaturity, but from "Rising," she has been his colleague and friend and recognized the need she has to work responsibly with him. Because there was never that hatred or loathing between Weir and McKay, the chance of them developing a mature relationship based on mutual respect is much greater. While for Sam it's McKay's rudeness and obnoxiousness that's so appealing, Weir enjoys McKay on his own terms. Sam surely finds some part of McKay's quirkiness oddly alluring; in Weir's case, this part is more pronounced, and perhaps she's less afraid to acknowledge it than Sam was.
Odd Couple Dynamics
What appeals to me most about this pairing is probably the way McKay and Weir complement each other, how much they depend on each other and need each other--even in a strictly professional capacity.
As commanding officer of the Atlantis Base, Weir needs competent people surrounding her who will be able to perform functions she isn't able to. McKay claims that he is indispensable to Atlantis, and I think he has proven himself correct. While there are obviously many other scientists around, McKay has special importance, and I suspect he's also by far the most intelligent of the scientists who surround Weir. She needs to be able to depend on him to perform this function flawlessly, and the lives of her people depend on it.
As a scientist and an explorer, McKay needs a power structure from which he will be allowed to do the kind of work that he is driven to do. He needs Weir to authorize exploration and research. As a scientist who is often required to make judgments that could affect the health and well-being of hundreds of people, he needs to be confident that someone will follow his recommendations. Because he is her subordinate, McKay needs to rely on Weir to make decisions in his favor. And the incredible thing is, the characters do rely on each other in these ways, despite the difficulties inherent in two such differing personalities working closely together, not to mention the issues McKay has with working with anyone else.
Personally, Weir's and McKay's approaches to situations complement each other. At the beginning of "Suspicion," when McKay is shot, he lies in the infirmary, panicked, lonely and partially paralyzed. Sheppard tells Weir, "He'll be fine," and she says, with a hint of a smile, "I heard." I don't believe for a minute that Weir isn't concerned about McKay's health. But she knows that he'll be fine and she knows that he'll be worried. McKay worries; Weir is calm. McKay panics; Weir adjusts. Weir thinks things through; McKay is impulsive. While these differences have the potential to be intensely annoying for both parties, there also exists the potential for each character to balance the other out, and I think they both know it.
"Home"
"Home" was the episode that really sold me not only on McKay/Weir, but on Weir as a character and on Atlantis as a whole. Whatever it might lack in plotting or clever writing, Atlantis, like SG-1 before it, will be redeemed by the strength of its characters.
The McKay/Weir scene in "Home" emphasizes the extent to which each relies on the other, so instinctively that they don't even notice what they're doing. When not!Weir arrives in McKay's lab, McKay has already begun to panic. McKay counts on the laws of physics to hold, and when they don't, he isn't able to make sense of the world. His frustration with the science that fails him is coupled with a frustration at Weir's inability to understand. One of McKay's greatest needs is to make himself comprehensible to others, and he is often frustrated because of how quickly his mind works. He trusts Weir to be the person who understands, and he is absolutely livid when she fails.
Weir comes to McKay to tell him that Atlantis is being militarized; she is looking perhaps less for his sympathy, than for his moral outrage, his panic for his own position and agenda, hoping that his unhappiness will synchronize with hers. Weir counts on McKay to share her concerns as a civilian in a military world, and when he fails her, she becomes increasingly angry at him. Even when Sheppard, even when Earth itself, have betrayed her, she expects to come to McKay for solace and sympathy, and when she doesn't receive it, she starts pacing angrily, and eventually resorts to yelling, and then -- she realizes that it cannot possibly be real.
She says, "Okay, the Rodney McKay I know would never accept the militarization of Atlantis without putting up a fight! And I don't think Major Sheppard would agree to it either, at least without speaking to me about it first." While it's the physical impossibility of this universe that allows McKay to realize that something is wrong, and while it's inconsistencies with his backstory that tip Sheppard off, for Weir, the deciding factor is her knowledge of McKay and the absolute conviction she has that he would never act as indifferently as his doppelganger is.
This scene simply epitomizes the depth of their professional regard and personal need for each other. McKay and Weir rely on each other to an extent that neither one realizes, and their professional relationship is already tinged with personal aspects that set a favorable foundation for a romantic relationship.
Comrades Not In Arms
Elizabeth. Rodney. That's what McKay and Weir call each other, and one obvious reason is that both are civilians. Both have talents that were commandeered by the Air Force for the sake of planetary security, but both are civilian and both quite aware of this status. McKay has a disdain for the military approach to problems; Weir has difficulty adapting to having to make military-style decisions and to the fact that she is in the midst of a war. These parallel histories, and the time they spent together in Antarctica, and the professional respect each feels for the other, have provided a framework for the familiarity the two share.
While McKay has bonded with his team to some extent and has his own team of scientists, as well as his acquaintance with Beckett (but for more on that, see elsewhere in this community), Weir is finding out firsthand that it's lonely at the top. While she talks regularly with other people, it's about professional, not personal, matters. She is finding that her relationship with Sheppard is tenuous and often antagonistic. Weir needs a friend, and she needs a civilian ally in the strange military world she finds herself in. (Just for comparison's sake, recall that she was hoping Daniel, as a civilian and a scholar, would help to make her feel welcome at the SGC.) McKay is the obvious person to fill both these roles, and he has to an extent already begun to do so.
Weir also shows herself to be a profound judge of human character, and I would estimate that she knows McKay better than anyone else knows him, himself included. In "Hide and Seek," she is able to figure out how to get the device off McKay, not because of any scientific knowledge, but because of her personal knowledge about McKay. In "The Storm," Sheppard suspects that McKay's plan is his way of setting himself up to be the hero; Weir knows this is not true. These are just two example of the many small ways that these two work with each other every day, the ways that they have become more than colleagues and something of friends, the way that they are building towards something that could very well be love before we hear the last from the Pegasus Galaxy.
Archetypes and Metanarratives
While I was writing this essay, it occurred to me that this pairing as I have outlined it is an essential archetype in modern fiction and storytelling: that of the boyishly charming man paired with the mature yet standoffish woman. This is John/Aeryn (Farscape). This is Ron/Hermione (Harry Potter). And this is When Harry Met Sally.
While McKay is more childishly annoying than boyishly charming, he still fills the archetype. He is appealing to us as fans because we want to take him and comfort him and make him all better. He may well bring out the same instincts in Weir. Weir, conversely, has everything together professionally, but lacks personal motivation in her life. McKay is capable of bringing her inner child out to play. Her inability to resist his quirkiness is apparent in the small things: the smiles she cracks at his quips. ("Home in time for dinner!" in "Home," for instance), the way she has caught his infectious enthusiasm for things scientific, her amused smile when he favors her over Sheppard in "The Storm."
This is just one lens through which one can look at a very complex pairing, but the dynamic (that of mother/son, of childlike playmate paired with fully formed adult) is definitely there. Like Harry and Sally, McKay and Weir aren't going to have it easy, because they both have such strong, unconventional, difficult-to-mesh personalities. But like Harry and Sally, their relationship will/would/can be that much deeper for the work required to forge it.
Some Other Things, Silly, Serious, and Apologetic
Some people 'ship this pairing as a companion to Sheppard/Teyla, as the obvious counterpart, the secondary het pairing that is a foil to the Great Sheppard/Teyla 'ship, much in the spirit of many Daniel/Janet 'shippers in the SG-1 fandom. It's not my reason for 'shipping, but it's out there.
The obvious (if slightly ridiculous) argument for this pairing is the fact that Weir's already dating Narim and there's no reason why she shouldn't date the rest of Sam's discards as well.
I don't think this pairing is going to become canon. I don't really even hope that it does; I'm a big fan of the extra-canonical pairing, because then I can believe whatever I want about it without pesky canon interfering.
I don't think that Weir and McKay are going to hook up immediately right now or, in fact, anytime soon. Weir is still in love with Simon, and while at some point she will probably have to acknowledge that she has left that epoch of her life behind, she isn't simply going to ignore it, and nor can the 'shipper. McKay is more likely to give away his heart, but he doesn't have the emotional maturity yet to be part of any sort of functional romantic relationship. I think that how to be a functional human being, how to relate to other people, how to be vulnerable, are all things he's going to learn in the Pegasus Galaxy, and I think a lot of them he will learn from Weir.
Me and Atlantis
As for so many things, I blame my friend
sage_theory for my interest in this pairing. Watching Atlantis this summer, I was not disappointed but not especially satisfied either. It was decent in places and trite in others. I had been looking forward to seeing McKay again, and wasn't disappointed. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that I liked Weir, that she was my second favorite character, even. I said if I had to pick a pairing, it would be Weir/McKay, mostly because they were the most tolerable characters.And then that changed to noting the subtext when it appeared and nodding contentedly.
And then that changed to a desperate longing to pair McKay with someone, anyone. And the decision that Weir would be best for so many reasons.
And then "Home" aired and I was hooked completely. My love for Weir became a thing complete of itself, my need for McKay to find joy blossomed, and my appreciation of their canonical relationship just blew me away with its intensity.
Then I realized that this is my Atlantis OTP.
While I haven't dared try write it yet, what appeals to me about the idea is the long, slow struggle it would take for both characters, especially McKay, to get to a place where it would work, and the idea that the changes would be so gradual, so integral to their daily lives, that they wouldn't even realize how much they'd changed, just as they don't yet realize how much they care about each other.
"The Storm" and "The Eye"
I actually wrote this essay before "The Storm" aired, and long before "The Eye" came to Canada. I'd like to leave the above portion of the essay largely extant. To a large extent it says what needs to be said about why this pairing works. Now I'd like to say something about the beautiful hints of subtext we get in the mid-season two parter.
These episodes separate the team in a unique way, with Ford, Beckett, and Teyla on their own, and the three stars alone in Atlantis. McKay arranges the situation so that he and Weir have less work to do than Sheppard (his obvious favoring of Elizabeth because of her complaint about her knees a rare but becoming more frequent instance of him showing concern for someone other than himself), setting up their separation for the Genii attack.
From the time that McKay is tortured for information until the moment when Sheppard arrives, Weir and McKay are thrown together and forced to support each other. While they are counting on Sheppard to actually save the day, they rely on each other on a moment-by-moment basis. It is McKay who steps in front of a gun for Weir. It's Weir who tells McKay they must bluff their way through.
They touch each, hold each other, comfort each other, cuddle together for warmth, encourage each other, strengthen each other. Again we see their abilities meshing together: Weir has command codes; McKay has technical skills. Weir knows they must bluff; McKay turns out to be the one who is actually capable of bluffing.
Their closeness and shared fear during the attack goad McKay into attempting to tell Weir something - we don't know what - but she refuses to hear it. At the end of "The Eye," she reveals that she doubted McKay's plan many times, but she never let him see it, knowing that he needed her confidence in order to survive.
And that is just it: they need each other to survive.
Fandom
There is a Weir/McKay fanlisting here. It's called "Crossing Borders."
There is also a Yahoo! group here.
There's not an awful lot of fic out there, and I'm sure I'm missing some, but here's a list of what I know is out there, with absolutely no promises about quality (I haven't even read all of it.)
-Bonding by Robyn
-There are 16 stories available on The McWeir Fanfiction Archive
- untitled ficlet by
naushika- Bedside Manners by
sage_theory. This one, I can promise you quality. Also, it was written just for me. :)[time spent writing essay: about four hours. Anticipated time spent searching for fanfic for this pairing: the next three years.]
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-17 04:14 am (UTC)Anyhow, I'm glad I finally got to share it with everyone.
Sheppard/Weir? There's Sheppard/Weir? Really? How odd. *exists deep, deep, DEEP in a place of denial*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-17 04:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-16 10:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-17 04:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-17 07:05 pm (UTC)I love this. You've really got their characters down in words and it works. Well done! It's a shame that it's, as you pointed out, a secondary pairing to Sheppard/Teyla - because I despise Sheppard/Teyla... but there are some great het McWeir fics. *happy sigh* Great! You've given me more fic to read!
no subject
Date: 2005-01-18 09:15 pm (UTC)Glad you like it. I like Shep/Teyla because it keeps Sheppard far, far away from Weir, and 'cos McWeir is my primary -- okay, my ONLY -- pairing, but then, I have Sheppard Issues. Regardless! Glad you liked! *beams*
no subject
Date: 2005-03-05 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-05 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-06 11:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-15 01:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-15 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-03 12:46 pm (UTC)And if Rodney is busy with Weir, let there be BeckShep! ^;^
no subject
Date: 2006-04-03 10:21 pm (UTC)(Though I like both Beckett/Ford and Sheppard/Ford, personally. But I'm completely weird like that. So.)