I know what you mean ... prior to SGA, I went through a lot of microfandoms and fandoms that had already had their heyday 10 or 20 years ago. It was heady and fun to be part of the Big Thing in fandom! Ah well, all good things come to an end ...
I'm really fascinated with the relationship between Mitchell and George before the original pilot - before Mitchell killed Lauren and went on the wagon. What was going on in George's mind, becoming friends with a killer? To what extent did he let himself be aware of that?
It's really a curious dynamic, especially seeing how close they'd become by the start of the series -- and how much colder Mitchell was in the flashback in episode 6 to meeting George. Being around George lightened him up a lot, I think -- it's obviously hard to draw comparisons between Mitchell at the beginning of the pilot (before he goes on the wagon) and subsequently in the series because of the actor change, but I don't think the difference that we saw between Mitchell pre-abstinence and post-abstinence is nearly as great as the difference in him pre-George and post-George. And, yeah ... I get the idea in the episode where George finds out about Lauren that George was, perhaps deliberately, not letting himself think about that aspect of Mitchell's life. Like he said to Annie, he'd forgotten what other vampires were like -- he knew, but he'd gotten used to Mitchell the laid-back joker, and I think he'd managed to blind himself to Mitchell the killer. (And you know, I think that's still true -- even when confronted by evidence of what Mitchell's capable of, George is still convinced that it's some kind of aberration, that Mitchell is better than that. I guess it's partly because George is simply too nice to believe that his friend is capable of that kind of behavior, and partly because of the faith that he has in Mitchell to be able to rise above his (Mitchell's) vampire nature.
/ramble
And I agree with you about the Star of David -- it's a really great twist, and I love how it's quietly introduced as a bit of characterization in the very beginning, but doesn't become a plot point until, what, episode five? I love that kind of planning on the writers' part.
no subject
I know what you mean ... prior to SGA, I went through a lot of microfandoms and fandoms that had already had their heyday 10 or 20 years ago. It was heady and fun to be part of the Big Thing in fandom! Ah well, all good things come to an end ...
I'm really fascinated with the relationship between Mitchell and George before the original pilot - before Mitchell killed Lauren and went on the wagon. What was going on in George's mind, becoming friends with a killer? To what extent did he let himself be aware of that?
It's really a curious dynamic, especially seeing how close they'd become by the start of the series -- and how much colder Mitchell was in the flashback in episode 6 to meeting George. Being around George lightened him up a lot, I think -- it's obviously hard to draw comparisons between Mitchell at the beginning of the pilot (before he goes on the wagon) and subsequently in the series because of the actor change, but I don't think the difference that we saw between Mitchell pre-abstinence and post-abstinence is nearly as great as the difference in him pre-George and post-George. And, yeah ... I get the idea in the episode where George finds out about Lauren that George was, perhaps deliberately, not letting himself think about that aspect of Mitchell's life. Like he said to Annie, he'd forgotten what other vampires were like -- he knew, but he'd gotten used to Mitchell the laid-back joker, and I think he'd managed to blind himself to Mitchell the killer. (And you know, I think that's still true -- even when confronted by evidence of what Mitchell's capable of, George is still convinced that it's some kind of aberration, that Mitchell is better than that. I guess it's partly because George is simply too nice to believe that his friend is capable of that kind of behavior, and partly because of the faith that he has in Mitchell to be able to rise above his (Mitchell's) vampire nature.
/ramble
And I agree with you about the Star of David -- it's a really great twist, and I love how it's quietly introduced as a bit of characterization in the very beginning, but doesn't become a plot point until, what, episode five? I love that kind of planning on the writers' part.