Deep thinky thoughts.
Jan. 26th, 2009 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebee_eebeePardon me if a million people have already said much the same thing, but I haven't really read any Sapphire & Steel meta, so it's all new to me.
I was re-listening to some of my favorite S&S audios last night and I couldn't stop thinking about how the characters (particularly Steel) had changed from the television series to the audios and what, exactly, had inspired the changes. This is what I came up with.
So, Steel has become even more of an insufferable asshole in the audios than he ever was in the tv series. And Sapphire is a bit more empathetic towards human beings. Why is that? I think it all comes down to Assignment 6 and the transient's trap.
When I think about McCallum!Steel I tend to think of Assignment #2 and him trading Tully to the darkness. But that's just one incident and not the norm. In fact, in Assignment #4 it's Steel who is horrified at the idea of sending the animal thing back to the future with the humans and it's Sapphire who tells him that it isn't their problem and to stop being such a pussy. (I'm paraphrasing. Slightly.) And in Assignment #6, it's STEEL who gets them trapped in the nowhere place. Seriously! Steel refuses to leave the woman behind and it's how the trap gets sprung.
Anyway, I think that's why Warner!Steel is such a complete and utter bastard up through Cruel Immortality. He knows that he f-ed up the mission and could have cost Sapphire and him their lives by trying to protect the human. (Or what he thought was the human). So now he thinks of nothing but the mission and refuses to let ANY kind of sentimentality enter into it. Even if that means sacrificing Ruby or Gold. Or Sapphire. At least until he really DOES lose her in CI.
After CI, he changes again. He softens incredibly toward Sapphire, and even slightly softens towards Ruby. Although he's willing to sacrifice Gold without a thought in The Perfect Day and Zero, the very idea of allowing Sapphire to risk her safety sends him into a tizzy.
As for Sapphire, I haven't quite figured her out yet. She seems so much more reliant on Steel than she ever did in the series. I just haven't worked out why.
So, thoughts? Is this old news to everyone else? Am I just stating the obvious? Does anyone give a shit?
I was re-listening to some of my favorite S&S audios last night and I couldn't stop thinking about how the characters (particularly Steel) had changed from the television series to the audios and what, exactly, had inspired the changes. This is what I came up with.
So, Steel has become even more of an insufferable asshole in the audios than he ever was in the tv series. And Sapphire is a bit more empathetic towards human beings. Why is that? I think it all comes down to Assignment 6 and the transient's trap.
When I think about McCallum!Steel I tend to think of Assignment #2 and him trading Tully to the darkness. But that's just one incident and not the norm. In fact, in Assignment #4 it's Steel who is horrified at the idea of sending the animal thing back to the future with the humans and it's Sapphire who tells him that it isn't their problem and to stop being such a pussy. (I'm paraphrasing. Slightly.) And in Assignment #6, it's STEEL who gets them trapped in the nowhere place. Seriously! Steel refuses to leave the woman behind and it's how the trap gets sprung.
Anyway, I think that's why Warner!Steel is such a complete and utter bastard up through Cruel Immortality. He knows that he f-ed up the mission and could have cost Sapphire and him their lives by trying to protect the human. (Or what he thought was the human). So now he thinks of nothing but the mission and refuses to let ANY kind of sentimentality enter into it. Even if that means sacrificing Ruby or Gold. Or Sapphire. At least until he really DOES lose her in CI.
After CI, he changes again. He softens incredibly toward Sapphire, and even slightly softens towards Ruby. Although he's willing to sacrifice Gold without a thought in The Perfect Day and Zero, the very idea of allowing Sapphire to risk her safety sends him into a tizzy.
As for Sapphire, I haven't quite figured her out yet. She seems so much more reliant on Steel than she ever did in the series. I just haven't worked out why.
So, thoughts? Is this old news to everyone else? Am I just stating the obvious? Does anyone give a shit?
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on 2009-01-27 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
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on 2009-01-30 02:50 am (UTC)I like you're reasoning. You're right about Steel being the more sympathetic one in the show. I tend to remember the moments where he got frustrated with the humans or Sapphire (Assignment #4) and forget about things like Assignment #6. Possibly because the guy with the dolls scared the crap out of me.
I hadn't thought about how Steel probably blames himself for messing up with the Transients. I wonder if Sapphire feels the same way? Like if she'd been more empathetic she might have figured out what was up with the girl to begin with?
It's an interesting observation.