Took me a while to get my thoughts together and write this while working at the same time, so sorry if this comes in late.
See, I saw this in a totally different light.
Like any AU it will always have things that make you go 'wtf and where did that polar bear come from?' if you look at it in the context of the show, but if you look at in the context of the AU, it's a whole other story [no pun intended]. I think that rageprufrock did an amazing job of encapsulating her AU and making everything work.
Maybe it's because I have a preference for layered storytelling that allows the reader to get what they want without being told everything and that I like a more, in my mind, canonically-based McKay -- I agree with isiscolo on this, McKay can be truly nasty when he puts his mind and mouth to it as well as all the other redeeming parts of his personality -- but the other thing that has to be remembered is that this is about Sheppard's POV.
He's not going to like McKay from the get go, but he's still oddly charmed and fascinated by him, by this man who can go through life insulting people and getting away with in a way that Sheppard never could.
We also aren't going to know what is going on in McKay's head because of the POV so it's his words and his actions that are the tell. And with McKay, the real truth is always in his actions, they say more than his words because -- let's face it -- McKay is seriously full of hot air and has a rather solid propensity for overstating the truth, especially in terms of its effect on him.
For me, rageprufrock gave him a shape that I could very easily identify, so I find your assertion of a one-dimensional characterisation rather boggling because it's not something I see at all. I truly loved Rodney in this and didn't see him as mockable at all, because he was quintessentially Rodney to me.
Re: Part II
See, I saw this in a totally different light.
Like any AU it will always have things that make you go 'wtf and where did that polar bear come from?' if you look at it in the context of the show, but if you look at in the context of the AU, it's a whole other story [no pun intended]. I think that
Maybe it's because I have a preference for layered storytelling that allows the reader to get what they want without being told everything and that I like a more, in my mind, canonically-based McKay -- I agree with
He's not going to like McKay from the get go, but he's still oddly charmed and fascinated by him, by this man who can go through life insulting people and getting away with in a way that Sheppard never could.
We also aren't going to know what is going on in McKay's head because of the POV so it's his words and his actions that are the tell. And with McKay, the real truth is always in his actions, they say more than his words because -- let's face it -- McKay is seriously full of hot air and has a rather solid propensity for overstating the truth, especially in terms of its effect on him.
For me,