See, the "emotionally inarticulate romantic payoff" bugged the crap out of me. I had no idea where it was coming from or why it was there. I see both John and Rodney coming from canon as having to work hard to talk about emotions (John in particular, whereas Rodney's just kind-of comes out), but doing it (as can be seen when John does talk to Teyla about his ffeeling), so the stiltedness of their interactions kept tripping me up. V.V. annoying, yet still a good story.