sgathematiclist

Complete
To the best of my knowledge and researching abilities, these lists are complete and contain every story written in the fandom that pertains to the theme. If you know stories that I've missed, please let me know!

In Progress
Here are the lists that I am currently researching.
Fork in the Road
Foreign Language
Time Loops (aka Groundhog's Day)

Placeholder
These lists may contain a few stories, but I have not actively researched them yet.
Amnesia
Ascension
English as a Second Language

Last updated: 10.31.14

List of Existing Thematic Lists Created by Others and Hosted Elsewhere

Want to help? Here's my guide on How to Research for a Thematic List.

What is this theme? Coming Soon

Unique to This List: Coming Soon

Last updated: 11.7.14
Status: Placeholder

( The Bakery AU StoriesCollapse )

What is this theme? Alternate universes where characters own or work at a coffee shop is a popular fanfic trope. This theme is well represented in SGA fandom due to Rodney's canonical love for coffee (McCoffee might just be SGA's OTP).

Though variations definitely exist, there is a strong bias within this theme towards McShep stories where John owns the coffee shop and Rodney is his #1 customer. John's black mark in Afghanistan is frequently used as the point of divergence for these AUs. Whether by choice, by force, or due to an injury, John leaves the Air Force after attempting to rescue Holland and settles down to the simple life of owning a coffee shop. Rodney typically sticks closer to his canon role working in the science community in some form and sometimes even at the SGC.

If you enjoy these coffee shop stories, you might also enjoy the similar The Bakery AU theme.

Unique to This List: I have added a line to identify which character owns or works at the coffee shop.

Last updated: 11.7.14
Status: In Progress

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What is this theme? Coming Soon

Unique to This List: I have added a line to identify which character has ascended.

Last updated: 10.31.14
Status: Placeholder

( Ascension StoriesCollapse )

What is this theme? Coming Soon

Unique to This List: I have added a line to identify which character experiences amnesia.

Last updated: 10.31.14
Status: Placeholder

( Amnesia StoriesCollapse )

Researching to create a thematic list is time consuming work. However, it is also very enjoyable and rewarding. Every time I work on one of these lists, I discover new stories that I fall in love with. Reading multiple stories featuring the same theme really highlights the nuances and creativity that goes into every story.

Want to create your own thematic list? Here is my method for researching all of these stories:

Coming soon

What is this theme? The Atlantis expedition is made up of the best and brightest from countries all around the world, so it should come as no surprise that many of these people can speak multiple languages. This list contains stories where a character(s) speaks another language or is identified as being able to. Stories where Teyla, Ronon, or another Pegasus native learn to speak, read, or write English are contained in a separate list (English as a Second Language).

French is one of the most commonly selected languages for a few reasons. The most obvious canon reason being that Rodney is from Canada, which increases the likelihood of him speaking French to some level. As an example of the character absorbing the actor's background, the fact that Joe Flanigan really speaks French is probably influential as well.

Other common languages tend to stem from character backstories. Rodney frequently speaks Russian due to being sent to work in Russia after his experience in the SG-1 episode "48 Hours". Due his time in Afghanistan (or the Middle East in general), John is frequently said to speak Farsi or Arabic (though technically Pashto or Dari would make more sense). Before the episode Outcast aired, John's father was frequently written as being a military general (influenced by the original character description). With this background, John presumably would have moved around a lot as a child, opening the door for him to believably speak any number of odd languages. Elizabeth's diplomatic background also makes her a blank slate for speaking any language.

Because the expedition is multinational with many people coming from non-English speaking countries, a character being able to speak only one language is probably more rare on Atlantis than being bilingual and beyond. This fact can make the scope of this list a bit challenging. Zelenka mutters under his breath in Czech in almost every story he appears in (he has to in order to maintain the will to live when working with Rodney). To keep this list focused on the theme, stories where Zelenka speaks in Czech are not included, unless this fact is important to the story (Rodney worries what Radek says about him when he rants in Czech, an accident or Ancient device causes Radek to forget how to speak English, team members bond over a shared language). This applies to other non-native English speakers as well.

Pegasus languages are included in this list with the same caveat. A large number of stories involve characters searching the Ancient database for information or Rodney gleaning information from a Wraith device. While they are reading in another language, it does not mean that this fact is important to the story or even directly mentioned. However, stories where the use of the language is critical (John finally takes the time to learn some Ancient, Rodney makes an error when translating that leads to problems) are included.

Unique to This List: I have added a line to indicate what language(s) is spoken and by which character(s)

Last updated: 11.19.14
Status: In Progress

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What is this theme? Description coming

Last updated: 10.30.14
Status: Placeholder

What is this theme? A fork in the road is the point where one road splits into two diverging paths. Metaphorically speaking, a fork in the road is a point where an important decision is made between two distinct options. In fanfic, this refers to a story where the author takes an episode from the show and writes about what might have happened under different circumstances. This theme is frequently used to explore how an episode might have played out if a different character was placed in the same situation or if certain plot elements were altered.

A fork in the road is different from a canon divergence, primarily in that at the end of a fork in the road story, things return to the status quo. It is possible to imagine that this variation occurred rather than what was shown in canon without significantly changing anything. Or it is possible to imagine that this variation occurred in addition to what was shown in canon, albeit with a highly similar plot. In a canon divergence story, something is changed that significantly affects every event afterwards. Because of this, fork in the road stories tend to be based on character driven episodes (Conversion, The Tao of Rodney), while canon divergence stories tend to be based on story arc episodes (Rising, The Siege).

To make this distinction clearer, here are a few examples:
Fork in the Road - Rodney hallucinates Zelenka in the sinking jumper, John is struck by the Ancient ascension device, Ronon starts appearing in everyone's nightmares after touching the energy crystal
Canon Divergence - John never learns about the stargate program, Atlantis is separated from Earth for significantly longer than in the show, Help from Earth doesn't arrive or is not successful and Atlantis is destroyed during the Siege, John turns into a bug and is never "100% John Sheppard" again

There is admittedly a bit of a gray area with some stories about whether they are fork in the road as opposed to a story using a similar concept. For example, when is a brain sharing story a fork in the road for Duet as opposed to simply being a brain swap story? Because there is no definite place to draw the line, this distinction simply comes down to a matter of opinion.

Unique to This List: This list will be grouped by episode in order of appearance and then by story title. If this list becomes significantly longer than anticipated, it may be broken up into separate lists.

Last updated: 10.28.14
Status: This list is just getting started

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What is this theme? In a time loop story, a character or group of characters is forced to relive a certain amount of time repeatedly, while other characters are blissfully unaware that anything is amiss. This amount of time may be a matter of minutes, hours, or even days. This trope is commonly referred to as "Groundhog's Day" after the popular 1993 movie (and you can bet John Sheppard is going to point that out in most of these stories). The time loop theme appeared in the SG1 episode "Window of Opportunity".

The story is usually told from the perspective of the character(s) who realize they are in a time loop. Typically the character(s) stuck in the loop must figure out how to fix whatever is causing them to loop, although occasionally these problems resolve themselves after a specified number of loops. Frequently characters who are unaware will be reluctant to believe them and will be concerned for their mental health, becoming a repeated annoyance the character(s) in the loop must deal with before being allowed to work on fixing the problem.

These stories range all the way from light hearted fluff to full on angst. The character(s) may relish the opportunity to do things they usually don't have time to do or interact with other characters in ways they usually wouldn't dare to because of the lack of consequences the time loop offers. Or the character(s) may be trapped in a difficult time and grow weary from reliving the same awful moment repeatedly. Temporary character death is common in this theme with the character coming back to life on the next loop.

Unique to This List: I have added a line to indicate which character(s) are experiencing the time loop. There are a few stories where another character is also experiencing the time loop, but the primary character does not realize this for the first few times around. To prevent spoiling the story for the first time reader, I have intentionally left this character out of the "who's looping" section.

Last Updated: 10.30.14
Status: In Progress

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If you know a story that is missing from this list, please leave a comment to let me know!