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In my Place on the Team fic, I surmised that the issues Jason suffers in both episodes were related, and suggested the cause. And after Strike at Spectra, the problem is completely fixed, and Jason is completely cured. just as we see in the show.

We know that in the final episode he recovers quicker than Keyop; if he were having chronic health problems that would not have happened. I think those people that are writing Jason's doom are trying to either make BotP parallel with Gatchaman or to make it them follow the same plots. It doesn't have to happen.

I don't see Jason's fate as being the same as Joe's. A possibility is, his illnesses could be related to the implants that the team has.... maybe he is rejecting his. That might be a way to remove Jason from the team without having him die. Of course one could then always have him implanted with new and improved implants that increase his strength and resistance over the rest of the team.

I have thought about this in my own Au conclusions. (I have figured out how to deal with it.)But its not Jason dying because BOTP didn't have people die in it, unlike Gatchaman.

I have to say that I really like CathRL's take on it in her AU. Off course, my mother-in-law and daughter both suffer from the same problem to different degrees, and I've just learned today that my younger son may suffer them, too, complete with the blurry and loss vision. Sorry, but if you haven't figured out what I'm talking about, I recommend reading Cath's Battle AU, a very good set of stories which I wouldn't want to spoil.

EVERYONE'S fate is up for grabs, which is why the post-war fics can be so varied. They all die. Some die. They all live. What sort of lives do they have now that they're no longer required to fight Spectra? Since we only know that the members of G-Force are orphans (and Keyop is a clone or artificial in some way), there's plenty to play with. Mark's story turns out similar to Ken's, but the others are ciphers. Some fic writers have tried to give Jason a life story similar to Joe's (I recall one that made Jason a Spectran whose parents were murdered for trying to defect), but it's not really necessary. The BOTP writers had a job interpreting character behavior. They rewrote the original Gatch plots to fit their new interpretation, and some were rewritten COMPLETELY. Since they didn't follow the original Gatch order, they either had to gloss over things or find new explanations. So you can explain Jason any way you want.

Originally posted by clouddancer I don't see Jason's fate as being the same as Joe's. A possibility is, his illnesses could be related to the implants that the team has.... maybe he is rejecting his. That might be a way to remove Jason from the team without having him die. Of course one could then always have him implanted with new and improved implants that increase his strength and resistance over the rest of the team.

CD, I've seen the implant option in several fics, which is always a viable possibility, but then you open it up for all of them to have problems unless there is a specific reason for Jason's implant failing. Then the question would be is the implant problem possibly fatal? Can it be repaired or replaced? Will Jason return to normal afterwards? Lots of fic fodder.

Originally posted by amethyst I have to say that I really like CathRL's take on it in her AU. Off course, my mother-in-law and daughter both suffer from the same problem to different degrees, and I've just learned today that my younger son may suffer them, too, complete with the blurry and loss vision. Sorry, but if you haven't figured out what I'm talking about, I recommend reading Cath's Battle AU, a very good set of stories which I wouldn't want to spoil.

Amethyst, I'm sorry to hear members of your family suffer from migraines. I do, too, so I know what you're going through. Catherine's AU is one of my favorite, but that creates another question. In Gatch, Ken suffers serious problems from using the sword. Catherine has Mark's implant malfunctioning so badly it leave his partially crippled. Is that a case of follwoing the Gatch story-line?

Not sure Becky, I think the implants leave a lot of room to do things like malfunctions that cause issues for the team. I don't go as far as thinking they take care of every problem for them though health wise, there has to be a give some where in it. (I have it that Jason develops a brain tumor caused by scaring when his implant was put in, its possible to still function and have a brain tumor.) I agree with the ficcie fodder! I've only started into BOTP ficcies and I feel difference when writing up the characters and how the implants change a lot in how they perform etc. Amethyst, sorry to hear you have migrains in the family, I'm lucky in that way I don't suffer from them. The Hypershoot is different, his illness is from over exposure to radiation. The other aspect you could take is that its triggered a dormat disease in Ken from using the hypershoot.

Originally posted by Becky Rock

Originally posted by clouddancer I don't see Jason's fate as being the same as Joe's. A possibility is, his illnesses could be related to the implants that the team has.... maybe he is rejecting his. That might be a way to remove Jason from the team without having him die. Of course one could then always have him implanted with new and improved implants that increase his strength and resistance over the rest of the team.

CD, I've seen the implant option in several fics, which is always a viable possibility, but then you open it up for all of them to have problems unless there is a specific reason for Jason's implant failing. Then the question would be is the implant problem possibly fatal? Can it be repaired or replaced? Will Jason return to normal afterwards? Lots of fic fodder.

Ummmm, I am not sure what happened .... I posted and my comments disappeared. Lets try this again..... We all have heard of people who are lactose intolerant or have allergies to something. Maybe Jason has a bad reaction to his implants where the others do not. Something that would affect only him. You are correct it would be a fun story line to decide if it could be fatal or if the implant could be (would be) replaced.

Ebony, yes, is possible to function for years with a benign brain tumor, depending upon size or location. Malignant tumors are a different story, as they usually grow more than benign tumors and can spread to other parts of the body. Becky, when reading Cath's story I didn't get the impression that she was trying to parallel Gatch in any way, but then I haven't seen but a handfull of Gatch II episodes, and just the animation at that. What she seemed to be doing was expanding on the unknown, by creating in-depth backgrounds for the characters, and expanding on the story-line from the end. It is a true AU, as not everything is canon compliant, and what is, is tweaked. Thank you both for thoughts on the kids; fortunately motrin or advil seem to work for both of them. My daughter has zero pain tolerance, and my son's is like mine and way to high.

Originally posted by amethyst Thank you both for thoughts on the kids; fortunately motrin or advil seem to work for both of them. My daughter has zero pain tolerance, and my son's is like mine and way to high.

I started getting migraines when I was in my teens, but my younger brother started getting them when he was 7. Over time, my tolerance for the pain has decreased and I now take something the moment I feel it coming on. I used to get the vision distortions but don't anymore. We have no idea of why. While most doctors will tell a migraines sufferer to stay away from caffeine, I find caffeine helps. I'm just weird.

Originally posted by amethyst Becky, when reading Cath's story I didn't get the impression that she was trying to parallel Gatch in any way, but then I haven't seen but a handfull of Gatch II episodes, and just the animation at that. What she seemed to be doing was expanding on the unknown, by creating in-depth backgrounds for the characters, and expanding on the story-line from the end. It is a true AU, as not everything is canon compliant, and what is, is tweaked.

I believe Catherine may have the only fic besides Leap of Faith (at least of the ones I've read) that has Mark suffering from a problem that forces him to leave the team. It just made me think of what was happening to Ken in Gatch F.

What scared me with my son was him coming from school complaining about his vision blurring to black and then to blurry during P.E. That was his concern too, as I had to ask him if there was anything else, the headache was secondary. I think before this, he may have complained three times in his life about a headache. My duaghter's complained about them since about 5 or 6 and shuts down completely with them and has no findable triggers.

Those sound like migraines. They should be checked out, just in case. The headaches could be a symptom of larger problem.

I love these debates. With myself, I tend to mix the two worlds, taking the things I like (angst etc.) from both and combining them.

It's endless really the possibilities! I always wanted to do a combined universe, just didn't expect it to get so big!!! CD's universe has some interesting things happening in it, I'm not sure how she planned to tackle Jasons illness.

I was wondering last night why we give Jason such a rough time and I think its because of all of the members of the team, we think he's the most likely to persevere.

Well they did have to fit their plotlines in with the Gatchaman animations! Joe was very angsty, but I think they tried to 'lighten' Jason's character a bit. But it would have been hard to aviod the illness part, so they had to do something with it, but make it more low key.

Thanks for starting this thread, Becky. It's interesting to see how people have approached Jason's fate. I still need to go back through my unposted fic and decide if I want to alter how I have Jason react to things. So, I have a different question to add. If we assume that Jason is ill at the end of the series, how would he handle it? Would he hide it until he nearly dies? Would he come right out and tell everyone? Would he selectively disclose his condition? Or would he, as I suspect, hide it for as long as he could without endangering the team? Your thoughts are appreciated (although it make take me a while to find this thread again! I am still new over here and get lost easily. )

Jublke, just remember the threads title (Jason's Fate).... and then at the top of the Home page you should find a search area. Type in the title and .... it should show up, I hope along with other threads where the words Jason's fate appear. If they were used in other threads.

I think from what we've seen he'd probably try to ignore or hide it until confronted about it.

Or they could have skipped those episodes like they did so many. I wonder why they chose to not to?

Originally posted by jublke Thanks for starting this thread, Becky. It's interesting to see how people have approached Jason's fate. I still need to go back through my unposted fic and decide if I want to alter how I have Jason react to things. So, I have a different question to add. If we assume that Jason is ill at the end of the series, how would he handle it? Would he hide it until he nearly dies? Would he come right out and tell everyone? Would he selectively disclose his condition? Or would he, as I suspect, hide it for as long as he could without endangering the team? Your thoughts are appreciated (although it make take me a while to find this thread again! I am still new over here and get lost easily. )

I guess its up for grabs whether he may have already endangered the team by not showing up when they were facing the grape bomber. He really didn't hide what happened to him because Zark said he was suffering from stress and you can bet he told Anderson. How did Zark find out? Doesn't say. Maybe throught the implant? Zark also stated in the Strike on Spectra that Jason had told him he was injured when he returned to the Phoenix. Not much hiding of his problems going on. I'm actually glad they didn't do the final episodes from Gatch in BotP, even if the censors would have allowed it. I would have been devastated if Jason had died when I was first watching the series.

In American animation at the time, characters weren't supposed to die or suffer serious injury. It's amazing that the Sandy Frank people adapted episodes that showed people dying (and even admitted it, although not in so many words). There were plenty of episodes that could be rewritten so that people don't die, and they didn't use them. In this forum is a thread, 'BOTP-izing', where I suggested people should write their own BOTP versions of unused Gatchaman episodes. My version is on ff dot net, and Gatchfanfic.

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Thanks UW! Many of the Gatch episodes don't really build on each other. Some do, but not most. I wonder if that was one of the reasons they didn't worry about following the Gatch order when they decided on the BotP order.

Or they were concerned with their own version of things. Recall that the big question of BotP was whether or not Zoltar might be female.

Hi all!

I wonder if that was one of the reasons they didn't worry about following the Gatch order when they decided on the BotP order.

The main reason likely has more to do with the production keeping with the usual American standard of the time of not requiring stations to air episodes of syndicated series in a specific order. Shows like BotP had to be designed so that they could be run in any order and still make sense (With the obvious exception of the handful of 2-part stories, of course). By producing them randomly and making certain that each one was self-contained, they avoided any need for episodes to be run in a particular order. If would also have been very difficult to make sure that the series aired in a "proper" order when it first hit the airwaves. Sandy Frank had a very limited number of film prints to pass around, and these prints were shared among a number of stations. Trying to coordinate that so that everyone aired them in a specific sequence would have been a nightmare. It should also be remembered that BotP was still in production when the series started airing, so new episodes were getting thrown into the mix as they became available, which would have further confused matters if the were trying to get stations to air them in a set sequence. That type of coordination is much easier now, what with satellite feeds and digital downloads of syndicated programs, but that type of technology didn't exist in 1978.

Recall that the big question of BotP was whether or not Zoltar might be female.

That really only came up at the end of "The Alien Bigfoot," and wasn't really a concern in any other episodes. It had a greater impact on the fans who saw that episode than it did in the show itself. James

For some fans, it might have been the big question. The only way they could explain that long hair when the Luminous One showed up. (And I think my local UHF station cut those few seconds. Maybe because it also ran the 700 Club, and tended to blank out the words 'Luminous One/Spirit', and the one use of Allah.)

I've got to go watch that episode again. I don't remember the BotP team's reaction.

I was talking to my partner in crime, Trish, who is my co-conspirator on my Blood Line series, about trouble I was having writing the next chapters of Blood and Roses and something dawned on me. Joe's demise was caused by one of four things: the rose bomb that killed his parents, saving the puppy, getting shot up on BC Island or something that happened that we never witnessed. If you follow canon, Jason never had any of those things happen to him that we know of. If you base his future on that, so what happened to Joe can't happen to Jason.

You're right, Becky! All the drama was lost and that's what separates Joe from Jason! Everything that has happened to Joe in his past is so fundamental in creating his character and its development during the other series that came next. IMO I totally treat the BOTP characters and those of Gatch as completely different persons!

Originally posted by Becky Rock Joe's demise was caused by one of four things: the rose bomb that killed his parents, saving the puppy, getting shot up on BC Island or something that happened that we never witnessed. If you follow canon, Jason never had any of those things happen to him that we know of. If you base his future on that, so what happened to Joe can't happen to Jason.

Very true. I don't recall what explanation was given in BOTP episodes "G-Force Defector" and "Strike at Spectra" for Jason's health problems other than something along the lines of fatigue and stress. I guess, in fanfiction, it leaves the door open for an author to either downplay his symptoms in those episodes and let Jason continue on, healthy, or to turn them into some other more serious health problem with neurological implications (albeit different from Joe's brain damage from shrapnel/bullet fragments). Lots of possibilities!

In my "Generations" arc, I've attributed Jason's illness to a drug addiction. It seemed to me that it would be very easy for one of the team to become addicted to drugs - especially something like pain killers, or even some sort of stimulant. Jason seems to me that he would think that he could handle it - especially if he had been stressed and felt that he needed to be "there" for the team. Let's face it - a lot of people who get addicted to prescription drugs or other performance enhancing drugs often start off with the best of intentions, and then just get hooked.

I thought I'd read your fics, Maddy, but I don't remember Jason taking drugs. I'll have to go look them up again. And you're right, Maddy and it doesn't even take perscription drugs for that to happen. I have Rheumatoid Arthrits and suffer from migraines, the kind that knock you flat for hours or days. So far, I've not had to take RA meds, but I've tried various perscription drugs for the migraines. When you're in that much pain, you don't care what you take as long as the pain goes away. You don't think about consequences or after affects. I've gone to the hospital before thinking the migraine was really a stroke or anyuerism. None of the perscriptions helped. I tried biofeedback - not the kind Catherine Rees Lay uses in her AU for Jason, but using concentration and relaxing techniques. It was 50/50. I started messing around with OTCs and found, of all things, Excedrin Migraine actually works for me. Its simply equivalent to a dose of Advil, Tylenol and a can of soda with caffeine, such as a Coke or Pepsi. Most doctors tell migraine sufferes to stay away from caffeine, which I had been, but the caffeine in the OTC helps me. Guess I'm just weird. I was having a lot of migraines and found I was taking the Excedrin nearly every day. I found it kept the pain away but also had a side affect - it made me high as a kite. Anytime a had even a hint of the headache, I took the pills. If I was tired, which can cause a migraine, I took the pills. At a regular Dr appt for my RA, my doc found my blood pressure was too high. She started questioning me and I disclosed the Excedrin use. She strongly urged me to stop taking it. In her opinion, I was addicted to it. Instead, I ended up on high blood pressure meds and have actually had less problems with the migraines, but now have to suffer through them more. I've thought about putting that into a fic - Jason innocently taking it to alleviate the pain and getting hooked on it so that the team notices his acting strangely - bouncing off the walls, etc, but I haven't. You also have to wonder what affect any kind of drug might have when interacting with their implants, if your fic includes the implants.

In canon BOTP, Jason was just ill, but Zark assured us that he would be 'just fin'. And he was. No problem. I've often thought that Jason's 'illness' might have been due to some kind of implant malfunction. This would explain why it just 'went away' (because the implant was repaired).

I was just re-reading this and somebody mentioned at the beginnig that Jason doesn't think about what woudl happen if he has to leae the team. Actually, in the Don Wade episode when he's on the cliffs alone (just before Princess comes for him) he does think that - and it's clear that to him leaving the team would be the worst possible fate for him. Zark puts it in that episode down to stress an in the Strike at Spectra his illness was directly attributed to a blow to the head. Howver, if that little fall he took did that much damage, then his helmet seriously needs work done to it. To me - if the first incident was caused by stress, then the second it likely to be as well. Jason is likely to try to deal with it by himself - however we see in the Don Wade episode Princess coming for him, ostensibly to get him, but clearly obviously hoping he'd open up to her. In Raid on Spectra Mark sees the panel and is obviously worried, and then in the Conway Tape Trap we see him confronting Jason and asking what's wrong. So, however Jason would try to hide, I think that Mark and Princess at least would be after him to talk it out.