On the Shanks disappointment, I'm of two minds.

I adore Daniel. Classic Daniel. He's WHY I became an SG-1 fan. I really wanted to say goodbye to him. That part of me is very sad. However, just like Jack became Not Jack to me, Daniel became Not Daniel. My own interpretation is that Shanks grew bored with the role and stopped trying. Most of the time, anyway.

Layered over that is a lot of opportunities to see Shanks so maybe I've become a bit jaded as a fangirl. He's never on time. He's frequently been scraped out of bed after a night of getting shit-faced. Maybe that's the only way he can face a hotel filled with people who have planned their family vacations and spent money to see him. I don't know. On top of that, a Shanks appearance at a Creation con means he's flown out that same afternoon so the photos and autographs are rushed beyond belief.

That is an experience I hoped would be different this time. We'd get photos with a non-hungover Shanks. He wouldn't be rushing through autographs to make a plane. He'd have a commitment to spend time with fans in the evening. I really hoped that freeing him from the standard Creation schedule would allow more of "him" to emerge.

So, I'm very sorry to lose the opportunity to have had a positive fan experience with him but since I secretly expected that it wouldn't really go down that way, I'm not crushed as I once would have been.