Most of what artaxastra writes is 'shipper fic, and while I'm interested in John and Teyla's relationship in canon and how writers extrapolate from that, in practice I've only ever found anywhere a couple of John/Teyla stories I really liked (that weren't explicitly AU; I have enjoyed AUs, both with characterization based on canon and with characterization that convincingly extrapolates on what might happen to various characters' development if events diverged from canon, but AUs have their own rules), and those stories were either a) mostly gen or b) very much centered on someone else's characterization and POV in a character-study way. I share your feelings with respect to what you said about voice in artaxastra's stories. Here's a couple of very short gen pieces I like by her: "Fire" (http://artaxastra.livejournal.com/317151.html?format=light) (a vivid little snapshot of Kate and Teyla at the beginning of the siege, Kate POV) and "Rapture" (http://artaxastra.livejournal.com/327654.html?format=light) (Teyla reflecting on John and the city in flight, "First Strike").

I too find artaxastra's commentaries fascinating! When I reread your story I was thinking about how Athosians decided long ago to deliberately stop and regress with respect to technological progress in the interest of making themselves less likely to attract the Wraith, and how Teyla herself might feel about the decision her predecessors took (the firelighter she shows in the pilot episode comes to mind), as she works toward basic proficiency in technology her own people must have surpassed long ago, and then essentially thrown away in the interest of survival. I thought I remembered artaxastra or penknife discussing this in a comment, but I haven't been able to locate it again.

I've been thinking about Kanaan and Teyla in canon... the writers never bothered to develop his character much beyond a couple of lines, and from those few lines it's not hard to conclude that they aren't a committed couple in the romantic sense, since it's canon that Kanaan was having trouble getting things to work in the city, didn't seem to be making friends, and eventually returned to live in the Athosian settlement (so I guess they might be time-sharing Torren through most of S5). I would actually be interested in seeing a fan writer develop the Kanaan/Teyla relationship as a relationship, building on what little we saw in canon, though the writer would have to do a lot of work and I imagine most fans aren't interested enough in Kanaan! (I think bluflamingo did some of this in her Big Bang rewriting of S4, but I'd like to see more.)

I've long thought of Teyla as a person who - under all her sense of responsibility, sense of duty, careful negotiation - has banked fires of real anger and passion... and that's something that links her on an important level to John, as pentapus describes in "No Particular Month" (http://pentapus.livejournal.com/57436.html?thread=414044&format=light) (John and Rodney during "The Return," slash, short; I recommend it):

John's whole life, people have been afraid of his anger. Fury doesn't make him impulsive, it makes him effective and dangerous, and he's had years and years of Tone it down, John. Careful, John from people who don't know what to do about it. They're afraid -- and surprised. Why don't people expect him to have a temper? John's always just figured that he's strange, or that everybody else is, and learned to deal. He never expected to cross an entire fucking galaxy and find a person who's nothing like him but completely like him, who he sometimes feels he must have recognized on sight, who bends her head to his and says Yes, yes, of course we are furious, fight, fight, fight.