itsallovernow | Re-emergence of the Friendship OTP

So, in the nature of embarrassing fannish confessions, I will admit to having recently gotten hooked on Everwood (there's a logical explanation actually. It replaced Gilmore Girls during the crucial 6:00 - 6:30 p.m. naptime. Actually, I think naptime got moved, but whatever. And after sleeping through it, I sort of got hooked. It's an embarrassing kind of addiction, family dramas normally being Not My Thing. And embarrassingly, I think it's largely do to Bright Abbott. I want to smack both of the central teenagers, but I am far, far too fond of Bright who is big and not as dumb as he thinks he is and is good natured and pretty much what you really wanted those big dumb jock boys in high school to be, and they never were).

This tiny little addiction has sort of helped to illuminate something that's been weighing on my mind, and has in fact been cemented by my much more obsessive addiction to Rome in general, and Titus Pullo in particular.

I have become giddy and starry-eyed over the brute, the big, good-natured force of nature. The antithesis of what I've always thought I wanted to lust after. I think it's the dichotomy - the size versus potential delicacy ratio. The smarter than you think, more determined than you think, more aware of the force of their presence and potential violence. The D'Argos, Teal'c's, Ronan's, the Ivan's, the Titus Pullo's. Because their angst is so much more... wrenching in the face of both their stoicism and their sort of... hmmm... archetype, and the ways in which they work against those archetypes. They aren't just big, dumb pieces of stone. They aren't just foils for the hero. THey're heroes in their own right, with their own pain, and own humor and own agendas.

I think, though, that what really draws me into these characters is the fact that they almost universally have a strong bond with another guy, a friendship that is meaningful and defining to them and I just love that. I didn't start to care about anyone on Everwood until Ephram and Bright became friends. I like that friendship,the way they compliment each other, call each other on their shit. It seems very... real in terms of the kinds of young male friendships I've witnessed.

Similarly, I didn't have a lot of interest in Teal'c until he started to develop a friendship (weird as it may be) with Cameron Mitchell. I like seeing that odd development, the two opposites attracting, Teal'c taking on the regard of this new guy - making him prove himself, and then offering him the unquestionable weight of his loyalty in return when the regard was proved to be worthy.

Ivan and Miles Vorkosigan - again, two opposites, but they help each other to function in their respective milieus in unexpected ways and the strength of their friendship is far more interesting to me than any of Miles' romantic entanglements.

And D'Argo and Crichton are an obvious match. Two men overcoming so much to become best friends, helping each other drown their sorrows, bitching at each other, and always, always on equal terms.

Titus Pullo and Vorenus - two very different men, loyal to each other in unexpected ways.

And it's the equality that I like I think, the skills and qualities of both sides are equal. Different, but equal. They both bring things to the table, help each other to balance out the more radical parts of their personalities. And they can put up with the things in each other that the women these men love maybe shouldn't have to. It's that sort of unconditional, slap you upside the head but won't let you fall asleep in your own vomit kind of love that men can show for each other and I find it sort of lovely to see on screen.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

reginaspina.livejournal.com

I think, though, that what really draws me into these characters is the fact that they almost universally have a strong bond with another guy, a friendship that is meaningful and defining to them and I just love that.

oh, yes, this is ABSOLUTELY one of my favorite things in fiction (and I think I have waxed effusive about it on occasion) - which is why I don't like fics where, say, Pullo's and Vorenus's relationship becomes sexualized.

Also, you mention Miles and Ivan ... EEEEE! I always LIKED Ivan but the moment I fell in love with him is in the book where they all think Miles is dead and Ivan, on Miles's birthday, takes a bottle out into the garden and gets really drunk and weeps for his cousin. It was just a revelation (and I would like to see, at some point, in the Vorkosigan books, Miles actually EXPRESS something similar about Ivan - I do know that Miles loves his cousin, but his actual thoughts/expressions about Ivan are usually exasperated impatience :P)

From:

thassalia.livejournal.com

Pullo's and Vorenus's relationship becomes sexualized

Agreed. Because I like the idea of them as friends, as comrades, as that being a bond of frienship (particularly between these very different men in this class heavy society. THis bond of soldiers, of regard). I feel like sexualizing it diminishes it somehow. Or more... it isn't the aspect that I find appealling (particularly because Pullo is so damned fond of women in general and Vorenus so desperately in love with his wife).

(and I would like to see, at some point, in the Vorkosigan books, Miles actually EXPRESS something similar about Ivan - I do know that Miles loves his cousin, but his actual thoughts/expressions about Ivan are usually exasperated impatience :P)

My frequent impatience with Miles is that he has this sense that he's "better" than Ivan (despite all of Miles tribulations and the little bits of jealousy over Ivan's looks and charm), but Ivan is loyal to him far beyond what he has to be and I'd like to see some of that returned.

I think a picspam of male friendship and bonding might be in order:) Hint. Hint.

I Don't Get Out Much, So I Read - Thea's Journal

Re-emergence of the Friendship OTP

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags