In A Mood

[dragojustine]

I am In A Mood. Have some pictures:

Apparently, this is from a Dolce & Gabbana ad shoot. I approve of the wildly sensual, hedonistic vibe paired with the sharp suits. (NSFW)

this is a lot more straightforwardly pornographic. I will admit it's the dogtags that did me in. Stargate fandom has obviously done something to me.

this is het. I know, weird, eh? Barely PG-13, and probably I should not admit how freakishly hot I find it. There also seems to be a certain commonality with the last one...

miriad wrote Five Short Tales about Four Johns and a Jack. These are tiny bitlets about John Winchester, John Sheppard, John McClane, John Crichton, and Jack O'Neill (John/Aeryn and Jack/Daniel). I love this all to pieces.

Interestingly, miriad is also the person who pointed me to what is now one of my favorite vids of all time- Boulevard of Broken Songs by destina, the one about Jack O'Neill, Mal Reynolds, John Crichton, and Dean Winchester.

As I more and more consider myself part of slash fandom, as opposed to a slash-loving fan of whatever particular thing, I'm starting to collect These Men. They're... I want to say built on the same character template, but that's not it. And it's not a couple of related templates either. It's... a set of characteristics, recombined in different ways and manifesting themselves differently (which is how John and Dean Winchester are both These Men, despite their different relationships to the idea of family- and how Jack O'Neill and Mal Reynolds both are, as well).

And they come up in the strangest places- I'm rewatching West Wing, and utterly non-violent, non-soldier Toby is one of these men, a little bit, in his own way, so it's not just a soldier thing. And it's not just men, because first-season Starbuck is one of Those Men, but her existence as a counter example can't keep this from being pretty deeply gendered, in my head. And these men aren't the only men I love- Daniel Jackson isn't one, for example, nor Rodney, nor Geoffrey Tenant or Hawkeye Pierce, though Hawkeye and Daniel both have pieces of it and move in that direction.

It's about protectiveness, and dedication to a cause, and personal loyalty, and the way those things conflict with each other and are beaten down by the realities of the world and the way these men cling to that devotion and protectiveness and loyalty through it all. And yes, it normally tends to involve a lot of emotional intensity and daddy issues and slash. And, yes, a lot of violence, and I will admit that that frisson of violence really does it for me.

I just... I love these men, and their intoxicating mix of strength and vulnerability, the pain of their histories, their unshakable personal devotion and loyalty, their fundamental, deep-down urge to defend, to protect, to turn all their great strength and determination to that cause. I love these men.

Um, that was all.

Comments

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Is it wrong of me that all these pictures make me think of janedavitt fic? :D (Thanks for linking to those pics, BTW!)

And considering I right this second got around to posting my DH4 recs, I must go check out those Five Short Tales immediately!

Please, feel free to elaborate more on that character archetype! I am liking.

[dragojustine.livejournal.com]

see, McClane is the only one of those five characters I don't deeply love. Just because I like TV series a lot more than movies, so I never really got attached, but just seeing him in that list kind of makes me want to give that fourth movie another shot!

Glad you liked the pics :)

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I read the DH4 fic long before ever seeing the movie. I saw a fic on a rec list, got hooked on the chemistry (and knowing it was Bruce Willis/Justin Long), and that was it! I saw 1 and 3 back when they first came out--never did see 2. I finally got 4 and watched it a few months ago, and I enjoyed it--but having read the slash codas really upped the enjoyment factor. ;-) The one benefit of movies is that at least you can catch up to canon in 2 hours. :D

[dragojustine.livejournal.com]

That's actually why I like movie fandoms less, I think- I really need some good solid time to buy into and get attached to the characters. After three hours I just don't care enough yet. Thirteen or Twenty-two hours of a TV season is about right.

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

In this case, I think spending many, many, many hours with fic writers' versions of the characters helped me. ;-) (Well, and having seen John McClane before.)

[miriad.livejournal.com]

First of all, those pics? HOT. Thank you. The dog tags do something for me as well... yikes.

Secondly, thanks for the rec. *blushes* I so very glad that you liked it.

Regarding John McClane. He's one of those guys. He just is. And while I completely understand why you connect more with TV characters, as you spend more time with them, John McClane just has so much... personality, character, whatever you want to call it, that I didn't need 22 hours to fall hopelessly in love with him.

I do think that he and John Winchester would either get along famously- and wouldn't that be an incredible fic?- or they'd hate each other on sight.

The other thing I love about John McClane is that the first movie is a love story. All he's trying to do is save his wife. It gets more complicated than that but every time it comes down to brass tacks, that's what he's trying to do. Stopping Hans Gruber (oh, Alan Rickman, this is my favorite role of yours of all time EVER), saving the rest of the hostages- that's just icing. HOLLY is the point.

Story wise, it makes sense that eventually their relationship simply can't last as it was and thus, they are no longer married. It allows for Matt and makes DH4 REALLY interesting, what with all the subtext and the actual text. John is lonely and sad- he needs someone who can not only put up with his chit but who would want to. Enter Matt.

I was easily able to go from his incredible love for Holly- love that put him through so much in DH1 and 2 to no longer having her and needing to find someone else to take care of.

It's about protectiveness, and dedication to a cause, and personal loyalty, and the way those things conflict with each other and are beaten down by the realities of the world and the way these men cling to that devotion and protectiveness and loyalty through it all. And yes, it normally tends to involve a lot of emotional intensity and daddy issues and slash. And, yes, a lot of violence, and I will admit that that frisson of violence really does it for me.

YES. SO MUCH YES I CAN'T EXPRESS IT IN MERE WORDS.

John McClane, at least for me, fits into this perfectly. I, too, have my own list of these characters and yeah, my list is mainly men as well. I'm not sure if it's because there is a lack of female characters that fit this mold or if I am drawn to men of this type because of my own predilections and/or my own daddy issues. Hmmm....

again, thank you for the rec. You really made my day. :)

[dragojustine.livejournal.com]

Oh my GOD you make me want to watch DH4 now. Stop trying to hook me on things! I have limited brain space!

*hugs*

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

thanks! for the words and the pictures.

and yes to your pondering of that character type, or the thing those characters share, or whatever. when institutions are found to be unworthy of our loyalty, it's people who claim it, and loyalty to people is so scary and so beautiful.

daniel still believes in an abstract cause; jack, i think, lost his faith a long time ago and now it's all about the people to him.

[dragojustine.livejournal.com]

loyalty to people is so scary and so beautiful.

That is... a really good way of putting this huge Thing about these men that I am having so much trouble articulating *thinky noises* thank you.

[sid]

Nice pictures, especially the second one. *eg*

[dragojustine.livejournal.com]

Yeah *fans* glad you liked

[als-wonderland.livejournal.com]

*fans self* Damn. Pic #2 is getting to me too.