Fandom Snowflake Challenge: Day 3

[potentiality_26]

Day 3

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.

Picking one is hard and I guess it's go big or go home, so: Les Miserables.  I listened to the musical all the time when I was a little kid and I was totally obsessed from then on.  I read an abridged version at seven and the whole tome at eleven, and I've re-read it many times since then.  I tend go back to it in difficult times and it really means a lot to me.  It's full of wonderful characters that the different adaptations (of varying quality) and eras of fandom have done so many interesting things with, and I guess what really draws me to it is the scope.  There's just so much there, and you can spend days unpacking the language of a page or get obsessed with a throwaway mention of a character who never shows up again.  
     

Comments

[seleneheart]

The whole thing at 11??? Wow.

I had a book as a child that was just one chapter, I believe it was called The Bishop's Candlesticks. The musical is amazing, and as you say, the scope of the whole story is breathtaking, especially when you consider how many plot take place over mere weeks or months.

[potentiality_26]

:)

Yes, it's really spectacular!

[stripytights]

It's such a good book - there's so so much to keep thinking about and unpicking! Great rec.

[potentiality_26]

Absolutely :)

[firestorm717]

Les Miserables is such a deeply emotional, inspirational story. I came to it late (through the 2012 movie, then the musical, and finally the brick), but it's already gotten me through hard times. There are so many memorable quotes, but the one that's stayed with me is Hugo's description of Fantine's downward spiral as "society purchasing a slave" and his condemnation of prostitution as a form of slavery, most heavily weighed upon women. I was surprised (and pleased) to find such a proto-feminist view in a book as old as Les Miserables.

[potentiality_26]

It was a really incredibly insightful book in so many ways, which I think is a big part of why it resonates so much no matter how you first find it. The fandom really had a heyday after the 2012 movie, so you came in at a great time :)

I'm drowning in Callan feels right now, btw. I was pretty sure I would ship Callan/Meres going in and I did, but... I really really ship it.

And I wanted your thoughts on something: I've started writing some fics and my instinct for the most part seems to be to call them "Callan" and "Toby". Do you think that works or should I try harder for last name/last name or first name/first name cohesiveness? I do have another ship where I typically call one character by their first name and the other by their last, but it's a book fandom where that's canon so I don't have the same self-doubt about it.

[firestorm717]

OMG YES I'VE HOOKED YOU ON CALLAN!!!

Isn't it the best? SO much angst, SO much slash, and Callan/Meres is basically canon. How far are you in the series? Did you read any of the missing episode scripts yet? You have to read You're Under Starter's Orders... that episode's practically a Callan/Meres fanfic, it's got so many slash tropes, I mean just look at this word-for-word exchange:

Meres: He's a very smart agent, Mr. Mannix.

Mannix: Smart! Is that the only word you guys know? You spend half your time telling me how smart Callan is. How smart you all are. Well, if you're so damn smart, Hunter, why haven't you got Callan?

...

Hunter: I can't keep my agents tied to their beds, Mannix.

Mannix: At least you should know which beds they're sleeping in.

HUNTER LOOKS, SMILINGLY, AT MERES, WHO APPEARS TO BE FAINTLY EMBARRASSED.

Check your PMs for a download link of the scripts and other goodies from the Callan: This Man Alone DVD <3.

Eeeh!! I'm so thrilled to hear you're writing fic! Can't wait to read it :D I'm also plotting fic and have run into the same problem vis a vis names. My first instinct is to use "Callan" and "Toby", but the official written material says "Callan" and "Meres", so I'd go with the latter for consistency. However, if you're writing a more intimate story (*cough* PWP), then "David" and "Toby" would make more sense.

[potentiality_26]

It's amazing! There's so many layers to their relationship. I just watched I Never Wanted the Job (which I feel like was their "See, we can be fun, stop saying we're not fun" episode), so I'm getting close to the end. I may grind to a halt right before The Richmond File and go back and rewatch some favorites; I tend to do that because I don't like things to be over.

That sounds great, I can't wait to read the scripts! It's so sad those episodes were lost. And that snippet is something, lol. Definitely slashy, but it also makes me wonder if they weren't going for a kind of running gag with that Hunter and Meres' "sleeping" habits (I'm thinking of the bit in Let's Kill Everybody when Hunter asks where he was and Meres asks if he's sure he wants to know).

Thank you <3

I'm excited you're plotting too! There's so much potential here, I'm really having fun with it.

That makes sense. I may try to start with last names and drop into first as things progress or something like that (because I may indeed be headed in a PWP direction).

[firestorm717]

What I love is how their relationship evolves throughout the series! In season 1, they're outright antagonists, as Meres serves Hunter while Callan freelances according to his conscience. Even so, they respect each other's skill and praise it to other characters. (Meres on Callan: He's a damn good operative, Callan on Meres: One of Hunter's best men). That may explain why, despite how Callan beat him up in the season 1 finale, Meres recommends the season 2 Hunter bring Callan into the Section. He knows who he'd rather have on his side. Then, somewhere along the line, they go from being reluctant allies to tentative friends to Meres actually crying over Callan's body in the season 2 finale, and Callan resolutely defending "Meres the man" against accusations of betrayal in season 4. (If nothing else, you should watch The Richmond File - Call Me Enemy for the fine acting in the Callan/Meres/Richmond scene).

I Never Wanted the Job is great because, for once, Meres disobeys Hunter in order to lend Callan a hand. The last scene where they report back like little fibbing schoolboys is just so LOL. Even better that Hunter sees through it all, yet privately approves and protects them from retribution. It's as close to fluff as you can get in this series <3.

I have so many plot ideas, it's hard to pick one! PWP seems easiest - I mean, come on, Meres totally got Callan drunk in Heir Apparent so they could fuck later - but I really want to fill in some of the story gaps. For instance, what happened after the season 2 finale to put Toby on a train to Washington? I suspect he was interrogated by Snell, who recommended to Bishop that he separate the two due to emotional over-involvement, much to Meres's anger and chagrin. But that doesn't explain why Callan and Meres go back to being belligerent jerks to each other in First Refusal.

[potentiality_26]

Oh, I definitely plan to watch The Richmond File, I'll just try to draw things out a bit longer before I do, that's all :)

Yeah, I feel like I'm going to start with PWP and work my way out from there lol, with maybe a little fuckbuddies-to-lovers. There's good slightly-prickly H/C potential here as well.

And there are definitely a lot of behind-the-scenes S2-S4 possibilities. I agree with you about Snell. Meres' dislike is so obvious in If He Can, So Could I that I immediately figured Snell was all over him after the shooting and that it's a big part of why he left. It hadn't occurred to me that maybe his bosses actually made him leave to separate them, though, but it makes a lot of sense. And First Refusal is definitely interesting, because the tone between him and Callan is quite different than you get going forward in S4, or indeed than how they left things in Death of a Hunter/Where Else Could I Go. (I have a lot of feelings about Callan's "Where's Toby?"). So a story about what's behind all that would be really great <3