Snowflake Challenge - Day 3
Jan. 3rd, 2019 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
przedDay 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.
Wow, another tough one. After 26 years in fandom (!) and a whole lifetime of being fannish about movies and TV shows and books, I don't think I can pick just one piece of canon. So, I'm going to cheat and pick three key ones.
Let's hear it for Captain America!
Those observing may have noticed I'm a bit gone on Marvel fandom in general, and Captain America (and Bucky Barnes) in particular. This all started on my first viewing of The Winter Soldier when I first realized Oh! Cap is wayyyy more interesting than I thought he was, and he's totally in love with his pal Bucky. But two of my favourite Cap scenes are from The First Avenger. The first one is after Steve has rescued Bucky, and hundreds of his fellow POWs, from a Hydra factory/prison camp and returns to the Allied lines.
Here's the scene, starting from the most interesting bit for me. Keep your eye on Bucky after he leads the "Let's hear it for Captain America!" cheer.
With Steve's eyes on him, Bucky's all smiling and putting on a good front. As soon as Steve's eyes leave him, he looks like a hollowed out shell who's seen and been through too much. And this is all done in a few seconds of screen time. Bravo to Sebastian Stan for doing an incredible amount with very little time.
I gotta put her in the water.
The second scene from TFA is at the end, when Steve takes over Schmidt's plane, the Valkyrie, and realizes he has to ditch it to keep Schmidt's bombs from taking out New York city. Here's the scene, starting at the point where Steve realizes what he has to do:
What kills me about this scene is how damn young Steve looks at that moment. He's already lost Bucky, and now he's realizing he's going to have to lay down his life to protect his city. With no one there to see him, all that performative masculinity he's been using in front of his men is stripped away, and he's just a young guy who's about to lose everything.
Both scenes are all about showing the vulnerability of the characters, which is so compelling for me, and which we get so little of in most canon.
You just like blondes.
My last example is from one of my very first fandoms, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. If my first two examples were all about men showing vulnerability, this one is about men being snarky sarcastic jerks to each other, while still somehow showing they love each other. Or at least are kind of hot for each other.
I didn't see this show until CBC started showing reruns when I was in first year uni, and one of the first episodes I saw was The Girls of Nazarone Affair. I didn't yet know about slash, but this was the point at which I started shipping Illya/Napoleon.
The episode starts with Illya and Napoleon arriving on the Riviera. Napoleon, being the guy he is, scopes out several blonde women getting out of a car. (These women are the villains of the piece and have just assassinated a man, a fact that our observant U.N.C.L.E. agents have totally missed.) This results in the first relevant bit of dialogue:
Napoleon: I do like the Riviera.
Illya: You just like blondes.
Huh, thought 18-year-old, innocent me. Illya is a blond. Surely they couldn't mean anything by that.
Then at the end of the episode, Illya lets Napoleon think he's totally screwed up by letting the villains have the McGuffin Formula of the Week. When the innocent they've been working with lets slip that the MFotW is useless, Napoleon rounds on Illya, and Illya responds with the following, very interesting, piece of dialogue:
Illya: You did say you liked blonds!
Here's the blond bastard in question right about at that moment.
Holy shit! said 18-year-old, not-quite-so-innocent-anymore me. These two guys are not as straight as the show wants us to believe! And the rest was history.
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.
Wow, another tough one. After 26 years in fandom (!) and a whole lifetime of being fannish about movies and TV shows and books, I don't think I can pick just one piece of canon. So, I'm going to cheat and pick three key ones.
Let's hear it for Captain America!
Those observing may have noticed I'm a bit gone on Marvel fandom in general, and Captain America (and Bucky Barnes) in particular. This all started on my first viewing of The Winter Soldier when I first realized Oh! Cap is wayyyy more interesting than I thought he was, and he's totally in love with his pal Bucky. But two of my favourite Cap scenes are from The First Avenger. The first one is after Steve has rescued Bucky, and hundreds of his fellow POWs, from a Hydra factory/prison camp and returns to the Allied lines.
Here's the scene, starting from the most interesting bit for me. Keep your eye on Bucky after he leads the "Let's hear it for Captain America!" cheer.
With Steve's eyes on him, Bucky's all smiling and putting on a good front. As soon as Steve's eyes leave him, he looks like a hollowed out shell who's seen and been through too much. And this is all done in a few seconds of screen time. Bravo to Sebastian Stan for doing an incredible amount with very little time.
I gotta put her in the water.
The second scene from TFA is at the end, when Steve takes over Schmidt's plane, the Valkyrie, and realizes he has to ditch it to keep Schmidt's bombs from taking out New York city. Here's the scene, starting at the point where Steve realizes what he has to do:
What kills me about this scene is how damn young Steve looks at that moment. He's already lost Bucky, and now he's realizing he's going to have to lay down his life to protect his city. With no one there to see him, all that performative masculinity he's been using in front of his men is stripped away, and he's just a young guy who's about to lose everything.
Both scenes are all about showing the vulnerability of the characters, which is so compelling for me, and which we get so little of in most canon.
You just like blondes.
My last example is from one of my very first fandoms, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. If my first two examples were all about men showing vulnerability, this one is about men being snarky sarcastic jerks to each other, while still somehow showing they love each other. Or at least are kind of hot for each other.
I didn't see this show until CBC started showing reruns when I was in first year uni, and one of the first episodes I saw was The Girls of Nazarone Affair. I didn't yet know about slash, but this was the point at which I started shipping Illya/Napoleon.
The episode starts with Illya and Napoleon arriving on the Riviera. Napoleon, being the guy he is, scopes out several blonde women getting out of a car. (These women are the villains of the piece and have just assassinated a man, a fact that our observant U.N.C.L.E. agents have totally missed.) This results in the first relevant bit of dialogue:
Napoleon: I do like the Riviera.
Illya: You just like blondes.
Huh, thought 18-year-old, innocent me. Illya is a blond. Surely they couldn't mean anything by that.
Then at the end of the episode, Illya lets Napoleon think he's totally screwed up by letting the villains have the McGuffin Formula of the Week. When the innocent they've been working with lets slip that the MFotW is useless, Napoleon rounds on Illya, and Illya responds with the following, very interesting, piece of dialogue:
Illya: You did say you liked blonds!
Here's the blond bastard in question right about at that moment.
Holy shit! said 18-year-old, not-quite-so-innocent-anymore me. These two guys are not as straight as the show wants us to believe! And the rest was history.
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Date: 2019-01-03 06:19 pm (UTC)and gosh Illya; I just read a lovely crossover of MUNCLE/Wimsey: http://www.englishanddrama.at/FannishStuff/wimseyfic/chap1.htm
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Date: 2019-01-03 09:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-03 07:12 pm (UTC)In all the things I've seen him in, McCallum always looks most in his element when his character is playfully annoying the hell out of one of the others. And since that's pretty much half or more of any MfU episode, it might be his best work even tho he's had a very long career. Of course Vaughn brought snark to almost every role, so the two of them together were great.
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Date: 2019-01-03 09:37 pm (UTC)McCallum and Vaughn together were a thing of snarky beauty.
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Date: 2019-01-03 08:11 pm (UTC)TWS is when I had my epiphany too! *g*
Great introduction to slash for 18-year old you!
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Date: 2019-01-03 09:39 pm (UTC)18-year-old me had a lot to thank UNCLE for. ;-)
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