request and a rambling discussion

[permetaform]

Does anyone know of where I might find any combination of Spike/Jet/Faye or Spike/Jet? Cowboy Bebop yaoi is freaking rare, and I'm wondering why that is, because the pairings just seems incredibly obvious because actions and dialogue are freaking *random* otherwise.

Is it *because* it's obvious or is it because Jet is not conventionally attractive?

It's a bit odd to me and a bit distressing that it seems that so much is hinged on the attractiveness factor. I'm pretty sure that's part of the reason why Legolas/Gimli is freaking rare compared to the other combinations (and I saw this pairing in the movie despite not having read the books, though I didn't see the Legolas/Aragorn until someone pointed it out). I'm also pretty sure that's why Londo/G'Kar is nearly non-existent which is an awful and tragic thing.

However, knowing that at least part of the whole deal with slash is the 'yay!pr0n!' aspect of it, it's understandable.

Interestingly enough, there's plenty of Snapeslash, despite how he's described as rather ...less than charming... in the books. It's facinating to note the evolution of Snape's appearence, the permutations of his descriptive words, and the near sexualization of ugliness.

Of course one can't discount that appearances are all the in eye of the beholder and it's all relative and such.

But: Snape is not attractive, conventionally; he has sallow skin, a hook nose, and greasy hair and none of these are descriptors used in conveying beauty.

Nevertheless, force of will (both the reader's and Snape's) has rendered him compelling. Ugliness is tranmuted and reformed into something to be admired. Or perhaps even that admiration exists for a qualities which seem to be 'overlooked' conventionally.

Or, and here's a flip-side that'll probably give the rest of you heart attacks to hear me say, but I didn't find Sands 'attractive' for most of the film. The 'pork' scene highlighted the flat qualities of his face and his character was pretty much an ass.

And oh, what an ass he is, compellingly ugly souled, horrendously garbed, petty and over cocky as he counts on ability that he didn't seem to have.

And yet.

And yet, he survived. He still stood, and he showed some scrap of a possibility of redemption with the boy... and my eyes are drawn to him helplessly, ugliness and all.

Yet another example?

Johnny Depp has a slightly asymmetrical face; his nose tilts towards the left. Yet I find myself thinking of it as a 'quirk' and 'eccentricity', despite the fact that for all intents and purposes it's a flaw. But it's a compelling flaw, a lovable flaw perhaps *because* it's a flaw (and how's *that* for a sexualization of ugliness?) but also because it's *him*. And my adoration of Johnny Depp renders this flaw forgivable and loveable, as it is part and parcel with his face as a whole.

(And isn't this simply love? Where flaws are smoothed away, overshadowed, ignored, sexualized, or adored?)

Perhaps this is why Snapefic is so common despite the book's descriptives, we as readers have collectly fallen in love with him and there never was a *visual* aspect to deter us from the beginning. Where in movies and anime there is the appearance first and the situation second and the personality last, in books (good ones) appearance and situation and personality are inseperable and it is *that* much easier for personality and situation to negate the effects of an ugly appearance...

::tilts head and ponders some more:: dunno...your opinions?

Comments

[strawberrythief.livejournal.com]

"Or, and here's a flip-side that'll probably give the rest of you heart attacks to hear me say, but I didn't find Sands 'attractive' for most of the film. The 'pork' scene highlighted the flat qualities of his face and his character was pretty much an ass."

Plus he spends much of it wearing horribly ugly outfits, hats and fake mustaches. One of the things I like about the character of Sands is that he shows off one of Johnny Depp's best qualities as an actor; like Laurence Olivier, Johnny isn't afraid to look ugly (or, what's even more scary than "ugly" for a leading man, ordinarily unattractive.)

"And oh, what an ass he is, compellingly ugly souled, horrendously garbed, petty and over cocky as he counts on ability that he didn't seem to have."

Yes! That's pretty much my idea of the character nailed, right there. It's interesting to me how different that is from the developing fanon perceptions of him (the killer angel and/or the master-assassin victim of his own insanity.)

I mean, when Sands is strutting around saying, "I throw shapes," my first reaction is, "But you're really not very good at it, are you? I mean, this Clever Plan™ of yours relies almost entirely on coincidence and timing and has holes in it big enough to throw a fucking moose through, doesn't it?" And he's a master manipulator? Please. That scene in the restaurant with Jorge Ramirez? He might as well have been hitting Ramirez with a brick. I've seen third-graders work emotions with more subtlety than that. Ajedrez is laughing, in the restaurant scene, over how unbelievably easy it was to fool Sands. He works for the Central Intelligence Agency and he doesn't even do enough basic homework on a key contact to know who her father is?! Even at the end, when you can't help but admire his unsinkable spirit, he's still not admirable in any other way. After all, why's he going to the town hall in Culiacan? To try to save the President? To help El? Nope. He tells Chiclet what he's after; "Take me to the center of the city, where there will be even more dough." He's going after the money. Sands is still just bullheadedly riding out the tattered remnants of his stupid blown-apart plan, like Sparrow in that sinking dinghy, to the last.

And yet for all his overconfidence and incompetence and toad-like personality, Sands really is fascinating, even likeable, and I'm still having fun parsing out all of the reasons for that.

Um, sorry. That got really long.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

And yet for all his overconfidence and incompetence and toad-like personality, Sands really is fascinating, even likeable, and I'm still having fun parsing out all of the reasons for that.

Thank you for setting off a very useful train of thought. I was trying to figure out why my El is putting up with some of the more exasperating things Sands has been/will be doing in the current story and it partly boiled down to him having heard all those stories Sands told him when they were back at the Very Nice Hacienda. He *knows* that the things Sands got away with before Culican were down to luck at least as much as judgment and he's got this sort of morbid fascination with the whole thing.

Gina