Gunn essay
Aug. 25th, 2003 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
burntcopperMy Gunn and relationships essay -
Gunn has a type. From what we've seen on the show, Gunn has a definite type. Everyone on Buffy and Angel has a type, from what we've seen. Angel likes petite blondes who can kick his arse, Buffy likes muscled guys, preferably vamps, Spike has a thing for strong women who treat him like shit, Wes likes blatantly sexy and confident, and so on. Gunn likes them tall, skinny (though this can be swayed slightly), brunette and big-brained.
These are the people he's been shown being attracted to on the show. Fred, Gwen and Wes.
Anyone disputing the Wes will have the really, really obvious parallels of looks and personality type between him and Fred shoved in their faces. There's quite a strong case for Gunn moving in on Fred because she was safe in society's eyes (possibly his not being able to deal with being attracted to a man), as well as the recent problems he and Wes had been having. For example, the shock of Wes' ruthlessness showing up in Pylea and also his handling of Gunn after the random killing of demons by his old crew. The Pylea thing - sacrificing the few to save the many without really shedding a tear - showed an aspect of Wes Gunn had never had to deal with before, and they showed Gunn being very, very uncomfortable with it but going along with it. Maybe he reconciled it and understood it after thinking some, but it would still be a slight stumbling block. Add on top of that the hostility and telling off he got from Wes after Caritas got trashed, and you've got another stumbling block. He dealt with that, partially, by moving in on Fred. Maybe it was just the friendship that was taking the knocks, but it's still a raw point you have to consider. However, what is interesting is that Fred and Gunn's relationship started to fall apart after ruthlessness was shown in theirs, when Fred was prepared to kill her old professor, and Gunn actually did, to save her from killing him. The strain of the incident started putting stresses on what hadn't been perfect but previously hadn't had any majorly big blow-ups.
Gwen was a one-night stand with possibilities. There was attraction on both sides, lots of friendly flirting, understanding of motives though not trusting her, betrayal, and a lot of fun. The guy had serious amounts of fun and tension release when he went with her to the Japanese shindig, and this bled over into them having sex after he came on to her subtly post-gadget. He's not got a problem with no-strings sex, we knew this back in early season 2, and this confirmed it. From what we can tell, they parted on very friendly terms and had a great time, from the grin on his mug when he came back to the hotel.
Fred is what you'd call the 'first love' relationship. The one where everything is sweet and happy and pancake kisses happen. The 'pancake kisses' and cuteness and sappiness which we saw, which I know made a lot of people want to throw up, do not make it any less real. Both of them had had a hard few years - Fred in Pylea and working her way through the academic system at a younger-than-usual age (the academic world has its fair share of tigers) and Gunn on the street demon-hunting - so if you look at the relationship as a refuge, it makes a lot more sense. The relationship between them was one of the few places where they didn't have to worry about awful things happening, and they didn't have to be on their guard or show the thick skin they'd been forced to build up. So they treated each other as sweetness and light, and they could get away with being cute. It was basically the first time that we'd seen that they'd let themselves get that attached and that involved on such a level. On the outside they were still tough as nails. When the harsh realities of their day-to-day life intruded, the relationship started to break up from the strains and stresses. They recovered from when Gunn tried to shield her from the guy coming to collect his soul, but at that stage it was very much a cutesy relationship. Given time and a little less stress, it might have been able to survive it, but you could see the problems coming. At the beginning of Season 4, they were having disagreements. Then factor in the problems with Fred's attraction to Wes and Gunn's jealousy, the killing of her professor, and the Angelus problem, and it hits the brick wall known as 'too much, too soon'. It pretty much went with a whimper rather than a bang.
Wes is the best friend, 'got your back' relationship. To quote Gunn, "You know you my man, English." Okay, so a lot of us think it went further than that, but we'll leave that out for the minute. Of all the relationships and friendships and romances between characters in the Angel/Buffy-verse, this is the one you can classify neatly as the archetypal buddy-cop relationship. Examples : Starsky and Hutch, Bodie and Doyle, Solo and Kuryakin, Jack and Daniel, Fraser and either Ray, Jim and Blair, Dalziel and Pascoe, you get the picture. Two guys, work together fighting bad stuff, best friends, hang out the whole time, lots of banter. Plus they've even had the requisite 'one of them gets shot and the other spends half the ep by his bedside' episode. They even come from different backgrounds and still bond through adversity. Add nicknames, a squabble over a girl, secret handshakes and a supposed betrayal which it took them time to get over but they still got back to working together. You can't *get* much more buddy-cop than that. And we all know how much they get slashed.
Wes and Gunn were closer than close. They spent most of their time together, had their in-jokes, spent the time when they weren't working watching DVDs and playing computer games. Started off as tentative having to work together with not a very high opinion of each other, became gradual friends, the friendship strengthened a lot when Angel fired them and they set up on their own. This was where they became the fighting end of the team, and got used to covering each others backs. This segued into spending a lot of time together, discovering a shared interest for big sharp weaponry, action and kung-fu movies and computer games, and becoming as thick as thieves. Admittedly, Gunn still had the 'muscle' tag and Wes the 'brain and boss' one, but it was one of the most equal relationships in Gunn's life so far. This continued through to Pylea and after. We see the strain put on this one first in Pylea, where Gunn had the revelation about Wes' willingness to sacrifice the few to save the many. We know Gunn already was sorta okay with this concept, but it was a shock to find out that Wes had the ice-cold capacity for it. That incident got glossed over, then came when Gunn betrayed Wes by allowing the demon-killing to go ahead. This did much more damage to the relationship, where Wes told him he'd get kicked out if anything like that ever happened again. The first cracks started and then got exacerbated by Gunn's developing relationship with Fred. Classic split of a girl coming between them. Wes' isolation resulted in his kidnapping Connor, which completely broke their relationship for Gunn. The guy betrayed them and let them down to that extent, he gets put out of sight, out of mind. He's unwilling to even seek help from Wes when he's desperately needed, as for Gunn he's been tossed out of the unit, end of story. When the Beast makes his appearance and Wes hurls himself into protecting his friends, the first meeting is intensely chilly. Neither has forgiven abandonment or betrayal, but they still automatically fall into the old patterns of working as a duo and risking life and limb for each other without thought. The relationship gradually worked its way back up to joking and friendship from within the constant battle and Wes supposedly infringing on Gunn's territory as Fred, plus Wes' new callousness and hardening. It's not quite back to the old levels, but it's slowly getting there. Admittedly, Jasmine helped a lot in repairing the fences, but it's still the benchmark of Gunn comfortable relationship. Seriously, add onscreen kissing and it wouldn't have been much different.
Gunn has a type. From what we've seen on the show, Gunn has a definite type. Everyone on Buffy and Angel has a type, from what we've seen. Angel likes petite blondes who can kick his arse, Buffy likes muscled guys, preferably vamps, Spike has a thing for strong women who treat him like shit, Wes likes blatantly sexy and confident, and so on. Gunn likes them tall, skinny (though this can be swayed slightly), brunette and big-brained.
These are the people he's been shown being attracted to on the show. Fred, Gwen and Wes.
Anyone disputing the Wes will have the really, really obvious parallels of looks and personality type between him and Fred shoved in their faces. There's quite a strong case for Gunn moving in on Fred because she was safe in society's eyes (possibly his not being able to deal with being attracted to a man), as well as the recent problems he and Wes had been having. For example, the shock of Wes' ruthlessness showing up in Pylea and also his handling of Gunn after the random killing of demons by his old crew. The Pylea thing - sacrificing the few to save the many without really shedding a tear - showed an aspect of Wes Gunn had never had to deal with before, and they showed Gunn being very, very uncomfortable with it but going along with it. Maybe he reconciled it and understood it after thinking some, but it would still be a slight stumbling block. Add on top of that the hostility and telling off he got from Wes after Caritas got trashed, and you've got another stumbling block. He dealt with that, partially, by moving in on Fred. Maybe it was just the friendship that was taking the knocks, but it's still a raw point you have to consider. However, what is interesting is that Fred and Gunn's relationship started to fall apart after ruthlessness was shown in theirs, when Fred was prepared to kill her old professor, and Gunn actually did, to save her from killing him. The strain of the incident started putting stresses on what hadn't been perfect but previously hadn't had any majorly big blow-ups.
Gwen was a one-night stand with possibilities. There was attraction on both sides, lots of friendly flirting, understanding of motives though not trusting her, betrayal, and a lot of fun. The guy had serious amounts of fun and tension release when he went with her to the Japanese shindig, and this bled over into them having sex after he came on to her subtly post-gadget. He's not got a problem with no-strings sex, we knew this back in early season 2, and this confirmed it. From what we can tell, they parted on very friendly terms and had a great time, from the grin on his mug when he came back to the hotel.
Fred is what you'd call the 'first love' relationship. The one where everything is sweet and happy and pancake kisses happen. The 'pancake kisses' and cuteness and sappiness which we saw, which I know made a lot of people want to throw up, do not make it any less real. Both of them had had a hard few years - Fred in Pylea and working her way through the academic system at a younger-than-usual age (the academic world has its fair share of tigers) and Gunn on the street demon-hunting - so if you look at the relationship as a refuge, it makes a lot more sense. The relationship between them was one of the few places where they didn't have to worry about awful things happening, and they didn't have to be on their guard or show the thick skin they'd been forced to build up. So they treated each other as sweetness and light, and they could get away with being cute. It was basically the first time that we'd seen that they'd let themselves get that attached and that involved on such a level. On the outside they were still tough as nails. When the harsh realities of their day-to-day life intruded, the relationship started to break up from the strains and stresses. They recovered from when Gunn tried to shield her from the guy coming to collect his soul, but at that stage it was very much a cutesy relationship. Given time and a little less stress, it might have been able to survive it, but you could see the problems coming. At the beginning of Season 4, they were having disagreements. Then factor in the problems with Fred's attraction to Wes and Gunn's jealousy, the killing of her professor, and the Angelus problem, and it hits the brick wall known as 'too much, too soon'. It pretty much went with a whimper rather than a bang.
Wes is the best friend, 'got your back' relationship. To quote Gunn, "You know you my man, English." Okay, so a lot of us think it went further than that, but we'll leave that out for the minute. Of all the relationships and friendships and romances between characters in the Angel/Buffy-verse, this is the one you can classify neatly as the archetypal buddy-cop relationship. Examples : Starsky and Hutch, Bodie and Doyle, Solo and Kuryakin, Jack and Daniel, Fraser and either Ray, Jim and Blair, Dalziel and Pascoe, you get the picture. Two guys, work together fighting bad stuff, best friends, hang out the whole time, lots of banter. Plus they've even had the requisite 'one of them gets shot and the other spends half the ep by his bedside' episode. They even come from different backgrounds and still bond through adversity. Add nicknames, a squabble over a girl, secret handshakes and a supposed betrayal which it took them time to get over but they still got back to working together. You can't *get* much more buddy-cop than that. And we all know how much they get slashed.
Wes and Gunn were closer than close. They spent most of their time together, had their in-jokes, spent the time when they weren't working watching DVDs and playing computer games. Started off as tentative having to work together with not a very high opinion of each other, became gradual friends, the friendship strengthened a lot when Angel fired them and they set up on their own. This was where they became the fighting end of the team, and got used to covering each others backs. This segued into spending a lot of time together, discovering a shared interest for big sharp weaponry, action and kung-fu movies and computer games, and becoming as thick as thieves. Admittedly, Gunn still had the 'muscle' tag and Wes the 'brain and boss' one, but it was one of the most equal relationships in Gunn's life so far. This continued through to Pylea and after. We see the strain put on this one first in Pylea, where Gunn had the revelation about Wes' willingness to sacrifice the few to save the many. We know Gunn already was sorta okay with this concept, but it was a shock to find out that Wes had the ice-cold capacity for it. That incident got glossed over, then came when Gunn betrayed Wes by allowing the demon-killing to go ahead. This did much more damage to the relationship, where Wes told him he'd get kicked out if anything like that ever happened again. The first cracks started and then got exacerbated by Gunn's developing relationship with Fred. Classic split of a girl coming between them. Wes' isolation resulted in his kidnapping Connor, which completely broke their relationship for Gunn. The guy betrayed them and let them down to that extent, he gets put out of sight, out of mind. He's unwilling to even seek help from Wes when he's desperately needed, as for Gunn he's been tossed out of the unit, end of story. When the Beast makes his appearance and Wes hurls himself into protecting his friends, the first meeting is intensely chilly. Neither has forgiven abandonment or betrayal, but they still automatically fall into the old patterns of working as a duo and risking life and limb for each other without thought. The relationship gradually worked its way back up to joking and friendship from within the constant battle and Wes supposedly infringing on Gunn's territory as Fred, plus Wes' new callousness and hardening. It's not quite back to the old levels, but it's slowly getting there. Admittedly, Jasmine helped a lot in repairing the fences, but it's still the benchmark of Gunn comfortable relationship. Seriously, add onscreen kissing and it wouldn't have been much different.
