selenak

Name the five unlikeliest (but successful) canon friendships.

Aha! Now let's define criteria first. "Unlikeliest" means, for example, that Vir and Londo are out of the running, because while the fact they got so close surprised both them at different points, it wasn't something we, the audience, would have declared to be totally out of the question the first time we saw them. Meanwhile, Londo/G'Kar, who would fid the "unlikeliest" criteria, are also not fitting the criteria because "friendship" isn't exactly what I'd term their relationship at the end. Similarly, I can't use Calamity Jane and Joanie Stubbs from Deadwood, much as I want to, because they do become lovers, and lovers weren't asked for. So, here's what I ended up with:

1) Ashes to Ashes: Alex Drake and Ray Carling. One of the best things in s2, with some tiny seeds planted in s1. Definitely unlikely, given that he initially resents her for being yet another person stealing Gene's attention, like Sam did, and she thinks he's a Neanderthal construct. (And one, as opposed to Gene, she's not attracted to.) By the time the second season ends, she's sort of apprenticing him and he's the one defending her to Gene. It's something nobody would have predicted from the pilot, and it works beautifully.

2) Farscape: John Crichton and Rygel. Well, you might argue "Rygel and anyone at all" to be unlikely if you watch the FS pilot, and he has touching scenes with Aeryn and Zhaan, too, but I insist the Crichton-Rygel bond is special. ~~Not least because Crichton kisses Rygel more often than anyone else safe Aeryn.~~ It involves a maximum at geek references for Crichton, acceptance of Rygel's occasional sell-out attempts, sugar highs, canon mpreg, and Rygel giving him exasparated but supremely sane advice, like in one of my favourite scenes between them from s4's opening episode, Crichton Kicks:

RYGEL: Ah. Still obsessed, I see.

JOHN: I'm not obsessed.

Cut to Rygel, eyeballing him skeptically. He's holding Sikozu's missing hand in one of his.

JOHN: Did she say anything to you before she left?

RYGEL: "Goodbye, good luck, good riddance." ( laughs )

JOHN: That's what you said. And, I'm not obsessed.

Rygel laughs, gestures with one hand, counting John's 'obsessions' on limited digits.

RYGEL: Oh, wormholes, Aeryn, Earth, Aeryn, Scorpius, Aeryn. ( laughs ) I'm out of fingers.

He nods toward the slender fingers held in his other hand.

RYGEL: Want me to keep counting on hers?

Distracted, John leans his head back against the door, his gaze distant.

JOHN: ( softly ) Aeryn...

Rygel sighs. And a 'fresh, new' thought strikes, John turns to Rygel again.

JOHN: She say anything to you before she left?

RYGEL: Oh, Crichton... ( hovering closer ) For once, listen. When a woman-- whether she's your wife, your lover, or a slave you purchased to be your wife or lover-- leaves you repeatedly, take the hint.

JOHN: Well... that was the plan but... ( grinning brightly ) You know how my plans go.

3) Lost: Hurley aka Hugo Reyes and Sawyer aka James Ford. As opposed to a great many Lost fans, I didn't like Sawyer initially. What won me around certainly wasn't the annoying triangle but Sawyer coming to respect and like Hurley a great deal. Once Charlie, err, is no longer a show regular, I'd go so far as to say Sawyer is probably the best friend Hurley has. They're at different times immensely entertaining and awwww-worthy together.

4) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Miles O'Brien and Julian Bashir. I may not ship them in a slash fashion, but I think their friendship, born out of Julian's tendency to be the clingiest puppy who ever clung, never mind the Chief's disdain for obnoxious young newbies, is adorable. Also, it stuck with me so much that when I read the various accounts of the Lebanon hostages from the 80s, especially Brian Keenan's and John McCarthy's, I thought: OMG, growly working class Irishman and determinedly optimistic diffident Englishman - THEY ARE O'BRIEN AND BASHIR, OF COURSE THEY END UP AS BFFS!!!

5) The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Savannah Weaver and John Henry. He's an AI whom the audience assumes for the longest time to be baby Skynet; she's a little girl whose biological mother was presumably killed and definitely replaced by a T-1001 with dubious intentions. Together, they are... adorable. Absolutely adorable. That was one of the great s2 twists of audience expectations, which were at first that the quondam Turk, now christened John Henry, would either unintentionally or intentionally harm Savannah; instead, she, as much as Ellison, becomes his teacher in the humanities. With the potential for danger remaining - who knows which lesson John Henry will draw from Savannah's suggestion that one can change the rules? But you know, he learns silly Scottish songs for her. What's not to love?