![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakFive canon moments that turned a character into a favorite character.
Sometimes, characters simply sneak up on you, and you realize you've grown fond of them, even love them, without being able to pinpoint when this happened. (That's how it went with me with Gwen Cooper in Torchwood, for example; I mean, I know exactly when I realized that where I had been indifferent, I now loved - watching the teaser for Something Borrowed - but I also realized back then I had been fond of her for a while now, so Something Borrowed was not when it happened. However, in some cases I can pinpoint one particular moment in canon.
1.) Laura Roslin tells Adama that making a heroic last stand against the Cylons is stupid when all that's left of humanity are a few thousand people, and they need to get the hell out of there and restart the human race instead. I had liked Roslin from the start in the BSG miniseries that kicked off the show, but this moment, near the conclusion of said miniseries, was when I knew she'd become a favourite character. Which she remained for a long time, though not till the end. *insert usual sigh here*
2.) Arvin Sloane walks on a beach towards a hut in The Getaway, s2 of Alias, we see who he's walking towards to - his wife Emily - and realize that Sloane has just finished pulling off a months long con in which he managed to fool both the Alliance (= bad guys) he's working with and the CIA and Our Heroes, the Bristows, saving his wife's life in the process as well as aquiring lots of funds (as well as killing more people in the process). Now this wasn't the moment when I knew I had affection for Sloane - that happened a season earlier, when he faced down Quentin Tarantino with "I can't be the first person having trouble taking you seriously, can I?" while being tortured, but the big "Arvin, what a magnificent bastard you are" revelation of the beach scene was the moment when I knew he had become one of my all time favourite characters.
3.) Londo Mollari having a post-coital chat with his mistress in Born to the Purple. One of the earliest s1 episodes of Babylon 5. I had been amused and intrigued by Londo from the pilot onwards, but the first Londo-centric episode settled my fate, showcasing most (though not yet all) sides of his character as it did: temper, wit, soured romanticism. The scene I'm referring to is a case in point. In reply to Adira's "I want no more (from you) than I'm getting", Londo replies "And what are you getting, Adira, hm? A washed-up republican, dreaming of better days?" What makes Londo a tragic character is the same self awareness struggling with a wish to belief that marks his relationship with Adira is typical for his idealization of a Centauri past and the wish to bring it up. This was when I began to suspect Londo wasn't simply around on this show to provide witty comments now and then, and this was when I fell in love.
4.) Buffy Summers leaves college in s5's Tough Love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While I've always liked Buffy, she hadn't been my favourite for the first three seasons; Cordelia was. After Cordelia left and became an AtS regular, I spent the next season in an ensemble fondness status, without a clear favourite. S5 made me more and more affectionate towards Buffy, but this particular scene, which is fairly low key and not exactly remembered as a big moment of the show, was what pushed me into acknowledging Buffy the character as my favourite. In retrospect, it's even more poignant because we know Buffy never will manage to get back to college, brief attempts notwithstanding. I love the scene (and Buffy) on several levels; Buffy has never been the smartest member of the group (that would be Giles and Willow), and she's very aware of that, but she's not stupid, either, and the unpretentious way she mentions she liked poetry feels so real. Until this point, she's been struggling to balance a non-Slayer life with being the Slayer for the entire show, but due to having take care of Dawn in addition to being the Slayer, she gives up her "normal" hopes (for good, as it turns out), and she does it with grace and humour. That last exchange kills me every time and makes me want to hug her:
Buffy: I wish I had time for it. But, I, just don't right now...
Prof Lillian: Well, maybe short poems.
Buffy: Yeah! Like those Japanese ones that, um, sound like a sneeze.
Prof Lillian: Haiku?
Buffy: Right. Maybe those. And, hopefully, I'll be back next semester. When I'm more myself again.
5.) Darla has it out with Angel near the end of Dear Boy. The use of Darla in flashbacks during the first season of AtS already showed her as a more fleshed out character than she had been during her brief stint in the first season of BTVS, so the big cliffhanger of the first season - the revelation W&H had brought her back - was a welcome one. I continued to be interested, but not yet more, during her early appearances in the second season. Then came the scene which for the first time showcased Julie Benz' acting skills in the role and remains one of the most searing emotional powerplays in the Jossverse. (Written by Marti Noxon, btw, in an uncredited rewrite of David Greenwalt's script.) We can see just how deeply these two can and do affect each other, and how mercilessly they drag out each other's vulnerabilities. The upper hand goes from Angel to Darla to Angel to Darla again, in a Pyrrhic victory, when she uses a cross against Angel and then finishes with "No matter how good a boy you are, God doesn't want you." Pause. "But I still do." At this display of Albee-esque insight, ruthlessness and passion I irrevocably fell in love with my favourite vampire of all time.
Sometimes, characters simply sneak up on you, and you realize you've grown fond of them, even love them, without being able to pinpoint when this happened. (That's how it went with me with Gwen Cooper in Torchwood, for example; I mean, I know exactly when I realized that where I had been indifferent, I now loved - watching the teaser for Something Borrowed - but I also realized back then I had been fond of her for a while now, so Something Borrowed was not when it happened. However, in some cases I can pinpoint one particular moment in canon.
1.) Laura Roslin tells Adama that making a heroic last stand against the Cylons is stupid when all that's left of humanity are a few thousand people, and they need to get the hell out of there and restart the human race instead. I had liked Roslin from the start in the BSG miniseries that kicked off the show, but this moment, near the conclusion of said miniseries, was when I knew she'd become a favourite character. Which she remained for a long time, though not till the end. *insert usual sigh here*
2.) Arvin Sloane walks on a beach towards a hut in The Getaway, s2 of Alias, we see who he's walking towards to - his wife Emily - and realize that Sloane has just finished pulling off a months long con in which he managed to fool both the Alliance (= bad guys) he's working with and the CIA and Our Heroes, the Bristows, saving his wife's life in the process as well as aquiring lots of funds (as well as killing more people in the process). Now this wasn't the moment when I knew I had affection for Sloane - that happened a season earlier, when he faced down Quentin Tarantino with "I can't be the first person having trouble taking you seriously, can I?" while being tortured, but the big "Arvin, what a magnificent bastard you are" revelation of the beach scene was the moment when I knew he had become one of my all time favourite characters.
3.) Londo Mollari having a post-coital chat with his mistress in Born to the Purple. One of the earliest s1 episodes of Babylon 5. I had been amused and intrigued by Londo from the pilot onwards, but the first Londo-centric episode settled my fate, showcasing most (though not yet all) sides of his character as it did: temper, wit, soured romanticism. The scene I'm referring to is a case in point. In reply to Adira's "I want no more (from you) than I'm getting", Londo replies "And what are you getting, Adira, hm? A washed-up republican, dreaming of better days?" What makes Londo a tragic character is the same self awareness struggling with a wish to belief that marks his relationship with Adira is typical for his idealization of a Centauri past and the wish to bring it up. This was when I began to suspect Londo wasn't simply around on this show to provide witty comments now and then, and this was when I fell in love.
4.) Buffy Summers leaves college in s5's Tough Love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While I've always liked Buffy, she hadn't been my favourite for the first three seasons; Cordelia was. After Cordelia left and became an AtS regular, I spent the next season in an ensemble fondness status, without a clear favourite. S5 made me more and more affectionate towards Buffy, but this particular scene, which is fairly low key and not exactly remembered as a big moment of the show, was what pushed me into acknowledging Buffy the character as my favourite. In retrospect, it's even more poignant because we know Buffy never will manage to get back to college, brief attempts notwithstanding. I love the scene (and Buffy) on several levels; Buffy has never been the smartest member of the group (that would be Giles and Willow), and she's very aware of that, but she's not stupid, either, and the unpretentious way she mentions she liked poetry feels so real. Until this point, she's been struggling to balance a non-Slayer life with being the Slayer for the entire show, but due to having take care of Dawn in addition to being the Slayer, she gives up her "normal" hopes (for good, as it turns out), and she does it with grace and humour. That last exchange kills me every time and makes me want to hug her:
Buffy: I wish I had time for it. But, I, just don't right now...
Prof Lillian: Well, maybe short poems.
Buffy: Yeah! Like those Japanese ones that, um, sound like a sneeze.
Prof Lillian: Haiku?
Buffy: Right. Maybe those. And, hopefully, I'll be back next semester. When I'm more myself again.
5.) Darla has it out with Angel near the end of Dear Boy. The use of Darla in flashbacks during the first season of AtS already showed her as a more fleshed out character than she had been during her brief stint in the first season of BTVS, so the big cliffhanger of the first season - the revelation W&H had brought her back - was a welcome one. I continued to be interested, but not yet more, during her early appearances in the second season. Then came the scene which for the first time showcased Julie Benz' acting skills in the role and remains one of the most searing emotional powerplays in the Jossverse. (Written by Marti Noxon, btw, in an uncredited rewrite of David Greenwalt's script.) We can see just how deeply these two can and do affect each other, and how mercilessly they drag out each other's vulnerabilities. The upper hand goes from Angel to Darla to Angel to Darla again, in a Pyrrhic victory, when she uses a cross against Angel and then finishes with "No matter how good a boy you are, God doesn't want you." Pause. "But I still do." At this display of Albee-esque insight, ruthlessness and passion I irrevocably fell in love with my favourite vampire of all time.
