Bad characterization anywhere is one of my pet peeves. (NCIS, Eureka, CSI:NY bug me the most) It's my constant worry whenever I write one of my own- more than just about any other element.
Gibbs is just not fundamentally... soft. He's hard, and broken and had a tough life. He's rough edges and hard stone and set in his ways. He's not going to change fundamentally in behavior or treatment of Tony.
(Although I do kinda wish they kept him and Mann together on the series. They were cute and fit well, and Gibbs needs love.)
Tony is giving Gibbs a run for his money as of late though. After all the shit that's happened to him: Jenny and Jeanne & The Frog, the plague, Kate's death, Gibbs' leaving/coming back, being sent afloat... Tony's not the same guy. He's harder, been hurt. Darker. A bit more like Gibbs, but not as much the perrenial asshole. NOT the perky little boy that melts and becomes the perfect boyfriend.
Neither of them will ever get to the pet names stage, unless you count 'Boss' and 'Dinozzo' as pet names. And disturbingly, there are WAY too many fics that keep bumbling on well past that.
I agree with you, I almost always feel like I'm 'settling' in the fandom. I recently went on a bend to read anything I could find that was 2000+ words, & there were many times I couldn't even finish it. Some of them flat out disturbed me... (for various reasons)
That'd be an interesting thing to find out. I think in this case it's the nature of the characters -- Gibbs' alpha behavior and Tony's natural beta -- people would read into that a projection of the dominant and submissive. As for the other elements... There comes a threshold of just putting in the things one likes, I think. That may not always be the case, but for these guys, I think it is.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2009-02-09 07:25 am (UTC)Gibbs is just not fundamentally... soft. He's hard, and broken and had a tough life. He's rough edges and hard stone and set in his ways. He's not going to change fundamentally in behavior or treatment of Tony.
(Although I do kinda wish they kept him and Mann together on the series. They were cute and fit well, and Gibbs needs love.)
Tony is giving Gibbs a run for his money as of late though. After all the shit that's happened to him: Jenny and Jeanne & The Frog, the plague, Kate's death, Gibbs' leaving/coming back, being sent afloat... Tony's not the same guy. He's harder, been hurt. Darker. A bit more like Gibbs, but not as much the perrenial asshole. NOT the perky little boy that melts and becomes the perfect boyfriend.
Neither of them will ever get to the pet names stage, unless you count 'Boss' and 'Dinozzo' as pet names. And disturbingly, there are WAY too many fics that keep bumbling on well past that.
I agree with you, I almost always feel like I'm 'settling' in the fandom. I recently went on a bend to read anything I could find that was 2000+ words, & there were many times I couldn't even finish it. Some of them flat out disturbed me... (for various reasons)
That'd be an interesting thing to find out. I think in this case it's the nature of the characters -- Gibbs' alpha behavior and Tony's natural beta -- people would read into that a projection of the dominant and submissive. As for the other elements... There comes a threshold of just putting in the things one likes, I think. That may not always be the case, but for these guys, I think it is.