John Boyega accepts the EE Rising Star Award onstage during the EE British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Opera House on February 14, 2016 in London, England.
John’s use of the word ‘love’ as a term of endearment in fic: OOC or not?
Discuss.
Ok but what then? Are all pet names off the table? What endearment would be most in-character for canon John once Johnlock becomes canon? Sweetheart? Pet? Darling? I mean Bumble obviously. But weigh in.
I don’t really see him as a pet name kind of person at all. I think if and when he uses them he does so sparingly, saves them up for when he’s really feeling it or needs it for emphasis. But I don’t think he’s the kind of person who drops a ‘love’ at the end of every sentence. I think it ties into his not being able to say how he feels, he shows it instead.
@mahons-ondine said something similar to what you said in the tags, that he’d use insults, but he’d use them affectionately.
I can see why you might think that, and yeah, that’s totally in character, but I hope that’s not what happens
Because Sherlock has been called names ever since he can remember. “Freak” and “psycho” from people who didn’t understand him, and from people who did understand him…well, there weren’t too many of them, were there? What do you suppose Mycroft would have called him, growing up? Since they both thought he was the slow one?
He would accept the affectionate insults from John, of course he would. Sherlock is not used to affection, had grown accustomed to the belief that he would never really have it, so he’ll accept it in whatever form John offers it, even if it’s insults. He’ll take what he can get.
But Sherlock is susceptible to words. And although the affection will ease the sting, the sting is still there. And he will never say, because it won’t occur to him that he can ask for what he really wants.
(And John says brilliant, says amazing, says fantastic, yes, but he knows John thinks he’s impressive. What he wants is for John to think he’s lovable.)
So I hope for Sherlock’s sake that John gets over his reticence one day and comes out with an endearment, without thinking, the most common of common pet names, something inane like sweetie or dear or darling, and will happen to be looking at Sherlock’s face when he does, in time to see it soften, in time to see it melt, in time to see the tiniest, most fragile smile cross his face, and discover what these little words - he’d thought they were meaningless - mean to Sherlock.
But I am optimistic about this. @mahons-ondine pointed out that we’ve never seen John in a relationship with someone he really loves before. Perhaps there’s a floodgate of loving talk that will burst when he realizes that Sherlock loves him too, and it will be love and sweetheart and petal and baby all over the place, and Sherlock will know it’s ridiculous and he’ll try to get him to stop and he just won’t and none of us will want to read that fic anymore because it’s not just OOC but also OTT but WHO CARES BECAUSE THEY’RE FINALLY HAPPY CAN’T WE JUST LET THEM LIVE OH MY GOD.
But I don’t know, what do you think?
John does admit that he loves Sherlock in TSoT. “…
to be up there with the two people that I love and care about most…” I don’t see John using terms of endearment much at all, honestly, but I don’t think he’s the type of person that wouldn’t tell someone that he loved them. I figure it’s hard for him to talk about his feelings–not so much stating them in simple terms. I image John, in a relationship with Sherlock, would simply refer to Sherlock as Sherlock (they both seem to like each other’s names anyway…) and say things like, “Double at the clinic today. See you later, love you,” as he’s finishing his breakfast.
As a fancy unsucessful television writer who lives and dies with dialogue can I say that nothing is out of character? Like in the first season could you see John talking about Sherlock’s cheekbones? Ehhhh. But you can now.
(Side note: remember when the fandom was so sure Sherlock didn’t know how to drive? And mummy and papa Holmes were these dark, unemotional creatures? Remember when everyone was so sure Sherlock would hide emotion at all cost?)
No one defines character alone. Seriously even the writers don’t because the actor may change things with a look or how they pronounce things (Sarah Michelle Gellar couldn’t say “on ya” without it sounding like “Anya.” Though Buffy saying “on ya” is totally in character it couldn’t be in the end) so fanon or canon has their opinion, but ya just never know. If something is written well then everything is in character.
Thank you.
Jurassic World is close to us, so I wanted to take a moment to remember someone that won’t be here to see it happens.
Meet Stan Winston.
If the name doesn’t ring a bell, he’s the guy that worked on every non-CGI dinosaur from Jurassic Park/The Lost World/Jurassic Park III. And many don’t even realize how many there were!
Oh, but that is not all.
He is also the guy that created and gave ”life” to some other movie stars…
The characters of The Wiz? Stan Winston.
The Dog-Thing from The Thing? Stan Winston.
The Terminators of the original Terminator trilogy? PLUS Terminator Salvation? Stan Winston.
The Alien-Queen of Aliens? Stan Winston.
All the monsters of The Monster Squad? Stan Winston.
The Predator from Predator I and II? Stan Winston.
Pumpkinhead? Stan Winston.
The iconic hands of Edward Scissorhands? Stan Winston.
The Penguin looks form Batman Returns? Stan Winston.
And
so
many
MORE…
“I don’t do special effects. I do characters. I do creatures.”
Happy birthday, Stan Winston (April 7, 1946 – June 15, 2008)
You didn’t make special effects, you sir made the World special.
