Even Gayer Than Expected: Empires and Hawaii Five-0

[rsadelle]

I've been thinking recently that Empires' lyrics are interesting in how few of them are gender specific. "Hayley" is about a girl, and "My Poor Lover" uses "she," but the pronouns in pretty much everything else stick to first and second person. Then, recently, there's "Darko" which is possibly (but probably not) about kinky bisexual exhibitionist sex with strangers: "Mystery man, will you watch my back / while I breathe her deep through the evening cracks" and "Man, oh man, if you watch my back / I will breathe you deep through the evening cracks." And now there's "Hell's Heroes," which starts with "My first love / he went away." Even though I liked their gender neutrality, I'm surprised by an actual male first love.

Several of my friends are into Hawaii Five-0. I watched two eps and got why fangirls like it but didn't care. norwich36 keeps telling me about the fic, though, and then she sent me some links, so I read some fic. And then I read some more fic. And then I started to run out of easily findable fic that was good. (There's a lot, but some of it, even some of the high hit count things at AO3, is not good.) So then I started watching the show from the beginning, and now I care about it. The thing is that I'm used to fan fic, where we take tiny things and blow them up into something much bigger. This is not a fandom where that's happening. All the things I assumed were tiny things that happened once or were fannish invention are, instead, actual plot points from the show. Steve and Danny are basically dating from the first ep. People involved in their cases start asking them how long they've been married in episode four. I expected them to hold hands and the end of episode eight. Danny starts calling Steve "babe" in episode ten. I'm also finding it fascinating in how it's not so much homoerotic as homodomestic - Steve and Danny's interaction is less sexual and more domestically familiar.

Comments

[eleanor-lavish.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD I AM CALLING THEM HOMODOMESTIC FOREVERRRRR.

(speaking of, have you read gyzym's curtainfics? THEY ARE OF MY HEART.)

[rsadelle]

IT'S THE ONLY WORD FOR THEM.

(I've read some of them. They are soft and lovely!)

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Yes, unfortunately while there is a fair bit of good fic written, there is a LOT of badfic in this fandom. (And more being produced after last nights ep, which I will try to save to talk to you about in person, probably after you get a chance to see it).

I do love the phrase "homodomestic."

How far are you in watching? There are still a few eps I haven't seen--about 3 after the Christmas episode, I think.

[rsadelle]

I'm kind of surprised by how much, and also what kind. It reads like old-school badfic. Perhaps it's attracting old-school fans?

It's the best description of them I can come up with!

I've watched the first eleven eps (in four days). It's early enough that I will probably also have time to do my writing and then watch the twelfth ep before bed.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Actually, there do seem to be a lot of Sentinel writers in this fandom. And a lot of the badfic is of the "bash the female characters" type, unfortunately. Still, I think most of the badfic I've seen is newer writers.

[rsadelle]

Oh dear. I haven't run into the misogynistic variety so much as the kind that is both badly written and boring.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

P.S. Speaking of teh gay, you have seen this, right? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXjKuSPeWrs

And what kills me is it's an official trailer! Highlighting the gay! Don't call it a bromance (subtext: because it's a romance)

A romance with extreme police brutality, of course, but still a romance.

[rsadelle]

Oh my. I had heard of it, but not watched it. It does feed into my theory that the writers are just trying to see how far they can go without anyone noticing.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Did you read the "Danny is a veela" story? It's very popular so you may have run across it already, but I don't think I recced it. It sounds like crazy crack but it's actually good and very interesting on consent issues:

http://mirabellafic.dreamwidth.org/3871.html

I also really like this story by leupagus in which Steve gets recalled to the SEALs but drops in on Danny every couple of months:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/139057?view_adult=true

Should I give you more recs? You've probably seen most of the stuff I've read on A03 already.

[rsadelle]

I haven't read the veela one! I keep seeing it but shying away because it's sounds cracky. I will have to try it.

I love the one where Steve keeps dropping in.

I will take more recs! There are probably things I've missed or skipped for whatever reason.