In Which I (As Usual) Arrive Late to the Party and Have a Differing Opinion (H50 Edition)

[rsadelle]

I had a lovely lunch with norwich36 yesterday where we spent an entire hour talking about Hawaii Five-0. (We might have spent longer, but then we were off to see Priest, which has one really good moment but is otherwise not very good. It's kind of too bad, because I would see a sequel anyway.) In talking with her about H50 fic, I was finally able to really articulate something I don't like about it.

H50 has a somewhat old-school fandom. (icanbreakthesky said, "It's like The Sentinel for the new generation: better hair and explosions!") That means that a lot of the fic falls into those old-school patterns, which is probably why I find that most of the things where the writing is bad/mediocre are also incredibly boring in concept. But it also means that a lot of fic falls into that traditional slash model of one guy who is open/in touch with his emotions, and one guy who is not. I'm generally not a big fan of this dynamic; I like relationships between equals, and often between equals who are also adults who own their own emotional stuff. Closed off guy/open guy is often not that. Closed off guy/open guy also plays into that old staple that all the stoic guy needs is the right woman (to do all the emotional work) where the part of the woman is played by the open guy, and that's not a model I'm fond of either.

The problem with this as a pattern for Steve/Danny fic is that that's not what's happening on the show. Sure, in the pilot Steve's a little closed off. His dad has just been murdered and he's holding it together while he finds the guy who did it and learns to work with someone new. But halfway through the ep, he and Danny are drinking beer on the beach and having a relatively intimate conversation for strangers. (I like to think of this as their first date. In the epic story I hope someone writes where they're hooking up the whole time, this is the point where one of them says, "Don't punch me if I'm reading this wrong. Wanna fuck?") By the end of the second ep, he's referring to his team as his family. As Nora pointed out, just because Danny says things about Steve only being a softie when kids and their fathers are involved doesn't mean that it's actually true. I think this is part of why I prefer fic from Danny's pov: I'm not interested in and don't buy the pov of a closed off Steve. H50 is not a show where one guy thinks they're married and the other one is oblivious. It's a show where Steve and Danny are married to each other - they're both in this together. That's the kind of fic I want to read.

The most stoic, closed off character on the show is actually Chin (except sometimes with Kono, who could definitely fit the younger sidekick exception role), and in a world where the show and the fandom didn't put the white guys first, all that closed off guy/open guy fic would be about him and Steve.

Comments

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Oh, good point about the stoic/emotional pairing mimicking traditional gender roles. I do think part of the reason so many people want Stoic Steve, though, is because the entire dynamic of h/c (which this old-school-style fandom is so fond of) is about taking a stoic person and putting them in an extreme situation where it is finally ok to reveal their emotion. The whole hiding/disclosure scenario is part of the emotional charge behind it.

I'm not sure I actually said Danny only acknowledges Steve's emotions around children and victims--*I* see Steve as quite compassionate and emotionally open around children and victims, especially in the second half of the show. Danny thinks Steve lacks "mammal-to-mammal communication skills" and I think his first reading of Steve's skills with kids connects back to that elevator scene in the first or second episode when they're pursuing a suspect, guns drawn and the family in the elevator, especially the little kid, is freaking out and Steve says something like "it's ok, we're cops" after pushing the elevator button with his gun!

But your general point--that Danny's POV on Steve is not always accurate--is spot on, I think.

[rsadelle]

Yeah, that does fit the h/c mold more.

Ah, right. I have mixed up my thoughts with what you said. Although you were definitely the one to point out that just because Danny says it doesn't make it true!

[idahophoenix.livejournal.com]

Fascinating gender analysis. I do kind of think what's interesting about two men together is that...they are two men. And I think that a lot of female writers (myself included) haven't really figured out how/what intimacy is for men. Part of what I like about your fic is how much occurs between the words and in the nuance of the interaction.

So, how about writing some H50 fic?

[rsadelle]

Hmm, yeah, that is hard for us to get right. I'm not sure it has to be exactly right, though - I like m/m fic written by women, but the stuff written by actual gay men is not my thing at all. Aww, thanks. ♥

Ha! Knowing me, it'll happen eventually.