Sometimes, old school is the way to go.

[teyla]

I'm caught up on Castle.

You know what this show desperately, desperately needs? An h/c plotline. And I'm not saying this as an h/c addict. Well, maybe I am, a bit, but. It's a show with a pulp-novel-y partner theme, right? They've got Starsky and Hutch and Mulder and Scully references every other episode. If you actually watch S&H and the X-Files, you know what those guys do every other episode? They get hurt, and they rescue one another. That's all they do, all the time. I'm not saying I want Castle to be the X-Files, but seriously. They're on their third season. Would it hurt them to have one finale plot end with Castle in the hospital? It would be funny! It would be adorable! It would be all I-don't-care-about-you-but-actually-I-do-please-don't-die, which is exactly what you want, if you're cultivating an antagonistic friendship between your two leads the way Castle is trying to do.

I was waiting for Lie to Me to do something with Emily. But, okay, I get it, Lie to Me tries to be a classy, CSI-ish procedural show. They don't want to go for the cheap emotional tricks. Castle isn't that kind of show. Castle is trying to be Starsky & Hutch. So why the hell is nobody getting hurt?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

H/C makes me think heating and cooling. Good to know, should I see it pop up in fandom terms.

...I personally don't much care for the C part. I just think injured heroes are attractive. : / Jasper has told me many times that she thinks she'll have to warn people I date. ...But I don't like real injuries?

Gentry

[teyla]

I'm actually more one for the H part as well. Not so much because of the attractiveness, though; more because I love the emotional vulnerability characters have in those situations. Awesome to play with.

As for attractive men getting hurt, though, if you like that, you should check out this vid made for the VividCon Challenge last year. Link goes to YouTube.

[(Anonymous)]

Haha. That video. More bloody bandages! It's actually not them getting hurt. It's them post-hurt and just... scarred or bandaged. Ex: Owen all beat up at the end of the extremely random Weevil fight episode. Attractive points go to Merlin, Harkness, and the Boondock Saints guys. I think there were a few others in there, but I have pretty random taste. Also, I tend to kind of not remember much. Even after I just see something. O_o

The emotional vulnerability is probably part of why it's attractive? But it might be purely aesthetic. Uncertain. I think the pure annoyance at being put out of commission is sort of adorable too. - Gentry

[(Anonymous)]

Was going to delete this and clarify. Jasper suggests that I like the H without the Hing, and don't care about the C. Sounds right. - Gentry

[teyla]

Heh, actually, I'm not too hot on any of the guys in that video--they're alright, or some of them are, but very few of them are from any of "my" fandoms, and I usually need some kind of personality/character hook in order to find someone attractive. (Ten's in there, and Ten is extremely pretty, as far as I'm concerned, but they used a scene where you can never see him properly. Sadness!) I like the video mostly because of the discussion it sparked in fandom about fandom's objectification of men and the use of graphic violence as a placeholder for graphic sex in television and film media.

The emotional vulnerability is probably part of why it's attractive?
Oh, yes, definitely. Although I usually find the relationship between the two partners, uh, more attractive, if that's what you can call it, than just the hurt character. So I do usually want the C as well, but not so much because I want the hurt character to be comforted, but because I like the tension between characters that happens in scenes like that. So I guess I do care about the C, mostly because it usually ends up H-ing the other character as well. Shared hurt! Dysfunctional relationships! There are few things that are sexier than a nice, co-dependent, dysfunctionally antagonistic relationship.

[uruhia]

If you ever write a show, the main character will end up horribly, horribly maimed in a new way every episode.