by Koken » Wed Oct 12, 2011 12:58 am
Thanks Honeybee!
This may be a little off topic, but directly relating to your statement, I agree, something with those three men I always found interesting, although recently I was talking to a friend that had a really interesting theory on the matter.
She proposed that, logically, with Archer and Tucker's long standing friendship, and absence of romance, there had to be something to kick them in the but and get them in bed together and the solution is a situation (resulting in an A/T fic) or another person (resulting in usually A/T/T, or A/T/R)
I find this really a compelling argument, and I tend to favor the solution of another person. Mostly because there have been a lot of near death experiences in their past and they still didn't shape up and get it on. They both had other relationship which would inspire jealousy, and they still didn't get there. So I think for me, I really like the idea of that third person. That or I am just a huge sucker for a cheerful no heart broken triangle. My favorite is of course T'Pol, but I also really like Malcolm. Similarly to T'Pol the series presents Malcolm as a very new individual that both Archer and Tucker spend so much time trying to break down into a friend. He also (like T'Pol) goes from that forced stuffy position to a friendly one. In ATT I tend to beat up on Trip because he is always getting into trouble on the series, but ATR....
Malcolm is also always taking the fall, jumping in for self sacrifice, going first and ...sometimes even volunteering for the beating. You know just as a distraction and such. For a writer Malcolm also makes a really fun character to beat the crap out of. Just saying, that it is ... disproportional enjoyable. Trip is innocent, kinda clumsy, altruistic, and bodily harm isn't in his job description if he's doing it right, so he's like kicking a puppy. Archer is a diplomat and leader, although beating him up happens, it just isn't encouraging to knock around your alpha male too much and anyone who punches a guy who offers a hand of peace is just a jerk. In ATT's there is T'Pol...she's a girl, and 10x stronger then the guys which is an awkward combination. Plus it's just so much more fun for her to kick ass rather than take a beating.
Malcolm on the other hand:
I need to punch someone in the face....Oh Malcolm is the fighter.... ::type te type::
Oh I need someone to go first and fall in a death trap to break his leg....hmm...Jon? Nope, Malcolm would insist on going first::type te type::
Ah, Ship has been boarded...yeah Malcolm would jump in that fray...::type te type::
Water? It's close enough to November...throw in Malcolm ::type te type::
(In the interest of full disclosure:just cause I like this/think it's an interesting theory... doesn't mean I follow it. I just realized that ...once upon a year ago...wrote and ATR that not only didn't beat up Reed, but it didn't beat up Tucker either. For some reason I took down the Captain, and it was more situation that the additional person that inspired the relationship...So despite my hypocritical fiction list...I thought I would share this logic, because I think I've seen it illustrated in a lot of ATR's and it might inspire discussion)
-Koken
I've got faith of the heart,
going where my heart will take me,
I've got faith to believe.