Pimp, babble, rec, NATHAN!

[hackthis_archive]

I thought this week would be better than last week, but I was fucking wrong wasn't I? *sigh* Happy thoughts... happy thoughts...

I saw Howl's Moving Castle recently, twice, because well, shit, was that a goddamn awesome movie or what? I also saw Sky High, which was cute, in an American Harry Potter sort of way, but is there fic for Howl or no? Also, if Children of Men doesn't leave you poleaxed in your seat, man...

Also, today is NATHAN DAY! Okay, every day is Nathan Day 'round these parts, but since it's Monday it's doubly Nathan day. All I want to do is talk about the awesome Petrelli-centric writing being done by scribblinlenore and sparky77 (or I would be if the latter would write some more damnit (*smacks with anvil*). There was some sort of mass proliferation this past weekend though and I highly recommend When He Sings by mandysbitch (incest) and Peter Pan (gen, Nathan & Peter) by linaerys which are both absolutely CRACKING stuff. Bless you both many times over.

Their writing spawned some random thinky thoughts about Nathan, which I'm sure will come out in my writing soonish (what you thought I was just going to tell you? HA!) But I will say that upon second viewing of Godsend I noticed two itty bitty things that, you know, might be worth taking notice of.

a) Nathan says he loves Peter not once, but TWICE. Most of us were so brain-fried by the kiss and the 'I love you, man', that I think we missed when Simone's sitting at Peter's bedside and Nathan says it then. He's getting all excitable about the fucking painting and why did she tell him (bitch!slap), and then he says something like 'I love him and I'll be damned if I'm going to sit around and watch him die!" Everyone who said Nathan didn't love Peter can suck it. TWICE.

b) When Nathan and Hiro are having their BFF forever moment, what does Nathan say he wants to do? He says he wants to HELP. When has Nathan ever said he wants to help anybody ever? Never. Isn't that what he and Peter are always fighting about in the first place? Nathan's refusal to help even though he could set a world record for saving cats from trees? And yet, ultimately who makes Nathan want to do said helping? Peter. Not through the continued haranguing, which
obviously Nathan's built up an immunity to after all this time (which I hate to say, has some swiss cheese sized holes), but because Nathan is fucking desperate and he wants to be able to feel like he's actively doing something to bring Peter back to him.

Apart from the massive BroYay of that statement (Love you, Tim!) you cannot deny that Nathan loves Peter dearly and will do anything that might help him. He may not scream it from the rooftops, but he is truly devoted to Peter. In fact he's more devoted to Peter than he is to his mother or his wife or anybody else. Everybody else Nathan loves with qualifications (He loves his mom, because she's a nutter and his mom; he loves Heidi because she's his wife and the mother of his children, and because, hello fucking guilt!)

Peter is Nathan's lodestar.

For all the idolizing of Nathan that Peter does, Peter is truly Nathan's man on the pedestal. He is the only untainted and pure thing Nathan has. Every time Nathan tells Peter 'no' he's trying to keep him safe, and every time he gives in, he's trying to act at his buffer. That's love, y'all. More than any words, or questionable touch, it's all in the actions and Nathan is a man of action.

Yes, you know I'm gonna write a story about that.

Comments

[linaerys.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recs (I mean links to other people, not me, although thanks for linking me, too.) There is good Nathan/Peter, as you well know because you're writing it, but a lot of it makes me want to rip my eyeballs out.

Re: your Nathan and Peter thoughts, I was thinking a lot along the same lines (http://linaerys.livejournal.com/473942.html#cutid1) except you say it better =). And of course Nathan kind of idolizing Peter (in his way), seeing Peter as kind of pure and idealistic, makes the BroYay that much more fraught.

I want to work all this into how Nathan betrays Peter in ep 3 by using his not!suicide attempt as part of a campaign speech--I think you could read it as trying to protect Peter, in a very high-handed way, but it's also quite a dick move. I'm also not sure at that point if Nathan's still trying to be in total denial about the flying thing, and the fact that Peter didn't know Nathan could fly when he jumped makes it easy for Nathan to think of it as a suicide attempt.

Not thinking about that until I finish the current fic, though.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Having just read your post I couldn't agree more with the flying issue or his friendship with Hiro, which is the one relationship which I tend to think of as the only unfettered relationship in Nathan's life. Like you said everything else Nathan has is tainted -- the marriage, his mom, his campaign -- IMO, even his relationship with Peter is tainted by his need to protect him and keep him safe and all those feelings that err, aren't quite on the up-and-up. They are exceptionally co-dependent and god does it look hot, I mean work for them. As for the flying, I'm still undecided on how this works in Nathan's mind. Obviously here is this joyous amazing gift, but it's completly bogged down by guilt, and the accident and when Peter jumped off that roof, and Nathan went up to meet him the question is didn't Nathan drop him to did the shock of Peter momentarily absorbing his gift throw him off and that's why Peter fell. Or did Peter just pass the fuck out? Oh thoughts thoughts thoughts...

As for the campaign sacrifice, my immediate thought is that it's a sort of insurance policy Nathan's taken out on Peter's behalf. As much as Nathan might want Peter on a leash (blink) it's not going to happen, and if Nathan tells other people that Peter's 'off' then they'll keep a lot closer eye on him and perhaps be better able to keep Peter from doing something stupid. If nothing else Nathan just rounded up a couple hundred thousand spies to keep an eye on Peter. What better way to keep someone in check?

[linaerys.livejournal.com]

As for the campaign sacrifice, my immediate thought is that it's a sort of insurance policy Nathan's taken out on Peter's behalf.

That's a very cool idea. And I'm sure Nathan has a little bit of the self-sacrificing feeling about it too, like "Even if this makes Peter hate me, it's worth it if it keeps him safe." Of course you can't keep anyone completely safe, plus if Peter's ever feeling starved for attention (which I have to imagine he was, earlier in their relationship--I think they reconnected after Nathan got back from Bosnia or whatever the timeline is there, but they couldn't have been that close growing up with the age difference) he can get Nathan to come to his rescue. And though Peter can be sweet and make everyone love him, he's also kind of a self-centered bitch, and I could see him doing that.

I'm kind of glad I wasn't huge into the fandom when people were saying that Nathan didn't love Peter. Buh-wah-huh? Heavy handed, dickish, controlling, and sarcastic, sure! But it's all full of love (and that's why I love Nathan so--he's so wonderfully flawed and human).

I could talk about their relationship ALL DAY.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Clearly I was excited and forgot the english language, because that sentence is supposed to read ...Nathan flew up to catch him, the question is did did the shock of Peter momentarily absorbing his gift throw him off and that's why Peter fell?

As for Peter being a self-centered bitch, you probably don't want to get me started on that. For all intents and purposes he was almost an only child (I subscribe to what sparky77 told me about the producers using Adrian and Milo's real age gap.) So Peter's been raised not only like an only child, but when necessary he can play 'the baby of the family card.' I've been there many times when people were saying Peter's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and I tend to say that *no* Peter is one of the best con arts since sliced bread. I wrote a whole AU where they're con artists (think Heroes does Ocean's 11) (http://hackthis.livejournal.com/419729.html?mode=reply?) specifically around the belief that Peter is SO Nathan's little brother, because Nathan will sell you anything, he'll lie through his teeth, but he'll do it with charm and you'll probably feel a little like you got conned. Peter's appears so sincere and honest though that when he's lying to you, you can't tell. He's just that good. You know what he's saying doesn't sound right, but because he's *Peter* you choose to buy it. That's SKILLS..

I generally only write Peter to better understand Nathan, because my god is Peter a whiny bitch sometimes.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

As for the campaign sacrifice, my immediate thought is that it's a sort of insurance policy Nathan's taken out on Peter's behalf. As much as Nathan might want Peter on a leash (blink) it's not going to happen, and if Nathan tells other people that Peter's 'off' then they'll keep a lot closer eye on him and perhaps be better able to keep Peter from doing something stupid. If nothing else Nathan just rounded up a couple hundred thousand spies to keep an eye on Peter. What better way to keep someone in check?

I am thinking about this, because I'm in the middle of trying to deconstruct a rather large story idea that won't fucking go away and I realized that it's also possible that the inverse is true: the Nathan's told everyone Peter's a nutjob so that if Peter's caught doing something totally off the mark, then everyone will just excuse it because 'hey, he's crazy.'