kalpurna

There's a cool discussion going on in brooklinegirl's journal about characterization in HCL here, and I got to thinking about Billy Tallent. She makes some excellent points, but the one that really stuck in my mind was this:

I don't think Joe can convince Billy to do anything. I don't think it's a power struggle like that. I think it's a game where Billy has a whole other rule book. Joe maybe knows what works, but he doesn't know why it works. I don't think Billy is ever planning on throwing it all in and staying with Joe and having happy-fun-tour-time for the rest of their lives. I don’t think that's even an option, and I don't think any amount of sex with Joe is going to even make Billy hesitate when it comes to leaving.

And it's true, you know? Billy's just not that invested in making HCL work; he is ready to get the fuck out of Dodge. Which there's two ways to interpret, in my view: relatively positive, by saying that Billy's aware that HCL is never going to make it, and Joe's self-destructive, and therefore that Billy's just escaping a bad situation; or relatively negative, by saying that Billy's a self-centered asshole.

Honestly, I tend more toward the second.

It's not that I think he's a bad person. But I don't think he – or, for that matter, anyone else in HCL – is actually capable of putting someone else's happiness/needs above their own. Joe Dick loves Billy, no question about it, and yet he's not ever going to make the choice to let Billy go, even if he got it through his head that HCL was never going to make it big. What I said in BLG's journal was, "For me, HCL is largely a story about what happens when a whole group of massively self-centered people try to interact in ways that are inherently about getting out of the self – being in a band, having a relationship, negotiating details of everyday life – and failing spectacularly." There's love there, there's talent, but there isn't maturity – that quality that lets people go through the day without fucking up their lives.

So ultimately, how Billy ends up being characterized frequently has a lot more to do, in my opinion, with the author of a fic than with canonicity.

Which brings me to John Sheppard.

See, Sheppard is just as closed off as Billy, and just as manipulative. BLG describes the scene near the end of Hard Core Logo:

he's got the Strat, and he's wearing the red baseball cap and chatting up Bruce real charming, all smiles and saying he should play with them sometime - it turns my stomach. I think that's when it hits me, every time, how FAKE Billy can be. Sort of. I don't know that he sees it like that. Maybe it's more about giving people what they want? No fucking clue.

Which instantly rings my Sheppard bell, because hello, how many times have we had the Kirk!debate? You either think John's a) a massive slut, b) a cocktease, or c) truly fucking clueless. Canon doesn't leave a lot of other options. But my interpretation of Sheppard never goes to that bad place. I think both of their internal monologues are similar; they both see themselves as just greasing the wheels, making things run a bit smoother, smiling pretty. They both hide their motivations, and choose expediency, and use sex appeal as a tool. Yet whereas I think John Sheppard truly and sincerely does not see it coming, that line from Billy Tallent would strike me as a LIE.

So why is that? Thoughts?