Fandom Overview: Justified
Justified, really best described as a modern day western, is based on a short story by the great Elmore Leonard. It follows Raylan Givens, a Deputy US Marshal who spent most of his life trying to get out of his home state of Kentucky but has now been sent back there, as he tries to do his job while dealing strange friends and dangerous enemies, old and new.
It's a bit late in this complex and layered series for me to do it- um- justice- in anything less than a novel, so I'm going to keep this pretty bare bones. Spoilers for Seasons 1-3, but most espcially the pilot.
Regulars
Raylan had a difficult childhood- to say the least- and idolized the heroes of old westerns. As an adult, he became that kind of lawman, from his hat to his cowboy boots. He’s soft spoken, understanding of criminals in his way, but never afraid to use lethal force if necessary. His tendency to shoot people makes trouble for his superiors, both in Miami where he once worked and in Kentucky.
Art Mullen, head of the marshals in Lexington, is one such superior. He once taught a class on firearms with Raylan and is as fond of him as exasperated by him.
Ava Crowder grew up in Harlan County with Raylan and had something of a thing for him as a girl. Since then, she married Bowman Crowder, who was abusive. One day she served him his favorite meal and then killed him with a shotgun. She is still dealing with the fallout of this act when Raylan arrives in Kentucky.
Tim Gutterson and Rachel Brooks are two of Raylan's fellow marshals.
Tim used to be a sharpshooter. Art calls Rachel one of his best marshals, but she often needs help from Raylan in dealing with the locals, particularly in Harlan. This is at least partially true of most anyone not from the state originally.
Winona Hawkins is Raylan’s ex-wife. Though they both came from Kentucky originally they met and married far away. Since then, they’ve both come back; she has since married a somewhat slimy realtor named Gary and works for the district attorney.
Boyd Crowder dug coal with Raylan when they were teenagers. Since then, Boyd has been in the military and in prison- but like Raylan he's come back to Harlan. His criminal activities lead to one of the first cases to which Raylan is assigned when he comes back. This ends in Raylan shooting- but not killing- Boyd and sending him back to prison.
A Few Recurring Characters of Note
Boyd gets out of prison again soon enough, claiming to have been reformed. He gets drawn back into the world of crime in Harlan, ironically, when he helps Raylan to bring down his father, Bo Crowder.
Boyd eventually replaces his father as the crime kingpin of Harlan, but whatever side of the chessboard he and Raylan end up on, they are as likely to help as fight each other.
Another overarching villain was Mags Bennett, matriarch of the Bennett family.
Other major recurring characters include-
Raylan's father Arlo and Aunt Helen. Arlo was an abusive drunk when Raylan was a boy and Helen was his refuge. She helped get him the money to get out of Harlan County the first time. Later, for reasons never entirely clear to me, she married Arlo.
Loretta McCready, a young girl whose father worked for Mags Bennett. Mags killed her father for disobeying an order and then adopted Loretta, not telling her the truth about her father.
Ellstin Limehouse, who lives in Noble's Holler, home of most of Harlan's black community. Almost impossible to get to except over one bridge, Noble's Holler is a popular hiding place for ill-gotten gains- and for white women looking to get away from their husbands. Raylan's mother hid there a few times; so did Ava Crowder. Limehouse hides money and traffics in information.
I would say he's not a person to cross, but that is true of basically everyone on this list.
Many Crowder and Bennett sons and brothers and cousins come and go, but there are really too many to properly list here. There are also quite a few other interesting baddies, but again- too many to do justice to.
Relationships
Early in the series, Raylan took up briefly with Ava, but later things started up again with Winona.
Though her relationship with Boyd had always been rocky, Ava gave him a place to live when he needed one and they eventually fell in love. When Boyd re-involves himself in crime in Harlan, she is as much his second in command as his girlfriend. In fandom, they are sometimes called the King and Queen of Harlan.
The somewhat rollercoaster-eque relationship Raylan has with Winona, and the actually pretty functional one Boyd has with Ava have been the main romances so far in the series. These are also the primary het pairings.
Raylan’s dynamic with Boyd, difficult to quantify as it is, is one of the main driving forces of series. Nothing is ever easy with them. Some people portray them as enemies forever in the making, others as real friends who just got dealt very different cards and had to play them to survive. There is a goodly amount of genfic exploring their relationship- but given the intensity and complexity of their dynamic, it should be no surprise that the primary slash pairing of series is Raylan/Boyd, with the offshoot OT3 Ava/Boyd/Raylan.
Tim Gutterson has had no female love interest depicted and is therefore also popular slash fodder, sometimes paired with Raylan, others with an OMC, and still others with a character from another series in a crossover.
Links
harlancounty
justified_fx
justifiedslash
raylan_winona
Most of these comms are fairly quiet now as Justified is off-season, but should pick up later in the year.