The teddy bear factor
First let me take this out of the way: I truly think that the fact that we participate in a week devoted to show how much appreciation we have for a TV character says something about our sanity…I’m not sure what though.
The fact that I’m actually writing a Meta about said character says something about my mental state… and how tight this white jacket is.
I guess we have established already that Carson Beckett is a lovable, charming, human, nice to look at man; and we’ve already established too that we all love him for being well, him. So I’m going to write about the first thing that attracted me to his pretty face, and that is the TEDDY BEAR FACTOR.
So the Teddy Bear Factor (TBF) is really simple: You lay eyes on a pretty man and imagine how it would be to sleep, no gutter way, with him.
The Stargate universe is populated by a great array of men, you can find manly men, cute men, strange men, hateful men, hot men, really hot men, funny men and basically a man for every taste. And still there is just one that since his first appearance made me think, Teddy bear! That, ladies and gentlemen, was the lovely Scotsman called Carson Beckett.
So how does a man acquire TBF? To answer this question we need to know what a teddy bear is used for.
In general teddy bears are used to sleep with. I used to have one as child and hope to acquire one for my adulthood, but teddy bears are a lot more than bed partners. A teddy bear make you feel secure, loved and warm. They are excellent friends and can help you to refine your ideas of the world. Physically you need to be able to hug a teddy or at least cuddle comfortably against him. Teddies need to be soft in the right places without being delicate in order to maintain the sense of security that comes with them. More importantly, teddies need to be hairy, not fluffy, not Thing-like; it needs to have the hairy parts where the hairy parts are meant to be or it will lose the bear adjective and you will need to create a new one to ID him.
Now that we all share the same mental definition of a teddy bear, let’s see how many of these qualities our beloved Carson has.
1. Security: Carson is a big guy-- broad chest, big hands and huge heart. He is reliable. He might not like the work, but he will do it any way. When in his element, as we have already discussed, he emanates confidence and is capable of staying calm under stressful situations.
2. Love: He is the kind of guy that falls in love many times and every time manages to fall hard. He loves in many ways and lots of people. He loves his mother deeply, his birthplace, his job, his friends, and is the only one that has managed to have three love interests on screen (that is one more than John “Kirk” Sheppard)* and he is not supposed to be the playboy here.
3. Warm: He has a smile that melts cryogenic pods and a personality capable of melting cold hearts. Ask Rodney “pompous astrophysicist, general pain in the ass and iceberg social abilities” McKay if you don’t believe me.
4. Excellent friend: Remember that guy McKay I mentioned before? If you can be a friend of McKay’s you can make friends with a solid piece of ice. McKay and Beckett seem to be friends since the beginning. So yeah, he is friendly enough.
5. Refines ideas of the world: I’m absolutely, positively sure that there are single words that express what I want to say, I’m just unable to find it. But basically, the thing is that Beckett is quite a smart guy (genetic therapy in less than a year????). He would hear you brainstorming and would follow your ideas as best he can, asking the right things and finally helping you to get a concrete course of action for the problem you were mulling over.
6. Huggable and/or cuddly: Tell me that given the chance you will not cuddle next to this man?
7. Hairy: uhg! I was intending to post some nice pics of Carson but I’m just too irrational looking a that man … I didn’t manage to properly upload the pics so…if you people can upload…it would be so nice.
8. Soft in the right places: Carson, being the big guy he is, is not one of those huge Ronon-like guys. When you look at him you feel kind of embraced by his size, not intimidated. He obviously exercises but he will not expend more time in the gym than, say, his lab. So he has all those places that look soft but not bland. He just looks like one of those guys that it will be fun to poke in the ribs because he most certainly will laugh and you don’t risk a broken finger doing it.
So now, I rest my case because I can't do more insanity than this.
Sleep well, people, dream of Carson and hug your own personal teddy bear in the name of ICAW.
*I’m not counting Rodney and am assuming that Elizabeth is not a Sheppard love interest. Carson’s would be, Teyla, Perna and Cadman.
author notes:
.Many many thanks to sgatlantislight for helping me with rough English translation I made of this. She beta it and make it readable for English speakers.
author notes2:
Just a thought, but since I wasn’t able to upload pics, why don’t you people help the tread and upload your favorite pics of Carson?