meme: platonic male/female relationships
Gacked from musesfoolselenak, taraljc, and possibly others.
List 10 (or however many) platonic male/female relationships in fiction that you enjoy. My attempt at rules:
1. They interact in canon, preferably in a significant (apply your own interpretation of such) way.
2. They are not related. They can, however, view each other as surrogate family.
3. Neither has confessed or implied romantic love for the other in canon.
4. They have not dated, been married, had sex, or made out in canon, on purpose, and of their own free will.
5. A popular fanon ship is ok (though preferably not your ship) but a canon pairing you wish were just friends is out.
6. Try to avoid using the same character or series twice.
7. They don’t have to be friends.
The two first examples on my list were a given, the rest had a hard fight to make the list - and even so, I ended up with a dozen instead of ten. In a some cases, the people mentioned are representatives of their whole canon. To begin with, I only listed friendships, but then some names popped up who just wanted to be included despite not being friends.
1.Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin, Modesty Blaise
When it comes to nonsexual love between men and women, Modesty and Willie are a classic item. It's even hard to find anyone to compare them to - the best explanation might be that they're like one of the classic slash pairings, but without the subtext. Or rather, the subtext is repeatedly brought to the surface by people who just can't believe that they're not sleeping with each other. But they're not. They will happily sleep with others, though, even if it's rarely serious - in one instance, Modesty's boyfriend and Willie's girlfriend end up dating each other, bonding over the fact that neither can cope with the kind of lifestyle Modesty and Willie lead.
Both characters rock separately, but together, they make me purr. :-)
2.Lynda Day and Kenny Philips, Press Gang
Lynda didn't make a lot of friends, mainly because she was a complete bitch, but Lynda and Kenny were an unbreakable friendship for three seasons of PG. (The only reason it broke after that was because Lee Ross quit, meaning Kenny moved to Australia.) They quarrelled, sniped, said horrible things to each other, but through it all ran this brother-sister vibe that was just plain adorable. When it was revealed that they had known each other since they were five, and behaved exactly the same, even then, I can't imagine anyone was surprised. (And now I feel like uploading ”Going Back to Jasper Street”, to share the squee. Not sure anyone would care, though.)
3.The Doctor and Donna Noble, Doctor Who
This is a typical example of a relationship being representative of a whole canon. The whoniverse is full of great male/female friendships (The Doctor and Ace/Leela/Tegan/etc, Mickey and Jackie, Jack and Martha, the entire cast of the Sarah Jane Adventures), but the Doctordonna is still special - maybe because it reaches the level where it's actually canonically called the Doctordonna. :-) Donna's along for the ride, all the way, but doesn't hesitate to chew the Doctor out when he needs it, and the result is one of the best Doctor/companion teamups, ever. (It's funny - while I'll happily pair the Doctor and other Who characters in fanfic, I really don't much care for the canon pairings. Well, apart from Ian/Barbara. Shut up, that is SO canon!)
4.Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver, Cards on the Table et.al.
Ariadne Oliver is a very entertaining character in her own right, since it's hard not to see her as a rather unflattering author avatar. Paired up with Poirot, she's even more fun, countering his perfectionist fussiness with scatter-brained guesses, ”intuition”, and complaints about how life isn't like a detective story. While poor Hastings often comes off as a blockhead, Ariadne is such a forceful personality that she feels like Poirot's equal even though she only very rarely manages to find a clue.
5.Daniel Meade and Wilhelmina Slater, Ugly Betty
UB is another canon full of great male/female platonic relationships (not least of which Daniel's with the protagonist), but the animosity between Daniel and Wili was juicy even when they were simple antagonists, and even better now that they sometimes get to have a common goal - even though Wilhelmina is still as evil, and Daniel just as dim, as ever. The scene where they were set up on a blind date might even be called... sweet.
6.George, Annie, and Mitchell, Being Human
Oh, come on, you can't expect me to pick two out of these three. They form such a comfortable, well-balanced, touching friendship, with lightness and laughter as well as fears and tears. (And while Mitchell and Annie kissed at one point, it was an accident and treated with the kind of teasing accidental kissing between friends deserves.) Six hours is more than enough to sell me on this team - I'm waiting eagerly for season 2.
7.Jed Bartlet and Delores Landingham, West Wing
Originally, I had this as Charlie and Mrs. Landingham. Well, originally originally, I had it as CJ and Toby. Because this is another one of those canons with lots of great male/female non-sexual relationships. But when you get down to it, there's somethingvery awesome about the president bantering with his secretary and losing - especially when the president is Martin Sheen and the secretary is God.
Speaking of God...
8.Grace Polk and Adam Rove, Joan of Arcadia
I've been rewatching JoA, and it does so many things right that I've considered making a whole post just listing all the things it does right. And in the midst of all that, the Grace and Adam friendship kind of escaped me the first time around. This time, I'm enjoying it full-strength. It's very low-key, with few moments between just the two of them, but it's very relaxed and dependable; they get each other. And I think that maybe because it's so low-key, the way their chemistry works is more magic to me than relationships that are more in focus, like Adam and Helen or Toni and Will.
9.George Lass and Rube Sofer, Dead Like Me
Again, they work as representatives for the entire canon - DLM is full of great characters interacting in great ways. Rube's no-nonsense approach to taking care of George was a joy to see, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes ”like a volcano” to use Mason's words for it. One of the many things I missed in the movie.
10.Claire Fraser and John Grey, the Outlander series
Not friends, but the tentative almost-approval forming between the two of them is fascinating to watch. They're not quite rivals, but Claire's suspicion and John's envy serves as background to something that, had not Jamie existed, most likely would be a friendship.
11.Louise Becket and Kyle Duarte, Jake 2.0
In a worse written show, Lou and Kyle might have been backdrop characters, but instead they really conveyed a sense of common history. They often shared an attitude towards Jake, being the NSA base for his geekery, but also his bulwarks against the higher-ups, while having enough tussles to be individualized.
12.Juliet O'Hara and Carlton Lassiter, Psych
Everyone on Psych are total dorks, and these two are no exceptions. Their dorkishness are so different that you'd think they'd hate each other - Jules's cheerful friendliness and Lassie's pissy red-tapism - but instead, they end up completing each other in a very entertaining way, just like the Psych boys themselves.
List 10 (or however many) platonic male/female relationships in fiction that you enjoy. My attempt at rules:
1. They interact in canon, preferably in a significant (apply your own interpretation of such) way.
2. They are not related. They can, however, view each other as surrogate family.
3. Neither has confessed or implied romantic love for the other in canon.
4. They have not dated, been married, had sex, or made out in canon, on purpose, and of their own free will.
5. A popular fanon ship is ok (though preferably not your ship) but a canon pairing you wish were just friends is out.
6. Try to avoid using the same character or series twice.
7. They don’t have to be friends.
The two first examples on my list were a given, the rest had a hard fight to make the list - and even so, I ended up with a dozen instead of ten. In a some cases, the people mentioned are representatives of their whole canon. To begin with, I only listed friendships, but then some names popped up who just wanted to be included despite not being friends.
1.Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin, Modesty Blaise
When it comes to nonsexual love between men and women, Modesty and Willie are a classic item. It's even hard to find anyone to compare them to - the best explanation might be that they're like one of the classic slash pairings, but without the subtext. Or rather, the subtext is repeatedly brought to the surface by people who just can't believe that they're not sleeping with each other. But they're not. They will happily sleep with others, though, even if it's rarely serious - in one instance, Modesty's boyfriend and Willie's girlfriend end up dating each other, bonding over the fact that neither can cope with the kind of lifestyle Modesty and Willie lead.
Both characters rock separately, but together, they make me purr. :-)
2.Lynda Day and Kenny Philips, Press Gang
Lynda didn't make a lot of friends, mainly because she was a complete bitch, but Lynda and Kenny were an unbreakable friendship for three seasons of PG. (The only reason it broke after that was because Lee Ross quit, meaning Kenny moved to Australia.) They quarrelled, sniped, said horrible things to each other, but through it all ran this brother-sister vibe that was just plain adorable. When it was revealed that they had known each other since they were five, and behaved exactly the same, even then, I can't imagine anyone was surprised. (And now I feel like uploading ”Going Back to Jasper Street”, to share the squee. Not sure anyone would care, though.)
3.The Doctor and Donna Noble, Doctor Who
This is a typical example of a relationship being representative of a whole canon. The whoniverse is full of great male/female friendships (The Doctor and Ace/Leela/Tegan/etc, Mickey and Jackie, Jack and Martha, the entire cast of the Sarah Jane Adventures), but the Doctordonna is still special - maybe because it reaches the level where it's actually canonically called the Doctordonna. :-) Donna's along for the ride, all the way, but doesn't hesitate to chew the Doctor out when he needs it, and the result is one of the best Doctor/companion teamups, ever. (It's funny - while I'll happily pair the Doctor and other Who characters in fanfic, I really don't much care for the canon pairings. Well, apart from Ian/Barbara. Shut up, that is SO canon!)
4.Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver, Cards on the Table et.al.
Ariadne Oliver is a very entertaining character in her own right, since it's hard not to see her as a rather unflattering author avatar. Paired up with Poirot, she's even more fun, countering his perfectionist fussiness with scatter-brained guesses, ”intuition”, and complaints about how life isn't like a detective story. While poor Hastings often comes off as a blockhead, Ariadne is such a forceful personality that she feels like Poirot's equal even though she only very rarely manages to find a clue.
5.Daniel Meade and Wilhelmina Slater, Ugly Betty
UB is another canon full of great male/female platonic relationships (not least of which Daniel's with the protagonist), but the animosity between Daniel and Wili was juicy even when they were simple antagonists, and even better now that they sometimes get to have a common goal - even though Wilhelmina is still as evil, and Daniel just as dim, as ever. The scene where they were set up on a blind date might even be called... sweet.
6.George, Annie, and Mitchell, Being Human
Oh, come on, you can't expect me to pick two out of these three. They form such a comfortable, well-balanced, touching friendship, with lightness and laughter as well as fears and tears. (And while Mitchell and Annie kissed at one point, it was an accident and treated with the kind of teasing accidental kissing between friends deserves.) Six hours is more than enough to sell me on this team - I'm waiting eagerly for season 2.
7.Jed Bartlet and Delores Landingham, West Wing
Originally, I had this as Charlie and Mrs. Landingham. Well, originally originally, I had it as CJ and Toby. Because this is another one of those canons with lots of great male/female non-sexual relationships. But when you get down to it, there's somethingvery awesome about the president bantering with his secretary and losing - especially when the president is Martin Sheen and the secretary is God.
Speaking of God...
8.Grace Polk and Adam Rove, Joan of Arcadia
I've been rewatching JoA, and it does so many things right that I've considered making a whole post just listing all the things it does right. And in the midst of all that, the Grace and Adam friendship kind of escaped me the first time around. This time, I'm enjoying it full-strength. It's very low-key, with few moments between just the two of them, but it's very relaxed and dependable; they get each other. And I think that maybe because it's so low-key, the way their chemistry works is more magic to me than relationships that are more in focus, like Adam and Helen or Toni and Will.
9.George Lass and Rube Sofer, Dead Like Me
Again, they work as representatives for the entire canon - DLM is full of great characters interacting in great ways. Rube's no-nonsense approach to taking care of George was a joy to see, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes ”like a volcano” to use Mason's words for it. One of the many things I missed in the movie.
10.Claire Fraser and John Grey, the Outlander series
Not friends, but the tentative almost-approval forming between the two of them is fascinating to watch. They're not quite rivals, but Claire's suspicion and John's envy serves as background to something that, had not Jamie existed, most likely would be a friendship.
11.Louise Becket and Kyle Duarte, Jake 2.0
In a worse written show, Lou and Kyle might have been backdrop characters, but instead they really conveyed a sense of common history. They often shared an attitude towards Jake, being the NSA base for his geekery, but also his bulwarks against the higher-ups, while having enough tussles to be individualized.
12.Juliet O'Hara and Carlton Lassiter, Psych
Everyone on Psych are total dorks, and these two are no exceptions. Their dorkishness are so different that you'd think they'd hate each other - Jules's cheerful friendliness and Lassie's pissy red-tapism - but instead, they end up completing each other in a very entertaining way, just like the Psych boys themselves.