December Talking Meme: Jack Harkness and Noah Bennet
Not a combination I would have thought of, courtesy of 
ffutures, but one that's interesting to compare and contrast. Disclaimer here: I stopped watching Heroes mid season 3, and the first half of season 3 was such a decline that I've blotted most of it out of my mind. So my Noah Bennet canon derives from what I recall about the first two seasons.
The first thing that comes to (my) mind is: Company Men. Not just because Company Man was HRG's breakout episode and the tile was meant ironically, since in this episode he prioritizes his daughter over the company he serves in a crucial way. Meanwhile, Jack Harknesss's image has "rogue" and "transgression" graven in it. But if you think about it: both actually seem to be most comfortable in company structures, and specifically morally ambiguous company structures. Jack goes from the Time Agency to however long he travelled with the Doctor and Rose to Torchwood. We don't know that much about the Time Agency, but the only other employe we meet is John Hart, and, well, at the very least they seem to veer towards people both charming and ruthless. (And flashy.) When Jack encounters the Victorian version of Torchwood, this includes them torturing the fish like alien. He joins them regardless, not because they blackmail him or threaten him or have some leverage on him, but because he has time to kill and is looking for the Doctor, which is easier with Torchwood. Torchwood becomes something more personal for him later, and undoubtedly the fact that he's starting to feel the effects of his immortality while he's with them (he's only just newly immortal when he joins) make them into something that grounds him (to a degree). But it never stops being morally grey.
Noah Bennet might have made his daughter Claire his raison d'etre (and both he and the show's writers never bother with explaining how he feels about his son Lyle), but both before and after he breaks with the Company, the methods he uses are theirs. Even at the height of my Noah sympathy (which was considerable, he was a fascinating character), the fact his wife Sandra was mindwiped by him, courtesy of the Haitian, on a regular basis (and that Sandra was never a reason for him to rebel, unlike Claire), creeped me out massively. Even after leaving the Company he continues to keep secrets and not sharing them with his wife, because, by default, this is who he is. Handing Claire over to the Company was something Noah would and could not do, but he did it to a great deal other people of all ages, again, without this making him balk. (West was a boring s2 character, but his one good effect was that he gave Claire a demonstration of what her father was willing to do to people not her and what he would have done to her, too, had he not raised her.) Noah simply replaces "for the good of the company" with "for the good of my family" (which, if you narrow it down, means Claire and him), and
Which is a key difference to Jack. Not because Jack doesn't love individuals more than he does the institution he's part of, far from it. (You can argue whether or not he wanted to ditch Torchwood for Real Jack Harkness in mid s1, but he was ready to ditch Torchwood for the Doctor later, and then came back once he realised he did have ties there. In s2, when he orders the mindwipe on Rhys and Gwen refuses, she point blank makes him choose between her and his self created company rules when saying he'd have to retcon her as well, and Jack caves.) But in Children of Earth, Jack is, once in the past and once in the present, in a situation where he has to choose between the lives of the few/the one and the lives of the many. Handing over the children in the past is a lot like Noah following orders and catching all the non-Claire mutants; they're strangers, he's distant and has rationalized it. But the present puts him in the cruelest situatiion of all, where he has to choose between the life of his grandson (and all this will mean to his daughter) and the lives of all the other children of Earth. It's the kind of choice Noah wouldn't be capable of making. Jack makes it. I'm not saying this makes one of them the better man, just that it's a key difference between them. (Also the reason why when the apocalypse comes I'd go with Jack rather than Noah. Both might get me killed, in fact, are very likely to get me killed, and if I'm very unlucky, Jack would bring me back as a zombie. But otoh, Jack would eventually manage to save the Earth. Noah would eventually save Claire and a few others she insists on bringing along.)
To end on a lighter note: another key difference is in style. Jack was born to be flamboyant. He just doesn't do low key. How this squares with working for a supposedly secret company for more than a century, I don't know, but the fact even old ladies in Cardiff crossing the road know about "bloody Torchwood" probably is a comment. :) Noah Bennet, otoh, is Mr. Low Key, and Mr. Quiet Efficiency. He's specialized in being the guy you overlook and dismiss as an accountant, which, if you're in his way, probably will get you killed. Or mindwiped by the Haitian, if you're lucky. Noah, if presented with Jack as a teammate, let alone boss, would probably think "seriously?" and start plotting ways to get rid of him. Meanwhile, Jack would make a pass. Because Noah? Is just his type.
December Talking Meme: The Other Days
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1042192.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
ffutures, but one that's interesting to compare and contrast. Disclaimer here: I stopped watching Heroes mid season 3, and the first half of season 3 was such a decline that I've blotted most of it out of my mind. So my Noah Bennet canon derives from what I recall about the first two seasons.
The first thing that comes to (my) mind is: Company Men. Not just because Company Man was HRG's breakout episode and the tile was meant ironically, since in this episode he prioritizes his daughter over the company he serves in a crucial way. Meanwhile, Jack Harknesss's image has "rogue" and "transgression" graven in it. But if you think about it: both actually seem to be most comfortable in company structures, and specifically morally ambiguous company structures. Jack goes from the Time Agency to however long he travelled with the Doctor and Rose to Torchwood. We don't know that much about the Time Agency, but the only other employe we meet is John Hart, and, well, at the very least they seem to veer towards people both charming and ruthless. (And flashy.) When Jack encounters the Victorian version of Torchwood, this includes them torturing the fish like alien. He joins them regardless, not because they blackmail him or threaten him or have some leverage on him, but because he has time to kill and is looking for the Doctor, which is easier with Torchwood. Torchwood becomes something more personal for him later, and undoubtedly the fact that he's starting to feel the effects of his immortality while he's with them (he's only just newly immortal when he joins) make them into something that grounds him (to a degree). But it never stops being morally grey.
Noah Bennet might have made his daughter Claire his raison d'etre (and both he and the show's writers never bother with explaining how he feels about his son Lyle), but both before and after he breaks with the Company, the methods he uses are theirs. Even at the height of my Noah sympathy (which was considerable, he was a fascinating character), the fact his wife Sandra was mindwiped by him, courtesy of the Haitian, on a regular basis (and that Sandra was never a reason for him to rebel, unlike Claire), creeped me out massively. Even after leaving the Company he continues to keep secrets and not sharing them with his wife, because, by default, this is who he is. Handing Claire over to the Company was something Noah would and could not do, but he did it to a great deal other people of all ages, again, without this making him balk. (West was a boring s2 character, but his one good effect was that he gave Claire a demonstration of what her father was willing to do to people not her and what he would have done to her, too, had he not raised her.) Noah simply replaces "for the good of the company" with "for the good of my family" (which, if you narrow it down, means Claire and him), and
Which is a key difference to Jack. Not because Jack doesn't love individuals more than he does the institution he's part of, far from it. (You can argue whether or not he wanted to ditch Torchwood for Real Jack Harkness in mid s1, but he was ready to ditch Torchwood for the Doctor later, and then came back once he realised he did have ties there. In s2, when he orders the mindwipe on Rhys and Gwen refuses, she point blank makes him choose between her and his self created company rules when saying he'd have to retcon her as well, and Jack caves.) But in Children of Earth, Jack is, once in the past and once in the present, in a situation where he has to choose between the lives of the few/the one and the lives of the many. Handing over the children in the past is a lot like Noah following orders and catching all the non-Claire mutants; they're strangers, he's distant and has rationalized it. But the present puts him in the cruelest situatiion of all, where he has to choose between the life of his grandson (and all this will mean to his daughter) and the lives of all the other children of Earth. It's the kind of choice Noah wouldn't be capable of making. Jack makes it. I'm not saying this makes one of them the better man, just that it's a key difference between them. (Also the reason why when the apocalypse comes I'd go with Jack rather than Noah. Both might get me killed, in fact, are very likely to get me killed, and if I'm very unlucky, Jack would bring me back as a zombie. But otoh, Jack would eventually manage to save the Earth. Noah would eventually save Claire and a few others she insists on bringing along.)
To end on a lighter note: another key difference is in style. Jack was born to be flamboyant. He just doesn't do low key. How this squares with working for a supposedly secret company for more than a century, I don't know, but the fact even old ladies in Cardiff crossing the road know about "bloody Torchwood" probably is a comment. :) Noah Bennet, otoh, is Mr. Low Key, and Mr. Quiet Efficiency. He's specialized in being the guy you overlook and dismiss as an accountant, which, if you're in his way, probably will get you killed. Or mindwiped by the Haitian, if you're lucky. Noah, if presented with Jack as a teammate, let alone boss, would probably think "seriously?" and start plotting ways to get rid of him. Meanwhile, Jack would make a pass. Because Noah? Is just his type.
December Talking Meme: The Other Days
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1042192.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.