100 Things Challenge: 1
So the 100 Things Challenge is simply a challenge to post 100 things to your blog to increase posts on our LJ Flists so they don’t look so bare what with the usual suspects abandoning us to twittering and tumbling and facebooking or simply being busy with life lately. I immediately thought of my Great List O’ Ships when thinking of a topic I could post 100 things about. I’ll be posting hopefully at least once a week sometimes about a single ship or sometimes with multiples, sometimes there will be fic recs or vid recs and sometimes just my thoughts on the ship.
There will be spoilers for all aired episodes unless otherwise specified in these entries.
I’m starting with my favourite ship that’s still currently on tv - .
What I love best about B/B is the way they’ve changed each other for the better. Brennan has softened, learned to let her guard down, Booth has helped her to trust again, to let people in and to see the joy in living. I think B/B were inevitable on Brennan’s part because Brennan’s first and greatest love will always be learning and Booth has tried to peer-tutor her in the hardest subject of all - the heart and we all know Brennan falls for her teachers :) For Booth, I think that he loves that she needs him, he loves feeling special in that Temperance Brennan doesn’t usually need anybody. I think that through his relationship with Bones, Booth has really learned there’s more than one kind of family because it’s through her that he’s let that family in, let them know him more. What I really love about BB for Booth is that he’s had someone choose him for once. I think he needed that. I think he’s become a better investigator with Bones around to ground him. Mostly, I think she inspires him to try harder to be a better person and he does the same for her and I love that.
Also, sometimes they are so freakin INTENSE it’s a wonder they don’t set my screen on fire!
Top Ten Booth/Brennan moments in airing order:
1. “Don’t use your charm smile on me.” - 1x12 The Superhero in the Alley - I love this because it’s the first time Brennan bends, she sees the charm smile for what it is intended as not a negative or aggressive move but a light, playful entreaty on Booths part. Barely even friends, then somebody bends unexpectedly is always what I think of when I see this exchange.
2. Booth drags himself out of his hospital bed after being blown up to rescue Brennan in Two Bodies in the Lab (1x15). He shoots his friend without even thinking about it and when he goes to Brennan and releases her, Brennan clings to him without reservation, she’s safe and her relief is palpable (even on the millionth rewatch) but the significance of this is just jarring because here’s tough as nails Temperance Freakin Brennan who almost won a fight with her hands cuffed behind her back against a guy with at least fifty pounds on her and military training and Booth shows up and she TRUSTS him, she lets him take care of her. I’m still not sure what prompted this, whether she was just that freaked out or what but I’m glad she made the choice to trust him, to allow herself to feel safe with him because it cemented my love of the show and the ship! Also, the whole scene was so reminiscent of another rescue from my all time favourite ship Chris & Rita from Silk Stalkings. In 4x02 Natural Selection - Rita has been snatched by the serial killer dujour and is being held with her bound hands thrown over a hook, an injured Chris sneaks into the warehouse and shoots the guy dead. I know it happens a lot but the emotions are just really echo-y for me.
3. 1x22 - Booth assures Brennan he knows who she is when her world is collapsing and everything she took for granted about her life and her childhood is thrown into uproar and after the year of pushing everyone away and the recent growing and changing and the grief of finding her mother pile up on Brennan, Booth is her port in this maelstrom of emotion, he knows who she is at heart and she believes him when he tells her he does.
4. 2x11 - Booth tips her chin up tenderly with one finger, “There’s more than one kind of family” he tells her and he believes it himself so powerfully in that moment. I think what I love best is the echo of Mulder & Scully in this moment thanks to Duchovny’s directing, Mulder tilting Scully’s chin up in Memento Mori cause he needs to see her eyes and have her know how serious he is in that moment and when she feels lost and adrift was just a perfect throwback from that gesture.
5. 3x06 - Brennan asks Booth point blank if he’s going to betray her too. His promise may be fuelled by all the alcohol they’ve had but he’s dead serious when he assures her he won’t.
6. Conman in the Methlab - Booth confesses “My dad drank,” it’s three words, but really they’re more than we’ve heard from him before on his childhood and the people who molded him. For all he pushes Bones to share and express herself Booth pretty much does the opposite always, he plays everything close to the vest, perhaps not because he doesn’t trust Bones but because he doesn’t want to burden her or because he feels he’d be whining if he did or maybe he just doesn’t feel like he deserves the comfort. Whatever his reasons it’s nice to see Booth reaching out here, letting Brennan in the way she lets him in.
7. The Fire in the Ice 4x13 - “Everything happens eventually” scene, Brennan’s face is so full of joy as they skate around that rink going faster and faster. In that moment they both believe that things can only change for the better and oh it makes my heart happy to see their glee!
8. 5x11 The X in the File - B&B gently teasing each other on the hood of the car in the middle of the desert. It’s not intense, it’s not a significant moment but the ease, the way they both know the other is teasing, the quiet companionship of the moment really sells that these two could be in it for the long haul.
9. Season 6 - Booth invites himself to go to the lecture on the pelopenesian war with Brennan. He’s TRYING to get her things. Brennan in turn explains in very simplistic terms how she views the situation “Booth good. Broadsky bad.” Booth needed that, he needed to hear that she didn’t think he was a bad person though he felt so similar to Broadsky.
10. Season 7’s nerf fight in the apartment! Come on that was adorable and a perfect throwback to their shooting the bb guns in Season Six’s valentines day ep. It’s BB being playful and happy and carefree and enjoying each other’s company. Just the way I want them to be.
Overall Thoughts:
While I haven’t always enjoyed every single episode I think the show runners have always remained true to the characters and the relationship, they’ve built something solid with all the things Brennan and Booth have endured together. I hated a lot of things: the separation, Booth’s coma dream tease of the fans, Brennan’s seemingly random desire to have a baby, Sweets, on second or third or fourth rewatch with distance I can see how they all fit to make a stronger whole. (Except Sweets. Sweets I don’t get.)
Like Brennan shooting down Booth in 100 I can see how that break allowed them to knit back together even stronger than before (like a broken bone hahaha), and actually I felt that was in character for both of them and my main dislike of it stems from how HURT Booth is in the next few episodes and the wedge that ultimately pries them apart even as they strive to go back to being normal. The separation was painful to watch but Brennan’s revelation from the universe was perfect and if they’d rushed into things in 100 it would not have happened and she’d always be wondering if she could really be the person she thinks Booth wants her to be. I think because they separated and CHOSE to come back together it’s a much stronger foundation than if they’d given in at episode 100 and went into it because they couldn’t control themselves.
What really makes them such a strong couple is that they know each other so well no masks, no pretending. At the end of the day sometimes Booth is a dick, sometimes Brennan is too oblivious but they’re both aware of each other’s faults and weaknesses and they love each other because of those things not in spite of them.
As for the actual hook up - yeah I’d’ve loved to have seen it happen but I sort of get the feeling that the show runners are worried that if they give us too much of what we want we’ll get bored so they dialled it way back this year. I think they could give us just a wee bit more and still remain stingy. I really enjoyed Brennan kissing Booth at the crime scene in 711 just because she could and Booth’s silly little “We can DO that now” grin after was adorable and exactly what I want. I don’t need B&B going at it on Hacker’s desk, just little things like this.
What did I leave out? Feel free to spam me in the comments with your top 10s. :)
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Linky links:
My bones fic: Collected here at AO3
Excellent BB Vids
I’d Come For You - Nickelback
Click to view(I’d love to find an awesome multifandom video of this song with a ton of Cop ships.)
Gotta be Somebody - Nickelback
Broken - Seether feat Amy lee
BB Fic I really enjoy:
Faith Enough to Fall by ayiana2 finds B&B on Maluku in between Seasons 5 and 6. It's an adventure fic with lots of daring and danger as well as great emotional payoff scenes as well. Definitely good summer reading!
The War in the Woods by bloodwrites Is an awesome Summer-y fic with the Bones crew going off on a Wilderness Quest, lots of soul searching, team bonding and a little bit of making out. It's not a casefic but it's the first in her universe that follows with a lot of casefics that are well thought out and all twisty-like as good mysteries are. Starting with The Killer in the Classroom .
Any and every fic written by only-more-love No I’m serious, she’s got gorgeous lyrical quality fic that offers such great insights into the characters that it blows my mind!
The Shield at her back by M. Rig is a short, one shot that’s just so CUDDLY and warm and soft like a blanket or a snuggle.
Look After You by Mia101 is a lovely, achy look at B&B dealing with Booth being shot in 3x12 rather than the whole faking his death/glossing over how hurt she must have been thing that they did instead.
Act by ygrawn is a perfect example of B&B being so INTENSE they could set my screen on fire, it involves a LOT of UST, heavy on the tension and a little bit of roleplay to solve the crime and it is spectacular!
Quick Fix by shimmeryshine Booth puts Brennan’s hair up in a ponytail and all the awkward but fun things that follow.