I burn for you here: Quinn/Creedy (Reign of Fire)
Title:I burn for you here
Author:smaragdbird
Fandom:Reign of Fire
Pairing:Quinn/Creedy
Spoilers:for the whole movie
Wordcount:ca. 3500
Author's note: Image heavy
The Story(don’t pay attention to the details because they will only spoil your fun)
In 2000 Quinn is 12 and visits his mother at work(Alice Krige by the way who is only in this movie to die), who works on some underground project in London. The workers find a cave, Quinn crawls in, some beast we don’t really see flies out and burns everyone to death except Quinn(because he’s the hero)
Fast forward twenty years with a montage that tells us that the beast we didn’t see was a dragon and that they burned the world to dust(again, apparently dragons were also the reason the dinosaurs died out and after there was nothing to eat anymore they fell into a real long hibernation until ‘earth restored itself’)
Cut to a sweaty, half-naked and beardy Christian Bale. In 2020 Quinn is ‘in charge’ of a community of survivors in a castle in the mountains of Northumberland(TV Tropes mocks this because apparently Northumberland is as flat as a pancake but Wikipedia says that there are mountains in Northumberland. If any inhabitant of Northumberland reads this feel free to enlighten me).
His plan is to dig in and outlast the dragons like numerous lifeforms apparently did the first time around or else no-one would be here (either that or Darwin was wrong)and teaches the kids a prayer that help them to remember the basic rules for survival in a dragon infested world.
The other important inhabitants of the castle are Quinn’s ‘best friend’ (in his own words) Creedy(played by Gerard Butler who is here to agree with Quinn even when he disagrees, die and share jumpers), Quinn’s adoptive son Jared(oh the angst), Eddie the rebel whose rebelliousness always, always comes back to hit him square on the nose or worse, Barlow(who by Quinn’s description you would expect to be father figure for Quinn and Creedy but never has any scenes with either of them) with his bird that notices everything from dragons to humans except Americans and Ajay (played by Alexander Siddig and only included here because he has a handful lines and well, is played by Alexander Siddig) the radio operator.
The food and the numbers of humans are dwindling as Edinburgh is gone and they haven’t heard from Pembury or Norwich in two years(this is important later).
Eddie the rebel causes havoc with the harvest and a dragon which further decreases their food and to make things worse the next day ‘the only thing worse than a dragon: Americans’ appear on the castle’s doorstep.
The Americans are lead by Denton Van Zan(played by Matthew McConaguey) who is both ugly and axe crazy and helicopter pilot Alex(Isabella Scorpucio, former Bond Girl). They slay dragons so Quinn lets them into the castle even though Creedy protests and Quinn doesn’t trust them either. Then they kill a dragon in front of the whole castle, lose some men and VanZan chastises the castle people for celebrating the dead dragon(which is probably the first dead one they’ve ever seen).
Alex and VanZan explain to Quinn why they came to Britain: all dragons are female except one male that spawn s over the female’s eggs. When they kill the Male they kill the species. But as they didn’t have enough man for this they came to the castle to recruit(however they found it, after all Northumberland is located at the Scottish border in North England while London where the Male apparently lives lies way down south and according to VanZan they landed in Manchester which is pretty much in the middle between the two).
Quinn tells why he doesn’t want to go to London because a) his mum died there and b) more importantly some men from Pembury went to London, the male dragon tracked them back and ‘you haven’t seen such destruction not even in this world’. VanZan, Alex and even some of Quinn’s people among them Eddie, Barlow and Jared(here comes the aforementioned angst) don’t listen(and for plot purposes and angst, Quinn doesn’t share the Pembury Story with anyone but VanZan and Alex, who have nothing to lose, because it would make people like Eddie who leaves his kids and wife in the castle, think twice, well okay he does yell ‘He’s gonna bring it back here’ after VanZan kicked his arse but it doesn’t sound like a reasonable argument at that point).
Of course, the Americans fail and are killed by the dragon except for VanZan, Alex and some guy (you didn’t really think they would kill Jared, did you? He went back home earlier), the male flies back to the castle and kills Creedy, Ajay and 65 people that were never named anyway.
VanZan, Alex and the other guy come back to Northumberland and VanZan concedes the leadership to Quinn. Quinn’s plan is not any less suicidal than VanZan’s but hey, the guy just lost his best friend, so we cut him some slack.
Quinn, VanZan and Alex fly back to London, use the underground tunnels Quinn still remembers by heart twenty years later to get to the male dragon.
VanZan dies, Quinn kills the male and Alex stands plays the bait.
An obscure amount of months later they have contact with survivors in France over the radio and the number of dragons has already decreased.
Why you should still watch the movie
After this summary it may not seem to be so but this is actually the movie I’ve seen the most(and you’re talking to a girl who has seen every part of Lord of the Rings ten times in cinema respectively). The trick is not to pay attention to the details. Lean back and enjoy the really cool dragons and the chemistry between Gerard Butler and Christian Bale, Creedy’s jokes and the heartwarming re-enacting of the famous ’I am your father’ scene starring Quinn and Creedy, oh and only watch to Creedy’s death. The last fifteen minutes are lousy, except if you enjoy seeing Matthew McConaughey getting eaten by a dragon(like me).
The characters
Quinn Abercrombie
When we first see Quinn he visits his mum at work because he had trouble at school, which made him lose his scholar ship. From the dialogue we can tell that his parents don’t have a good relationship and are either living separate or are divorced.
20 years later Quinn is a gruff and tight-lipped man who easily slides into pessimism(who could blame him?) and a strong protective streak towards his people. Corresponding to his ‘darker’ personality he gets to play the Black Knight (also known as Darth Vader) while the cheerier Creedy gets cast as the White Knight(alias Luke Skywalker).
From what Quinn tells us we know that he came to Northumberland with Creedy and Barlow and found a three year old Jared who was sitting next to his dead mum and while we see Quinn with Creedy and with Jared we never see Jared with Creedy or either of them with Barlow. The timeline isn’t clear but I would place Jared at fourteen or fifteen, which means that Quinn, Creedy and Barlow have been together at least for eleven years, Eddie and his family by his own words joined Quinn eight years ago. That means for three years it was just the four of them(there’s no evidence how long Quinn, Creedy and Barlow have been together).
When VanZan is yelling for the one in charge, Creedy points out that this would be Quinn. And he is undoubtly in charge of the community but he is not a military type leader like Van Zan.
Quinn doesn’t lead his people into the battle he’s hiding them from it. It’s repeated many times that Quinn’s strategy is to outlast the dragons and not t fight them.
In the movie Quinn is continually shown in nurturing position. I’m going into a lot of details but that’s how it’s best explained: Willem, one of the boys seeks refuge in Quinn’s room after he’s had a nightmare, in two important scenes Quinn is shown in the kitchen, preparing food.
Another thing is Quinn’s relationship to Jared. When Jared tells Quinn after he decided to go with VanZan:
‘You’re not my father’
‘No, I’m not and if you think you’re man enough to speak like that then I think you should go.’
The whole scene reminded me of a mother not wanting her son go to war. I couldn’t help but thinking, no he’s your mother, because Quinn took Jared’s mother’s position when he grabbed him back then. Fathers are absent in this movie, Quinn’s father in the beginning and Barlow later, also if we place Quinn in the mother role and Creedy as the father that would explain the lack of scenes between Jared and Creedy(although I doubt that that was a deliberate part of an ongoing pattern but unintentional subtext is subtext all the same)
Also, after Creedy dies, Quinn breaks down but Jared looks determined, like he’s the man now and has to stay strong.
After Creedy’s death Quinn has a temporary bout of insanity or a death wish and wants to take the people responsible for the disaster down with him or both, you pick. Fortunately the epilogue shows that he recovers from it once he realized that he indeed killed the dragon and survived ( he does look a bit dazed right after it while Alex is up and ready to go).
Creedy
We don’t get to know much about Creedy but he introduces himself to the Americans as Captain Creedy so we can deduce that he was in the army. (Now this isn’t canon but in real life Gerard Butler is five years older than Christian Bale, if this transcendences into the movie it would make Creedy 17 at the time the dragons awakened, old enough to join the military and fight)
Where Quinn comes across as gruff and tight-lipped, Creedy makes jokes, teases Quinn, voices his opinion openly and rolls his eyes when Quinn is proven right.
After they lost two people and half of their crop to a dragon and Creedy tries to cheer up Quinn with alcohol:
Creedy, giving Quinn a glass: ‘Creedy’s one and only black label. Aged two weeks in a steel barrel. The trick is to swallow it fast so it can burn your stomach and not your throat.’
Quinn: ‘Poor bastard.’
Creedy: ‘Who? Eddie?’
Quinn: ‘Father’s not meant to bury his kids, it’s supposed to be the other way ‘round.’
Creedy: ‘Yeah, well, he wouldn’t have t if he’d just listened, would he?’
Quinn: ‘No, Creedy, maybe he was right. It’s easy to square your shoulders and bear it when you don’t have kids. Maybe there won’t be another harvest.’
Creedy: ‘No. Not now, with half the crop gone. God knows how we’re going to get through.’
Quinn: ‘You remember when we’d go out and bring in 80, 90 % of it? Not anymore. Not in the last few years. They’re hungrier too.’
Creedy: ‘Hey, you’re not giving up on me, are you?’
Quinn: ‘No. I thought if we could hang on, somehow we’d make it through.’
This scene is important for both the QuinnCreedy dynamic(I’ll explain in the next chapter ) and for Creedy as a character because it shows him as someone who thinks that people don’t deserve sympathy for the effects of their own decisions, especially when they should have known better.
Also, right before Quinn goes down to meet VanZan:
Quinn: ‘If anything happens, you know what to do.’
Creedy: ‘No, I’ve got no idea!’
Quinn: ‘Me neither.’
Of course, later when the male dragon attacks the castle while Quinn is outside, Creedy knows exactly what to do. You can hear in his voice that he’s trying to cheer Quinn up, who is about to meet ‘the only thing worse than a dragon: Americans’(Creedy’s original line when the tanks come in sight)
Creedy is Quinn’s right hand man but he’s not his subordinate: Eddie endangers the community? Creedy backs up Quinn and teases him about his harshness right afterwards. Quinn lets the Americans in even though he doesn’t trust them? Creedy calls him an imbecile and argues with him but presents a united front with Quinn when they meet the Americans.
Dragon attacks and Quinn is occupied elsewhere(in one case sleeping, in the second outside)? Creedy shepherds the people into the shelter.
One word to the mother/father dynamic: I’ve already explained the lack of scenes between Jared and Creedy as a pattern of the absent father and to quote from the conversation above:
‘Father’s not meant to bury his kids, it’s supposed to be the other way ‘round.’ And Quinn and Jared have to bury Creedy.
Also, Creedy takes his role as Quinn’s protector: when the castle is attacked by the male dragon Creedy argues with Quinn about who of them is going out again to look for more survivors:
Creedy: ‘Don’t you dare go out there, Quinn, it’s too dangerous.’
It’s especially interesting in hindsight that Creedy didn’t show his protective streak earlier in the movie when he and Quinn rescued Eddie and his family from a dragon or when Quinn confronted the Americans for the first time.
Just to mention the bleach blonde girl that turns up in exactly one scene, kneading Creedy’s shoulder: This review of the movie sums it up best:
“A woman seen briefly in bed with Quinn's confidant and co-leader, Creedy. Her purpose? Questionable but methinks it's to counterbalance the terrific chemistry between Quinn and Creedy, who seem far too close for comfort for a movie this intent on masculine fervor. The men can deeply care for each other, as long as there's at least a visual acknowledgement made to their heterosexuality.”
The pairing(or romance is dead)
The text(also known as tiny little bits of string)
As before mentioned the first time we see Quinn as an adult(read as Christian Bale) he’s half-naked and sweaty. Creedy turns up a few minutes later, backing Quinn up against Eddie and his rash plan.
Afterwards when they’re alone in the castle yard, Creedy grips both of Quinn’s shoulders and says:
‘You know, I’m your best friend but sometimes even I don’t like you.’ And slaps Quinn’s cheek. Then Quinn can be seen smiling and rubbing his head before he and Creedy engage in something that could loosely be called some friendly nudging and prodding until the camera cuts off to the scene that is the Crowning Moment of Heartwarming(copyright by TVTropes) of the film:
Quinn and Creedy re-enact the famous ‘I am your father’ scene as the white knight(Creedy) and the black Knight(Quinn) for the castle’s children. Afterwards they crouch down next to each other and ‘pray’ with the children:
Quinn: ‘What do we do when we wake?’
Kids: ‘Keep both eyes on the sky’
Quinn: ‘What do we do when we sleep?’
Kids: ‘Keep one eye on the sky.’
Creedy: ‘What do we do when we see them?’
Kids:’ Dig hard. Dig deep. Run for shelter. Never. Look. Back.’
That they do this prayer in turns becomes important later when Creedy has died, Quinn kneels down and starts the payer but he doesn’t come further than the first line before his voice breaks and he begins to cry. Note that in that scene everyone else is standing in groups, it singles Quinn out more and emphasizes his loss.
But first, back to the scene after Eddie’s rescue that I’ve quoted above.
During the last sentences Quinn’s voice drops and his eyes unfocus which seems to unsettle Creedy, because he leans forward and says softly: ‘Hey, you’re not giving up on me, are you?’
Quinn’s answer seems to reassure Creedy only marginally since he still looks unsettled and concerned when he leans back.
The next scenes are centered around the arrival of the Americans: the already mentioned ‘You know what do to’ scene and another one when Creedy tells Quinn that he’s an imbecile to believe VanZan is a dragon slayer only to see that their new guests have a functioning helicopter, which seems to prove Quinn right because there hasn’t been anything in the air except dragons for the last twenty years. Creedy’s look when he realizes that Quinn was right is priceless. It practically says He’s going to be insufferable now .
The party scene after the Americans killed a dragon is the best canon evidence ever. Two words: shared clothes. Quinn owns two jumpers in this movie, both are black and mended with patches but one is a bit blacker than the other and looks like a turtleneck. Creedy is usually seen in a shirt of nondescribt colour and a leather coat, except in this scene. In this scene where Quinn looks at Creedy over half the room and shakes his head to tell him not to bother with VanZan, Creedy wears Quinn’s jumper from the beginning of the movie. It’s cute, unintentional text(someone probably messed up the wardrobe) but it’s text.
And here we come to the last scene, the tragic ending of our pairing: the male dragons burns the castle, Quinn storms inside, yelling for Jared and Creedy. Jared finds him first and when Quinn asks Jared if anyone else survived and Jared doesn’t say anything, the look of utter loss for the lack of a better word, is heart breaking. Then Creedy bursts into the scene and the three of them rescue a couple of kids and bring them into the shelter.
Now occurs what I called Creedy’s protective streak. He doesn’t want Quinn to go out there again. Just when Creedy is out of the door the second attack follows. There is a shared look of horror on both Quinn’s and Creedy’s faces when they realize what’s happening, Quinn actually moves towards the door but it shuts before either of them can really do anything and no matter how much Quinn bangs against it and yells ’No, Creedy, no.’ it won’t open.
And that’s it. Creedy isn’t mentioned again although the look of appallment and disgust when VanZan returns and tells Quinn ‘You were right’.’ Speaks for itself. Also, we’re made believe for a second that Quinn is going to shot VanZan but instead volunteers himself to another suicide mission along with VanZan and Alex.
The subtext(why best friends work better)
Creedy labels himself as Quinn’s best friend that should make clear what their relationship is right? Wrong! Why? Because in this world romance is dead. Different to other post-apocalyptic action movies there’s no romantic subplot, no sex, no kissing. There’s a bit of hugging and handholding at the end of the movie between Alex and Quinn but at that point the exact nature of their relationship at that point is completely irrelevant to both the movie and Quinn’s and Creedy’s relationship.
Quinn and Creedy work as best friends, they care deeply for each other and hell, they raised a kid together. There are many pairings that live because of their unresolved sexual tension. You’ll find nothing here. Quinn and Creedy however are full of resolved sexual tension: two people that are completely at ease with each other.
They’re best friends, they have a kid, romance may be dead, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be happy sometimes and as a fanfiction author you have a lot of time to cover here: from the first meeting we never saw to the end that we did see. There is fluff, there is angst and there are even AUs where Creedy survives. With what little background we get on screen there’s a lot of hinted off-screen background that can be explored viciously.
Me (Among your favourite movies is one with Batman and the Phantom of the Opera battling dragons, really?)
I saw Reign of Fire in 2005 when it was shown on TV mostly because I had nothing else to do on that evening. What can I say I fell in love instantly. I laughed at Creedy’s jokes and I admired for Quinn for standing his ground against ax crazy VanZan. I fell in love with the Star Wars scene, the wonderfully animated dragons and the great stunts with realistic looking fire. And you know what I loved most? There was no awkwardly made, tacked on romance (I didn’t notice the blonde girl until the third time or so that I watched the movie). Sure there were plotholes as large Swiss mountain valleys but Reign of fire has enough redeeming features all over the movie to enjoy it nonetheless.
Quinn and Creedy didn’t revealed themselves to me as a pairing to be shipped right at the first look. 2005 was at the beginning of my career as a slash fan and the subtext was not blatant enough, but once I saw it, I liked what I saw. I liked how they completed each other and how much they were at ease, because this plus the setting in a post-apocalyptic world normally means less angsting over sexual identities because there are more important things to worry about.
Unfortunately there are not a lot of fanfictions in the reign of fire fandom and they few that exist are strewn over half the internet. But maybe because it’s such an obscure and small fandom the works that are written are really, really good:
The Beautiful Lull by Dira Sudis
Another Day by Dira Sudis
After the Flames by saraid
The Walk by TheTenthMuse
secretly by wooblywooble
Fanfiction.Net also has a eign of Fire section where you also can find
my stuff
So, that’s it. Maybe I converted you, maybe I didn’t but I hope you had an enjoyable time reading this.
Author:smaragdbird
Fandom:Reign of Fire
Pairing:Quinn/Creedy
Spoilers:for the whole movie
Wordcount:ca. 3500
Author's note: Image heavy
The Story(don’t pay attention to the details because they will only spoil your fun)
In 2000 Quinn is 12 and visits his mother at work(Alice Krige by the way who is only in this movie to die), who works on some underground project in London. The workers find a cave, Quinn crawls in, some beast we don’t really see flies out and burns everyone to death except Quinn(because he’s the hero)
Fast forward twenty years with a montage that tells us that the beast we didn’t see was a dragon and that they burned the world to dust(again, apparently dragons were also the reason the dinosaurs died out and after there was nothing to eat anymore they fell into a real long hibernation until ‘earth restored itself’)
Cut to a sweaty, half-naked and beardy Christian Bale. In 2020 Quinn is ‘in charge’ of a community of survivors in a castle in the mountains of Northumberland(TV Tropes mocks this because apparently Northumberland is as flat as a pancake but Wikipedia says that there are mountains in Northumberland. If any inhabitant of Northumberland reads this feel free to enlighten me).
His plan is to dig in and outlast the dragons like numerous lifeforms apparently did the first time around or else no-one would be here (either that or Darwin was wrong)and teaches the kids a prayer that help them to remember the basic rules for survival in a dragon infested world.
The other important inhabitants of the castle are Quinn’s ‘best friend’ (in his own words) Creedy(played by Gerard Butler who is here to agree with Quinn even when he disagrees, die and share jumpers), Quinn’s adoptive son Jared(oh the angst), Eddie the rebel whose rebelliousness always, always comes back to hit him square on the nose or worse, Barlow(who by Quinn’s description you would expect to be father figure for Quinn and Creedy but never has any scenes with either of them) with his bird that notices everything from dragons to humans except Americans and Ajay (played by Alexander Siddig and only included here because he has a handful lines and well, is played by Alexander Siddig) the radio operator.
The food and the numbers of humans are dwindling as Edinburgh is gone and they haven’t heard from Pembury or Norwich in two years(this is important later).
Eddie the rebel causes havoc with the harvest and a dragon which further decreases their food and to make things worse the next day ‘the only thing worse than a dragon: Americans’ appear on the castle’s doorstep.
The Americans are lead by Denton Van Zan(played by Matthew McConaguey) who is both ugly and axe crazy and helicopter pilot Alex(Isabella Scorpucio, former Bond Girl). They slay dragons so Quinn lets them into the castle even though Creedy protests and Quinn doesn’t trust them either. Then they kill a dragon in front of the whole castle, lose some men and VanZan chastises the castle people for celebrating the dead dragon(which is probably the first dead one they’ve ever seen).
Alex and VanZan explain to Quinn why they came to Britain: all dragons are female except one male that spawn s over the female’s eggs. When they kill the Male they kill the species. But as they didn’t have enough man for this they came to the castle to recruit(however they found it, after all Northumberland is located at the Scottish border in North England while London where the Male apparently lives lies way down south and according to VanZan they landed in Manchester which is pretty much in the middle between the two).
Quinn tells why he doesn’t want to go to London because a) his mum died there and b) more importantly some men from Pembury went to London, the male dragon tracked them back and ‘you haven’t seen such destruction not even in this world’. VanZan, Alex and even some of Quinn’s people among them Eddie, Barlow and Jared(here comes the aforementioned angst) don’t listen(and for plot purposes and angst, Quinn doesn’t share the Pembury Story with anyone but VanZan and Alex, who have nothing to lose, because it would make people like Eddie who leaves his kids and wife in the castle, think twice, well okay he does yell ‘He’s gonna bring it back here’ after VanZan kicked his arse but it doesn’t sound like a reasonable argument at that point).
Of course, the Americans fail and are killed by the dragon except for VanZan, Alex and some guy (you didn’t really think they would kill Jared, did you? He went back home earlier), the male flies back to the castle and kills Creedy, Ajay and 65 people that were never named anyway.
VanZan, Alex and the other guy come back to Northumberland and VanZan concedes the leadership to Quinn. Quinn’s plan is not any less suicidal than VanZan’s but hey, the guy just lost his best friend, so we cut him some slack.
Quinn, VanZan and Alex fly back to London, use the underground tunnels Quinn still remembers by heart twenty years later to get to the male dragon.
VanZan dies, Quinn kills the male and Alex stands plays the bait.
An obscure amount of months later they have contact with survivors in France over the radio and the number of dragons has already decreased.
Why you should still watch the movie
After this summary it may not seem to be so but this is actually the movie I’ve seen the most(and you’re talking to a girl who has seen every part of Lord of the Rings ten times in cinema respectively). The trick is not to pay attention to the details. Lean back and enjoy the really cool dragons and the chemistry between Gerard Butler and Christian Bale, Creedy’s jokes and the heartwarming re-enacting of the famous ’I am your father’ scene starring Quinn and Creedy, oh and only watch to Creedy’s death. The last fifteen minutes are lousy, except if you enjoy seeing Matthew McConaughey getting eaten by a dragon(like me).
The characters
Quinn Abercrombie
When we first see Quinn he visits his mum at work because he had trouble at school, which made him lose his scholar ship. From the dialogue we can tell that his parents don’t have a good relationship and are either living separate or are divorced.
20 years later Quinn is a gruff and tight-lipped man who easily slides into pessimism(who could blame him?) and a strong protective streak towards his people. Corresponding to his ‘darker’ personality he gets to play the Black Knight (also known as Darth Vader) while the cheerier Creedy gets cast as the White Knight(alias Luke Skywalker).
From what Quinn tells us we know that he came to Northumberland with Creedy and Barlow and found a three year old Jared who was sitting next to his dead mum and while we see Quinn with Creedy and with Jared we never see Jared with Creedy or either of them with Barlow. The timeline isn’t clear but I would place Jared at fourteen or fifteen, which means that Quinn, Creedy and Barlow have been together at least for eleven years, Eddie and his family by his own words joined Quinn eight years ago. That means for three years it was just the four of them(there’s no evidence how long Quinn, Creedy and Barlow have been together).
When VanZan is yelling for the one in charge, Creedy points out that this would be Quinn. And he is undoubtly in charge of the community but he is not a military type leader like Van Zan.
Quinn doesn’t lead his people into the battle he’s hiding them from it. It’s repeated many times that Quinn’s strategy is to outlast the dragons and not t fight them.
In the movie Quinn is continually shown in nurturing position. I’m going into a lot of details but that’s how it’s best explained: Willem, one of the boys seeks refuge in Quinn’s room after he’s had a nightmare, in two important scenes Quinn is shown in the kitchen, preparing food.
Another thing is Quinn’s relationship to Jared. When Jared tells Quinn after he decided to go with VanZan:
‘You’re not my father’
‘No, I’m not and if you think you’re man enough to speak like that then I think you should go.’
The whole scene reminded me of a mother not wanting her son go to war. I couldn’t help but thinking, no he’s your mother, because Quinn took Jared’s mother’s position when he grabbed him back then. Fathers are absent in this movie, Quinn’s father in the beginning and Barlow later, also if we place Quinn in the mother role and Creedy as the father that would explain the lack of scenes between Jared and Creedy(although I doubt that that was a deliberate part of an ongoing pattern but unintentional subtext is subtext all the same)
Also, after Creedy dies, Quinn breaks down but Jared looks determined, like he’s the man now and has to stay strong.
After Creedy’s death Quinn has a temporary bout of insanity or a death wish and wants to take the people responsible for the disaster down with him or both, you pick. Fortunately the epilogue shows that he recovers from it once he realized that he indeed killed the dragon and survived ( he does look a bit dazed right after it while Alex is up and ready to go).
Creedy
We don’t get to know much about Creedy but he introduces himself to the Americans as Captain Creedy so we can deduce that he was in the army. (Now this isn’t canon but in real life Gerard Butler is five years older than Christian Bale, if this transcendences into the movie it would make Creedy 17 at the time the dragons awakened, old enough to join the military and fight)
Where Quinn comes across as gruff and tight-lipped, Creedy makes jokes, teases Quinn, voices his opinion openly and rolls his eyes when Quinn is proven right.
After they lost two people and half of their crop to a dragon and Creedy tries to cheer up Quinn with alcohol:
Creedy, giving Quinn a glass: ‘Creedy’s one and only black label. Aged two weeks in a steel barrel. The trick is to swallow it fast so it can burn your stomach and not your throat.’
Quinn: ‘Poor bastard.’
Creedy: ‘Who? Eddie?’
Quinn: ‘Father’s not meant to bury his kids, it’s supposed to be the other way ‘round.’
Creedy: ‘Yeah, well, he wouldn’t have t if he’d just listened, would he?’
Quinn: ‘No, Creedy, maybe he was right. It’s easy to square your shoulders and bear it when you don’t have kids. Maybe there won’t be another harvest.’
Creedy: ‘No. Not now, with half the crop gone. God knows how we’re going to get through.’
Quinn: ‘You remember when we’d go out and bring in 80, 90 % of it? Not anymore. Not in the last few years. They’re hungrier too.’
Creedy: ‘Hey, you’re not giving up on me, are you?’
Quinn: ‘No. I thought if we could hang on, somehow we’d make it through.’
This scene is important for both the QuinnCreedy dynamic(I’ll explain in the next chapter ) and for Creedy as a character because it shows him as someone who thinks that people don’t deserve sympathy for the effects of their own decisions, especially when they should have known better.
Also, right before Quinn goes down to meet VanZan:
Quinn: ‘If anything happens, you know what to do.’
Creedy: ‘No, I’ve got no idea!’
Quinn: ‘Me neither.’
Of course, later when the male dragon attacks the castle while Quinn is outside, Creedy knows exactly what to do. You can hear in his voice that he’s trying to cheer Quinn up, who is about to meet ‘the only thing worse than a dragon: Americans’(Creedy’s original line when the tanks come in sight)
Creedy is Quinn’s right hand man but he’s not his subordinate: Eddie endangers the community? Creedy backs up Quinn and teases him about his harshness right afterwards. Quinn lets the Americans in even though he doesn’t trust them? Creedy calls him an imbecile and argues with him but presents a united front with Quinn when they meet the Americans.
Dragon attacks and Quinn is occupied elsewhere(in one case sleeping, in the second outside)? Creedy shepherds the people into the shelter.
One word to the mother/father dynamic: I’ve already explained the lack of scenes between Jared and Creedy as a pattern of the absent father and to quote from the conversation above:
‘Father’s not meant to bury his kids, it’s supposed to be the other way ‘round.’ And Quinn and Jared have to bury Creedy.
Also, Creedy takes his role as Quinn’s protector: when the castle is attacked by the male dragon Creedy argues with Quinn about who of them is going out again to look for more survivors:
Creedy: ‘Don’t you dare go out there, Quinn, it’s too dangerous.’
It’s especially interesting in hindsight that Creedy didn’t show his protective streak earlier in the movie when he and Quinn rescued Eddie and his family from a dragon or when Quinn confronted the Americans for the first time.
Just to mention the bleach blonde girl that turns up in exactly one scene, kneading Creedy’s shoulder: This review of the movie sums it up best:
“A woman seen briefly in bed with Quinn's confidant and co-leader, Creedy. Her purpose? Questionable but methinks it's to counterbalance the terrific chemistry between Quinn and Creedy, who seem far too close for comfort for a movie this intent on masculine fervor. The men can deeply care for each other, as long as there's at least a visual acknowledgement made to their heterosexuality.”
The pairing(or romance is dead)
The text(also known as tiny little bits of string)
As before mentioned the first time we see Quinn as an adult(read as Christian Bale) he’s half-naked and sweaty. Creedy turns up a few minutes later, backing Quinn up against Eddie and his rash plan.
Afterwards when they’re alone in the castle yard, Creedy grips both of Quinn’s shoulders and says:
‘You know, I’m your best friend but sometimes even I don’t like you.’ And slaps Quinn’s cheek. Then Quinn can be seen smiling and rubbing his head before he and Creedy engage in something that could loosely be called some friendly nudging and prodding until the camera cuts off to the scene that is the Crowning Moment of Heartwarming(copyright by TVTropes) of the film:
Quinn and Creedy re-enact the famous ‘I am your father’ scene as the white knight(Creedy) and the black Knight(Quinn) for the castle’s children. Afterwards they crouch down next to each other and ‘pray’ with the children:
Quinn: ‘What do we do when we wake?’
Kids: ‘Keep both eyes on the sky’
Quinn: ‘What do we do when we sleep?’
Kids: ‘Keep one eye on the sky.’
Creedy: ‘What do we do when we see them?’
Kids:’ Dig hard. Dig deep. Run for shelter. Never. Look. Back.’
That they do this prayer in turns becomes important later when Creedy has died, Quinn kneels down and starts the payer but he doesn’t come further than the first line before his voice breaks and he begins to cry. Note that in that scene everyone else is standing in groups, it singles Quinn out more and emphasizes his loss.
But first, back to the scene after Eddie’s rescue that I’ve quoted above.
During the last sentences Quinn’s voice drops and his eyes unfocus which seems to unsettle Creedy, because he leans forward and says softly: ‘Hey, you’re not giving up on me, are you?’
Quinn’s answer seems to reassure Creedy only marginally since he still looks unsettled and concerned when he leans back.
The next scenes are centered around the arrival of the Americans: the already mentioned ‘You know what do to’ scene and another one when Creedy tells Quinn that he’s an imbecile to believe VanZan is a dragon slayer only to see that their new guests have a functioning helicopter, which seems to prove Quinn right because there hasn’t been anything in the air except dragons for the last twenty years. Creedy’s look when he realizes that Quinn was right is priceless. It practically says He’s going to be insufferable now .
The party scene after the Americans killed a dragon is the best canon evidence ever. Two words: shared clothes. Quinn owns two jumpers in this movie, both are black and mended with patches but one is a bit blacker than the other and looks like a turtleneck. Creedy is usually seen in a shirt of nondescribt colour and a leather coat, except in this scene. In this scene where Quinn looks at Creedy over half the room and shakes his head to tell him not to bother with VanZan, Creedy wears Quinn’s jumper from the beginning of the movie. It’s cute, unintentional text(someone probably messed up the wardrobe) but it’s text.
And here we come to the last scene, the tragic ending of our pairing: the male dragons burns the castle, Quinn storms inside, yelling for Jared and Creedy. Jared finds him first and when Quinn asks Jared if anyone else survived and Jared doesn’t say anything, the look of utter loss for the lack of a better word, is heart breaking. Then Creedy bursts into the scene and the three of them rescue a couple of kids and bring them into the shelter.
Now occurs what I called Creedy’s protective streak. He doesn’t want Quinn to go out there again. Just when Creedy is out of the door the second attack follows. There is a shared look of horror on both Quinn’s and Creedy’s faces when they realize what’s happening, Quinn actually moves towards the door but it shuts before either of them can really do anything and no matter how much Quinn bangs against it and yells ’No, Creedy, no.’ it won’t open.
And that’s it. Creedy isn’t mentioned again although the look of appallment and disgust when VanZan returns and tells Quinn ‘You were right’.’ Speaks for itself. Also, we’re made believe for a second that Quinn is going to shot VanZan but instead volunteers himself to another suicide mission along with VanZan and Alex.
The subtext(why best friends work better)
Creedy labels himself as Quinn’s best friend that should make clear what their relationship is right? Wrong! Why? Because in this world romance is dead. Different to other post-apocalyptic action movies there’s no romantic subplot, no sex, no kissing. There’s a bit of hugging and handholding at the end of the movie between Alex and Quinn but at that point the exact nature of their relationship at that point is completely irrelevant to both the movie and Quinn’s and Creedy’s relationship.
Quinn and Creedy work as best friends, they care deeply for each other and hell, they raised a kid together. There are many pairings that live because of their unresolved sexual tension. You’ll find nothing here. Quinn and Creedy however are full of resolved sexual tension: two people that are completely at ease with each other.
They’re best friends, they have a kid, romance may be dead, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be happy sometimes and as a fanfiction author you have a lot of time to cover here: from the first meeting we never saw to the end that we did see. There is fluff, there is angst and there are even AUs where Creedy survives. With what little background we get on screen there’s a lot of hinted off-screen background that can be explored viciously.
Me (Among your favourite movies is one with Batman and the Phantom of the Opera battling dragons, really?)
I saw Reign of Fire in 2005 when it was shown on TV mostly because I had nothing else to do on that evening. What can I say I fell in love instantly. I laughed at Creedy’s jokes and I admired for Quinn for standing his ground against ax crazy VanZan. I fell in love with the Star Wars scene, the wonderfully animated dragons and the great stunts with realistic looking fire. And you know what I loved most? There was no awkwardly made, tacked on romance (I didn’t notice the blonde girl until the third time or so that I watched the movie). Sure there were plotholes as large Swiss mountain valleys but Reign of fire has enough redeeming features all over the movie to enjoy it nonetheless.
Quinn and Creedy didn’t revealed themselves to me as a pairing to be shipped right at the first look. 2005 was at the beginning of my career as a slash fan and the subtext was not blatant enough, but once I saw it, I liked what I saw. I liked how they completed each other and how much they were at ease, because this plus the setting in a post-apocalyptic world normally means less angsting over sexual identities because there are more important things to worry about.
Unfortunately there are not a lot of fanfictions in the reign of fire fandom and they few that exist are strewn over half the internet. But maybe because it’s such an obscure and small fandom the works that are written are really, really good:
The Beautiful Lull by Dira Sudis
Another Day by Dira Sudis
After the Flames by saraid
The Walk by TheTenthMuse
secretly by wooblywooble
Fanfiction.Net also has a eign of Fire section where you also can find
my stuff
So, that’s it. Maybe I converted you, maybe I didn’t but I hope you had an enjoyable time reading this.