I have a question...

[spikesgirl58]

I'm talking canon now... was Napoleon as much of a horndog during the show as fanon made him out to be? I mean, certainly he could and would, but did he or was it simply limited to wining and dining and a fast kanoodle by the exit sign?

Comments

[missdiane]

I think it was something in between. I don't think he bedded every woman he flirted with or where it may have been implied that he did but at the same time, it was the 60s and he clearly was a highly-sexually-motivated dude and did sleep around a good bit.

[spikesgirl58]

I'm not sure. I mean, nice girls didn't sleep around and birth control pills still weren't all that popular. I mean, for a certain type of woman, I'm sure he would, but I think he was more smoke and mirrors than anyone else. I bet Illya saw as much action as he did.

[missdiane]

I don't think that he'd take advantage of a "nice girl" (at least not all the way) but he'd likely boost his ego with one by perhaps getting to first base.

I'm thinking he probably got a little more action than Illya since Illya was more discerning. But neither one of them were saints, for sure.

[spikesgirl58]

I certainly agree that Illya is no saint. I think he'd take advantage of a situation like that without hesitation.

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[hypatia_66]

There are suggestions that he was, for instance in The Pieces of Fate Affair, the Double Affair, and several others - and particularly that slightly dodgy scene with the actress in the Off Broadway Affair. I guess you could also argue it's there in his jealousy whenever Illya gets the girl. Does that make it canon?

[lindafishes8]

I don't believe he was jealous of Illya's getting the girl. It was more of "Why would any girl prefer Illya with his long hair, ill-fitting suits and lack of fashion-sense over me?" Hmmm... Maybe that is jealousy.

[spikesgirl58]

Oh, I think it's definitely jealousy on Napoleon 's oart, if only from an alpha male standpoint. By rights, he should have first dibs and goddess forbid a woman should have a choice. :P Wouldn't work with me, though. I know who I'd be after...

[spikesgirl58]

He does seem to get jealous when the woman prefers Illya over him, but that could be an Alpha male thing, too. I'm just not sure he was as swinging as we are led to believe.

[threecee]

I've been watching some of the earliest first season and there he doesn't seem to be the lecher he became in S3. In Iowa Scuba he gives the Innocent a goodbye kiss on the nose. He flirts, but with married ladies and innocent Innocents it doesn't seem to go beyond dining and dancing. With the likes of Angelique and Serena there is definitely more happening than a kiss on the nose. I noticed a suggestion that there might have been something ongoing with Heather McNabb, but exactly what is unclear.

In the Hula Doll Affair, Waverly worries that Napoleon has dropped out of contact during an emergency because of "one of his dalliances". I really can't see Waverly tolerating someone so unreliable even as a file clerk, let alone in the CEA position.

[spikesgirl58]

I agree with you. Napoleon would be out on his ear if Waverly thought he was shirking his responsibilities for a fast roll in the hay.

[leethet]

It was viewed (on TV, at least) as acceptable in those days in ways that today would've gotten him fired on the spot. He would have been frowned at, slightly, as Waverly does, but it would be assumed that it made him a man's man, with a manly and admirable dick.

Gross, but true. Again, on TV. In real life, of course, if you don't do your job and the boss doesn't love you regardless, you're out. Now, if he managed to DO his job while screwing everything in a skirt, he'd REALLY be admired.

[leethet]

I feel like I should add that I think, really, neither female nor male viewers, of that era or this, would much like an inveterate skirt-chaser. It's pretty shallow and gross, and even men, who admire a manly man, would find a total lech pretty unpleasant to watch. So despite the show's icky moments, I think they knew better than to go too far down that road.

[leethet]

There are moments in the show (a look, a leer) where there is a rather ugly implication that he chased anything in a skirt. I don't like those moments - they're canon, but they're thoughtless, shallow, ugly canon. It was an era where it wasn't a negative reflection on a man's character that he slobbered after every pair of legs.

But the leers don't mean he actually chased down and bedded those women (that would've been inappropriate for regular TV). I think the show implied he chased, but not that he spent all his time chasing, or chased every woman he saw.

[spikesgirl58]

Of course, it doesn't mean he didn't either, although I think he would have to have more brains than balls to be in the position he's currently in. Waverly turned a blind eye often enough, but I think even he would have his limits.

[fiorenza_a]

Do you think it was just that ?

Two young, fit, good looking guys, spend most of their working and free time together - with Network homo-paranoia - plus the dubious assumption that the leads couldn't have a girlfriend (to be fair, somewhat borne out by the reaction to Illya having a romance) - the only way to signal their upstanding red-bloodedness - as opposed to deviant propensities - was to have them chase skirt.

By the 80s, when certainly shows over here were still using that tired old trope - and having the mick taken out of them for doing it - guys were beginning to get a reputation for sluttish behaviour.

Then AIDs practically made celibacy compulsory - scripts were very heavy on condom action - and got complaints where they weren't (previously people complained about not locking the car and drink-driving).

It's probably a combination of both which led to the current trope of the hero either a) pining for a lost/dead love, and therefore uninterested, b) happily co-habiting/married, c) keen but luckless in love.

[leethet]

Well, I agree that might play into it if the execs even had the thought cross their minds (as opposed to the 70s and Starsky and Hutch, where "they're SO doin' it!" is right out there in fandom and even in mainstream discussion of the show). I don't know how much a 1960s TV straight establishment, knowing TV had to be "straight," would even think about any gay implications of partners. Buddy shows and movies were commonplace for decades without any big outcry that they had to be sleeping with each other (again, until more recently!).

Not having been in their heads, I couldn't say.