Watching Spooks DVD while ignoring remaining 30 lines of Pindar to do today. Mmm, denial.
So, today, for want of any better topic, I'm going to blog about Allen Schezar. Or, as I think I subtitled it a while back, Beautiful Fucked Up Men And Why I Love Them. It's also a blog about Allen Schezar slash fics, and why I think they're at all plausible. Because, let's face it, he does tend towards being Mr Rampant Heterosexuality in the series. Let's set aside the costume (camp as a row of pink tents, as I think you'll agree, between the skirt thing and the froofy sleeves but hardly his fault - blame King Aston for attempting to emasculate the Knights Caeli when he designed their uniform) and the hair (long hair doesn't *necessarily* mean anything, now does it?). Allen's main function in a lot of the series is to flirt more or less seriously with most of the female cast members, get swooned over a lot by the female cast members, and provoke the male cast members to fits of jealousy. (Yes, I know he has plot functions as warrior and as Leon's son, but the shoujo-er portions of the series mainly use him as a walking Y chromosone, admit it). We know for sure he's slept with at least one female (otherwise Cid is something of a mystery), he gets engaged to Hitomi, and there are some odd vibes with both Millerna and Eries at various points. There's no denying that Allen willingly plays up to his playboy reputation, from that scene when he kisses Hitomi in front of Dilandau onwards.
However, I never, ever want to see Allen in a relationship with any of the females on the show. And that's not just the yaoi fangirl in me talking. Allen's attitude towards females of the species is *distinctly* distasteful. He can't interact with them emotionally on any normal level, or so it seems to me. It's that scene where he says that he ought to keep Hitomi locked up in a cage that's really unnerving. He doesn't see anything wrong in treating girls like china, keeping them wrapped up and hidden from the world so he can look after them like the big brave knight he is. And though Gaia is an old-fashioned world, it's moving out of an era where that's normal. Just look at Millerna - she's a princess, yet she shrugs off her father's authority and trains to be a doctor. She may be unusual, but not *that* unusual.
As becomes very obvious, Allen's attitude towards women has been fundamentally, and almost permanently, skewed by his past. His father disappearing made him feel that he had to be the protector and provider of the household; his sister's disappearance, and then his mother's death, made him feel just how helpless he was to either protect or provide. Allen's chivalry stems primarily from the need to repair the mistakes he feels he made in his past: to protect the girls he thinks of as being like his lost sister. But his guilt makes him push this too far, so 'protecting' becomes 'locking them away so they can't be hurt'. He tries it with Hitomi, and so she grows disenchanted with him. He'd try it with Millerna, in all probability, and she'd probably think it was sweet and chivalrous for a while - until he made her give up her medical work and become a docile gentlewoman. Millerna would in all probability grow disenchanted with him in just the same way Hitomi did.
The only thing that will probably be able to help him is to try to mend the root of the problem, and perhaps being able to look after Selena again will do that. Because he'll be able to coddle and protect her as much as he likes - *for a while*. But let's not forget, Selena's spent the last ten years as a member of an elite military group. She's able to pilot a mecha almost as well as Allen, her sword-fighting is not to be sneezed at, and I really can't see her taking too well to being coddled and forced into being a nice little lady. She'll demand to wear trousers and go horse-riding and to fence with Gaddes, and as she gets more freedom (because I don't think Allen will be able to deny her it), Allen will perhaps grow a little more to see women as strong, independent creatures, rather than little girls who need looking after.
This may sound like I'm being unduly critical of Allen. I hope I'm not. I love Allen, largely *because* of his flaws. He appears at first as the dashing knight, and that image is all very attractive, but it's the later cracks that appear in his facade that make him an interesting and human character.
Which brings me to Allen yaoi fics. Yes, he's Mr Hetero in the series, but as I've shown above, I really don't want him in a relationship with any of the girls in the show (not least because Hitomi and Van are far too obvious a couple to break up, and Dryden is so in love with Millerna he damn well ought to get her.) The only *possible* exception to this is with Eries, because she's strong and intelligent enough already to win his respect. But then I've never been a big fan of Eries in the series, and I don't see them as being an especially interesting couple. So, if one knocks out the girls of the series, one moves into the world of yaoi. Allen interacts interestingly and easily with the men in the series - he has a nice equal-opposite/warrior respect relationship with Van, a very sweet mutual reliance relationship with Gaddes, and a great fun hate-hate relationship with Dryden. In a slash relationship, Allen would get to interact on levels other than his irritating must-protect-at-all-costs complex, and he gets to relax and be himself more around the men of the series than when in his chivalric persona around the girls. Because there's far more to Allen than chivalry. Just think about the embittered ruthless bandit version we got to see in that short flashback, or the relaxed version teasing his men in the third or fourth episode. When he doesn't have to act the Knight, he's really a lot more interesting (well, in my opinion anyway).
The most common pairing is *probably* with Gaddes, for obvious reasons. I think most people reading this have probably read Deesse (Sarah-neko)'s epic 'In Disgrace With Fortune', which is one of the cutest, fluffiest, sweetest fics I've ever read, and I adore it, which is Allen/Gaddes-tastic. A fair few of the Allen yaoi doujinshi feature Allen/Gaddes. Their mutually beneficial, relaxed and close relationship can easily be translated into yaoi. Still, Allen/Van runs it a close second, though in this case I'm less sure why. I don't read Allen/Van - I get the feeling it mainly came about because people wanted to pair off the two main male characters, and I'd like to hope I had higher standards in my slash. True, their love-hate relationship, their constant sparring but easy cooperation has some interesting possibilities for slash, but I can't get round the strength of the Van/Hitomi relationship that easily.
The Esca slash pairing I'd like to read more of (having only been able to find one fic featuring the pairing, and that was only a short-fic written for a bet), is, somewhat oddly, Dryden/Allen. No, don't look at me like that. I swear it's not just to get my two favourite male characters into bed (that would be Dryden/Folken every time ^_^), or two aesthetically pleasing characters (Van is probably considered rather prettier than Dryden, though I always liked Dryden's scruffy green-eyed charm better). And yes, I know *perfectly* well that Dryden is very in love with Millerna, and I'm quite prepared to concede that that's not going to change any time soon. However, I think Dryden would be on the...easygoing side with regard to relationships of convenience, and he doesn't equate a relationship with eternal devotion - just remember how he was willing to marry Millerna five minutes after meeting her on the grounds of an ancient agreement, a good business proposition and her good looks. I don't think he'd object too strenuously.
And I think that their alpha-male sparring could lead to some wonderful fic fodder. I love the way Allen and Dryden interact - Dryden annoyed and amused by Allen's prissiness, Allen getting prissier and prissier because Dryden's irritating him, and Dryden irritating him on purposes just to get the reaction. And once one gets behind all that sparring, they've both got intelligent and interesting characters which are just begging to be let out to play. I've always seen Allen as someone who reads on the quiet, keen on 'improving his mind' (and he'd put it in just those words too) - let him and Dryden bond over Dryden's extensive library or something. One could AU them to get Millerna out of the way, or post-series them so you can have them both trying to rebuild their lives, Dryden as merchant and Allen as brother, while Millerna tries to rebuild her country and decide between the men in her life. Even if one doesn't slash them at all, a fic focusing on these two characters would be great fun. If I ever write an Esca fic, three guess who it'll be about....
Gosh, that turned into something of a marathon, didn't it? The next in this series will probably be Saionji, just to thumb my nose at Katy who doesn't like my moss-haired darling. *pets Saionji* Take no notice, my dear, she knows nothing....
