Rambling about Fraser makes ANY DAY better!

[schmerica]

Sometimes it seems like people like to write Fraser as very ... cut off from the world, I guess. It's something that I don't quite understand fully. In some ways, Fraser is a very inward person, yes; I don't think a lot of people get to know him very well, and I don't think he has a lot of close friends. But on the other, he's also the person who knows every single person he's ever come across -- his neighbours, his coworkers, people around town -- and remembers their names and their kids' names and their jobs and any random information about them at all. Even in Chicago, he's purposely friendly: he makes an effort at community.

(There are post-CotW stories I have read that posit Fraser as inward and antisocial, and have Ray Kowalski pulling him out of his shell to interact with the people there. This blows my mind.)

I have a different favorite thing about Fraser everyday, just about, but today, I'm stuck thinking about his affinity for certain types of people. This is different from just the friendliness and neighborliness I was talking about above, because there are some people that he seems to have an instant connection with. The lost; the confused; the vulnerable. Teenage girls seem to fit into this category often -- Eloise from "Say Amen", Melissa from "Some Like It Red", Andy from "The Promise." You can see it with Bruce in "I Coulda Been a Defendent"; the scene where Fraser's in the interrogation room with his head on his hands makes me ache inside.

I think some of the strongest parts of the Fraser-Kowalski partnership probably come from Fraser seeing this in RayK, too. You can see bits of it as early as "Eclipse", but it really begins to blossom in "Strange Bedfellows." A couple more hints in "Mountie and Soul", "Asylum", "Easy Money", but it's really in "The Ladies' Man" that it comes to a climax.

And, really, Fraser's vision of Victoria is sort of the ultimate expression of this part of his character. Every time he talks about her, it's just pointing directly to this. Lost, confused, vulnerable: Fraser's a sucker for it everytime, he wants to help. Because, well. Fraser knows what it's like.

Comments

[kirbybits.livejournal.com]

[pets you]

Just when I'm thinking, "oh god, oh god, there's another hour before I leave work, I may die" you come and save me with lovely thoughts about Fraser and just. Gah.

Can you imagine how good he must be at shaking hands? Or what it would be like to be having a terrible day where nothing's going right and you need help and the bank teller is being a right bitch, to have this guy just step in and be all, "Pardon me, miss, I couldn't help but overhearing your conversation and it seems to me..."

[joandarck.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, YES!

[aerye.livejournal.com]

This is a very good point. I am notorious for writing by the seat of my pants and so much of my characterization is pure instinct. In fact, I read the first sentence of your post and went--wait, but maybe--? And then I read the rest and I thought, wow, you are absolutely right. He really does build community wherever he goes--not the same kind of community as Vecchio (and certainly he doesn't have family in that way either), but community nonetheless. Actually, Kowalski, compared to the two of them, probably has the least connection to community.

Wow. You made shiny things ping in my brain. Yay!

[celli]

I was rewatching S1 when I got the DVDs, and I really wanted to write a story about Fraser meeting some of the kids he helped (Willie, the boxer's daughter) as grownups, or at least teens, and seeing how he changed their lives.

[lorem_ipsum]

Woah. I think you just rocked my world :D

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Can you imagine how good he must be at shaking hands? Or what it would be like to be having a terrible day where nothing's going right and you need help and the bank teller is being a right bitch, to have this guy just step in and be all, "Pardon me, miss, I couldn't help but overhearing your conversation and it seems to me..."

You just made my DAY. Just, yes. So weird and unexpected and helpful! HEART.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Oh, FRASER.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like that. Mmmm.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Really? Awesome!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

You know, I actually find most of my writing really gets done that way, too, on the fly -- the way I end up doing the characterization is just the way that feels right at the time, you know? So posts like this are kind of me trying to work backwards and see if there are any sorts of patterns to what I latch onto, and what works for me in general, I guess.

Actually, Kowalski, compared to the two of them, probably has the least connection to community.

I totally agree! The only exception to the rule I can really think of is Mountie & Soul, where he's making the connections himself.

(You know, if Fraser has the affinity for these lost teenage girls, Ray kind of has one for teenage boys, or at least the lower class ones who act like idiots a lot of the time. Mountie & Soul, Davy from Say Amen, Stanley Smith from Dead Man Running. That might be interesting to explore more in fic. Hmm.)

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

Rambling about Fraser makes ANY DAY better!

that's totally true. :)

also, yes, i agree. fraser is many-layered, socially speaking.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

See, I don't see Fraser as cut off in the way where I am cut off )e.g. I caught an URI from my lovely family and conquered the scratchy voice in half the time they did because I just Never. Talk) but more in the way where he's superficially very warm because it's his duty to, and doesn't really go further than the superficial good-natured helpfulness very often at all. So he'd feel fairly lonely, and in either of the Rays is trying to talk to him, he's kind of increasingly unresponsive -- which happens less with RayV than RayK, I think? Maybe because RayV leaving made him even more cautious, like he needed that. And, um, yeah, that would also explain his lack of emotion in the RayK era. But I, er, digress.

Basically I think he's got this deep-seated belief that he needs to help people constantly, and on some level I think that's the only method of human interaction he recognizes. He's this amazingly competent guy, and people are kind of freaked out by him -- but they also keep running to him for help when they need it, and so the only time he ends up actually talking to people is when he's saving them. (Exaggeration, a bit, but yeah.) Even with the Rays, he starts off being the protector and the extra dash of competence, because that's all he knows to do -- and then you have RayV trying to drag him out of the mess that was Victoria, and RayK in Bounty Hunter, and it just kind of sticks out like a sore thumb.

(Also now I want to collate all h/c stories ever, because -- well, okay, they're h/c, why NOT collate them? -- but also because it's be really interesting to see the ratio of Fraser-as-"c" as opposed to Fraser-as-"h".)

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

That might be interesting to play with in KIDfic, actually -- give Fraser and Ray a boy and a girl, and Ray gets fed up with the girl sometimes and passes her off to Fraser, and vice versa.

[starfishchick]

Lost, confused, vulnerable: Fraser's a sucker for it everytime, he wants to help.

I know!! And he ... *flail*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

See, I just think Ray wouldn't get the girls -- but a stupid teenage boy? He can TOTALLY identify with.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*flails with*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, Fraser layers.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

and so the only time he ends up actually talking to people is when he's saving them.

See, but I don't think that's true! What about his relations with his neighbors, or the homeless people in the neighborhood, or store owners and things, or whatever? Like, I agree with you, I don't think he makes deep connections or lets people get to know him at all, but I think he also thinks it's important to be part of the community and to know and like everybody.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, because he thinks it is important to HAVE a community. He is saving the people from their isolation! (Well, okay, the word "save" doesn't apply so well in that instance, but I wasn't so much going for the universal proof thing there.) The whole "a man can't survive on his own" thing.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

No, he WOULDN'T get the girls. Like, girl would come home and be like, "OMG DADDY MY BOYFRIEND DUMPED ME." Maybe. And Ray'd just be like, "Wow, that jerk! I'd go beat him up, but that wouldn't be fair." And then girl would be like, "DADDY YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT YOU ARE THE WORST DADDY EVER." And then Ray would be sad and annoyed and stomp off to go get Fraser and snark off at him about being good at everything, and then Fraser would have a long talk with girl involving lots of tissues and brownies. And then he would go be nice to Ray. Because he is Fraser! And -- he is Fraser!