Character Musings: James Watson
Feb. 8th, 2011 07:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityBecause apparently Tesla really doesn't want a meta. Or because I spent most of the day yesterday discussing James with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
artaxastra. You pick.
Dr. James Watson falls into that weird subgroup of Sanctuary characters that showed up for a small percentage of the actual episodes and yet has a massive following. This is, mostly likely, because he is AWESOME. Below, I will endeavour to cover all the ways in which that awesomeness pervades his grand total of three episodes of the show, but also how James is kind of, uh, shall we say a "complete arrogant bastard" sometimes.
On the surface, James seems to be the simplest of the Five (which, admittedly, is not saying much). He was a solid Victorian gentleman who never went outside the lines and used his keen mind for the betterment of society, once or twice even to his own detriment. Except that's totally not what happened.
As with Nikola (and Nigel, for that matter), we first meet James through John when he refers to "The Five" in "Sanctuary For All". This is problematic, because it makes it sounds like a) James is kind of evil and b) James doesn't already know how to get to Helen which seems to fly directly in the face of everything we'll learn about him later. And I'd be willing to let it go, chalking it up to "pilot-itis", if you will, except the NEXT time we run into James (again through John), it's JUST AS CONFUSING.
John tells Ashley that "Sir" James Watson is one of The Five and she doesn't react at all. Which I realize was just the writers not telling the actress what she needed to know, but I find it distracting because James and Helen clearly kept in contact, and Ashley must have known that he was "old like her". Of course, Ashley doesn't ask a lot of questions early on (possibly because she trusts her mother to tell her what she needs to know), so I can handwave that if I have to.
Which brings me to the "Sir". "The Five" is the only episode where James is referred to as "Sir" James Watson. Afterwards, it's always "Doctor". This raises important questions like "Was he really knighted?" and "What was he knighted for?" and also precludes him from being the Watson who discovered DNA, because you can't knight an American. For the record, I don't think he did that anyway, because he was busy running the London Sanctuary at the time, and also it just doesn't make sense for James to be any of the historical Watsons I've come across researching him.
The "fictional" Watson is far easier to pin down, because Doyle wrote a lot of books. I do like the fannish trend of giving James most of Sherlock's character traits, but I personally believe that the true James Watson is actually a combination of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. The detective and the doctor, the brilliant mind and the man who is content to follow, the man who disdains friendship and the man who craves it.
Which segues nicely in the general direction of James Watson's sexuality.artaxastra writes him as having attended the same school as the historical John Druitt, Winchester College. This is significant, because while Druitt was in attendance there, there was a terrific fuss made over hazing and caning the students (who would be as young as 12). And this was in the mid-1800's, before people really thought about things like "child abuse". Young James, already brilliant enough in his own right, would have attracted the absolute worst sort of attention, and John Druitt would have been able to defend him. This, I believe, is how they met and became, rather quickly, at the very least co-dependent.
Even if you don't buy into that backstory, which I didn't on account of not having read the fic when I first saw "Revelations", the subtext between John and James is difficult to ignore. Helen is allowed to say things like "You destroyed my heart" because Victorian society (and ours, if we're honest) is preprogrammed to accept that. What kills me, is that James can't say it. And he can't say it because he can't admit it. And he can't admit it because when he fell in love, he fell in love with someone whom he was legally prohibited from falling in love with (which is, I hasten to add, one of the DUMBEST THINGS EVER, but I'm already starting to veer offtrack so let's press on).
It doesn't stop with John, of course. I'm reasonably certain that James loves Helen (though again, not in the way society would be okay with), and I really, really 'ship James with Declan because I have this picture in my head of the first time they did anything, and afterwards James kind of panicked (for about a hundred really different, really good reasons), and then Declan was all "James. I am a normal person and this is okay.", and I'm not describing it properly, but it's just beautiful (and probably one of the few times in his life post-Winchester that anyone saw James Watson cry).
Which is my roundabout and convoluted way of saying a very simple thing: James Watson is a rule breaker.
He doesn't look like it, and in public he never, ever acts like it (except that one time he told King Edward to go to Hell), but he breaks the rules. And, quite a bit like Helen, he breaks them because they are STUPID and because if he followed the rules, it would be denying his own sense of self. And this is whereartaxastra says it way better than I ever could, so:
"...When you know from day one that you are an unconvicted felon, it puts the entirety of the law into question. If spending the night with someone you love is illegal, then what is the law? It's nothing but a bunch of rules made by people. There is nothing awesome and majestic about it. Every law can be questioned [...] So why does someone who believes this choose to become a detective, to serve the law? Because the law cannot be trusted to bring justice. If you want justice, you have to do it yourself. And he wants justice with every fiber of his being."
Of course, James Watson's justice lost him John, and forever altered the nature of his relationship with Helen, but in the moment when he could have made The Noble Sacrifice (ie. tell John the wrong door), he followed his heart and rolled the dice on the person who'd broken it in the first place.
(Random Aside: I have a completely unrelated side thought about how one of the things that makes me the most sad about Sanctuary is that both Watson AND Ashley died before anyone found out about the Energy Being. I'll get to it.)
Anyway, I was already pretty much sold on James after the brandy scene with Will in part one, but after John grabs his shoulder and they teleport back into the main corridor? BE STILL MY HEART (it might also, for the record, be the first time in Canon that present!John touches ANYONE in a non-violent way).
James Watson is not the upstanding member of The Five. That role was always Helen's, even back in the day, because there were some things that James just could not lower himself to do (and, frankly, shouldn't have HAD to). And yes, he's an entitled bastard at times (like when we meet him, just after he's sent the people who traveled with him around to the back entrance), but he's also loyal (at personal cost) and kind of insanely single minded when it comes to preservation. And most importantly, he was every bit as much an outsider at Oxford, even though no one ever would have guessed it unless he let them.
And he doesn't let very many people close enough to guess.
I have included some fics, as well as links to the conversations that inspired this (well, as many of them as I can remember anyway).
Fic Recs
(I feel I should specify that these are all stories that back up what I've gone on (and on) about above. Which explains why there's a limited, if exceptionally talented, author pool. ;)
Six Things To Know About Dating James Watson, by Declan McCrae, as recorded bypenknife, is an excellent starter's guide, it also contains the single saddest line I've ever read in a Sanctuary fanfic. I freaking adore this story.
Opportunities, bypenknife, was the story that really nailed down how I 'ship James and Declan. And here is the commentary.
Foreigners, bypenknife, shows us a side of Nikola and a side of James that hadn't crossed my mind, but now that it has, I realize that it's as true as anything else.
Golden Apples, byartaxastra, and yes, before you ask, I did in fact rec this story last week as part of my Nikola Manifesto, but this is the most amazingly scandalous story you will EVER FIND, and it's all done inside a PG rating. And, as I said before, there's a dragon. (There's also a commentary which, I should warn you, might break your brain.)
Kill, byartaxastra, is another Five fic, but she's written a commentary on the James section that is more or less directly responsible for this post, so I figured I had better rec it. Also, it's awesome.
Ugh, I've read SO MANY GOOD FICS lately. And many of them have dealt with the permutations of Helen/James/John in exactly the way I talked about, except I can't remember where they all are. Feel free to add your own in the comments.
Discussion
penknife and I talk about three things to keep in mind while writing James. It got out of control almost immediately. ;)
artaxastra. You pick.Dr. James Watson falls into that weird subgroup of Sanctuary characters that showed up for a small percentage of the actual episodes and yet has a massive following. This is, mostly likely, because he is AWESOME. Below, I will endeavour to cover all the ways in which that awesomeness pervades his grand total of three episodes of the show, but also how James is kind of, uh, shall we say a "complete arrogant bastard" sometimes.
On the surface, James seems to be the simplest of the Five (which, admittedly, is not saying much). He was a solid Victorian gentleman who never went outside the lines and used his keen mind for the betterment of society, once or twice even to his own detriment. Except that's totally not what happened.
As with Nikola (and Nigel, for that matter), we first meet James through John when he refers to "The Five" in "Sanctuary For All". This is problematic, because it makes it sounds like a) James is kind of evil and b) James doesn't already know how to get to Helen which seems to fly directly in the face of everything we'll learn about him later. And I'd be willing to let it go, chalking it up to "pilot-itis", if you will, except the NEXT time we run into James (again through John), it's JUST AS CONFUSING.
John tells Ashley that "Sir" James Watson is one of The Five and she doesn't react at all. Which I realize was just the writers not telling the actress what she needed to know, but I find it distracting because James and Helen clearly kept in contact, and Ashley must have known that he was "old like her". Of course, Ashley doesn't ask a lot of questions early on (possibly because she trusts her mother to tell her what she needs to know), so I can handwave that if I have to.
Which brings me to the "Sir". "The Five" is the only episode where James is referred to as "Sir" James Watson. Afterwards, it's always "Doctor". This raises important questions like "Was he really knighted?" and "What was he knighted for?" and also precludes him from being the Watson who discovered DNA, because you can't knight an American. For the record, I don't think he did that anyway, because he was busy running the London Sanctuary at the time, and also it just doesn't make sense for James to be any of the historical Watsons I've come across researching him.
The "fictional" Watson is far easier to pin down, because Doyle wrote a lot of books. I do like the fannish trend of giving James most of Sherlock's character traits, but I personally believe that the true James Watson is actually a combination of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. The detective and the doctor, the brilliant mind and the man who is content to follow, the man who disdains friendship and the man who craves it.
Which segues nicely in the general direction of James Watson's sexuality.
artaxastra writes him as having attended the same school as the historical John Druitt, Winchester College. This is significant, because while Druitt was in attendance there, there was a terrific fuss made over hazing and caning the students (who would be as young as 12). And this was in the mid-1800's, before people really thought about things like "child abuse". Young James, already brilliant enough in his own right, would have attracted the absolute worst sort of attention, and John Druitt would have been able to defend him. This, I believe, is how they met and became, rather quickly, at the very least co-dependent.Even if you don't buy into that backstory, which I didn't on account of not having read the fic when I first saw "Revelations", the subtext between John and James is difficult to ignore. Helen is allowed to say things like "You destroyed my heart" because Victorian society (and ours, if we're honest) is preprogrammed to accept that. What kills me, is that James can't say it. And he can't say it because he can't admit it. And he can't admit it because when he fell in love, he fell in love with someone whom he was legally prohibited from falling in love with (which is, I hasten to add, one of the DUMBEST THINGS EVER, but I'm already starting to veer offtrack so let's press on).
It doesn't stop with John, of course. I'm reasonably certain that James loves Helen (though again, not in the way society would be okay with), and I really, really 'ship James with Declan because I have this picture in my head of the first time they did anything, and afterwards James kind of panicked (for about a hundred really different, really good reasons), and then Declan was all "James. I am a normal person and this is okay.", and I'm not describing it properly, but it's just beautiful (and probably one of the few times in his life post-Winchester that anyone saw James Watson cry).
Which is my roundabout and convoluted way of saying a very simple thing: James Watson is a rule breaker.
He doesn't look like it, and in public he never, ever acts like it (except that one time he told King Edward to go to Hell), but he breaks the rules. And, quite a bit like Helen, he breaks them because they are STUPID and because if he followed the rules, it would be denying his own sense of self. And this is where
artaxastra says it way better than I ever could, so:"...When you know from day one that you are an unconvicted felon, it puts the entirety of the law into question. If spending the night with someone you love is illegal, then what is the law? It's nothing but a bunch of rules made by people. There is nothing awesome and majestic about it. Every law can be questioned [...] So why does someone who believes this choose to become a detective, to serve the law? Because the law cannot be trusted to bring justice. If you want justice, you have to do it yourself. And he wants justice with every fiber of his being."
Of course, James Watson's justice lost him John, and forever altered the nature of his relationship with Helen, but in the moment when he could have made The Noble Sacrifice (ie. tell John the wrong door), he followed his heart and rolled the dice on the person who'd broken it in the first place.
(Random Aside: I have a completely unrelated side thought about how one of the things that makes me the most sad about Sanctuary is that both Watson AND Ashley died before anyone found out about the Energy Being. I'll get to it.)
Anyway, I was already pretty much sold on James after the brandy scene with Will in part one, but after John grabs his shoulder and they teleport back into the main corridor? BE STILL MY HEART (it might also, for the record, be the first time in Canon that present!John touches ANYONE in a non-violent way).
James Watson is not the upstanding member of The Five. That role was always Helen's, even back in the day, because there were some things that James just could not lower himself to do (and, frankly, shouldn't have HAD to). And yes, he's an entitled bastard at times (like when we meet him, just after he's sent the people who traveled with him around to the back entrance), but he's also loyal (at personal cost) and kind of insanely single minded when it comes to preservation. And most importantly, he was every bit as much an outsider at Oxford, even though no one ever would have guessed it unless he let them.
And he doesn't let very many people close enough to guess.
I have included some fics, as well as links to the conversations that inspired this (well, as many of them as I can remember anyway).
Fic Recs
(I feel I should specify that these are all stories that back up what I've gone on (and on) about above. Which explains why there's a limited, if exceptionally talented, author pool. ;)
Six Things To Know About Dating James Watson, by Declan McCrae, as recorded by
penknife, is an excellent starter's guide, it also contains the single saddest line I've ever read in a Sanctuary fanfic. I freaking adore this story.Opportunities, by
penknife, was the story that really nailed down how I 'ship James and Declan. And here is the commentary.Foreigners, by
penknife, shows us a side of Nikola and a side of James that hadn't crossed my mind, but now that it has, I realize that it's as true as anything else.Golden Apples, by
artaxastra, and yes, before you ask, I did in fact rec this story last week as part of my Nikola Manifesto, but this is the most amazingly scandalous story you will EVER FIND, and it's all done inside a PG rating. And, as I said before, there's a dragon. (There's also a commentary which, I should warn you, might break your brain.)Kill, by
artaxastra, is another Five fic, but she's written a commentary on the James section that is more or less directly responsible for this post, so I figured I had better rec it. Also, it's awesome.Ugh, I've read SO MANY GOOD FICS lately. And many of them have dealt with the permutations of Helen/James/John in exactly the way I talked about, except I can't remember where they all are. Feel free to add your own in the comments.
Discussion
penknife and I talk about three things to keep in mind while writing James. It got out of control almost immediately. ;)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 08:25 am (UTC)I was so pleased that we are seeing more of James in flashbacks - I thought it was a waste having him die so soon into the series. I love the character, so much to explore there, but I also blame Peter Wingfield. I've been a huge fan of his ever since he played Methos in Highlander.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 02:16 pm (UTC)I have a feeling that I'm going to watch at least the Methos episodes of Highlander when I get around to it.
Don't forget to check below for more recs!
no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 11:00 am (UTC)I have a few wonderful James stories to add, because nobody writes James as brilliantly as
Watson's First Case This is one of those stories that became part of my personal canon -- James and John as schoolboys about fourteen, and James' "first case" as a great detective!
Momentary Oblivion, James/John, circa 1911, in which James has some unlikely help with a case -- from The Ripper. This one's R for drugs.
Encounter in Berlin James/John, 1930s, a much less friendly encounter! This one's also R.
Arrangements Set during WWII, a James and Nikola friendship fic -- in which Nikola decides that what James needs is to be set up with a nice boy!
Entering the Modern World, a James and Helen friendship story in which he is indeed an arrogant, entitled bastard -- and she loves him anyway.
Aftermath, a short vignette of James and Helen in prewar Berlin
no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 02:56 pm (UTC)And thanks for the recs! (Which line from "Six Things" is the sad one, btw?)
Mariposa Grove by
no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 03:17 pm (UTC)I think I'm over-invested in all of them, to be honest, but the conversations I've had in the last few days have made me reconsider James, and I now I am even more intrigued by him.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 03:19 pm (UTC)... yeah, in the context I can see that. (James: a realist even when realism may not be what's called for at the moment.)
no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 04:13 pm (UTC)Thank you for the rec.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-10 12:12 am (UTC)I think a lot of it comes out that way because of the actor they got. Peter Wingfield is all about the subtle.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-10 12:21 am (UTC)He really, really is. I haven't seen Highlander yet, so I am going entirely off of his Tanith (SG-1) and Singh (Caprica), and I just love him to pieces. He owns every scene he's in.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-10 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-10 10:49 pm (UTC)