Dude, I love it when people get all flappy-hands about Bob-related stuff. It warms my cold, cold (well, not very cold) heart. ♥___♥
Bob/Brian isn't my OTP, but I can totally understand why other people see it so clearly. And this is quite timely, actually, because one of the prompts I got for the trope meme was Bob/Brian, and I've kind of been staring at it going "but how do I even write them?" It's helpful to try to see them through other peoples' POVs. Especially Brian; I have a hell of a time conceptualizing him as a character. (He's not the only one; I have a tough time with Brendon, Spencer, and to some extent Patrick, too.)
So, okay, there's a question: talk to me about Brian. Who is he? What is he like? Defining characteristics/personality traits/etc? What was going through his head during/how did he react to some of the really well-known canon events (Gerard hitting rock bottom, Bob getting set on fire, Bob nearly dying)? I have an idea of what was going through his head while Gerard crashed and burned via LotMS, but I've wondered how he must have acted, right? Because he clearly didn't get Gerard clean; Gerard got there himself. But did he talk to Gerard about it, or did he not push it at all, or...what? I've just always thought it would have been different for him than for the rest of the band or Gerard's other friends, because while also worrying about Gerard Brian would have had to deal with venues, deal with, I don't know, Gerard hurling all over a hotel room when he got really drunk, deal with insurance people who want to hike up the cost of insuring Gerard because of his obvious downward spiral...mundane things like that, you know?
And, you know, given that he himself fell into the same pit not too long after Gerard crawled out of it, did Brian maybe look the other way? Did he think "wow, this is tragic, but that's the scene and it's probably going to be okay, and if it's not, well, I just won't think about that" because on some level he was also thinking about how he was falling into the same trap and wanting to believe it was okay (it's the scene, right) and everything would turn out fine (he wouldn't get *too* bad, he'd stop before that happened) and there's no need to worry about it (he doesn't want to think about potential bad consequences because it makes his life feel scarier than it already is)...? You know what I mean?
(I feel like I'm being really pedantic wanting to know about weird little specifics like that. Erm. But that's how I get comfortable with characters, I wonder about weird little specifics like that and try to settle on a way I think the person would have acted. And then that informs how I write him/her. You know? I have had a hard time figuring things like that out for Brian for some reason.)
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Date: 2010-01-21 06:11 pm (UTC)Bob/Brian isn't my OTP, but I can totally understand why other people see it so clearly. And this is quite timely, actually, because one of the prompts I got for the trope meme was Bob/Brian, and I've kind of been staring at it going "but how do I even write them?" It's helpful to try to see them through other peoples' POVs. Especially Brian; I have a hell of a time conceptualizing him as a character. (He's not the only one; I have a tough time with Brendon, Spencer, and to some extent Patrick, too.)
So, okay, there's a question: talk to me about Brian. Who is he? What is he like? Defining characteristics/personality traits/etc? What was going through his head during/how did he react to some of the really well-known canon events (Gerard hitting rock bottom, Bob getting set on fire, Bob nearly dying)? I have an idea of what was going through his head while Gerard crashed and burned via LotMS, but I've wondered how he must have acted, right? Because he clearly didn't get Gerard clean; Gerard got there himself. But did he talk to Gerard about it, or did he not push it at all, or...what? I've just always thought it would have been different for him than for the rest of the band or Gerard's other friends, because while also worrying about Gerard Brian would have had to deal with venues, deal with, I don't know, Gerard hurling all over a hotel room when he got really drunk, deal with insurance people who want to hike up the cost of insuring Gerard because of his obvious downward spiral...mundane things like that, you know?
And, you know, given that he himself fell into the same pit not too long after Gerard crawled out of it, did Brian maybe look the other way? Did he think "wow, this is tragic, but that's the scene and it's probably going to be okay, and if it's not, well, I just won't think about that" because on some level he was also thinking about how he was falling into the same trap and wanting to believe it was okay (it's the scene, right) and everything would turn out fine (he wouldn't get *too* bad, he'd stop before that happened) and there's no need to worry about it (he doesn't want to think about potential bad consequences because it makes his life feel scarier than it already is)...? You know what I mean?
(I feel like I'm being really pedantic wanting to know about weird little specifics like that. Erm. But that's how I get comfortable with characters, I wonder about weird little specifics like that and try to settle on a way I think the person would have acted. And then that informs how I write him/her. You know? I have had a hard time figuring things like that out for Brian for some reason.)
Aaaaaanyway. /ramble