#benton fraser

word-salad:

Fraser: Detective Vecchio also has a source that corroborates his theory, sir.

Welsh: And that would be?

Ray: His wolf, sir?

Welsh: Ohh.. Unfortunately wolves are such notoriously bad witnesses.. In my experience they tend to fold under cross examination.

word-salad:

exuberantocean:

exuberantocean:

itwoodbeprefect:

part 1 of victoria’s secret begins relatively innocently and it’s not until part 2 that shit really starts to go down, but you don’t have to look any further than thirteen minutes into part 1 to get extreme whiplash from hearing fraser describe the one (1) single time he met victoria and spent only four or five days with her, much of which was while they were hovering on the edge of unconsciousness just prior to freezing to death, and then immediately making the leap to “she’s the only woman i ever loved” in the very next scene, with zero breaks at all. the red flags are all over part 1 once you know where things are headed, but this one always comes into my home to slap me in the face in particular. at the point that victoria’s secret happens we’ve seen enough episodes of fraser with his competent mountie façade up to think of him as a very intelligent, rational man who’s an almost supernaturally good judge of character, and then here he just goes and claims that someone he knew for less than a week under ridiculously unusual circumstances is not just someone he fell for, but the only woman he’s ever loved. like yes, this is extremely interesting to me because of how well it fits into a queer reading of fraser, but it also hurts my heart for the total naivity of it all, the one time that fraser actually admits to having genuine and deep feelings. he’s human after all, and it immediately comes back around to almost destroy him.

Oh, I have so many thoughts on this two part episode. It very much is a tragedy in a Shakespearean sense, both in how the plot goes but also how is exposes all of Fraser’s flaws and uses them so brutally against him.

@word-salad: #due south#benton fraser#victorias secret#meta#yes#i saw someone once say that fraser#for all his knowledge of the world#and emotional intelligence#doesn’t really understand intimacy#or relationships in general#based on what we’ve seen#i don’t think that fraser really had any kind of lovelife#at least anything significant#so when he gets trapped with victoria#he experiences the kind of forced intimacy#that comes with life or death situations#and since he has nothing to compare it to#he ends up assuming that it must be true love#and i also agree that it’s such a tragedy that vulnerability is fraser’s undoing#which is something that i don’t really like about the episode#or more accurately#maybe something i don’t like about the show#because we never really get to see fraser like this again#so there’s no real redemption of fraser’s pain here#he never gets to experience that kind of intimacy for real

So, here’s the thing.  Take a young boy who’s mother suddenly dies without warning.  His father appears to reject him shortly after (Bob Fraser has his own shitty reasons for the way he acted that had everything to do with his own pain and guilt but he never explained that to his son).  And he grows up with grandparents who are, at the very least, cold and strict (from what admittedly little we see and hear of them).  Add to this the fact that Fraser clearly moved around often.

So from child Fraser’s point of view he’s abandoned or rejected by all the adults that matter, and moves around enough to prevent the formation and deep and lasting friendship.  Fraser grows up being exactly what he thinks he has to be to earn the love of his father attention and love - that is he follows in his footsteps to be not just a mountie but some sort of rugged idealized one.  While also doing what he thinks he needs to do to get the attention and affection of his librarian grandparents (all that book knowledge).  But the truth is, in Fraser’s mind that was probably never enough, because he never seemed to succeed to make those connections with the adult caregivers in his life.

Which is to say, despite the whole mountie front, I don’t think Fraser thinks very highly of himself.  At all.  The Mountie after all, is a front; an idealized version of himself that he knows, at his core, isn’t who he really is.  When he’s alone/with Deif/talking to Bob we see that snark and that bitterness bleed through.  

And, to protect himself from further rejection/abandonment, he uses The Mountie thing to keep people at a distance while at the same time being unfailingly polite.

Then we have Victoria.  The one person to, due to circumstances, sees him at his most raw, most vulnerable self.  

And she hates him, which he thinks any else would.

And she loves him, which he’s so desperate for.

And, I think, the part of that relationship where she hates him makes him feel seen for the first time.  I think, quite frankly, if Victoria only loved him, he’s be able to let her go but because he believes she sees his own “darkness” and his own “badness” and hates him for it but still loves him she becomes something he just cannot let go of.

***

But moving on, I have a different take.  Vecchio, by the end of S2, I think really has Fraser figured out pretty well.  He’s seen Fraser’s “darkness” through the Victoria incident and bits more after.  Vecchio’s knows Fraser well enough near the end of S2 to call Fraser out on his lack of emotional honesty in “Red, White, or Blue.” Moreover, Vecchio leaves but makes it clear that his leaving will not change their friendship.  Vecchio’s about as loyal as they come and whether they are partners or living in the same city or the same country doesn’t matter.  This is a lesson I think Fraser very much needs to learn.

Then we have Kowalski.  Kowalski, it’s often joked in fandom, has a complementary issue: his codependency fits oddly well with Fraser’s fear of abandonment and rejection. It’s made clear at the series end that Kowalski doesn’t leave Fraser, probably never can.  

I agree that Fraser still has a lot of needed healing, but I do think that not only does he make some progress, he’s got at least two solid friendships in his two Rays that will probably only deepen over the years.

You’re absolutely right about how Fraser’s background contributed to his obsession with Victoria! He’s got this history of abandonment and that makes him desperate for affection but also leaves him without the tools to attain it. I also agree about Fraser and Victoria’s dynamic. It reminds me of Fraser’s speech to his father about loving someone at their worst; technically, he’s talking about his own feelings for Victoria, but more than that he’s projecting how he wants Victoria to feel about him. And in the end, he does get that. Despite everything, Victoria wants Fraser to come with her. He gets that acceptance, just in the most tragic way possible.

And I think that the resolution with RayV is a major part of what makes the Victoria arc so powerful. Because, like you said, Fraser wanted someone who could see him at his worse and love him anyway, and he got that with RayV. Before this, I don’t think Fraser had really known unconditional love, and the fact that Fraser and RayV’s relationship was stronger after all this mess is major.

Now, to clarify,I was talking about them not really following up on Fraser’s love life. While you’ve got Thatcher in season two, that storyline’s pretty much over in season three and  totally gone by season four, except for their goodbye in the finale. We get a bit about his own desire for romance in Bounty Hunter, but again, that doesn’t work out. This makes sense since due South is a buddy cop show and those tend to put romance in the background in order to focus on the dynamic between the two leads. Still it makes me sad that Fraser’s only experience with romantic love ended so terribly.

But you’re right, I wasn’t giving Fraser’s platonic relationships enough credit. Like you said, RayV’s acceptance of Fraser went a long way to healing the wounds caused by Victoria, as well as helping to resolve the issues that led to his obsession with her in the first place. And of course the ending with RayK is huge as well, since it means that Fraser gets to go home, just like he’s always wanted, but not alone. He doesn’t have to choose between having his life in the far north (where he had no friends and his coworkers thought he was nuts) and having a connection with someone (which he didn’t find until he arrived in Chicago). Now he’s got everything, and he’s got it with someone who’s not going to leave. Who, in some ways, can’t leave.

I also love your point that neither of these relationships are over. In fact, I think the fact that the show ended on a new beginning for Fraser and RayK is a big part of why it resonated with so many people. For whatever reason, Fraser and RayV weren’t given a lot of focus in the finale, but it’s clear from the epilogue that they’re still in touch and I’m sure that their relationship continued to evolve as well.

The power Victoria Metcalf holds in this fandom after only being in 2 episodes is astounding.

Benton+tears

I’m dead.

I’ve NEVER shipped Benton and Inspector Thatcher at all but Lieutenant Welsh and Inspector Thatcher…….THAT would be quite the pair ngl.

juniperluann:

lark-in-ink:

cutegoblingirl:

lark-in-ink:

What he says: For reasons that don’t require exploring at this juncture

What he means: Do you recall that time where I discovered police corruption and instead of standing by and covering for my fellow Mounties, investigated and got them all thrown in jail and as a result every cop in Canada hates me and I got transferred to Chicago for my own safety?  Upon reflection I’ve decided I shouldn’t mention that to the oblivious American cops who don’t follow Canadian politics. 

“… and who would probably side against me, given the similar nature of law enforcement corruption and police tribalization in our respective nations.”

Well, yes, exactly.  (not sure what u mean by tribalization tho?)

#due south#benton fraser#pilot#i will give due south this#they did acknowledge the hierarchical and structural issues in the police#unfortunately#they still saw the system as inherently good and beneficial to our society#the reason that law enforcement failed was because of the failures of individual membvers of the organizations#not because the system itself is broken#even those bad cops were seen as redeemable#like rayk and and ravy#both of whom are involved in terrible behavior#the basic idea behind due south#is that if people acted like fraser#the world would be a better place#and that worked for individuals helping each other#but while having moral cops would improve things#it wouldn’t fix the problems with the police#something that due south clearly doesn’t understand#like i said#it gets credit for knowing that the police aren’t always the good guys#but the show is still very much part of the problem 

@word-salad;s excellent tags

Billie Eilish is a closeted Due South fan and wrote the song Ocean Eyes about Benton Fraser. Change my mind.

Y’all, I work in law enforcement okay? I work v closely with cops. I’ve also watched a MILLION cop shows. That being said, I can confidently say the most accurate representation of a good cop out there is RayV. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

It’s crazy how closely my life parallels Due South sometimes……anyway, I’m crying at the end of Burning Down the House cause it’s resonating too hard rn.

At this point if I want to feel something I just watch Victoria’s Secret.

What you watched when you were 6-8 shaped you. I watched Due South and it made me wanna go into law enforcement. I’m now sitting at my law enforcement job stressed because it’s LAW ENFORCEMENT listening to Due South music to calm me down. My entire life is irony.

I have been gone (accidentally deleted the app and couldn’t get back in) and now I’m back. More content to come

saywhatjessie:

toffeestudies:

it’s not ‘talking to myself’ it’s called a soliloquy you fuck

#it’s only a soliloquy if it’s in verse #otherwise it’s just a sparkling mental breakdown

mortmere:

Happy birthday to Mr Canada! 63 years!

(Freehand portrait with some tracing from the reference pic to get a quicker start - took maybe 4 hours in total. After one hour it still looked like a stupid blob and I very nearly abandoned it, but apparently taking a break and a walk helps sometimes. I don’t often do simple actor portraits like this, but hey, it’s Paul Gross’s birthday and it looked like it was going to be an entirely artless April in the due South fandom - had to do something quick to fix that, though of course this isn’t strictly speaking dS art. But these 2015 TIFF photos are probably my favorite PG hair moment ever, and I want to think that at some point after retiring Fraser lets his hair grow out like this. :D )