Thief Of Love

(Title by way of T.S. Eliot. 'Cause I'm hip.)

Thief Of Love

everwoodfan52

Beautiful, Thief...really worth the wait. Thanks so much for doing this.

Would you like to add me to the shipper list?

Thief Of Love

Sure. I just edited you in as "Betty," since, well, I never think of you as "everwoodfan52," hee.

everwoodfan52

Yeah, I've got to do something about that monstrosity of a name.

'Tos

You know, mods can get name changes if you really do want one?

Very nice, Thief! Thanks for the new thread. Needs more "sweaty" remarks, though.

Taryn74

Lovely! Of course I had to watch the vid again.

Now that we're at the beginning of a new thread, add me to the shippers list please?

everwoodfan52

I kind of do want to change it but I feel like it will be too much of a hastle and I have no idea what to change it to.

'Tos

I was thinking of changing mine just to ', hee. No, um..yeah, it is a hard decision. Especially since you have to stick with the change for a year. Plus, it's not like you can go wrong with being an everwoodfan anyway.

Somewhat on topic: Parks & Recreation with Chris Pratt returns tomorrow night at 8:30. Still no word on what Sarah will be up to yet.

Thief Of Love

Oh, one thing first: I hope the thread title makes sense; I was inspired by that last conversation about the break-up actually fostering, in a strange way, the reestablishment of their friendship. So I hope that works, heh.

Added to the list, Taryn! And Betty, as someone who went through three different screen names back in the days when regular posters were permitted three or four different ones (switching wasn’t permanent, either – I had an ice cream name I’d temporarily use for celebrations on the major thread I frequented, hee), definitely think it over before making a change, if you do. I’m deeply glad that I switched to this one after a few months with my first screen name, because I’d hate to still be stuck with that abomination, but “Thief Of Love” wouldn’t exactly be my first choice now, either.

I think it's just a repeat tomorrow, though? My cable listings are citing it as the one with Ron Swanson's ex-wife and all the lines about how evil librarians are, hee (which was one you missed, so, be sure to catch it).

I totally need Sarah to show up somewhere again. Somewhere really good this time, though. I would very much take a guest stint on P&R. Bright and Hannah, four years post-Everwood! Pretty sure that of all the younger actors (who aren't the still-growing Vivien Cardone), Chris and Sarah look the most dramatically different from how they did then, hee.

And...I was going to include the epic thoughts that I promised towards the end of the last thread here, except that they're not done yet and, also, they'll eat the rest of this post alive, hee. Ah, wordy overanalysis, I just can't let you go.

Taryn74

Makes perfect sense to me, and that conversation was the first thing I thought of when I read the title!

Ooh, care to post a current pic of each of them? We don't have TV, you know, so I haven't really seen either of them since EW, other than the crazy murderous looking Sarah with the knife from the last thread.

'Tos

Which was kinda hot. Just saying!

I'll let Thief post the pics, since she'll find the best pic of Sarah, especially, I'm sure. No pressure!

Although that is kind of by default since Emily looks very similar to S4 Amy (although still gorgeous, of course) and Greg looks just the same when he isn't styling his hair in bangs or other weird styles, hee. Chris is the most dramatic change, though, yeah. Sarah...hm, I'm going to have to think about that. Better clothes, better hair, no glasses is working, but I thought she looked just as great in S4 too.

And aw poo to P&R being in repeats. I just assumed that everything comes back new at the same time. Although it'll be a new episode for me, so yay!

Thief Of Love

I think her face looks a bit different, too, in some way, but it could be the make-up and haircut. But, also, she and Chris are a few years older than Greg and Emily, not that being 29 and 30 is much different from 26 and 23, but maybe that's an influence, too, inasmuch as the latter two could probably still pass for early college age, while Sarah now looks more like early grad school/22-24ish and Chris like, well, a 30-year-old.

Here's the best picture I could locate of Chris (from October; nicked from one of Ellie's posts in the Bright/Chris thread):




And one of many great recent pics of Sarah (from...September, I think):

Taryn74

Holy!!! Um, wow. Not even sure I would have recognized him if I was just glancing through celeb photos. He looks good though, definitely more mature.

Aw, Hannah's all grown up. Can't ya'll just see her as a young, vibrant, happily married woman? (SEASON FIVE WRITERS TAKE NOTE! Heh.)

Thief Of Love

Hee, Season Five writers are paying attention.

Okay, think I've worked out what it was that I wanted to say, heh.

For some random reason, I recently recalled a discussion that occurred somewhere, a few years ago, in which the topic was television couples who could or couldn’t be considered “soulmates.” Bright and Hannah were noted as a couple who did not fit this concept. At first I wondered exactly what the parameters of the definition were, but, after thinking through what I thought they might be, realized something: the things that made them counter to the more sweeping, “destined” couples were exactly the things that I love about them.

While it was fairly clear after “Best Laid Plans,” and outright obvious after “Since You’ve Been Gone,” that Bright and Hannah were going to be paired off, they weren’t presented as being somehow irresistibly pulled to one another. Hannah simply thought he was cute; Bright did not reciprocate. But upon realizing that she was funny and Ephram-like, and that he needed an actual friend after falling out with Real Ephram and losing his high school pals, he made a serious effort to do this, and this alone – befriend her, not because she was Hannah, but because she made a pretty good candidate for friendship. Hannah’s attraction remained, prompting her to make herself vulnerable to Bright with the confession about her father, in a deliberate bid to win his sympathy. Bright freely offered this (along with a good ear for listening), simply because it’s the kind of friend he is, and not because of any special attribute on Hannah’s part. Hannah moved on a bit and decided to date another boy that she found interesting and cute, prompting no immediate emotional turmoil on the part of either Hannah or Bright. Bright, meanwhile, moved in his own world, mostly separate from Hannah, and went through some…stuff… that had the effect of prompting his realization that he wanted to grow up and pursue a serious relationship, with a girl who then existed merely as a hypothetical. He’d come to see and love Hannah’s general awesomeness (and she, what she would increasingly come to know of his), but it was really the outcome of time and effort on the parts of each -- no instantaneous realizations of love or anything of that kind (because even the Bright of "He Who Hesitates" doesn't strike me as much of a different beast from the Bright who regretted Hannah's absence a few episodes earlier; Ephram just made things all concrete for him). Some couples seem to involve two characters who are interested in each other because they're interested in each other, and this is the sole explanation given: we're to root for them because that's just the way it ought to be. Bright and Hannah's attraction, while outwardly inexplicable, was really rooted in certain positive elements of who each character was (and, in the case of Bright, always had been -- Hannah only having started in S3, it's harder to make a case for her behaving in- or out-of-character then, hee -- even if he didn't always make it apparent) and the show, at least in my opinion, did a fantastic job of showing -- not telling -- why these two would grow to care as deeply as they did for one another.

But, of course, the two were also incredibly different, different in ways that frankly should have made them incompatible as romantic partners: their personalities were really pretty complementary, but certain of their values and interests clashed indeed. This could definitely hurt them in the fated soulmate department; it certainly helped hurt their actual relationship. But that same tension was, for one, incredibly real given the juxtaposition of characters like these, and was well worth exploring; it was, furthermore, something that meant more effort on the parts of each. Yeah, they avoided any talk of their feelings regarding, you know, abstinence and parties, and it would come back to haunt them, but at the same time, they did still work to mitigate their differences. Bright had the tougher task, but he still managed to put his feelings and basic respect for Hannah above his own desires, prior to the point when things began to unravel between them anyway. And Hannah shouldn't have felt the need to put on a front of loving parties, but she was acting out of the, I presume, accurate belief that sometimes loving someone means making a compromise -- not on the grounds of morals or ethics, but simply interests and activities.

All of which is to say this: Bright and Hannah were not your conventional major romantic couple. They weren't pulled apart by insurmountable obstacles; they didn't gaze longingly and wistfully at one another when something kept them apart; were they never to reunite after the events of S4, they would probably still find happiness with more ostensibly compatible partners (though I'd rather not see that outcome, hee) and not spend their days recalling that one perfect person whom fate allowed to slip away. They were, however, two people who -- for all their faults and all their mistakes -- knew what a commitment to another person entailed, who were willing to make that effort, and who were already beautifully positioned to make a much longer-term commitment work. Which isn't to say that all the more fairytale-esque couples might not share those same things -- though that might involve a little more assuming on the part of fans -- but given the choice between seeing the Instant!Spark! with various starry-eyed romantic moments, and the slow build with all the realistic messiness involved? I'll take the realistically messy slow build, any time. Love isn't the dreamy interludes, but being able to deal with the problems in-between. I can have faith in a (fictional) couple who know that.