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I don't develop "personal canon" the way I've seen many writers do - all the little details like favorite color, first kiss, number of pets, etc., that are interesting and fun but never come to light. I usually start with core principles and canon details and go from there, reinventing the personal details to suit my purposes (for fic or meta or whatever).
But there's an exception: character sexuality.
When I develop an opinion about a character's sexuality, I will stick to it. I supposed a dramatic event in canon could theoretically change my mind, but it hasn't happened yet. It's weirdly opposite to my approach in real life, where I usually don't try to figure people out unless I'm deciding if I want to flirt with them. For many characters, I don't have a *conscious* idea of their orientation, but odds are I can give you an answer if you give me 30 seconds to consider it. For some, I've got very strong opinions.
Take Charlie Crews, for example. My fanon evaluation of him: straight. I used to read (and still enjoy) Charlie/Ted, but by the end of S1 I was convinced that Charlie just *loves* women, platonically and romantically. Any homosexual activity in his past was situational (i.e., prison) [and possibly not consensual], and while he's not going to have a freak out about it, he's not going to seek out male partners now that he's free.
On the other hand, Dean Winchester = bisexual, though he skews way more to the hetero end of the spectrum. I've considered him bi since well before Castiel ever showed his pretty face. If he wants to get laid, he'll usually pick up a woman, but sometimes he goes for guys - like the difference between craving a bacon cheeseburger and a double decker. Dean may be the type of guy who's very concerned with the trappings of masculinity, but I figure sex is sex is sex to him. (Falling in love, though -- that's a whole different barrel of monkeys, regardless of gender.)
Emily Prentiss: prefers women. I don't have much evidence for my opinion, and I don't think she's been in many relationships (if any) because repression thy name is Emily, but it's very clear in my mind. Hotch and Reid are both firmly heterosexual, though Reid doubtless knows reams of studies about sexuality and would be suprised-but-chill if he were ever attracted to a man.
Neal Caffrey: so very bisexual. He has strong tendencies towards clever people and committed-but-open relationships - the 'open' part being a necessary condition of his profession, where being able to seduce anyone is an advantage. If he met any aliens, he'd definitely pull a Jack Harkness and give it a try, and he's cool with polyamory.
Parker: bisexual. Obviously not shy about her sexuality, considering she hit on Nate's ex-wife in front of him, though she's as unlikely to talk about it as give away money.
Sherlock Holmes: nearly asexual, a state reinforced by his (self)conscious pursuit of logic, but he's got a weakness for people who admire him and who he considers an equal. However, in such rare events, he would only start a relationship with someone he trusts (*cough*Watson*cough*), and then only after overcoming his own self-imposed "love is a danger to logic" principles. After jumping all those hurdles, a metropolitan student of humanity like Holmes is not going to be concerned with something minor like gender.
Do any of y'all have this sort of personal canon? Want to test my opinions by throwing characters at me, or just argue with me about one of the above characters? Bring it!
But there's an exception: character sexuality.
When I develop an opinion about a character's sexuality, I will stick to it. I supposed a dramatic event in canon could theoretically change my mind, but it hasn't happened yet. It's weirdly opposite to my approach in real life, where I usually don't try to figure people out unless I'm deciding if I want to flirt with them. For many characters, I don't have a *conscious* idea of their orientation, but odds are I can give you an answer if you give me 30 seconds to consider it. For some, I've got very strong opinions.
Take Charlie Crews, for example. My fanon evaluation of him: straight. I used to read (and still enjoy) Charlie/Ted, but by the end of S1 I was convinced that Charlie just *loves* women, platonically and romantically. Any homosexual activity in his past was situational (i.e., prison) [and possibly not consensual], and while he's not going to have a freak out about it, he's not going to seek out male partners now that he's free.
On the other hand, Dean Winchester = bisexual, though he skews way more to the hetero end of the spectrum. I've considered him bi since well before Castiel ever showed his pretty face. If he wants to get laid, he'll usually pick up a woman, but sometimes he goes for guys - like the difference between craving a bacon cheeseburger and a double decker. Dean may be the type of guy who's very concerned with the trappings of masculinity, but I figure sex is sex is sex to him. (Falling in love, though -- that's a whole different barrel of monkeys, regardless of gender.)
Emily Prentiss: prefers women. I don't have much evidence for my opinion, and I don't think she's been in many relationships (if any) because repression thy name is Emily, but it's very clear in my mind. Hotch and Reid are both firmly heterosexual, though Reid doubtless knows reams of studies about sexuality and would be suprised-but-chill if he were ever attracted to a man.
Neal Caffrey: so very bisexual. He has strong tendencies towards clever people and committed-but-open relationships - the 'open' part being a necessary condition of his profession, where being able to seduce anyone is an advantage. If he met any aliens, he'd definitely pull a Jack Harkness and give it a try, and he's cool with polyamory.
Parker: bisexual. Obviously not shy about her sexuality, considering she hit on Nate's ex-wife in front of him, though she's as unlikely to talk about it as give away money.
Sherlock Holmes: nearly asexual, a state reinforced by his (self)conscious pursuit of logic, but he's got a weakness for people who admire him and who he considers an equal. However, in such rare events, he would only start a relationship with someone he trusts (*cough*Watson*cough*), and then only after overcoming his own self-imposed "love is a danger to logic" principles. After jumping all those hurdles, a metropolitan student of humanity like Holmes is not going to be concerned with something minor like gender.
Do any of y'all have this sort of personal canon? Want to test my opinions by throwing characters at me, or just argue with me about one of the above characters? Bring it!
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Okay, to match your Dean entry, Sam Winchester: firmly hetero. But I think this might be because he's very person-centric-sexual. Um. Okay, sort of like how Holmes is Watsonsexual? Sam is more about the person than the gender. Which I suppose is why I think he's hetero, because we've only ever seen that reaction from him re: girls. (DEAN DOES NOT COUNT.)
Josh Lyman: straight as an arrow. Just, very. Yes, I know people write Sam/Josh, but I can only see that as unrequited Sam-for-Josh. CJ Cregg, Rick Castle, and Booth: VERY STRAIGHT. Michael Westen: whatever works for him, since he's not planning to fall in love, now, is he?
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Agreed! Sam might have made out with a guy or two at Stanford, but only because Jess thought it was hot.
Yes to Josh, CJ, Castle and Booth, but I disagree about Michael. He can (and will, with style!) honeytrap a guy if duty calls for it, but he's interested in women.
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Hmm. I will accept your premise re: Michael.
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As you should. ;)
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Watson, meanwhile, had a great deal of enthusiastic but inept sex with various partners all the way through his youth (women AND boys because, well, boarding school) and then some rather less inept but still quite vanilla sex as an adult, mostly with women. He can't compare to Watson's BREADTH of experience but he's got more experience of WANTING to have sex with a specific person that he feels strongly about, rather than Holmes' kinky-but-anonymous stuff.
Rudy Miller I think I could have two totally distinct theories for. Either he's pretty much Mike-sexual, and can't be bothered with anyone else (and that ends with Mike mostly the aggressor in their relationship), or else he's a guy with a fantastically rich and twisted inner life, which he only reveals to a very limited set of people who he trusts not to at some point hold it against him or find it weird. Because he finds and decides to trust Mike so young, and Mike verges on thinking Rudy is the greatest and most amazing thing since sliced bread, and is weirdly unsurprised (because he's not even TRYING to make Rudy make sense by any conventional standards) by any facet of Rudy's character that Rudy chooses to reveal, he ends up very interested in Mike. He's already aware he's going to be a disappointment to his family and an oddball at school no matter what he does, so he's sort of cynically unconcerned about coming out. I think he's bi, but more in a person-not-the-package way. If Mike had been a girl, it wouldn't have changed anything.
Mike, by comparison, is kind of hopeless and flailing. He tries to do the girl thing, even though he's sort of vaguely aware that there's something not quite right about the experience (and he drives Rudy insane at the time trying to date girls and work himself up to some kind of enthusiasm about high school mating rituals). I think he'd probably be quite resistant to the idea of being gay because he doesn't WANT to be different, really, and he's worried what his parents will think. Then his cousin comes out and his mum is just like, ha! your dad owes me $20! and then tells him and Vicky that if they say even one mean or joking thing she will ground them, because their cousin is really shy about it, and all love is good, and there is nothing wrong with being gay (Mike totally doesn't see her pointed looks at him, lol last to know). I like it better if Rudy is a kinky, person-not-package guy because I think Mike would be reluctant to bring his sexuality into his relationship with his best friend, so it's hard for me to believe (or write) agressor!Mike starting the relationship with an asexual or Mikesexual Rudy.
ETA because I posted before I was done!
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The good doctor is definitely a vanilla sex guy, but by habit/romanticism/societal norms rather than by nature. Holmes, of course, is always willing to educate him ;)
Aww, Mike. ♥ My personal fanon was Rudy=bi and Mike=gay, so I favor the second of your theories. You are far more eloquent about the boys, though. *chinhands* There's some parallels between Holmes and Rudy, I think, in the way they are choosy about their attractions, but unimpaired by societal pressures and gender when they act on those relationships.
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Apparently I have given Mike & Rudy's sex lives a GREAT DEAL OF THOUGHT. Presumably this is because they are my all time favourite boys.<3
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It's strange; with Holmes, I either imagine that he's done it all, or has done nothing at all but still *knows* about it, just not from personal experience. Book-canon Holmes, at least; RDJ's Holmes...well. There's no way that man hasn't done everything on the face of the planet. Twice. For science.
For the record, Watson obliquely refers to his own history as "an experience of women which extends over many nations and three separate continents." ♥ He is way more sentimental about everything, though, I agree. He also has a talent for going with the flow (eventually) where Holmes is concerned, though; I imagine he'd be shocked at first by the non-vanilla stuff, but would be a very fast learner once Holmes properly explained things. :)
It's interesting; you and Katie have both talked about kinky-Holmes and Rudy not trusting anyone else (emotionally) other than Watson and Mike. But I think it's equally accurate to say that Watson and Mike wouldn't trust anyone else (sexually) with kink other than Holmes and Rudy.
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I think it's equally accurate to say that Watson and Mike wouldn't trust anyone else (sexually) with kink other than Holmes and Rudy.
I definitely agree. I don't think Mike would EVER go to a particularly kinky place in his life if it weren't for Rudy. If I were going to write a very NC-17 story about them (which, probably I won't, though I've been tempted and written some bits in my non-posting folders) I would definitely write rich-inner-life kinky-on-the-inside Rudy, who manages to get Mike to agree to all kinds of crazy stuff just by suggesting once and then watching Mike wind himself up thinking about it. Because Mike is basically putty in Rudy's hands, whilst at the same time totally in control of their love life. Rudy's just really really good at these little whispered comments that make Mike's brain RACE and his eyes go O.O and his blood rush south. He probably wouldn't go there independently, without Rudy thinking it up, and there's probably this weird dynamic where there are some things that he agrees to pretty quickly, and some things that it takes him a while before he's like, OKAY, YES, LET'S GO, and some things where Rudy backs off from properly suggesting whatever it is because Mike's making EW, OMG, NO! faces over his early overtures.
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Oddly, no. Sexuality is about the last thing I define in my head for any character, whether we're talking personal canon in various media/fanfic or original characters. I tend to assume everybody is potentially bisexual until proven otherwise. *g*
I sort of vaguely understand that other people have strong opinions about character sexuality, but it's very abstract to me. Abstract but interesting!
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I know, it's totally weird! Because that sentence is something I have actually said about my RL attitude towards people. It's not the *first* thing I notice or decide about a character - I can generally form an opinion about a movie character after a viewing, but a TV character takes at least half a dozen eps or more - but it's oddly persistent in my backbrain.
I'm cool with being abstract but interesting ;)