Johnny/Bruce (The Dead Zone)
Dec. 20th, 2004 10:02 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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ship_manifestoTitle: Quiet Heroes
Author: T.W. Lewis
Spoilers: Through end of third season
Email: gardendoor@hotmail.com
Personal Website: The Gardendoor Fanfiction Archive
You're afraid people are going to touch you? You know what? They will. And you're gonna have to deal. Part of the re-entry process. You've got to learn how to be the hero of your own life again, John. But until you're ready, I'll be the hero of your life.
--Bruce, "Quality of Life"
I have to say, when I started watching Dead Zone, this pairing didn't appeal to me at all, didn't even strike me as a possibility. Johnny/Sarah was canon. Johnny/Walt had great possibilities, two alpha males fighting over their wife and son, vying for dominance while learning to value each other and back each other up. Every time Walt walked in the room, sparks flew.
Bruce, on the other hand, seemed like a complete pushover, a beta male with no charisma. The moment that clinched that for me occurred in "Quality of Life," when Johnny demands the keys to Bruce's cruiser and Bruce lets him drive, making feeble and ineffectual protests. No man I know would sit shotgun and let someone else drive their car! In the beginning, it seemed like Bruce was just a sidekick who tagged along and pleaded ineffectually for other people to listen to Johnny before it was too late.
That started to change when I saw "Here There be Monsters," in which Johnny orders Bruce to get out of town for his own safety when a mob puts Johnny on trial for witchcraft. (Interestingly, he's not worried about Dana Bright's safety, but can't concentrate unless he knows Bruce is out of the line of fire.) Bruce gets as far as the city limits, but can't make himself leave Johnny behind; he turns back and is run off the road by a gang of angry townsfolk. Despite being outnumbered, Bruce fights back and does a nice bit of damage before he's overpowered. It started me thinking; Bruce is clearly not a pushover, nor is he Johnny's starry-eyed groupie, so why the hell does he let Johnny boss him around? Why is this physical therapist with, by all reports, a very active social life spending all his time raiding crime scenes, picking up mail and acting as sole emotional support for one of his former patients?
From the beginning, Bruce was the only one who didn't treat Johnny as either a headcase or a messiah. Sarah often whitewashes over Johnny's powers in her attempts to help him readjust to normal life. Walt and Reverend Purdy tend to swing too far in the other direction, treating him as useful or miraculous, but are uncomfortable with his emotional needs and practical problems. Bruce is the only one who sees Johnny as a whole person. In one of their first conversations (although this occurs after they've known each other for months), Bruce teases Johnny about taking his talents to Vegas, then hands him a pair of leather gloves, explaining, "If you don't want to touch anyone, you might as well look cool not touching them." He opens Johnny's mail for him on a regular basis, filtering out anything Johnny doesn't actually need to touch, pushes him into teaching again (using driving privelages as a subtle carrot to make Johnny feel more in control), loans him Seinfeld tapes to help Johnny get a handle on popular culture, doing anything and everything he can to keep Johnny from withdrawing from the world. And he does this while backing up Johnny's use of his powers, following him to crime scenes, introducing him to people who need his help.
But Bruce and Johnny's relationship is about more than strong friendship. Johnny is a very touchy-feely person despite his visions; most of the epsiodes show him reaching out, casually touching people. Bruce is the only one who rarely triggers painful visions. You could take that as either a reason for Johnny to seek out the one person he can be intimate with without violating their minds, or a sign that he's touched Bruce so much that he's tapped the well dry. In "Dinner With Dana," the episode kicks off with Johnny arguing with Bruce that the evening isn't technically a date while Bruce tries to get Johnny to call a spade a spade. Later that evening, when Johnny is bombarded by images of people he and Dana have been intimate with, Bruce shows up frequently, and seems pretty pissed off about the whole evening, irritably giving advice and storming out partway through dinner. In a later episode, "Zion," Bruce's mother asks Johnny if there's a special woman in Bruce's life and Johnny replies cattily, "Oh, they're all special," which is a very odd thing to say to a friend's mother at a funeral, but not such a strange remark for a lover who's in the closet at a family gathering. And when Bruce is critically injured and Johnny is trying to find out who to take revenge on, Deputy Roscoe says, "They say surgeons shouldn't operate on their own families, right?" In this small town, Johnny has had visions of friends and acquaintances from old high school buddies to the delivery boy; the only people who are too close for him to remain objective about are his son and his ex-fiance ... and Bruce.
It's impossible to look at Johnny and Bruce's relationship without considering Johnny's greater destiny. For almost two years, Bruce was the only one Johnny talked to about the coming apocalypse and his need to stop Greg Stilson by any means necessary. Bruce acts as the voice of reason, not doubting the accuracy of Johnny's vision, but pressing him to find ways of stopping Stilson other than obsession and assassination. As we find out in "Zion," Johnny has from the beginning tested every principle Bruce has lived his adult life by: that people determine their own fate, that there is no apocalypse, no meddling God for Bruce or anyone else to worship and serve, and all that matters is the here and now. And from the beginning, Bruce has dealt with this crisis of faith not by worshiping Johnny or dismissing him, but by keeping him sane, pushing Johnny to balance using his talents with maintaining a love of life and ties to the world. He's quietly decided that Johnny (not just the prophet, but the whole man) is the most important thing in his life, more important than his own deeply-held convictions, and a better definition of love I have not found.
There's a severe shortage of Johnny/Bruce slash on the web, or slash of any kind for The Dead Zone. This is in part due to the fact that DZ has an exceptionally fan-friendly production team who have made the official website (a splendid source for screencaps, scripts and other goodies) a hub for fan sites, which has the unfortunate side-effect of subtly discouraging fandom's bastard child, slash. I'm listing the stories and sites I know of below, but I'd love it if people who know of more DZ slash or who create new stories would link to them in the comments, creating a mini library and a critical mass for new stories and plot bunnies.
You're outta chips and you're outta love, so my last tip...? Get your mind in the now, buddy.
--Bruce, "Dinner With Dana"
Fic Recs:
http://www.squidge.org/%7Etheforest/legion/DZ.htm
http://www.madbrilliant.com/thetenthmuse1/deadzone/deadzone_main.html
http://www.squidge.org/~peja/deadzone/Blink.htm
http://www.intimations.org/fanfic/
http://www.squidge.org/~peja/cgi-bin/viewstory.php?sid=623
http://www.squidge.org/~peja/cgi-bin/viewstory.php?sid=923
http://www.geocities.com/tayla36/DZafterthefire.html
http://sydni64.populli.net/deadzone/handlingit.html
Author: T.W. Lewis
Spoilers: Through end of third season
Email: gardendoor@hotmail.com
Personal Website: The Gardendoor Fanfiction Archive
You're afraid people are going to touch you? You know what? They will. And you're gonna have to deal. Part of the re-entry process. You've got to learn how to be the hero of your own life again, John. But until you're ready, I'll be the hero of your life.
--Bruce, "Quality of Life"
I have to say, when I started watching Dead Zone, this pairing didn't appeal to me at all, didn't even strike me as a possibility. Johnny/Sarah was canon. Johnny/Walt had great possibilities, two alpha males fighting over their wife and son, vying for dominance while learning to value each other and back each other up. Every time Walt walked in the room, sparks flew.
Bruce, on the other hand, seemed like a complete pushover, a beta male with no charisma. The moment that clinched that for me occurred in "Quality of Life," when Johnny demands the keys to Bruce's cruiser and Bruce lets him drive, making feeble and ineffectual protests. No man I know would sit shotgun and let someone else drive their car! In the beginning, it seemed like Bruce was just a sidekick who tagged along and pleaded ineffectually for other people to listen to Johnny before it was too late.
That started to change when I saw "Here There be Monsters," in which Johnny orders Bruce to get out of town for his own safety when a mob puts Johnny on trial for witchcraft. (Interestingly, he's not worried about Dana Bright's safety, but can't concentrate unless he knows Bruce is out of the line of fire.) Bruce gets as far as the city limits, but can't make himself leave Johnny behind; he turns back and is run off the road by a gang of angry townsfolk. Despite being outnumbered, Bruce fights back and does a nice bit of damage before he's overpowered. It started me thinking; Bruce is clearly not a pushover, nor is he Johnny's starry-eyed groupie, so why the hell does he let Johnny boss him around? Why is this physical therapist with, by all reports, a very active social life spending all his time raiding crime scenes, picking up mail and acting as sole emotional support for one of his former patients?
From the beginning, Bruce was the only one who didn't treat Johnny as either a headcase or a messiah. Sarah often whitewashes over Johnny's powers in her attempts to help him readjust to normal life. Walt and Reverend Purdy tend to swing too far in the other direction, treating him as useful or miraculous, but are uncomfortable with his emotional needs and practical problems. Bruce is the only one who sees Johnny as a whole person. In one of their first conversations (although this occurs after they've known each other for months), Bruce teases Johnny about taking his talents to Vegas, then hands him a pair of leather gloves, explaining, "If you don't want to touch anyone, you might as well look cool not touching them." He opens Johnny's mail for him on a regular basis, filtering out anything Johnny doesn't actually need to touch, pushes him into teaching again (using driving privelages as a subtle carrot to make Johnny feel more in control), loans him Seinfeld tapes to help Johnny get a handle on popular culture, doing anything and everything he can to keep Johnny from withdrawing from the world. And he does this while backing up Johnny's use of his powers, following him to crime scenes, introducing him to people who need his help.
But Bruce and Johnny's relationship is about more than strong friendship. Johnny is a very touchy-feely person despite his visions; most of the epsiodes show him reaching out, casually touching people. Bruce is the only one who rarely triggers painful visions. You could take that as either a reason for Johnny to seek out the one person he can be intimate with without violating their minds, or a sign that he's touched Bruce so much that he's tapped the well dry. In "Dinner With Dana," the episode kicks off with Johnny arguing with Bruce that the evening isn't technically a date while Bruce tries to get Johnny to call a spade a spade. Later that evening, when Johnny is bombarded by images of people he and Dana have been intimate with, Bruce shows up frequently, and seems pretty pissed off about the whole evening, irritably giving advice and storming out partway through dinner. In a later episode, "Zion," Bruce's mother asks Johnny if there's a special woman in Bruce's life and Johnny replies cattily, "Oh, they're all special," which is a very odd thing to say to a friend's mother at a funeral, but not such a strange remark for a lover who's in the closet at a family gathering. And when Bruce is critically injured and Johnny is trying to find out who to take revenge on, Deputy Roscoe says, "They say surgeons shouldn't operate on their own families, right?" In this small town, Johnny has had visions of friends and acquaintances from old high school buddies to the delivery boy; the only people who are too close for him to remain objective about are his son and his ex-fiance ... and Bruce.
It's impossible to look at Johnny and Bruce's relationship without considering Johnny's greater destiny. For almost two years, Bruce was the only one Johnny talked to about the coming apocalypse and his need to stop Greg Stilson by any means necessary. Bruce acts as the voice of reason, not doubting the accuracy of Johnny's vision, but pressing him to find ways of stopping Stilson other than obsession and assassination. As we find out in "Zion," Johnny has from the beginning tested every principle Bruce has lived his adult life by: that people determine their own fate, that there is no apocalypse, no meddling God for Bruce or anyone else to worship and serve, and all that matters is the here and now. And from the beginning, Bruce has dealt with this crisis of faith not by worshiping Johnny or dismissing him, but by keeping him sane, pushing Johnny to balance using his talents with maintaining a love of life and ties to the world. He's quietly decided that Johnny (not just the prophet, but the whole man) is the most important thing in his life, more important than his own deeply-held convictions, and a better definition of love I have not found.
There's a severe shortage of Johnny/Bruce slash on the web, or slash of any kind for The Dead Zone. This is in part due to the fact that DZ has an exceptionally fan-friendly production team who have made the official website (a splendid source for screencaps, scripts and other goodies) a hub for fan sites, which has the unfortunate side-effect of subtly discouraging fandom's bastard child, slash. I'm listing the stories and sites I know of below, but I'd love it if people who know of more DZ slash or who create new stories would link to them in the comments, creating a mini library and a critical mass for new stories and plot bunnies.
You're outta chips and you're outta love, so my last tip...? Get your mind in the now, buddy.
--Bruce, "Dinner With Dana"
Fic Recs:
http://www.squidge.org/%7Etheforest/legion/DZ.htm
http://www.madbrilliant.com/thetenthmuse1/deadzone/deadzone_main.html
http://www.squidge.org/~peja/deadzone/Blink.htm
http://www.intimations.org/fanfic/
http://www.squidge.org/~peja/cgi-bin/viewstory.php?sid=623
http://www.squidge.org/~peja/cgi-bin/viewstory.php?sid=923
http://www.geocities.com/tayla36/DZafterthefire.html
http://sydni64.populli.net/deadzone/handlingit.html
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 04:06 pm (UTC)I think you did a great job in showing the dynamic between those two, I second a lot of what you said *g* What is amusing though is how diffeetly we saw Bruce in the beginning, cause in my eyes, he was never a beta male nor a pushover, which is why slashing him with Johnny appealed to me so much, because I could see him being the man Johnny could lean on and who would 'protect' him when things got a bit too tough for him to handle *g*
And thanks for the recs, I'm sure there're fics out there I never read *g*
no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 04:49 pm (UTC)It's really interesting to me, watching shows that other people like, how different our perceptions of the same characters can be. But even though it may have taken me a little longer than you, at least we ended up in the same place at the end. And Bruce is so nice to lean on.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 04:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-21 11:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-21 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 02:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 05:24 pm (UTC)Thanks for writing this. I'm adding it to my link list. I'm hoping there might be at least one story in your list I haven't read. =) I sort of doubt it, but it's worth hoping!
no subject
Date: 2007-06-30 11:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-30 02:58 pm (UTC)Well, I'm off to see if I can churn out a new fic. My DZ muses have been restless lately.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-01 01:41 am (UTC)