Snowflake Challenge #9: Promote a Canon

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Welcome, friends, to my response to snowflake_challenge prompt #9: "In your own space, promote at least one canon that you adore (old, new, forever fandom). Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so."

I think anyone currently on my Flist knows me well enough to guess that we'll be talking all about

A quick disclaimer before we start: since this piece of media is based off of existing historical figures, there will be spoilers for the narrative of the series in the overview. Contextually, it's difficult to explain why dead men couldn't offer input as to their own storylines without letting slip that they're dead, so be aware that while I've tried to blackout any spoilers, if you're trying to preserve the mystery of a piece of historical fiction that was released a decade ago, this is probably not the ideal place to accomplish that goal.

Now that we've got that settled!

Working off the assumption that you know absolutely nothing about HBOWar at all if you're reading this, let alone about The Pacific, specifically, allow me to introduce you to Tom Hanks's passion project: making miniseries that document the (American) heroes and horror of World War II (with varying levels of accuracy). His first foray into this particular historical genre was the critically acclaimed Band of Brothers—another fave of mine that has been covered at length by bigger name fans than me—which focused on the exploits of US Army Paratroopers in the European Theatre of Operations. It was a sort of feel-good (and very America-centric) retrospective about the heroic men who fought the Nazis and saved the world from descent into chaos motivated by racial purity.

The Pacific is decidedly not that.

It's my favorite of the two—though it absolutely still suffers from that Americanized focus and some pretty glaring historical oversights—because it abandons the rose tinge that suffuses most of Band of Brothers and explores the trauma of war from a more realistic human perspective.

Probably not surprising, considering that, of the three memoirs it's based on, Helmet for My Pillow was written by Marine veteran Robert Leckie as an immediate response to the musical South Pacific, which he attended with his wife and walked out of because he was so horrified to see the harrowing things he experienced trivialized, and With the Old Breed was written by Marine veteran E. B. Sledge as a method to express to his family the trauma that shaped so much of the rest of his life. (He also has an excellent follow-up about his post-war occupation service called China Marine, if you're into that sort of thing.)

The third memoir, Red Blood, Black Sand was written by a Marine veteran named Chuck Tatum, as a chronicle of his time serving alongside Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone,—who received the Medal of Honor during the Guadalcanal campaign and was later killed in action on a return trip to the PTO—and is the only one of the three I haven't read.

I honestly can't recommend Helmet for My Pillow highly enough if you're at all interested in memoirs or war history. It's one of my favorite pieces of non-fiction that I've ever read.

Anyway, when Hanks et. al. decided to interpret this particular microcosm of history of World War II into a visual medium, their angle of approach was to simultaneously follow three main protagonists along three different paths to and through the Pacific Theatre. Not the tack I would have taken, but I'm not the millionaire producer so what do I know?

Let's meet our three main baes, shall we?

MAIN BAE #1: PFC ROBERT LECKIE

While I started my life as an unabashed Sledge stan, I have to say that Robert Leckie (portrayed by James Badge Dale) has grown on me with every subsequent re-watch of the series and re-read of his book. He's a charming, brash intellectual type with a bit of a temper who becomes more and more bitterly disaffected with every minute he spends deployed in the PTO. A little sarcastic and a little ironic, the series sets him up as something of the lynchpin of his gaggle of friends assigned to How Company, 2d Battalion, 1st Marines (simplified from here on in as H/2/1).

While Leckie served in a variety of roles over the course of his service, The Pacific focuses specifically on his time as the assistant gunner of a machine gun unit alongside Lew "Chuckler" Juergens (pictured below, in the squad section) and pretty much ignores the rest. We meet Leckie in his hometown as he's preparing to go off to war and skip over his boot camp experience—which, per his memoir, was full of delightful shenanigans—in favor of leaping straight to the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Leckie's story is very much that of a man who felt an obligation to his country while at the same time remaining critical of war, his role in it, and the effect it had on himself and his peers. I particularly love Leckie's storyline for its use of his social group as the lens through which we get to know (and hopefully, love) Leckie. The shenanigans are on-point, though not quite as delightful as those detailed in his memoir.

MAIN BAE #2: SGT JOHN BASILONE


Look at this pretty sonofabitch! Portrayed by Jon Seda, John Basilone is a bonafide American war hero, as evidenced by the Medal of Honor he received for his actions during the Battle of Guadalcanal. The series doesn't make his actions exceptionally clear, but if you want more details you can check out his Wikipedia page or read Tatum's memoir. (I recommend reading the Wiki at the very least—dude was a badass.)

I'll confess that Basilone's storyline isn't my favorite of the three explored in The Pacific, though it raises some interesting questions about the cost of bravery during wartime, but that has more to do with its tonal dissonance in comparison to the two other protagonists than with the contents of Basilone's narrative. Basilone is the only NCO we meet as a protagonist, and he winds up getting pulled from Guadalcanal after his big hero moment to tour the U.S. drumming up war bonds to further support the troops. While we meet a few of his friends early on, Basilone's arc is largely about survivor's guilt and isolation up until he makes the decision to return to active combat.

MAIN BAE #3: PFC EUGENE B. SLEDGE


I'm going to start this one off by announcing that Eugene's middle name is Bondurant, because I feel like it's highly important that everyone know that. He's also my favorite of the three protagonists in The Pacific for a variety of reasons, the most prevalent of which being that his arc is the one that deals most with the lingering effects of trauma after the war and the way that kind of experience can change a person. (It doesn't hurt that he's played by Joe Mazzello, either.)

Admittedly, the series gives Sledge a darker bent than he has in his memoir, but I didn't mind their leaning in to the violent unraveling of a man's humanity considering the context. As mentioned, The Pacific, in my opinion, exists as a statement on the brutality of war rather than a respectful celebration of heroic wartime sacrifice, and Sledge's narrative makes that argument most explicitly.

His story arc is also the most markedly changed from reality. Show Sledge has a heart murmur that keeps him from enlisting while real life Sledge dropped out of military school early against his family's recommendation so that he could enlist as a private rather than waiting out the term to become an officer, and if his memoir is to be believed he didn't descend into quite the mire of violence and rage that he experiences on screen, but it's still compelling to watch.

Sledge is a mortar man in Company K, 3d Battalion, 5th Marines (K/3/5) and arguably sees the most gruesome violence out of all the protagonists. He's also the character we follow longest upon his return to the home front, seeing him struggle to rectify the man he became during wartime with the plucky young boy who left to serve his country, which is precisely the kind of tortured character exploration I love best.

"So Tec," you may be saying by this point in my small novella of a promo post, "I'm onboard with these three main baes, but who are these side dishes you keep mentioning? Are they hot? Sassy? Fun? Do they have undeniable homoerotic subtext?"

They sure do, my friends! We'll start with:

LECKIE'S SQUAD

1. PFC Lew "Chuckler" Juergens

At this point it's important to note that in his memoir, Leckie doesn't refer to people by their actual names. He uses descriptive sobriquets like 'Lieutenant High-Hips' and 'Oak Stump' for everyone, including his closest friends, and Hanks et. al. elected to carry that into the series for whatever reason. And lo, we have Chuckler, who received a decidedly subpar signifier despite the fact that he's the one Leckie is arguably thirstiest for in his book.

Chuckler is gregarious and generally well-liked. Leckie describes him as "profane" in the book, as well as the de facto leader of their little group, though only the latter trait gets screen time. Chuckler generally looks out for the boys of H/2/1 and his little squad in particular. I give his homoerotic subtext with Leckie a 3.5/5.

2. PFC Bill "Hoosier" Smith

This beautiful corn-fed baby boy is Hoosier, Leckie's sassy fellow class clown who inexplicably has a southern accent despite being from Indiana. The most taciturn of Leckie's little group, Hoosier serves largely as sardonic comic relief or to act as the straight man or add power to the punchline of Leckie's jokes. He puts up with less of Leckie's shit than the other guys, and I'll give his homoerotic subtext with Leckie a 3.5/5 as well. Despite Leckie's referring to Hoosier as "handsome" in show canon and a suitably fraught battlefield scene later on in the series, they don't have enough intimate dialogue to garner a higher rating than that.

3. PFC Bud "Runner" Conley

Runner is tragically underrated in fandom. Here he is, pictured above, left, shirtless next to an equally disrobed Hoosier. I'll admit to not appreciating Runner to his full potential until a couple of re-watches into The Pacific. He's not conventionally handsome, though I do think he's one of those folks whose features are interesting in a particularly enticing way, and his banter with Leckie practically screams, "By the way I have a big obvious crush on you!"

I give his homoerotic subtext with Leckie a solid 4.5/5, in part because of the aforementioned banter and in part because the last twenty minutes or so of Leckie's combat arc deal directly with his trying desperately to find someone to tend an injured Runner, immediately followed by a tender reunion scene where an extremely wounded Leckie apologizes to Runner for not returning to him despite his best efforts.

Frankly, if we're talking homoerotic subtext, I'm contractually obligated to report that the OT4 potential with these guys is through the roof, and that's not counting their on-again, off-again relationship with Sid Phillips, who happens to be Sledge's BFF from back home. I mean, look how happy they are when Leckie returns from his (entirely off-screen) leave back in the States bearing gifts:

"Wow!" I hope you're saying. "That does all sound pretty homoerotic."

It is, my friends. It really, really is. But wait! There's more!

BASILONE'S SQUAD

1. Sgt J. P. Morgan

Unfortunately for J. P. (played by Joshua Biton, pictured far right next to Basilone), he doesn't get a whole lot of screen time and fandom doesn't seem to give much of a shit about him, probably because Basilone's story is the least popular of all three narratives in The Pacific. I honestly don't have a lot to say about him, precisely because he spends so little time as a speaking character. Seems to love his wife and is suitably horrified by the state of H/2/1 when his regiment marches past them in the woods while Leckie and all the rest of the battle-wearied soldiers are having their chronic sores treated by Navy Corpsmen. His homoerotic subtext with Basilone is pretty much nil.

2. Sgt. Manuel "Manny" Rodriguez

Played by Jon Bernthal, Manny Rodriguez is a likewise short-lived member of John Basilone's friend posse. Aside from a rollicking dinner scene where they sit down alongside John's big, Italian family to share a last meal before shipping out, Manny's sole function is basically to die. I'm awarding him a whopping 1/5 for homoerotic subtext with Basilone, because Basilone does seem pretty bummed when Manny gets gunned down pretty much immediately after entering the combat theatre.

3. Lena Mae Riggi

Okay, even though she's not technically part of Basilone's squad, such as it is, I would be monstrously remiss not to include Lena (portrayed by Annie Parisse) on this list because she's a) a complete badass and b) absolutely integral to Basilone's story. While she is, unfortunately, relegated largely to the sole role of love interest when she and Basilone meet, Lena is a Marine in her own right, and an NCO to boot. She's very good at what she does and she knows what she wants and she makes Basilone work to earn her favor, which I appreciate. Also? She's an absolute smoke show, which certainly doesn't hurt. Homoerotic subtext with Basilone: 12/5.

Alright, yes, I'll admit, Basilone's squad isn't very exciting or very homoerotic. But don't worry, my friends, we still have to talk about:

SLEDGE'S SQUAD

1. Cpl Sidney Phillips

Sid (portrayed by Ashton Holmes) and Sledge knew each other back home in Mobile, Alabama, and a goodly portion of Sledge's initial appearance is spent lamenting that Sid is going to war without him. Sid himself mostly serves as a point of contrast for Sledge's experience in the war and his difficult adjusting after the fact, but he spends a little bit of time hanging around Leckie's squad and being charmingly bewildered by their bawdy, laid-back attitudes.

I give him a solid 7/5 for homoerotic subtext with Sledge. Largely because, before the war, they liked to take romantic walks alone together in the woods:



And when they're reunited on Pavuvu, the interim island where the Marines hang out between deployments to nearby theaters of combat, Sid literally tackles Sledge to the ground, he's so excited to see him:



2. Cpt Andrew "Ack Ack" Haldane & Lt Edward "Hillbilly" Jones

Also called 'The Nice Captain and His Lieutenant' in some circles, Ack Ack (pictured left, portrayed by Scott Gibson) and Hillbilly (pictured right, portrayed by Leon Ford) are two of Sledge's superior officers and inarguably his favorites. He dedicated his memoir to Ack Ack, as a matter of fact, and despite the fact that neither survives to the end of the series, Ack Ack and Hillbilly have a huge amount of influence on Sledge's outlook on the war and his role in it. While they're not necessarily the fandom favorite, and I would rate their homoerotic subtext with Sledge around a 3/5—hello, hero worship—they do make a handsome couple and their homoerotic subtext with each other is a 12/5 easy.


3. Cpl R. V. Burgin

Burgin (portrayed by Martin McCann) and Sledge have a peculiar real life relationship, in that Burgin seems to harbor not a small amount of irritated dislike of Sledge, but in the show he acts mostly as a benignly sassy but well-meaning leader type who balances out a bit of the eventual vitriol that Sledge sinks into as his time in the combat theatre drags on. He and Sledge have a few moments together, though their homoerotic subtext never reaches higher than around 2/5.

4. PFC Bill Leyden

Leyden (portrayed by Brendan Fletcher) is a rough-edged, bawdy, take-no-shit type from Long Island who befriends Sledge prior to their landing on Pavuvu. While Leyden is a rifleman to Sledge's mortar man, they have a couple of moments together on-screen that convinced me to give their homoerotic subtext a rating of 3/5.

5. Cpl Jay De L'eau

Jay (portrayed by Dylan Young) is one of the original crew (alongside Burgin and Snafu) who had seen action on Guadalcanal prior to Sledge's arrival in the Pacific Theatre. He distinguishes himself from the other boys by being the only one polite enough to show Sledge, Leyden, and Oswalt around even through the nearly impenetrable veneer of sarcasm most of the experienced Marines have shouldered by this point in their service. He and Sledge have a particularly touching moment on Peleliu, for which I am awarding them a 3/5 for homoerotic subtext.

6. Cpl Merriell "Snafu" Shelton

I probably don't need to tell y'all that Snafu is played by the beautiful Rami Malek, but I will anyway, because look at him! Look at beautiful baby!Rami Malek!

The thing about Snafu, as he stands in the series, is that his characterization is largely fabricated. Per Sledge's (and Burgin's) memoir, the only accurate detail seems to be that he has a tendency to run his mouth. A lot of the characteristics attributed to Snafu actually belong to some unnamed soldiers in Leckie's memoir who earned themselves such ominous titles as "Souvenirs." Having said that, I actually do really enjoy Snafu as a character. He's very much aligned to chaotic neutrality, largely looking after himself and making his fun where he can in a place as harrowing as the PTO, though he takes Sledge under his wing a bit after Sledge saves his life on the battlefield. (Which is only kind of true, per With the Old Breed, but if Tom Hanks doesn't have to give a shit about historical accuracy neither do I.)

Anyway, I give Sledge and Snafu 15/5 for homoerotic subtext, for many reasons, up to and including one of the most quietly tragic parting scene I've ever witnessed. I'm probably a little biased, considering they're the closest thing I currently have to an OTP, but I will let these additional GIFs do my talking for me:

Fair warning, The Pacific gets a bit graphic at times—and not just because it's an HBO show so they jammed in a bunch of unnecessary sex scenes. If that sort of thing doesn't bother you, and if you're interested in a solid piece of historical fiction that explores WWII without blindly glorifying it, definitely give The Pacific a watch. Double bonus: it's available for free in the US on Amazon Prime and Crave TV Canada as of January 2020!

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Comments

[sugardaddynixon]

You have me reconsidering Snafu as a character.

[thrillingdetectivetales]

I enjoy Snafu so goddamn much, even though his personality is basically 98% a sham. I will happily wax rhapsodic about him for as long as anyone will listen.

[muccamukk]

Very good. Am impressed. Needs more pictures of the Nice Captain and His Lieutenant.

[thrillingdetectivetales]

I looked for useful images of them for so long and this is the best I could get without going in and making my own, which I couldn't do earlier because I was at work and later because I wanted to be lazy.

[slightlytookish]

I swear I thought Hoosier, Sid, Leyden, and Jay all had the same face the first time I watched the show. A combination of too many blonds and too many dark scenes, I guess? /o\

Runner/Leckie is BY FAR my favorite Leckie ship but there doesn't seem to be many fics about them??

I like to link people to this picspam (https://spirograph.livejournal.com/50764.html) and make them cry over Andy/Eddie with me (warning for spoilers).

[thrillingdetectivetales]

They do look remarkably similar, I'll grant you.

Runner/Leckie is a really fun one that deserves more content. I think Runner gets skimmed over a lot because he's got kind of ~interesting features but he's easily the most fun in terms of banter.

That pic spam is such a gift~ Andy/Eddie is another underrated ship, even though it's second largest in TP fandom. I love me some Sledgefu but there are so many interesting characters in TP to explore and I'd love to see some of them get more attention.

(Fingers crossed the exchange helps with that! Lol)

[slightlytookish]

Aw, poor Runner! He's great for banter and he and Leckie had really great chemistry, I thought.

I had no idea that Andy/Eddie are the second largest ship. I guess I figured it'd be a Leckie one? He has so many potential ships lol.

I really need to write Andy/Eddie at some point! I keep thinking of prompts for the meme but none of them are speaking to me specifically yet :/

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Someday Runner will see his moment in the spotlight, haha.

I know what you mean about the Leckie thing. He does have so much potential with so many people~ But Andy and Eddie are way more married, which I think probably speaks to a lot of folks. (It certainly speaks to me!)

One of these days you'll come across a prompt that catches your eye, friend~ In the meantime, I will gleefully cheer your fantastic FinnPoe content, lol.

[spikedluv]

I got your name and comment at the comm mixed up and thought you said 'thrilling post' instead of 'promo post'. *g* And what a post it is! I'm impressed by how much work you put into this; thank you for sharing it!

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Haha! That's fantastic. I'll have to start referring to all my posts as thrilling posts. xD

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek at it!! <33

[impala_chick]

OMG, this just reminded me how much I liked Sid<3

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Sid really gets a raw deal from the fandom perspective in that he's never the centralized character in like...anything. He's a sweet precious angel baby who deserves to be protected at all costs. The one non-problematic protagonist in TP, lol.

(Also, hel-LO Joe Jonas. That icon is so dreamy~)

[impala_chick]

haha, it's true.

And yesss, Joe will always be one of my favorite celebs.

[isabellerecs]

Well, this was magical. Thank you for putting this together. :D I especially like that you rated the homoerotic intensity between the characters. Just awesome.

[arwen88]

This is very nice and informative. Also I need the Captain and his lieutenant to survive forever.