Illya Kuryakin...

[fajrdrako]

My first TV fandom was The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. I was twelve years old (barely), on the way to visit my grandfather in Clifton, Arizona. I'd never been anywhere but Ottawa and Toronto before. My parents and I spent a night in a hotel in Lordsburg, New Mexico, where I got to watch an American TV station for the first time in my life. The show was The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. The episode was "The Dove Affair". A strong, happy memory.

When I got home, I discovered that this wonderful was on Canadian TV, too, and it was soon all the rage at my school. My friends and I wrote U.N.C.L.E. stories and played U.N.C.L.E. games and collected the toys - I still have my U.N.C.L.E. cigarette lighter that becomes a gun, though alas, I no longer have the LP of the U.N.C.L.E. music - I think I played it into oblivion.

I felt a little out of step with the other U.N.C.L.E. fans I knew, because everyone except me seemed to prefer Illya to Napoleon. That was okay. I liked Illya, too. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about him: Illya Kuryakin and Napoleon Solo.

So the decades have gone by (how'd that happen?) and though I've been aware of U.N.C.L.E. as a large and thriving slash fandom, I mostly kept away. I was afraid to watch the old episodes again, for fear they'd seem old-fashioned and sexist. But I've been curious, too, so when I visited my friends in Paris recently and they showed me a couple of episodes I hadn't watched for all those years, well... The magic was still there.

So today I watched a few U.N.C.L.E. music vids:

• Grow old with you
  
• Something's Gotta Give
  
• Malchik Gey
  
• The Sexbomb Affair
  
• Devil in Disguise
  
• It's Not Unusual

I found myself looking at Illya more than I used to - and then making icons showing Napoleon. And the two of them together. Read what wikiepdia has to say about Illya. Now I want to write a fic. Hmm. Should I do that, without even knowing what other people are writing? Without having seen more than two episodes in almost forty years? Well, why not?

Now I need to go looking for fanfic. Anyone have any suggestions?

Comments

[baronjanus]

Let me start by saying AWWWW, continue by saying hee-hee, and end with saying HA!


....And remember you can have love for both. Enormous love for both.

Fic recs, soon. The daily (or ten times a day) pic comm I gave you, right?

[fajrdrako]

I joined the comm. Joined all the comms I could find. But I couldn't find that THRUSH one.

I do have enormous love for both. Not to mention Mark Slate.

[baronjanus]

Nothing I found on DW, woe.

Do you mean this?
http://community.livejournal.com/thrushies/
It's dead, but I'm sure it can be brought back to life without much effort.

[fajrdrako]

That was it! Where'd everybody go?

[baronjanus]

Maybe to the insanely active comms. But a crack comm is needed, and it's not that long ago that everyone left entirely.

[fajrdrako]

It's worth it for entertainment value.

[baronjanus]

PS,
re fic recs, check archive of our own. mostly for people with "parrot" in their names, but not only, of course. i have things open on another computer... there was one very sweet one going about "grumpy old spies"; not 15 years later but present day, and not Ducky and Albert but a non-interrupted Napoleon/Illya timeline.


Re Spike as mentioned on your lj thread, I thought of him more than once reading the fic with all its blond/brunet, older/younger silliness. Also I keep thinking of "strong and mysterious and sorta compact, but well muscled" that Xander said about Spike, mostly when Illya's shirtless. heh. good comparison there (and probably not a bad crossover)

Also in case Cat hadn't given yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sTRNmTJ-0A

[fajrdrako]

Great clip!

I'll look for the fic. Meanwhile looking for episodes and making screencaps so I can have icons and wallpaper and just generally enjoy the visuals.

[baronjanus]

I made tons of icons of the two of them looking meaningfully at each other. But I can't decide between them, so I just use the eyes one so far.


(I will repeat and state you want to be watching Hustle.)

[baronjanus]

PS ooh I love your one at the top of the page.

But what's that in your default one?

[fajrdrako]

My default icon is Torchwood - a picture of Captain Jack Harkness's elbow.

[baronjanus]

Thank you. Wouldn't have recognised. And now it turned into a pumpkin! Captain Jack had turned into a pumpkin. It's like Buffy's first Halloween. But wronger.

[fajrdrako]

I need to make more U.N.C.L.E. icons.

Hustle is noted; after I've worked at finding U.N.C.L.E. and Highlander episodes.

[baronjanus]

Hustle has intensely adorable Vaughn in it.

[baronjanus]

Add this to your list.. it would make a good one-stop pimpage place some day ;)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIUwzEonlro

[baronjanus]

waterloo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cepLDcp1LQ

[fajrdrako]

Wonderful!