A beacon of Hope
My Friend BJ wrote this recently on the CBS NCIS Yahoo list and I just applaud it. I asked if I could snerch it for the blog.
Its also important to note, that fandom has given some people
impressions/feelings that might not be grounded in the show's canon.
After we met Jackson in Heartland, there were a great many
discussions about how Gibbs was too mean to the affable old man, but
in Faith, we saw that Jackson indeed had, if not a darker side, than
many shades of gray, and perhaps Jack and Gibbs sparked off each
other and were eqaually responsible for the issues between them. And
surely in Namesake, we got more depth to Jackson, Leroy, Gibbs' mom and Gibbs.
When Flesh & Blood aired, there were a lot of NCIS fans who felt
Senior wasn't being portrayed as the show's history indicated. Again
and again, fans said that we had canon proof that Tony had been
systematically physically and/or sexually abused by Senior.
When you go back and examine the episodes and the things Tony (and
others) have said, Senior certainly wasn't father of the year. He was
certainly absentee at best, and given the fact that he left Tony in a
hotel room as a boy, could have faced some charges for abandonment.
And he did wallop Tony when Tony made the Halloween costume out of
Senior's ski suit.
But we have no canon proof that he was systematically abused in *any*
way by Senior.
Sure, a lot of theories have been written, both in email and story
form, that have painted Senior as everything from a distracted but
indulgent father, to a violent criminal abusing his wife and child.
But that is fanon, not the show history.
With things like the character of Senior, how Gibbs and Tony met,
Tony's apartment, Abby's childhood, we've had many years as fans to
build up ideas or theories, but he show and the writers owe us none
of our theories. And it isn't the writers backsliding on canon if
they don't conform to our theories.
Conversely, Ziva's father has been shown to be one way on screen, and
the fan community has extrapolated that.
Just because fanon theorizes that Eli coldly sent Ziva to Somalia to
die, that doesn't make it necessarily show canon. The show hasn't
portrayed Eli to be a monster, though as with Senior, nobody expects
him to win father of the year awards.
BJ
Its also important to note, that fandom has given some people
impressions/feelings that might not be grounded in the show's canon.
After we met Jackson in Heartland, there were a great many
discussions about how Gibbs was too mean to the affable old man, but
in Faith, we saw that Jackson indeed had, if not a darker side, than
many shades of gray, and perhaps Jack and Gibbs sparked off each
other and were eqaually responsible for the issues between them. And
surely in Namesake, we got more depth to Jackson, Leroy, Gibbs' mom and Gibbs.
When Flesh & Blood aired, there were a lot of NCIS fans who felt
Senior wasn't being portrayed as the show's history indicated. Again
and again, fans said that we had canon proof that Tony had been
systematically physically and/or sexually abused by Senior.
When you go back and examine the episodes and the things Tony (and
others) have said, Senior certainly wasn't father of the year. He was
certainly absentee at best, and given the fact that he left Tony in a
hotel room as a boy, could have faced some charges for abandonment.
And he did wallop Tony when Tony made the Halloween costume out of
Senior's ski suit.
But we have no canon proof that he was systematically abused in *any*
way by Senior.
Sure, a lot of theories have been written, both in email and story
form, that have painted Senior as everything from a distracted but
indulgent father, to a violent criminal abusing his wife and child.
But that is fanon, not the show history.
With things like the character of Senior, how Gibbs and Tony met,
Tony's apartment, Abby's childhood, we've had many years as fans to
build up ideas or theories, but he show and the writers owe us none
of our theories. And it isn't the writers backsliding on canon if
they don't conform to our theories.
Conversely, Ziva's father has been shown to be one way on screen, and
the fan community has extrapolated that.
Just because fanon theorizes that Eli coldly sent Ziva to Somalia to
die, that doesn't make it necessarily show canon. The show hasn't
portrayed Eli to be a monster, though as with Senior, nobody expects
him to win father of the year awards.
BJ
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