Your blog name made me wonder for a while. Why do you love Archer? I don't hate him or anything, but yours is the first blog I've seen with a theme centering around him.
Because he’s a frickin sniper!! Which is the equivalent of badass in my brain! Need anything more be explained? lol I’m kidding, but for reals, I was wondering when someone would finally ask me this. :)
[character(?) spoilers for Evenfall and 1/27. Maybe Fade? Except for Evenfall, I’m keeping everything else vague.]
I didn’t love him at first. In fact, I didn’t even like him. I mean, in Monterrey I know he was doing what he had to do and being a good agent and all, but I was on Boyd’s side damnit! lol So my reaction to his part in Evenfall wasn’t the best one, but it wasn’t as bad as others (like Harriet). Archer is one of the smallest side characters. In the whole series. He only appears twice in Evenfall and then twice more in Fade. Any other times he’s just being talked about/referenced by other characters.
Now, even though I wanted to shove Archer away from hysterical Boyd (I was in a frantic state too! I’m thinking back on my first impression of Archer when first reading icos. Just leave my Boyd alone!), he was intriguing to me just on the basis of being this quiet statue always nearby. But he really started to intrigue me when they were on their way to Santiago’s tunnel. Because by this time, he wasn’t really acting like I was expecting him to.
He didn’t have the control-all-take-charge face Kassian worked with. He wasn’t “normal” like Blair or Alvarado were in terms of being talkative, and he certainly didn’t have a stick up his ass like Harriet. He wasn’t like anyone else in the team and I’m just all, what the hell? I was trying to peg him, you see. Trying to figure out which classification of fieldie he fell in. One with a superiority complex, hero complex, full of testosterone, a Vega-hater, or another bitter Rank 9, etc. Yet he wasn’t falling into any of those.
Even though he restrained hysterical Boyd and was doing the right thing and all, throughout the whole rest of that escape from Monterrey I was just waiting for him to shit on Boyd like Harriet did. Like even Kassian did. Like everyone did except Blair. But he didn’t. He even agreed with wanting Harriet to shut up, which definitely raised an eyebrow. But on top of that, he let Boyd go. He cut the zip-tie. That really made me do a double take. Srsly, what was up with this stone-faced agent? There was clearly mutual respect between him and Kassian, he completely kept his cool when faced by 4FF when everyone else was freaking out, and he reacted to Hsin having a seizure when he probably should’ve kept driving.
But my curiosity for him at that point was just a fleeting thing. Like “Hm, interesting” but I didn’t care enough to think anything more about it. I just went back to the story and Archer was out of my mind. But then he popped up again during the raid and that slight curiosity I had for him blew up into something intense when seeing how he treated Hsin: with respect. That stood out so much, especially with the way Wallis was acting just minutes before. I was seriously have a major “wtf” at this point. A Rank 9 who wasn’t in any way disputing that Vega would be team leader, trusted him to take lead, and listened to him? Srsly, wtf?
Because here’s the twist. :) I never realized until what, Fade(?) – whenever it was revealed, I never realized that Archer was a veteran at the Agency. I legit thought he was in the typical age group for fieldies. But he’s been there longer than Carhart! Vetted in 1993, the same year as Emilio.
Which then prompted the biggest, almost dumbfounded question: Why in the hell was he still Rank 9? He wasn’t promoted to Rank 10, didn’t move up in the Agency like Carhart. He just stayed a Rank 9 fieldie. And that really threw me off. Because with an agent as competent as Archer, Rank 10 is what’s supposed to be next, right? And you’d think that would’ve happened in the 30 years he’s been there!
But it didn’t. And then I finally read 1/27. And Archer’s part is a gold mine. Not only his whole convo with Doug, but with what he had to say about being a Level 10. Shoot, it’s the frickin description of my blog! I started to believe he was recommended as a candidate for Level 10 and he just turned it down, and how many times did it happen? Each candidate’s given a choice and he said no. Because he saw what happened when you did. And so he never aspired to be Rank 10 like all those others, followed by them achieving it and then regretting it (except maybe Emilio because he’s nuts enough to love it. And I don’t think Hsin regretted it because it was 10 so much as he just hated the Agency, period). I’m sure he wasn’t the only agent to have that mindset, but it was still profound to see.
And then in the DC we have Archer going to Carhart’s own quarters after Monterrey. He actually went to Carhart and filled him in with what happened in Monterrey when he was never expected to and when Carhart never asked him to. He did it because he knew Carhart cared about Hsin and he wanted to give him answers when no one else would. And when Hsin asked why Archer gave a shit? Carhart said because they were friends, and that’s just what friends do.
And then in Fade we have him going out of his way and risking his life to help two certain someones after a certain bad something happened and you know what the hell I’m talking about!! Despite being “dismissed”, it was still clear which side he chose in a split second.
On the small side, I do love Archer’s gruffness. :) His grumbling about bad seating choices in Fade was funny and his first encounter with Peaches is priceless. He’s literally like a cantankerous old vet who’s so done with all the world’s shit. He’s a damn good agent and seems so incredibly competent in the field that it’s a little intimidating. He has this profound ability to stay objective (proven with Boyd) and only judges people for how well they do their job instead of their personal lives. Yes, he’s a minor character, but literally no one has a bad word to say about him, not even Hsin. He even has Emilio’s nod of approval. And he’s a frickin sniper. But even with all this stuff on the surface, his actual character was still such a mystery and learning about it piece by piece was fascinating.
Despite living by his own rule of not getting involved in drama and refusing to be dragged or involved in anyone else’s crap, he was still there for Carhart, Emilio, and Doug both when it didn’t matter and when it really mattered. When he could’ve (would’ve) gotten killed for it. For all that he is steadfast on just doing his job and being the highly respected veteran he was at the Agency, even by the brass, his true loyalties came out in the end.
He knows the Agency in and out to the point where he has this sense of wisdom that the majority of personnel utterly lack (as revealed in 1/27). He respects Hsin and he respects Emilio when he’s literally the only person (aside from Doug) who can say he’s seen Vega Senior’s and Vega Junior’s entire careers at the Agency from start to finish and all the ups and downs that came with them. And yet he still respects them.
I love Archer, man. He’s not my fave character, but he’s definitely in that second tier of faves. For as little as he appeared in icos, his character is frickin awesome, imo. I know he’s Ais’ character and so that means he most likely won’t be appearing in 180 (something I’m eternally sad about), but I’ll just squeeze him in with my imagination while reading, I guess. :)
So yeah. When choosing a blog name (along with a theme), I didn’t know who to pick. There were already so many aliases revolving around the main characters and I couldn’t think of a creative way to twist it myself. So then I looked to minor characters. And then I remembered how much I loved Archer. And how one of the first things we’re faced with is the command to call him Archer and not Casey. Nothing else. :D
