Yes, sure Brian's got issues, he doesn't know how to let himself be happy and both he and Michael are pathetic cowards, I know. And anyway, it's better this way, blah, blah, blah...
You know what? Enough with that. Do you want to know the real reason why Brian and Michael don't end up together? Emmett.
Emmett got Brian's number the moment he showed up at Woody's and was unimpressed to say the least by his act. And when the (#2) best friend/confidant of the person you're in love with hates your guts... Yeah, sorry Brian, you're done for.
when i first got to 1.11 surprise, i for some reason assumed that Brian and Michael had never had a fight so bad they weren't talking before, but reading these novels where they have like a couple every book is so funny to recontextualize that. brian had a, while dramatic and painful, fairly routine fight w michael and is immediately hallucinating him!! down so bad fr
As I said before - same as with any other of these TV show novelization series - you don't have to read them, they don't tell you anything the show hasn't already stated.
I personally love them - they're FUN, sometimes stupid, they made me cry - but I get why some people might not like them. I mean, they retcon a lot of details - they're just details, tho... As if Mel and Lindsay's house didn't change 262991 times during the show's run - and they center on Brian and Michael's relationship - worst crime ever, I know, even worse than wasting half ahaw following Emmett's idiotic careers.
And they're paratexts and paratexts never count, I stand by that.
Still, I'm not going to lie, it feels good that someone who was paid to write these books and clearly knew the source material - every retcon was deliberate, there's a narrative reason if Michael had a boyfriend before David, after all, and Emmett arrives in Pittsburgh way earlier than we'd expect - introduced the triangulation of desire as a cardinal element of 1) Brian and Michael's dynamic and 2) the story.
Not only Brian is in love with Michael (he is), he wants to have sex with his best friend (he does) as much as Michael wants him to be his first. AND HE DOES, TOO! So much so, that he 1) fucks the guy he's trying to hook up Michael with (at the prom lol, we love a drama queen) and 2) he organizes a double blowjob date in his car just to be present to Michael's first sexual intercourse with a guy. He will never be that guy but he'll watch the entire thing, completely ignoring his partner - who's blowing him - to keep staring into Michael's eyes.
Is this canon? Not outside the qaf novelization, of course not. Again, paratexts and all that.
But maybe, just maybe, it's not just Tumblr users @capt-galaxy and @gayharoldlll being sooooo stupidly blinded by the shipping war they're imposing on other people when they say the end of 1.03 and 1.06 are about Brian and Michael. Or, you know, 3.02. or the "I jerked off thinking about me too" line in 5.13. Maybe it's just another element of the story people are willingly and obtusely ignoring because... I honestly have no fucking clue.
When I say that Brockton gets Brian better than the average tumblr user it's for things that should be already clear from the TV show but somehow go over so many heads...
An example? In high school Brian is very popular, he may even have a shot at being elected prom king. And yet he's not close to anyone except Michael and the few friends he does have are first and foremost Michael's friends.
The first book starts with Brian's birthday and there's this heartbreaking moment in the school parking lot as he waits for Michael to join him, in which he's surrounded by all these kids - his teammates and other people he's on speaking terms with - and no one knows he's just turned 18.
And then you have Michael who's not popular by any means - or so he says - and yet spends the book talking to all these people, making plans with them, having crushes on them or maybe not.
In real life - that scene when he gets himself and Michael into Babylon for the first time is so jarring when you compare it to the scenes at school - Brian is Michael's plus one.
Of course I love when Brian and Michael cuddle like puppies, kiss passionately, drive their dicks crazy, and tell each other the most INSANELY ROMANTIC shit; of course I do, what person with good taste wouldn't (lol)?
That said, I can't get enough of their fights. They're always so entertaining to watch or read about. Only two people who know each other so well could cut that deep 💖
now that i've read all the books would u care to elaborate on "the moment a certain Nobel-worthy author became a fucking coward" from your book ranking post?? i am deeply curious haha
Oh God, I'd love to but sorry, this is going to be long lol
So, @gayharoldlll and I didn’t read the novels back to back, we waited about a month between each (when we read the first one in december, we were still watching the series and we wanted to finish it before going on with the books).
This means that we had a loooot of time to think about what would happen/we wanted to happen next.
By the time we got to the third book we had basically solidified our opinions on Brian/Michael (and Brian/Justin) and on the reasons behind Brian's approach to romantic relationships (he's so afraid of becoming his father, he ends up hurting people anyway and much more if he’d let himself have what he had always wanted — Michael —).
Also we were rewatching season 1 and in the middle of the whole Michael/David thing, which we've always thought should have leaned more heavily towards violence/abuse.
So, when we were about to start AHAW I told Anna "Maybe they'll get Michael in an abusive relationship this time around" to which my genius friend replied "Or maybe they'll get Brian in an abusive relationship and he'll bottom the whole time" (honestly, I think no one gets Brian better than Anna. It's like her secret talent lol).
Until then the Brocktons had been excellent at exploring the abuse within the Kinney family and Brian's anger issues (that scene where he hits Jason with a football in NTUA? Like, it's always there and so easy to surface, I love how they handled the whole thing tbh), so for the third book I thought that they would build on what they’d previously established. And when they basically opened with the mention of the "Christmas-tree incident" (page 3) I set my expectation bar pretty high, I'm not gonna lie.
Then the affair with Evan happened and it was so fun to read about but by the end of it I found myself wanting for more. Like a shuttered glass? That’s it? It's that how it ends? How anticlimactic. It should have been way more toxic with Evan answering back to Brian’s episodes of violence (the electric pencil sharpener pag. 187) and Brian escalating things to a breaking point until he’d scared himself away from any chance of being in a relationship ever again. And not just because by then I was dead set on the version we’d imagined, I think it would have served the story much better if they had been bolder with that.
Because my real problem with the third book is that you get to the end without a reason for why Brian and Michael are not together and it's the only moment in the whole story (novels + show) I feel like this. After book one, I get it. They're way too young to handle this huge thing between them and the same can be said after book 2.
But in book 3? Before Evan (and I can't get over how their relationship is portrayed as if Brian was cheating on Michael) Brian was ready to "settle down" — he was so bored with Babylon and his million tricks (the phone call from chapter one!!! The GI Joe scene!!!) and he's so in love with Michael it's embarrassing to read. HE WAS BUILDING HIM A HOME, FFS! (if I think too much about the loft I'll start crying lol).
Brian gets dumped by his boss and he realises it is Michael he’s always wanted — shocker! — he organises the most romantic surprise, gets him Tiffany (and the key to his new home? WTF) and then what? How are they still keeping their pants on? It doesn’t make sense lol At this point I need a valid reason to buy the “and then they spend the night cuddling like puppies” line.
And what’s more infuriating is they had been building toward that reason from book 1, why stumble at the finish line? As I said, I think the relationship with Evan should have brought out more that violent side of Brian he’s so scared of and that after being proven right — in a relationship he’d be just like Jack — he’d decide to swear off relationships altogether. But if they didn’t want to take it this far (portraying Brian being physically violent with Evan on page, even though after episode 4.08, why not?), I would have taken Brian running into his parents/his father and somehow be reminded of the “Christmas-tree incident” between the epiphany at Evan’s about his feelings for Michael and the roof scene (oh, the roof scene 😭).
Also, the wedding scene (which Anna predicted halfway through; told you she’s a genius) was cute but not enough.
Also #2, I started AHAW thinking it would take us to the Brian from the start of season 1 but by the end he’s still in a much better place than he was at 29, especially with Debbie. And honestly, I would have killed for part one of the conversation between Debbie and Brian in 2.06.
But what about you? How do you feel about AHAW? Do you have any of my issues with it?
Also #3, have you ever read anything better than the dance at the red ball? And Brian’s graduation? And when they’re fixing the loft’s floor? This book had so much potential… I loved it anyway but 😫🤦🏻♀️
If you have yet to pick up the qaf novels because they focus on Brian and Michael's relationship and Justin isn't there, I beg you to give them a try anyway, you're missing out on a really insightful and bold (most of the time) character study about Brian - like they go there, they name names (domestic violence) and give them a face (the Kinney MEN).
And if you think that you can't possible stomach young Brian and Michael being stupidly in love know that 1) they don't retcon anything that's been said in the show, so nothing really happens, 2) Brian and Michael spend most of the time apart, trying to figure out if they can be in each other's lives and how when it seems that everything is against them (be aware, tho, that when they're together they are GLORIOUS) and 3) you survived the actual Brian and Mikey show, you can make it through this for some extra Brian Kinney.
But hey, that's just the humble suggestion of someone who's decades late to the party 💖
(4) Also about the Justin thing lol)
(5) also, also you're missing out on some hilarious typos 😂)
