look at andromache and quynh’s costumes in the old guard. because we should totally talk about it and how these characters aren’t sexualized one bit during the entire film. no breast plates. no thigh high slits. no bare midriffs. just warriors wearing clothes designed to protect them in a fight. clothes that represents their character, their origin, not designed to please the male gaze. this is why we need more women in the industry. the old guard is directed by a black woman, produced by women, and has strong lead female characters. support.
I have to say, in the old guard, I am absolutely living for Protective!Nicky!
Out of Nicky and Joe, Joe is the more visibly obvious protective of the two. His grand, intimate declaration of love in the convey, and how he deliberately goes to kill Keane after he shoots Nicky are undeniable, very visible representations of Joe’s love and protectiveness towards a Nicky.
But I think that that very visible, passionate protectiveness can mislead the eye into camouflaging Nicky. Because if you look a little bit closer? Nicky is just as protective of Joe as Joe is of him. Nicky is just a bit quieter about it.
For the most part, throughout the movie, Nicky is a calming, moralising influence. You never see him get really, outwardly angry- that is, until Joe is hurt.
You can see this at the first ambush, when they’re going to rescue the kidnapped girls, but instead are set up and killed.
After they wake up, immediately both Nicky and Joe instinctively look for the other. (Can anybody say soulmates?) You can see the complete and utter relief both feel when they see the other- awake and alive. Together.
(Credit to @strangehighs for capturing those heart eyes. #soblessed)
But if you look closer at Nicky, at first, all you can see on Nicky’s face is that overwhelming relief. But then as the details of what happened start to register, as he sees the multiple, fresh bullet wounds on Joe’s face… When he sees that Joe was deliberately, maliciously hurt… You can see that relief give way to reveal the holy wrath and insurmountable rage of the angry, righteous crusader he use to be. Sword and all.
That expression of rage? That’s the face of a man ready to kill a bitch for killing the love of his life.
I think it’s an interesting commentary on their personalities that before this, Nicky had been the sniper whilst Joe used his scimitar. To be a sniper embodies cool patience, calm breathing and calculating distance. Nicky is very much like that; more laid back, calmer, and more likely to have a cool head.
But as you can see here… in this beautiful gif by @wordsofwarning …
…after he sees the aftermath of the ambush, when he attacks… He uses his handgun to incapacitate, but his sword for the close up kill.
It maybe be that he instinctively goes for the weapon that’s been at his side for so many hundreds of years, but I think there’s something poetic in forgoing the distance of a gun for he close up kill of his sword. Because his soulmate had just been killed in front of him, and he wants to protect Joe by exacting retribution, and he’s angry.
You can see this again when Dudley Dursley Merrick attacks Joe in an infantile, sadistic temper tantrum. Before that, Nicky had been outwardly calm and collected, watching and observing (like a sniper). But the second Joe is hurt? Boom. He loses his composure and flips into angry and protective desperation.
He gets stabbed for his troubles, but he doesn’t stop desperately fighting and trying to get between the threat and Joe until he sees Joe is okay.
(This gorgeous gif belongs and one below belong to @beanabouttown )
Nicky might be more cautious, but he’s just as down as Joe is to fight for and with to protect each other. They both protect each other.
You can see this in Joe and Nicky’s sleeping arrangements. I think I’ve seen this discussed in a post by @sockich But if I can expand on that… In all the times we see them sleeping next to each other, Joe is the big spoon.
(And can I just say how much I love the parallel between Joe covering Nicky’s back whilst they sleep with how when they’re in fighting formation, Joe is almost always protecting and covering Nicky’s six? *chefs kisses*)
At first, it appears that Joe is protecting Nicky, which he is. But if you look a bit closer… Nicky is protecting Joe too. (Equal and reciprocal, together. A partnership.)
Nicky might be the little spoon but he’s also always putting himself in front of Joe; he’s between Joe and the enemy at the door.
Everytime…
You can see more clearly on this wider shot…
Nicky is using his body to shield a sleeping Joe, putting his body between Joe and the world outside their sanctuary. (Credit to @malex-yes for these two beautiful gifs!)
And here… (in this beautiful gif by @dinasbracelet !)
…at every turn, Nicky is protectively shielding Joe from any outside hostiles. Nicky instinctively reaches for his readied loaded gun to protect Joe before they even know what’s going on.
You want to get to a sleeping, vulnerable Joe? Sorry. You’re going to have to get past a protective Nicky with a loaded gun pointed at you first.
I think it’s reflective of their partnership that their protectiveness follows the same pattern of their personalities. Joe is more outwardly, visibly passionate, like a wildfire ready to spark into life at any minute. Nicky is calmer, quieter, with steady ground to stand on… until Joe is hurt, and then he erupts outwards, like a volcano.
So, td:lr; Joe and Nicky are both as protective of each other, equally reciprocal. Nicky is just quieter about it.
When Joe said 'we killed each other' and Nicky said 'many times' with that smirk...was I the only one who thought he was referring to la petite mort...
Like, I know they literally killed each other repeatedly but...
Now knowing Nicky was a former priest, I think his romantic and sexual experience would be limited. The first time they kiss, have sex - is it Joe who guides Nicky, patiently teaching and showing him. Bit by bit because he doesn't want to overwhelm Nicky. Sometimes Nicky wonders how Joe know what he knows, curious and almost certainly a little jealous.
Anonymous said: I have a headcanon that with Nicky having been a priest, that he was a virgin when he met Joe (I don't know enough about Islam to know their ways about virginity and their warriors, etc.)... so how's about Joe's being careful and loving for Nicky's first time?
Combining two prompts into one because they’re both in the same vein (in my brain at least lol) 💕 Thanks for prompting me Nonnies! Hope you lovelies enjoy this one. To everyone else, yes my ask box is still open for prompts x
Many thanks to @janiedean 😘
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Yusuf runs his lips up the side of his neck and oh, Nicolo just about flies into a thousand shards of light. So this was it. They were doing it tonight.
A steadying hand holds him by the hip, snaking down until he parts his thighs. He tries, and fails much to the delight of his lover, to keep the soft keening sound rattling around in his chest from escaping into the twilight summer air. Nicolo reaches up to curl his fingers on Yusuf’s cheek. Heartbeat stuttering when the man leans into his touch.
“We can take it slow,” Yusuf whispers in a tender brush of mouth to his pulse point. “We do not have to do anything you do not want to, habibi.”
Nicolo smiles. Because of course, Yusuf would want to take it slow. Yusuf has been the one to set the pace; to pull away when he thinks Nicolo needs time to work through the first time they’d shared a kiss, to bank the fires of arousal into something more tempered, turn a moment into an embrace.
He teaches and guides and Nicolo thinks he would gladly proclaim to the world that he would follow the man to the gates of Hell itself if it meant that Yusuf would finally do something far more wicked to him than leaving him hard and wanting in his arms.
“No, we do not,” Nicolo says. “I will not lose to the skills of...” He pauses to recall. “Your second wife? Which was the one who made you write a hundred poems to woo her?”
Yusuf laughs, the sound a bark in the dying light of day. He leans in, kissing the corners of his lips until the can no longer hold himself still and has to join him in the happy music singing in the air.
He lifts his hips, manoeuvring so that he has enough room to kick off his trousers, baring himself and the evidence of just how much he wants to have more, to have everything and all of it with this man.
Nicolo’s mind races and before he could doubt himself, he arches up, licking back into the seam of Yusuf’s lips, marvelling in the fresh rush of adoration rushing through his veins at the instantaneous way he is kissed back. “Tonight. I want you to take me tonight.”
Whatever Yusuf seeks in his eyes, he finds. Because he nods once, moving to light the lone candle they keep by the bed. “Then, I will see you.”
He is held close, tenderly. Delicately touched and worshipped from his toes to his ears and he surrenders himself to it. Surrenders himself to being loved.
Eventually, he feels the searching press of fingers move down the line of his belly, glancing against his arousal, dipping down and downwards. Nicolo hisses, hips bucking. “Yusuf, per favore,” He sighs, completely unsure what he was begging for.
“One day,” Yusuf says, “One day I will take you in your ass, your mouth. I will have all of you. And you will have all of me. I promise you.” Nicolo can’t help the disappointment from seizing his heart. The catch of his breath does not go unnoticed because Yusuf demands his attention with a touch to his hip. “Nicolo, I promise you. We have all the time to know each other.”
Turning his face away, closing his eyes, he tries to understand. Yusuf has told him enough about what to expect the first time they make love. He knows they’ll need more preparation than what they have now, but the knowledge is not the same as the feeling, and he can’t help the burn of jealousy at the thought of all the lovers Yusuf has had before him and how it seems like they will never get to that moment he has been told about.
The words falter on his lips but tumble forth with a rushed exhale. “Is it because I am not good enough?”
Yusuf shakes his head, eyes soft in the candlelight. “No. Never not enough. And I will tell you every day until you believe it.” Leaning back on his haunches, he reaches to the box of vials on his side of the bed. Uncorking one to pour a palmful of oil.
Shuffling back between Nicolo’s parted thighs, he smiles, wrapping his hand around Nicolo’s hard cock, he tightens his grip, tugging once, twice, enough to have Nicolo curling his toes, stifling his moans of pleasure with the back of his hand, mind frayed into a numbing silence as Yusuf unravels him. He is dimly aware of Yusuf kissing a pathway back up to his cheek, huffing a burst of laughter that tickles his ear.
He hears the whispered terms of endearment in a string of Arabic, Latin, French, but what has him arching up into Yusuf’s touch, spilling with a choked out shout, was the quiet, “Amore mio,” said to his temple.
“Teach me how to do that to you too,” Nicolo demands with a grip to Yusuf’s wrist that slips into a tangle of their fingers. Still panting, he blinks up at Yusuf’s amusement. “You must.”
“I will teach you all I know and we will learn everything else together,” Yusuf says.
“Will I be better than all your lovers then?” Nicolo had meant for that to come out light and teasing, but Yusuf squeezes his hand and he knows he probably missed it by a marked mile.
“You will be my only lover. From now until always.” Yusuf curls himself around Nicolo. The thoughts of a forever as one man’s lover should be daunting. But the apprehension does not come and Nicolo closes his eyes, fantasising about what they will do next.
i don’t think that nicky can draw. at all. so every time joe draws something he is SO impressed. every time. for 900 years.
he has stashes of joe’s art in every safe house. joe is like, please, you do not need to keep them, i have gotten better, you don’t need these five hundred year old warm up sketches. and nicky is like ABSOLUTELY NOT they are perfect you’re getting rid of them over my dEAD body. you’re spectacular. you’re so talented. i love you. joe is like: it’s…. a still life of a fruit bowl but thank you i love you too.
i’ll see your ‘nicky’s a 10 but they need to tone him down to a passable 7 so he can walk out of the house w/o accidentally starting a new art movement’ and raise you: no, he’s just Like That.
more to the point, anything remotely fashionable he owns joe bought for him. left to his own devices nicky will go to the nearest second hand clothing store and buy an entire rack of size medium t-shirts in a wide variety of exactly 3 neutrals to go with his five identical pairs of black/navy-blue jeans and that one (1) pair of sweatpants. he has Opinions about how much barbers should be allowed to charge for a basic haircut these days. one time joe came home from a stakeout and there was a lidl bag on the bed with 15 pairs of socks and a receipt for 17.99 euros in it and joe was like thats it i’m breaking up with you >:(
i see y’all talking about eurotrash nicky in the notes and you know what? VALID. nicky tried to be Fashion one time in the summer of 2003. he showed up at the mission briefing in white jorts and a fluorescent shirt, smelling of malizia uomo skyline and looking like the human incarnation of asereje ja de je de jebe and joe immediately threatened to track down all 27 of their marriages, legal unions or otherwise equivalent through the past 500 years and divorce him in every single one so he went and got changed and they never spoke about it again.
#eurotrash is not a style it’s an attitude and nicky can’t pull it off#they voted him most likely to be wearing a ‘born to be mild’ t-shirt on his 45th bday back in priest highschool cut the man some slack (vrabia)
an incomplete, incoherent list of the small ways that joe and nicky are shown to be wonderful and in love:
after they’re all resurrected in south sudan joe immediately runs diagonally ahead to take on the shooters that are in front of nicky, rather than the ones directly in front of himself, so they can work through them together
in the first establishing shot in the train you can see joe and nicky holding hands as they spoon. they’re not holding hands when you get the close up of them sleeping together, so maybe they fall asleep holding hands and their arms just end up wrapped around each other after they drift off
when nile asks how old they are instead of answering with a number or just the era joe frames his answer by when he and nicky met
the way they’re always looking at each other. not just in the heavy glances and winks, but it’s like how you always subconsciously look to the person you’re closest to when you’re in a group when you’re laughing and talking. the way joe was looking at nicky when he was saying the shoes were a particularly grotesque touch, the way they end up looking at each other in the van when the doors open and nicky asks if they can maybe take the chains off them
there’s a tv, joe!/champagne?
nile asks why they stop seeing each other in their dreams after they meet and you see joe draw in a breath like he’s preparing to answer but he stops, and nicky answers like he was finishing joe’s sentence that he never even started
and then nicky looks at joe to prompt him to answer nile’s next question about how old they are
the way nicky doesn’t take his eyes off of joe as he recovers from being stabbed by merrick until joe dips his head for head touch, which is when nicky knows he’s ok
when andy says they can die and nicky looks at joe and joe’s already looking back at him. i won’t even attempt to put words to the expression on their faces.
the way they use italian when they just want it to be just them, it’s a comfort and an intimacy
the shared look after the shakespeare quote. it can be read as them both reacting to definitely knowing that line and also knowing shakespeare, but they also fucking hate this guy immediately
everything that’s not on this list is hereby considered a LOUD way they’re in love
#whats so incredible about this relationship is that these two are supporting characters #out of the main cast theyre the most ‘supporting’ as theyre the only characters who dont go through an arc #they rly didnt have to put this much detail and nuance into their characters and performances #it wouldnt have rly affected the plot #although it wouldve made it a lesser movie #they were portrayed with SUCH CARE #THESE ACTORS CARE!!! SO!!! MUCH!!! #and they rly didnt have to go that hard #lesser actors wouldnt have #but they did it and infused this mostly background relationship with so much detail nuance and subtely #they made it feel real and genuine and lived in #all of these details? totally not necessary #the movie couldve just said theyre in a relationship and collected their brownie points #but nah #they said were gonna SHOW you #yes joe has his big declaration and they have their kiss #that couldve been enough #but the actors and script took it a step further and showed their relationship in every damn scene #theyre always referenced as a unit #in their introduction scene theyre already together #we establish nicky’s the sniper and joe’s the spotter not once but twice #a careful eye observes theyre always fighting side by side #joe rushes to nicky’s side when they resurrect #joe smiles fondly as nicky bets on the baklava #they speak italian to each other #they gaze lovingly at each other #they touch heads to comfort one another #they grip each other’s arms when one has died and come back to life #i cannot stress enough that a lesser movie would not have included these little details (via grizviser)
actually i have more to add! i don't care that canon is messy re:his name and the specifics of how he would have found himself in jerusalem; find a way to make it fit without retconning his place of birth. it really isn't that hard. i can give you two potential scenarios and i didn't even have to think much about it, i'm sure that there are more. it is a loaded choice to "rewrite" an indigenous north-african character (played by a tunisian actor!) as ethnically arab, actually, and i wish this fandom would take two seconds to understand basic political and racial dynamics in west asia/north africa both today and at the time of joe's birth before playing darts with 11th century maps for fun
I am once again back on my bullshit about Mahdia, Tunisia being the birthplace of Yusuf al-Kaysani. If you're not that interested in Joe's backstory, please, allow me allow me the pleasure of caring about it for you. He deserves a backstory as rich as his character.
The historical and political context deepens their enemies to lovers journey, it connects to the events leading up to the first crusade, it gives Joe a plausible motivation for joining the Fatimid army, it lends our husbands Romeo and Juliet vibes, and it respects Marwan's Tunisian heritage.
I'm working on some reference materials for anyone who wants to join me on this bullshit.
Not quite a comedy but I offer you: two murderous cinnamon rolls, both alike in dignity, in fair Mahdia where we lay our siege, from ancient
@hottopicmonk asked me about my personal favorite headcanon for joe's origins, and while i am also very fond of the idea of him being from mahdia, here is why my money is on tunis
considering when joe was born, canon situating his birthplace in "the maghrib" actually makes tunisia the least likely of current day northwestern african countries to place him in, because at vast what was called "the west" at the time was the territory of the almoravid and then of the almohad (modern day morocco and parts of algeria, expanding into the sahel). modern day tunisia, with eastern algeria and most of lybia, formed a separate geopolitical region with separate leadership refered to as ifriqiyah or el magrhib el adna. but i still like to imagine joe as "tunisian" (an appellation that wouldn't have existed at the time) because
1) while as stated above it is debatable that early 11th century maghreb included "tunisia", its inhabitants were inarguably imazighen,
2) marwan is tunisian,
3) kairouan was one of the radiant cultural and intellectual centers of the islamic world for centuries, but under zirid rule specifically the region flourished commercially, politically, spiritually, and artistically to new heights. this is directly relevant both to joe's canon background as a literate merchant with artistic aspirations, but also to my favorite headcanon as to how he could have found himself in jerusalem: that joe, like many many mediterranean merchants at the time, also doubled as a spy.
the zirid broke with the fatimid caliphate and converted to sunni islam (which part of the population was already practicing before the zirid conquest) ten years before joe was born. in response, the caliph ordered the sack of kairouan, destroying the city so thoroughly the zirid had to move their capital to mahdia, and forcing local inhabitants back into semi-nomadism. with mahdia, tunis was the only other urban center that was left intact, but the arab tribe sent by the fatimid settled in the area around it, effectively making life for the people of tunis complicated enough that they revolted against the zirid dynasty, which led to tunis being under hammadid influence for a short while, and then finally to the formation of the independent principality of tunis under khurasanid rule.
all this to say! joe was born and grew up at a time of political unrest and division not just in the muslim world at large (a huge reason why the first crusade happened the way it did), but specifically in the region. with princes and caliphs and governors constantly vying to expand their spheres of influence, and considering the geographical importance of a city like tunis, a bustling commercial port, it is of no surprise that many businessmen, while conducting perfectly legitimate affairs, were also sponsored by their local ruler to gather information on their travels. this is a recorded phenomenon, although it obviously knows no religious borders: european courts also had innumerable informant and spies roaming the mediterranean under the pretense of selling and buying.
i like this origin story for joe for multiple reasons:
1) it allows me to place him in jerusalem at the time of the frankish attack. it in fact allows me to place him... pretty much anywhere at any time before that too, even in places where an arabized amazigh man and a sunni muslim wouldn't necessarily be otherwise
2) there's another meta hidden in there somewhere but i have a lot of thoughts about joe (and by extension nicky, but that's not the point here) Choosing Sides throughout history, as opposed to a more individualistic (Saving People) approach andy might have, for example. we see it in the pictures on copley's wall (they consistently appear as a duo in revolutionary situations) but also in nicky's "we fight for what we think is right". i think joe serving the interests of a lord in order to serve the interests of his people on the great chessboard that is the political situation of the islamic world at the time is a fitting starting point to that
3) i like the depth it adds to joe's character on two levels; a man in contact with nobility and power but not quite in it, existing between two worlds. joe's talents also take on a new meaning - good with languages, keen eye and a swift hand.
but also, and this is really why i like this headcanon so much: if he is in jerusalem on business, it means he chooses to stay and fight. he doesn't have to. this is not his city and these are not quite his people. they are united in their belief in god but these are shaky grounds, yusuf of tunis with roots in kairouan would know that. and yet he stays and he fights. it is a city he has come to know and love, filled with people, bustling with sounds and colors just like his home. the pavement look the same in the cobbled streets, the oranges from the market smell the same, the water from the fountains tastes the same, and when children play outside their happy screams remind yusuf of hidden places and scrapped knees and forgotten laughter. and so he stays. loyalty to no prince but humanity, and he fights. and he dies. the rest is history.
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