Fictional crush challenge addendum

I just finished my 10 days, 10 fictional crushes challenge yesterday but as I am someone who develops crushes all the time, I decided on a bonus edition. So, here are some images of other fictional crushes that I’ve had that didn’t make it into the 10 days. This time I’m sticking to few or no explanations, as was originally intended.

Let me start with a daddy crush on Charles Ingalls/Pa (Michael Landon) in Little House on the Prairie…

Gilbert Blythe (Jonathan Crombie) from Anne of Green Gables from when I was a teen.

I also really like Anne with an E‘s Gilbert (Lucas Zumann)…

…but he’s the age of my son, so it’s more like a mommy-crush. I keep on wanting to take care of him because he is an orphan and I keep on wanting him to be happy with his girl. I made a ton of Anne with an E (and Gilbert) videos, viewable here.

Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) in Roman Holiday…

James McKay (also Gregory Peck) in The Big Country...

Captain Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck) in The Guns of Navarone…

Sebastian Flyte (Anthony Andrews) in Brideshead Revisited…

Sir Percy Blakeney (also Anthony Andrews) in The Scarlet Pimpernel…

Don Pedro (Denzel Washington) in Much Ado About Nothing. Beatrice should have accepted him…

Harry Kennedy (Richard Armitage) in The Vicar of Dibley…

John Porter (Richard Armitage) in Strike Back….

Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) in The Hobbit…

Neo (Keanu Reeves) in The Matrix…

Alex Wyler (also Keanu Reeves) in The Lake House…

Remington Steele (baby Pierce Brosnan) in the 1980s tv show of the same name…

Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan) in Laws of Attraction. For me, sexier than James Bond…

I made a couple of Pierce Brosnan videos for Remington Steele, Laws of Attraction and Love is all you need, to be seen here if you’re so inclined.

Not normally a Mr. Bingley fan but I love this Mr. Bingley (Naveen Andrews) for this scene in Bride and Prejudice. I can’t tell you how often I have seen this clip. This is the sexiest Bingley I know.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) from the Thor Avengers movies.

Doctor Lucien Blake (Craig McLachlan) from The Doctor Blake Mysteries. This is the only one on the list where I’m not so fond of the actor himself but I do really like the character and he does a great job bringing that character to life.

And finally, Sebastian Lacroix, or Bash, (Dalmar Abuzeid) from Anne with an E…

---

OK, now this really is it and I am finally, truly ending this challenge. These were the honorary mentions; I’m probably missing a few more but it should still be enough.

Fictional crush challenge – day 10

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush. No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.

And so we come to the final listing in this fictional crush challenge. I’ve been listing my biggest crushes chronologically and this is the last one I’ve crushed quite heavily on…

Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) from The Mentalist. I started watching this show because a colleague at the time (in 2011) recommended it. From the first episode that I saw, I was hooked. I caught up to season 3, which was then airing, and from then on faithfully, feverishly awaited each new season and episode. There were to be 7 seasons in total, ending in 2015.

I got hooked on the charm, smarts and devious mind of Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) who helped detective Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) solve murders in California. The former fake psychic turned police consultant used unusual, often amusing, methods (to the exasperation of Lisbon) but was also hell bent on taking revenge on serial killer Red John who had killed his wife and daughter. This juxtaposition of glee and tragedy is what makes Jane such a fascinating character, a man with flaws and all but still lovable. Of course, there’s also the vest (gosh, he looked sexy in his vest!) and the hair and that smile. When Simon Baker flashed that wide Patrick Jane grin I often found myself grinning back at the screen. I swear that smile is the most infectious smile I know.

I made several fan videos about Jane and Lisbon (in those days I used “Hannah” as a pseudonym), they have their own page here on my blog. Looking back at them, there are some I would do differently now but I do have two favourites of the ones I’ve made. The first one, with only season 3 clips, from when I first started watching the show…

… and one video I made at the end of season 6.

At 7 seasons (the last season was half a season, really), the show had run its course, the finale gave Patrick a happy ending (I could also easily have seen it go another way with this character, glad that didn’t happen) and it was a good time to end. Yet somewhere deep down I still miss the show, and Patrick Jane, and his vests, and his grin…

---

So, there you have it, the end of the 10 days, 10 fictional crushes challenge. There’s a bonus fictional crushes post waiting to be published tomorrow and then it’s on to other things. This was fun.

Fictional crush challenge – day 9

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush. No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.

John Thornton (Richard Armitage) from the BBC’s 2004 adaptation of North and South. To anyone who reads here regularly this isn’t a surprise, I think. Four years ago, around my 10 year anniversary of crushing on Richard Armitage, I already wrote about first meeting John Thornton. It was “Look back… look back at me” that sealed the deal and forever stole my heart. That fourth episode really was everything. And oh my goodness, has it really been 14 years? I feel extra old now.

John Thornton awakened my interest in Richard Armitage, John Thornton inspired me to write fan fiction, John Thornton inspired me to go online and check out message boards and Armitage-related websites and blogs, John Thornton inspired me to actually read Elizabeth Gaskell for the first time, John Thornton still inspires me to watch some of or all of North & South again from time to time and John Thornton is on my bedroom wall (signed by Richard Armitage himself.)

For a while I thought it was only John Thornton who interested me but I have come to accept that it is something more than just John Thornton that keeps me hanging around Richard Armitage. I still can’t put my finger on what quality it is exactly that keeps me interested but I do know that whatever it is, Richard used it very effectively when he portrayed Mr. Thornton. Even now, after 14 years, a few looks at John Thornton’s intense gaze and furrowed brow can still make my heart skip a beat.

I used to watch a lot of N&S fan videos in those days and years when I first became a fan and later even made fan videos myself. I never made an N&S fan video (maybe I should rectify that situation but then again there already are so many good ones out there, it feels redundant now) but I have always enjoyed watching good John Thornton ones. This is one of those videos I have always loved, it has a lot of the captivating John Thornton gazes in it. The video was made by Delicateblossom who was one of my fave fan video makers at the time when she used to make them.

John Thornton will hold a piece of my heart forever. Sigh.

Fictional crush challenge – day 8

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush. No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.

Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) from The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. I’m not really a fantasy reader or fan but Mr. Esther loved the Rings trilogy books by Tolkien so convinced me to try the first movie The Fellowship of the Ring back in 2001. I went to the cinema with trepidation and yep, in the end I fell for it, head over heels, and for Aragorn specifically. I pestered Mr. Esther to tell me what would happen next in the story but he told me to wait for the next movie in a year’s time or to read the trilogy. So, I read the trilogy and the love for Aragorn deepened.

I feverishly awaited and then saw the final two movies when they came out and we bought the extended edition dvd’s as they came out as well. In the fall of 2004 I travelled to Boston to see an exhibition with props from the film (and meet face to face for the first time some friends I had made online via a parenting forum). No pictures from inside the exhibition, but this is my tiny friend with me outside the Boston Museum of Science while the third friend takes the picture. I still adore these two women to this day. It’s also quite lucky this fan crush post is scheduled for today, as today is also my tiny friend’s birthday and she was the biggest Viggo Mortensen fan of the three of us. 🙂

I even still have a few Aragorn fan items in my possession, like the action figure Aragorn that stands next to a Thorin Oakenshield (from The Hobbit) action figure in my bedroom and an Aragorn fridge magnet my tiny friend once sent me.

I really like The Hobbit and thought my fave Richard Armitage made an excellent Thorin Oakenshield but I never crushed as hard on the Thorin character as I did on the Aragorn character. I never loved The Hobbit trilogy quite as much as I did The Lord of the Rings trilogy either but even so I still love all these films and I’ve enjoyed the books. I am forever grateful to Mr. Esther for introducing me to the wonderful world of Middle Earth and to Aragorn in particular.

Fictional crush challenge – day 7

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush. No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.

Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth). I already loved Jane Austen’s most famous novel so when this was coming to BBC TV in the autumn of 1995 I was more than ready to watch it. I had only ever watched an old Pride and Prejudice with Laurence Olivier, which I wasn’t too fond of (Olivier was fine, just didn’t like the adaptation so much). I wasn’t prepared for the fierceness of love I felt for this 1995 TV series and for Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in particular. I can’t tell you how often I have re-watched (parts of) this adaptation over and over again. And yes, I was tickled pink when Firth reprised the character in modern times as Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones‘s Diary movies.

No other Darcy was able to come close to Colin Firth’s portrayal of the character (nope, not even Matthew Macfadyen – he felt more like a Brontë character to me in P&P 2005 than a Mr. Darcy). I even have a Mr. Darcy pillow…

… and yes, I completely admit to being one of those thousands (or millions?) of women who have swooned over the actor and the character. No one can top Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy for me, ever.