The "Flaming Hot...Five Reasons Why" Tag // In which MC gets uncomfortable for your Entertainment

Sup, guys.

Because, flames, fire, you know....
I've been wanting to use this gif for FOREVER and now is as good a time as any.

Sorry that it's been a while! How is the shortest month of the year going for you? I had masterful plans for posts in January and thought I was going to hit my 500th post, but, as you can see, that didn't happen. I wanted to embrace my break as much as I could and I started writing tons of different posts but just never finished any of them. Which means it's too late now for the Smashing and Dashing Character Awards 2022. But maybe next year! It means that I have a lot of good content coming in the future. Someday. I just need to finish them. 

I got back to school and classes and rehearsal have been amazing and just completely consuming. It's nice that I wasn't type cast because it is so hard to be a character who is ambitious and disdainful and never smiles until bade to do so. Hard but oh so fun. I'm putting that all aside for the most brief of moments to get this post up.

I may be living the fire side of this up a little bit...

I got tagged. Yes, I have a ton of tags, but this one seems apt for Valentine's Day (which we are pretending this is closer to). Hamlette tagged me for the "Flaming Hot...Five Reasons Why" tag.

This is a very foreign topic for me, and I wasn't planning on doing it, but my sister texted me (from two states away) and said she had seen Hamlette's post and I HAD to do it. So if this is your jam, thank my sister.

When I try to imitate other people...

The Rules:

-You must add the name of the blog that tagged you AND those of the Thoughts All Sorts and Realweegiemidget Reviews with links to ALL these sites.. and use the natty cat themed picture promoting this post. 

-List 5 of your all-time swoon-worthy characters from TV or Film, i.e. crushes/objects of your affection. And do mention the actor or actress who plays them, as you might like James Bond as played by Timothy Dalton and no one else, etc., etc. 

-Add 5 reasons why you love them, in five sentences.

-Link to 5 other bloggers. 

-Add lovely pictures, gifs or videos of those you selected. 

-Oh…and post these rules.

So, first I want to talk about how weird this is for me. Last year, Olivia did a post on if fictional characters were her "type", and let's just say I HAVE NEVER RELATED SO MUCH (especially because one of the characters she listed is one of the characters I included in this post). You should go read that post to save me my pains of typing. I'll type anyway, but still, go read what she says.

Okay, so, something that I don't do is fall in love with fictional characters. Do I get more invested in their own stories than my real life? Yes. Do I generate actual feelings or crushes for them? No, not really. It's very rare if I do. For three big reasons:

-I adopt characters. I think of them as my sweet children. Post on that HERE.

I may or may not have another post like that in the works. One that may include this golden boy...

-I do not have crushes on characters I relate to.

-I am not attracted to characters I ship with someone else.

See, I don't do this. Source

What about when I relate to a character? What about if I am a character 100%? Then I still ship the two characters, but am not myself personally interested in the love interest. I ship the love interest with that version of me, but not the version of me I am living. Apparently not everyone else does this? This is the weird thing? Story of my life. I have a lot of strange opinions on shipping that I will maybe one day write about further.

(Has this developed into if I am interested in someone in real life then I start shipping them with someone else? That's a strange logic you used...)

I say this to myself on a daily basis.

On a related note, I just cannot image myself in a relationship? I can barely handle my life as it is. I am not that much of a romantic person. I mean, once I get behind I ship I am FULLY in (guys, the amount of space my OTP takes up in my heart is unhealthy), but real life I've always been the person to be like, "gross, kissing." Yes, apparently I am 5 at heart.

This is about the level of my romantic soul.
Kat is an Icon.

The final straw was actually that Katie answered this tag, too. I was like, "Okay, if she can, I can." Katie's the epitome of cool and you should go check her blog out.

And I'm probably overthinking this a lot. These characters are people I have not adopted, I don't relate to, and they don't have any romantic interests. You would not believe how long it took for me to come up with this. The way I approach this leaves a select few people, because most fall into those three categories. And then people falling into the right age range narrows it down again. And I didn't want to talk about anyone I'd already mentioned on this blog (for those of you keeping track, that would be Artie and Elwood). When my sister texted me I told her I had thought of two. So she tried to be helpful by suggesting the following: Robin Hood (Errol Flynn portrayal), William Turner, Legolas, Jimmy Stewart just in general, Jess Mariano, Tristan Dugray, and Philip Carlyle. Which are all wrong. So much so. To which I told my sister:

Which means, she and I have very different interpretations

But enough procrastination. Here they are. They are listed alphabetically by the movie/franchise they are from because that's a tiny part of organization I can control.

Michael McCandles (played by Christopher Mitchum) 

from Big Jake (1971) 

Shortly before I watched this movie I thought, "everyone has crushes on fictional characters"...and proceeded to find I could not think of any myself for the life of me; then in rode Michael on his motorcycle. This movie is rough because it's about a family trying to rescue a kidnapped child, and Michael is part of that family as he's the boy's uncle. While the rest of his family has hard edges (typically found in westerns) he has a light and jubilant spirit.

He has hope and bravery to make things right again and he is the glue that holds his brother and father together while they search for his nephew. He's smart, knows what he's up against, and knows the assets his family carries: he respects his father and throws in humor, like, "the next time I won't take off my goggles."

(I thought 5 sentences would be easy, but one character in and I'm already struggling with writing too much. I am going to be utilizing correct and incorrect uses of colons and semi colons from here on out.)

Don Pedro (played by Denzel Washington) 

from Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

The prince is charming to his core and that charm holds more weight because he knows when to laugh and when to be serious. He isn't perfect as there is a time where he believes what his eyes tells him and is unjust when it comes to condemnation, but he repents for his hasty movements. 

This gif has both my possible love interest and one of my babies....

His actions are regal and he has loyalty and concern for his soldiers who are all his deepest friends. He helps set up two other couples in this story and is an utter sweetheart. He's also a lonely soul that makes me feel so sorry for him because when times are quiet you can feel the heaviness of his heart, and that comes from more than war and dealing with his brother.

Colonel Fitzwilliam (played by Anthony Calf) 

from Pride and Prejudice (1995) 

A common question is, "who's your favorite Austen hero?" with the connotation that that would be "who would you marry?".  My favorite is probably Colonel Brandon, but I would not be interested in him, because MARIANNE; the answer to the implicit question is Colonel Fitzwilliam. His one purpose in this story serves to tell Elizabeth the details about Mr. Darcy, but I'm always thinking, why don't we see more of him?? 

He's sweet, charming, though obviously we are not at the same level because he "has to marry well". He's got pride and ambition, but he's got a jolly spirit and he would always make you smile with his good humor.

Lando Calrissian (played by Billy Dee Williams) 

from STAR WARS.

Lando has a sketchy history like Han, but he has smoothed out more with his gained authority. The characters are upset by his actions in the first movie he appears in (rightly enough), but everything he does is for the people he is governing. Once he learns who keeps their word in politics, his motivations shift to fix the mistakes he made. 

He has an epic blue cape, so what's not to love?

He has a strong work ethic because he helped Cloud City become what it was and also ascends the ranks quickly to become a general. He has charm a plenty and loyalty; when the time calls for it, he is the one you can depend on. 

Albert Narracott (played by Jeremy Irvine) 

from War Horse (2011).

What's more attractive then a guy who just really loves his horse? It's adorable. He's willing to work with Joey and do things that people said was impossible or would kill them both in the process. The earnest pleading that Albert does on Joey's behalf is enough to soften the heart of an officer to ensure the best treatment will be given to Joey. I have to stop talking about this movie before I burst into tears out of my love for it, but yes, a part of that is that Albert is fantastic.

And yes, Joey's just going to chill in this pictures, too.

If, IF, I were to break my rules, it would be for: Neal Caffrey from White Collar (because I still haven't really met Kate I'm not shipping them but what makes Neal so lovable is his devotion to Kate, so that cancels that out...). Or Peter Lawford's character, Johnny, in Easter Parade because Peter Lawford. But yay, we're done with this torturous post (fine, that was a little fun...), so I can stop thinking about it.

Overall, my darling Enjolras sums up a question I ask every day:

I'm not that sensitive to the sufferings of many. Named "love". Happy Valentine's Day, folks.

Just like Enjolras is a revolutionary, I'll be one to break the rules and not tag anyone. Because I don't want to shove this on anyone else if it makes them uncomfortable.

I hope you all have enjoyed seeing my squirm, yay. Thank you for reading, though, and I'm impressed if you made it through all my burns and roasts (sorry, had to get one more in with the theme...). Do you guys know any of these characters? How do you feel about them? How often do you fall for fictional characters?

Thank you Hamlette for helping me break out of my comfort zone and actually get a post up!

Do you know what I love? My readers! I hope you guys are all doing well! Take care of yourselves and know that you are fantastic. Ciao!

Chloe the MovieCritic