Okay, I'm doing this, I have no time, I may have to join in later, but here goes... Cowley/Bodie?

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Title: Okay, I'm doing this, I have no time, I may have to join in later, but here goes... Cowley/Bodie?
Creator: Fiorenza_a
Date(s): November 27, 2015
Medium: print
Fandom: The Professionals
Topic:
External Links: Okay, I'm doing this, I have no time, I may have to join in later, but here goes... Cowley/Bodie?; archive link, page 1, archive link, page 2
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Okay, I'm doing this, I have no time, I may have to join in later, but here goes... Cowley/Bodie? is a 2015 discussion begun by Fiorenza_a at the_safehouse.

Some Topics Discussed

The Post

Nails on a blackboard or obvious pairing? Why do some people see it and others reach for the vomit bag?

Is it just Cowley/Bodie, or is it Cowley and anyone?

Is it because Cowley reminds you of your parents? (Because they may have, once.) Is it because he's the boss and Bodie's a subordinate? Abuse of power?

Because he's older? (But then so is Marge Harper and Doyle does everything but purr...)

Is it because you do fancy Doyle and you don't fancy Cowley? So can't see Bodie feeling any differently?

Doyle thinks Cowley's attractive (at least he can't see any reason why he wouldn't be, although neither he nor Bodie can actually imagine him with a woman unless he wanted to frisk her), so why shouldn't Bodie think so too?

And what about [the episode] Need to Know? Is it so hard to imagine the same caressing touch in other circumstances?

Or is it that Cowley just seems too much of an officer and a gentleman to get down and dirty?

Go on...you know you need to get it out of your system...let's have a debate...

Fan Comments

[dawnebeth]: I'm just a OTP kind of girl, and that's Bodie/Doyle. Cowley can be with anyone else he chooses (well, except for Annie--she just puts me off. P) In fact, I recently wrote a fic that will be posted soon which has Cowley with a love interest. I do fancy Doyle, but Cowley does have his charms--especially those blue eyes.

[Fiorenza_a]:

I've always been a huge Cowley fan, but I can't imagine him as a romantic interest. At least not for me. I'm a bit too rough around the edges!

I always see him with somebody clever and ladylike, but the sort of lady who'd have no qualms about rolling up her sleeves and getting stuck in, if she was needed.

But I have seen a couple of fic where rather than 'authority figure' Cowley is more 'mentor', giving Bodie someone he can trust to download on, without having to worry about losing face. Someone he's not afraid to be weak in front of. I think with Doyle sometimes, they're still butting heads and testing each other's strength.

I can see that as a relationship, slash or otherwise, between them.

They make sense as a pair, similar backgrounds, both have a sense of humour, both have a brain and a mutual respect each for the other. But the first time I read a Bodie/Cowley I was traumatised.

Maybe because Cowley's so complete you find yourself believing he sprang fully formed into being? Was always a crusty, Machiavellian, ruthless old bastard? It's hard to imagine him having a softer side?

[...]

It just doesn't work for me.

I'm not sure I see Cowley as unattractive, he's well groomed, intelligent, has a trim figure and a sense of humour.

And despite the cut glass and gentleman's club vibe, he's not fusty in his outlook either.

But I just struggle to see him with Bodie. They do have similar backgrounds in some ways, but they're vastly different in others.

Bodie would laugh if you bought him flowers and I think Cowley would want someone he could pay court to like that.

[msmoat]: I think Cowley is a great character, i love writing him. But I can't see him wanting Bodie at all. Sure, he's fond of him--and he's fond of Doyle, too, as evidenced on the show. (There's more than one caress in Need to Know.) But fondness and sexual attraction are not at all the same thing. Bodie is fond of Cowley as well, but it's a soldier/commander relationship, not a sexual/lover relationship. (This is a problem for me as I have a strong equality kink in my relationship preferences.) I have a very hard time imagining Cowley thinking it at all proper for him to have a relationship with a subordinate. Even if he felt any of that for Bodie, he'd deny himself. So, on a character level I just don't see it--for either man. And for me, well, I see scene after scene of spark/attraction/love between Bodie and Doyle, and I'm a canon-based fan. I'm obsessed with the show because of that central relationship that I see on the screen. Therefore, other pairings don't come into it at all.

[mab browne]:I like Cowley as a character, but I'm way too invested in Doyle and Bodie as a slash pairing to want to see either of them with anyone else on a permanent basis.

Even if that wasn't the case, I feel that the inequalities between them make this a non-workable pairing for me. Cowley is too much Bodie's senior and superior for my own preferences of what makes a slash pairing work. And the things that might make Cowley more vulnerable and less in the superior position (namely the fact that he is aging and has physical vulnerabilities) bite more strongly and negatively now that I'm no longer in the first flush myself.*g*

[Fiorenza_a]:It's funny, but I think maybe I see Cowley as fundamentally sexless. He isn't, there's canon evidence for him recognising a pretty face (and its vital statistics), but the Annie episode for me reads like he's turned his back on all that and has sublimated it into building CI5.

But then he does try to reignite the flame with Annie, maybe he's been holding a torch all these years and no one else has measured up?

[ali15son]:sorry but i cannot even start to read a story with this combination ..it just doesn't ring true . Doyle and Bodie on equal measures then yes thats understandable but Cowley /Bodie ...no thankyou , just leave Mr Cowley to be his boss and nothing else.

[krisserci5]:OTP here as well.

Now I can see Cowley with Elizabeth Walsh, she has a strong sense of duty that would be the allure to Cowley. His sense of duty is the most important thing to him, all else pales. . . .Anne was a memory and was doomed when the woman reappeared. You could see it on his face when he followed her lover.

I can also see Cowley as not needing sex as it would allow him an encumbrance that could be used against him and cause a duty failure.

He could have a male lover but as I said above that could and would be used against him. Absolutely not with Bodie or Doyle!!! Poor Cowley!

[sw33n3y]: I'm another B/D OTP soul, and as such, share a squick or two about this particular pairing. Having said that, there are occasions within certain limits (ie. nothing explicit) where I can appreciate a persuasively written alternative pairing of this sort.

I enjoy it when an author writes well enough to make me consider a scenario through their eyes.

[franciskerst]:Jane Carnall's B/C stories were perfectly convincing to me, to the point I had to have a try at it. I don't know if I succeeded, at least I tried hard!

[merentha13]:Has to be Bodie/Doyle - full stop! I'm not a very open-minded person ;-)

[callistosh65]: I'm another one that likes her OTP to spring from canon. The way Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins sparked off each other has helped fuel this fandom for what, 30+ years now? I just don't read the same level of possible spark in the way canon Cowley is portrayed in his relationships with either Bodie or Doyle And is there any Doyle/Cowley out there btw? Why is Bodie/Cowley seen as the most logical alternative pairing? the army vibe/ connection? The vaguely paternalistic scenes we occasionally see between them?

[snailbones]: Yep, I'm in the OTP camp too. I just see Doyle and Bodie together, and anything else just strikes my brain as not possible.

Also, somewhere along the years, I seem to have married Cowley off to Elizabeth Walsh in my head canon. I think they're prefect together - she's as acidic and devious and clever as he is. I can see them settling down together, keeping geese, fighting over the Times crossword and the best way to spray the roses, and always keeping their hands on the pulse of CI5. Not that I've given it any thought or anything *g*

[lukadreaming]: Cowley is a tremendous character, but I think he's wedded to his job and his country! I think he'd put aside relationships out of a sense of duty - although I like the idea of him marrying Miss Walsh and them retiring to the country to tend roses!

One of my (admittedly few) fandom squicks is unequal relationships - it's why I don't see the Connor/Lester pairing in Primeval, my other fandom. I simply don't see Cowley allowing himself to have a relationship with a subordinate.

I have read Bodie/Cowley fic, but that's mainly the completist in me. I was actually more convinced (although not converted to the pairing!) by a Cowley/Doyle story - I'm blanking on the name and author, but it was in a US zine. From what I recall, it was more of a recreational relationship for them both.

[solosundance]: Although I want Bodie and Doyle to be with each other in the end, I can see them both (at least temporarily) with a very short list of other partners. And by that I suppose I mean I could imagine it enough to write it. Cowley wouldn't be on that rather short list though!

I love Cowley - his character, his steel, the occasional twinkle in his eye - but the whole world of CI5 breaks down altogether for me if his relationship with Bodie and/or Doyle is anything other than in canon.

[franciskerst]: Personally I have a wee kink for unequal relationships, providing they are not between a man and a woman. So, that was maybe the main appeal of the B/C pairing for me.

[loxleyprince]: I'm throwing my hat in with the OTP B/D brigade and saying I can't see Cowley as a sexual partner of either Bodie or Doyle. I see him more as a father-figure to them (albeit a coldly calculating Machiavellian one who'd not hesitate to put them in extreme danger or even disavow them if it served the greater good.) I love the exchanges between Cowley and Bodie when they are alone together, like the initiative test to refill Cowley's hip flask in Blackout and the 'Maybe she doesn't love you any more' quip in Slush Fund that show how easy they can be in each other's company, but I don't see that familiarity in a sexual light. I do like the Anne Higgins stories in which she has Cowley as Bodie's father (although I'd be the first one to admit he'd definitely have to take after his mother...) and reckon that would be totally consistent with the reassuring caresses in [the episode] Need To Know. And on that subject, am I the only one who loves how Bodie gets offered the oxygen twice and gets a helping hand up, whilst Bambi-limbed Doyle only gets oxygen once and has to get himself back on his own feet and pick up his own gun. Ooooh, and I know it's probably only LC making sure he and MS weren't aiming for the same seat in the car, but I also love how Bodie looks at Doyle to make sure he's okay before getting into the back... (awwww!)

Re Doyle and Marge, I think any purring on Doyle's part is because he needs to keep Marge on-side to further the investigation (and there's precious little chance of Bodie managing that on his own, given the way Marge has taken against him) and because he knows it'll get right up Bodie's nose.

I do think that Cowley is now wedded to CI5, and I doubt any woman would be able to compete. Mind you, once he retired, I could definitely see him settling down with an intelligent, no-nonsense, lady who knew her way around the corridors of power and a variety of small arms.

[fiorenza_a]: Maybe that's Cowley's problem, the list of attributes required in his lover must make finding a match quite difficult. Whereas, Bodie's 'has pulse, under fifty' approach probably widens the field!

Bodie and Cowley do have an easy rapport, I think they genuinely like each other. Cowley even teases him, which is not something you do without affection.

I love the idea of a Bambi-limbed Doyle! But Bodie does clearly struggle with the effects of the gas in a way Doyle doesn't. It never leads to anything though, not even a bit of banter, so you wonder why it was there.

And although Cowley caresses Bodie's cheek in that ep, not so much fuss seems to be made of Cowley trying to tie Doyle's tie in Wild Justice. That's quite an intimate act and Doyle just stands still for it, like a child with its mother, or a spouse.

And no one seems to pay any attention to the way Cowley holds Doyle when he's shot at the end of Female Factor. I can't remember him ever holding Bodie like that? Unless I've stupidly blanked on something obvious.

(In my head canon, Marge gets her man!)

[paris7am]: In the canon CI5 universe, I can't see it, for myself. Bodie and Doyle have so much chemistry and heat between them, and I am completely blind to any others. In fic, however, there have been times when I have fallen for one of them with Cowley - a really skilled story will weave a way for me.

The comment above about point of view strikes me as being very true - it matters so much whose eyes and emotions I encounter it through. What I consider the worst of the worst (in my world) are stories where Cowley comes between B & D - one of them choosing him over each other. The betrayal on so many levels! If it is established that either B or D is truly not available, then it is much easier to convince me...

There was one very poignant story where C inhabits his youthful body for a night and goes out to find Bodie, for example - I don't think I liked the characterization of B, but it opened new doors for me where C is concerned. And I have read very hot scenarios of both BC and DC - even though it squicks! - playing with the authority imbalance and how it changes with desire.

[byslantedlight]: I see both of them having entirely different relationships with Cowley - relationships of respect and ultimately of trust, despite the various Operation Susies they're sent on. I don't see anything that tells me Bodie and Cowley have a either a romantic or a sexual relationship (or Doyle and Cowley for that matter, though Jane Carnall has an (actually two!) interesting take on that in the zine Nudge Nudge Wink Wink 3). If I did see a B/C or a D/C relationship in the eps then that would be fine - but I just don't.

[fiorenza_a]: I do see them as friends.

One thing that really irks me about B/D, B/C, or any other non-canonical pairing, is the concept of that friendship having been taken to 'the next level'. To me it implies a platonic friendship is always an inferior relationship to a sexual relationship. Which I hotly dispute.

I accept it's a 'different level', but people move mountains for their friends, sacrifice for them, die for them. It depends on the depth of the friendship.

Some of the most meaningless relationships can be sexual ones.

[franciskerst]: What I like most in the B/C relationship is precisely its apparent absurdity, unlikeliness and, on some grounds, wrongness. It's obviously unwise, illicit, unbalanced, a little pathetic even, from a man like Cowley. It's mad and dangerous, and at first sight it looks doomed : how could I have resisted? That's called passion; passion is unwise, mad and dangerous; all, indeed, extremely favorable to emotion and dramatic tension. (The trope of the impossible love is as old as poetry and literature, examples abound). I am really fond of the B/D partnership and friendship, but it's very tame in comparison. And by the way there is no contradiction between the two, very different, kind of relationships.

I don't expect everybody to share what is by nature a minority taste. I agree that the B/D pairing is more evident and easy to conceive; a little too easy perhaps...Friendship is love too, a very deep and demanding sort of love, which simply doesn't need the sexual bond. There is no friendship between Bodie and Cowley as I see them because there are no equality, balance of power or mutual trust and knowledge. There are, from the old man, lust, tenderness, nostalgia, with a part of self-identification and from the younger man: fierce loyalty, gratefulness, admiration, a sort of hero worship gone wild, the pride of being chosen, the longing of belonging and a desire to meet the other's desire. As a whole it may look sad, hopeless and absurd but I think it can last because their need of each other is vital, not rational, rooted in their past, their similar life experiences, wounds and frustrations. They are very complementary in a way.

References

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