harcourt | "But at no time did they say 'You'll be working with a mountie whose wolf is a florist.'"

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I started watching Due South, but at the beginning of S3, because of reasons. Kowalsky's awful glasses are adorable/hilarious.

Also, I can't stop thinking that I would totally read this as a Steve/Clint AU. Or a Steve & Clint AU even.

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From:

ardyforshort

Oh please keep us posted on your dS progress, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!
Callum Keith Rennie is my fancast for Aja's Hawkeye, and someone did this dS superhero AU last year, wherein Fraser and Ray get recast as Clint and Steve http://archiveofourown.org/works/529353/chapters/937914

So you are not alone with that one ;)

From:

harcourt

As soon as I started watching I was like, "Man. This guy would make a much better Clint than Renner." I don't have anything against Renner, but Kowalski has that same brash and cocky over really sad something that Clint has. The whole thing with the bank robber whose mother's funeral Kowalski was staking out was really sad. Not just the wat he's been clinging to and picking at that 'lie' for so long. (He was what? 12 tops?) only to discover that to the robber it was just another job that he doesn't even remember. I'm only on episode 5, (s3, because I'm skipping all the Vecchio ones.) but it's so clear that he can't accept his divorce and he seems really lonely. Fraser seems like a guy who hangs out on his own a lot--Well. If you don't count Diefenbaker--but he does it in a self-sufficient man of the mountains way, where Kowalski really doesn't seem like he enjoys it.

He does that energy really well. I think Clint has that same feeling. (Or at least te Fraction-Aja run.) Where he's a rough around the edges badass, but also doubts the Avengers will miss him if he leaves, and worrries that he'll get kicked off the team, or other stuff just as stupid as Kowalski worrying about the bank incident with that much intensity. They're both kind of good at butt kicking, bad at life.

In short. Yeah. Me, too.

I really enjoyed the bit at the end of E3, with the cadet graduation where the old officer is asking the grads, "What do we do after we have a suspect under control?"

"Read him his mirandas!"

And then when he asks Kowalski, "Uh... kick him in the head?"

He's such a good cop, but at the same time such a terrible one.

His mom really needs to stop telling him about shit his ex says/does. It's really, really not helping him move on.

From:

ardyforshort

Those are some really good points, and I agree with a lot of what you say!

"Strange Bedfellows" (the episode where he has to bodyguard his ex-wife's new guy) is one of my favourites but I can barely stand to rewatch it because of just how sad and lonely and lost he is in it. The real killer is that he shuts Fraser out at the end because clearly, the cure for feeling heartbroken is making yourself feel even more heartbroken :( (Amen about his mum though. I roll my eyes every time at that.)

One thing that he shares with Clint (not necessarily in the Fraction/Aja 'verse but in almost all other incarnations I know) is the whole undercover deal; pretending to be someone he isn't or maybe trying to be something he isn't; I'm never sure. And he's trying to figure out where he belongs in the scheme of things, he's just as much separated from the rest of the team as Fraser, at least to start with. Definite parallel to Steve and Clint, if you take a fairly new-to-the-21st-century Steve and a jaded Clint who, like Ray, has "done this job for a long time, and for what?"

Especially in those early episodes it's really noticeable how grateful he is for every scrap of affection that Fraser throws his way. Like at the end of the first episode, where Fraser asks him if he wants to get something to eat. His face just lights up like a Christmas tree and it's really sweet but also kind of sad because it makes you realise he's got no one else.

From:

harcourt

I think Clint's trying to be something he already is, but he doesn't see that about himself. I think the key to Clint is the very early moment of wanting to be a hero or at least a good guy like Iron Man. And when he gets there, his image of himself is still someone who's trying to be like Tony and Steve, instead of someone who is like them. He's a good guy who doesn't think he is.

I see the parallel more in the way Steve and Fraser really know who they are and what they think is right and so on, and just the relationship dynamic in general, even though Fraser is quite a bit more cartoony 'lawful good' than most versions of Cap.

I don't think I'm far enough into Due South to figure out that much about Kowalksi. What is it that he's trying to be that he isn't? So far to me he just seems like a guy who's kind of living in the past. He knows his marriage is over-over, but he follows his wife around in a way that would be creepy if it wasn't just obviously dysfunctional. And he can't really move forward because he's clinging so hard that hetries to fix things in the stupidest ways possible. (What is waylaying that guy at his mom's funeral going to help, anyway? It's this flailing pointless action, and Fraser just goes along with it and backs him up and tells him that yes, as a woman, he'd find Ray very attractive. And it's played for laughs, but that conversation was pretty painful, and then it segues right into therobbery story, so I guess it's all these reasons Ray thinks he's not good enough for her, or something.)

I sort of think Ray's mom wishes that they'd get back together too, which is why she tells him things like she has no serious dates, etc. She's like the parental version of kids who want their parents to reconcile. Or maybe she thinks it makes him feel better to feel like there's a possibility of that.