#FanstRA: We are family

Today's Tag Teams: F3 brightens up "hump day"! In fanfic, Maria Grazia presents an interview with Trudy Brasure and giveaway of her book, A Heart for Milton • C.S. Winchester helps new authors get their feet wet writing fanfic • In freeform, ChrisB continues the alphabet with "B is for Beard(?)? • jazzbaby1 puts John Porter in the hands of Frank Spotnitz • Agzy outs Armitage characters as dog lovers • In fandom, fedoralady recommends the right tunes for your Armitage fanvid • Rose Gisborne describes her Armitage day •In the Hobbit, IngeD3 reveals the deeper meaning of the dwarfs' hoods • Ana Cris reflects on Armitage and Maori ceremony • In King Richard Armitage, Fabo offers some choices to play Anne Neville • Links to all FanstRA 3 posts appear here at the end of each day.

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This post is inspired, but not exactly based on, Richard Armitage's character in Marple: Ordeal by Innocence.

Several ideas pop into my head when it comes to Philip Durrant. Why there are a lack of wheelchair-bound characters on telly is one - although I seem to recall a dashing Michael Weatherly with glasses in Dark Angel, and there's always the X-Men's professor Xavier. Another is greed, which we know he has plenty of. Richard Armitage himself, on the other hand, does not strike me as greedy. In fact, he has stated that he prefers his old rustbucket of a car to his shiny, new, convertible BMW, and he's from a thrifty family. Doesn't sound like greed to me.

That he dresses in expensive designer clothes ... well, a lot of people do that. Think we can all rest assured that he didn't audition to do The Hobbit because he was in desperate need of a paycheck (although, considering Strike Back, one really does wonder sometimes) - he wanted to be in it because he grew up reading Lord of the Rings, and is a self-confessed Tolkien fan. (Had he professed a deep love of everything Douglas Adams and said that he now prefers Robert Jordan over JRR Tolkien, OMG, the fangasm I would have would be impossible to recover from!)

But then there's also the point of family. Philip was married to Mary Argyle, who was the adopted daughter of Leo and Dr Quinn, a.k.a. Murder Victim #1. Mary wasn't the only child the Argyles adopted - there were, what, six in total? A family was obviously important to them, and I get the feeling family is important to Richard Armitage too.

While we can be fairly sure the likes of Brad Pitt and Scarlett Johansson probably visit their folks on occasion, I don't think we ever hear about it. Richard Armitage, on the other hand, has mentioned going back home to see them, and that his own mother is taking care of his correspondance. (How sweet is that? If a bit weird: "you've had another pair of chocolate knickers in the mail today, sweetheart!" :D) He has also mentioned things about his parents, such as their very fitting names and that their family history is tied in with textile production in Lincolnshire. He has also mentioned one day wanting to settle down and start a family.

So yes, I think we can safely conclude family is important to him. Which brings me to the subject of his fans ... for are we not, in a way, like a big family?

We have fun together, but we might not always get along. But still, being a part of a community does make you feel a little bit like being a part of an extended family, and that's great. I've never met up with any RA fans (yet) offline, but I'm definitely open to the possibility. :)

We're from all over the world too, not just his native United Kingdom. That's even better, because to think that one person, one actor, can bring us all together and become friends just from talking about him over the Internet ... is pretty darn cool. No one knows how long these friendships might last, but judging from how many of the people I'm still in regular contact with that I got to know through a chat site I frequented 16 (!) years ago ... we could be in for the long haul. And that's even more extraordinary.

Thank you, Richard Armitage, for uniting such a great bunch of decent people that I'm both delighted and humbled to have gotten to know over these past few years! :)