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Random Biggles thoughts (as one does)
Cut for those who don't care about my flirty enemies to lovers ship.
I read and loved![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
philomytha's wonderful turn-left-at-canon AU of Biggles Flies East, Nor Any Drop, and it occurred to me after reading it how easily I can see the two of them having a much more relaxed and friendly postwar relationship (after Biggles saves his life here), and generally looking each other up after the war.
And this made me think that a really critical aspect of Biggles and von Stalhein's epic 40-year flirtation is that Biggles thinks he's dead for about a decade and therefore, never looks him up after the war, and EvS is too betrayed to want to, so a lot of time goes by and by the time they run into each other again, they're too entrenched as enemies to change (at least for a long while).
Because if either of these factors wasn't true, it almost certainly seems like they *would* have been very likely to become friends after their countries were no longer at war. If Biggles had known he was alive, it seems that even with von Stalhein still regarding him as an enemy and a traitor, Biggles would've tried to find him and apologize afterwards, not waiting until fifteen years had gone by; and similarly, EvS trying to find *him*, if they'd had a friendlier parting, doesn't seem out of the question.
I mean, even with things as they are, Algy recognizes him immediately on the basis of what HAS to have been nothing more than Biggles's apparently very detailed descriptions (of a guy he knew for all of two weeks who then apparently died) and even after the entire spy-reveal-and-betrayal, EvS's attitude towards Biggles in Biggles & Co is a lot friendlier and more admiring than he has any reason to be. It seems like all they really needed back in Flies East was a push in some other direction to have a major domino effect later on.
I read and loved
philomytha's wonderful turn-left-at-canon AU of Biggles Flies East, Nor Any Drop, and it occurred to me after reading it how easily I can see the two of them having a much more relaxed and friendly postwar relationship (after Biggles saves his life here), and generally looking each other up after the war.And this made me think that a really critical aspect of Biggles and von Stalhein's epic 40-year flirtation is that Biggles thinks he's dead for about a decade and therefore, never looks him up after the war, and EvS is too betrayed to want to, so a lot of time goes by and by the time they run into each other again, they're too entrenched as enemies to change (at least for a long while).
Because if either of these factors wasn't true, it almost certainly seems like they *would* have been very likely to become friends after their countries were no longer at war. If Biggles had known he was alive, it seems that even with von Stalhein still regarding him as an enemy and a traitor, Biggles would've tried to find him and apologize afterwards, not waiting until fifteen years had gone by; and similarly, EvS trying to find *him*, if they'd had a friendlier parting, doesn't seem out of the question.
I mean, even with things as they are, Algy recognizes him immediately on the basis of what HAS to have been nothing more than Biggles's apparently very detailed descriptions (of a guy he knew for all of two weeks who then apparently died) and even after the entire spy-reveal-and-betrayal, EvS's attitude towards Biggles in Biggles & Co is a lot friendlier and more admiring than he has any reason to be. It seems like all they really needed back in Flies East was a push in some other direction to have a major domino effect later on.
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But yeah, the years of constantly losing to him were what really set it in stone, at least for a while.
Having read as many of the books as I've now read (which is, uh, at least 30 or 40 at this point) it's all the more interesting to me that, after all the books in which EvS ran the gamut from honorable enemy to mercilessly evil, that Johns eventually gave him as happy an ending as he did! I don't think I would ever have called that from the earlier books, as ambiguously almost-friendly as his relationship with Biggles can be. But it just makes me so happy that after all those years of living a life where he couldn't trust anybody, and evidently being completely miserable for at least the last 15 or so years of it, he eventually got a nice retirement in a safe place with at least two people who really care about him. That's such a nice ending for him.
(BTW, I just read Biggles Sweeps the Desert in the last few days, and was thoroughly charmed by Biggles finding YET ANOTHER enemy German to flirt with. He definitely has a type. I'm just picturing everyone else sitting in the stolen German transport while he's radio-flirting and being like Biggles, why are you like this. ♥)
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I expect the Marie thing also cemented EvS's obsession: you can imagine him finally getting home and going 'oof, that's over, no more worrying about English spies barely out of school' and hoping to put it all behind him, and then, nope, instead of Marie comforting him and cheering him up, she's in a state about Biggles too. So it does sort of make sense that he'd sleep with Biggles's picture under his pillow after that! Probably alternating between that and throwing knives at it...
Looks Back is such an unexpected book after all the villainy! The story of Buries a Hatchet is much less genre-bending: von Stalhein getting cosmic justice for being a villain and then Biggles showing him mercy once he's laid low is a fairly predictable storyline. But then them teaming up for adventures, with a sprinkling of romance as well, is just such a gift <3
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Oh no, that's sad! One thing I was happy about in Sweeps the Desert is that things worked out about as well as they could have for both him and Biggles, given that they ARE enemy pilots on opposite sides and he had to lose.
I expect the Marie thing also cemented EvS's obsession: you can imagine him finally getting home and going 'oof, that's over, no more worrying about English spies barely out of school' and hoping to put it all behind him, and then, nope, instead of Marie comforting him and cheering him up, she's in a state about Biggles too.
HE'S EVERYWHERE. I guess it's no wonder that EvS evidently obsessed about him for years.
But then them teaming up for adventures, with a sprinkling of romance as well, is just such a gift <3
It's such a kind book, and such a kind ending for him. ♥ I could still be happy enough with his ending even without it - he's clearly getting closer with Biggles; you could imagine that continuing - but it's just so absolutely lovely to have an entire book of the two of them adventuring together, making it clear that they really are very close! Of course, it didn't come as a surprise because you had talked about it, so for me it wasn't unexpected, but it does feel atypical for its genre as well as for the series overall (but in the best possible way!).
... honestly I do feel like the last, oh, several books with EvS (the ones leading up to Hatchet and then the ones after) are really very surprisingly coherent about his character arc. He's clearly very unhappy for several books, and Biggles is sympathetic to him (as well as the author, it seems) - then there's the rescue, and a gradual building of trust and EvS bringing him
micehelpful little pieces of information and the two of them gradually spending more time together, and then Looks Back with all its lovely, lovely mutual liking/caring and Biggles making it clear that EvS is one of "his" now. It couldn't have been planned, at least not in any degree of detail, but it's really interesting how well it all works together!no subject
My surprise and delight at reading Looks Back without the slightest clue of what to expect was apparently large enough to start a small fandom :-D
It's not the sort of series with a lot of character arcs, but as you say, EvS's is unexpectedly coherent, and absolutely lovely. Did you see the old biggles_slash LJ posts about it? The whole thing very neatly laid out, with dates and everything: Part 1 and Part 2.
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Oh yay! Maybe I'll read that one next.
I can definitely see why the experience of encountering that book unspoiled has apparently not only drawn you into the fandom but also turned you into Patient Zero of the Biggles fandom exchange epidemic. :DDD
I found that meta post earlier, but I hadn't read most of the books at that time, and I also hadn't seen the timeline! Thank you for linking to it!
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I find W.E. Johns's treatment of von Stalhein kind of endearing overall. He's basically authorial Biggles, continuing to have a massive, admiring soft spot for him and getting far less of a charge out of having him as a really vicious, no-goodness-evident-here villain. It's easy to feel that he just wound up much fonder of him than he would have expected, and I'd love to know if his editors/publishers were Algy in all this: "So he just ... he's just their friend now? He did all of that and now he's just ... hanging out?"
W.E. Johns: *Biggles speech*
I just love the idea that he started out writing a great antagonist in a great spy story and got so invested in this technical side character that he wound up writing a whole woobie villain + enemies-to-friends arc happy ending in exactly the same way a lot of fic writers would.
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I'd love to know if his editors/publishers were Algy in all this: "So he just ... he's just their friend now? He did all of that and now he's just ... hanging out?"
W.E. Johns: *Biggles speech*
I will now imagine that scene playing out in his publisher's offices.
"But he's a villain and we're trying to write morally uplifting books for children."
W.E. Johns: *half hour speech on why von Stalhein deserves a happy ending*
But in general, though, I do actually feel like a lot of Biggles's speeches and views on things are W.E. Johns's views. It makes the racist moments all the more jarring, sometimes, because in general I feel like Johns's general authorial viewpoint in the books is that of a guy who genuinely likes people, sees the humanity of the opposing side, and overall has a pretty uplifting view of human nature. His evident desire to give his main recurring villain a happy ending underscores that in a lovely way.
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I do think it wouldn't have taken much to be different for them to have become friends after the war. They've clearly got a lot in common, but EvS's pride and his bitterness just get in his way too much, especially after Biggles has trounced him another couple of times. It would make for an interesting AU, EvS tagging along on some of the interwar adventures...
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I didn't remember Algy meeting EvS in Flies East! I'll have to reread it. (Oh no, what a hardship.)
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Re-reading Flies East is never a chore :D I think it's one of the best of all the books.
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It's not my fandom, yet you successfully planted the guy in my subconscious, LOL.
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