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- The BrenShal UnThing
It’s like an urban legend: no solid evidence but it persists anyway! Isn’t it time to dispel the myth of the BrenShalUnThing?
design by Psionicferal77
From a Shalimar Fan’s Point Of View
Brennan and Shalimar. Shalimar and Brennan. Two of the most active and prettiest members of the Mutant X team. Over that course of three seasons audiences all over the world have fallen in love with these characters. Now we, the audience, are being led to believe by The Powers That Be that after seasons of flirting these two characters are now in a relationship and have ‘fallen in love’ with each other. The only question remaining is “What are The Powers That Be smoking?”
Now I must confess before we get deeply into this discussion, that I am a huge season one Shalimar fan. From the very first episode I thought that Shalimar was cool, intelligent, sophisticated, fearless, and sexy while still remaining very classy. However, when season two began Shalimar’s image changed. Her appearance was not as classy as before, quite possibly even trashy. She stopped doing the things around Sanctuary that highlighted her intelligence and skills. It was obvious that she was merely becoming a piece of eye candy. But worst of all The Powers That Be decided to have her in a “relationship” with Brennan.
The Shipping Begins
Since the beginning of the series one of the more popular ‘ships’ among the Mutant X online fan community involved a relationship between Brennan and Shalimar. People claimed that all throughout the first season The Powers That Be have been dropping “hints” that Shalimar and Brennan were in a relationship. Such “hints” included the fact that Adam tended to send them out on missions together more often than any other combination of the team members and in many of the promotional pictures for the series, Shalimar and Brennan are standing next to eachother. Both of these “hints” can be easily explained. These two characters were sent on a lot of missions together simply because the actors who play them (Victoria Pratt and Victor Webster) are two of the more physically capable actors for stunts on the show. As for standing next to each other in group pictures, that is simply due to the physical shape of the actors. Victor Webster is the tallest member of the cast while Victoria Pratt is the shortest cast member. Having these individuals stand next to one another makes the group look more symmetric, or more proportioned in terms of size.
Example of group shot:
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The Near Kiss
The Powers That Be began to openly recognize the “chemistry” between Brennan and Shalimar in the season one finally, “A Breed Apart”. In this episode a heavy load was dropped on the fans. At different points throughout the episode it appeared that Shalimar and Brennan were sexually attracted to one another. In this blunt attempt of attraction, The Powers That Be, failed to notice that this attraction between the characters did not seem completely natural. For an entire season we’ve seen these two characters together, but merely as friends. Now in the final episode of the entire season we are lead to believe that there maybe more to this friendship. In the last five minutes of the episode we see Shalimar and Brennan talking in one of the many hallways of Sanctuary. They are discussing the recent day’s events involving Shalimar being kidnapped by Gabriel Ashlock. Brennan begins to explain that if anything were to happen to Shalimar, he would never be able to forgive himself. Then all of the sudden, Brennan leans in to kiss Shalimar. When he does Emma yells, “Hey guys come check this out.” (My personal belief is that Emma had picked up Shalimar’s freaked out emotions because Brennan was about to kiss her.) The kiss never happens and Brennan apologies for what was about to happen. That’s it! That is all that happened. However, since all this happened on the season finally, it makes the audience wonder all summer if a relationship will develop next season. The Powers That Be figure if the viewer wasn’t interested in Gabriel Ashlocke or what will happen to Genomex (a question that was never answered in the series). At least the audience will want to know if there will be a relationship between these two lead characters.
Green Eyed Elemental
Jealously is said to be the ‘Green Eyed Monster’. If that is the case, Brennan for most of season two, should be seen as the ‘Green Eyed Elemental’. During different episodes such as “Body and Soul” and “Under the Cloak of War”, we the viewer, see how jealous Brennan is of other men that Shalimar pays attention to. For an example in “Body and Soul”, Shalimar flirts with Doctor Mark Kearney. When Shalimar goes to visit Mark at the clinic to try to receive information from him, Brennan becomes very jealous that Shalimar wants to see the doctor again. Having failed to get any information from Mark the first time, the second time Shalimar visits Mark at the clinic Brennan decides that he needs to go with her in order to get the information and set the doctor straight. Not only does Brennan appear overly protective of Shalimar; his behavior makes him appear to be jealous of Shalimar flirting with Mark.
In “Under the Cloak of War” we see the best example of Brennan being overprotective and jealous when it comes to other men hitting on Shalimar. Within the episode the best evidence of Brennan’s jealously is demonstrated at the very end. After the weapon that was attached to Shalimar’s arm goes off, Shalimar gets into a fight with Noel, the lead assassin that she had kissed (in front of a hidden Brennan). Noel pulls out two guns at Shalimar and Brennan sends a zap of electricity at Noel to get him to drop the guns. In doing so he tells Noel that he isn’t good enough for her (My question to Brennan is ‘As a felon, what make you think you are good enough for Shalimar?’). It doesn’t get more obvious than that.
Now Shalimar on the other hand doesn’t express the same level of jealously towards Brennan’s attention to other woman. In “Cross Roads of the Soul” when Brennan doesn’t return home on time, Shalimar suggests that he was “…maybe with a small town waitress. Shacked up in a hotel/motel using the ‘I think we have some electricity between us’ line”. This proves Shalimar knows that he is fooling around with a variety of girls. Also in “The Grift”, Shalimar does not seemed overly concerned that Brennan is with is ex. Shalimar was concerned with what Brennan was doing, but she didn’t seem jealous of the girl that he was with. Showing that out of the two of them, Brennan was the only one truly concerned with the other being in a situation with the member of the opposite sex.
A Needed Reality Check
The episode that best examines the relationship between Brennan and Shalimar is “Reality Check”. In this episode, shippers all across the world should have received a much-needed reality check. Shalimar was trapped within her head. When she first ‘wakes up’ within her head, Shalimar is in a bed. As she turns in bed something very shocking happened with in the Mutant X Community:
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The kiss! The Shalimar and Brennan kiss. Shippers across the fandom screamed and cried. Even the anti-shippers began to scream and cry. Everything seemed perfect with in the Mutant X Universe for people who believed that these two belonged together or deserved each other. However, the shocking wasn’t over! When Shalimar came to her senses about her surroundings and whom she was with she had a much different reaction:
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It may just be people who are not particular fans of a ship between Brennan and Shalimar, but Shalimar just doesn’t seem too pleased about her surroundings and especially with whom she was with. After this image Shalimar acts completely shocked and disgusted with the idea that she and Brennan are suppositively married. Darn! There went every hope and dream that Shalimar wanted to be married to Brennan.
?Addition?
Another reality check that is in order for all the shippers is how likely Brennan and Shalimar are to actually hooking up on the series. One of the worst moves a television series can do is allow two of the main characters (whose actors have sexual chemistry) to hookup. Doing so looses the element of sexual tension that these characters have. Also it doesn’t encourage some viewers to tune in on a weekly bases to see if these characters are finally going to be together. Allowing these two characters to hookup could be seen as a stupid move on the behalf of The Powers That Be. Now I’m not saying that there is no way that these two characters are going to be together, I’m just saying it could be suicide for the show. But then again after the first few episodes of season three we have learned that Mutant X will most likely not have a season four. Therefore, anything could still happen.
Seeing Is Believing
It’s true what they say, seeing is believing. Some people see all of the things that I have tried to disprove and think how wrong my argument is. These individuals would be the Brennan/Shalimar Shippers. Other people will agree with the argument I presented. They are ‘The Anti-Shippers’. No matter what the pairing is, no matter what the fandom is, there will always be shippers and anti-shippers. When mixed together these two groups can be very deadly. Any difference in opinion can cause these groups to be at each other’s throats. So pick a side, make your case. Be prepared to defend your view for if you don’t either side will simply dismiss your claim.
Shalgal
Like or Hate what you just read? Send criticism to Shalgal at shalgal2@hotmail.com
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