Name: Kyra Livejournal/Dreamwidth Username: kyronae E-mail: kyronaed@gmail.com AIM/MSN: goldeneyes1 Current Characters at Luceti: Jilly Coppercorn | theoniongirl
Character
Name: Seeley Booth Fandom: Bones Gender: Male Age: 38 Time Period: After 6x14 “The Bikini in the Soup” Wing Color: Black with red tips History: Here Personality:
On the surface, Seeley Booth is that guy. Attractive, athletic and admired in his field, he seems like someone who has always had things the easy way. His cocky, overconfident demeanor does little to dissuade the illusion. His view of the world is one that is very carefully defined. When someone steps outside the roles and lines he expects, he can be derisive to the point of mocking, calling them freaks, insulting their choices, or simply refusing to try and comprehend the reasoning behind it.
Growing up, Booth was popular and skilled. He was an athlete, and used to being liked by his peers. Natural ability and a perfectionist temperament combine to make him a very competitive person. He’s quick to rise to a challenge, and he doesn’t like to be seen as incompetent. His high expectations don’t end with himself, though. When it comes to things he values, such as relationships, parenthood, or serving his country, he can be remarkably close minded towards anyone who disagrees with his views, and harsh in the way he deals with them. As a result, he can seem prudish in relationships, highly traditional, and rather ethnocentric. When it comes to areas where he’s less than confident, such as financial security and intelligence, he is overly dismissive, downplaying the strengths and privileges of others. This is especially visible when he investigates cases with wealthy suspects, or when investigating murders at private or privileged academic institutions.
Because of his abrasive reaction to things outside his comfort zone, it’s easy to assume that he’s really as judgmental as he seems. But Agent Booth can be surprisingly understanding and sensitive when given the opportunity. As resistant as he is to differences, Booth truly cares about people. While this is most pronounced with his family and friends, it does extend to the lives of the people he interacts with on cases as well. When a case has them investigating a transgender pastor, Brennan and the squints expect him to disapprove of the pastor’s choice to restart her life as a woman. Angela also expects a negative reaction when it’s revealed that she used to have a female lover in college. In both cases, Booth is instead very accepting and actually manages to handle interactions with minimal awkwardness and a great deal of compassion.
Part of the reason for Booth’s harsh judgments comes from tightly controlled anger resulting from his childhood. The son of an alcoholic, Booth found himself taking on the role of protector when it came to his younger brother, putting himself between his father and Jared both figuratively and literally. It left him with a fierce need to protect and to help others who couldn’t help themselves. However, it also left him with a deep reservoir of fury that scares him. After what he experienced as a child, he never wants his own son to go through the same. As a result, he keeps tight reigns on his emotions and does his best to be in a position of control at all times. When working as a sniper for the US Government, or as an agent of the FBI, the control is inevitably in the hands of his superiors. Because of this, psychologist Gordon Wyatt notes that he shows his defiance in small ways, like wearing ridiculously patterned socks and ties (rather than the FBI standard uniform), and insisting on his “Cocky” belt buckle.
While his past may have been far from ideal, Booth found ways to cope, including being a very devout member of the Catholic church. His faith is an integral and precious part of himself, and he’s very quick to defend it. Faith in God gives him strength during difficult times, and hope in an afterlife offers him comfort while working in a field where brutal and tragic death is a daily reality. He prays before meals, participates in communion, goes to church most Sundays (though not every Sunday), and goes to confession.
Like his faith in God, Booth is also a devout believer in the American government. He loves his country. More than ignorant pride, he truly values the tenants of the constitution and, as Hodgins mentions in episode 5x12, he would willingly lay down his life to defend the rights promised there.
With both the Catholic Church and America, Booth is well aware that they aren’t perfect, but he holds them to a higher standard. More than just believing they should, he needs them to live up to the expectations he has for them. Dr. Camille Saroyan explains this to Dr. Sweets and Brennan when they are asked to investigate remains that potentially belong to President John Kennedy. When it seems that the government might have lied to cover up how the assassination actually occurred, Booth is devastated. Cam points out that, as a sniper, he has killed more than fifty people under orders from the government. He relies on those calls to have been made for a very good reason. The idea that the government can’t be trusted undermines the work he has done for them. Even believing his actions were justified, he doesn’t take the loss of life lightly, and he keeps a list in his head of all the deaths he believes he is responsible for.
Despite how devastating evidence of misconduct could be, both with the church and with the government, Booth doesn’t shy away from it. Though he protests and fiercely defends both, when Brennan finds evidence in cases that implicates the organizations he holds dear, he still works to give her all the support necessary to find the truth. He’s a dedicated believer, but his faith isn’t blind and it isn’t shaky enough to be destroyed whenever there are doubts. Instead, he helps Brennan with their cases and waits to see what results occur.
It’s his relationships that define him. Booth is, and always will be, a protector. Fiercely loyal, he does everything in his power to make sure that the people he cares about are happy and safe. Above all else, his family comes first. For most of his life, Booth has put his brother Jared’s well-being over his own. He even gives up credit for a career changing case in order to get Jared out of legal trouble. His grandfather, too, is someone to be protected. Hank Booth rescued Seeley and his brother from their father once he realized what was happening so, when Hank begins having trouble taking care of himself, Booth lets him move into his apartment, where he can help. Even when the demands of looking after his grandfather become overwhelming, Booth doesn’t even consider asking him to move out. He feels that this is his chance to repay him for his childhood. It is Hank who decides that it would be better to move back to the nursing home. And, more than anything, Booth cherishes his son, Parker. Parker lives with his mother, Rebecca, which means that Booth doesn’t get to see him anywhere near as much as he would like, but he takes every opportunity he can to be with his boy. He frets over him when small things seem to be troubling him, he does extensive background checks of the partners his ex-girlfriend brings home, and logic and protocol are thrown out the window if they get in the way of keeping his son safe. There is no one Booth loves more in the world, and he would do anything to make sure Parker is happy and safe and loved.
His protective streak doesn’t end with his family, however. Most notable is how fiercely he defends Brennan. He verbally spars or cuts down people who insult her, even if he understand where they’re coming from, reassures her when she worries about other people not seeing who she really is, and supports her when she’s upset. He helps her deal with the difficulties surrounding her family, while also keeping them in check and doing his best to make sure they treat her right. Booth also defends her physically. While he knows that Brennan is perfectly capable of taking care of herself, he does his best to shield her from harm and to rescue her when he can’t keep her out of something entirely. When investigations into gang matters end with a hit being put out on Brennan, Booth skips a funeral in order to hunt the leader down and make it very clear that Brennan will be left alone. When her life is threatened by a mysterious sniper, he insists on staying at her apartment as a body guard or, later, insists on her staying with him so that he can be close and keep her safe.
He treats her assistants (or “squints”) with nearly the same level of care. They are her people and, therefore, his. Despite arguing with them and spending an extraordinarily large amount of his time rolling their eyes at their reports, he genuinely likes and respects the people who work in Brennan’s lab and will go out of his way to help them.
One area that Booth is not good in, however, is relationships. On the surface, he seems like the kind of guy who should have no troubles at all, romantically. Handsome, talented, and considerate, he’s also a hopeless romantic who desperately wants to have a serious, committed relationship with someone he loves. Unfortunately for him, he’s drawn to highly independent, intelligent, competent women....who aren’t looking for that kind of relationship at all. When Rebecca finds out that she’s pregnant with Parker, Booth proposes, genuinely in love with her and hoping to make a family with her. Not ready to be married, she turns him down. After a brush with death makes him realize the true depths of his feelings for his partner, he asks Brennan to be in a real relationship with him, but she panics, turning him down with the explanation that she can’t change enough to give him the kind of commitment he wants. And then, when he goes back to Afghanistan to train US Soldiers, he meets the beautiful and headstrong Hannah Burley, an investigative journalist. It’s only when he proposes, hoping to make their relationship permanent, that it becomes clear that she wants nothing to do with marriage and, actually, has told him so. Like Rebecca and Brennan, she was always clear about her desires, but Booth clung desperately to the hope that she would change her mind. As a result, he’s left broken-hearted and angry, hurting as yet another close relationship falls apart around him. While he hasn’t given up on relationships, at the moment he’s too angry to consider it a current possibility.
Finally, as much as Booth struggles to keep his personal life and his professional life apart, they often bleed through into each other. Concerns for his son, his devout faith, and his loyalties can have drastic impact on the decisions he makes, and when personal and professional interests collide, the personal almost always win out, regardless of the risk to his career.
Strengths:
Physical: He is an expert knife thrower (as seen when he and Brennan go undercover as circus performers). He is skilled at hand-to-hand combat, enough that he can single-handedly take out an active unit of government soldiers when they take control of the Jeffersonian lab. He is also an expert marksman. As a former sniper for the US Government, he once held the record for the longest shot (“well over a kilometer”) made in a combat situation. His skill also translates to at least some historical weaponry. When the Jeffersonian staff is reenacting the assassination of JFK, Booth uses the FBI replica of the WWII military rifle to imitate the shots.
Mental: While not as intelligent as the scientists at the Jeffersonian, Booth is very good at conjecture and has an excellent understanding of human motivations. While he relies on Dr. Sweets and the scientists to provide the technical knowledge, he’s proven his mental acuity many times, both in the field and during interrogations, being able to connect the dots and find the truth behind witnesses’ stories. Sweets later tells Brennan that he plays down his intelligence in order to let her be the expert in that field, because he knows it’s important to her.
Emotional: Booth is a very caring person and, at times, can be surprisingly sensitive and insightful. He’s able to be Brennan’s support while dealing with her father, encouraging her to give him a chance and offering respect for Max, even though it’s his job to arrest him. He gives small gifts to Brennan’s squints. He’s also able to maintain a high level of emotional control. He masks a lot of his worry so that Parker won’t be upset, and he’s able to push aside his own emotions both for cases and for the well-being of his family. Despite how much he likes to show off at times, he can be surprisingly humble, letting sacrifices slide by without drawing attention to them.
Weaknesses:
Physical: Booth has a bad back, a problem that flares up several times throughout the series and which can put him out of commision for several days at a time. He also suffered brain damage due to a tumor. While there are almost no lingering signs, after recovering from the surgery, there were lasting effects immediately after, including memory loss and lowering his shooting ability
Mental: A disrespect for highly intelligent people (especially in specialized communities, like schools), and a tendency to jump to conclusions. While he can be dissuaded, he is prone to making snap judgments. While he can be quite intelligent (though maybe not in comparison with Brennan), he’s more likely to rely on his authority as an agent or his physical strength than his intellect.
Emotional: His temper. Booth has a terrible temper that erupts several times throughout the show, including once when he shot the clown speaker on an ice cream truck (the act of which got his gun suspended and resulted in him having to see Gordon Wyatt), and shooting a Black Metal band’s amplifier after the guitarist spat on his badge. He’s also terrified of clowns.
Seeley Booth | Bones | Reserved
Name: Kyra
Livejournal/Dreamwidth Username:
E-mail: kyronaed@gmail.com
AIM/MSN: goldeneyes1
Current Characters at Luceti:
Jilly Coppercorn |
Character
Name: Seeley Booth
Fandom: Bones
Gender: Male
Age: 38
Time Period: After 6x14 “The Bikini in the Soup”
Wing Color: Black with red tips
History: Here
Personality:
On the surface, Seeley Booth is that guy. Attractive, athletic and admired in his field, he seems like someone who has always had things the easy way. His cocky, overconfident demeanor does little to dissuade the illusion. His view of the world is one that is very carefully defined. When someone steps outside the roles and lines he expects, he can be derisive to the point of mocking, calling them freaks, insulting their choices, or simply refusing to try and comprehend the reasoning behind it.
Growing up, Booth was popular and skilled. He was an athlete, and used to being liked by his peers. Natural ability and a perfectionist temperament combine to make him a very competitive person. He’s quick to rise to a challenge, and he doesn’t like to be seen as incompetent. His high expectations don’t end with himself, though. When it comes to things he values, such as relationships, parenthood, or serving his country, he can be remarkably close minded towards anyone who disagrees with his views, and harsh in the way he deals with them. As a result, he can seem prudish in relationships, highly traditional, and rather ethnocentric. When it comes to areas where he’s less than confident, such as financial security and intelligence, he is overly dismissive, downplaying the strengths and privileges of others. This is especially visible when he investigates cases with wealthy suspects, or when investigating murders at private or privileged academic institutions.
Because of his abrasive reaction to things outside his comfort zone, it’s easy to assume that he’s really as judgmental as he seems. But Agent Booth can be surprisingly understanding and sensitive when given the opportunity. As resistant as he is to differences, Booth truly cares about people. While this is most pronounced with his family and friends, it does extend to the lives of the people he interacts with on cases as well. When a case has them investigating a transgender pastor, Brennan and the squints expect him to disapprove of the pastor’s choice to restart her life as a woman. Angela also expects a negative reaction when it’s revealed that she used to have a female lover in college. In both cases, Booth is instead very accepting and actually manages to handle interactions with minimal awkwardness and a great deal of compassion.
Part of the reason for Booth’s harsh judgments comes from tightly controlled anger resulting from his childhood. The son of an alcoholic, Booth found himself taking on the role of protector when it came to his younger brother, putting himself between his father and Jared both figuratively and literally. It left him with a fierce need to protect and to help others who couldn’t help themselves. However, it also left him with a deep reservoir of fury that scares him. After what he experienced as a child, he never wants his own son to go through the same. As a result, he keeps tight reigns on his emotions and does his best to be in a position of control at all times. When working as a sniper for the US Government, or as an agent of the FBI, the control is inevitably in the hands of his superiors. Because of this, psychologist Gordon Wyatt notes that he shows his defiance in small ways, like wearing ridiculously patterned socks and ties (rather than the FBI standard uniform), and insisting on his “Cocky” belt buckle.
While his past may have been far from ideal, Booth found ways to cope, including being a very devout member of the Catholic church. His faith is an integral and precious part of himself, and he’s very quick to defend it. Faith in God gives him strength during difficult times, and hope in an afterlife offers him comfort while working in a field where brutal and tragic death is a daily reality. He prays before meals, participates in communion, goes to church most Sundays (though not every Sunday), and goes to confession.
Like his faith in God, Booth is also a devout believer in the American government. He loves his country. More than ignorant pride, he truly values the tenants of the constitution and, as Hodgins mentions in episode 5x12, he would willingly lay down his life to defend the rights promised there.
With both the Catholic Church and America, Booth is well aware that they aren’t perfect, but he holds them to a higher standard. More than just believing they should, he needs them to live up to the expectations he has for them. Dr. Camille Saroyan explains this to Dr. Sweets and Brennan when they are asked to investigate remains that potentially belong to President John Kennedy. When it seems that the government might have lied to cover up how the assassination actually occurred, Booth is devastated. Cam points out that, as a sniper, he has killed more than fifty people under orders from the government. He relies on those calls to have been made for a very good reason. The idea that the government can’t be trusted undermines the work he has done for them. Even believing his actions were justified, he doesn’t take the loss of life lightly, and he keeps a list in his head of all the deaths he believes he is responsible for.
Despite how devastating evidence of misconduct could be, both with the church and with the government, Booth doesn’t shy away from it. Though he protests and fiercely defends both, when Brennan finds evidence in cases that implicates the organizations he holds dear, he still works to give her all the support necessary to find the truth. He’s a dedicated believer, but his faith isn’t blind and it isn’t shaky enough to be destroyed whenever there are doubts. Instead, he helps Brennan with their cases and waits to see what results occur.
It’s his relationships that define him. Booth is, and always will be, a protector. Fiercely loyal, he does everything in his power to make sure that the people he cares about are happy and safe. Above all else, his family comes first. For most of his life, Booth has put his brother Jared’s well-being over his own. He even gives up credit for a career changing case in order to get Jared out of legal trouble. His grandfather, too, is someone to be protected. Hank Booth rescued Seeley and his brother from their father once he realized what was happening so, when Hank begins having trouble taking care of himself, Booth lets him move into his apartment, where he can help. Even when the demands of looking after his grandfather become overwhelming, Booth doesn’t even consider asking him to move out. He feels that this is his chance to repay him for his childhood. It is Hank who decides that it would be better to move back to the nursing home. And, more than anything, Booth cherishes his son, Parker. Parker lives with his mother, Rebecca, which means that Booth doesn’t get to see him anywhere near as much as he would like, but he takes every opportunity he can to be with his boy. He frets over him when small things seem to be troubling him, he does extensive background checks of the partners his ex-girlfriend brings home, and logic and protocol are thrown out the window if they get in the way of keeping his son safe. There is no one Booth loves more in the world, and he would do anything to make sure Parker is happy and safe and loved.
His protective streak doesn’t end with his family, however. Most notable is how fiercely he defends Brennan. He verbally spars or cuts down people who insult her, even if he understand where they’re coming from, reassures her when she worries about other people not seeing who she really is, and supports her when she’s upset. He helps her deal with the difficulties surrounding her family, while also keeping them in check and doing his best to make sure they treat her right. Booth also defends her physically. While he knows that Brennan is perfectly capable of taking care of herself, he does his best to shield her from harm and to rescue her when he can’t keep her out of something entirely. When investigations into gang matters end with a hit being put out on Brennan, Booth skips a funeral in order to hunt the leader down and make it very clear that Brennan will be left alone. When her life is threatened by a mysterious sniper, he insists on staying at her apartment as a body guard or, later, insists on her staying with him so that he can be close and keep her safe.
He treats her assistants (or “squints”) with nearly the same level of care. They are her people and, therefore, his. Despite arguing with them and spending an extraordinarily large amount of his time rolling their eyes at their reports, he genuinely likes and respects the people who work in Brennan’s lab and will go out of his way to help them.
One area that Booth is not good in, however, is relationships. On the surface, he seems like the kind of guy who should have no troubles at all, romantically. Handsome, talented, and considerate, he’s also a hopeless romantic who desperately wants to have a serious, committed relationship with someone he loves. Unfortunately for him, he’s drawn to highly independent, intelligent, competent women....who aren’t looking for that kind of relationship at all. When Rebecca finds out that she’s pregnant with Parker, Booth proposes, genuinely in love with her and hoping to make a family with her. Not ready to be married, she turns him down. After a brush with death makes him realize the true depths of his feelings for his partner, he asks Brennan to be in a real relationship with him, but she panics, turning him down with the explanation that she can’t change enough to give him the kind of commitment he wants. And then, when he goes back to Afghanistan to train US Soldiers, he meets the beautiful and headstrong Hannah Burley, an investigative journalist. It’s only when he proposes, hoping to make their relationship permanent, that it becomes clear that she wants nothing to do with marriage and, actually, has told him so. Like Rebecca and Brennan, she was always clear about her desires, but Booth clung desperately to the hope that she would change her mind. As a result, he’s left broken-hearted and angry, hurting as yet another close relationship falls apart around him. While he hasn’t given up on relationships, at the moment he’s too angry to consider it a current possibility.
Finally, as much as Booth struggles to keep his personal life and his professional life apart, they often bleed through into each other. Concerns for his son, his devout faith, and his loyalties can have drastic impact on the decisions he makes, and when personal and professional interests collide, the personal almost always win out, regardless of the risk to his career.
Strengths:
Weaknesses: