Okay, so occasionally I babble about who I'd cast as my characters if the things I wrote were movies or something like that...It occurred to me weeks ago, when we were watching Memento that that particular version of Guy Pearce is exactly how I envision Shadow, only a bit better shaven and maybe a little thinner. (Shadow forgets to feed himself, sometimes.) And a comment made by someone about how Sydney of Vagrant Story could be played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyer made me realize that he could definitely play Setzer with enough makeup and a wig. Because Setzer is actually Brian Slade, you see. Only without the whole being a popstar thing and the stormy romance with Curt Wilde. Because Daryl? So not Ewan McGregor.

I'd almost go so far as to say Daryl is cooler than Ewan McGregor, only she's dead and not, y'know, Ewan McGregor. But she was cool. Until she died.

The other problem with casting Jonathan Rhys-Meyer as Setzer is that Setzer is not pretty. Shadow is pretty. Shadow is very pretty in that incredibly hot, masculine, ninja sort of way. He's way prettier than Setzer who looks kind of like Pollution from Good Omens- you know, like all those Victorian poets after the consumption and the drugs set in. Because that's what he is, only without the poetry. Smokes like a chimney and drinks like a fish despite the fact that he coughs up bits of his lungs on a regular basis and his liver gave up years ago.

The fact that Setzer is so amazingly charismatic despite the fact that he really does look like a freak- and not in a good way- is one of the reasons I love writing him. His appearance is very striking, but so is a disemboweled cow. Setzer's just not quite as colorful, what with the skin condition and all. (Skin condition, heart condition, lung condition, liver condition..."I have a condition...") Yeah. He shouldn't have survived past the age of five, but he did, and somehow managed to help save the world along the way.

Anyone who can keep an attitude that laughs in the face of everything despite losing the love of his life twice (Daryl and Blackjack) has got to be a complete and utter sociopath, but he isn't, not really. Sure, he's not entirely sane, but he still knows up from down and he still does his best to defy even that convention.

Or, let me put it this way: he gate crashes a fucking opera and kidnaps the leading lady in the middle of a performance. He then agrees to betray his former employers who have been systematically taking over the world on a rigged coin toss. He's fucking awesome.

Which is why I think he deserves a Guy Pearce look-a-like to play with after the game, hence the fucking fanfic. :) That and they're cute, when they're not trying to kill each other.