Chris Keller of Oz is a bad, bad man!

[schmevil]

Is anyone else disturbed by the pandemic of Beecher/Keller fluff and even worse, AU fluff where Keller is psychologically stable? I'll admit to taking a guilty pleasure in the very inspired stories of this kind, but I wonder at the sheer mass of them.

Keller is a both a highly sexual and violent character. Obviously the mixture has a certain attraction but I think that many people (purposely) overlook how inextricably these things are linked in him, for him. He is a pleasure killer. Beecher himself points this out in the final episode - Keller is driven by his desires and lacks the kind of limits that normal men, even the other inmates in Oz have. How much can he get away with, and still be live? How far can he go before the state is forced to kill him? How far can he push Beecher, or Schillinger or even Sister Pete, before they snap on him? And then how can he work his way back into their graces to start all over again.

He is not driven by anger - he doesn't carry the extreme malice toward Schillinger as Beecher does, or Schibetta to Adebesi. There is no sense that Keller could ever be lost the way they were - as though no matter how much face he might lose, Keller can't be humiliated in quite the same way. There is a coldness to his character, evident from his first scenes. Most things don't touch him and what does is subject to his plans. Like O'Reilly he's always looking to his own advantage.

A comparison to O'Reilly might be valuable, come to think of it. Keller is like O'Reilly's hypersexualized, sociopathic and psychopathic red-haired step cousin. Keller and O'Reilly share a love of fucking other people over, but Keller's need for control is applied far more narrowly onto himself and his victims.

I don't say that Keller is in any way inhuman - he's capable of love, affection and tenderness - but he's deeply disturbed. He's a fascinating character because of his conflation of sexual and violent pleasure, and because of the enjoyment he takes in manipulating and hurting others.

Fluff!Keller is just some poor schmuck who happened to get fucked in prison when he was seventeen and then fell in with a bad crowd. He's a loser who ended up with life, after fucking up a simple robbery. Hard to explain why he kept fucking and killing college boys, but we'll blame that on Schillinger's bad influence. Oh the drama! I mean trauma.

On the other hand, canon!Keller got carried away during a robbery and ended up with life in prison, and while that may suck, he's still having fun.

Come on, people! Who's more fun?

Comments

[leechwife.livejournal.com]

I didn't even realise there was Oz fic out there - admittedly, I've never looked - but Canon!Keller. Definitely. There's something about the whole Beecher/UnstableKeller dynamic that's really fascinating.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

*nods* There's lots of fic, most of it slash and much of that Beecher/Keller. Most of it is tripe (of course). There are a few really talented people writing Ozfic. I'd like to write it myself, but I find the series resists ficcing.

Want some links? ^_-

[fidelis-haven.livejournal.com]

Give the links. Give. Give.

I wouldn't know how to start Ozfic. Besides, I'd never cheat on HP like that. I am faithful.

[tierry-leoine.livejournal.com]

Hi!
Innowacji i'm kind of late to the party (somehow I sometimes sabotage myself and not watch tv series that people recommend to me), but would you mind sharing those links with me, if you still have them?

Good fics are normally hard to find, but with Oz it's even more difficult, to find, as you observed, true characterisation.

Thanks!

[ilexa.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's a really good point. I keep coming across Oz AUs where Toby and Chris meet up and fall in love without ever having been to prison (at least, Toby never has been). I don't see that it would ever happen. If Chris had been at Oz when Toby got there, I imagine Chris would have chewed him up and spit him out. But since he doesn't show up until mid-S2, Toby has already faced hell, and is somewhat ready to walk back out -- even if he doesn't know it yet.

Yes, I really do believe that Keller loves Beecher. But I also believe that Ryan *really* loves Dr. Nathan. Fucked up love is just as real as "normal" love. But it's just that much more dangerous.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

If Chris had been at Oz when Toby got there, I imagine Chris would have chewed him up and spit him out.

He almost did that as it is. *g* Just think how much worse it could have been if Chris had been years into his sentence when Toby arrived, with no Vern in sight. *dead!Beecher waves*

I don't get the need to make the Beecher/Keller and Ryan/Nathan relationships normal. Take away the psychosis and you have something far less interesting.

[ilexa.livejournal.com]

He almost did that as it is.

Good point, that. *g*

I don't get the need to make the Beecher/Keller and Ryan/Nathan relationships normal. Take away the psychosis and you have something far less interesting.

Exactly! Keller is appealing and charming because he's a sociopath. Not just because he's charming and appealing. Take away his psychosis, and he's just a two-bit thug. Yeah, it's all angsty as hell, but again, that's part of the draw.

[ebonbird.livejournal.com]

I've only seen 4 eps, but I'll buy that for a dollar.

Don't know *why* fans do that, pull the eye-teeth of poisonous characters. But I think it's much more about the authors' ideas of the transformative powers of love than about the characters.