Part 1

People have made a couple comments about the fic and I wanted to discuss them a bit more than just sending off a reply to the comments. I find it interesting that people are picking out some of the very same points that I spent time wondering about myself, and it's worth a separate entry to discuss them.

The triplet's ages. I talked about this one a few months ago but since it has been a while, I think it could use another mention. We know for a fact that Jace is a half hour older than Joxer. That's taken straight from the dialogue in the fifth season Xena ep, "Lyre, Lyre, Hearts On Fire." It was never stated in any episode where exactly Jett fell in the birth order.

When I first wrote this story, I decided, for a couple plot reasons, to just make Jett and Joxer less than a minute apart with Jett being the elder. Later on during the writing process when I realized I needed to do some research, I plugged in the Xena third season DVD containing the "King of Assassins" episode. It was there I found episode commentary featuring two of the writers. The writers said at one point that when they were writing the ep, in their minds Jett and Joxer were less than a minute apart in birth and Jett was the older brother. Well, whatdya know? Go me. If it's not exactly canon, it's pretty darn close.

Jett's attitude towards Joxer. leaper182 brought up the good point that would Jett really bother to keep a promise to Joxer? After the way he treated Joxer in KoA? When I wrote that scene in the third part, I had the exact same question/concern and it was one of the things that prompted me to watch that episode multiple times.

Jett was a real jerk to Joxer in that ep, no question about it, but it wasn't malevolent in any way. It was more of an older brother being annoying, type of jerk. The writers mentioned this, that they thought older brothers often teased and tormented the younger ones, and that's what was going on between Jett and Joxer. Of course, Jett being what he is, his teasing and tormenting are on a level that a lot of us would consider abuse. I don't think Joxer sees it that way though, it's just something he puts up with from Jett and actually expects from him.

During that ep however, we see in more than one instance that no matter how much Jett knocks Joxer around, he loves Joxer. (As a brother, in the ep, but it was a foundation I could build on for another kind of love in the story.) He's genuinely happy to see Joxer, even though Joxer is the "black sheep" of the family. (As an aside, it's interesting that Joxer considers himself in that light. From things we hear later on, it appears that Jace is the black sheep, not Joxer. Actually, judging from Jett's pleased reaction to running into Joxer, it would appear that Joxer's failure to follow in their father's footsteps is more of an embarrassment in his own mind than anyone else's in the family. Not that they were happy with the way Joxer turned out, but it doesn't appear that Jett thinks Joxer is a complete and total shame to the family. Jett doesn't even appear that bothered by how Jace turned out. Those were both things I used in the story later on.)

Jett shows his feelings clearly near the end of the ep, saying that no one hurts his brother, except him. It's a very possessive type of love, in Jett's mind. Joxer is his brother and only he has a right to lay hands on him. That was one thing that was very easy to translate into another sort of emotion. (Just a thought here, but Jett strikes me as the scary type who would fixate totally on one person, Joxer in this case, and then stalk them, isolate them and make a very clear and violent point that that person is his. That was something I wanted to explore if I ever did sequels to this story. Much darker sequels.)

The only thing that seems to truly matter to Jett aside from killing, is family. He seems fond of their father and mother, just from the brief mention both got, and doesn't seem to have any problem with Jace. Joxer though, Jett appears to be a little more attached to Joxer than anyone else in the family. Maybe if we'd ever seen Jett with Jace or their parents that impression would've been proven wrong, but this is what we have to work with and that, plus Jett and Joxer being so close in birth, made me think that Jett had more feelings for Joxer than anyone else.

That said, would Jett keep a promise to Joxer? Yes, I really think he would. Joxer means something to him. I think he might well keep a promise to anyone in his family just because they are family and that does seem to mean something to him. However, I don't think Jett makes many promises. They limit him and he wouldn't like that. So, would Jett keep a promise to anyone outside of family? No. More of a hell no, actually. Jett doesn't seem to give a damn about what anyone he isn't related to thinks of him. He wouldn't see any problem with promising something one minute, then breaking his word the next. The only sense of "honor" he seems to have pertains to always completing the job he's hired for, and his family.

That's my take on it, from the ep and the commentary, and why things play out the way they do in the story.

There are a number of other issues that're going to come up in this fic and I was going to address them here, but I think I'll wait until those parts are posted, then explain whatever needs it. That way no one will be tripped up with spoilers. A lot of it can be explained though by the fact that I'd intended there to be a few more stories following this one, so not everything makes complete and perfect sense in this one. It's not a good way to write a story, but I seem to fall into that trap on occasion.

Part the 2nd: Delving into Jett's psyche

A comment made by dragovianknight on the last part made me realize that something may need a bit of explanation. As the author I have so much of the characters' backgrounds, personalities and motivations built up in my mind, but sometimes it doesn't translate well into the story or maybe I didn't construct it well. Sometimes it just needs further clarification.

Enter commentary part 2.

In the last part I posted Jett did something that may seem a bit out of character; he asked Joxer if he could kill. At first glance that seems not just odd but improbable, after all, Joxer's opinions on killing didn't seem to matter to Jett in KoA when Jett was going after Cleopatra.

True. And I'd absolutely agree, when it comes to a job he's been hired to do I doubt Jett would listen to anyone trying to talk him out of doing it, even Joxer. Jett so obviously loves his work and the background I've built up for Jett in this story also gives him something of a sense of honor when it comes to completing his jobs (see the previous commentary as well as parts 6 and 7). Nothing interferes with him when he's working a job.

Jett loves killing period; we saw evidence enough of that in KoA. But what about when it's not for a job, when it's just for fun and there's no sense of obligation or "honor" riding on it? It seems to me that at that point he'd be a bit more willing to be influenced. I don't mean in a sexual manner, just plain persuasion or in Joxer's case, a little bit of pleading or begging.

The only ones capable of any influence over Jett to begin with would be his family, Joxer in particular. Where this story is concerned, Jett cares more for Joxer, loves him more than any other member of their family, so he'd be even more open to persuasion from Joxer. Jett doesn't lose anything by letting Joxer convince him not to kill, he actually gains something by doing so; he gets a bit more of Joxer, his gratitude and happiness, which is right in line with Jett's agenda.

I don't think this is much of a spoiler, but I'll apologize if it does come as a surprise to someone: Jett is doing his damn best to seduce Joxer. Unfortunately for Jett his best is at once both blunt and inept and Joxer is clueless. Jett knows killing; Jett knows jack about romance and/or seduction. He also doesn't understand that he's not helping himself any by continuing the big brother/little brother tormenting. It's habit first of all, secondly, he thinks that by adding some ambiguous touching and closeness that it'll make it all better and get his point across. But as stated before, Joxer is clueless. He's also confused by what Jett's doing, as I hope has been obvious.

Joxer knows something of both romance and seduction (we've seen as much in different eps), but when it's being directed at him from anyone who doesn't have breasts, he either doesn't see it or doesn't let himself. I think it's a little of both in this case, heading more towards the latter as the story progresses.

That said, anything Jett can do to make Joxer smile, to make him more comfortable around Jett, then why wouldn't Jett do it? Even if it means letting Joxer decide whether or not Jett kills.


Part 3: Jett, Joxer, and that Old Time Religion

In an effort to avoid thinking about RL things, I bring you more Joxer-related, character exploration babblings.

I had to do some thinking when I wrote part eleven of the vamp!fic. (And, you know, that really would sound better if I had a proper title. Too bad I suck at titles.) As spikeface commented, religion isn't something that many people deal with fic-wise in this fandom, at least not where the main or main supporting characters are concerned.

Thing is, we don't know all that much about their religious leanings to begin with. Even with Hercules and Iolaus, other than what little we can glean from mythology, we have little else but educated guesses and conjecture. Not that those guesses aren't good. I mean, in all likelihood, Hercules isn't a big worshiper of the gods, for extraordinarily obvious reasons. Iolaus...well, who can say what his early years were like before Hercules became a big part of his life? Chances are he did worship Ares. Who knows?

And the same goes for the rest of the characters, Jace, Jett and Joxer included. The triplets come from a family where their father was a warlord. Did they worship Ares because Dad dragged them to the temple? Could be. Then again, they come from Athens, so maybe they all worshiped Athena? Hard to say, but IMHO, I'd think Ares is the more likely suspect. Their father -- from the very tiny bits of info canon gave us -- struck me as more of an Ares worshiper. Athena seems likely to have the truly smart warlords on her side, the geniuses, and the boys' father just doesn't strike me as fitting into that category. He seemed to me -- and this is going by some of the dialogue from KoA -- that he was more the brute force type. (Me worship Ares! Me burn and kill! Etc.) The family was proud of Jett for killing the neighbors, burning things down and all that, and that's a little...chaotic. If their family was dedicated to Athena, it seems that the emphasis would be more on thinking and planning rather than mindless destruction.

Then again, I could have it completely wrong, it is just conjecture, after all. But we'll never really know and looking at it that way works in this case.

None of the boys struck me as big on religion when we saw them. Jace makes sense. In a war-like family that worships a war god, what sort of religious calling would he find? He was probably punished for not living up to his father's standards and he'd have no love for violence after all of that. Jett and Joxer though, well, that's what I had to think about.

I wouldn't be surprised if Joxer was, at some point, slavishly dedicated to worshipping Ares, maybe as a teenager, if only to pray and beg to be made a warrior. But as he got older, I'd think that when his prayers were never answered, he'd grow cynical about it. To the point that when he actually started meeting gods while traveling with Xena and Gabrielle, he might show some fear -- when he remembered that it was a smart thing to do -- but there was never anything resembling respect or devotion. The gods never answered him, so why should he worship them? And having met them, seeing how flawed they are, how self-centered and at times, pathetic -- just like a human can be, actually -- he's even less inclined towards worship. By the time the third season rolls around, Joxer strikes me as very jaded where the gods are concerned. I don't know that he thinks of himself that way, but it's the manner he presents when confronted with the gods. It's a manner echoed by most of the main characters in the shows, kind of a, "Been there, done that, left the T-shirt on the altar," sort of thing.

We never learned much detail about Jett, let alone his religious leanings, but even if we assume he had the same Ares immersion as Joxer in their youth, his and Joxer's paths went in very different directions, even back then. Jett likely never prayed to be any better than he was, or at least not very hard. He seems to have been something of a homicidal prodigy at home and well liked for it, at least amongst family. He had no need to devote himself to Ares to beg to be a better warrior. It's likely that Jett realized early on that it wasn't a path he cared to follow anyway. He's definitely not a team player, more of a solo "artist," and what use would he have for a war god as a lone assassin? If he paid homage to any god, it might be Hades or Thanatos, since it's death that he deals directly in.

In doing his work, though, Jett might also have become cynical about the gods, just from seeing their utter lack of caring where his victims were concerned. If a god had ever divinely intervened to protect one of his victims, it probably would've been to kill Jett, since the gods tend to be direct that way. Since Jett's still around, the gods probably never showed themselves, no matter how hard his victims begged and pleaded. It wouldn't surprise me if Jett had no concern for the gods anymore and even viewed them with a hint of contempt.

Religion aside, there's something else I've been thinking about where both Jett and Joxer are concerned. It's been mentioned that Jett's dropping hints about his interest in Joxer with all the subtlety of an anvil to the head, and Joxer is still clueless. So exactly how smart is Jett compared to Joxer? The way I see it, not very.

The main thing Joxer has against him is his willful self-delusion. When he casts that aside -- which he's done more than a few times in canon -- he shows that he really does have a brain in there. No, he's not a genius, but he's not exactly the poster boy for the mentally challenged either. There are plenty of things Joxer doesn't get because he doesn't want to get them. It's a kind of self-protection for him, and sometimes it's subconscious. There are things he simply doesn't want to think about, thinks he can't deal with, so he doesn't. And that puts him at a disadvantage, makes him seem "slower" than he really is.

Other than his fighting skills, the thing that Jett really has going for him over Joxer is the fact that he's never had to delude himself about who he is. He is the man he's always wanted to be and he revels in it. He doesn't strike me as the type to not think about things that might bother him; he knows himself and he's comfortable with himself, something Joxer just isn't. Jett's in his element as an assassin and if he's not the best -- and I have my doubts along those lines -- then he's at least competent, when not being betrayed by his partners (Autolycus, KoA).

If Joxer could ever find the thing in life he's meant to be doing, or at least is comfortable and content doing, then he'd likely be just as competent and have no reason to delude himself. He'll never be equal to Jett where fighting is concerned, but there's likely something out there that he could do better than Jett and he'd be "smarter" at that than Jett could be. It's just a matter of perspective where their "intelligence" is concerned, IMO.

The point being, while Joxer is the youngest, he's not dumber than his brothers. From what I saw of all three of them, they're about equal on that footing. Now, maybe Joxer hasn't matured as much as they have -- he does remind me a bit of a kid playing dress up -- but he's just as smart as they are, even if he doesn't always let himself be.

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