Vulnerable Guy for morning vulnerability?
This is the image with which I awoke this morning. I am not sure what I was dreaming, though I felt a distinct feeling of physical wellbeing as I awoke, and rose with a smile, which is really not my style (I am emphatically not a morning person). So yeah, maybe “something nice” happened in my dreams. As a single gal, I am allowed such dreams. Interestingly, my pleasant dreams (and most of my fantasies) about Mr. Armitage all involve characters he’s played. I only occasionally dream of the real Mr. Armitage, and when I do, he’s always angry at me.
What I’ve always liked about this image of Guy is the tiny, tiny, tummy above the flat hips and the sculpted hip bones. (I am probably one of the few people in the world who doesn’t find the emaciated Lucas North of Spooks 7.1 all that attractive.) Something about a tiny, tiny, tummy says vulnerability to me. Tickle-ability, caressability, kissability. A sweet spot in a hard body; a soft place below the strong shoulders and chest musculature. The stomach is shadowed between the hip bones even as the barechested figure of Guy is shadowed in this slightly closed off space from the larger room. So even though the toplessness in this scene initially seemed totally gratuitous to me, in the end, for me, anyway, it added to the characterization, admittedly one that I was yearning for — the side of Guy that nobody sees, to put it in the words of Annie from S1.
Guy of Gisborne (Richard Armitage) changes clothes while responding to Allan’s request for employment in Robin Hood 2.6 (“For England”). Source: Richard Armitage Central Gallery
ETA: Rereading this after pushing published reminded me of this poem by Marge Piercy.
Me + Richard Armitage 
I have always thought this is a very intimate scene, and the little belly had me wondering if Richard Armitage did not like it because it highlights that he’s perhaps not as buff as he wanted to be. As if I know how buff he wanted to be. LOL!
I’m with you on the gaunt look in Spooks 7. He’s a big guy. I mean he’s big whether he works out or not, and that svelte cum emaciated look smacks of something feminine. But maybe that was the point.
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I had a similar reaction, i.e., I thought it was sweet, and then wondered whether, given the standards in TV filming, he had concerns about it. I think I saw Spooks 7.1 before I had seen RH 2, so I’d seen him at his absolute thinnest without realizing it.
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Ladies that can hardly be considered a “belly.” Really. I’d say he’s in fine shape and as my mother would say,”I wouldn’t throw him outta bed for eating crackers!”
I agree I didn’t like LN in Spooks 7. It was amazing tho how the weight loss changed his face.
This picy and post make me want to purr. Your description…”A sweet spot in a hard body; a soft place below the strong shoulders and chest musculature.” I know you are an academic writer, but I think you are missing your other calling here.
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Aaaw.
The German expression is “ich würde ihn nicht von der Bettkante stoßen” (I wouldn’t push him off the edge of the bed).
I realized that the link to the Piercy poem might make it sound like I thought Mr. Armitage was fat, but that wasn’t my intention. Richard Armitage is actually in general more like the ascetic preferences of the poet’s youth, with the description of the face and chin. But I thought the man who enjoys the pleasures of the table fit well with what Mr. Armitage said about himself in that recent interview.
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What pleasant thoughst. I wonder if it was written into his contract that he might have to appear topless occasionally. Lucky for us either way. Are only single gals allowed to dream?
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No, everyone is allowed to dream. When I’m in a relationship and dream about having sex with someone who’s not my partner, though, I feel slightly guilty.
I’m sure this sort of thing is written into his contract. It certainly would be if he were a woman. I’m glad that he doesn’t have a double for the topless scenes, though! 🙂
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Richard has been willing to put his body through many metamorphoses in the course of his acting life. Think of the differences between Standring, Guy, Lucas in series 7 and Porter. If I had to guess I’d say his normal body type lies closer to Monet, Alec Track and Paul in BTS, but that some roles demand that he’s in better physical shape; Guy and Lucas. I seem to like him in any shape and form, though fresh-from-prison Lucas was rather too lean!
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I agree with you — you get the sense in Monet, Track and Paul that he’s in shape but not pumped up.
If he were the only one on offer, of course, I’d suck it up and take Lucas 7.1.
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Definitely too thin in Spooks 7! Probably a minority report here, but I’m not that keen on the buffed-up Strike Back physique, either. Gisborne just seems RIGHT! 😀
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I thought this Gisborne was just right, and apparently so did my subconscious!
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I’m curious which poem exactly you refer too as her whole page comes up. Or is it a test for us to guess????
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In case anyone’s confused it’s “Cats like Angels”
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Oooooooooo i got it, lovely indeed.
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Like @Rob, I don’t consider it a belly, to me that’s the prominence and definition of the abdominal rectus (is that the name in english?). I can agree with you servetus with it looking touchable and kissable…*joins the purrs*
That’s how buff I like RA to be and as tanned as in the last eps of S2.
OML 🙂
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purring, too!
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Ladies, don’t get me wrong. I love how he looks in that picture. I just think there is such a harsh standard that I’ll bet he felt some heat from having to measure up to a certain look. I could be wrong since I haven’t gotten in RA’s head — yet. 😀
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I wonder that, too, since he’s gotten progressively more “defined” as his roles have gone on. Compare to those early roles in the British soaps, for example.
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Richard is always beautiful to me, but I confess I did want to shove several large sandwiches at him, along with another round of chocolate-covered doughnuts during his whippet-thin phrase in Spooks 7.
He is over six feet and not small-framed, after all, and I was glad to see the weight go back on him. Although it was quite amazing just how much he filled out and how much Jo’s hair grew during Harry’s kidnapping . . . overnight, it seemed. ( ;
I loved his physique as Gisborne (and the vulnerability he gave the swaggering, smouldering henchman) and I admit I drooled over him as John Porter, too. One aesthetically pleasing individual, IMHO.
Servetus, your description of Guy in the above photo did indeed ring quite poetic.
I have dreamed of RA as himself twice – barbecuing on my parent’s back porch with his shirt off and behaving like an absolute sweetie, and showing up to save me from Vasey, dressed as the world’s tallest and sexiest grammar school play angel. He was giggling madly. I quite enjoyed it, even though I woke up before anything of a more interesting nature happened.
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I agree, the height and the frame make the disproportions of Lucas in 7.1 even more disturbing. I liked Porter a lot as well (as this blog has already revealed), esp. the bulked up legs, but I honestly do not need the bulked up chest. It’s fine, but I wouldn’t want to see it any bigger.
Thanks for “quite poetic,” as you’re someone who would know!
Love the thought of Mr. Armitage grillin at my parents’ house. Wow.
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In regards to RA’s “tiny, tiny, tummy above the flat hips and the sculpted hip bones” — I just can’t believe it. I think it is just the angle of the shot and the ‘tummy’ is the just definition – just not ‘6 pack’ definition yet. (As onemorelurker wrote)
I have been watching some movies with Sean Connery from the 60’s and Sean Connry never had RA’s definition — not that it matters to me. What has happened to us as a society? No wonder actors can become so narcisstic about themselves – ‘we’ as fans demand perfection I guess?? I hope not.
I can’t motivate myself to loose those ‘last 10 pounds’ so I can’t imagine the motivation it takes to keep ‘pumping iron’ to achieve that sculpted look so many young actors have today (I am thinking Twilight series actors). Thank goodness RA doesn’t need it – he has his acting abilities and voice to carry him far.
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I just want to clarify that I was not in any way intending to say that anything was abnormal or unpleasant about Mr. Armitage’s abdomen. Just that there is a swell of flesh there that speaks to me.
I myself am someone who wishes that a great deal of her too too solid flesh would melt.
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That “swell of flesh” speaks to me too.
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Agree with DRS about the “sculpted” look. I far prefer a tall, large-framed person who looks natural and fit – not gym-blasted out of reality – to washboard abdomen and governor pectorals.
PS, Germany did well in the FIFA round; watch out for Young Germany in 2014. Now I turn allegiance to that country with such strong and warm ties to mine own – Netherlands – go bragh!
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I’m rooting for the Netherlands in Sundays final too!
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Go Orange! I’ve quite a few expats around here that I might hear the cheering! Btw the last poem is pretty vivid especially fresh after reading the latest of whatcatydidnext. 🙂
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Nope, you’re definitely not the only one to react that way about LN is Spooks 7. I saw bits of it before hitting fandom, thought “ooh, it’s Gisborne! *oogle* Nah, he looks way better in Robin Hood”. Maybe I don’t like the really skinny look because I’m not exactly a stick insect myself, and I read ages ago that you tend to be drawn to similar builds or something like that. Well, I like a man with a bit of meat on him, such as on the picture you posted, which of course S7 Lucas doesn’t have. He looks like he’d poke your eye out or something! Guy looks way more snoggable! And more manly too, which doesn’t hurt.
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Guy also looks like he wants to be kissed, which helps. Lucas in Spooks 7 has such closed off body language with everyone except Elizaveta.
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[…] You can see the margin of the hip here and the side of the crest, but of course also my own favorite little swell of abdominal flesh. […]
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The iliac crest « Me + Richard Armitage said this on August 10, 2010 at 12:04 am |
[…] I have similar feelings about Guy of Gisborne. […]
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