Neal Caffrey - Blog Posts
OH, OHH SHRAP, AND THERES A WHOLE SUBCULTURE OF ONE OF THE BATBOYS BEING NEAL CAFFREY.
Y’all get ready, Jaybart is coming to the FBI. ;) I’m never letting this go now.
Dr Reid?? And the criminal informant in the white collar division?? Scandal!!!1!!11!
Just two undercover Justice League agents infiltrating the FBI who are also in love <3
Okay I cannot be the ONLY one to see the similarities of Bart and Spencer Reid. The Eidetic memory, walking fact book, socially awkward and avoidance of spotlight. A blindspot to romantic endeavours and their petty intellectual pranks. Acute sense of Justice but also a deep, burning anger. The hair, the baggy clothes. Fuck you, they’re the same person.
Forever thinking about that White Collar episode where Neal and Peter get trapped in a room with no oxygen and Neal passes out.
That was,,, that was the good shit
At the Manor
Bruce: kids, i want you to meet your uncle
Tim: we have an uncle?
Dick: you have a brother??
Cass: 🤯
Bruce: yes. his name is tony. tony stark.
Batkids:
Jason: what.
Tony Stark: hey kids
Jason: what.
Damian: we meet again, uncle.
Tim: you met him?!
Tony: dami, heya! how’s the girlfriend?
Dick: GIRLFRIEND???
Damian, blushing: marinette is well. how fares my cousins?
Jason: COUSINS???
Tony, stepping to the side: ask them yourself
Peter Parker-Stark: hi dames!
Morgan Stark: *waves*
Peter, to bruce: hi uncle b! have you told them about—
Peter, whispering: you-know-what?
Bruce: oh yes, i almost forgot
Bruce, opening his jacket: kids, this is your new brother, danny
Danny Fenton: 👻
Batkids: 😧
Peter, shaking his head: no, not him! the—
Peter, whispering: you-know-what
Bruce, realizing: oh yes, i go by neal caffrey now
Batkids: 😧
Ladybug, outside: miraculous ladybug!
Tony, disappearing: pete, i don’t feel so good
Peter, swarmed by ladybugs: dad no!
Twilight Sparkle, appearing: don’t worry we can fix this
Twilight Sparkle: with the power of friendship!
*a true true friend starts playing*
Batkids: 😧
happy april fools
Okay, I’ll bite, who the hell is Neal Caffrey and why is he Dick Grayson?
That’s not the way you walk in real life, is it? Neal Caffrey is one of the few characters on television where you would remark on the way he walks.
No, my god. I wish I was that kind of peacock. Yeah, I locked myself in our guest room for about – I would say like 2 or 3 weeks working on that. And then I would walk around my block and the house. I only had one suit to my name when I got this job – maybe two. And I would put it on and walk around my block. I’m sure I looked like a complete loon in L.A. But I would walk around just figuring out how he moved through the world. We hadn’t even filmed the pilot, but I knew a lot of it was going to play in masters and us walking around together, so I figured I should figure out that part of his physicality. - Matt Bomer [13:00]
When I finished watching White Collar, I dove straight into the rabbithole that is A03 & fanfiction, and I was fortunate enough to stumble on this gem.
In Your Wildest Dreams by sahiya
This was what grief did to you, Sara knew. It played tricks on your mind. But if it wasn’t Neal, then who could it be? Who else would send her an anonymous packet detailing all the ways someone could knock over the Louvre?
This story picks up the threads the series leaves open & weaves them together beautifully. It opens with Neal in Paris casing the Louvre because he's bored out of his mind as a gentleman of leasure & he's starkly lonely even when he recognises the unavoidability of it all. Sara receives a mysterious package on her home address and Sterling-Bosch assigns her to track down the sender.
There's a realness to this story & I was struck by how in-character it felt. It's introspective and evocative. Our beloved characters do not shy away from their emotions and hard conversations, and they display a maturity that is wonderful to read.
The story feels poignant, melancholic & yet wonderfully fresh. It's my new favourite headcanon of what happened after the series ended.
(And I absolutely love the magic that is Archive of Our Own that allows me to find these stories years later. I remember the time before AO3 was imagined and still remember stories that I can never read again. The Archive is marvelous and I am grateful I found it especially during these trying times.)
I love white collar. perfect show. sometimes a family is the one good hetero couple, their ex-con conman son/best friend, and a weird eccentric uncle
I have a feeling this post may also get me into white collar, I’m watching episode one right now
It just hit me that Peter is like the boss of a whole division of White Collar. Imagine you're an FBI agent and your boss has a pet conman who he breaks the law for and is constantly worrying over and spying on and they go to each others houses at odd hours. There's def a betting pool about them fucking
Wasn’t expecting to stumble upon the White Collar fandom today but I am not complaining
peter burke is so funny bc he’s a completely normal guy except he’s been obsessed with two people to a point of stalking (his wife and the conman he chased for years) but it’s fine bc they’re just as obsessed with him 😭???
What makes White Collar hold up so much better than other police procedurals:
It was part of the "pretty happy shows with gorgeous ensemble casts and a charismatic weird guy" USA network era but it somehow used that to be about stuff that is so REAL
What is justice? Is our system fair? Can you be a criminal and still be a good man? Can you be a good man and still work for the system?
The bad guys are rich assholes, and people defrauding families out of their homes, and unethical pharmaceutical companies. People manipulating energy supply out of greed resulting in blackouts which are showing *harming a dog,* aka how to show something is monstrous in a pg show written by a white person. Class exists in this universe in more ways than having a cardboard concept of a "rich guy."
The bad guys include police, FBI agents, prison staff, judges, senators. Those people cause real harm, obstruct justice, plant evidence, kill people. It's shown how the system protects them and harms regular people.
The harm that causes the main character to go from wanting to be part of the system, to subverting and working against it, is him finding out about an act of police corruption, brutality, and murder--and what's more, that if he became a cop, that's what he could become.
The harm that causes the main character to be outside the white picket fence is that the system failed his family after that act. What happened to Neal's mom? Why did nobody besides Helen step in? They had to check in with US Marshals, did nobody notice this kid didn't have an adult fit to parent?
So Neal turns to found family. And let's be real, heavily polyamory coded found family at that. But he keeps chasing the idea of a girl who will be everything. But he's got all this attachment trauma so he never does. But because found family is real family, even the people who freaking played the characters are still connected a decade later
One thing White Collar gets absolutely right and very few other shows do, is that people React to guns.
The reaction varies, depending on their level of training/comfort with firearms, but there's no cool guy bravado* when someone pulls a gun, especially not from Neal. When he sees a gun he always always always reacts like things just got very serious, this is no longer fun and games.
And you know what? Yes please. It also ups the stakes for us when a character reacts to someone pulling a gun on them, and it's also highly realistic. I just really appreciate it that guns aren't a prop to signify "antagonist" but a weapon that should and does elicit fear.
* except for when Kate pulled a gun on Peter, and even then his reaction was warranted.
Neal Caffrey: ✨ arts & crafts ✨
105 “The Portrait”
211 “Forging Bonds”
301 “On Guard”
310 “Countdown”
415 “The Original”
501 “At What Price”
BONUS:
EXTRA BONUS:
White collar headcanon:
Neal's aroace. He still does everything like normal, but no relationships. Like, the characters could still be friends, but no romance.