Manly Musings: Of love and American muscle in 'Furious'

Welcome back to my blog corner, Manly Musings! In case you're wondering, I'm Shakir Rashaan (although I'm sure you're finding out who I am now, right?). I'm a male erotic romance and mystery author for Strebor Books/Simon & Schuster, and now, a regular contributor to the Happy Ever After blog!

Join me every other Friday as I give you a MANLY perspective of some of the hottest shows and movies that are upcoming or already out! With this edition, I decided to give you a MAN's perspective on the hottest franchise on the planet right now: Fast & Furious.

Anyone who has gone to see any of the Fast & Furious movies knows that the series has revolved around fast cars and faster women (and men … I didn't forget about the man-candy — I know y'all know about Tyrese and the Rock and Ludacris — I ain't hating), but if you pay close enough attention to what I'm about to explain, you'll realize that you've been front-row center to two wonderfully evolving love stories between the core cast members: Dominic & Letty and Mia & Brian.

Don't believe what I'm telling you? Read on!

"What did you put in that sandwich?" — Dominic, The Fast and the Furious

From the moment we meet Brian O'Connor (rest in peace, Paul Walker) and Mia Toretto, you see the connection almost immediately. The flirting, Brian's consistency in coming to the same place every day, inhaling an awful tuna sandwich, simply to get the attention of the prettiest girl he'd ever seen. (Never mind the fact that he was there on official police business, of course.)

The thing I love about Brian and Mia is the complexity of their relationship. Mia loved the Alpha male inside of Brian that she'd enjoyed in her big brother, Dominic, and despite Dom's insistence that Brian stay away from her after everything fell apart and scattered them across the globe, she found herself drawn to him, the way everything — and everyone — was always drawn to her brother. It's the classic "girl falls for the man who most resembles her father" attraction, except in this case, it's the man who most resembled her brother. At the same time, much like Dominic, when she needed to steer Brian in the direction she needed him to go, Brian did whatever it took to make Mia happy. She was able to tame the beast within.

The best example of what I'm talking about can be summed up in this exchange:

Brian: I lied to you. I lied to Dom, I lied to everybody. That's what I do best. That's why the feds recruited me.

Mia: Maybe you're lying to yourself. Maybe you're not the good guy pretending to be the bad guy. Maybe you're the bad guy pretending to be the good guy. Did you ever think about that?

Brian: Every day.

The dance between those two played themselves out throughout the first movie, and then throughout the franchise itself, as they went from falling in love, to overcoming the false pretenses under which their meeting had fallen under, to reuniting after Brian's stint in Miami (2 Fast 2 Furious), to their expectancy of being parents, and finally, culminating in the (final?) film, where (MILD SPOILER ALERT) their son is now a toddler and a second baby is on the way.

Through their love of fast cars (although Brian had a preference for imports, while Mia and Dominic were born from American Muscle) and an undeniable draw to each other despite all types of drama that happened around them, Brian and Mia finally got to live their happily ever after.

Now, about Dominic and Letty …

It starts with the eyes. She's gotta have those kind of eyes that can look right through the bull****, to the good in someone. Twenty percent angel, 80% devil. Down to earth. Ain't afraid to get a little engine grease under her fingernails. — Dominic, Fast & Furious

Switching the focus to the more volatile (read: passionate) coupling of Dominic Toretto and Letty Ortiz, I think I can best sum up the irony of how things began with the conversation between Brian and Mia:

Mia: Letty grew up just down the street. She was into cars since she was like 10 years old. Dom always had her attention. Then she turned 16 ...

Brian: And she had Dom's attention.

Mia: Yeah, it's funny how that works out.

Yeah, it is funny how that works out, huh?

Despite the irony of their beginnings, the depth of their love runs deeper than the Laurentian Abyss.

It's hard not to be drawn to Letty and Dom: unstoppable force meets immovable object. Alpha male meets Alpha female. The 21st-century version of Bonnie and Clyde, except Dom and Letty don't meet the same end, but that doesn't mean they don't have the same types of challenges to sift through.

The thing I love about Letty and Dom more than anything is the fact that two dominant personalities can love each other in the ultimate power-struggle game of tug-of-war, but mess with one and the fury of the other will rage to the surface … much the same way that my Beloved and I are as husband and wife.

Letty's love for Dom ran so deep that she made a deal with the enemy (at the time, Brian was the linchpin of that enemy) in order for him to come back "home" to be with her. She was so convinced that what she was doing would accomplish what she wanted that she began the long and arduous process of repairing HIS other love, the iconic 1970 Dodge Charger that is omnipresent throughout the series. Although she died in her efforts (although later, in Fast & Furious 6, we find out that she didn't die, but suffered from amnesia, thanks to the blow to the head she suffered after her car exploded in Fast & Furious), it didn't stop her from going that far to have the love that belonged to her.

The ultimate manifestation of the cliché "Ride or Die."

But it doesn't stop there, either.

Dom, the quintessential Alpha male, has a bevy of beauties that try to capture his attention the way Letty did, and even in the wake of her (presumed) death, Dom still preserves his fidelity, for the most part, which is where the aforementioned iconic quote comes from. He was saying that to a woman who wanted his affections, and when he said that quote, her response to it was, "That doesn't sound anything like me."

His response? "It ain't."

Let me let you in on something, from a man's perspective: When a man has an incredibly beautiful woman in front of him, trying to get his attention and his affection, and he decides to explain to her why she isn't "the one," even in the face of the fact that the love of his life is dead? That type of love, from a man's perspective, is the type of love that most Alpha men look for.

Finally, there's the "against all odds" aspect of their relationship that makes them the couple to envy. Letty's presumed death, her amnesia, her trying to kill him (before he began trying to remind her of who they are to each other), all of these things would have driven lesser men away.

However, in true Alpha fashion, Dom eventually gets what Dom wants.

Don't believe me? Check out this final sequence of events:

When Letty finally (SPOILER ALERT) regains her memory in Furious 7 and explains that she remembers everything, including the culmination of their love, she asked him why he didn't tell her that one important detail. "You can't tell someone they love you."

He's right: You can't tell someone they love you.

They have to find out for themselves.

Make sure you check out Furious 7 and see how it all ends, and I promise you that you will want to go back to see how it all began.

Oh, and if you plan to go back to where it all began and want to rock a marathon, as a diehard fan of the franchise, I suggest you watch the movies in this sequence:

The Fast and the Furious

2 Fast 2 Furious

Fast & Furious

Fast Five

Fast & Furious 6

Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift

And finally …

Furious 7, which is now in theaters everywhere and has passed the $1 billion mark.

Are you a fan of the franchise? What do you think of Dom and Letty? Brian and Mia?

Shakir Rashaan lives in suburban Atlanta with his wife and two children. Rashaan's catalog includes the Nubian Underworld series and the upcoming Kink, P.I. Series. He is also developing projects under the pen name P.K. Rashaan. You can see more of Rashaan at www.ShakirRashaan.com, or you can connect with him on Facebook and Twitter (@ShakirRashaan).