Starkford

Starkford is the slash ship between Jim Stark and John "Plato" Crawford from the Rebel Without a Cause fandom.

Canon
Jim and Plato first meet at the police station, where they were both arrested for very different reasons. Noticing that Plato was freezing, Jim offered him his jacket, but Plato refused it. After Jim finishes talking with officer Ray, he comes back and notices Plato behind one of the stalls. He knocks on the window, alerting Plato, and asks him why he didn't take his jacket. Before Plato can answer, Jim is called away.

On Jim's first day at school, Plato watches him through a mirror in his locker, with awe, to which Jim doesn't notice him. They meet each other again officially, during a field trip to the observatory. Though Jim is surprised to see that Plato is in his class, he doesn't confront him, and spends his time with him and the rest of the class in a lecture. Jim jokes around with him during it, to which he and Plato become friends. Plato warns Jim about potentially angering Buzz, due to him being a fierce person, with Jim ignoring it.

At the end of the lecture, Jim noticed that Plato was hiding behind his seat after a loud bang started him. Jim urges him to come out, and jokes that the world had ended, to which Plato snapped back that the lecturer knew nothing. They both come out of the observatory later than the other students, causing them to run into Buzz and his gang. Plato urges Jim that they should run away to a nearby deserted mansion before any of them got hurt, but Jim refused. After the declaration of the "chickie-run", Jim asks Plato what it was before they went their separate ways before it that night.

Before the chickie-run, Plato tells Judy that Jim was his best friend, and says that maybe he will take him hunting and fishing next summer. The race starts, and Plato cheers on Jim, before watching the disastrous events that lead to Buzz's death. He and Jim are left at the edge of the cliff together along with Judy, watching where everything had ended. Plato suggests that to comfort Jim, they spend the night at his house, but Jim refuses, saying that they had had enough for one night. Plato takes down Jim's house address just in case.

Plato is interrogated by the gang for Jim's whereabouts so they could kill him in return for Buzz's death, and followed the piece of paper he had about Jim's house. Plato, immediately scared, steals his dad's gun and runs out to warn Jim. He gets to the house, but realise Jim isn't there, and instead runs to the deserted mansion he had pointed out, finding both Jim and Judy there. The three joke around in there and grow a bit closer. Plato explained to Jim that he used to come to the house often, but it was never fun for him, since he was always by himself, and also explains about his parental issues.

The gang break into the mansion, driving Plato in a craze and attempting to shoot at them. Jim hears the shots and runs down the staircase to see what's going on, only for Plato to mistake him as one of the gang and shoots at him. Plato runs off, and Jim attempts to follow him, only to be stopped by Judy. Plato barricades himself in the planetarium, despite both Jim and the police's attempts to get him out. Jim sneaks inside and the two have a talk, where he tries to support Plato. Jim gives Plato his jacket due to how cold he was, and in return, he takes his gun, sneaking the ammo out of it. Jim tells Plato to go outside, and Plato decides to.

However, due to the bright lights from the police, Plato is skittish and tries to run off, getting caught by police fire after they notice the gun. Jim tries to show them the ammo, but it's to no avail. Running to Plato's now dead body, Jim starts crying, wishing he had done better to protect him.

Quotes
"Want my jacket?"

- Jim offering Plato his jacket.

"Maybe next summer, he's gonna take me hunting with him, and fishing. I want him to teach me how, because I know he won't get mad if I goof. His name's Jim. It's, it's really James, but he likes Jim more. And people he really likes, he lets them call him Jamie."

- Plato to Judy on Jim.

"Why did you run out on me? Why did you leave me alone?...Let go! You're not my father..."

- Plato yelling at Jim after mistaking him.

"Friends always keep their promises."

- Jim to Plato, giving his gun back.

"Help me."

- Jim after realising that Plato was dead.

Behind the Scenes
Though not much is known of what really happened behind the scenes due to many stories and contradictions, two about the relationship of Jim and Plato are known. The first is that while on stage, Dean (Jim's actor) told Mineo (Plato's actor) to "look at me the way I look at Natalie", thus empathising that the two may have been trying to make Plato's attraction to Jim a bit obvious.

A second story of the same relevance is in a precious script for the film, where Jim and Plato were going to kiss. This, however, was deleted, due to the period's homophobia, and the studio's strict wishes that a relationship between the two should not be inferred.

Fanon
Other than the variation of the two and Judy, Starkford is the most popular ship within the fandom. Most shippers consider Plato's quotes and admiration towards Jim as proof that he loves him, while Jim's encouragement of Plato is a return affection. Due to the homophobia of the time period, a lot of the film is subtle in its actions, and seeing as how both Jim and Plato's actors (Dean and Mineo) were in the LGBTQ+ community, alongside the film's director, fans believe it possible that they wanted to make the two together but were unable to. Of course, shippers started arriving after the legalisation of homosexuality. The ship gained popularity after Mineo described Plato as "the first gay teen in film history", thus confirming his sexuality, and the ideas that Plato was attracted to Jim became more and more popular.

Fandom
FAN FICTION