I think, in his day-to-day management of social relations, all of Fandral's charm could fall under either category. He's super old so I feel like most of his ~charms~ are now unconscious, but a lot of calculation went into their development. For ex, he doesn't like for people to stay fussed at him when he thinks they're being unreasonable, so he plays such situations just so. (I guess kissing Bruce was somewhat colored by this intent. HEROOO)
Fandral is pretty manipulative overall, but he's so overt about it that most of the connotations of that word lose their meaning. Instead I sort of view it as-- few of his social interactions occur accidentally or entirely without awareness of how they might affect others! Or how you might commend a writer for being 'manipulative,' that it's a good thing because genuine reaction is what you want.
Anecdotes of relevance: Fandral zips around superspeed to unnerve Loki then buys him a spider to make peace, managing to knock the Jotun $*%@er momentarily wordless (A FEAT). He drops difficult topics of conversation with Sif when they start becoming difficult, then approaches them at a different angle over dinner. He recognized his raving adamancy with Volstagg wasn't getting him anywhere, so he hit the off button then came back later striking a noble pose. He's been pretty discreet and platonic about hitting on Bruce because Bruce obviously has 3950823 tons of baggage and mostly could use a friend. He is indiscreet about hitting on Amora because yeah, opposite! Overall, Fandral is not very good at just bulling through to the 'objective' truth of things without care for presentation. Everything is packaged. It's not even insincere, artificial, or ...sneaky, it's just all he knows. Of course, he lost it with Loki but I think that exception proves the rule-- it went away pretty fast.
(Note I'm discarding political diplomacy and negotiations into a different pile, assuming that's not the 'charm' we're referring to. Obv that is straight-up calculated.)
Of course, in a sense this is kind of sad. At the point which one can no longer differentiate between 'natural' and 'calculation,' it's hard to say if or when he's ever entirely relaxed or just 'himself.' There are reasons why balancing acts are circus weirdness and not the behavior of normal people, who fall and flail now and then. I think this has affected and is in turn affected by his lack of monogamous or singular relationships. He doesn't have a best friend among Sif, the Warriors Three and Thor, and is (arguably) the least capable of an entirely unaffected romantic relationship. Maybe one day he will be with someone for any length of time where he is completely unconcerned with being charming, but I think it will take some time and growing.
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Fandral is pretty manipulative overall, but he's so overt about it that most of the connotations of that word lose their meaning. Instead I sort of view it as-- few of his social interactions occur accidentally or entirely without awareness of how they might affect others! Or how you might commend a writer for being 'manipulative,' that it's a good thing because genuine reaction is what you want.
Anecdotes of relevance: Fandral zips around superspeed to unnerve Loki then buys him a spider to make peace, managing to knock the Jotun $*%@er momentarily wordless (A FEAT). He drops difficult topics of conversation with Sif when they start becoming difficult, then approaches them at a different angle over dinner. He recognized his raving adamancy with Volstagg wasn't getting him anywhere, so he hit the off button then came back later striking a noble pose. He's been pretty discreet and platonic about hitting on Bruce because Bruce obviously has 3950823 tons of baggage and mostly could use a friend. He is indiscreet about hitting on Amora because yeah, opposite! Overall, Fandral is not very good at just bulling through to the 'objective' truth of things without care for presentation. Everything is packaged. It's not even insincere, artificial, or ...sneaky, it's just all he knows. Of course, he lost it with Loki but I think that exception proves the rule-- it went away pretty fast.
(Note I'm discarding political diplomacy and negotiations into a different pile, assuming that's not the 'charm' we're referring to. Obv that is straight-up calculated.)
Of course, in a sense this is kind of sad. At the point which one can no longer differentiate between 'natural' and 'calculation,' it's hard to say if or when he's ever entirely relaxed or just 'himself.' There are reasons why balancing acts are circus weirdness and not the behavior of normal people, who fall and flail now and then. I think this has affected and is in turn affected by his lack of monogamous or singular relationships. He doesn't have a best friend among Sif, the Warriors Three and Thor, and is (arguably) the least capable of an entirely unaffected romantic relationship. Maybe one day he will be with someone for any length of time where he is completely unconcerned with being charming, but I think it will take some time and growing.