rosiespark | In which I rave against the cruelty of fate

I knew we were going to lose Archie, damnit! I just bloody knew. But I was still hoping that the reason that there'd be no more Archie in the last two films was because he'd been posted to a different ship, or invalided out of the Navy, maybe. Poor brave Archie, who was "prone to panic" but not when it mattered. Oh damnit, I've got tears in my eyes.

And I don't think Captain Sawyer was pushed at all. Three of them were there - Horatio, Archie and the midshipman, Wellard. Buckland only accuses Horatio out of spite, it's obvious after he tries to get him killed blowing up the fort. Wellard tells Hobbs (the gunner) something before he dies, but we don't hear what he says, and Hobbs doesn't accuse Horatio when he has the chance to do so at the court martial - ergo, it wasn't Horatio. Quite apart from the fact that it's not in his nature to do something like that. And Archie didn't do it either - he knew he was dying and his "confession" was intended to remove the cloud of suspicion from Horatio.

BUT - but, I can't understand why there is any doubt about what Horatio's answer will be when Archie asks him what he will say when the court martial asks him whether he pushed Captain Sawyer? I do understand that Captain Hammond was looking for a scapegoat, and that Archie (*sob*) stepped into this role, but why the mystery about what Horatio's answer would have been? Was he planning to clear Archie's name by taking the blame himself?

And on a lighter note, I came across this in a review online:

Unfortunately brief sexual content and backside nudity is also thrown into the mix. We briefly observe Horatio's backside as he has the crew hose him off with seawater after one of his escapades......Totally unnecessary and derailing to an otherwise good storyline.

*snort* I loved the shower scene, and not just for the rear view of Ioan (droolworthy though he is from every angle). That scene gives us a rare sight of Horatio laughing - and he's adorable. *g*

ETA: The sexual content referred to above, however brief, did not involve Horatio, Archie or Bush, neither singly nor in pairs. Unfortunately. ;)

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I'm not sure that Horatio would have gotten off, but it didn't strike me as horribly obvious that he wouldn't, either. I've felt this more strongly the more I see the episode, but it's been a few months since I've watched it, so I'll have to think about it further. I agree with you that it's unclear as to why Horatio thought there was a compelling reason to take the blame, unless one is to assume that, to Horatio, Archie's guilt seemed very transparent.

That's not the only fic that brings Stephen into the story as the deus ex machina.

I don't think the most recent episodes are as good; Bush is lovely but not a substitute for Archie, and as for Horatio's romantic entanglements--I go pale at the very thought. I would much rather the writers had gone wildly au and given the books a final heave ho.

Recs: Jan Cortese, who had a LJ but I don't know where it's gone; however, she has a site at http://www.io.com/~cortese/stories;

cimmerianwillow who has a site at http://cw96.tripod.com/1.html;

misskittie79 who has a website at http://www.geocities.com/miss_kittie79;

mzcalypso, who doesn't have a website as far as I know, but she's archived at http://slashcity.org/hh/introductions.html; Anais who is at versaphile.com/anais/; and Widget who is at http://www.widgeteria.co.uk.

In addition to the slashcity archive, there's also http://www.frolixers.com and http://www.hornblowerfic.com. I don't know the quality of the latter as I tend to just keep up with the authors that I especially like. There could be others coming along that I don't know about.

And if I got all those links right it will be a miracle.

Wow, what riches! Thanks for the links. Watch my bedtime recede into the early hours of the morning, and my alertness at work disppear down the plughole... *g* And I think the Almighty (or someone!) was guiding your hand while you typed. ;)

I haven't watched the last two episodes yet - I may watch one of them today. If I can steel myself to accept that Archie is dead. And as you say, Horatio's romantic entaglements with Maria - oh dear! That was something I was never happy with in the books.

In which I rave against the cruelty of fate - or of television scriptwriters!

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