#fifty three

star8ng. into the distance.

I didn't like this one as much as the others.  Know why they tend to do chases in things like cars or speedboats? Because a sailed ship is *slow* and the Hotspur playing mouse to a French ship's cat, took too long!

I did like the character development of Hornblower. I like that for all he insists that he doesn't love Maria, it's clear that he does. It just isn't the stars in the eyes love he was expecting, and he can't express it in the lavish way Maria does, but it's there, he thinks of her often, is concerned about her feelings. He is introverted, didn't seem to have a very warm upbringing, and is very entrenched in the formal culture of The Navy, he is just not all that practiced in being affectionate.

Every time he interacts with or thinks about Maria it reminds me of Niles from Friaser speaking about his love for Maris:

"...it doesn't burn with the passion and intensity of a Tristan and Isolde. It's more comfortable, more familiar. Maris and I are old friends."

Now, Hornblower and Maria can't be though to be old friends, but if they were able to interact more I could see them being like this. More so really, since Niles is in denial and Maris is skilled at making his life hell.

I liked that we got to see more of Hornblower's leadership, problem solving and empathy. We even get a bit of his playful side as he is all but giddy at the fact that he knows orders that his crew doesn't know.

He is a pretty good leader, not willing to put his men through anything he wouldn't do himself. His empathy does have limits though. As much as he abores corporal or capital punishment, he does not do well with cowardice. His tongue is a far better wepon than the whip, in my opinion.

We also get his moods when he sulks over the fact that his eggs for the voyage are half rotten and the jam is his least favorite.

Another of the fifty three;

 The warp eight project was an experimental logo to be frank using 3D models and pasting them onto a 2D background. I used royalty free planets imported from blender and then drew around them.