#hhguardy

(it’s because I should be doing gifsets for the analysis, ughhhhh)

TL;DR - Back up your favorite tumblr shit, ideally soon.

I’ve spent the last few years digging through the deepest corners of the internet to find old Hornblower fics and meta discussions. None of it would’ve been possible without the wayback machine. I’d have found nothing, had the good fandom folks of the past not archived their shit like the precious human beings they were, and hopefully still are. 

I’m not saying I expect tumblr to vanish without a trace over the next few days, but I am saying this is the point where we start archiving things like there’s no tomorrow, because for some content, there may not be a tomorrow.

Some fandoms are already losing gifsets over the whole thing (notably the Man From UNCLE 60′s TV show, which, by the way, is about PG as it gets, because it’s mainstream 60′s television), because OPs are either not interested in appealing unjustly flagged images and delete them instead, or are simply inactive. 

So if there’s content on here you don’t want to lose, back that shit up. 

I’m not really daring to put links to anything in here due to the issues of posts with links not always showing up in tags and searches, but there’s a post with backup options floating around, which I also reblogged.

My own stuff is backed up already, but you’re very welcome to personally archive my Hornblower things in particular if there’s anything you really don’t want to lose. Also, you can re-upload and generally just use my Hornblower gifs and screencaps wherever you want, even without credit, and you’re also welcome to copy-paste or screencap my Hornblower text posts and link lists, though I’d prefer if you’d keep my name (as in, “Guardy”) attached to it somehow.

There is a hornblower comm at pillowfort: horatio-hornblowing.

Awesome, thanks for telling me! (Link is [HERE] if anybody’s interested)

I was hoping to get a comm set up at Dreamwidth, too, but I’d rather not be the mod – or leastways, the only mod.

If any of those shows are unfamiliar to you, do yourself a favor and go watch them, they are all weird as fuck and really excellent; I’m a fan because they all have very interesting main characters, and by ‘interesting’ I mean ‘100% not cool manly heroes’.

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I keep forgetting that Fraser isn’t played by Ioan Gruffudd - that is weird, because they don’t look that alike, and their accents are probably very different, too - I’ve no ear for it (and I avoid linguistics like the plague) but Paul Gross is Canadian and Ioan Gruffudd is from Wales (obviously), so it’s gotta be something in their intonation. Definitely a voice thing in some way.

Anyway, there’s some fun stuff I noticed about Fraser and Ioan Gruffudd’s characters (Hornblower and Dr. Morgan in particular) - they’re remarkably similar in some ways; I think it boils down to “emotionally awkward and hiding behind formality”. It’s probably the main reason why I like all three shows so much.

But Fraser’s most remarkable attribute in the early episodes is that he’s practically invincible (which is part of what makes Fraser being beaten up by Zuko’s thugs so jarring later on), while both Hornblower and Henry Morgan are inherently vulnerable:

Hornblower’ most defining character trait is him being a hugely neurotic mess who also happens to be a tactical genius and a far better person than he gives himself credit for. He’s introduced dripping wet, clumsy, sea-sick and vomiting, and then proceeds to be as dorky as he can manage before being roughed up, tied to the rigging... well, you get the idea.. Half the plot of Hornblower-the-series and more so Hornblower-the-books boils down to “CONCEAL DON’T FEEL DON’T LET THEM KNOW” and that works only because the audience gets constantly reminded just how fragile that professional facade is. 

Seems quite similar to Fraser’s Perfect Superhero Mountie act, but approached from the other direction - for Hornblower (in the books, mostly; they struggled with that in the series because internal monologue on TV is hard), we see his internal workings, the whole goddamn mess, while we mostly just catch glimpses of how his fellow humans actually see him - most are fooled, some are not, and some are really more concerned with how sexily he’s holding his pencil (HELLO BUSH YOU DORK).

In Due South, on the other hand, we mostly see Fraser’s facade, and only catch glimpses of the small cracks in it - Victoria, his father’s idea of teaching a six-year-old how to make a fire being abandoning the child in the forest at night and probably scarring him for life, what the HELL, Bob??? and... well, you get the idea. Similar idea, opposite perspective.

Henry Morgan’s entire shtick, meanwhile, is literally dying. A lot. And reappearing naked in the nearest body of water, because apparently somebody really wanted to get Ioan Gruffudd out of his clothes again. It’s a nice counterpoint in the ‘impervious to physical injuries’ department; Fraser doesn’t die because he’s mysteriously invincible, Henry doesn’t stay dead because magic I guess, but definitely gets hurt. You could argue that the ‘naked’ part ties into the whole vulnerability bit somehow, but I’m too lazy to come up with a proper argument for that. (They also both have a tendency to stick their faces where they don’t belong - I don’t remember Henry licking things quite as much, but he definitely gets close to gross stuff in much the same way as Fraser does)

I like the way you think

Buried in the depths of my blog is a list of pages with Hornblower-related stuff - but who goes on blogs these days anyway, so...

Hornblower Screencaps

Hornblower Gifs

Fanfic Recs

Commentaries/Analyses

General Hornblower Posts

Hornblower Resources Masterpost

This last one’s particularly useful, and includes such highlights as sheet music and links to the Hornblower Radio Play and a transcript of the Episode 7 Commentary that was apparently DVD bonus material at some point, but not on any DVD I’ve ever seen.

Well, that just totally made my day :D

So, the List also has a Gen section, which would probably be a good place to start. I’ll just quickly copy that over, because I’ll take every chance I get to put that stuff on people’s dashes:

Fever Pitch: A good part of the Hotspur’s crew falls ill, Horatio included, and Bush has to take command.

In Heat: Horatio, Archie and Bush bickering. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s very cute and amusing and fluffy.

Close Quarters: Bush kind of got himself a cat (or rather the cat got himself a lieutenant) and they both get their revenge on Côtard, who’s being an insufferable jerk. (I’m not very fond of Côtard’s characterization, because jerk!Côtard is a pet peeve of mine, but cat shenanigans are great)

An Unfortunate Necessity: Captain Dad being Captain Dad after the capture of the Papillon.

The Captain’s Burden: Captain Dad being Captain Dad after Muzillac.

To Family Far and Near: Horatio’s first christmas away from home. One of my favorite fanfics and utterly heartwarming.

A Ridiculous Pleasure: …in which we learn that Bush is apparently very warm and cuddly. Despite the title and the description, it’s all very adorable and completely platonic.

The Chichester Cottage: Bush spends a month with his sisters (and has a little run-in with turnips x’D)Features a slight mention of Bush/Hornblower in all of two sentences, but is definitely not the focus.

Trust: Côtard complains about not being trusted, Bush surprisingly listens. Is quite shippy, but could still be seen as platonic, so on the list it goes.

Salus: Kennedy prepares for the trial, Bush helps. If you ever want to feel like somebody ripped out your heat and stomped on it, this is the place to go.

Caudebec: A Fix-it concerning Bush’s fate in the books. I’m not sure how to properly describe this without spewing spoilers or making it sound boring, but it’s a well-written fic with great characterization and everything. Very serious, very much a book fic.

The Devil’s Arithmetic: Pellew being an awesome Captain during the aftermath of Quiberon bay.

And then there’s a few I’d originally sorted under ‘shipping’, but which are essentially gen with extremely light allusions to ships:

World Turnes Upside Down is also about as Gen as it gets with Horatio and Archie. I sorted it under shipping originally, but it’s actually reasonably true to the ITV show with regards to the amount of shippy stuff. Make of that what you will.

De Amicita implies shipping in the far future (Bush/Hornblower), but I’d definitely say it counts as gen for your purposes. It’s also really sweet.