I love a man in uniform: Hornblower vids

[isiscolo]

I am going to use my brand-new icon by dar_jeeling, even though there is no due South content to this post. (Although as I said to china_shop, Hornblower is Fraser, kind of.) I've been watching a lot of Hornblower vids lately. Reading the fic, too, but I'm still sifting through what appeals to me and what doesn't, in this fandom. With vids, though, I know exactly

Comments

[entrenous88]

Can I ask a lame question?

When you talk about the HH stories/fanfic, are most of those based off...well, I know there are two series, but are they considered separate? Are there individual fandoms for both? Or do people also write based on the literature?

Just curious about this, as the whole concept sounds interesting (I've never read or watched anything related to HH).

[isiscolo]

Oh, it's complicated, and I haven't figured it all out. I should point out that I've only read two of the books, but comparing them to the movies, wow, they are indeed very different. The movies have been crafted to have much more depth and interest, at least in my opinion. Kennedy is a major character in the movies and a minor walk-on in the book.

It seems to me that HH fandom is more integrated than e.g. X-men (where movieverse and bookverse are specified in headers). Most HH fanfiction seems to me to be based mostly on the movies, with characterization and detail level coming from the books. For example, book!Bush has four sisters, which isn't mentioned in the movies; but this is taken as a canonical detail even in movieverse fic. But I'd say it's actually similar to the Master & Commander fandom, in which the books and movie are all sort of taken as a whole.

I'm really not the person to answer this because I'm just discovering the fandom, myself.

[entrenous88]

Thanks for giving a kind of sketch of how things seem to work in the fandom.

[nolivingman]

The movies are the main source of most of the fic, but there are a few authors who've read the books and base their fic on them, or who use detail from the books in fics that could be either verse. What you'll find is that a lot of the movie people are Horatio/Archie fans, and that a lot of the book people are Hornblower/Bush fans (this is a gross genearalization, but not too far off the mark), and that there are a small number of us who are polyamorous and like the boys in every combination. And sometimes with the girls too.

[entrenous88]

Thanks so much for answering -- sounds like it is a bit flexible (and polyamory in fic pairings is always good!).

[isiscolo]

Hee, well, from what I've read so far in the books Hornblower/Bush is practically canon.

As usual with my fandom practices, I fail completely at OTPness. Although I don't quite get the fascination with Edrington, I think any one of Hornblower, Kennedy, Bush is sufficient to make me read a story.

And, girls? There are girls in Hornblower? I must have blinked at the wrong time.

(Thanks for stepping in to answer the question, btw!)

[nolivingman]

Edrington is pretty and sassy, and I think he and Hornblower would be very pretty together. But you know, YMMV and all. And I fail at OTP too, at least on this show.

There are a few girls - Hornblower's wife Maria is in the movies (though I dislike what they did with their relationship and don't get me started on that) and Kitty who was in the Duchess and the Devil gets some fic play with Horatio, Archie, or more commonly Edrington. In the books there are two other women who play big roles - Barbara Wellesley and Marie (whose last name escapes me right now). You don't really see much fic with them because the slash is so so popular, but there is some. As a plug, my friend Laura (romanticalgirl) wrote this fic Sisterhood which I consider fabulous, and she's done some others about Maria, Marie, and the boys. And I love her Hornblower stuff most of all, so there's your plug.

[nolivingman]

Oh! And I should have mentioned that that fic that I linked to is spoilery for the books, so if you don't want to know what happens with the women, save it for later.