potentiality_26

Most annoying character that tried to come between a ship:

I'm not a big fan of the whole "She/he/it (who am I kidding, it's basically always a she) came between my ship she must die!" thing fandom has going on.  Since my ship is usually the one the loses, I would spend a lot of time mad if I thought like that.  So, I have to fudge this one a little bit, too.

So, Horatio Hornblower- the super slashy show about a dude in the British Navy- right?  You can like Horatio/Archie, or Horatio/William Bush, or Horatio/Admiral Pellew (I'm totally in that last camp, by the way, which is sad because it's the smallest, but I can see the others too) or even Horatio/Clayton, if you want to do an A.U. of the whole show, and probably a whole bunch of others, too.  There's hardly any het, because when a woman is introduced Horatio seems pretty much terrified of her from minute one and that doesn't happen very often because it's a show about men on boats.  And then Maria happens.

I don't dislike her because she's getting in the way of my ship, though.  My ship is unsinkable, damn it.  It's because it seems like the writers gave Horatio a wife and then went out of their way to tell us he didn't love her.  I've only read the first book in the series it's based on, so maybe it's a thing that Horatio doesn't love his wife (in which case- why, C.S. Forester?  Why?).  But he clearly doesn't like her, he wants to help her and give her money because she needs it, and when she won't take it he marries because hey, he's at sea all the time, he won't have to see her.  I don't even dislike Maria, really, she seems like a nice enough lady; frankly, I feel sorry for her, because sooner or later she's going to realize how he really feels.  What I dislike is the way whenever she hugs or kisses him the camera shows you his sad eyes and miserable face over her shoulder, like he's thinking, "What have I gotten myself into?  I don't want this!"  I dislike the way he looked like he was going to his execution on his wedding day.  I dislike how whenever he's home he's always looking out the window, pining for his ship, and it's just all so sad.  What's the point of it?  And his face sometimes!  Short of somebody actually taking Ioan Gruffudd aside and saying to him, "Horatio is gayer than Christmas and this marriage is the worst thing ever," there is no explanation for it.

Sorry about all that.  I'm still a little bit mad.

( The rest of the meme )
 

It's good, but- and I may be committing grave sacrilege by saying this- aside from the name it doesn't seem to me to be the hotbed of slash I've been led to believe it is.

Is the pairing everyone is so wild about Horatio and Archie?  Because I like Archie, I'm just not getting the I NEED FIC NOW feeling I associate with a really great slash pairing.  Horatio and the guy from the first episode might have had something, but he's dead.  I've heard tell of people who just decide to ignore his death, but it was the first episode.  I didn't exactly get attached in that time.