Oh, link away! I'm thinking of keeping this journal as just somewhere to dump snippets and little stories I don't feel like posting to AO3, but please link if you fancy it! (I'm very glad you liked this. I rushed it off in a hurry and was petrified it wasn't any good.)
I very much like to think that Maria is not exactly how Hornblower or Bush see her. She's working class, she might not have ever fought in a battle but I can guarantee you that as a working-class woman in Georgian England she's seen just as much of life as Hornblower has, and I don't think she has the luxury of going through life with rose coloured glasses. I think she sees Hornblower for who he is, but she's merely a much better actor than he. I do genuinely believe she loves him, but it's a bittersweet love. I think she knows what she's in for, and she makes choices based on that.
And I confess I liked Lady Barbara a bit more after writing this. I won't lie, I liked her in Beat To Quarters despite her 'not like other girls' routine and her general racism. She's surprisingly complex. Doesn't she mention Byron at that point? It's 1807, Byron was a nobody. Who is she hanging out with? But I can't stand her romance, and not solely because I find heterosexual adultery to be a dull plot point. She stops being this wily, almost unlikeable woman (for all her Not Like Other Girls routine) and becomes this almost mawkish wife whose shining light is her Dear Darling Husband Who Can Do No Wrong. ""Oh my darling!" cried Barbara, flinging her arms around Hornblower, the last shred of her Spartan ways fleeing her as love and affection came into her heart for the first time. "Oh my baby!" she cried, for she was a woman untested in love, and had no children of her own to use such affectionate terms with. Hornblower, who wasn't sure if he wanted a wife or a mother, let her cling to him." I'm probably being unkind, but this is always how I feel their interactions go. Gag. They're interesting characters on their own, but together they become a pair of lovesick thirteen year olds who won't stop making out at family dinners.
...So it was fun to write Maria's scathing POV. I liked writing her as seeing how things really are. It was refreshing. I want to write some Barbara/Maria stuff where Barbara gets down off that high horse she rode in on and respects Maria for putting up with Hornblower all those years.
I apologise for the essay, but my journal, my rules :^) I'm very flattered you enjoyed this.
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I very much like to think that Maria is not exactly how Hornblower or Bush see her. She's working class, she might not have ever fought in a battle but I can guarantee you that as a working-class woman in Georgian England she's seen just as much of life as Hornblower has, and I don't think she has the luxury of going through life with rose coloured glasses. I think she sees Hornblower for who he is, but she's merely a much better actor than he. I do genuinely believe she loves him, but it's a bittersweet love. I think she knows what she's in for, and she makes choices based on that.
And I confess I liked Lady Barbara a bit more after writing this. I won't lie, I liked her in Beat To Quarters despite her 'not like other girls' routine and her general racism. She's surprisingly complex. Doesn't she mention Byron at that point? It's 1807, Byron was a nobody. Who is she hanging out with? But I can't stand her romance, and not solely because I find heterosexual adultery to be a dull plot point. She stops being this wily, almost unlikeable woman (for all her Not Like Other Girls routine) and becomes this almost mawkish wife whose shining light is her Dear Darling Husband Who Can Do No Wrong. ""Oh my darling!" cried Barbara, flinging her arms around Hornblower, the last shred of her Spartan ways fleeing her as love and affection came into her heart for the first time. "Oh my baby!" she cried, for she was a woman untested in love, and had no children of her own to use such affectionate terms with. Hornblower, who wasn't sure if he wanted a wife or a mother, let her cling to him." I'm probably being unkind, but this is always how I feel their interactions go. Gag. They're interesting characters on their own, but together they become a pair of lovesick thirteen year olds who won't stop making out at family dinners.
...So it was fun to write Maria's scathing POV. I liked writing her as seeing how things really are. It was refreshing. I want to write some Barbara/Maria stuff where Barbara gets down off that high horse she rode in on and respects Maria for putting up with Hornblower all those years.
I apologise for the essay, but my journal, my rules :^) I'm very flattered you enjoyed this.