Aurora Borealis

A few weeks ago, I decided on a whim to rewatch Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. I was a big fan of the Hornblower TV series back in the day, with its beautiful tall ships and handsome Royal Navy officers, but I don't recall strong feelings for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World when I first watched it. Perhaps it's because I was expecting a typical swashbuckling adventure story rather than a meticulous study of shipboard life during the Age of Sail with a particular focus on the borderline romantic relationship between the main characters, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. Well, I'm happy to report that on a second viewing, I've fallen deeply in love with the film. I'm especially taken by the passionate, intellectual Stephen, who so loves his birds and beetles that he'll tag along as surgeon on a warship to study new species! The news article about Darwin's arch collapsing made me think of his expedition to the Galapagos islands - Stephen would have been both awed and heartbroken by the sight! Beyond that, I am of course very much a supporter of the Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin slash ship. At heart, the movie is about their friendship (or more, if you wanna interpret it that way, hehe). They are two very different people with very different motivations in life who nevertheless love, cherish, and respect each other deeply. They bond over their passion for music; one of the recurring motifs in the film is their duets on the violin/cello. As if that weren't enough, we get plenty of the usual slash tropes, such as snarky jokes (the weevil pun will never get old), meaningful glances, lover's quarrels, hurt-comfort scenes, Jack sacrificing his pursuit of the French warship he's been chasing relentlessly to save Stephen's life... and Stephen abandoning his precious collection of Galapagos flora & fauna to inform Jack of a sighting of that warship! *wipes tear* God, it's beautiful. And people wonder why so many Aubrey-Maturin fans are women.

( Rambling Thoughts with Spoilers )

Basically, I don't like book!Stephen for totally personal reasons.

If I were to psychoanalyze myself, I'd say half of this is because movie!Stephen is my current imaginary BF, and I'm only attracted to men who are gentle, sensitive, and nonviolent... a bit of a damsel in distress, if you will ^_~... so I'm not pleased with the opposite characterization. (In my head, I'm the dashing naval captain who teaches *him* how to fight, hehehe). And the other half is because I just realized that I myself am a little like Stephen in my friendships. Not the killer part LOL, but the cold and distant part, the part that takes more than he gives. I haven't been a good friend to the few people in my life who have cared for me, and I guess book!Stephen holds up an uncomfortable mirror to my failings.