Young and Full of Fluff

Yes. Remember -- I bitched about the soundtrack the whole time? And as I said, I rented this one for one reason only: Jamie Bamber.

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oooooooooooooh, yes, i remember that. :-P
-mithras

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...we really need to find you a boy. I think you have an unhealthy beefcake obsession going here.

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You realize I say these things to provoke you, right?

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Or rather, I say these thing to provoke

trinityvixen.

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...I'm so very confused at this point.

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Anonymous was me. You following?

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Oh dear. The A&E version... tsk tsk tsk. I had such hopes. In Australia, I even caught the second installment. It didn't leave me hopeful at all for the third, so I didn't bother.

I actually watched that when it was first on TV because I was in a Pimpernel craze. I've seen the musical three times--over a long enough period to note where they changed the order of songs (and who was singing them, character-wise), the staging, the jokes even. I loved it. I still love it.

I only just IMDB'd Jamie Bamber a short while ago and realized he was in it. "Dewhurst...Dewhurst? That guy who GOT SHOT EVEN THOUGH THAT NEVER HAPPENED IN THE STORY WTF?" I was angrier with them killing off a character who wasn't dead in book or musical or movie before this than I did over it being Jamie (like you said, he should sorta be used to getting shot by now).

Then I remembered to myself "Wait...wasn't Lord Dewhurst the one that the French tarts stripped down and pleasured all night that led to that really funny line the next morning at the tailor?"

Tailor: "Lord Dewhurst, are you unwell?"
Percy: "Poor fellow was up most of the night."
Tailor: "Couldn't sleep?"
Percy: "I don't think they let him."

And, now I know who Jamie is, I may have to find my tape at home :)

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Great scene, that.

It's always frustrating when I'm more interested in a side character thant he story has any business being. But in this case, the only reason I can see for killing Dewhurst is to make the villain eeeeeevil, something the rest of the screenplay manages to avoid, and to raise the stakes. But then why do it if no one really pays attention? There's about five seconds of grief, then Percy says "Well, he knew the risks." That's it.

I keep thinking about the relationship Percy must have with this (let's face it) boy, who is obviously a scion of another noble family. It's hard to extrapolate from so little, but I'd compare it to movie-Chas to Constantine (and I mean completely without the slash, just in the platonic sense). In which case, Percy's going to have to at the very least tell Tony's family that he was killed. It should be heartbreaking that one so young and obviously impressionable was killed in this battle.

I knew I was out of step with the emotional arc of the story when it came to the climactic scene between Percy and his wife in prison. Up till then I was completely on-board with her angst - I quite liked that actress. But I wanted Percy to point out to her that her foolishness had gotten Tony Dewhurst killed. Which is of course completely inappropriate to the scene, which is one of reconciliation.

*shrug*

Unfortunately there's, as far as I can tell, no fic based on the A&E series, except for the one crossover with Hornblower. I also have to point out that I've never seen/listened to the musical.

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I like the idea of risks being taken and then having Percy have to face the consequences thereof, but the movie really, really, and I mean really botched the plot by having Dewhurst murdered. That's grounds for war in that era. It's part of the reason it so shocked the Pimpernel fans: Chauvelin would never have gotten away with that.

In the book, Chauvelin is much more calculating and clever. He suspects that members of the English gentry are the ones interfering in the French affairs, so he knows he has to tread carefully. If he wants to stop the Pimpernel and his allies entirely, he has to catch them in the midst of seditious act within France to have any grounds to imprison or execute them. If Percy Blakeney were caught countervening the will of the French Republic or inciting insurrection, England would have little they could do--diplomacy-wise--to prevent the French from trying him for the crime and punishing him if he were found guilty.

On top of that, I found Percy's whole attitude in the miniseries towards the men and women working with him to perform these rescues a little too cavalier. The man in the beginning who they rescue (nam escapes me) who dies. Nothing, not a mention thereafter. The French family who helped the Pimpernel escape were caught and executed--again not something that should ever happen to the Pimpernel's allies. Dewhurst is just the straw that breaks the camel's back. Again, in the book, Percy hardly ever puts the others at risk. He runs the most daring and dangerous parts of any distraction and he is a complete chameleon. He is able to disguise himself so well that even when Chauvelin knows who the Pimpernel is, he doesn't recognize him. It's much more clever, a lot less bullish.

Plus, no offense to him, but Richard Grant isn't handsome enough to be Percy.

It's too bad you never got to see the musical. Douglas Sills played Percy for its entire run, and he was marvelous. He had the most foppish fop act that ever fopped. And he had the silly laugh down pat; he called Chauvelin "Shove-lin;" and at one point (in one production) he wore a waistcoat with giraffe-like spots and managed to take in compliments all around. Then, when he was the Pimpernel or his real self, he was quite angsty (maybe a little too much) but very scarily serious when the need arose.

The silly songs in the play--Percy's poem to song, "The Creation of Man" (in which Percy, surrounded by his foppified friends, convinces the Prince of Wales that a man is supposed to be beautiful, not warrior-like)--those are the ones that hold up best. Otherwise, there's more of the Chauvelin-Marie romance/entanglement and some soppy songs of love and what-not.

I used to have sites for fanfic somewhere. Probably on an old computer, which means in the basement at home and dead to us both. But you can try looking around for book/musical stuff. The book's a quick read, and I can get you the musical on CD.

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I have the CD as well (I actually saw two of the three versions of the show that were on Broadway). And, for the record, Doug Sills is TEH AWESOME.

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Wow - Scarlet Pimpernel got you to use netspeak! Yes, I know you're an uber-nerd, but I still view that as an accomplishment.

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What else has he been in? I know my youngers sisters were enamored of him as the Cat in the Hat in "Suessical," but otherwise, I'd not really heard/seen him in much else.

But he was a masterful Pimpernel. I'm so glad I know someone else who loved that musical! Most people roll their eyes at me.

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He was in the recent Little Shop of Horrors revival (as Orin Scrivelo DDS), and I saw him chewing scenery in Moonlight and Magnolias, which was fabulous.

My other Broadway favorite is Craig Bierko, of Music Man and Modern Orthodox fame. He's worth watching just for his facial expressions.

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I love Craig Bierko!!! I saw him in The Music Man, and I have rarely had a better time at the theater. He was a fantastic Harold Hill, really genius.

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You are so right about that being grounds for war. I hadn't even thought of that.

So, in the part two of the mini-series in my head, Percy tells Lord Dewhurst's family about his death. Tony's older brother is incensed: he's always been protective of Tony and has for a long time thought that Lord Blakeney was a bad influence. Even without knowing that he's the Scarlet Pimpernel, Lord Blakeney is obviously viewed as a self-important fool and Tony very obviously worshipped him. Tony's brother, let's call him Tom, for simplicity, thought that Tony spent entirely too much time with Percy and was headed for debauchery and ruin.

In the aftermath of his murder, Tom is intent on destroying Percy, and in forcing France to bring Chauvelin to justice. Since Chauvelin is highly placed in France, this leads to diplomatic problems and perhaps a few skirmishes. Tom, blinded by his grief ends up helping Chauvelin to ensnare the Percy, realizing almost too late that Percy is the SP and his brother died in pursuit of a higher cause.

He looks around him at the other lives that are being lost because of his bull-headed insistence on revenge for his brother's murder, and decides, of course, to sacrifice his own life to stop further bloodshed. Percy prevents this in daring fashion, again foils Chauvelin, and they return to England where Tom joins the league to honor his brother's memory by carrying on his noble cause.

That would be better than the real episode two, don't you think? I can't decide who I'd want playing Tom, though.

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::laughter::

You're not wrong about that being better than what the second installment turned out to be. Excepting of course for the part where Percy fooled some other French zealot into believing he was Chauvelin and locking the real Chauvelin up. Hee.

Also, I'm not sure Lord Dewhurst would be, well, Lord Dewhurst were he not the eldest son. Otherwise, that sounds like a corker of a story and you're well within the dramatic romance of the original story (not the miniseries, in other words), with the declarations of love and revenge and honor and what-what.

Let me know when you write that. And who you'd cast as Sir Thomas Dewhurst.

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I'm not up on my nobility -- if he was Lord Dewhurst, does that mean he holds the title? In which case, he's not just some scion of a noble family, he's a duke or an earl or something. In which case, his younger brother, now the title holder, would have even more reason to want to avenge his death.

Oh, the tragic backstories that could come off of that one little detail. Because Tony is awfully young to be the head of his household.

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You are both hilarious and silly. You didn't even seem to care for the Pimpernel story and you're going to write fanfic about it. Don't deny it, I can tell you're intrigued.

Can I distract you and convince you to write fanfic for a better series starring Jamie Bamber, if you're so fixated? BSG, Horatio Hornblower, whichever?

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Yes, yes, I know. I just see one little detail and I pick and pick...

Here's the reason why not for the other two series - I feel no need at all to write fanfic for BSG. Fanfic fills in missing pieces from a series: plot holes, missing scenes, backstories, or even if it's not that specific, fleshes out the characters. BSG doesn't need any fixing. All my craving for stories in that universe is fulfilled by the show itself. The same holds true for Buffyverse.

For Hornblower, it's a small canon fandom and all of the obvious plots have been done, repeatedly, and quite well enough. I haven't had any plot bunnies that I haven't been able to find a fic already in existence for. Except, of course, for a satisfactory LKU. But getting my perfect one would just be rearranging elements of stories that have already been written which just isn't worth the effort. As you may have noticed, I tend to be more drawn to write in fandoms that don't have a lot of fic, because if I can find a story similar to what I'm imagining, I just read it, which takes far less effort.

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I hear you on the little fandoms stuff. Not only are there usually less canon stuffs to worry about, there's less of a chance that the fangirls will have invaded. Plus you get to explore where others have not yet done so. Woot.

My reason for not writing Buffy or BSG is because it's too dense. There's sooooo much to remember, and the character interactions are so multilayered, I couldn't do better than the writers. Plus, Joss-verse stuff has its own speech rhythms and I could never do it half so well as he does.

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Oo! Oo! An even better idea.

To preserve the older-brotherly nature of the Tom-Tony relationship which is necessary to make it work (a younger brother would have to be like 15 which creates a whole 'nother set of problems), Tom is Tony's cousin. That way Tony can be the only son left in his family with a horde of sisters, making his death even more tragic. Tom is the cousin who has now inherited the title from Tony. This also explains Tony's fixation on Percy - he's a father-replacement figure.

Stop me. Please stop me. Or I'll have to write this and I know far too little about the Scarlet Pimpernel to attempt that.

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I had this epiphany while standing over the photocopier.

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