History YMMV / HoratioHornblower

* CompleteMonster:
** "The Even Chance": Midshipman Jack Simpson ruthlessly torments his fellow midshipmen, both physically and psychologically. He is a sadistic bully who takes great pleasure in his evil games. He claims that he knows the guys' secrets and what gnaws their souls, and uses it as blackmail. He keeps beating them mercilessly. His abuse of Archie Kennedy is the worst as he is the one most terrified of him, and Simpson's mere presence gives him stress-induced ConvulsiveSeizures. Simpson is able to manipulate the situation and is never held responsible, and the others are punished instead. Later he tries to kill his shipmates in the middle of a raid by setting one adrift in a boat and shooting the other. When challenged to the DuelToTheDeath, he cheats and claims it was a misfire. Finally, when his life is spared, he's unable to deal with CruelMercy and tries to stab his opponent InTheBack.
** "The Frogs and the Lobsters": Colonel Marquis Moncoutant is one of the leaders of French Royalist troops who set on a mission to restore the monarchy in France during the French Revolution with the help of the British Navy. However, he doesn't care much about the cause and not at all about his soldiers. The fate of other aristocrats doesn't concern him either, but he's very proud that he's BlueBlood and he believes that common people are impossible to improve, comparing them to animals. He killed a mayor and nearly shot a child for singing ''Marseillaise'' upon his arrival to his village, and later he keeps gleefully killing off villagers with his personal guillotine one after another for no bigger offence than selling old bread. He never shows any remorse for his evil deeds.

* GeniusBonus:
** As in the book, Hornblower's hypothetical problem in front of the examination board is what to do if his ship was taken flat aback with Dover cliffs under his lee. This is a problem that any experienced midshipman ought to have been able to answer--if he wasn't in front of three mercilessly staring, stone-faced captains, one of whom is making acerbic remarks to him after their unpleasant encounter a week ago.
** In the courtroom, Hobbs compares Captain Sawyer to Admiral Nelson. This is met with approval by the sailors in attendance, but the judges are not pleased. This is a natural reaction within the context of the story because they don't need Saywer being compared to Nelson on the record of a trial that is about concealing Sawyer's madness. But at that point in Nelson's life, he had made himself a public disgrace for carrying on with Lady Hamilton; although the ordinary seamen of the Navy still loved him, his brother admirals did ''not'', and would not appreciate the namedrop for that reason as well.

* GeniusBonus: The question posed to Hornblower in the lieutenant's exam is what to do if the ship is taken flat aback. An experienced midshipman who'd been serving as a lieutenant should have able to give the correct procedure without so much hesitation. Hornblower has barely been able to correctly state his own name and the name of his ship, but stalling out on a problem like that hammers home just how bad his PerformanceAnxiety is.

-->''For a few seconds Bush's hand stroked his feebly, caressing it as though it was a woman's. In all their years of service it was the first sign of affection either had shown the other.''

-->''There had been a ridiculous pleasure about waking up to find Bush snoring beside him with a protective arm across him.''

-->''[Of Captain Thomas "Kiss me, Hardy" Hardy] ...Little use though he himself had for woman''

!!The A&E series:

** The question posed to Hornblower in the lieutenant's exam is what to do if the ship is taken flat aback. An experienced midshipman who'd been serving as a lieutenant should have able to give the correct procedure without so much hesitation. Hornblower has barely been able to correctly state his own name and the name of his ship, but stalling out on a problem like that hammers home just how bad his PerformanceAnxiety is.

** Doubly so, when an anonymous pirate did the very same thing first in ''West Indies'', also written (and in this case, set) after ''Commodore'' but ''before'' ''Hotspur'', in an action that bore more resemblance to dynamiting fish in a barrel, and regarded with some distaste by the main character.

* ValuesDissonance: Gerard was an officer on a slave ship before joining the Navy. Hornblower blithely considers that this makes him a good choice as a prizemaster because he knows how to deal with captives, and Gerard also regales Lady Barbara (who herself has an enslaved maid) with tales of his "adventures" sailing up African rivers to abduct and sell human beings. Although the blasé attitude of the other characters towards this history is not anachronistic, it ''is'' at odds with Hornblower's typical portrayal as a man ahead of his times but too embarrassed to say so, and with the narration's habit of calling attention to DeliberateValuesDissonance. It's telling that ''Lieutenant Hornblower'' (which was written later) veers away from the total non-commentary on the horrors of slavery by having young Hornblower express sympathy for the Haitian Revolution.

** Lt. Eccleston from "The Even Chance" who served aboard ''Justinian'' and also ''Indifatigable''. He seems nice enough and fairly competent at first glance, but on a second thought, he's not that great and his behaviour is open to interpretation. Eccleston severely punishes Horatio for getting beaten up -- and asks who he fought with -- ''just'' after Simpson came back. He then pairs Simpson and Horatio and sends them on a shore mission. He later does it again when he puts Simpsons in Horatio and Archie's boat for the operation of capturing ''Papillon''. Is he so clueless? Or so monstrously sadistic? Does Eccleston know about Simpson's abuse? If no, he's incompetent and shouldn't be in the Navy, and certainly has no place to serve under the top notch captain like Pellew. If he does know and does nothing to stop it, he's beyong useless and beyond evil and just as sadistic as Simpson. Or could Simpson have power over Eccleston as well, perhaps with a dirty little secret of his own? Perhaps Eccleston knows how terrible Simpson is and sees Horatio as the only one capable of standing up to him so pairs them off constantly to give Horatio a chance at him? Eccleston clearly thinks highly of Horatio by the time he's killed, but his motives are confusing to say the least.

* ValuesDissonance: Gerard was an officer on a slave ship before joining the Navy. Hornblower blithely considers that this makes him a good choice as a prizemaster because he knows how to deal with captives, and Gerard also regales Lady Barbara (who herself has an enslaved maid) with tales of his "adventures" sailing up African rivers to abduct and sell human beings. Although the blasé attitude of the other characters towards this history is not anachronistic, it's telling that ''Lieutenant Hornblower'' veers away from the total non-commentary on the horrors of slavery by having young Hornblower express sympathy for the Haitian Revolution.

* EstrogenBrigade: Why, you thought swashbuckling adventures, officers of the Royal Navy, wooden ships, gory scenes with blood spattering around, wars and fights would appeal mainly to guys? There is this one thing that ladies can't have enough of. Hot men in uniforms? Yes please. Hot men out of their uniforms? YES PLEASE. Hot men being {{shirtless|Scene}} and [[SexySoakedShirt wet]]? YEEES! PLEASE MORE. Mr Bush and Archie Kennedy seem to attract special attention, and they appear to be winning over the main man Hornblower, but he shouldn't worry too much. Female fans are known to like and write their fics [[SlashFic slashed]], and Hornblower/Bush or Horatio/Archie are the most popular ships. Pellew is a great favourite as well, as are other characters like Mr Wellard, Major Edrington, Mr Orrock and Major Côtard. So much eye candy! And they have deep and interesting personalities as well.

* GeniusBonus: In the courtroom, Hobbs compares Captain Sawyer to Admiral Nelson. This is met with approval by the sailors in attendance, but the judges are not pleased. This is a natural reaction within the context of the story because they don't need Saywer being compared to Nelson on the record of a trial that is about concealing Sawyer's madness. But at that point in Nelson's life, he had made himself a public disgrace for carrying on with Lady Hamilton; although the ordinary seamen of the Navy still loved him, his brother admirals did ''not'', and would not appreciate the namedrop for that reason as well.

* SpecialEffectFailure: In the first episode's scenes in the longboat, Hornblower translates the French complaints that they're not yet in sight of the coast. The coast, however, is easily visible over his shoulder. (Doubtless it wouldn't have been safe to stick the boat entirely out to sea for filming, though ''filming in the opposite direction'' would have solved this problem.)

** The first books and the way they deal with Lady Barbara and Hornblower's relationship with Maria can put Hornblower in a very negative light. He doesn't love Maria, very nearly cheats on her in ''The Happy Return'' -- stopped only by an interruption -- and actually cheats on her in ''Flying Colours'', while Maria dies in his absence giving birth to his third and only surviving child. At no point does he ever try to open up to her, as he does with the other women he meets. This ValuesDissonance is likely a result of Forester originally writing Hornblower at a time when he was immigrating to Britain to escape a paternity suit by an aging opera singer.

* HoYay: Between Hornblower and Bush. Bush is never shown to have romantic interest in anybody (male or female), but he's devoted to Hornblower. He could be {{Asexual|ity}} and merely devoted to his closest friend, but given the [[HideYourLesbians Hide Your Gays]] period the author was writing in, Bush could be homosexual and [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy supporting his hetero captain's relationships]]; the text gives no clues.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Sawyer's fall and later death in ''Lieutenant Hornblower'' deliberately invites it. Was it Hornblower or Wellard who pushed him? Was it ''really'' a convenient accident? There is also a popular theory (put forward by Parkinson's unofficial biography) that Hornblower killed Sawyer during the prisoner uprising and blamed the Spanish, as it would be strange for a straitjacketed man to be killed in a battle and Hornblower has been known to ShootTheDog. But then there's also the question of whether Hornblower could do such a thing as a young man, as he's shown to not be completely inured to death and killing yet. Then there's the short story "The Hand of Destiny", in which it is made clear that it was the other man who shot a tyrannical captain and Hornblower let him (albeit after Hornblower pulled him out of the way to be ''merely'' shot in the knee instead of killed). All in all, a subject for consideration.

* HesJustHiding: [[spoiler:Captain Bush]] after the events of ''Lord Hornblower''. Because it's as hard for fans as it is for Hornblower to imagine a world without him in it.

** Also in ''Flying Colours'' but later:

** And after the fall down the hold, [[AlasPoorVillain Captain Sawyer himself]]. The injury and trauma shatters what sanity he had left and reduced him to a straightjacketed, weeping wreck who saw an enemy in every person that came into his cabin. When he's [[spoiler:murdered during the prisoner mutiny]] even Bush, one of his victims, thinks that Hell couldn't be hot enough for the person who did it. Worse if you read the short story "Hornblower and the Widow [=McCool=]" in which Sawyer appears as a rational man who actually expresses some sympathy for the unpleasant task he has to assign Hornblower.

* FanonDiscontinuity: Whether anything after [[spoiler:"Retribution" -- or namely Kennedy's death]], happened. Fandom actually uses the terms 'LKU' and 'DKU' to differentiate whether this fic has [[spoiler:Archie as alive or dead. It stands for 'Live Kennedy Universe' and 'Dead Kennedy Universe'.]]

* HarsherInHindsight: The line "You were born to hang, Mr Hornblower" becomes horrifying in the context of [[spoiler: what nearly happened in "Retribution"]].

** [[{{Creator/JamieBamber}} Archie]] is more recognizable nowadays as [[{{Series/BattlestarGalactica2003}} Lee "Apollo" Adama]] and [[{{Series/LawAndOrderUK}} DS Matt Devlin]].

** [[{{Creator/{{JamieBamber}} Archie]] is more recognizable nowadays as [[{{Series/BattlestarGalactica2003}} Lee "Apollo" Adama]] and [[{{Series/LawAndOrderUK}} DS Matt Devlin]].

** Archie is more recognizable nowadays as [[{{Series/BattlestarGalactica2003}} Lee "Apollo" Adama]].
** While Hornblower was arguably Creator/IoanGruffud's BreakoutRole, more people know him as [[{{Film/FantasticFour2005}} Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic]].

* RetroactiveRecognition: Jonathan Aris appears in "The Examination for Lieutenant" as one of the midshipmen at the titular exam.

** Lt. Eccleston from "The Even Chance" who served aboard ''Justinian'' and also ''Indifatigable''. He seems nice enough and fairly competent at first glance, but on a second thought, he's not that great and his behaviour is open to interpretation. Eccleston severely punishes Horatio for getting beaten up -- and asks who he fought with -- ''just'' after Simpson came back. He then pairs Simpson and Horatio and sends them on a shore mission. He later does it again when he puts Simpsons in Horatio and Archie's boat for the operation of capturing ''Papillon''. Is he so clueless? Or so monstrously sadistic? Does Eccleston know about Simpson's abuse? If no, he's incompetent and shouldn't be in the Navy, and certainly has no place to serve under the top notch captain like Pellew. If he does know and does nothing to stop it, he's beyong useless and beyond evil and just as sadistic as Simpson. Or could Simpson have power over Eccleston as well, perhaps with a dirty little secret of his own?

* FightSceneFailure: Styles' fight in "Mutiny." Both actors' punches are obviously not connecting.

** Major Edrington in "The Wrong War"/"The Frogs and the Lobsters". Only appears in one instalment, but he's very popular among the fans.

* SeasonalRot: The third series loses its previous excellent production values, going for half-measures and ConspicuousCG instead. The characterization is also sloppy--Pellew, as noted above, goes from being an excellent captain to almost a parody of an admiral, and Styles becomes completely unlikable. Rather than combining AdaptationDistillation with AdaptationExpansion as they had previously, the story only loosely resembles the events of ''Hotspur'' and turns minor mentions of Irish unrest into the whole plot; there are some frankly absurd moments with the deep-cover Irish agents (both in terms of narrative plausibility and their ability to survive explosions without a scratch). That said, unimpressive Hornblower still makes for pretty impressive television and the acting doesn't suffer.