stunt_muppet (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stunt_muppet) wrote2007-05-06 04:24 am
stunt_muppet) wrote2007-05-06 04:24 am
DAMN IT.
I hate it when canon screws with my ficcing plans.
Also, I felt like I should note that I recently posted Mind on the Job up on ff.net, and all the semicolons seemed to be intact. I can only assume that enough people raised enough of a stink about the removal of the semicolon that ff.net decided to abandon the idea of removing it.
They do remove hyphens in the summaries, though. I'm not sure what that's about.
So. Little Brothers. Remember how I've been trying to wrestle all the canonical details of Horatio's past into a coherent timeline for the story? Well, after I finally decided on a timeline, structure, and sequence of events, I figured out that I had completely forgotten a significant detail. And that detail utterly screws almost the entire timeline, not to mention a significant amount of character development.
The detail? I recently caught "Nailed" again on rerun; I have only seen that episode once before. Y'all remember that sequence at the beginning, with Horatio and Stetler? The one where Horatio reveals that he killed his mother's murderer while his mom was in danger? Meaning that he was trying to defend her from an immediate physical threat?
That sound you hear in the background of that scene is me yelling "DAMN IT. How did I forget that? Damn it, damn it. I should just keep this entire series transcribed somewhere because I am constantly forgetting crap."
I'd somehow managed to completely forget/miss that detail. I don't know why or how I missed it, but I did. I'd forgotten that Horatio's mother and father died at approximately the same time.
This becomes a problem once I looked back on the time line of Little Brothers and realized that much of the character development and chronological stability of the story is built on the (incorrect) fact that there is a significant gap between the death of Mama Caine and the death of Daddy Caine.
I had it planned like this: Dad, while drunk or angry or both, beat Mom to death inside their home. Horatio and Ray were both present; they heard the event through their bedroom walls but didn't watch (for obvious reasons). This took place when they were quite young - specifically, Horatio was 17 and Ray was 13. Mom "dissappears" from then on; her murder is never solved.
Both the Caine brothers know what their father did. Horatio keeps quiet about it (mostly because he is deeply afraid of Dad), but, in a seperate chapter, Raymond confronts Dad when Dad tries to tell them that Mom has "left". When Ray accuses his father of killing their mother, Dad threatens them both, reminding them that if they accuse him, they'll both be placed in foster care and probably never see each other again. Ray runs out of the house; Horatio follows him, trying to convince him that they have to keep their mouths shut for their own safety.
Flash forward to ten-fifteen years later. Mom's body is discovered, but she's decomposed so much by this point that no new leads can be obtained. Her case remains unsolved. Horatio and Ray finally bury their mother; they note at the funeral that their father is not present (by this point, both have moved out. Neither bothered to stay in contact with their dad).
Shortly after Mom is buried, Horatio goes to visit his father. It is implied that he might have intended to kill him for what he did to their mother, but it's never said for sure. Horatio finds that his father has changed significantly from when he last saw him; he's a broken, remorseful old man whose body is slowly failing from years of alcohol abuse. The two end up conversing, and Dad asks Horatio if he can ever forgive him for what he's done. After thinking about it, Horatio responds that, while he might be able to forgive his father what he did to him, he can't forgive him what he did to Ray or their mother.
At this point, Dad becomes angry, denying he ever killed Mom and saying that her death was an accident. Horatio, understandably, is enraged by this suggestion; he and his father get into a fight, and Dad begins to threaten his son just as he did when he was seventeen. As they fight, Horatio shoves his father; Dad falls and hits his head, cracking his skull and dying instantly. Horatio, shocked at what he's done (I want to leave it ambiguous whether or not he meant to kill his father), calls 911, reporting that his father has fallen and hit his head. The death of the elder Caine is reported as an accident. Ray, however, suspects his brother and confronts him at their father's funeral. Horatio denies killing him. However, he himself is not sure whether or not he intended to do what he did; by the time he confesses his sin to Cardinal Benedetti, he's convinced himself that he did.
The reason it's so important that I leave it this way is this: a lot of the tension between Horatio and Ray comes from the fact that Horatio never said anything about who really killed their mother. Ray resents him for this, as he feels that Horatio sould have said something, and that because he didn't he was effectively "covering for" their father. This is, of course, not the only source of tension between them, but it underlies a lot of their conflicts later in life.
Also, I think this makes more sense in the context of Horatio's character. If he killed his father while his mother was in immediate danger, I just can't see him feeling as guilty about it as he does. He's killed others when there were innocents in danger (or even when they weren't - *coughRiocough*), and he didn't seem too bent out of shape about it (well, he was a little bent out of shape in Rio, but I think that had more to do with the presence of the Christ the Redeemer statue than anything else). While it would probably make a difference that the man he killed was his father, I don't think it would make quite that much of a difference, especially if his dad was the scuzz that we're led to believe he was.
But, even if I like my version better, it still flies in the face of canon, and rather significant canon at that. I can't just deny that the conversation at the beginning of "Nailed" ever happened. But I also would really, really not like to have to rewrite all those chapters and wrestle with the plotline all over again.
There's a way to dodge all this, of course - I could say that Horatio was lying when he told Stetler what happened, just so that Stetler would quit poking around. Also, if even he's not sure whether or not he meant to commit murder, I'm sure he doesn't relish the thought of having to explain it to someone else - or having to let someone else decide what he hasn't yet. But I'm not sure what that kind of lie does to his character. Is it too OOC to believe? Does it go against who he basically is? Does it make him (I hate to put it this way, but I really can't think of another way) look bad? I don't know. Plus, a plot dodge like that would have to be explained in an author's note, and it feels sort of cheap.
GAH. I KNEW I should have just bit my lip, bought the DVDs, and double-checked. It'd set me back $70, but it'd save me hours in rewriting this thing. I'm so stupid.
The detail? I recently caught "Nailed" again on rerun; I have only seen that episode once before. Y'all remember that sequence at the beginning, with Horatio and Stetler? The one where Horatio reveals that he killed his mother's murderer while his mom was in danger? Meaning that he was trying to defend her from an immediate physical threat?
That sound you hear in the background of that scene is me yelling "DAMN IT. How did I forget that? Damn it, damn it. I should just keep this entire series transcribed somewhere because I am constantly forgetting crap."
I'd somehow managed to completely forget/miss that detail. I don't know why or how I missed it, but I did. I'd forgotten that Horatio's mother and father died at approximately the same time.
This becomes a problem once I looked back on the time line of Little Brothers and realized that much of the character development and chronological stability of the story is built on the (incorrect) fact that there is a significant gap between the death of Mama Caine and the death of Daddy Caine.
I had it planned like this: Dad, while drunk or angry or both, beat Mom to death inside their home. Horatio and Ray were both present; they heard the event through their bedroom walls but didn't watch (for obvious reasons). This took place when they were quite young - specifically, Horatio was 17 and Ray was 13. Mom "dissappears" from then on; her murder is never solved.
Both the Caine brothers know what their father did. Horatio keeps quiet about it (mostly because he is deeply afraid of Dad), but, in a seperate chapter, Raymond confronts Dad when Dad tries to tell them that Mom has "left". When Ray accuses his father of killing their mother, Dad threatens them both, reminding them that if they accuse him, they'll both be placed in foster care and probably never see each other again. Ray runs out of the house; Horatio follows him, trying to convince him that they have to keep their mouths shut for their own safety.
Flash forward to ten-fifteen years later. Mom's body is discovered, but she's decomposed so much by this point that no new leads can be obtained. Her case remains unsolved. Horatio and Ray finally bury their mother; they note at the funeral that their father is not present (by this point, both have moved out. Neither bothered to stay in contact with their dad).
Shortly after Mom is buried, Horatio goes to visit his father. It is implied that he might have intended to kill him for what he did to their mother, but it's never said for sure. Horatio finds that his father has changed significantly from when he last saw him; he's a broken, remorseful old man whose body is slowly failing from years of alcohol abuse. The two end up conversing, and Dad asks Horatio if he can ever forgive him for what he's done. After thinking about it, Horatio responds that, while he might be able to forgive his father what he did to him, he can't forgive him what he did to Ray or their mother.
At this point, Dad becomes angry, denying he ever killed Mom and saying that her death was an accident. Horatio, understandably, is enraged by this suggestion; he and his father get into a fight, and Dad begins to threaten his son just as he did when he was seventeen. As they fight, Horatio shoves his father; Dad falls and hits his head, cracking his skull and dying instantly. Horatio, shocked at what he's done (I want to leave it ambiguous whether or not he meant to kill his father), calls 911, reporting that his father has fallen and hit his head. The death of the elder Caine is reported as an accident. Ray, however, suspects his brother and confronts him at their father's funeral. Horatio denies killing him. However, he himself is not sure whether or not he intended to do what he did; by the time he confesses his sin to Cardinal Benedetti, he's convinced himself that he did.
The reason it's so important that I leave it this way is this: a lot of the tension between Horatio and Ray comes from the fact that Horatio never said anything about who really killed their mother. Ray resents him for this, as he feels that Horatio sould have said something, and that because he didn't he was effectively "covering for" their father. This is, of course, not the only source of tension between them, but it underlies a lot of their conflicts later in life.
Also, I think this makes more sense in the context of Horatio's character. If he killed his father while his mother was in immediate danger, I just can't see him feeling as guilty about it as he does. He's killed others when there were innocents in danger (or even when they weren't - *coughRiocough*), and he didn't seem too bent out of shape about it (well, he was a little bent out of shape in Rio, but I think that had more to do with the presence of the Christ the Redeemer statue than anything else). While it would probably make a difference that the man he killed was his father, I don't think it would make quite that much of a difference, especially if his dad was the scuzz that we're led to believe he was.
But, even if I like my version better, it still flies in the face of canon, and rather significant canon at that. I can't just deny that the conversation at the beginning of "Nailed" ever happened. But I also would really, really not like to have to rewrite all those chapters and wrestle with the plotline all over again.
There's a way to dodge all this, of course - I could say that Horatio was lying when he told Stetler what happened, just so that Stetler would quit poking around. Also, if even he's not sure whether or not he meant to commit murder, I'm sure he doesn't relish the thought of having to explain it to someone else - or having to let someone else decide what he hasn't yet. But I'm not sure what that kind of lie does to his character. Is it too OOC to believe? Does it go against who he basically is? Does it make him (I hate to put it this way, but I really can't think of another way) look bad? I don't know. Plus, a plot dodge like that would have to be explained in an author's note, and it feels sort of cheap.
GAH. I KNEW I should have just bit my lip, bought the DVDs, and double-checked. It'd set me back $70, but it'd save me hours in rewriting this thing. I'm so stupid.
Also, I felt like I should note that I recently posted Mind on the Job up on ff.net, and all the semicolons seemed to be intact. I can only assume that enough people raised enough of a stink about the removal of the semicolon that ff.net decided to abandon the idea of removing it.
They do remove hyphens in the summaries, though. I'm not sure what that's about.
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Bah. Maybe I'll just call it an AU and be done with it.
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I actually don't remember that conversation at all (so much for me and my love for season 4...), so I don't know exactly how it's phrased, but is there a way to spin it so that it's true in a certain context? He's good at that, after all. CSI Files describes it as "Horatio says twenty years ago, he tried to save his mother's life and the man who killed her ended up dead," so from that it sounds like there's room for a bit of a timegap between the two actions, if you need it. Perhaps there was a sequence where Horatio stepped between them and saved her life that day, but his father killed her shortly thereafter, thus making his attempt to save her a failed one. Stopping now, since I don't know how much I can trust the recap.
It's just, now that you've told me the whole lovely timeline of your version, I forbid you to scrap and rewrite it all. Or at least I really, really urge against it. It's far too intriguing, even in simple summary form.
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So, if I don't want to rewrite it (and I don't), that gives me two options: say that Horatio was lying to Stetler, which doesn't seem entirely unreasonable, or just call Little Brothers an AU and cheerfully ignore the conversation entirely.
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And as an aside, I am in love that site; thanks for pointing it out.
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