The Lion's Mane: Plenty of tragedy to go around

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Lion’s Mane
Rating: Gen

A creature swept off-course by gale.
A sudden end to life once hale.
A cruel parry for a pup’s thrust.
A pup expired in master’s dust.                                                                                                                                                 
A love kept hid for father’s scorn.
A clue cut short like message torn.
A final breath ignominious.
A third attack exsanguineous.   
Provoking most consternation?
Stackhurst, ‘without invitation,’
And Watson, then,
‘beyond the ken.’

Comments

[debriswoman]

A wonderful summary of the tale:-)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

I did feel like I was channel the debris with this one!!

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Yes, sadness all round.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yes, a resolution, but no real happiness.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

You make a very good point. When you put it altogether like this... There's an awful lot of sadness in this story.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yes. Sort of bleak all things considered.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

LION is just not a happy story, any way you look at it.

Except...

The BBC Radio One's adaptation is a marvel - and makes Watson the center of the story! (It's told in retrospect: Holmes presents the whole thing to Watson as a weekend mystery-game during one of his visits to the Downs.)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm glad that there's His Last Bow because this would be a horrid one to end on.

I've heard good things about the radio play. One day I'll be in a place to appreciate them.

[sanguinity]

There's definitely some shit that went down between Holmes and Watson in those later years, and yet neither of them are talking about it. :-(

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yes, I find the distance between them at the end very sad. I suppose His Last Bow is our happy ending but even then it's obvious Holmes hasn't seen Watson in a long time and that stings, too.