#or The Reverse of the Medal

[ltwilliammowett]

The Reverse of the Medal, by Geoff Hunt (b. 1945)

[hammerbonk]

Thank you The Vanished People for giving the Vernetto Nation breadcrumbs

[thekenobee]

I got to experience what Jack Aubrey experienced in The Reverse of The Medal :')

Except that no one threw stones at me and my dear crew didn't in fact protect me from the them

[verecunda]

This scene had big Reverse of the Medal energy. :')

[the-olympics-olympics]

@santhipoma great question!

Each medal has a unique cropped section of this artwork by Kwakwaka'wakw/Tlingit artist Corine Hunt:

This picture of multiple medals makes it a little more clear I think:

Here's an interesting article that talks a little more about it: https://olympicfanatic.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/vanouvers-thoughtful-designs-for-its-medals/

[fernnshxj]

reverse au GO!!!!!!

i lvoe reverse aus sm they r so GOOFY

ft lucy and audra my friends ocs hehe

sum of these r kinda older like i did them last month b4 artfight but i think they hold up and u can kinda tell i had trouble drawing miori looking somewhat younger hfhhrhnf

[italianlegolas]

why did you just spend a page establishing that the admiral is gay only for him to say this about Jack Aubrey:

[doctorcrabby]

As much of a gut punch as The Reverse Of The Medal is, this has to be one of the best insults ever written:

[fuimustroes]

(slaps stack of twenty aubrey/maturin novels) this bad boy can fit so much american college d1 ncaa swimming au material in it

[vorareromantic]

silly little vent in the tags

[the-dog-watch]

The Reverse of the Medal

Stephen had met Jack's father -- a really dangerous parent -- and the wish that the General might choke to death on his next bite fleeted through his mind, but he passed the toasted cheese in silence... (p. 75)

I was really looking forward to the “Jack loses his badge naval commission” plot ever since I found out it was a thing but it was an unexpected gift that it hinges on two things I’ve always enjoyed in these books but have hitherto been mostly just jokes in the background: Jack’s absurd naivete on land, and his shitty awful dad.

It makes sense that this is the book where we see Jack's real dad throw him under the bus, because of course it's shortly followed by his surrogate daddy, the entire British navy, abandoning him too. Previously, Jack's shitty dad (somehow, miraculously, an even shittier parent than Jack himself) only showed up in letters, in the newspaper, and very briefly when Jack visits his childhood home in The Surgeon's Mate.

It’s also the first time (I think?) we get confirmation that General Aubrey and Stephen have met at least once, something I always wondered about. I so intensely wish we had seen the meeting (hell, I wish we had seen even a little bit of Jack's wedding, which is probably where it happened), even though I’m sure they're two characters who couldn’t have less to say to each other.

There's so much to like about this book (the pillory scene! Diana running off to Sweden with Lithuania's most eligible twink!! the sudden twist into a legal drama!!! what the hell!!!!) but that Stephen hates Jack's dad--not just dislikes, not just wincingly sympathizes with Jack for having a difficult relative, but actually wishes death upon--just makes me really fond of him.

This may seem like a random pull, but it reminds me very strongly of one of my favorite scenes in all of fiction: Peggy Hill talking to Hank's dad Cotton on his deathbed. A full clip doesn't seem to be online but, to give you the gist:

Peggy Hill: Enough! Your son has always loved you, despite your constant torture. You want to die alone? Fine. You want to keep coming back and never die? That's fine too. In fact, I hope you do go on living forever as the unhappy person you are in the hell you have created here on earth. I hope you live forever. I really do.

Cotton Hill: Do ya now?

[Cotton dies]

Personal Ranking:

The Far Side of the World (10) > HMS Surprise (3) > Desolation Island (5) > The Reverse of the Medal (11) > The Ionian Mission (8) > The Fortune of War (6) > Master & Commander (1) > The Surgeon’s Mate (7) > Treason's Harbour (9) > Post Captain (2) > The Mauritius Command (4)

[relnicht]

teleny will always come back to haunt me

[tacagen]

have i mentioned that i am a music arranger. (and potentially a composer. my speciality doesnt include that but we still have a composition class here.)

this is blake neely's 'catch me if you can', the flash cw ost remade in my image bc lets be honest the music's fine but its nowhere near sounding like comic!thawne. this is also what i brought to entrance exam at my uni and what basically got me there (i overheard the commission say thats a good work when i played the original lmao).

[thekenobee]

For the Jack Aubrey the fact of no longer belonging to the Navy counted more than a thousand pillories, the loss of fortune, loss of rank, and loss of future. It was in a way loss of being, and to those who knew him well it gave his eyes, his whole face, the strangest look. Patrick O'Brian- The Reverse Of The Medal

[lord-alfred-douglas-official]

Gonna get teleny or the reverse of the medal in a few weeks and I'm angry about the fact I'm only gonna get it in a few weeks. Bitch give me the pornography NOW.

[firstofficerrose]

Okay, so for the whole first half of Reverse Of The Medal, I was thinking to myself "This is... fine? This is fine. It's sad about the Surprise, but everyone is doing well, more or less, I wonder why everyone acts like this book is so devastating?"

And then I found out.