#poirotxhastings

[pflanzidiezimmerpflanze]

Another day deep in the Poirot/Hastings trenches

[rovermcfly]

why did nobody tell agatha that if she thinks poirot and hastings can barely live without each other she's allowed to have them in books together. like nobody forced her to make hastings move to argentina. she did that on purpose. and then she wrote the saddest old man imaginable about it.

[rovermcfly]

because it's Arthur Hastings

quick, what are y'all thinking about and why is it not Hercule Poirot

[left-leggus]

Man Im a pretty big fan of PoirotxHastings but this book is making me like PoirotxCatchpool just as much

[rovermcfly]

in my mind, poirot broke hastings' heart in the double clue and it's the catalyst for hastings slowly growing apart from him. but well... he can never fully break away, can he; he can't help his devotion.

agatha christie's poirot (1989-2013) // heavensghost on tumblr // unknown source // for your own good - leah horlick // everything everywhere all at once (2022) // let dead dogs lie - silas denver melvin // a self-portrait in letters - anna sexton // i am a dog. i have blood all over my teeth. - sciencedfiction

ok I wanna elaborate more for anyone who cares. In The Double Clue, Hastings (and Miss Lemon) are shown to be absolutely distraught over Poirot apparently falling in love and possibly choosing to leave their lives for her. I found it so so remarkable that they are not happy for him or delighted by this side of him but instead seemingly in mourning. Hastings knows Poirot lied to him because of her, he knows now how easy it was for Poirot to abandon him and his illusion of Poirot, a man he's been basically worshiping for years now, crumbled for the first time. In the episodes that follow we see a new side of Hastings. He rolls his eyes at Poirot, sees things that used to be endearing quirks as painful flaws. But he can't help his nature. He can't help following him around, he can't help tucking him in when he's sick, he can't help following his orders, the muscle memory of serving him takes over every time. But the pain is there, and he tries to get rid of this leash, he goes on lengthy trips alone, eventually moves to a different continent. But he can't help but to love and forgive. he can't help his devotion.

[rovermcfly]

..... which could mean nothing.

[rovermcfly]

agatha christie writing poirot and hastings:

also agatha christie: *separates them*

[rovermcfly]

book hastings working as a secretary to support his dream of working and living with poirot has such millennial "working a retail job to support your dream of working on a creative passion project (with your friend)" energy. when asked what he does he says what his real job is, but immediately clarifies that what he REALLY intends to be doing with his life, and does do to an extent, is being a detective and working with poirot. big mood right there

[rovermcfly]

there is something positively insane about agatha christie's rewrite of the mystery of the baghdad chest into the mystery of the spanish chest

not only changing it from a story featuring and written by hastings into a story that hastings isn't in, but then explicitly drawing attention to hastings' absence in the form of poirot missing him. it's like the rewrite is set in a parallel universe where hastings is not there, but poirot can feel that something about that is wrong, that hastings SHOULD be there. it's like poirot KNOWS agatha rewrote the story and he can remember, like a déjà vu, what the original version was like.

original

vs

original

vs

like yeah, okay. this is all super normal. normal things I would say about my friend who moved away and wasn't actually removed from the story by my all-powerful creator, the author:

[rovermcfly]

I really respect that when agatha christie wrote her sherlock holmes ripoff (affectionate) with poirot and gave him his own watson with hastings she didn't simply stop at the "detective and his associate/bestie/roommate" parallel but also decided to make them just as sickenly codependent and possibly in love as holmes and watson. 10/10. no notes. she even gave them a fake death that leaves the other inconsolable.

[rovermcfly]

Lord Edgware Dies? Oh you mean the book about how Hastings is a dog and everyone is aware? The one where my months of yelling about the submissive, obedient, loyal dog of a man that hastings is are being vindicated?

[rovermcfly]

ok so now that I've learned that in the show timeline hastings already lived in argentina at least for a little while two years prior to the events of the show, may I present a new headcanon that I will probably have to overthrow again as I continue watching: hastings keeps fucking trying to have a normal relationship to poirot by going as far away as possible for as long as possible but he simply keeps coming back until he manages to find a wife and have children that give him a reason not to run back to poirot again. I imagine every other year or so between like 1920 and 1936 he realises he's a bit too comfortable practically (or sometimes literally) living at poirot's place and makes an attempt to move somewhere far away, only to go back after 6-12 months like a bird inexplicably being called back home after migrating south. and because he's so incredibly repressed he repeats the process every two years or so to avoid the whole "two bachelors together until they die" thing, until he eventually manages to tie himself down in argentina with a family. king of going "you can't catch me gay thoughts" by running away.

[rovermcfly]

I love that they wrote this ep about poirot falling in love and it's supposed to show you this other, romantic side of him and get the audience all invested and feeling for him. and they must have asked themselves "and what should the rest of the episode be?" and for some reason they went: just the saddest, most heartbreaking story of two people who are inconsolable over the thought that he might leave them, like they're the devoted wife who knows she's about to be left for the mistress. what a choice.

[rovermcfly]

david suchet describing the mysterious affair at styles: it is a sombre story. there is a distinct, sad tone to it. there is no twinkle in his eye. the war looms over the entire tale.

how I perceived the episode:

[rovermcfly]

ok but the fact that for the poirot tv show they somehow gave hastings character traits of poirot and poirot character traits of hastings is insane.

like book hastings is so irritable and angry and often has some incredibly mean thoughts about his companion. book poirot is such a lovey-dovey adorable little man who looks at his companion with heart eyes and showers him in hugs and kisses (literally).

meanwhile show hastings has the heart eyes, and the mind and soul of a golden retriever and show poirot is mean and irritable and insults his companion.

like where did that come from?!?! why change hastings from a terrifying guard dog who shows his love with teeth into the delightfully pathetic goldendoodle that he is? why change poirot's truly pathetically intense love for his friend into reservedness and snark? what happened

[rovermcfly]

I love that at no point in lord edgware dies does hastings mention he's only visiting poirot, and only in the final chapter he briefly mentions being "suddenly recalled" to argentina. so a not-so avid reader of christie (esp perhaps in a pre-internet time) might genuinely not be aware of the greater continuity, maybe be familiar with some of the short stories where they are two bachelors living together, and then suddenly read "recalled to the argentine" and genuinely go ?????

the book doesn't mention his ranch. or his wife. or the life he built in argentina. not even when he mentions being recalled there. so if you don't know these things from previous books, the line makes absolutely no sense because for all you, the unaware reader, know, he's just a guy who lives with poirot. you don't know why he's going there. most importantly, you don't know why he's going back. did they not spend the whole time talking about how hastings cannot be apart from poirot? does he not talk about his room in their home? honestly the only conclusion you might come to is maybe he grew up there and then moved to england to live with poirot and now he was called back there. or something. because there is NOTHING in the book that could point you to think he might be married there. that he might be living there.

which could mean nothing.