Dear Hal!

Happy

500th

vampire

birthday

 

oh such a "terrible beauty" he is too whimsy!

Nothing terrible about your gifset, just beautiful beautiful beautiful. Wow. mesmerising, so well done!

Ooh everybody have been making beautiful happy Hal birthday wishes here!

 

-- Edited by JozieMozie on Monday 8th of September 2014 05:38:03 PM

thank you Pearl, that is what comes of posting in the wee small hours when half asleep! (I would always rather be told of errors than not, so thanks!) and I would love to see one of your drawings.

At first, this day for me was about celebrating the side of Hal that we perhaps as viewers hope he can vanquish - his dark side. The side where he is most at home in his own skin. The side where he is not battling every moment. As a vampire not resisting his 'nature' Hal is a mighty force, confident, sassy, powerful, magnetic, deadly. (and giddyingly exciting to watch!)

But..... it is also perhaps a celebration of the human Hal who didn't really die that day on the Battle field. Because it is not as if the human Hal and all his values were lost that day. In the many shades of Hal, there is an equally powerful force, an incredibly strong spirit, even as a vampire, that wants to be human, that IS, human. As he himself said to Tom in the final episode of Being Human "the desire to be human is the end, not the beginning. To want it is to have it."

Thank you domino!

I have decided to paint a picture of Hal when he messes up his date with Alex. His expressions in that scene are something to behold - a terrible beauty sums it up.

This is one of the pictures I have found on my computer. I have the other one somewhere, just have to find it.

 

Found two more which I will crop so it is just Hal.

 

 

 

Which one shall I choose?  Is the first one from Being Human?   I cannot recall where I got it.

-- Edited by Pearl24 on Monday 8th of September 2014 10:41:01 PM

Pearl - I think that first pic is from Hal's prequel.   And very nice it is too.

Haha fifi! Lets put on the Ritz and go! (How awesome if all the fans would meet and go celebrate Hal's birthday in that pub?)

Aaw thank you Whimsy! I would surely like to read your poem! I love poems, and Hal is perfect subject to do poems!

I took ages to get to sleep last night - looking at too many gorgeous pictures I reckon!

Overlook the bloodstained vest?  I think not!  its entirely inappropriate and should definitely be removed.....

That's a lovely poem, Jozie....and I love your gifs, whimsy - Hal certainly seems to inspire everyone's creativity!   Tho I seem to have brought down the tone.  Sorry! (not really!)

I'm a bit late coming back to this - but I absolutely think that Hal's existence was dominated by his 'bad' side.  I wonder if his human side would consider it a day for celebration....even though it was the day he cheated death?  But I'm pretty sure that 'Lord Harry' would celebrate in style!

 

Pearl, I believe he did not become a Lord till after he became a vampire. 

"by the time I was a young man I'd seen every dark corner of the human heart, so when the army surgeon offered me eternal life in return for what little god had left me of my soul, I accepted, not because I feared death, but because I could think of nothing that deserved my loyalty any more."

To me that statement has always been loaded with meaning... not only did he have a terrible childhood - starvation, disease, abuse - I don't think once he left the brothel he fared much better at sea and in his travels to Gdansk.  

Besides, the Battle of Orsha was between the allied forces of Lithuania and Poland against Russia (Muscovites).  While there were noblemen, they would have been Polish & Lithuanian.  Hal would have been one of the mercenary infantry.  

Now as to the circumstances of him becoming a Lord, that's a complete black hole of clues... so many different theories I've read.  Even the possibility it's a made-up title he gave himself but didn't have any actual merit.  The only in canon clue we got that he was treated and referred to as Lord at some point is in the cafe when he has his little breakdown when Michaela throws the money at him.

"I used to ride horse once.  I had a sword, I was respected, better than that I was feared.  Peasants had their backs flayed for looking at me funny.  It was brutal, but it worked.  We had order, we had respect.  And now we have this? And I had a shield.  A red one!"

Although serfdom was supposed to have all but disappeared in England by 1500, in most of Europe it continued well into the eighteenth century.  And of course even after peasant cast no longer existed, he could have been part of the English gentry, with wealth and lands... Fergus calls him my Lord, but I don't know if that has more to do with his vampire status rather than status amongst humans.

Not that I've researched/thought about this...

BTW, it might sound silly (to anyone other than the company here) but it's pretty darn cool that this is included in the wikipedia entry for Battle of Orsha:

Popular Culture[edit]

On the BBC television program Being Human, Hal Yorke was transformed into a vampire during the Battle of Orsha.