Becky Sharp was a terrible friend to Amelia Sedley in Vanity Fair.
What about HUCK, for heaven’s sake, who’s supposed to be such a great friend to Jim? He’s the one who oughta step up and rip Tom a new one for the “game” he’s got going.
Watson was a wonderful friend to Holmes.
Holmes treated Watson like shit.
What did Holmes do to Watson that was so terrible? If anything, Poirot was less kind to Hastings, always telling Hastings “I want to see how the crime looks to the average Englishman - you will invariably point in the wrong direction.”
Another idea for worst best friend - how about Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom in The Producers? Though if I remember right (1968 movie version), on the witness stand at the end, Leo Bloom says “he made my life so exciting!”
How old were Tom and Huck supposed to be there? I really can’t recall, but I remember reading that bit with a growing sense of horror that Huck was allowing Tom to continue on with this ridiculous game.
Huck wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, though, and he always figured Tom knew better than he did. So I’m going a little easier on him than on Tom here, who was a total jerk to prolong Jim’s slavery for such stupid reasons. (And it wasn’t even very funny. What was Twain thinking?)
In Vanity Fair, I’m pretty sure Becky was a bad friend to everyone. Amelia was a spineless wimp for letting herself be duped by Becky for so long.
Iago wasn’t much of a friend to Othello, that’s for darn sure.
Sarah was the one who set everything up and told the story. It was her idea, not Erm saying, “Oh hey, make this like a magic feast before we eat.” I think there was some reasoning as to why Erm had stayed away before then… something like, Sarah thought that Erm wouldn’t want to be friends anymore now that she wasn’t rich, and Erm thought that Sarah’s standoffishness meant that Sarah hated her.
That’s why I voted for the solicitor. That should be easy to track down who it was (even to the extent of placing ads, perhaps), since Carew died owing the solicitor money. (Nothing makes someone easier to find than, “Hey, I want to pay you back!”) And the solicitor knew where Sarah was, because he was the one who came to deliver the news of her father’s death.
You are confusing Holmes & House. Among other things, later stories reveal that, when Watson was low on cash (his medical practice wasn’t the most successful), Holmes helped him get clients without telling him, thus supporting him financially without taking credit (and risking his friend’s pride).
I can recall two instances in which Holmes came close to treating Watson like shit.
At Reichenbach Falls, he lied to him to keep him from coming along for the final duel with Moriarty, because he knew he was going to die; that Moriarty would bring backup; that Watson, not currently a target, would become one if he came along; and that Watson, told the truth, would insist on coming. That lie was justified. Also, he once accidentally hurt Watson’s feelings by detailing the history of his brother’s descent into alcholism, poverty, and death–but that was an accident, and as soon as Holmes realized what was going on he was aghast and apologized.
Holmes insulted Watson’s storytelling once, didn’t he?
Sort of. Holmes thought Watson should recount the tales as monographs. He also felt Watson was cheating in that he only told the stories in which Holmes succeeded, making Holmes look smarter than he was.
On Hamlet, it’s never explicitly clear if R&G knew. Hamlet thought they did, and the letter was sealed simply because it was a royal message. This, of course, is part of his general unbalancing of the mind.
I definitely remember a Holmes story where Watson gets shot and Holmes goes nuts with concern and grief. In it Watson notes that Holmes’ normal state of seeming mild disdain towards him is just a facade and they both realize it.
The Adventure of the Three Garridebs, IIRC. Pretty crap story, for canon.
At the beginning of The Sign of Four, Holmes quite cold-bloodedly describes Watson’s older brother’s descent from prosperity to death from alcoholism, based on an examination of a watch. Holmes liked Watson around, because he needed someone to show off to (and who would write about him and get him good cases) and a a gunman and strong arm.
The Holmes character works better as a semi-autistic idiot savant - great at deduction, lousy at interacting with real people. Watson was part of the furniture, like the Persian slipper Holmes kept his tobacco in or the wall he shot V.R. in with bullets.
Regards,
Shodan
Peter was a pretty shitty friend to that Jesus guy.
Yeah, but what about Judas?
I think he was probably the first recorded instance of a “frienemy”. It’s an iffy gray area, at best. Jesus probably just let him into the entourage because he needed to outdo that posse Pilate was running around with, and Judas was the only one that had the vacation days to burn.
Actually, I heard it was because Judas had a kick-ass set of wheels.
Shodan, I suggest you may need to re-read the passage in question. Watson challenges Holmes to infer what he can about the brother from his watch. Holmes does so with his usual superhuman accuracy (that is his gig, after all), and while he is dispassionate he is hardly cold-blooded; he’s immediately apologetic when he realizes what he has done.
My understanding of Holmes’ character is that he is somewhat cold and dispassionate in demeanor - but that he deeply cares for Watson as a friend.
The two worst things he ever did to Watson are:
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Above all else, failing to tell Watson he was alive after his encounter with Moriarty; he certainly has his reasons, but clearly Watson found this wounding.
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In The Devil’s Foot, using Watson as a guinea pig for testing what he suspects is a deadly drug - but to be fair he uses himself as well (and Watson saves him). Watson rightly points out that this is idiotic.
I knew someone would bring this up. I have two fanwanks for it:
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Simple security. The more people he made contact with, the more likely it was that Moriarty’s organization would find something out. Going to Mycroft was one thing; he had the resources to help Holmes, which Watson did not. Also, more cynically, I think if Watson had to choose one of them to endanger, he was going to choose Mycroft, because he liked Watson a lot more.
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Holmes did die at Reichenbach. Everything after that is a fiction. (Obviously I’m playing the Great Game with this one.)
I go with 2, personally.