18 yrs 🌻 Hungarian 🇹🇯 I'm a random girl obsessed with whatever fine media I consumed recently. Main fandoms: Tolkien's books, Pirates of the Caribbean, Agatha Christie's Poirot Enjoy :D
just watched s3 e1 of Agatha Christie's Poirot and I need to talk about Captain Arthur Hastings because his uniform is doing a LOT of narrative heavy lifting and I am obsessed with it
okay so first off
I do not buy for one second that Hastings as a person, would have schemed or angled or socially climbed to get promoted. That is not his personality. he is earnest to the point of being emotionally transparent. He is loyal, he is brave, he is very “do what is expected of me and hope that is enough.” he is not a career shark.
but his uniform and rank progression are still giving “old officer class pipeline” and that is fascinating.
So, let’s go piece by piece because the costume department basically built a thesis statement out of fabric and ribbon.
The base uniform
He is in a British officer's service dress with a Sam Browne belt setup. That silhouette alone immediately codes the officer; yes, I'm aware he is a lieutenant in the episode, but stay with me, and historically it also codes class. Officer tracks in WW1 were still very socially filtered, even without literal rank purchase being a thing anymore. Though it did still happen unofficially. You still needed education, recommendations, social access, and the right cultural polish. Hastings reads as someone who would have slid into that track without ever thinking of it as privilege.
The sleeve chevrons
One red and two blue overseas service chevrons on the lower right sleeve.
This shows us that he has three years of total overseas service. The red indicates service in 1914, the beginning of the war, and the blue represents another twelve-month service period each.
However, these chevrons weren't authorized until 1917-1918. So we'll assume Hastings was able to get hold of them early 1917.
The ribbon bar situation
This is where it gets fun.
First ribbon is the 1914 Star ribbon. Red, white, blue. Early war France or Belgium service window. That is basically the “you were there when everything was chaos and nobody knew what trench warfare was going to become yet” medal.
And if that is a rosette on it, that implies he had the clasp version, which means under enemy fire during that early window. Not just present. Under fire.
Second ribbon is almost certainly the French Croix de Guerre ribbon (green with red vertical stripes).
So stacked together, what the show is saying is:
Early war presence
Long overseas time
Recognized gallantry by an allied government
Officer class presentation
That is a very specific narrative profile.
Now the rank thing
Lieutenant during active war period, Captain by end-of-war era framing.
This is not impossible. Plenty of officers got that progression in WWI.
But combine it with decorations plus early war service plus long overseas time plus officer class presentation and it reads less like “scraped and clawed his way up through chaos” and more like “reliable, socially legible officer candidate who survived and performed competently and was therefore promoted when space opened.”
And here is the part I actually love from a character standpoint:
Hastings would not think of himself as privileged or advanced by social standing. He would think he was doing his duty and got lucky to survive and was promoted because he tried his best.
And that is exactly why this works so well.
Because he is simultaneously:
Genuinely brave
Genuinely competent
Absolutely a product of an officer class pipeline that existed whether he wanted it to or not
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk
just watched s3 e1 of Agatha Christie's Poirot and I need to talk about Captain Arthur Hastings because his uniform is doing a LOT of narrative heavy lifting and I am obsessed with it
okay so first off
I do not buy for one second that Hastings as a person, would have schemed or angled or socially climbed to get promoted. That is not his personality. he is earnest to the point of being emotionally transparent. He is loyal, he is brave, he is very “do what is expected of me and hope that is enough.” he is not a career shark.
but his uniform and rank progression are still giving “old officer class pipeline” and that is fascinating.
So, let’s go piece by piece because the costume department basically built a thesis statement out of fabric and ribbon.
The base uniform
He is in a British officer's service dress with a Sam Browne belt setup. That silhouette alone immediately codes the officer; yes, I'm aware he is a lieutenant in the episode, but stay with me, and historically it also codes class. Officer tracks in WW1 were still very socially filtered, even without literal rank purchase being a thing anymore. Though it did still happen unofficially. You still needed education, recommendations, social access, and the right cultural polish. Hastings reads as someone who would have slid into that track without ever thinking of it as privilege.
The sleeve chevrons
One red and two blue overseas service chevrons on the lower right sleeve.
This shows us that he has three years of total overseas service. The red indicates service in 1914, the beginning of the war, and the blue represents another twelve-month service period each.
However, these chevrons weren't authorized until 1917-1918. So we'll assume Hastings was able to get hold of them early 1917.
The ribbon bar situation
This is where it gets fun.
First ribbon is the 1914 Star ribbon. Red, white, blue. Early war France or Belgium service window. That is basically the “you were there when everything was chaos and nobody knew what trench warfare was going to become yet” medal.
And if that is a rosette on it, that implies he had the clasp version, which means under enemy fire during that early window. Not just present. Under fire.
Second ribbon is almost certainly the French Croix de Guerre ribbon (green with red vertical stripes).
So stacked together, what the show is saying is:
Early war presence
Long overseas time
Recognized gallantry by an allied government
Officer class presentation
That is a very specific narrative profile.
Now the rank thing
Lieutenant during active war period, Captain by end-of-war era framing.
This is not impossible. Plenty of officers got that progression in WWI.
But combine it with decorations plus early war service plus long overseas time plus officer class presentation and it reads less like “scraped and clawed his way up through chaos” and more like “reliable, socially legible officer candidate who survived and performed competently and was therefore promoted when space opened.”
And here is the part I actually love from a character standpoint:
Hastings would not think of himself as privileged or advanced by social standing. He would think he was doing his duty and got lucky to survive and was promoted because he tried his best.
And that is exactly why this works so well.
Because he is simultaneously:
Genuinely brave
Genuinely competent
Absolutely a product of an officer class pipeline that existed whether he wanted it to or not
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk
Today's warmup sketch is brought to you by that one imagine your otp scenario...
Aww, here's Hastings in his cute little stocking cap! So sleeby
And then there's Poirot...
We don't call him a diva for nothing and he does wear fancy sleepwear
This warmup sketch happened mainly because I would like to help @dirk0pg in their valiant and righteous effort to put that sexy old man in lingerie (seriously go look at it, it's beautiful)
You can hate on Avatar for the plot holes and stuff but that movie is the reason I don't hate my long neck and square shoulders anymore so I will defend it with my life
You jnow those elderly couples who've been together for a long time and when one of them dies the other one passes shortly after? It's like they can't really live without each other
Please keep interacting with this post because when I come to tumblr to procrastinate, this shows up again in my notifications and guilts me into writing again
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