littlejoenice wrote: ↑Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:10 am
There was only one time that the Cartwrights scared me... literally scared me. And that was the scene where Joe is all battered and beaten. The first time I watched it online, as I do not own it myself, it shocked me.
This is early in the first season, really, and I think it set the tone for the rest of the series as far as exactly what Ben, Adam, Hoss, and yes Joe,
would do for one another. In the pilot episode, there's some exaggeration of the hostility to trespassers, and the boys' (particularly Adam and Joe) infighting (although Hoss casually just about breaking Adam in half while stopping the fight is not exactly unsurprising. We won't see him lose his temper with his brothers that roughly, and that nonchalantly, again).
But here they're a family. Unconditionally, unequivocally, and full-on damn-the-consequences, these men are going to put an end to someone abusing one of their family. In the end Hoss and Adam almost wind up roughing up Ben to ensure he's not the one to exact the well-deserved price from the villains who've beaten Joe. It's not that they're not sure he can; it's that the consequences once he does will be harder on him than them.
("We may have done a little bit of fightin' amongst ourselves," as the Charlie Daniels lyrics go, "but you outside people best leave us alone.")