ok sure i'll talk about farleigh start. i'll talk about his tragedy of never being enough as it were and then having to deal with fucking oliver. sure. disclaimer: it's about class (and race) and the horrible reality of the rich. the horrible reality of living as farleigh.
another disclaimer: i'm white! and poc definitely pick up on everything i'm talking about here as it is, and better. i was and am specifically interested in farleigh vs. oliver but it's impossible to examine without considering race. definitely let me know if anything abt this sucks!
farleigh and oliver are similar. it's annoying because every intruder that is not himself is annoying, partly because felix's attention swaying from farleigh is dangerous; there is always a threat of being discarded, even if no precedent existed. the potential is terrifying.
but you'd think he's seen this before, every summer (if venetia is telling the truth) or at least often enough to learn to recognize it fast, so he should know this will pass. part of it is i think still the deep anxiety, and i think he hated every boy that was there before, and it is sort of routine.
but definitely a huge factor in farleigh's annoyance is the fact that he's a biracial (black for cattons, that's all they see) man in a white rich household. he's alert and exhausted all the time. of course he's angry at oliver, regardless of whether he's the first to crash at saltburn for the summer or the fifty-first.
but the important thing is this.
farleigh is very jealous of and angry and pissed at oliver because farleigh sees all the similarities between them. outsider, in financial trouble, whatever it is, in need of cattons; and yet oliver is preferred. and farleigh seems to be the only one to really consider it. felix does not pick up on the hint when farleigh brings up the birthday party vs. his mother. felix's clumsy "different or... anything like that" is as much about race as it is about class, of course. the "we've done all that we can" bit is felix absolving himself of guilt because surely they had, surely the mysterious collective cattons that he's not really part of had tried all they could do. to him, farleigh is different from oliver, because farleigh has been helped. felix is rich and white and twofold uncomfortable with farleigh, even if he's nice about it, even if he genuinely enjoys his company; he doesn't look too close at farleigh because he feels too guilty to come too close. and farleigh can't do anything about it. he can't nice himself into it. the fucking tragedy of him is that he's never enough in the world of the ultra-rich white, even if (especially because!) he's born into it.
farleigh is very pissed at oliver because farleigh also sees all the differences between them. you know who can be nice poor white enough to fit in? fucking oliver. felix says "just be yourself, they'll love you" when oliver first moves in. farleigh was also probably told the same thing, and felix also probably believed that farleigh could just be himself, but even if the cattons were magically not racist at all (impossible), it wouldn't make a difference to farleigh. he would still self-censor, keep in check, be in dangerous waters (because racism is not just about the individual, but about the system). we see that he'd won himself leeway by years of trial and error by the way he speaks to the family, but it's still within the boundaries of acceptable, built by the cattons. he's part of them because they allow it, and farleigh is very, very aware.
the annoying thing is oliver can be himself. like, truly, genuinely, he can just be. and farleigh can't help but envy that.
as a side note, oliver is obviously jealous of farleigh in the beginning as well, because regardless of the reality of farleigh's situation, he was born into it, and hence, at least in oliver's mind, has his position solidified. oliver's whole thing is unquenchable thirst and hunger for whatever and everything the cattons have (including themselves!). he wishes to have been a catton from birth. to oliver, at first, there's nothing farleigh can really do to lose it. and until he figures out the cattons completely, he can't help but envy that.
but i think farleigh senses something different about oliver early on. at least on the level of the text, we have "you're almost passing [for] a real, human boy", which is so important because farleigh is the first to point out oliver's weirdness. the next to do so is venetia in the bath scene calling him a freak, but it's too late. farleigh is too early.
and i like to think he clocks oliver too early because he sees the jagged edges that he recognizes in himself. i think that one other thing that farleigh envies is oliver's freedom to let go. freedom to let go is very similar to freedom to be, but not quite the same.
to be is about perception: farleigh knows he cannot fall out of line, but would like to, and oliver does not have to worry about it at all (i mean, he does, because oliver also performs for felix, but farleigh doesn't know that).
to let go is about the self: farleigh is too scared to even want what oliver eventually does, to even consider the possibility. oliver can let himself want. oliver can let himself act. oliver just can do things and want things. i'm not sure farleigh can.
and so in this scene, when oliver's wants and actions have landed him nowhere with farleigh, felix, venetia, the cattons, of course farleigh gloats. he can let himself do that, because if the cattons are slowly discarding him, farleigh can allow himself this one small victory. he's relieved because despite the dangerous similarities, oliver is, thankfully, not really the same as farleigh, right?
but like. this movie is a love letter to all things gothic. oliver is a white man. he prevails. the brief performance that oliver put on did eventually end up more effective than farleigh's lifetime of constraint. my heart fucking breaks for him to be honest.
the issue that remains is the fact of farleigh's survival. i like to think that oliver came to respect him. oliver is smart, but farleigh is clever. he picks up on everything oliver does (to refer back to the karaoke scene, farleigh immediately retaliates in the cleverest way, in the moment), and he's the only one to do so consistently (venetia, again, for example, comes close, but too late; oliver doesn't like that, there's nothing to work with). hence, stay with me for a little longer, the paradox: farleigh survives because he was never enough for the cattons, but he is very worthy of oliver's attention. in his own freaky way, oliver wants him. look at that.
so. farleigh. farleigh might come back. he always comes back. and i think oliver wants to try harder next time.
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tease tuesday + wip wednesday 🕊
(i'm smashing these 2 days together because i like to break the rules)
anyway have a lil bit of hoa eddie, uh, getting a hard dick for buck before dinner with his Nemesis
“You’re staring at me.” Buck shuffles forward, a few steps away from Eddie; he smells like mint and vanilla because he used Eddie’s shampoo like he always does and roses, too, that expensive cologne he pays half an arm for.
“I am.”
“Do I look bad?”
No. Not at all. He’s wearing tight black jeans that hug the length of his long, thick legs in a way that leaves nothing to the imagination and a black knit sweater that has his biceps bulging and his tummy poking through and it’s obscene because he’s so goddamn thick that even normal clothes look small on him.
Buck looks all different kinds of great and Eddie doesn’t know what to do with that or the tickle in his chest, the heavy heat in his gut. The gold chain with the little sunshine at the bottom sits pretty between his tits, a present Chris got him last year for Christmas that’s a fucking gift right now for Eddie.
Christ.
He blinks. “No,” he says, maybe a little too fast, but he can’t be blamed. Especially not when Buck looks as gorgeous as he does, in front of Eddie and in his bedroom with a door that locks. “You look pretty. That color is nice on you.”
“It’s black.”
“Okay?” Eddie bristles. The tips of his ears burn. “It looks good.”
Buck fingers the hem of his sweater. “Thanks,” he says, whisper-soft and ruddy-cheeked like he’s embarrassed or something, before looking up and giving Eddie a dazzling smile. “You, uh, look good, too.”
And Eddie does. He’s wearing his best pair of blue jeans and a dark green sweater he found in the back of his closet that he knows looks good on him because Marisol couldn’t keep her hands off when he wore it, but he has nothing on Buck. Nothing at all.
“Buck—”
“I need—”
Christopher barges in the room, knocking the door against the wall like he pays the bills. “You guys take so long.”
tagged by @daffi-990, @jesuisici33, and @wikiangela mwah i adore all of you!
tagging @callmenewbie, @callaplums, @eddiebabygirldiaz, @eddiediaztho, @honestlydarkprincess, @wildlife4life, @thewolvesof1998, @try-set-me-on-fire, @exhuastedpigeon, @fortheloveofbuddie, @giddyupbuck, @ladydorian05, @loserdiaz, @monsterrae1, @mysteriouslyyounggalaxy, and anybody else who wants to share 🫶🏼
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I had a draft of about 5 of these results ready to go pre-face reveal but then everything went to shit so just for some closure here are the results (FROM SEPTEMBER!) ^_^
This chart shows the percentage of total respondents who indicated that they mained the people above. This isn't a comprehensive list, with other streamers like SBI, Benchtrio, or other DSMP-adjacent streamers rounding the answers out!
of the 598 people who filled out the survey, 98.5% main one of the people in the above chart, and 92.8% main one or more of the Dream Team.
From this question, it seems like DSMP creators are the main pipeline into dtblr—but a good 40% of us didn't start on the Dream Team side!
We have a good amount of people who came from the Corpse/OTV side of Twitch, and a decent amount of you who have been here a while, since SMPLive :]
A lot of us have been here a long time—66% of us were here before 2021. The vast majority have been here since 2021, a good 93% of us!
I thought it'd be super interesting to see how watching the Dream Team may have changed how we interact with their primary game, and it looks like a majority of us were crafters before and still are! They managed to get nearly a fifth of his audience here into playing as well!
A toast to the loss of most of dtblr's favorite MCC player to watch, something that we definitely mourned when we heard the news. But if you're looking for a new POV to watch, survey respondents put down a wide range of players—just outside these top 8 were Ranboo, Tubbo, Grian, Illumina, Purpled, and Hannah!
Another loss for 6% of dtblr with how this question aged, RIP Trust Issues :( But for the remaining 94% of us, our favorite Drusic is still on streaming platforms. Change my Clothes is only...500k listens away from 67 million listens on Spotify so 👀
Wow ok as this goes on I realize just how many chapters have ended over the last few months but a salute to the 26% of loreheads on dtblr! On to the next chapter :]
Now to a touchy subject...who's in the dteam privs? According to the survey responses, 39% of dtblr is in all three! Interestingly, there are more people who follow Dream's alt than his main. Fair enough, there are enough piss tweets on there to warrant unfollowing it!
Word of mouth and the YouTube algorithm seems to have been the best way for the dteam to get to us—interestingly enough, a good amount of people found out through either Heat Waves the song or through the fanfiction, ranging from it crashing ao3 to commentary YouTubers talking about it on their channels!
Now for some psychic damage, I'm seeing a lot more of RTAH posting on my dash nowadays but here's some solidarity for everyone who may have come from similar backgrounds ^_^
Now for some more history—a vast majority of us came from gaming content backgrounds, and nearly 17% of us were primarily mcyt enjoyers. Personal shoutout to Team Crafted viewers we're holding hands <3
Nearly half of dtblr doesn't consume much Minecraft content outside of the stuff our boys are in, though there's still a pretty large amount of people who watch other SMP's and keep up with the speedrunning scene!
This one is an ode to the lurkers who keep the economy strong—even now you guys are an essential part of dtblr! Same to the 30-40% of people who post the stuff for lurkers and other dtblr members to see. Everyone is important to keeping our little island afloat <3
Now onto Banter, most of dtblr doesn't make time for Banter Wednesdays, but if there's an interesting episode, it seems like the trio will capture our attention :]
Adding some literal variety to our results, I thought it'd be interesting to see what common variety games are our favorites! 95% of us would be tapped in wholeheartedly for Geoguessr or Jackbox streams. On the other hand, Fall Guys and Fortnite are in the middle of the pack, whereas it seems like FPS games are our mortal enemies—62% of us would tap out during Valorant while 46% wouldn't be paying attention to CS:GO.
Onto the topic of shipping, DNF steamrolled every other ship listed to have nearly 86% of responders saying they ship it. That lines up with the follow-up question, where nearly 90% of respondents either have experience with shipping RPF in the past, or have been caught up with DNFer supreme Dream's antics. Otherwise, there was a good distribution of love for most popular ships within DTQK+, with Karlnap, DNN, and Karlnapity leading the pack at around 25% each!
Ever wonder how dtblr is spread out across the globe because of the dash being dead at different times? Well, the vast majority of us are in North America and Europe, with 86% of us being between GMT +4 and GMT -4. Much like our streamers, though, a lot of us have fucked up sleep schedules so time zones aren't as much of an issue LMAO
Next up is a fairly simple one, I had another question that asked for gender but there was, as expected, a lot of variance and nuance that I couldn't fit into a neat graphic. But this one is a fairly simple one to graph so Well here's the 24/7 pride parade Dream mentioned coming in hot, with about 95% of us identifying as LGBT+ or questioning!
I wanted to test out my theory that GNF mains are also biased towards CS/Engineering fields, so I asked what people were studying! There's a pretty big bias towards the arts and humanities around here, but we also have just as many STEM people around, good on dtblr for academic diversity! As for my hypothesis, 22% of people who indicated they were George mains studied some form of CS/Engineering. George mains also made up 70% of all people who studied CS/Engineering. So cheers to my stem kid gnfers o/
Finally, I don't really know the best way to make a graphic for the favorite colors question, but just know that 50% of us chose either green or blue, and it was a near-even 25%-25% split. Great job dnfers, Dream would be proud <3
Thanks for reading! I hope that this was fun to look through, and I'll be posting an identical one for new dtblr soon! Super excited to see how things have changed since Well. anyways. Also wanted to say thank you to everyone who filled it out, reading all your answers was a ton of fun and I got a ton of laughs out of some of y'alls bonus section content and the few joke answers I got throughout <333
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