when i flop so hard and nothing that i do is right irl, i always come back to roman “i thought it’d be a nice surprise” bc honestly damn it. i relate to every single roman embarrassing events. solely bc he just wanted to give a lil surprise not so much asking for validation really but simply “hey i’ve done this little thing, for you btw. hope ur happy or whatever” he acted like it didn’t matter at the moment but fuck he did care, he does care a lot.

shiv's motivations for voting to pass the gojo deal are so layered and i don't think they should be dismissed in favour of any one interpretation. shiv desperately grabbed on to a lifeline for her relationship with tom. shiv was the deciding vote and she couldn't bear to hold the crown only for a moment just to place it atop her brother's head. shiv knew she would have more influence as wife of CEO rather than sister of CEO. shiv absolutely hated seeing kendall crystallize into logan before her eyes, especially when he made roman bleed ("and if we did kill him we get to go to bed") -- succession has always been about siblings so of course she tried to free her brothers before her child. shiv still thinks she can raise her child with all the material benefits of being the daughter of waystar CEO while doing better by her, whatever that means. and all of those things are true

Let’s get this straight:

Tom gave Greg a difficult task (Kerry) ‘cause he always pusses out and Greg always complies

But he also gave Greg the option to throw Tom under the bus

Tom explicitly explained the manipulation he uses on Greg, and how to do so with Kerry

Greg could have easily taken Kerry’s side and realized the danger of his own situation

Or cowered and blamed Tom to save his ass

And yet, Greg didn’t

He’s front row seats to the shivorce and Tom’s blatant betrayal and ugliness (to his own family no less,) yet he’s still loyal to Tom

Tom is just as much of a social climber as Greg, yet he has saved Greg’ ass and pushed for his success over and over again

The sad truth is despite the physical violence, psychosexual manipulation, drug dependency, possessiveness, power plays, emotional avoidance, straight up abuse, lack of communication, and stunning levels of repression

Tomgreg is the healthiest relationship on Succession

the thing about critical rolllle is that i used to put a post-it note over my screen so i wouldn't have to see the player whose name comes from arthurian myth. like i thought he was one of the most annoying people i'd ever seen. and i don't think i've ever said the thing about the post-it note out loud before because i was so scared of being called homophobic. and my feelings towards him led to a legit crises at the time because i sort of thought i was being homophobic and was very ashamed of myself. 🙄

but now looking back and thinking about all my gripes, i realise the truth. he was so fucking annoying and bad at his job and I just hated his ass. he would interrupt other peoples' turns to incorrectly explain rules, then on his own turn he'd stutter and waffle and debate forever and then just use vicious mockery and end his turn, either because he'd built a character that was useless in combat (and there was a lot of combat) or just because he didn't know how to play his character. he'd meta game so so bad to get the upper hand against other pcs in roleplay, like it drove me insane. his characters would frequently "teach" other characters condescending "lessons" that were usually beyond fucked up. and people would say "oh well it's a complex character ofc the character kind of seems like a complete asshole" then he'd go on the aftershow and say shit like "he was never a character who needed to be fixed." and the character was heavily (but poorly) messiah-coded too, which... 🙄🙄🙄

i'd always watch live and i mastered the trick of pausing the twitch/yt stream during his turns, chilling in silence for about a minute, then fast-forwarding so i wouldn't have to hear him talk as much. it was SO BAD. 😫 and i didn't tell almost anyone about it because i felt like i would face harassment if i was honest about my feelings. so yes, it was more toxic than that other fandom.

It's 100% true that the Roy siblings did not choose to be Logan's children and Tom and Greg and the old guard did choose to work for him so their relationships to Logan are fundamentally different, and the degree of culpability they bear for their own moral degradation is also wildly different. But workplace emotional abuse is also very real and omnipresent in the way Logan treats the people who work for him. And one of the impacts of workplace emotional abuse is creating an extreme attachment to the abuser and becoming less cognizant and even defensive of their abuse towards yourself and others, and in cases where the emotional abuse is institutionalized and systemic it can also create a strong aversion to leaving because your whole sense of personal identity becomes wrapped up in the organization and so being forced to leave can cause an intense psychological crisis. I don't think the situation of working for Logan is at all equivalent to being his child but I also think that it's a bit misguided to imply that Tom and Gerri and Frank and Karl are operating from a place of pure rationality without any undue psychological influences when they make the choice to stay with and support Logan

babe can you pls explain what you mean by your succession fridge

wjdjwjdkw i have a bunch of succession themed postcards and magnets that i have stuck on the door of my fridge -> succession fridge. see attached an old picture of it.

“dont start with colors unless you know exactly what youre doing” actually just pick up random crayons like a toddler and give it a go :)

i sound like the youngest boomer on earth whenever i say this but it really was a mistake for baby gays to learn about the term fruit. idk what it is about the internet that makes kids see a derogatory term for a marginalized group they’re part of, or even just adjacent to, which they’ve never been targeted with and decide it’s just their new Special Inside Joke Swear Word. some 16 y/o online calling a picture of a celebrity wearing a gaudy sweater fruity or faggy isn’t “reclamation” it’s just parroting homophobia and not funny in the slightest.

speaking among onesself or close friends is one thing but when it gets to the point (and it has) where people are calling real life people they barely (or don’t) know homophobic terms, it doesn’t matter if the person saying it is gay or not.

I feel like we don’t acknowledge that Willa agreed to the proposal out of guilt, pity, and fear for her future. She spent that episode crying at a wedding and then getting drunk. At no point does she seem genuinely happy to be marrying Connor. She was pressured into it by a rich, powerful, manipulative john who put her in a position where it would cause her great harm to say no.

tbh this has been said before. and it is controversial but i sort of want to say it again

the fact that tom n greg may very well be turning out as such classic queerbait where they use it in the marketing, and the storytellers and actors are asked about it and talk about it... and still in the show it's in this nebulous place, where it's fairly clearly told through intense moments, background props, and drug metaphors- yet is still on the cusp of too overt to be undeniable.

and then, like, a good amount of other fans are annoyed as us for caring even a bit about that?

and, i don't necessarily need them to be happy or cutesy. but just because suck session isn't 'about shipping' doesn't mean... that's not still... like, queerbaiting? And. human relationships are part of most stories, and are actually central to Succession.

Tom's relationship to Shiv has been one of his primary roles in the whole show. They get to be acknowledged as having a romantic and sexual relationship that is important and messy and fucked up. this is not notable or seen as "focusing on the shipping", it's just part of a good story- perhaps because they're 'straight'?

and people don't have to like it. it doesn't have to be "the point" of succession. i don't mind people disliking tom/greg, it's the fact that others act like it "can't be queerbait because you can tell they aren't going there, they were never that important and were never gonna make it more explicit than it already is", that's... what makes it queerbait.

wanting clarity of intent and narrative payoff with tom and greg when they are, in fact, used in the marketing and have had seasons of buildup is not 'watching the show wrong' or inherently bad.

the main plot of succession dragon age au would obviously be that logan sends kendall to the conclave and kendall ends up becoming the inquisitor and has to close the portal, but don't ask me about any of that because what i really want to talk about is roman being a templar dropout

honestly a lot of the abuse olympics discourse in the succession fandom comes from people thinking that being an abusive parent's "favorite" is a good thing

anyways now that everyone is feeling adrift and unmoored after succession’s end, might i direct you to (at least seasons 1 through 4/5) of veep?

Succession is the only fandom I’ve been in where you make a joke and someone *pushes glasses up* Uhhmmm actually?? In season 12.5 episode 6 minute 10.001 Frederich Figgleinngoth (the 5th cousin of Logan Roy) says [28 page soliloquy in French] sooooooo your entire perception of media is broken maybe you should rewatch schweaty 😌 like at least Superwholock just called you homophobic

bless my psych for listening to me blithering about how much anxiety I feel about relating to Roman Roy and her explaining to me that the brain tries to make trauma the most important thing as a sort of protective scarring but it isn't the most important thing about who you are. she was saying something like "sharing similar traumas or feelings to other people is coincidental and morally neutral. it's like claiming having the same kind of weather in 2 different countries tells you what the countries themselves are like" and it was very helpful for me to hear. so I thought that might be helpful to share