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hoosbandewan · 3 months

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THE Billy Taylor Post

I have a love/hate relationship with The Halcyon as a show overall. I don't feel like all of it is written well, but the area in which it definitely excels is Billy Taylor's story. You know, the cutie pie bellboy that Ewan plays and who is always bugging out in all of the gifs we make of him. He's young, he's sweet, and he's insanely adorable.

And his story is also the best in the entire show. In my opinion!!

I also cry whenever I think about Billy for too long but we'll get into that later, hehe.

Spoilers for The Halcyon, btw!

If you haven't seen it, The Halcyon is set at a fancy hotel in London just as WWII has come to Britain. Also, fair warning that this post is a little bit all over the place because I have SO MANY BILLY TAYLOR FEELS

At the start of the show, Billy is seventeen and working at The Halcyon as a bellboy. He's portrayed by Ewan as someone who's maybe a little bit... no thoughts, head empty. I jokingly refer to Billy as having big NPC energy when he's in the background of scenes because it looks like he has radio static going through his head whenever he's not being interacted with. And like to think that it's not because it was Ewan's first gig as an actor. I think Billy genuinely is a little bit daft. He's the baby himbo. He's the golden retriever puppy who isn't the smartest in the room but he makes up for it with hard work and dedication and pure sweetness.

I mean, he's only seventeen and he appears to be one of the higher ranking bellboys at the hotel. He's given important tasks like welcoming ~secret guests to the hotel, showing new hires where to go, and personally taking care of high ranking guests' belongings. He's clearly trusted by the management and is, more importantly, very good at his job.

But, bless his heart... Billy can be kind of a mess. He's forgetful and sometimes just plain thick. He loses the family dog of the lord and lady who own the hotel while taking it out for a walk. (Literally how does that happen. Billy.) He bungles the staff poker game by revealing his hand without realizing. He's also a silly little dumbass when he and a couple of the other hotel staff are at the movie theater and see the lady who owns the hotel (who's there on a !secret date) and he straight up points at her from several aisles back with his eyes all bugging out. Be more obvious, Billy!

Billy is young and naive and maybe not the smartest guy around, but you know what? He's good at what he does (most of the time, lol) and he's a damn hard worker.

He's also someone who knows that people are reluctant to believe in him and he clearly doesn't like that. Billy signs up to join the army the moment he turns eighteen and, although we don't see it, his mum Peggy (who works at the hotel as the telephonist aka switchboard operator) mentions to the hotel general manager that there was a bit of an argument between them over it.

“Do you know why he was so upset that I didn’t want him signing up? He thought I was saying he wasn’t good enough.”

He also gets angry with his mum when his call-up papers do arrive. I know I called him daft before, so I'm giving him credit where credit is due - he actually very cleverly notices that the letter should have gone to his family's house, but it showed up at the hotel instead. And, upon learning that he's been assigned to the Royal Artillery instead of what he wanted - the engineers - he knows it was his mum (with the help of the hotel general manager, but he doesn't know that part) who moved things around so that Billy could stay close to home.

He angrily tells her, "I ain't a child no more," and storms out of the room. Billy wants to prove himself. He wants to be a grown up with responsibilities and he wants to be believed in.

You feel for him, but you also feel for his mum, who is watching her only son grow up and enlist in the war effort. At one point, Peggy mentions that she was only 19 or 20 by the time she'd had Billy, so she was a young mother (and still is!). Her worrying and fretting over him clearly annoys him because he's a teenager, but, god you feel for her. We also learn that Billy's dad, Jim, was drafted to fight in the war so she must be out of her mind with worry. I'll get more into my Billy feels as related to his mum in a bit. But I mean... just look at this line of Peggy's after Billy's joined the army:

“I pray. I fuss. I hold him a little tighter each time I see him."

Before I move on, GOSH, Billy is such a teenager when it comes to his interactions with his mum, lol. He doesn't want her fussing over him or being affectionate. He shrugs her off when she tries to fix his collar. He's reluctant to let her kiss his cheek... but he lets her do it anyway, of course.

Speaking of his family, Billy's relationship with his little sister, Dora, is also so cute and I love them. She tells another character that she doesn't miss him once he's moved out to join the army because she thinks he's "annoying" but she really does love him, lbr. And he's clearly very close with her, too.

At one point, their family home is destroyed in the Blitz so Peggy and Dora move into The Halcyon for a while. Billy watches his sister on mornings that he can get away from his army duties. He carries her around piggyback style. He lets her wear his army hat. He calls her "squirt." They're freaking adorable.

There's also a cute little moment during one of the Blitz raids where Billy's mum and sister are in the hotel shelter and Dora is frightened. Her mum tells her to listen for the sounds of the artillery and says, “That’s our Billy. He’s protecting us.”

And he is. Billy is a protector. He's always looking out for the people he cares about. When Kate, the maid he has a crush on, is SA'd by the Count, Billy angrily confronts him and even points the Count's own fucking gun at him. AND HE PULLS THE TRIGGER. He was about to fucking murder this man for doing what he did to Kate!

Billy is a fucking real one. God, he's the best character.

I don't have anywhere specific to put this, but I wanted to mention how much I love the little detail the writers added in about Billy's handiness and interest in machinery:

He is seen chatting with one of the waiters about the guns they use in the war and is later able to correctly identify the type of German plane flying over the hotel.

Later on in the season, The Halcyon's general manager and head concierge are trying to fix the hotel generator and lamenting that Billy was the one who always maintained it before he left to join the army. (I will come back to this later because omg)

Billy himself mentions to his mum at one point that he's planning on helping a neighbor with some things she needs done in her shelter and that he expects it to be a quick job.

When he joins the army, he's put in charge of operating one of the anti-aircraft guns - directing his fellow soldiers and being the one to manually operate the machine itself.

Now that I think I've covered every other Billy feel, I have to talk about... the worst one. The saddest one. His death. /:

I don't know how to say this without sounding like a complete [Michael Gavey voice] loooser, but I can't really think about Billy and his story in this show for too long without... crying? Oof.

I think that's a testament to just how well written his storyline was in this show. They make you care so fucking much about this sweet, innocent, pure-hearted, good to a fault, daft, brave young man so much that, when he dies in the Blitz, it really fucking hurts.

I swear, thinking about Billy Taylor deals psychic damage to me every time.

And I think that, part of the reason that Billy's death hurts so much is because of how it's shown to us. We all know the famous orange scene between Billy and Kate so I'm sorry for ruining it by making it sad, lol. But that scene ends with Kate telling Billy that she'll meet him the next morning to share the orange with him. So when morning comes and the hotel staff are arriving and see Kate waiting impatiently for "someone" who hasn't arrived, your heart fucking sinks immediately.

They don't even tell us about Billy's death by showing Peggy learning of the news. We're told through Kate's POV. He doesn't show up to their meeting in the morning and, when she arrives for her shift, the staff has been gathered around by the general manager. Only then do we learn that Billy was killed by a parachute mine the night before. And we follow Kate to the same closet where Billy gave her the orange, where she's sobbing and cradling the fruit in her hands.

But what's even sadder is that Billy remains a presence throughout the rest of the show. You, as the viewer, grieve him alongside not only his family, but also the people who knew him and worked with him.

When the hotel loses power during a bombing one night and the general manager and head concierge are trying to fix the generator, they're lost for what to do and even lost for words because Billy was the one who always handled the generator. They end up fixing the thing by taking a wrench and banging the side of it because "That's what Billy used to do." And it works. The generator turns back on thanks to Billy. Thanks to the memory of him. And the concierge look up and says, "Clever lad," as though Billy can hear him.

Of course, Peggy spends the rest of the season grappling with the loss of Billy, too. The other characters mention more than once that she's "talking about Billy as though he's still here" and that it's worrying them. Eventually, the general manager sits down with her and she says that she does know he's gone but that it's so hard to believe because she wants to think that he could just walk through the door at any moment.

But, oh my god, the saddest moment of the show for me... is the moment when Peggy is walking through the hallway in the staff area of the hotel and she sees one of the bellboys walking towards her. He has his head down so his face is in shadow but he's about the same height as Billy... and you can see in Peggy's face that she's allowing herself - just for that one moment - to imagine that it's Billy. To let herself think that he's still alive. You're watching her process the scene before her and seeing her think, "Could it be him?" for those few seconds... until she sees the bellboy's face. And, oh my god, it absolutely wrecks me every single time.

Billy's death is the reason that Peggy gives up the one thing she has left - Dora - and sends her away to the countryside along with the other children who are being evacuated from London. Because she can't bear the thought of losing her last living child.

Billy is the character who shows the audience how cruel and unforgiving the war is. That it can take anyone, no matter how sweet and kind and young and good the person is.

And it illustrates the enormity of the chasm they leave behind.

Billy's loss is felt in everyone, from his family to the people he worked with to the girl he had a crush on. AND IT'S FELT IN ME, TOO, GODDAMN

This was so long and I may not have even touched upon all of my feels but thanks for coming to my Billy Taylor TED Talk. I fucking love him. The writers did an amazing job writing him. 10/10, no notes whatsoever. I cry every single time.

He's such an underrated Ewan character and, I know I haven't mentioned it much, but Ewan's portrayal of him is flawless. He's perfect at capturing all the silliness, daftness, and earnestness that makes up our sweet little Billy!

Tl;dr - Everyone should love Billy Taylor!

Aaaand here's another gif of our sweet boy to end this massive post:

#welcome to my billy taylor ted talk #this is a mixture of billy taylor observations #and billy taylor feels #this character deserves so so so much love #billy taylor #ewan mitchell #the halcyon

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the-ships-to-rule-them-all · 7 years

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We Can Have All That We Ever Want

Part 1 on AO3 here

Live For the Danger

or Jason’s conflicted feeling about his teammate get called out in a weird way

The first time someone accuses Jason of dating one of his teammates is actually one of his former teammates, Brad. He’s standing in gym, talking with Zack when he feels a ball wizz by his head. He looks over to see a bunch of his former teammates staring at him in awe. He had done nothing, merely leaned out of the way and then he glances at Zack and sees that his fellow ranger had caught the ball and was now glaring at his old friends.

“Hey, buddy. Relax”

Zack sighs, looking down at his shoe for a moment and Jason reaches over to grab his shoulder. He squeezes tight enough that anyone else would probably scream in pain but they have a different tolerance for pain than other people. Jason ideally lets the thought of how that would translate to sex cross his mind but then he remembers that he’s in public and banishes the question to the far corners of his mind.

“It’s ok.” he says, “It’s not like it would have done anything. Hell, it would probably just bounce right off and everyone would be very confused.”

Zack lets out a laugh, low enough that only Jason can hear it but it still jolts him from leader mode. He squeezes one more time and feels the man beside him relax. But that brief reprisal from tension is lost as a guy on the other side of the court yells out.

“Hey, you two going to stop making out and let out us get back to the game?”

Jason straightens up and he notices the way most of the guys immediately take a step back.

“Jase.” Zack says softly and he turns back to look at the black ranger. The guy looks shaken enough that Jason feels the familiar mixture of rage and protectiveness that comes from anyone coming after his fellow teammates. He’s gotten used to shaking it off, he knows that they are all pretty badass in their own right but he’s still the leader. It has to mean something. And Zack is looking at the guys standing in front of them, his former teammates. The guys who were the first to learn about the fact that he is bisexual and refused to judge them. The guys Jason thought were better than this. And Zack looks like he is torn between fighting and running and Jason feels his fingers curl into the fists. The amount of time he’s spent training in the pit with the team, wearing armor or not, has made the motion almost casual, almost normal.

“They aren’t worth it.”

He hears Zack say and there’s a tone in his voice that tells Jason this comment isn’t the first time his teammate has been subjected to these types of taunts. Yes, all of four of them know about Trini and somehow that’s made them all more sensitive and on a knife’s edge to comments about sexuality.

“It’s not ok.” Jason spits out, teeth bared into a snarl that he knows resembles Trini’s zord more than it necessarily should considering he is still human.

“Hey, if this is a lover’s spat we can leave?” One of the guys calls out. Jason shuts his eyes as he recognizes the voice of his linebacker, his teammate since he was eight, the guy who’d been his first kiss after a late night drinking, Brad.

“Shut up.” He hisses out and even Zack takes a step back at his tone. He hears footsteps and until he is nose to nose with Brad he hadn’t realized that they were his. He feels a hand pressed against his back and he knows that it’s Zack, trying to calm him down without words but all that does is set the guys standing before them in a round of hideous laughter and Jason, Jason wants to kill.

“Red.” Zack mutters in his ear, his nails now digging into Jason’s jeans and shit, that shouldn’t send shivers down his spine. His hands clench and unclench in one smooth motion and he turns away. Getting detention for fighting would be the last straw and he was already on thin ice as it was. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, get suspended for letting some idiots opinion of him and his friends cause him to throw a punch. He is the red fucking power ranger for shit’s sake. He’s basically Captain America. He sighs, breathing in deep as he blocks out every sound but that of Zack’s heartbeat and he feels the anger melt away.

“Let’s go.” Zack mutters, and Jason can feel the nervous energy coiling around Zack’s body. His friend is just as furious as he is and Jason doesn’t quite understand why until they are walking out and he sees Zack glance back at one of the boys, a blonde who had made the first comment, and the pain in his eyes makes Jason want to say screw getting suspended and slam the guy into a wall so hard his teeth fall out.

The two of them make their way out of the school, only pausing to shoot a text to the group chat to let the others that they are going to the mountains. Once they are out of the parking lot, Jason glances at Zack. He knew that his friend had been picked by Kim that morning. No one really discussed the state of the Taylor’s finances but he didn’t have a car and there were only so many mornings he could use his speed to get to school before someone with authority noticed.

“I think a run would be good.” Zack offers, shooting Jason the same grin he had that first night of the car and the blond can predict the next words coming out of his friend’s mouth so all he says is, “I’ll win.”

He speeds off and he can Zack calling him a cheater from behind him but all he can do let out a laugh that gets swallowed up by the air as he runs. It’s just a free feeling, running so quickly that city that has caused him so much heartache can be left in the dust. By the time he makes it up the cliff, he is breathing a little bit harder but not much. He hears Zack come up behind him a second later and he accepts the other man’s high five. They are both breathing loud enough that the other can hear and Zack rests his hand against his forehead and breaks into a grin. And it’s beautiful.

God, his teammates are so beautiful it makes Jason want to scream in agony sometimes. Because the skin and the sweat and the grins that they grant him are enough that he’s been able to observe that the Power also gave him better refraction time. He shakes his head, grabbing his water and drowning a gulp before turning it over his head. Zack looks at him confused for a minute before laughing.

“We’re just going to get wet anyway aren’t we?”

Jason nods, flicking water at him.

“So what do you want?” Zack asks slowly and with a grin that Jason’s just wants to kiss off because it’s so damn cocky. No, he shouldn’t be thinking about kissing them, especially Zack because it’s bad enough that they’ve become his wank material, wanting to date his teammate is just a bad idea. No, it’s worse than the idea with the cow. It would just fuck everything up in a way that they would never be able to come back from. But the words almost come out of his mouth anyway before he bites his teeth down on his tongue hard enough that he feels a spurt of blood.

“Campfire tonight?” is what he says instead of the words he wants to, the words he almost said anyway. Which were come over here and kiss me. It’s been too long since they sat in the front of the fire and soaked in each other and the beauty of the planet they’ve been tasked to protect. Kim looks beautiful always but the way she looks illuminated by fire sends shivers down Jason’s spine. He’s such a selfish asshole, as much as he knows that the team needs this, he’s doing it because of the way the rest of team gets in front of the fire, laughing and loose and everything Jason wants but refuses to take.

Zack nods, grinning at him as he says, “You just want my cooking don’t you?”

“You got me.” Jason replies, rubbing his neck with his hand, glad that his reasoning seems sound to his friend. He reaches out and shoves Zack and the two of them fall into fighting stance exchanging jabs and punches until they hear Billy’s voice.

“You guys have been out here for 4 hours 20 minutes.”

“Really?” Jason says, pulling off his shirt and wiping his face with it. God, he needed that.

He puts the shirt down and doesn’t notice the way the rest of the team immediately shut their mouths and move their eyes back to his face. He knows that he is dripping and he’s suddenly glad that they started leaving clothes at each other’s places. It means that while Zack is explaining to the plan to the others he can run over to Kim’s and grab a fresh shirt. He speeds back up the mountain, and when he gets there the rest of team has already started the fire. As he sits in the one of the campfire chairs Trini had grabbed for them, he grins at Zack who hands him one of the s’mores that Kim was making for them. She was the only one to go to summer camp for more than a year and so was the best.

“Starting with dessert?” He asks, grinning as he sees Billy licking marshmallow from his fingertips.

Trini laughs as she leans back in her chair, drinking a beer. She sees him looking at her and reaches down to grab him one that rests in the ice chest by her feet. He nods in thanks as he sets it down beside him. He loves his team. The sense of peace he feels with them, the understanding, the beauty of the way they all are so comfortable with each other.

But that moment is nearly broken and he goes back to feeling selfish as he nearly moans in delight as he takes a bit of Kim’s s'more. The rest of the team cracks up, patting Kim on the back as she smirks at him. Kim is as much of risk taker as any of them but the way she’s looking at him makes him stuff the rest of chocolatey treat in his mouth to make his moan about that instead of the image of Kim laughing at him as she straddles him because that’s what the look is making him think of. It’s pure sin, that look, and Jason looks away first, shifting to pull the blanket over his lap and trying to shove away his desires. His eyes turn to Zack who is handing out food to them all, throwing Trini a giant bag of his homemade trail mix and Jason barely manages to catch the bag of buns that the man throws his way.

They all sit, eating and talking and no one brings up the fact that Jason and Zack skipped out during the last period but sometimes throughout the night Jason catches Zack’s eye and sees a flicker of pain that he wants to understand. They end up deciding to sleep under the stars, curled up and wrapped around each other with blankets tossed around each other’s legs and shoulders. Jason ends up in the middle by some apparent team discussion he wasn’t privy to and he sighs as he rests his head against Billy’s chest, his hand holding Kim’s and Zack is sprawled up against his stomach as his legs are tangled with Trini’s, the yellow ranger snoring softly curled up against Kim. He shares a glance with Kim, the only one he can actually make eyes with, feeling Billy’s hand stroke his hair as the pink ranger tangles her other hand in Trini’s hair and they share a soft smile. Jason thinks this would be enough, even though he wants more, this, this is enough. The stars, his team and the feeling of being wanted sends him off to a peaceful sleep.

Tagging people that I know have seen the movie: @rangerkim @tomioliver @saltymonty @prosciuttoe @magnusbancs @kathillards

#Power Rangers #power rangers 2017 #ranger lovest #kim hart #trini kwan #jason scott #zack taylor #billy cranston #ot5: this is our time #My writing

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