mariusperkins

[mariusperkins]

Carrie Coon and Morgan Spactor bts. shooting the ball scene in s3 ep8 via the official thegildedagehbo insta

[mariusperkins]

[mariusperkins]

[kisses you tenderly on the lips while holding you like my lover] don’t eat any food with mold on it even if you cut the moldy part off ok?

[mariusperkins]

Austin flips the script and makes Keith improv a list of things this time (and also helps) (mild realis spoilers)

Austin (as Curly): We've dealt with��how many bad things have we dealt with over the years, Wellaway?

Keith (as Wellaway): 12.

Austin (as Curly): 12. You name the first six. I'll name the second six.

Art: 12 things.

Austin (as Curly): We'll go back and forth. [Art laughs]

Keith (as Wellaway): Okay. There was quicksand.

Austin (as Curly): There was the vampire.

Keith (as Wellaway): There was the slow sand.

Austin (as Curly): There was the maelstrom.

Keith (as Wellaway): There was the… 

Keith: [chuckles] No, that’s bad. 

(as Wellaway): There was the, uh, really really tall tree that spit acorns.

Austin (as Curly): There was the little mosquito swarm that stuck around for a year!

Keith (as Wellaway): There was the witch who wanted to make a house out of clowns. [Art laughs]

Austin (as Curly): There was that annoying reporter.

Art: Who wanted to make a house out of clowns.

Keith (as Wellaway): There was the strangely alluring reporter.

Austin (as Curly): There was the just right reporter, who we thought was on our side! And then they went and published that story—you know the one—filled with lies.

Keith: How many is that so far?

Austin: 10.

Keith: 6? 10?

Austin: Yeah.

Keith: Okay. My last one, then…no, not my last one. My second to last one is—

Austin: No, I think it’s your last one, 'cause we're doing 12.

Keith: 10, then you 11, then me 12.

Austin: You're doing 11.

Keith: Oh, I'm doing 11 now. Okay.

Art: You went first, Keith.

Keith: Okay.

(as Wellaway): So then there was, uh, the very first problem that we ever had was the other lord who tried to feed us to some other thing.

Austin: Fuck! You took mine. [Keith and Art laugh]

(as Curly): Well, and then there were the space pirates.

Keith (as Wellaway): Okay. And we'll say, on the count of three, what the thing was that the first lord tried to feed us to. [Art laughs]

Austin (as Curly): Which we both have a good memory of! Real clear memory.

Keith (as Wellaway): Yes. Three—

Art: Oh, it was an incident.

Austin: Yeah.

Keith: It was an incident. It was in the newspaper.

Austin: Uh huh.

Keith: It was actually how we met one of the first three reporters.

Austin: Yep.

Keith (as Wellaway): All right. Three, two, one. Gi—

Austin (as Curly): Shark.

Keith (as Wellaway): Yep.

Art: Giant shark? Is that what you…?

Keith (as Wellaway): [simultaneously] Giant shark.

Austin (as Curly): [simultaneously] Giant shark. That’s right. 

Austin: I almost said giraffe, which would have worked also. [Keith laughs] Gih-raffe.

Art: Gee-raffe.

Austin: Gee-raffe shark. The giraffe shark. 

Art: Oh, I remember the giraffe shark.

Austin (as Curly): Longest neck you ever saw on that thing.

Keith (as Wellaway): Yes. Sharpest teeth, longest neck.

Austin (as Curly): And if we could have gotten through all that, we can get through a lord who tries to feed people to pigs.

Transcript by robotchangeling

[mariusperkins]

this summation of keith characters from their first impressions of ezra is fun lol

[mariusperkins]

[mariusperkins]

every so often I still think abt Gig's arc in the back half of twilight mirage & how even though his stream suppressor is no longer mechanically relevant due to the switch to scum & villainy (& honestly I can't recall if it's ever even mentioned) you know it's still present and important because as everything is going to shit Gig legitimately just does not have the capability to feel sad about it. & his increasingly short fuse is funny and largely manifests in him beefing with teenagers who don't like his youtube channel, but it's also just. I think played out very neatly and sincerely without ever to my memory being discussed explicitly

[mariusperkins]

you're so beautifol :) may i sense you with my feelers

[mariusperkins]

WIP Whenever - I was tagged by @saessenach !

I have a lot in the wip stage, but my main focus right now is "Bertha gets the trains in the divorce" (which is, I think....maybe 1/3 done? It will likely be another long one lol)

It was with that thought in mind that she sought out Clay. She knew his address, of course, having had cause to send word to George there on a few occasions, though she herself had never been. It was a very dark space, as one might expect of a bachelor, one not made with entertaining visitors of any kind in mind.

“Why come to me?” asked Clay, as blunt as ever. “Your husband fired me, if you recall.”

She certainly recalled the utterly dismissive way George had told her about it, as though the man were no more to him than a buzzing fly. He had requested a divorce in a similar tone.

“Because you are the only man I thought would not laugh in my face if I asked,” said Bertha, “and you are certainly the only man in this city familiar enough with the Russell lines who won't run to George the second I have trouble with it.” She paused. “And I thought perhaps… well. Perhaps you might find some satisfaction in helping me succeed where he has failed.”

Clay let out a sigh. “Mrs Russell, you're not on about the transcontinental line as well-”

“I am,” said Bertha, “but I believe I might have found a better way to go about it. I can assure you that Mr Merrick thinks a little more of me than he does of George-”

“I’m sure,” said Clay, his tone indicating exactly what parts of her he thought Merrick might be appreciating.

I'll tag @cassi0pei4 and @skatingsplits (if you guys want to!!)

[mariusperkins]

First of all I would like to apologise for manifesting the s3 ending by constantly comparing Bertha and George to Scarlett and Rhett (I didn't mean it like that! But then I suppose the inevitable tragic end is as much a part of Scarlett and Rhett as anything else). I've only read the book and seen the movie a handful of times each (honestly, it's a pretty faithful adaptation for all that it leaves things out (Scarlett's son from her first marriage, Scarlett's mother's backstory that I am obviously obsessed with*, the fact that Scarlett is thinking about her mother every 10-20 pages, the brief sketch with get of her first wedding night, the long periods of her life where there isn't anything to do and she's going a little crazy because of it).

My claim, only about half jokingly, has always been that Bertha is Scarlett if she'd met her Rhett Butler before she had a chance to imprint onto Ashley, though obviously that's something of an oversimplification (Bertha, I think, is introspective and more aware of her flaws, while for Scarlett self-examination is akin of putting her hand to a hot stove - she can do it, but only for a second). But the core of it is there, I think, a kind endless hunger suspended over a deep well of anxiety and fear.

There's a little shortlist of comparisons I think you could make - the irish heritage, the "murky" parentage, the spectre of their mothers hovering over them, the constant feeling of judgement (earned and not! Real and imagined!) from those around them. They're not exactly the same - I definitely agree with skatingsplits above that Bertha's personal life would never have been that chaotic - but I do think they share a lot of core elements.

Rhett and George obviously have some crossover (though Rhett, I think, is not under the illusion that being a good father wipes away all his bad deeds past and present) - the vast amount of money, for one thing, and the slightly murky business practices, for another (Rhett putting forth an enormous sum of money to dance with Scarlett at the auction and George buying out the charity bazaar is perhaps the easiest way to connect them). By the time we get to Rhett not giving a damn, however, he's older than George is, and certainly older than Scarlett which I think makes him feel a great deal older. They've lost their child, they've had a complete communication breakdown in their marriage, they've lost a friend who was dear to them both (even if Scarlett has only just realised that .5 seconds before Melanie passes away - I meant it about the lack of introspection) - he's exhausted. They do have that part of his speech in the movie, but it's a little longer in the novel - he's exhausted every feeling for her that he ever had and he can't do it any more. He's run out of love for her. Which isn't exactly where we end up with George at the end of the season, though I think George is sort of at the first stage of that feeling.

Also, and there's not a one-to-one for everyone, but it's very easy to cast Marian as Melanie (though obviously Bertha feels much less antagonistic towards Marian lol). Marian is maybe not the angelic centre of their society like Melanie is, but she is, I think, presented to us as someone who is Pure Of Heart like Melanie, and, like Melanie, this does not stop her from thinking of Bertha as admirable and even aspirational for all the very things their society disproves of. The finale actually gave me a good mental comparison for this - Marian helping to save George, and Melanie dragging herself out of bed with the sabre - both moments where Bertha and Scarlett re-evaluate their previous opinions.

*it's like the saddest short story in the world of Scarlett's mother being in love with someone her family doesn't approve of, and he gets hurt and she goes to his deathbed and it's like, she walks in as one person and walks out entirely another, and says yes to basically the next guy that asks her (ironically, sort of what Scarlett does with her first husband), and lives her whole like as the Perfect Gentle And Refined Southern Lady, then when Scarlett's mother is on her deathbed she calls out for her first love... She never spoke about him, she tried to squash and smother that part of her that loved him but at the very end she loved him still. It's like, a page, a page and a half maybe? But god it just like, obliterates me every time.

On Twitter I’ve seen the claim that Bertha is similar to Scarlett from Gone with the Wind or that George pulled a Rhett Butler on Bertha, “Frankly, my dead, I don’t give a damn” in the finale. I was wondering what you thought of the comparison.

This is a specialist subject for @mariusperkins but I will give my two cents! (I am talking about movie!Scarlett because I've seen the film 765367x and read the novel once)

I think Bertha is Scarlett-esque. Obviously they're both extremely driven and extremely capable. They're both cockroaches (positive); they will survive under any circumstances, they will adapt to any situation. I think Scarlett is more entitled than Bertha- she does strive and work herself to the bone when she has to, but I think she feels that she shouldn't have to. Whereas I don't think Bertha particularly feels entitled to anything- she thinks she should have things, because she knows she can do the work to get them. Scarlett growing up rich and Bertha (presumably) growing up poor might have something to do with that. I'd say Bertha is more level-headed and in a George-less world, I do not think she'd ever get into the mess that is Scarlett's love life- I think she'd find the man most likely to be able to take care of her, throw her lot in with him, and do her best to be a good wife. Even if we cast George as her Ashley (in a world where she's as in love with him as she is in canon but can't have him), I don't think she'd let it rule her like it rules Scarlett.

I can see the finale as George's "I don't give a damn" moment, although I actually think he comes across as giving less of a damn than Rhett does, honestly (because I think that Rhett really does and always assume that they're gonna find their way back to each other again). He's colder, I think. But I think he's more practical too and if Bertha had actually hit him with "Where shall I go? What shall I do?", he would have been like... "back to 61st Street to work on the next season at the Met? Obviously?"

So I think the similarities are there but, apart from the obvious genre difference, I think George and Bertha are more pragmatic and less... not less egotistic, because they both are egotistic and selfish, but maybe a BIT less self-involved and so able to be generally a little more reasonable as human beings.

[mariusperkins]

[mariusperkins]

hello! I really love your Gilded Age fics and I can’t wait to see what you have in store for us next ☺️ I’m curious though, would you ever write/want to write a post season 3 fic where George and Bertha divorce and Bertha falls for someone else *without* a George/Bertha endgame? As much as I love the ship would definitely read this if you wrote it, I think you have great OCs :) no worries if it’s not your thing, it’s just a thought I had while pondering canon divergence ideas post-S3 😊

Thank you so much! I don't know if I would - in terms of canon options presented, Merrick didn't do a lot for me, sadly, and though I quite liked Delancy in the one scene we got of him ("you're more interesting than a duke" is SO exactly what men should be saying to Bertha at all times) he's married so I don't think Bertha would ever go there (not for moral reasons - I think she would mentally run the cost/benefit of the fallout and decide it wasn't worth it).

I won't say I would never write it! But it's not in my big wip pile at the moment. I guess we'll see how well George does making it up to Bertha, and us all, in s4!

Honestly, I think the only way I would want to do this is if I had her end up with Marian.

[mariusperkins]

We need more fics where George comes back grovelling and Bertha makes him work for it and doesn’t take him back for weeks or months though l know she loves him madly and the in-character reaction would be to forgive him right away, I just need prolonged grovelling 😂

We absolutely do but look, I only have two hands!! I promise I am writing some more as we speak!!

[mariusperkins]

Bertha and George Russell

in Season 3 of The Gilded Age

[mariusperkins]

[mariusperkins]

BERTHA RUSSELL in THE GILDED AGE Season 3, Episode 8: My Mind Is Made Up requested by @dollsome-does-tumblr

[mariusperkins]

I’m not even excited about George and Bertha’s getting back together arc (if they have one). Nothing in this season told me that George loved Bertha still. It was a clear, drastic change from the past seasons. I think Bertha will forgive George but I don’t know if I can :( fighting is ok!! It’s normal to fight!! But he seemed totally indifferent to her. I hate that they did this to them :(

She will definitely forgive him, I feel like if he'd walked back into that room right after and said "nah, changed my mind", she would have just gone "Oh, thank God". And as you say, they haven't even really been fighting. He's just been yelling at her and she's been taking it.

I am struggling to think of a way reconciliation can play out that will feel satisfying to me, because it's definitely going to involve her crawling for his love and I do not watch television to see women beg men to love them. You're right that he just seems indifferent- leaving is one thing, but acting like he is emotionally unaffected by their marriage breaking down is crazy. Like, if you're gonna tell me he's realised he doesn't love her anymore, shouldn't he feel sad about that? Or at least understand that she's going to be sad about it? I mean, I think it's fairly realistic to life that some men hit middle age and decide they hate their wives, but I don't think it's satisfying to just see it BAM on-screen. And if he doesn't hate her but just hates the person he thinks she's made him be, I also feel he should be sadder about that! But acting like you're taking the bins out when you're leaving your wife of 20+ years did not feel great as a viewer (to me!)