#His own leadership style and the way it's been influenced both by Franklin and Crozier

[saints-who-never-existed]

Franklin is self-aggrandising. Crozier is self-defeating. But the thing that unites them both and their leadership styles is that both, at their core, are deeply self-centred.

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With Franklin, we see it most in the performative, hollow, self-serving nature of his leadership. There’s always a sense, I think, that he takes the actions he does not because they’re necessarily the right ones but because they’re the ones he feels will reflect best upon him, will make him appear the benevolent and magnanimous leader of men he so dearly wishes to be.

Note that he does indeed encourage his second in command to speak on a potential danger to the expedition, for example, but note also that that’s not the same thing as actually listening to what he has to say.

Think about him shutting the door before he yells at and dresses Crozier down too. Is he really doing that for Crozier’s benefit, for the sake of privacy and dignity, do you think, or is he doing it to preserve his own reputation, to maintain the façade of benevolence at all costs?

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With Crozier, I think we see it most in his obsession with respect and his own dues. This isn’t to say that any of that is unfounded or that it happens in a vacuum – it makes complete sense for him to be that way given the disrespect and discrimination he’s endured over the years. But what interests me most is how it persists throughout the story, even after he supposedly ‘gets better’.

Fitzjames says in Episode Five:

“Your luck has changed, Francis, no one has you in harness any longer. You are commanding this expedition entire so, damn your eyes, what else do you require? Respect? Well, earn it!”

And he’s right! Crozier has the command he so dearly desired, he has control, he has the most power he’s ever had or likely ever will have within the confines of the story and the society in which he lives. But he’s so consumed by his self-centredness, his inferiority complex, and his self-defeatist attitude that he can’t see past it.

He’s stuck in that underdog mindset where he always knows best but he’s so hard done by, and no one listens to him to why bother even attempting to communicate properly anymore? It’s a mindset that continues to an extent throughout the rest of the story and is one of the biggest factors in fomenting uncertainty, low morale, and ultimately mutiny among the men. He remains consistently oppositional a lot of the time, consistently godawful at communicating, and consistently unwilling to take responsibility when all of that backfires.

See, for example, Crozier berating Little for decisions made within a high-stress, confusing situation created, in large part, by Crozier’s own unilateral decision-making and lack of communication. See him jump right to threatening Tozer and Morfin with a court-martial after they find Fairholme’s party instead of taking the time to explain his reasoning behind keeping it temporarily a secret.

Franklin may invite another man to speak without truly listening to what he has to say but Crozier refuses point-blank to extend an invite in the first place.

“I’m not the sailor you are, Francis, never will be. But you will never be fit for command”

So, it’s possibly the lukewarmest of takes to say that neither Crozier nor Franklin are the best of captains. The interesting thing is how their strengths and weaknesses complement each other and the two of them could have been a good team if they had both been able to put their differences aside and work together: Crozier is a shrewd and experienced sailor but cannot connect with the men around him, while Franklin is overconfident in his own abilities but beloved and respected by the entire crew (save Crozier).

I’ve seen a lot of gifsets and meta highlighting Franklin’s failings in comparison to Crozier’s strengths, but not so much giving the other side and showing all the ways in which the series contrasts Crozier’s mishandling of interpersonal situations with Franklin’s social grace. Crozier knows the arctic better than Franklin, but it is Franklin who understands that keeping the men’s spirits up and making them feel like a valued member of a team all working together is a vital part of a captain’s duties. It is clear to the audience that Crozier does care for his men (possibly even more so than Franklin does - Franklin’s decision to move a dying David Young to Erebus was not motivated by what was best for the patient) but this doesn’t stop him from treating them badly and fostering a resentment that eventually leads to mutiny.

“I’m not the sailor you are, Francis, never will be. But you will never be fit for command”. Franklin’s entire speech in episode three is fascinating and astonishingly cruel (far crueler than it would have been had Crozier not interrupted him while he was writing Gore’s eulogy, I think) and hits Crozier so hard because he knows Franklin is right, but this has already gotten far too long so I just want to pick out those two sentences because it encapsulates their conflict so well. Franklin knows he isn’t a strong sailor but he can inspire the men and believes that is what is most important in a commander; while Crozier keeps himself at a distance from his men but believes his sailing experience and acumen is what makes a captain. Not only do they both lack the strengths the other possesses, they don’t value those strengths and so cannot connect from a place of respect and learn from each other, which leaves their relationship as one of the many tragedies of the series.