#Jesse Armstrong is literally just so me coded

[spoopy-moose]

Greg is literally a looney tunes character dropped in the middle of a high stakes HBO drama about serious business and politics

[akajustmerry]

Hi Merry! I'm curious whether you think Mencken actually won the election in Succession? Shiv mentions a court is investigating the count, but it feels ambiguous.

Hellooo. Thank you SO MUCH for asking me this I've wanted an excuse to rant about it for WEEKS. so, this is just my interpretation of the ambiguity because it is left ambiguous to a point. Yes I think Mencken actually won the election. Or maybe it's more accurate to say, I think he became president.

Not gonna go into detail about the legal scenario the show establishes in America Decides because I absolutely am not an expert, but I reccomend listening the official Succ podcast where they spoke to the political consultants for the episode because they're literally the experts. But basically they explain that in the event of lost and/or destroyed votes so great that a majority can't be called for a key state, electoral lawyers have to be brought in to argue in federal court which party would have won in those states.

Point is, the state itself should not and cannot be called until that court process is complete. Obviously, ATN calls it anyway which is ethically and legally YUCK because the state is not actually decided until the electoral lawyers do their thing and determine the result based on prior voting patterns, polling, etc. Shiv and Connor mention that this process has started in the finale.

I say all that to say that for Mencken to actually lose in the scenario they established, you'd have to have an actually fair and just legal system that wasn't being influenced by wealthy billionaires. Over and over in Succession, we see how the Roys treat federal legal and regulatory frameworks like playgrounds. There's never any real legal or regulatory consequences for these people because their wealth and influence buys them the favour of those systems so that even when they lose they win. Over and over again.

At the end of season 4, Matsson buys Waystar because he wants ATN. Mencken is included in that purchase. In Church and State, they're pretty disgustingly chummy, making quick work of dismissing Kendall's power plays, ripping into Roman for [checks notes] being sad at a funeral, before launching right into the technofascist talk. I don't reckon Matsson would let a president who agrees with his ideologies so enthusiastically lose the election. Matsson loved having roman and shiv in his pockets, you think he'll let a few thousand destroyed votes get in the way of him having a pet president? Dude may not know shit about coding, but he knows how to play these people.

More than that though, I just believe Succession is a show about how institutions of power are more loyal to one another than the public they claim to serve. And how the human relationships among the people in these powerful institutions shape public life more than anything else. When Jesse Armstrong penned those last few episodes, I don't think they were about how fascism can be thwarted with the legal system. I think they were some incredible speculative satire on the powerlessness of legal and regulatory bodies in the face of wealthy powerful individuals wielding forces they can't control to achieve personal gain.

I don't think it's truly ambiguous because no legal or regulatory process has actually prevented these people from getting what they wanted on a mass scale. It didn't stop them from getting around the cruises scandal or the sale or kendall murdering someone so why would a president be different? Matsson wants Mencken to be president so I'm pretty sure he would be. Roman and Kendall already made sure he'd get to the finish line and the system will do the rest.

So yes I do think Mencken won. Not legally, or democratically. But he won. Personally, I don't think there's another outcome that would fit the established reality. This is, of course, just my interpretation!! Highly recommend listening to the official Succ pod episode for America Decides because it really helps you understand how Mencken's election is possible and you can decide for yourself. Maybe your interpretation will be more optimistic than mine. x

[tomwambsmilk]

i am obsessed with your tomgreg betrayal posts how do we get you in the succession writer's room

Oh my gosh, that’s so sweet 😭😭 Not to get sappy or overly earnest on the Irony Hellsite but I’ve only just recently been getting back into creative and pseudo-creative writing after a period of fairly intense burnout, and I’ve been really rediscovering my love of it so it actually makes me so happy to see other people enjoying what I write (and/or feeling emotional devastation, lol.)

Also I am just OBSESSED with Succession specifically because I was a lit major in college and so I am perpetually unable to just,,, enjoy a piece of media without starting to analyze it on a thematic/story structure level. And so many of the stories Jesse Armstrong cites as inspiration are books I studied - I took classes in Shakespeare and Dostoevsky - so it just boggles my little lit nerd brain to see these really classic story structures play out in Succession; but in a way that feels fresh. So there is a part of me that feels very “GANG I THINK I CRACKED THE CODE ON THIS ONE”. Like I’ve thrown out a lot of season 4 predictions but this is the first one where I’m fairly certain it actually is going to play out something like this, just because it fits with the narrative structures we’ve seen so far, while still feeling relatively unexpected.

Anyways Jesse Armstrong if you happen to be lurking on Tumblr. I am more than willing to quit my job and move to wherever and work for you full-time. Jesse do you hear me. Jesse I would literally kill a man to get in that writers room. Jesse is there anyone you need me to kill for you????