#The DYNAMICS OF IT ALL

[pynkhues]

This may be way off base but do you think there’s something to Kendall being the one handling Logan’s medication in S2 (and as such, looped into his health and medical care) and Roman and Shiv not being aware that Logan had a UTI in S3? I’m doing a rewatch and hadn’t connected these points before when the show was airing but I can’t help but link them now. Like, I can’t help but wonder if this gets at what Logan does or doesn’t share, or is comfortable sharing, with each child but I could also just be seeing things. Any thoughts?

I don't think you're way off base at all, anon, I think Logan's really specific about the vulnerabilities that he shares with his children, and his health is absolutely one of them.

This is a slight tangent, because I don't think the intent behind them is the same, but I do always find it interesting that Connor seems to be the only one Logan actually talked to about his death. He spends so much time avoiding that topic with the Golden Trio, but Connor's the only one who knew about the family plot / tomb and the backstory to it, he's the one to handle all the funeral arrangements, he's the one who - by speaking to their father about cryogenics - was talking about the realities and un-realities of death.

That's not something Logan ever does with Kendall, Roman or Shiv, and it's interesting to think about Logan syphoning off his feelings of vulnerability to disperse among his children. I do think a part of its genuine - I think Logan's terrified of feeling ganged up on by them, and I think he really does value that feeling of individual intimacy that comes with sharing in those moments - but I also think he knows it deepens divides and insecurities between them and keeps all of them isolated in their knowledge and lack there of.

Things can, and often do, mean more than one thing after all, and I think the show always relished in that.

But yes, more to the point of your question, I think Kendall managing Logan's health in s2 meant a lot of things, but I also think it most pointedly echoes Logan's words in the s1 finale.

I think there's a lot to be said about the way health brokers this degree of intimacy regardless, but nursing and doctoring are highly gendered, and Logan's emasculation of Kendall is a real throughline of the series. Care-based roles like nursing are inherently pink-collar, they're feminine, and in saying that in this scene, Logan's deliberately emasculating Kendall, but also the very idea of 'doing good'.

Kendall taking over Logan's meds in s2 I do think is meant to indicate a degree of thematic castration, but I also think it's designed to show Kendall's attempts to atone for Doddy's death. He's being a fucking nurse, he's doing good things. Even if they are just for his dad.

I think that there's also an argument to be made that Kendall perhaps also is seen by both Logan and the siblings to 'get' the health stuff better. I think a lot of that probably comes from him being the eldest of the golden trio, but also from being in rehab and his own struggles, and from Iverson (it's been interesting reading the scripts because I think they do indicate that a] Kendall does think about Sophie and Iverson more than what makes it to screen [even though this still isn't as much as he should and he is still without doubt a terrible father, haha] and b] he's a little more across Iverson's needs than we see / it's more explicit I think in the scripts that Iverson is intended to be on the autism spectrum). He's more experienced, if nothing else, y'know? And I think in the Roy network, that counts when no one else wants to deal with something.

As for this and the UTI incident being linked - - yeah, I think they are. I think there's a space that Kendall and Logan occupy together that's just theirs, and that we as an audience are supposed to extrapolate that Kendall could've (and would've) managed that situation better or, more realistically, never would've let it get to that point in the first place.

How much that's actually true, who knows, but I do think there's a deeper read of their relationship which is its own beast really. I actually have another ask in my inbox about Kendall and Logan's particular dynamic which I've been percolating on, so I hope you don't mind me leaving this here! I'll answer the other (and link back to this ;-) ) in the morning.

[svperbitch]

Doing a reread (listen) of the Sherlock Holmes canon and was forcibly reminded by the Adventure of the Cardboard Box (which could have probably been called the Adventure of the Two Severed Human Ears, but I concur) that, yes, Watson is competant and brave and useful, but also, and maybe even more importantly, Holmes just thinks he's neat and wants him around even if it's just to dunk on Scotland Yard and then be like "so long suckers, come on Watson let's go to the motherfucking opera" 🎻🎻🎻

[trekkerac]

I'm having fun part 3

[sangled]

shipping win! they have different but equally terrible coping mechanisms

[clumxy]

matching colours

[eydilily]

would you bite the hand that feeds you?

[zorangezest]

haha heyyyy [THROWS SOUNDWAVE AND BEE AT YOU] [THROWS SOUNDWAVE AND BEE AT YOU] [THROWS SOUNDWAVE AND BEE AT YOU]

cat dad, puppy son!!

[pineapple-frenzy]

Book 2 au with Zuko and Katara Lee and Huamei

Katara is separated from her friends, and so she's left to travel the earth kingdom on her own. She stumbles across Zuko, who is similarly travelling on his own. They decide that pairing up and travelling together would be best

[magicicephoenix]

i finally finished reading I see you, Sundrop! by @shirajellyfish and IT'S SO GOOD I CAN'T BELIEVE IT TOOK ME THIS LONG TO FINISH IT RAAAAAAA

i will be gushing about it in the tags but here's a lil animation i made based on the below paragraph in chapter 6 that gave me such a strong mental image that i had to make it real :)

[lotus-pear]

charm stat at debonair ‼️‼️

[ruporas]

realizing it’s mutual (ID in alt)

[puckpatties]

i love you forever and ever girldad chilchuck

[mabbbish]

s9 noodles and leftovers

[demaparbat-hp]

She will (and he'll let her)

[seagiri]

can i be sad here for a moment

[o-wild-west-wind]

While I’m still a bit bummed that they didn’t go with a more book-aligned POC Fiyero for the Wicked movie, I’ve been thinking (heheh) about how his being white highlights the really interesting foil relationship between him and Glinda (and, in many ways, the audience yourself).

At its core, Wicked is a cautionary tale about propaganda, (literal) scapegoating, and what it means to uphold the status quo. The audience is watching through Glinda’s eyes—it is through her, arguably the most beautifully tragic character of the show, that we learn how lonely life becomes when you forfeit your values in favor of systemic power and likability (“No One Mourns the Wicked” is, in many ways, about HER).

Now, this is where Fiyero’s whiteness can get interesting—if you consider him and Glinda to share roughly equal footing at the beginning in terms of privilege/how much they have to lose (applying our real-world lens of race and power here, where whiteness is the apex), his storyline essentially represents what could have happened if Glinda had made the brave (and arguably wise and loving, if you’re picking up what I’m putting down 👀) choice to go with Elphaba and fight the good fight (this is also why I feel like a queer reading of G&E’s relationship is almost implicit to the story, but I digress).

As the POC/marginalized allegory, Elphaba has much less of a real choice in her curtain-pulled-back turning point. But Fiyero and Glinda—both representing privilege—get to choose. So in Act II, we see the consequences of both the choice to stay (Glinda) and to go (Fiyero). In Fiyero’s case, his ultimate rejection of his own power, privilege, and even beauty leads to immense physical loss—including his own body—but that is then compared to the loss of love, community, and identity that we see Glinda left with by the end. And this brings us to the question that the audience is left grappling with: in an unjust system where loss is inevitable (a.k.a. our own world, as the Wizard himself represents), which of these things are YOU more willing to give up?

It’s important that Glinda is an empathetic character because, in reality, most people are going to be Glindas (obvi this is nuanced among us Elphabas of marginalized identities, but I’d still argue that there’s some level of Glinda in us all)—and it’s important to be rattled by the end of the show when you realize that she is the one who has the sad ending. But it’s also so important that Fiyero is empathetic (which I’m SO glad this movie leaned into)—because he’s ultimately who Glinda—and thus we, as the audience—should have been.

And especially given the state of US politics right now…this is just all more relevant than ever.