#bro i didn't think they could even make ontologically evil david tennant

[noirshitsuji]

i watched rivals this week and among the many things I liked about it is how much of a genuinely good sympathy bait-and-switch it does with david tennant's character. like, the show starts and tony baddingham seems almost like an underdog in this rivalry with this born tory aristocrat. tony is someone who, yeah, married into wealth with a purpose, but also actively worked for the level of status he enjoys, and is down in the dumps now and trying to stay afloat.

and then the new year's confrontation with cameron happens. that was the tipping point for me, but even outside of it, slowly but surely we were shown just how much he says things he only means until his interests or his ego are on the line, because tony is a man made entirely out of class envy in a way few people are, and that's the core of every single evil - and I do mean evil - thing he does. from daysee to his award speech, every single thing he does starts to reek of it, and you realise that rupert was right in his insult way back in episode 1.

special shoutout as well to the final 2-3 episodes. they are brilliant in keeping tony's real intentions and feelings about cameron obscure and questionable, and then you see his face when he watches back the tape from the garden party, her and rupert and chemistry, and you think 'oh, maybe there is something here'. and then he's shouting at her and it's not about her breaking his heart, it's about rupert taking her as if she's another trophy, another rug he's managed to pull out from under tony's feet, and you understand that there's no saving him, because his rivalry isn't even with rupert - it's with the concept of rupert.

his relationship with monica is also fascinating to me and i hope we get more of that next season. they're both just in-and-of-themselves such a good class study, though of course the entire show does that, but both of these are their separate posts.