#but nate is not 'coming back'

[sleazyjanet]

"i hope nate returns to his old self" what old self? do you want him to be the sweet but unassuming, shy guy, is that what you want? because there's no old self for nate to go back to. he's growing as a person into a better version of himself that's neither past nor present and yet both altogether. traces of the old self mixing with the new and creating something better, someone confident and smart and sweet. someone who will be ready to make amends, likely, while hopefully also staying independent.

so he won't be "coming back", returning to anything. that would suck.

[yaolmao]

It takes two to solve the puzzle ig

[italictext]

Have a quick doodle I made for Near's birthday!

[nearlycassidy]

there’s no escaping the wammy boys, light-o!

[hacash]

Underrated little moment, but I love that when Rebecca, Ted and Trent - three people who have reason to think poorly of Nate - discuss the rumours of inappropriate workplace behaviour over at West Ham, all of them instantaneously say Nate would never have anything to do with it.

[valfeathers]

gtfo hes playing minecraft

[rebeccasbiscuits]

I’m thinking so many thoughts after that episode, which was wonderful and hilarious, but something I’m very much thinking about is where someone on twitter pointed out the contrast between Rupert going to the club every single day for six weeks to wear Rebecca down vs Ted coming to her office every day for biscuits and genuinely wanting to get to know her. I’m especially thinking about how this adds some more context to Rebecca’s point of view on that as well. We see her disparagingly calling him ‘relentless, and nice’, and her desire for her love of the biscuits to not make her dependent on him providing her with something.

The moment I’m thinking about most is the one at the end of episode 5, where Ted storms in after finding out she sent Jamie away. The biscuit reveal at the end has always felt crucial in this way, but even more so in this context. Her experience has been with the relentless interest and charm until the other person pulled back the layer of charm and showed that this charming nature wasn’t genuine, and in a way I think here, as Ted yells at her, it lets her feel a bit vindicated, or at least secure, in her belief, or lack of belief, in the nature of other people. But then Ted continues the biscuits, and the extension of kindness they represent, no matter how angry he is, and not only that but reveals he has been (without having told her) baking the biscuits himself. His only deceit was hiding an extra kindness he didn't even seek self serving credit for, despite knowing how much she liked the biscuits. Obviously this works so interestingly as another anti-Rupert parallel in a Ted/Rebecca sense, but I love it even just generally in the context of how it’s visible that this is what shakes Rebecca in that scene, because it shakes the view she has of how people treat people after her abusive marriage and isolation, which is allowing her to go on with the plan that will hurt so many of them. It disarms her because even when she has done something bad, and Ted is expressing legitimate annoyance about it, he will not stop extending this relentless kindness and generosity to her, even when he has not got what he wanted, the way she experienced Rupert doing once he had got what he wanted. Ted’s not only relentless, not only nice, he’s also sincere.

[heart-freak]

what the heeel

[scribefindegil]

Thinking about the Presger as foils to the Radch. How in some ways the Presgar are to the Radch what the Radch are to the rest of the non-imperial galaxy: these bogeymen that could appear at any time without warning and destroy you and everything you love. How anyone who enters the Presger side of the station in considered to be legally dead--that they'll be taken apart and reconstructed--and how this parallels both the creation of ancillaries and the assimilation of empire. How the Presger train their Translators to act and speak like Radchaai. How Anaander tries to use the Presger as a scapegoat for her own dissolution (and how she's wrong, because the thing that makes the Presger terrifying is that they're completely incomprehensible. They don't destroy things for territory or resources; they're violence without motivation.) They're distorted mirrors of each other, so of course it makes sense that there are factions who believe they're actually all the same.

[threshasketch]

I bet Near knows how to do all sorts of tricks with a yoyo.

[yaolmao]

you’re my everything

[dancingbycandlelight]

so, apparently the finale is called “so long, farewell” which has so many layers and connections i can’t deal with it. firstly it’s another musical lyric as a title (this time unedited from its original text unlike the la cage episode) and we already know that ted loves a musical.

secondly it brings back the julie andrews conversation in episode three which was possibly one of my favourite interactions of the entire season.

but thirdly and (possibly most importantly??) the entire plot of the sound of music is that maria is sent somewhere she originally doesn’t want to go, she gets there and feels instantly out of her depth. the team children try to force her out and the adults don’t take her seriously but gradually, through her unwavering positivity and gentle care she makes an impact on every single person. kids and adults alike, all changed for the better because of her guidance. but then!! maria falls in love, thinks she is no longer needed and she Leaves. she runs, goes back to the convent where she feels safe but then, after a honest conversation and a realisation of her own purpose and the importance of being true to her heart she Returns! she comes back, her role slightly changed but still just as important and involved.

all this time I’ve been worried that ted will be like mary poppins and leave when he is no longer needed, when he’s served a purpose. but this episode title has me feeling (hoping) that maybe he’s like a different julie andrews character after all..

[taiturner]

Is this some kind of "keep your enemies close" strategy?

THEA MAYS APPRECIATION WEEK day 4, favorite dynamic: THEA MAYS & SIMONE HICKS

[bombshellsandbluebells]

love the way so many of Nate’s critiques and roasts of the team in 1x07 call out arcs those characters go through

he calls out Sam for being indecisive and then so much of Sam’s story in s2 is about deciding to make a choice, first to stand up to DubaiAir, then to stay at Richmond

he tells Isaac he’s too concerned with looking tough and that there’s a way to be intimidating without being physical and Isaac goes from being a bully who physically harasses Nate to a captain with full control of the team without yelling or pushing people around (thinking of how Roy as a captain yelled to get people to listen, but how Isaac just has to look at them and say nothing), but also later almost ruins his entire career by physically going after a fan when angry. and ALSO someone who struggles to tell his best friend he loves him, probably because he doesn’t want to seem soft, but also makes the effort to make sure he knows it anyways

and then lastly, the one that most obviously relates to more than just football - he tells Roy that while his anger made him a star athlete, if he keeps it all to himself it’s going to ruin him, and we see Roy constantly struggle to handle his anger, even all the way through s3, only finally making an effort to do something about it in the finale

“you see things no one else does” indeed

[hacash]

Regarding the Nate of it all… His initially returning as assistant kitman kinda made sense to me: not only do I think Nate’s continuing to hold himself back (much as he did at Taste of Athens) as some form of repentance, but also Lloyd’s comment of ‘be successful, don’t be successful, just be happy’ struck me. All through the episode we saw Nate being happy, just delighted to be in the mix with the Greyhounds again, making craft boxes and prioritising having fun and rebuilding those relationships over achieving success in his career. Which is an important thing for his character to do for himself.

And as we saw at Taste of Athens, Nate doesn’t need to be in a high paying job to kill it; he’s a genius whether he’s devising tactics or folding laundry and plying customers with nuts. (It wasn’t that he ever seemed to be unhappy being a kitman in season 1, but being a bullied, ignored, overlooked kitman, certainly. And we know that isn’t going to happen again.)

However, crucially, he does seem to become a member of the coaching staff again in the flash-forward/dream montage after Roy becomes the new manager of Richmond. With Ted gone there’s another space on the coaching team, and given that Nate’s Oscar Decoy won them the whole dang match, I think it’s pretty clear who would take it. (Also from a prosaic admin perspective: Richmond are currently working on a 3-coach system. It would make a lot more sense to hire Nate as kitman for a week or two, then slot Roy into Ted’s place and Nate into Roy’s place: rather than sort out a new hierarchy and more expensive salary for those couple of weeks.)

Roy’s always made it clear that Nate knows how to do the bits of the job that he doesn’t, and I think Roy would have leapt at the chance to get Nate back in as a coach. He was being set up to return as a coach in 3x11 and it looks like that’s what he did, he just took care of some unfinished business first.

[lunar-years]

Roy and Ted having such obvious favorites amongst the players is kind of funny but who do we think are Beard and Nate’s favorites