#dotty frazil

[iloveyoudie]

Mr. & Mrs. Strange

[pinkiethedalek]

Photo: kissthemgoodbye.net/Text: TFLN

[ragingstillness]

SPOILERS for Endeavor Season 8

So Endeavor season 8 is finally airing in the US. I just watched the second episode and I can’t help thinking about something else. Don’t get me wrong, I like the show, it’s something I’ll watch of my own volition that I find genuinely interesting. But today’s episode reminded me of my favorite show of all time and I couldn’t help but compare them and find Endeavor falling way short. 

TW: mention of death, mention of murder, mention of abortion, mention of sexual assault, mention of domestic violence, mention of sex work, mention of crime, mention of PTSD, mention of homophobia, slight mention of racism, mention of suicide, mention of workplace accident

/start rant

To preface, my favorite show of all time is Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. It’s a tv show based on a series of books. It’s set in Australia, more specifically Melbourne, in 1929, and features a female detective and a wide cast of other characters. 

To begin let’s look at the women in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries which from now on I’ll be referring to as MFMM. 

Main recurring characters: 

-Phryne Fisher

-Dottie Collins

-Jane Fisher

-Aunt Prudence

-Doctor Mac

Now let’s look at the women in Endeavor, all 8 seasons btw, in comparison to MFMM’s three.

Main recurring characters:

-Dorothea Frazil

-Win Thursday

-Shirley Trewlove 

-Joan Thursday

And honestly this is me being generous classing them as main recurring characters. Joan and Dorothea appear most often, with Win in the background as one of the main character’s wives, and Shirley Trewlove was only in the show for a season. 

In contrast Phryne, Dottie, Aunt Prudence, and Doctor Mac appear in all three seasons many times and Jane appears at least once if not more often in each. 

I’ll come back to this with characterization later now let’s move on to another thing I find Endeavor falling short in, especially in this season 8 episode. 

In this episode we encounter a man who it eventually turns out has had a gay relationship in his past that his current wife doesn’t know about. He’s trying to connect with his past lover, while both of them are married to women, but his past lover doesn’t want to be together again. This leads the man to kill himself and be one of the few red-herring deaths in the show. I’m sorry but bury your gays much? Is it because it’s airing during pride month? Is that it? Are you trying to bait and switch queer people PBS? (Sorry I’m just kind of mad)

And now let’s compare to an episode where something sort of similar happens in MFMM. A woman working in a factory dies a gruesome death after falling into one of the machines. Soon after, her boss dies and foul play is suspected. It turns out that the woman was indeed killed in an accident and that aside from working illegal overtime, there was no foul play involved in her death. Nevertheless, it is also revealed that she was in a relationship with Dr. Mac and that yet another woman at the factory had a crush on her. Once again, it’s a red-herring death, as she was not killed by anyone, simply an accident. The queer love is connected to the episode as the other woman with a crush killed the boss to frame Dr. Mac, but ultimately the death of the woman was not part of the whole scheme. 

The relationships are treated very respectfully and Phryne helps Dr. Mac mourn her lover’s death in a very touching scene. In contrast to the Endeavor episode, in which we do see a set of pictures of the two men kissing, we never see anything at all between the two women in Miss Fisher, yet the relationship is so much deeper and explored with much more respect. And while it is a red-herring death it’s still important to the overall case. 

Now I have mentioned that MFMM is set in 1929. Endeavor is set in 1950. 21 years later. And yet Endeavor is less respectful about their queer characters. And on that note I return to the discussion of female characters. 

Dorothea Frazil in Endeavor is a journalist. She is well known in the area and well-liked and often is a source of information for the main characters in exchange for favors or exclusives and often in exchange for nothing at all. She’s an independent woman with a great sense of humor and a lot of self-respect. Unfortunately, she is one of the few female characters in Endeavor I can say that about. 

Win Thursday is married to one of Endeavor’s two main characters and acts as a pseudo mother figure to the main main character. She is often seen cooking, or cleaning, or caring for her husband, son, daughter, and pseudo adopted son, the main main character Endeavor Morse, who just goes by Morse. There is nothing wrong with any of that, and she’s shown to be an intelligent, caring person, who stands up for herself when she needs to. However, she never really gets out of that role. She is a mother and a homemaker and a wife and that’s kind of it. She has no other storylines and in fact other than being window dressing or character development for the main characters, she’s really not involved in any of the show’s storylines. 

Shirley Trewlove is the first female constable in the police station from Endeavor. She faces a lot of flack for that and is condescended to by most of the men, including the head of the station, who views her as similar to his late daughter. She is shown to be very competent, able to stand up for herself, composed, kind, and intelligent. However, she is only in the show for one season then transfers out to a different station, ultimately not leaving a larger impact on the show or the main characters. 

Don’t get me started on Joan Thursday. She’s a character that I expect the show wants us to like but I simply don’t. I find her irresponsible, selfish, wishy-washy, and grating. She is the main love interest for Morse and their will-they won’t-they is one of the most infuriating things about the show. Admittedly at the beginning of the series she is very young, so a lot of her issues can be attributed to that, but she just continues to make poor decisions when she should know better and becomes more of an irritant to any progress than any help. She’s put on this pedestal by Morse and her parents and when she runs away from home due to feeling pressured by her parents, her father goes through a period of completely disowning and shaming her. 

Shall I add that we learn next to nothing about the pasts of any of these characters. 

In contrast:

Phryne Fisher is one of the most vibrant, intelligent, excellently written female characters I have ever seen. She’s witty, she’s comfortable in her body, she’s free-spirited, she’s very astute, she’s clever, she’s multi-talented, she’s self-possessed, she’s loyal, she’s passionate, she’s a feminist, she’s an ally, she’s supportive, she’s the whole package. We learn a ton about her past and the traumas that have shaped her into the person she is. She was an ambulance driver in WW1, leaving her with PTSD. She was in an abusive relationship with a man who beat her in her youth. She has lived all over the world and traveled to many places. She carries the weight of the death of her sister and her inability to truly get a confession out of the man she believes to be her sister’s killer. There’s so much depth to her. Yes she’s the main character but I’d argue we get nowhere near that much depth on Morse himself, despite having more seasons, longer episodes, and also being a main character. 

Dottie Collins is also a very complex character. She begins the show as a maid for a friend of Aunt Prudence, but quickly leaves that job to become Phryne’s housemate and housekeeper. She’s deeply Catholic, superstitious, unendingly sweet, but she’s also courageous, intelligent, and adaptable. Her religion is a point of contention for her and Phryne, who appears to be an atheist, but the two of them talk about it often and respect each others’ beliefs. Dottie has a sister who is a sex worker and it’s a point of major conflict between them but Dottie’s feelings about her sister are complex and if she treats her sister poorly she learns from her mistakes and apologizes and eventually they settle into a truce of sorts. Dottie gets into a relationship with a constable from a police station nearby and when he begins to veer towards patriarchal values she pushes back on it and successfully manages to make it clear to him that she is not his property and will not stand to be treated as such. She’s more than just Phryne’s sidekick, the two women make each other better people over the course of the show. 

Jane Fisher, and in this case I’m referring to Phryne’s sort-of adopted daughter not her late sister of the same name, is a young orphan living under the care of a verbally abusive woman. She ends up giving Phryne crucial information on a murder case and Phryne, even after professing to not enjoy dealing with children, takes Jane in. Jane is shown to be intelligent, getting a good education under Phryne and putting it to good use. She is also shown to be headstrong and resourceful. When Phryne begins teaching a self-defense class alongside comportment for down on their luck girls, it becomes clear that Jane is also vicious and ready to defend herself and very good at it. 

Aunt Prudence is a fascinating character. She’s an elderly Aunt of Phryne’s, very rich, very proper, and very snooty. However, over time she is also shown to care a great deal about her niece, no matter how judgemental she is about Phryne’s open sexuality. She is deeply committed to her charity work and truly cares about her friends. She also has a disabled son who tragically passes away in the show and whom she has cared for by herself for his whole life and deeply loves. She doesn’t approve of Phryne’s lifestyle but she doesn’t directly interfere to stop it. She treats Phryne as the independent adult she is. 

Doctor Mac is Phryne’s best friend and a very useful friend to have with regards to Phryne’s detective work. Mac has her medical license as a woman, which is unusual for the time, and she does take some flack for it. She’s a lesbian who has essentially a very close qpp relationship with a presumably straight woman (I have my doubts about Phryne’s sexuality but that’s likely wishful thinking). Mac and Phryne are each others’ confidants, having been made friends by both serving in WW1. Mac cares a ton about women’s rights, especially their rights to proper medical care, including safe abortions. She is disgusted by men who disrespect women, stands up for domestic violence survivors, and sympathizes with sexual assault victims. She also stands up for the rights of black women, but that isn’t quite as central to her character, more just a fun cool fact from one episode. Mac is caring and witty and sarcastic and kind and fun and very very smart. 

The difference between the two shows is stark to say the least. Not to mention that all other women who appear in Endeavor are usually victims, used as motivation for men committing crimes, cheaters, criminals themselves, unhelpful witnesses, or other underdeveloped roles. In contrast, the other women who appear in MFMM are nuanced, have complicated relationships with their own pasts, with the people around them. They range from sex workers to professional tennis players, to orphans on the street to the height of society, wives, girlfriends, single women, more defined by their professions and their passions than their relationships to the men around them. While some are the victims of violence they are not brushed aside as a single plot point, they’re treated respectfully and if not, the viewer is shown that the disrespectful treatment was wrong. They feel more like real people with more than three lines of character traits than any of the women in Endeavor. 

So, in conclusion, what really gets me is that Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries is not only set further in the past, the show itself was made earlier than Endeavor. The concept is roughly the same, a detective with unusual skills, somewhat different from everyone around them, working alongside a police detective to solve crimes, usually murders. And yet, not only does MFMM have a better gender balance in casting, its female characters are more complex, its queer characters more prevalent and treated with more respect, the cases more interesting (imo), the main characters deeper, and the show itself more colorful and intriguing. It grinds my gears to watch one show and know that the other is so much better at the same concept. Ultimately, everyone everywhere should watch Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries it is an absolute gem of a show and Endeavor, do better. 

/end rant

[bibelots]

Drunk Dorothea and Max giggling over the fact that Dr Maximilian Theodore Siegfried de Bryn is a ridiculous name and is most definitely impossible to say after too much wine

[ladyaj-13]

15 and 19?

15 - A Hollywood producer tells you that they want to film just one of your fics. Which fic would you want it to be?

Most of my fics are so short they’d have to be little five minute things! I don’t think producers are going to come knocking any time soon, but I suppose Like Spinning Tops We Stop would be the best? Although it is set in canon, written as a post S6 fic, it would be relatively easy to divorce it from Endeavour and have it as a standalone story.

19 - Who is the easiest/hardest character for you to write about? Why?

I reckon Dottie Frazil is hardest. I love her so much but she’s so rarely featured in my stories - in the show she’s only ever really there to help them figure out some historical plot point, and my stories aren’t often case-fics. However, I love her and Morse’s big sister/little brother kind of relationship, and I do plan to do something with that at some point.

Easiest... Jakes. I don’t know why, but I default to his POV most of the time. And the smoking gives you something to do with his hands when he doesn’t want to speak.

Sam Thursday in Out of Line was somehow both at once, because we get so little of him in the show (and my story was set 10yrs later anyway, post-army when he would have changed a lot) - so I was basically inventing him for the fic, which was both freeing and a bit scary.

Thanks for the ask! Sorry for the late reply...

[jameshathaways]

Endeavour survey results!

First of all, a giant thank you to everybody who took the time to do this, and reblogged to pass it along to others! In the end, 61 people completed the survey, whether answering all questions or just one or two. I was really happy with that considering that we’re a pretty small fandom! I’ll highlight some results under the cut but if you have other questions feel free to ask.

(Note: If you listed more than five responses for the episode questions, or more than three for the character/ship questions, I didn’t tally anything after the initial five (or three). My own responses aren’t included in the tally because I didn’t take the survey myself before collecting results and I felt weird having a tiebreaker vote on anything. Obviously this isn’t meant to be a scientific study or anything, just an informal survey, please don’t come after me for not using the most scientific of methods, et cetera.) 

Favorite Endeavour episodes - 58 responses:

More than half of you (32, to be exact) listed Fugue as one of your favorites. Up next are Neverland (23 votes), Prey (22 votes), and a tie for fourth between Degüello and Nocturne (20 votes each). Fifth place goes to Ride (15 votes). 

After that, it’s Icarus (14 votes), a tie between Canticle and Coda (both 11 votes), a three way tie between Endeavour (Pilot), Home, and Trove (10 votes each), and then a bunch of smaller numbers. Rocket and Cartouche were the only episodes not to get a single vote, but Game, Lazaretto, Apollo, and Confection are barely hanging on with just two votes each.

Bonus info: S2 episodes managed an average of 15.5 votes each. It appears to be our most universally liked series, with even its least voted for episode (Sway) receiving nine votes. In contrast, S4 averaged just five votes per episode, and S5, five and a half. S6 made a bit of a comeback, averaging nearly seven votes per episode, but of the 27 votes casted for S6 episodes, 20 were for Degüello!

For those curious, IMDb currently lists its highest-rated episode as Degüello by quite a large margin (I’m suspicious on that one though, since it aired so recently and doesn’t have nearly as many ranking votes as the other episodes), followed by Neverland, then Coda and Icarus (those two are tied), and followed by another tie between Pylon and Fugue. Ride and Prey are probably the most divisive episodes, with lower rankings than most other episodes on IMDb, but seem to be pretty universally enjoyed on here.

Favorite Endeavour side characters - 61 responses:

Max Debryn was the landslide winner here, with 38 votes! Reginald Bright and Shirley Trewlove were tied with 23 votes each, then it’s Dorothea Frazil with 21 votes. After that, it’s Jim Strange with 17, Peter Jakes with 16, and Joan Thursday with 15. Everybody else received fewer than 10 votes. Joss Bixby was the only character who appeared in just one episode but received votes, and he got four!

Favorite romantic ships - 60 responses:

Max/Morse took this category, with 26 votes, followed by Joan/Morse at 22 votes. No other ship came close, but Win/Fred and Jakes/Morse received 13 votes each, Monica/Morse got 11, and 10 of you voted for Thursday/Morse. 

Other stuff: I haven’t seen much talk of Jim Strange ships on tumblr, but six of you called out Strange/Morse as something you’re shipping these days, and several mentioned Joan/Strange. Femslash ships that got a mention were Win Thursday/Dotty Frazil, Joan/Trewlove, and Joan/Joyce Morse! Joss Bixby/Morse got four votes. We sure do love Ride.

Favorite relationships you don’t ship romantically - 57 responses:

Thursday & Morse were voted for 24 times, DeBryn & Morse got 19, Trewlove & Morse received 14, and Strange & Morse tied with Frazil & Morse at 13 each. The top-voted relationship that doesn’t involve Morse was Bright & Trewlove at six votes. 

Other stuff: If you add up the votes from both relationship questions to get some kind of “ultimate favorite relationship on the show" results, Max and Morse take that one with 45 mentions, followed by Thursday and Morse with 34 mentions, and Joan and Morse with 30 mentions. Technically respondents could have double-listed any relationship they were especially passionate about by listing it as both a romantic and non-romantic ship, though, so that may not be 100% accurate.

Bonus question! Favorite Lewis episodes - 32 responses:

And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea was far and away the winner here, with 13 votes. Life Born of Fire received 10, and then The Dead of Winter and The Soul of Genius tied with eight each. Then Old Unhappy Far Off Things and The Gift of Promise tied with six each (Lewis sure does love those “The [something] of [something]” titles, huh). After that it’s The Ramblin’ Boy with five votes. And then it dissolves into a messy tie between Counter Culture Blues, Wild Justice, The Quality of Mercy, Expiation, Intelligent Design, and Generation of Vipers, all at four votes. 

Anyway, again, thank you so much to everybody who took the time to do this! I hope somebody else finds the results as interesting as I do. :) Anything surprising? Anything you totally expected? I’d love to hear your thoughts! If you have any specific questions I didn’t answer here, or if you spot a typo or anything (I typed this up pretty quickly), please message me.

[lucyemers]

Looking After

For @linguini17 who asked for sick Frazil. "Why didn't you ring us days ago?", Win had gently chastised upon letting herself into Dotty's flat and continued in a similarly soothing fashion, "knew you must be pretty bad when Fred said you'd missed the press briefing." Then she was sweeping the fringe off her brow with a cool hand and resting her lips to her forehead with a lingering touch as one might do with a small child while Dotty whispered, "didn't want to worry you; fever's not high enough for hospital." "No", she'd conceded after a moment, "but high enough that you need some looking after."

[linguini17]

We all know Fred, Dotty and Morse can hold their liquor but how do they behave when actually drunk? And what about Win? Is she the dark horse that can drink all 3 under the table or is she a delicate flower like me when it comes to alcohol consumption?

Fred is a somber drunk, but becomes more open about things he finds difficult to talk about--the war, why he left London, his feelings, etc.

Dotty is friendly and cheerful, and not a little bit flirty.  No matter how drunk she is, she can remember every detail of the night, which has resulted in more than one scoop for her newspaper.

Morse is maudlin, and eventually kind of weepy, at least when he’s young.  He manages to learn to hold the tears back later, but the urge to cry is always there.

Win is a cuddly drunk--see her dancing after their anniversary.  She drapes all over Fred, sits in his lap, and is generally very handsy.  She is not very good at handling her drink, bless her, so if she drinks at all, it’s in a place she knows she’ll be safe, with Fred there to protect her.

[iloveyoudie]

[iloveyoudie]

never ending morseverse text posts  ∞

[iloveyoudie]

remember when morse had a prickish breakdown at a funeral and everyone looked at max like control ur man

thank god for that sweet ass

[iloveyoudie]

[iloveyoudie]

every friends group should have a: 

bimbo - ronnie box mean bisexual - morse a meaner lesbian - dotty frazil she/theys - shirley trewlove he/theys - george fancy a token straight thats on thin ice - fred thursday an astrology bitch who has everyone's birth chart memorized - jim strange and a short king - max debryn

[iloveyoudie]

Tell me about "ghosts". 👀

In my endless mental quest to do a morseverse/ghosts crossover, this is one of 2 ideas i have. this one happens to be boxfancy. (the other is a murder at button house that NO ONE witnesses - not even the ghosts - and morse gets conked on the head, can see the ghosts, and they help him solve the case  -- knowing me i’ll put some romance in)

anyway

WIP ask game

---

There had been much stranger couples that had come through her office but there was something about the two men who sat across from Dorothea Frazil which both puzzled and amused her. It wasn’t the mild age difference, something like that didn’t bother her in the least, but the sort of way that the older man, Mr. Box, sat stark still with his arms crossed over his solid chest and stared at her like there was some sort of underlying lie in what she was telling them. The younger, Mr. Fancy, practically vibrated out of his chair. 

“So, when you rang yesterday,” George Fancy shifted and adjusted himself every few seconds in the stiff office chair as if he weren’t very comfortable in the tie and blazer he’d worn to the meeting. His eyes kept drifting across the miscellanea on Dorothea’s desk and she’d had to stop him almost immediately from eating a piece of potpourri he’d mistaken for some sort of snack mix. Thankfully he seemed immune to things like embarrassment, “you said I’d inherited a house?” 

Dotty nodded, flashing him a smile and glanced again at Mr. Box who had yet to say anything. In fact, she was starting to wonder if he’d even blinked. He had not dressed up overtly, just in a polo shirt unbuttoned to what some would say was an unnecessary degree. In fact, Dotty had begun to wonder if they were really a couple after all, or if perhaps Box was just Fancy’s bodyguard. 

“Yes. Now, you aren’t a direct relative, but through marriages and cousins and-” Dotty rolled her hand for etcetera and passed a tablet across the table where there was a photo opened on the screen. It was the first time Box had moved since he’d practically murdered her hand in a firm shake upon arrival. He took the tablet, peered down at it with lifted brows, and then George leaned close to him and rested his cheek lightly against Box’s shoulder to get his own look, “You are the last living relative of Lady Bunny Trewlove and inheritor of Cowley House.” 

“This great ruddy thing?” Box blinked. 

“My God, babe,” George closed his hand around Box’s upper arm and squeezed, “It’s huge.” 

“The manor is in a state of disrepair, and we can handle things for you if you find it too much to undertake. Several hotel developers have expressed interest and could easily leave you with a very nice settlement-”

“But what if I want it,” George blurted out. 

Box’s eyes drifted to George beside him with amused interest.

“We’ve been looking for something bigger than our flat, and we like a project-” George gave Ronnie a look and than looked back at Dotty. 

“Mr. Fancy, it’s admirable that you’d want to do right by the place but it is a stately home in a very bad state. This is more than a DIY project. It will be very expensive to restore,” Dotty had an inbox full of offers and she knew she could negotiate them a hefty win monetarily if they just let her. Over enthusiastic new home owners often didn’t know a good deal if they saw one. 

“Don’t see why if some hotel chain wants to buy it and turn it over, that we can’t do the same thing,” Box finally spoke up. His eyes shifted to Fancy with a smirk, “Should stay in the family anyway. If this old bird Trewlove passed it down and George is the last one in the family…” He was gruff, that was expected, but when he cast a warm and supportive gaze to George on his arm and Fancy grinned back, she was almost convinced that they would be fine. 

“Yeah,” George nodded at her emphatically, “I’m sure grand old Auntie Fanny-”

“Bunny.”

“Auntie Bunny would want it this way,” George smiled. “So what do I sign?” 

[iloveyoudie]

top 10 female characters

Tagged by @ronniebox. Top 10 female characters from 10 different fandoms.

laura roslin - battlestar galactica

alison cooper - ghosts

debbie maddox - yonderland

sofia bicicletta - the unsleeping city

lup taaco - the adventure zone

kristen applebees - fantasy high

moonshine cybin - not another dnd podcast 

honoria glossop - jeeves & wooster

laura hobson - lewis

dotty frazil - endeavour

Yeah I am not strict about what a DIFFERENT FANDOM IS. 

Tagging: @vita-s-west, @mcgstarroar, @greenapricot, @verecunda, @notajoinerofthings

[bibelots]

I would genuinely pay my own money to make “Dotty and Max” happen