#dynamics . snicket siblings

[cosmicalls]

if you like dead poets society, you may like these!

just for fun: a little list of movies, shows, and books i like that i feel have something in common with dps. hopefully you'll find something you'd like, too!

not in any particular order. just the order that i thought of them in really

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A Separate Peace

by John Knowles - published 1959

a coming-of-age novel set at an all-boys new england boarding school. follows two boys, Gene and Finny, and their experiences during the summer and winter sessions of 1942. talks a bit about WWII and what role the boys may have to play in that, but it stays pretty focused on the school and the emotions involved during this time in one's life. all the growth and transformation and oddly homoerotic, perhaps very codependent, friendship of a bildungsroman that we love to look for.

one of my personal favorite books, even considering that it was assigned reading. i truly believe many of you would like it and i know for a fact some of you can vouch for me

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower

by Stephen Chbosky - published 1999 movie adaptation: dir. Stephen Chbosky - released 2012

follows Charlie and his general struggles of high school and with being, well, a wallflower. from goodreads: "Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that the perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite."

very emotional. that's all! i preferred the movie, but i liked the format of the book being completely in letters that Charlie was writing. they're both good! (if you watch the movie, the english teacher's name is Mr. Anderson. so do with that information what you will...!)

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Matilda

by Roald Dahl - published 1988 movie adaptation: dir. Danny DeVito - released 1996 musical adaptation: dir. Matthew Warchus - released 2022

a young girl with an aptitude for reading discovers she has telekinetic abilities at the same time she begins attending school. unfortunately, the principal is an extremely harsh woman, and none of the students seem to enjoy it there. Matilda uses her courage and newfound powers to change her environment for the better, both at school and in her abrasive home.

such a good movie, a childhood favorite. the musical has a great soundtrack too!

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Good Will Hunting

dir. Gus Van Sant - released 1997

a janitor is recognized as a mathematical genius by an MIT professor, and he goes on an emotional journey to embrace his intellect. starring Robin Williams, our dearly beloved inspiration, as the therapist Will goes to see for much of the film.

i only saw it once and my description is lacking but ooh it hurt...... just trust me on this one

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A Series of Unfortunate Events

by Lemony Snicket - published 1999-2006 tv series adaptation: aired 2017-2019

JUST HEAR ME OUT ON THIS ONE okay. it's about a trio of siblings, orphaned, who are shuttled from one parental unit to another while being followed by a man after their immense wealth. they quickly discover they are in the midst of an intellectual conflict in a secret organization. they must rely on only each other, seeing as all the adults around them are wildly incompetent and/or unhelpful. and it is filled to the brim with literary references!!

both versions have really fun and witty narration, and the tv adaptation is extremely faithful. i don't know how else to describe it without going overboard so i'll settle for not descriptive enough! just trust me. yes it is a kids' series and yes it is one of my favorites ever. it's the vibes of it all

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If We Were Villains

by M.L. Rio - published 2017

about a group of Shakespeare theater students at a very pretentious arts school who find themselves in a very high-tension dynamic following a disaster that occurs after their halloween performance of Macbeth. lots and lots of Shakespeare, lots of dramatics, and the book itself is divided into five acts.

i finished this in about two nights and it was extremely creatively inspiring. it was a bit predictable, but that's not a bad thing. it still had me clutching my pearls and dropping my jaw

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"The Artist of the Beautiful"

by Nathaniel Hawthorne - published 1844

a romantic era short story about a man who feels utterly trapped by his occupation. he would rather concern himself with the delicate beauty of nature, and he attempts to realize this in his passion project - much to the disdain of the people around him.

a bit of a sneak sorry. i just think it's just in line with neil's whole thing you know. it's a lot of long and flowery sentences but it works really well i promise

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The Breakfast Club

dir. John Hughes - released 1985

the letterboxd synopsis really says it all: "They only met once, but it changed their lives forever. | Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group includes rebel John, princess Claire, outcast Allison, brainy Brian and Andrew, the jock. Each has a chance to tell his or her story, making the others see them a little differently – and when the day ends, they question whether school will ever be the same."

i don't have much to add and to be honest! kind of a stretch for this list! but i have faith

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obviously there are other shows and movies with the dead poets society leads, but i wanted to sort of branch out a bit for the bulk of this list. i will still list the ones i had in mind though

House M.D. (2004-2012) - tv series about genius diagnostician Dr. Gregory House and his team at a hospital in new jersey. Robert Sean Leonard stars as House's best friend and head of oncology Dr. James Wilson. very comedic but also very heartwrenching.

Tape (2001) - three friends meet at a motel room and dredge up and argue over unpleasant events of the past. starring Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard.

Before Sunrise (1995) - from letterboxd: "A young man and woman meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together." Ethan Hawke plays one half of the lead duo.

and yeah there's a LOT more but those are the ones i've seen and sincerely recommend. not to say others aren't good but this is a (very) curated list you see.

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phew that's not as many as i thought i had in my back pocket but it's still pretty good. plus, there's some things i havent read/watched yet that perhaps would have made it but alas! such is life

absolutely add to the list if you'd like!! let's all share our favorite stories

[afterthegreatunknown]

Hi! 👋 What are some of your favourite asoue fics/fics you recommend? :)

I'm glad you ask :D!

Awhile back, I made this post awhile back of fanfictions from the old days of the ASOUE Fandom (think Fanfiction Net days). All of them my favorites, but if I have to just link the fics I really recommend you to read first, it would be Fernald's Folly and Hypothetical Situation. Very good fics to see the siblings dynamic/relationship of Fernald and Fiona, and Jacques and Lemony Snicket. I'm a sucker for siblings content, and these two fics deliver, especially the latter.

For fics I recommend on AO3, anything in my bookmarks is a good read! But again, if I have to just link the fics I really recommend you to read, it's On Coffee, Nightmares, and Reasons to Live by gellavonhamster (who also has a tumblr), The Ones that Slipped Away by maybesomeotherday, unofficial chaperone by tangentially (who has a tumblr, with her asoue/atwq sideblog being beatricebidelaire), and the newest one I just read awhile back, How many mirrors did you have to crack for luck like that? by Socks_2789.

On Coffee, Nightmares, and Reasons to Live is a good fic focusing on Hector and Captain Widdershins after they and the Quagmires and Fernald and Fiona survived the Great Unknown. Hector is my favorite adult/SBG character. Widdershins not so much but I am fascinated by the guy. This fic is my favorites of the favorites due to how gellavonhamster writes them in a post-canon life, as well as how they interact with one another (I love it when two people with opposite personalities clash with one another).

The One that Slipped Away is actually part of a series by maybesomeotherday for Angstpril 2022, and honestly speaking, the fics they wrote for Angstpril 2022 are all great (read them if you have a chance. I think you'll find a few favorites of your own). But this fic stands for me to bookmark because on how it focuses on Sunny, and something fandom discuss about her: does Sunny loses her memories of the unfortunate events?

unofficial chaperone is legit a good fic for anyone who loves the Jacques Snicket and Quigley Quagmire not quite chaperone-apprenticeship relationship that is mention in TSS. And if you want good content of their relationship, I highly recommend looking through the 'jacques quigley pseudo apprenticeship tag' on beatricebidelaire's blog; a very good tag to fill that craving.

How many mirrors did you have to crack for luck like that? is honestly speaking my favorite Quiglet fanfic at the moment right now. I won't explain more, because I will likely spoil the whole thing. It's an experience that you need go through beginning to end.

I hope you have some very fun reading, anon!

[lilareviewsbooks]

Books for Good Omens fans!

Are you emotionally scarred by the ending of season 2? Is the wait for season 3 going to be excruciating for you? Are you looking for something that’ll fill those voids? Look no further, Good Omens fan! I have some media for you to consume!

The Tea Dragon Series, starting with The Tea Dragon Society, by K. O’Neil

71 pages (first book)

Contains: tea magic!; a cute sapphic romance; queer rep all around :)

If you like Good Omens because of how fluffy it can be (though that season finale was not fluffy), I highly recommend this series! The Tea Dragon Society is a comic book trilogy following Greta, who is swept into the world of caring for tea dragons, tiny little creatures that grow tea leaves on their foreheads. 

As is the case with Good Omens, this trilogy includes a lot of queer representation. It’s written by a non-binary author, K. O’Neil, who introduces us to queer characters of all identities. Also much like Good Omens, there is no discussion of homophobia or transphobia. There’s also a sapphic romance between Greta and her love interest, which is very sweet! This is perfect if you need a pick-me-up after season 2, and if the fluffier aspects of Good Omens are your favorites!

The Greenhollow Duology, starting with a Silver In The Wood, by Emily Tesh

112 pages (first book)

Contains: the fae!!; enchanted woods; middle-aged gay people!!

If what brings you joy in Good Omens is it’s middle-aged leads, I give you Silver in the Wood, and its companion Drowned Country. These two stories are quite episodic – much like Crowley and Aziraphale’s little adventures – and feature a pair of middle-aged men who fall in love against the backdrop of supernatural things afoot.

Apart from representing the older portion of the queer community, The Greenhollow Duology is also brilliantly written and very atmospheric. It will place you inside the cottage where most of the action happens, and you will be able to feel the magic in the air. Both of the books are novellas, and so are quite short reads you can enjoy whenever!

A Series of Unfortunate Events, starting with The Bad Beginning, by Lemony Snicket

176 pages (first book)

Contains: adults that are incompetent; children that are very competent; quirky writing!

If your favorite aspect of Good Omens is its quirkiness, I give you: A Series of Unfortunate Events! This middle-grade series follows a trio of siblings as they are passed from distant relative to distant relative after their parents’ mysterious death, all the while being chased by the evil Count Olaf.

This series reminds me of Good Omens for its tongue-in-cheek humor. Mr. Snicket is a master at metatextual comedy, that is, making jokes about the text itself. I’ve always had a lot of fun reading his writing! A TV show adaptation of this series has been made, and it’s on Netflix, but I haven’t watched it all the way through and can’t speak to how good it is, but it’s worth a shot if you’re feeling like watching something! Though I have to warn you: no gay people here :( 

A Master of Djinn, by P. Djeli Clark

438 pages

Contains: alternate history; a steampunk Cairo; muslim rep!!

A Master of Djinn is for those among you who want to see gay people save the world. I give you: gay people saving the world. This one follows Agent Fatma of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities in an alternate, steampunk-y Cairo, where magic was brought to life by mage Al-Jahiz, many years ago. Fatma is faced with a mysterious murder and must join forces with her lover Siti to find out what happened – except it’s waaay more complicated than it seems…

I think this reminds me of Good Omens the most because there’s a very cool dynamic between Siti and Fatma. Much like Crowley and Aziraphale, they have opposing views on a lot of things, religion for instance, and must reconcile that with their love for one another. They’re also very much ride-or-die for each other, and go on many supernatural adventures together, just like our favorite couple in Good Omens! It also features elements of fantasy being woven into a “normal” world, in this case even affecting history as we know it, to build an alternate reality! 

But, be warned: there is discussion of homophobia and sexism in this book!

This is part of larger universe, namely the Dead Djinn Universe, which includes two other novellas. You can read them in this order, or choose to start with A Master of Djinn. The novel is self-contained and will explain everything you need to know!

The Mimicking of Known Successes, by Malka Older

169 pages

Contains: a murder mystery; a second chance romance; humans living on one of Jupiter’s moons!

Another one for gay people who just like a nice couple they can follow around as they unravel some intrigue, and who were desperately infatuated with “detective Aziraphale”: The Mimicking of Known Successes is a Sherlock Holmes-like story following Pleiti and Mossa, a couple of ex-girlfriends whose paths cross again when Mossa begins investigating a mysterious murder. This one takes place on a human colony in one of Jupiter’s moons, but, apart from that, is not very hard sci-fi. There’s not really any science-y bits that I can remember. Mostly, it’s just a murder mystery, but set in space!

It’s perfect for Good Omens fans who love following a couple with a long history. Not to mention, it also has an almost grumpy/sunshine dynamic that kinda reminds me of Crowley and Aziraphale. And since I know most of us Good Omens fans were once deep in the Sherlock trenches, I thought I’d add this one to cure your heart’s many, many wounds (oh, Steven Moffatt… One day, one day you will pay…)

This is not currently part of a series, but a second novella,  The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, will be published in 2024.

That’s all I got, everyone! If you’d like some more books that, just like Good Omens, don’t delve into homophobia or transphobia, I have a whole list of books that fit the bill! :) 

[littlestsnicket]

title: (the three part folding mirror) by luluwquidprocrow/whoslaurapalmer

word count: 15.9k

sugar bowl gen attends a costume party/spying event at the hotel denouement; snickets and denouements focused.

i love the way the bits of out of order action and different povs fit together, the improbable vfd shrubbery disguises, kit and dewey, ernest and lemony and their uncomfortable places in the schism, but especially all the sibling dynamics!

excerpt:

Frank shot him a flat and unimpressed stare in return. At least he still did that. “Promise me you won’t do anything—” he paused, his face pinching in an aggrieved sort of way before he settled on a word. “—rash tonight,” he finished.

Ernest laughed. “I don’t intend to do anything rash, Frank.” Of course not. You couldn’t carry out a pre-established plan rashly.

“I should hope not. I—”

The door opened, again. Dewey burst into the alcove, all smiles as always, and stopped on Frank’s other side and leaned over the railing, gazing into the lobby. Like Ernest and Frank, he wore the muted red manager uniform, because somebody had said it was the “host prerogative” to not dress up for a costume party. Somebody had felt bad about it when Dewey was disappointed, but somebody had still not relented, and there they were, a matched trio, everything outwardly perfect.

“Everyone’s costumes are so beautiful,” Dewey said. “Who’s that, in the big blue dress?”

“Josephine,” Ernest and Frank said at the same time.

Ernest raised his eyebrows. Frank, stooping so low as to actually guess the guest? Even Dewey blinked at him in surprise. The tips of Frank’s ears went slightly pink, but he didn’t say a word.

[thespookybean14]

So I made this AU a long time ago that combined The Haunting of Hill House (2018) and Lemony Snicket’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events” where The Crains join VFD and try to thwart Olaf’s plans of getting The Baudelaire’s inheritance, as well as just trying to help the kids in general. The Crains join after the events at Hill House under the recruitment of Aunt Janet (as well as Hugh, who thought VFD would protect them from harm). They leave VFD after The End. The Baudelaire’s end up in Shirley’s care. :)

If anyone wants to hear more about it- whether it’s their sibling dynamics, relationships with VFD as a organization, dynamics with The Baudelaires, who they’re friends with in VFD, etc. I’m all open for questions! I unfortunately don’t have a name for this AU? I’ve been calling it “VFD Crains” or “ASOUE Crains” but it doesn’t fit either way. Here’s some information about The Crains as well as moodboards. Enjoy!

***

Steven Crain [He/Him]:

Age: 40

Profession: Writer/Author

Side of VFD: Firefighter (formerly); Defected/N/A (currently)

Quote: “Apparently, historical fiction is out of vogue.”

Status/Last Seen: Alive; Writing in his office in VFD Headquarters.

Shirley Crain-Harris [She/Her]:

Age: 39

Profession: Mortician

Side of VFD: Firefighter; Defected/N/A (currently)

Quote: "I'm not perfect, you know. I'm really not. So go ahead, tell me. Try again."

Status/Last Seen: Alive; reading in the common area of VFD Headquarters

Theodora Crain [She/Her]:

Age: 37

Profession: Child Psychologist

Side of VFD: Firefighter (formerly); Defected/N/A (currently)

Quote: "Well, be sure to let your imagination get the best of you. That's the first step. Imagine the worst thing possible, assume it's true, and go from there.”

Status/Last Seen: Alive; in a cab headed far away from VFD headquarters.

Luke Crain [He/Him]:

Age: 33

Profession: Artist; Arsonist(?)

Side of VFD: Firefighter and Firestarter; Defected/N/A (currently)

Quote: "Big boys know the difference between what's real and imaginary."

Status/Last Seen: Alive; somewhere on Mount Fraught

Eleanor Crain [She/Her]:

Age: 33

Profession: Librarian

Side of VFD: Firefighter (formerly); Defected/N/A (currently)

Quote: “Our moments fall around us like rain.”

Status/Last Seen: Alive; walking through The City with four children who may or may not be The Baudelaires

[beareadsbookz]

Okay so I just finished reading The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens. It’s the first in a trilogy called The Books of Beginning. I absolutely loved this trilogy as a kid, but never actually got around to reading the third book. I wanted to start over and actually finish, partly for closure and partly to see if I still think it’s as good as I used to.

Overall, I still enjoyed this book. Many actual tears were shed at various points, and the sibling dynamic is very realistic. My only real gripe with this book is a phenomenon I’ve been noticing more and more with the books I read as a kid - they’re all incredibly (or at least very overtly) fatphobic, usually in the form of comedy.

In this book, a lesser antagonist is portrayed as disgusting, lazy, and a “worthless drunk”. A lot of emphasis is put on his weight being the butt of the joke and part of what makes him so repulsive. JKR does this, Lemony Snicket (one of my otherwise all-time-favorite authors) does it, and Obert Skye does it.

I notice it even more in books that were “weird” or creepy - which is unfortunate because those were my favorite kinds of books to read as a child/teen (and frankly still are). I am begging writers to find other ways to be funny or to make a “bad” character, without making them fat (or, for that matter, disabled - I see that one a lot too).

Also, it made me somewhat uncomfortable that the dwarves (something I already don’t love, because people with dwarfism are just regular people, not a mythical fantasy race) have their own entire culture and history and customs, but a pivotal moment of the story is when a human boy “calls out” the above mentioned fatphobic caricature as being “not a real dwarf”, and then proceeds to educate the dwarf population about what makes them who they are, after which he wins a medal and is appointed the official guardian of dwarf customs (or something similar, I forget the exact title).

It felt extremely white-savior-ish to have someone from outside the dwarf community, who only found out they were real like a day before, tell the dwarves how they should and shouldn’t behave in order to be considered a “real dwarf”. Which he has the authority to do because he... reads about dwarves? From one book? Rather than actually BEING one? Or even just living with them and studying their culture first hand?

It really sucks that these two big things are so present in the book, because the rest of it was pretty great. Stephens is very good at describing setting and emotions, and I’m serious when I say I actually cried multiple times. Like, the kind of crying that makes your chest hurt. (Although, full disclosure, that could also just have been because of the theme of oldest daughter trauma - which I have a LOT of 🫠)

[whoslaurapalmer]

i LOVE the thought of kit and lemony doing a detective agency together so much (these two siblings who have always investigated separately finally investigating together.......) BUT. bertrand and kit being detectives and bertrand being miles really is so peak here. especially in that "minor role in canon and dies early" way. i too want him alive as much as possible and i think the two of them investigating would be a really fun turn here, like how would it go down without his death and what would be bring to the investigation, and i spent some time last night trying to figure out, if thursby's death or miles' death is more of a catalyst, but. it really is necessary, bc it's part of why sam DOES let brigid get arrested. there's like a...... principle of loyalty between sam and miles. they don't like each other a great deal, but sam still goes, That's My Partner, and i have a moral obligation to find his killer, because That's What You Do When You Lose Your Partner, especially when your partner is a detective, and that IS something i can see in kit

and atwq is technically lemony already starring in his own maltese falcon remake, and i think having a story without lemony here opens up different and tasty dynamics between everyone else, especially with beatrice. kit being in this detective role instead.........i considered lemony being like. potentially a narrator, bc i think that's fun, if lemony is narrating his sister's story, with lemony's knowledge of events and him potentially like.....misrepresenting certain aspects of the story to protect kit, to protect beatrice, even if there's no narrator role in the maltese falcon (although the book is in like third person objective and therefore there is some Universal Force As A Narrator, even maybe hammett himself, bc of sam as the pov character but there's like Zero of his thoughts, just his actions and expressions), but lemony also, doesn't NEED to be here, and it might take away from kit, and then how is lemony's character functioning not only as a narrator but as someone everyone else might know............

that gutman dialogue with esme and carmelita is so AAAAAAA...........it's everything!!!! it's so esme!!!!!!! she WOULD throw carmelita away for whatever she wanted, especially the sugar bowl!!!

i did idly wonder about like. the sugar bowl re: lemony though. with the theory that it has information that will exonerate him, and beatrice trying to get it for that purpose, but i didn't like that bc i thought it was too lemony-centric. and to me the major point of the maltese falcon is greed, and in a story about greed nobody gets what they were after, that's the whole central piece, they don't and they can't and can never get the real maltese falcon (hangfire gets the bombinating beast statue but then is literally swallowed by the physical representation of his greed.......) so it would probably make the most sense if the sugar bowl here really is empty? and/or even a fake on its own, a replica of the real sugar bowl, maybe the lid doesn't open or it's a solid piece like the fake falcon, only capable of being nicked or broken (i keep thinking of esme like. smashing the fake one. and then immediately regaining her composure and moving on to the next part of the hunt)

the kit vs esme of it all. the kit vs geraldine. the esme vs beatrice. the kit vs beatrice. geraldine vs everybody else around her. oh there's so much fun in there. about acting, selfishness, desire against greed......

r being effie is SO GOOD bc i keep picturing beatrice coming to the office and r getting to say to kit "you'll want to see her anyway, she's a knockout", beatrice IS a knockout!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! of course r would say it!!!!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!

snicket and denouement is the most perfect agency name ever and i love it with my whole entire heart. dewey being iva.................Much To Think

i started rereading the book last night and what really struck me about brigid in the opening is like. spinning this fake story about thursby, there's such a ruthlessness in it, such a betrayal, like she wasn't friends with thursby but he's in between her and something she wants so it's him or her. and it's doing this to make herself seem as innocent and naive and blameless as possible. and beatrice being that way about olaf!!!!!!!!!!!! and then beatrice doing it to everyone and using them as steps to get what she wants and then finally running into the one person who won't have it

of course we're left with beatrice killing bertrand, which breaks my heart. i don't think even any incarnation of bea is THAT terrible or that truly manipulative. like, in the way that brigid is different from gutman (i think their greed comes from separate places but i am not yet committed to that thought bc it's been a while since i've thought about them, but also their ultimate mannerisms are different, gutman even in his rage is level-headed, brigid is not), bea is different from esme, esme is the worst version of beatrice, more desperate, more cunning, more deceptive, there is a heart in beatrice that esme lacks, or just a different kind of a heart. ugg and bea as the actress that is always acting...................she really is. she really really is. maybe bertrand sees part of that acting too.

the sugar bowl as the maltese falcon

kit snicket as sam spade beatrice baudelaire as brigid o’shaughnessy

count olaf as floyd thursby duchess r as effie perine bertrand as miles archer dewey denouement as iva archer esme as casper gutman geraldine julienne as joel cairo carmelita spats as wilmer cook

[snckt]

i miss my brother. i miss my sister.

@asouefanworkevent day one of woevember : the sugar bowl gen siblings, or alternatively titled,   the snickets.

[vertvivre]

Violet, Anthony & Grief

gifs via @kathonyy

—

People watched this flashback and still didn’t get the extent of Violet’s trauma. The “Edmund was the air that I breathed” line is the only part of this scene I see discussed and only in the context of it being a Ka(n)thony parallel…

After Edmunds death she is showing suicidal ideation and says to Anthony that she wishes Hyacinth had killed her during childbirth. She’s faced two significant traumas, grieving the sudden death of her husband, the love of her life AND suffering from postpartum depression. I thought this was a really significant narrative to see in historical fiction as it is rarely depicted and still kind of taboo.

Anthony’s became Viscount by baptism of fire, he inherited the title under the most traumatic circumstance. The new responsibilities he faced would have been a massive burden even if Violet wasn’t incapacitated by her grief. The role of Viscount is a patriarchal role the show is set in regency England.

The real conflict and resentment arises because Anthony is left to fill a parental role. He acts as a father figure to his siblings due to the absence of their parents.

- Lemony Snicket

via @metamorphesque

The type of trauma Violet and Anthony faced isn’t the kind you fully heal from. Violet and Anthony were the closest to Edmund and suffered the most because of his death. Their relationship is controversial and I see people debate if Violet is a good mother. I think she is a good mother, good does not mean perfect. There are several changes in their dynamic immediately after Edmunds death and again years later. We see power balance change instantly after Edmund died, Anthony goes from Violet’s son to Viscount. In the Aubrey Hall flash back he is given power over Violet’s life during Hyacinth’s difficult birth, in this scene she calls him a child.

While she is incapacitated Anthony takes on the role of father figure to the siblings and settles into being the family patriarch. Once she recovers I assume their power dynamics begin to really muddle in what I’m calling matriarch/patriarch tension. Anthony stood in the gap for Violet while she was struggling and it prevented him from being able to grieve or process his trauma.

Daphne’s quote from episode 6 really sums up the damage caused by Anthony’s parentification .

“I witnessed you change the day he died. Do you know you did not even weep once? And you stopped laughing, altogether, in fact. It was as though you had become an entirely different person, consumed by the expectations of others.”

I think the issues we see in season 1&2 is them struggling to reconcile these changes and what it means for their relationship as mother and son.

Family is messy.

please if anyone else has thoughts on this comment or send asks I’m happy to discuss :)

I’m working an a detailed reply to an ask about these two and the rest of the siblings as well

[lesbian-in-leather]

Okay so I'm rewatching A Series of Unfortunate Events again because it's INCREDIBLE but also just got the idea for an AU and... I may or may not write it (though after this post I kinda really want to) but either way I think it's cool

In the second part of The Miserable Mill, Georgina has this throwaway line about how upset she is that the Baudelaires banned her from meeting their children. Which got me thinking because like... all of the VFD squad were so close - of course they would have doted on these kids if they'd been allowed. So imagine:

The schism happens later in the timeline. They all still buy into VFD, and don't acknowledge how dangerous it is

And so the Baudelaires (and the Quagmires) are raised with the entire VFD squad as weird aunts/uncles/etc

And yeah, some of them are a little morally questionable but the parents accept them because they're family

We've already seen that a majority of the villainous adults already seem to like Violet a little more than her siblings (I love Klaus but irl his tendency to use large words for the purpose of explaining them would get on my nerves too, and Sunny's too young to really have a personality)

And so, as the oldest child, she's doted on by all of the VFD squad

She gets on incredibly well with Olaf in particular - the ability to change from person to person is facinating to her, and he loves a captive audiance

Esmé stays out of it until Violet's around four - babies and toddlers are always Out. However, Violet became very good at predicting what would be In (it's all very simple patterns once you've studied a few decades worth of trends)

Once Violet develops a passion for inventing, the two get on like a house on fire (pun very much intended). Violet creates elaborate couture fashion for her that's closer to a machine than clothing, and Esmé teaches Violet exactly how to get what she wants

Georgina loves how inquisitive she is - and Violet's desire to know how machines work very quickly extends to the human mind. Which is a curiosity Georgina is all too happy to indulge

The Quagmires are immediate favourites of the Snickets - they all pick a triplet to claim as "theirs" (much to the affectionate annoyance of their parents)

Jacquelyn takes a particular shine to Duncun and his investigative talents. Gustav enjoys challenging Quiggly's sharp mind, and Josephine loves to talk poetry with Isadora (poems require precise gramatical lessons)

Klaus immediately bonds with the Snickets too, especially Lemony, and he picks up the habit of using and explaining long words instead of learning it independently (this habit in Lemony already annoys a majority of VFD, and they all desperately try to train it out of Klaus, to no avail)

Monty loves to teach Klaus about reptiles, but he absolutely adores Sunny from the moment he meets her (she reminds him of a rather ferocious viper he met on an expedition)

The entire group go on outings, and the children are trained as agents. There is a growing mistrust for the more unsavoury members, and Violet is the only child they really get along with. They don't dislike the others, but they also don't really click. Violet is much more similar to them, and they mould her as she grows up, whereas the Snickets got their metaphorical claws in the others too young

They jokingly talk about the children "taking sides", but certain members of the group genuinely begin to fear for Violet's morality

Eventually, their Very Familial Dynamic turns sour, and the schism finally happens

Violet is fourteen, practically a fully fledged adult in VFD terms. When the schism happens, she finds that her parents' argument... simply doesn't make sense. And she sides with the other half of her beloved family - Olaf, Esmé and Georgina - all of whom find themselves more than happy to have a talented inventor and adopted daughter

The rest of the children, though, side with their parents. As they'd always been closer with the fire fighters, they were a little less trusting of the others

Violet invents more functional hands for Fernald, and develops more and more questionable morals. She drifts further from her siblings, and closer to the Troupe

The three adults vow to stay together, still squabbling, but none of them willing to part with Violet. For all they love villainy, they have a newfound love for her, and she's a more than useful addition to their schemes

She still has the strongest morals of all of them, but they are far weaker than that of her siblings. She also discovers fire to be a particularly interesting subject, and finds she rather enjoys inventing new ways to start one (and make it look like an accident)

Many of the events of the books still happen, but Violet is on the wrong side. While she tries to convince her siblings to join her, they are convinced that Georgina has brainwashed her

The adults keep Violet out of their more murderous schemes, not wanting to lose her support and knowing she wouldn't approve, until Violet snaps when she thinks her siblings are responsible for Georgina's death

I just think Villainous Violet would be a REALLY cool concept, okay?

[afterthegreatunknown]

Rate Isadora, Duncan and Quigley Quagmire?

Of course, anon!

Isadora Quagmire: 9 rating

Duncan Quagmire: 9 rating

Quigley Quagmire: 9 rating

I love them all equally, and I can't put one higher or lower from the other. They are a set that have to stay together. Sure, some days I'll focus on one Quagmire over the other, but that's because I want to explore that Quagmire in particular. Each one are characters in their own right, after all. Like...

Isadora has lots of creativity and craftiness. The way she writes her poems, while being couplets, are fun to read. The couplets in TVV in particular stand out, for Isadora has to give hidden clues in each beginning part of the couplet, and like, that has to take some planning to write out! She had to make sure the message is subtle, but not straight out obvious if it fell into the wrong hands. Isadora is clever, and it helps save her and her brother.

Duncan might not have used his journalism skills as much in the series, but his actions and words are a standout that shows his personality. He calls out Carmelita for her bullying in his first scene alone. Everything Duncan does has me thinking he is the 'default' leader, for he reacts quickly after assessing the situation, and reactions appropriately. Duncan takes actions in order to show he cares, and acts in order for no harm to happen.

Quigley is someone that has a lot to unpack. He survived the fire, but has people thinking he's dead (his own siblings too! That changes their dynamic forever!) Quigley finds a guardian-figure of sorts in Jacques Snicket, who one day never comes back (and he never got to properly mourn the man when learning the truth!?) Quigley is a character that is changed by VFD forever that he [likely] thinks is good, which just gives drama for him and his siblings.

I could legit talk about them for a bit more, but this highlights the most on why I love them, and why they have such high ratings.

[kitsnicket]

I went to Snicket university and majored in kit snicket with a minor in Snicket sibling dynamics

[littlestsnicket]

Hi! I'm really late to the ASOUE fandom, so I'm happy that there are still some great fanblogs around. I loved reading through yours. I wanted to ask what you think of the Netflix series and the movie in relation to the novels. Apologies if you've already answered this question!

Also (and slightly related) do you have any Jacques Snicket headcanons for the book or the Netflix character? I never really noticed him in the novels but I loved him (probably Nathan Fillion) in the show.

Thank you <3

welcome to asoue fandom! i’ve been a fan of these books since they were first published and didn’t get involved in fandom until after the netflix series had finished, so it’s never to late, and i’m glad you enjoyed my blog!

i have talked about my thoughts on the netflix adaptation (i forget which tag i used, i was trying to use a consistent one for that at some point…), but i love talking about adaptations and how they work and i’m always happy to talk about it some more!

i saw the movie when it came out, and i don’t remember feeling very strongly about it one way or another, which says something because 2004 would be around the peak of me obsessively rereading the books so i should have cared a lot. i mostly remember really liking violet’s costume in an objective, aesthetic sense and also feeling it was deeply deeply wrong for the tone of the books/how things looked in my head. i’ve only rewatched it once since then with lemony snicket’s commentary track, which is just absolutely delightful, so i’m afraid i don’t have much to say about it.

i think the netflix show is a good adaptation with some things i will go to my grave mad about. i love the visuals, it’s the exact right amount of fantastical and timeless. it’s the right amount of funny while still having moments of intense seriousness. i love the musical numbers in season 2. i love what they did to change the vibe of this being a tv show so it shouldn’t exist in a world driven by books like the books do. i love the addition of the recurring adult characters.

since you asked about jacques snicket, i really love how they re-conceived that character to be a suave, james bond-y, spy type. i think it serves the rest of the changes they made really well. i enjoy his relationship with olivia and larry the waiter. i love the dynamic he has with olaf. i will die mad that they didn’t give him a unibrow. we deserve otherwise conventionally attractive jacques snicket with a unibrow. it’s thematically important damn it!

book!jacques snicket, who we only really get to know through his letters in the unauthorized autobiography and quigley’s memories, will always be the jacques snicket of my heart, but i can love both.

also still mad about the opera night. it is absolutely thematically critical that the viewer not know what happened, and what you gain isn’t enough to offset that. also wish we had gotten more morally grayness from vfd. i really love how the organization is introduced in season 1 and 2, but it never got to evolve into being about how kind, well meaning people can do horrible things either because of their own flaws or because of intractable circumstances, and we all have to live with that because it’s part of the human condition.

i don’t have any netflix!jacques head canon, except that in the fictional version of the show that i got to have input in, olivia learns that he’s done really difficult to rationalize things from the snicket file and that puts her in a much more similar to book!olivia’s mindset when the baudelaire’s meet her at the carnival.

i have lots of book!jacques head canons. i think i’ve talked about most of them before but these are my favorite: 1, jacques looks almost exactly like lemony but is several inches shorter and 2, jacques is the least committed to vfd of his siblings, and he will always put the safety of the people he loves (but especially lemony) over the greater good.

[lemonysnidget]

Barry Sonnenfeld didn't understand any of the Snicket siblings except Lemony. Patrick Warburton is great as Lemony, and I loved Nathan Fillion as Jacques, but the book Snickets are shells of their former selves(at least I see them like that). I mean Jacques cried when arrested for Olaf's (fake)murder, which made him look more suspicious than he was. Netflix Jacques could break himself out of prison, he's actually competent compared to the book. What do you think? Suave cool Jacques I find weird.

I was about to type, “well, it’s hard to screw up Lemony” but then I remembered that the movie existed, and that’s not exactly a great Lemony, so now I have to at least give Barry Sonnenfeld credit for that. But honestly, I think that’s mostly on Patrick Warburton. He’s just so great as Lemony. His delivery is perfect. I now want him to narrate my life. 

As for the rest of the two Snickets... yeah, they’re not consistent with canon. “Sporty” Kit is Barry’s fantasy and has no resemblance to book Kit, and frankly is really effing insulting. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Handler had little involvement in the series starting around the time that Kit was getting introduced. I’ve talked a lot about what I think of show Kit before, so I’ll focus the rest of my discussion on Jacques.

Show Jacques has little resemblance to book Jacques, but he does add some interesting flavor to the show, and his subplot is entertaining. It’s not the worst choice for making a TV show, and it makes his death have more emotion, something that is fuel for good drama. I liked Olivia and Jacques’ dynamic on the show. Definitely a nice adaptive choice. 

That being said, Show Jacques isn’t Jacques Snicket in the books. Jacques Snicket is someone who looks and appears enough like Olaf that even the Baudelaires think he’s Olaf for a moment. That implies quite a lot about him. He’s also a bit of a loner, so him teaming up with Olivia (who might even be his first cousin!) is kinda not in character based on what little we know. Jacques also isn’t some kind of charming, super capable agent. That just isn’t consistent with what little we know of him. Jacques is the most elusive and mysterious of the Snicket siblings. He is in only a couple of chapters in one book, and gets mentioned elsewhere. 

The difference between adapting Jacques and adapting Kit is that Jacques had very little material to start with, he wasn’t discussed in really sexist/creepy tones, he wasn’t overhauled to the point that his only resemblance to the book character was his name, etc. Jacques’ age wasn’t changed because Barry wanted to cast an actor he thought was attractive. Fleshing out Jacques was a good decision. What Barry did to Kit was strip everything away from her that made her interesting and just made a character he’d want to sleep with because he found the actress attractive. That’s gross. I won’t ever get over it. 

[snicketsleuth]

Whatever happened to Mrs Widdershins?

Fiona Widdershins' life was plagued with abandonment issues. Her birth father is unaccounted for, her mother died when she was very young, her only sibling disappeared and her stepather left her stranded on the Queequeg without so much as an explanation. It's no wonder that Fiona snapped when she finally got her brother back and decided to stay with him at all costs. It's the tragic tale of a broken childhood, and a broken family.

But the topic of Mrs Widdershins' untimely demise is interesting from a narrative point of view. Why did Daniel Handler decide to make Fiona and Fernald's mother such a big deal in the first place? Surely the tension between the Captain and Fernald was enough to explain the trauma inherent to the Widdershins family drama. Adding a mysteriously departed mom on top of it is kind of overkill.

The Netflix adaptation attempted to give us some resolution by turning Fernald into a lab assistant at Anwhistle Aquatics and giving the Captain the subplot of his wife's disappareance. That's all well and good, and satisfying from a narrative perspective, but the books have their own separate canon.

Surely there's a reason why this subplot was included in the books. Daniel Handler probably had a resolution in mind but decided not to include it (just like he never confirmed that Lemony was the taxi driver from "The Penultimate Peril", for example). So why did he think Mrs. Widdershins was important? What's the missing story behind her death? Her demise looms in the background of the Widdershins family dynamic like the missing piece of a very important puzzle. It seems inoccuous, but it's probably the key to understanding everything. So what really happened to her? And how would it help us rationalizing the actions of Fernald and his stepfather?

Although the following hypothesis will mostly focus on Mrs. Widdershins, we will also try to answer a number of burning questions regarding the Widdershins family, including but not limited to:

How did Fernald lose his hands?

Who killed Gregor Anwhistle?

Who burned down Anwhistle Aquatics?

Why did Fernald betray his stepfather and join Olaf's troupe?

More after the cut.

There are some interesting tidbits of chronology to be found in the Widdershins legacy, so let's try to organize events in the right order.

We don't know anything about Fernald's and Fiona's birth father. Apparently Handler chose to make the Captain their stepfather to better explain why the relationship between Fernald and the Captain turned sour so quickly. Indeed if you look at the chronology it turns out that the Captain is only older than Fernald by a few years. So basically the Captain became Fernald's stepfather when he had barely entered adulthood. Fernald probably never saw him as a proper authority figure, which would explain why his bossy attitude particularly annoyed him.

For more details on Fernald and the Captain's age, please refer to this article : (Link).

Although not traditional, the family was originally a happy one:

"I found something else," Violet said, handing her brother a crumpled square of paper. "Look." Klaus looked at what his sister had given him. It was a photograph, blurred and faded with four people, grouped together like a family. In the center of the photograph was a large man with a long mustache that was curved at the end like a pair of parentheses – Captain Widdershins, of course, although he looked much younger and a great deal happier than the children had ever seen him. He was laughing, and his arm was around someone the two Baudelaires recognized as the hook-handed man, although he was not hook-handed in the photograph – both of his hands were perfectly intact, one resting on the captain's shoulder, and the other pointing at whoever was taking the picture – and he was young enough to still be called a teenager, instead of a man. On the other side of the captain was a woman who was laughing as hard as the captain, and in her arms was a young infant with a tiny set of triangular glasses. [The Grim Grotto, Chapter Twelve]

This does beg the question: who took the photograph and towards whom is Fernald pointing? Who’s this assumed friend of the Widdershins family? More on that later.

Then the questionable death of Mrs Widdershins took place:

"Phil!" Violet cried. "What on earth are you doing here?" "He's the second of our crew of two!" the captain cried. "Aye! The original second in the crew of two was Fiona's mother, but she died in a manatee accident quite a few years ago." "I'm not so sure it was an accident," Fiona said. [The Grim Grotto, Chapter Two]

The Captain and Fernald seemed to get along well when Mrs. Widdershins was alive. Then the relationship changed.

"You?" said Olaf's henchman. "What happened to Widdershins?" "He disappeared from the submarine," Fiona replied. "We don't know where he is." "I don't care where he is," the hook-handed man sneered. "I couldn't care less about that mustached fool! He's the reason I joined Count Olaf in the first place! The captain was always shouting 'Aye! Aye! Aye!' and ordering me around! So I ran away and joined Olaf's acting troupe!" "But Count Olaf is a terrible villain!" Fiona cried. "He has no regard for other people. He dreams up treacherous schemes, and lures others into becoming his cohorts!" "Those are just the bad aspects of him," the hook-handed man said. "There are many good parts, as well. For instance, he has a wonderful laugh." [The Grim Grotto, Chapter Ten]

It’s jarring that Fernald cites the Captain’s behavior as the main reason he joined Count Olaf’s troupe. Why would he suddenly resent his stepfather when he used to actually like him? In fact, he seems to think so little of him that he considers Olaf an upgrade. What made Fernald change his mind about his stepfather so quickly? There could be three explanations for this: either the Captain’s behavior changed dramatically after his wife’s death, or Fernald learned something about the Captain which redefined the relationship entirely. The third option is that Mrs. Widdershins’ death was so traumatic an ordeal that it severed any affection between Fernald and the Captain.

As one can imagine, it’s easy to posit that these three hypotheses could combine themselves. There are things about Mrs. Widdershins’ death which Fiona does not know and which severely damaged the bond between a stepfather and his stepson. A huge disagreement occurred over her untimely end, and feelings were hurt. Now there’s one legitimate reason for Fernald to be upset at the Captain: he’s lying about the true circumstances of his wife’s death. Fiona was already questioning the official version while she was devoted to V.F.D. and her stepdad, so it’s safe to assume that Fernald does not believe this story either.

Although Fernald's eventual defection clearly has much to do with what happened at Anwhistle Aquatics, it's clear that the death of Mrs Widdershins is equally important in the matter. Is it possible that the two events are linked? In fact, it's likely. The composition of the Queequeg's crew of two is especially revealing:

"Aye! The original second in the crew of two was Fiona's mother, but she died in a manatee accident quite a few years ago." [...] "Then we had Jacques!" the captain continued. "Aye, and then what's-his-name, Jacques's brother, and then a dreadful woman who turned out to be a spy, and finally we have Phil! Although I like to call him Cookie! I don't know why!" [The Grim Grotto, Chapter Two]

Now there is someone apparently missing from this list: Fernald. After his mother died, it would seem likely that her son would replace her as the second-in-command in the crew of two. Fernald remembers the Captain bossing him around. It's possible that Fernald was indeed a member of the Crew of Two and that the Captain is omitting him out of shame, but that’s unlikely. You see, Fiona is in the room with the Captain while he is listing these people. If he had “forgotten” to name Fernald, she would have corrected him immediately. But no, the list appears to be correct in Fiona’s own assessment. For some reason, Fernald was NEVER considered a member of the Crew of Two, even though he was old enough and had the qualifications. The Captain immediately replaced Mrs. Widdershins with Jacques Snicket.

And that’s really telling, because we know Jacques was occupying this position at a time where Fernald was already part of Count Olaf’s troupe. Here’s a passage from a letter which Jacques sent Lemony from the Queequeg. At that point in time, Fernald was probably starring in Olaf’s play “One last warning to those who try to stand in my way”:

Under normal circumstances, new volunteers like ourselves would not receive disguise training until our years of apprenticeship were finished, but we have not been under normal circumstances for quite some time. For instance, currently I am under sixty feet of water, rather than under normal circumstances. [Lemony Snicket’s un-Authorized Autobiography, p.96]

The two actresses playing the Defenders of Liberty now have their faces painted a ghastly white color, and the part of the Little Snicket Lad, once played by the young actor pictured here, has been replaced by a sinister-looking person far too old for the part (also pictured here). [Lemony Snicket’s un-Authorized Autobiography, p.78] [NB: The picture in question depicts a young man in a fedora who looks eerily similar to the way Brett Helquist draws Fernald in the official illustrations of the original editions]

And that means something very significant: that Fernald left the Queequeg a short time after his mother’s death, to the point that he was never considered a second in the Crew of Two. As we know, Fiona is barely older than Violet even though she was born before Lemony’s and Beatrice’s break-up (that is, before Jacques became a secon-in-command in the Crew of Two).

So we've established, chronologically, that the fire at Anwhistle Aquatics and Mrs. Widdershins' demise are part of the same debacle. Is there a reason for a second in the Queequeg's Crew of Two to be involved in Gregor Anwhistle's research?

Potentially yes. Anwhistle Aquatics, for some reason, was built upon a subterranean grotto which could only be accessed by deep-sea divers. You'd need a submarine to get there. The grotto was arranged to conceal specimens of the Medusoid Mycellium securely: the spores can't travel by water, so making sure that only deep-sea divers can access it makes complete sense. Shortly after they visit the grotto, Violet and Klaus are able to safely contain the infestation in a submarine helmet. It's probably the only way safe for the fungus to be handled. Therefore, in order to make his experiments on the Medusoid Mycelium securely, Gregor Anwhistle would need constant access to a V.F.D. submarine and its crew, making long trips from the research center to the grotto.

This is why we need to understand what truly happened during the fire. The Queequeg's crew didn't just have access to Gregor Anwhistle's research center: they were heavily involved in it. They knew exactly what he was doing and the Widdershins family perhaps even had a hand in it.

So let's imagine that Mrs Widdershins wasn't just a submarine operator. She was a scholar. She was one of Gregor Anwhistle's assistants, and, more importantly, one of his accomplices. Gregor Anwhistle took the photograph of the Widdershins family.

"I think the ruby ring is very in," Esmé purred. "It would look wonderful with my flame-imitating dress." "That was my mother's," Fiona said quietly. "She would have wanted me to have it Esmé said quickly. "We were close friends at school." [The Grim Grotto, Chapter Thirteen]

And if you think that's doubtful, ask yourself this: why is Fiona a mycologist? And why does the Queequeg's library contains so much information on mushrooms in general and the Medusoid Mycellium in particular? This library is a legacy of Mrs Widdershin's works on the Medusoid Mycellium. She knew everything. And that is exactly why Kit Snicket targetted the Widdershins family when she reached a disagreement with Gregor Anwhistle. Kit definitely had Gregor Anwhistle murdered. The reason she specifically asked the Captain and Fernald to commit this crime is because they had easy access to Anwhistle Aquatics (through their submarine) and to Gregor (through Mrs Widdershins).

Violet smiled. "Precisely," she said. "A Hobson 's choice is something that's not a choice at all. It's an expression our mother used to use. She'd say, 'I'll give you a Hobson's choice, Violet – you can clean your room or I will stand in the doorway and sing your least favorite song over and over.' "  Fiona grinned. "What was your least favorite song?" she asked. " 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat,' " Violet said. "I hate the part about life being but a dream." "She'd offer me the Hobson's choice of doing the dishes or reading the poetry of Edgar Guest," Klaus said. "He's my absolute least favorite poet." "Bath or pink dress," Sunny said. "Did your mother always joke around like that?" Fiona asked. "Mine used to get awfully mad if I didn't clean my room." "Our mother would get mad, too," Klaus said. "Remember, Violet, when we left the window of the library open, and that night it rained?" [The Grim Grotto, Chapter Seven]

We may never know what truly happened at Anwhistle Aquatics that terrible night. We can only makes hypotheses. But here's our proposition.

Kit Snicket eventually realized Gregor wouldn't listen to reason. In order to stop his bioweapon project, she needed to come up with a way to burn down Anwhistle Aquatics and murder Gregor. That way, the research would be lost forever. Kit then reached out to the Captain, who had both access to the research center and a wife who was part of Gregor's inner circle. The Captain accepted the mission and even enlisted the help of his stepson. He told Fernald that his mother was under a corrupting influence and that she had been brainwashed by Gregor. She needed to be saved from herself.

In the final analysis – a phrase which here means "after much thought, and some debate with my colleagues" – Captain Widdershins was wrong about a great many things. He was wrong about his personal philosophy, because there are plenty of times when one should hesitate. He was wrong about his wife's death, because as Fiona suspected, Mrs. Widdershins did not die in a manatee accident. He was wrong to call Phil "Cookie" when it is more polite to call someone by their proper name, and he was wrong to abandon the Queequeg, no matter what he heard from the woman who came to fetch him. Captain Widdershins was wrong to trust his stepson for so many years, and wrong to participate in the destruction of Anwhistle Aquatics, and he was wrong to insist, as he did so many years ago, that a story in The Daily Punctilio was completely true, and to show this article to so many volunteers, including the Baudelaire parents, the Snicket siblings, and the woman I happened to love. But Captain Widdershins was right about one thing. He was right to say that there are secrets in this world too terrible for young people to know, for the simple reason that there are secrets in this world too terrible for anyone to know, whether they are as young as Sunny Baudelaire or as old as Gregor Anwhistle, secrets so terrible that they ought to be kept secret, which is probably how the secrets became secrets in the first place, and one of those secrets is the long, strange shape the Baudelaire orphans saw, first on the Queequeg's sonar, and then as they held the porthole in place and stared out into the waters of the sea. [The Grim Grotto, Chapter Thirteen]

The Captain betrayed his wife's confidence by sneaking into the research center to set a fire while Fernald murdered Gregor. Then they retreated to the safety of the Queequeg. However things didn't go as planned. Instead of fleeing the flames, Mrs Widdershins threw herself into them. She was desperately trying to save Gregor's research in order to duplicate it. In spite of her family's insistence, she never came back to the Queequeg. She died in the fire. Fernald and the Captain agreed to never tell Fiona what had transpired.

"Our stepfather knew Jacques Snicket," Fiona said. "He was a good man, but Count Olaf murdered him. Are you a murderer, too? Did you kill Gregor Anwhistle?" In grim silence, the hook-handed man held his hooks in front of the children. "The last time you saw me," he said to Fiona, "I had two hands, instead of hooks. Our stepfather probably didn't tell you what happened to me – he always said there were secrets in this world too terrible for young people to know. What a fool!" "Our stepfather isn't a fool," Fiona said. "He's a noble man. Aye!" "People aren't either wicked or noble," the hook-handed man said. "They're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict." [The Grim Grotto, Chapter Ten]

This is why the relationship between the Captain  and Fernald never recovered. Fernald could never forgive the Captain for starting the fire which killed his mother. Although the Captain certainly never intended for Mrs Widdershins to die, his responsability in his wife's death was inevitable.

Interestingly this tragic death would explain A LOT about Fernald's decision to join Olaf's troupe. After all, one can understand why killing Gregor Anwhistle was necessary. It's morally ambiguous, for sure, but it's not a good enough reason to join a criminal gang. But if you add the trauma of losing a mother on top of this shady assassination, things start to make more sense. You see, Fernald and Olaf had a big thing in common: both lost parental figures in a shady assassination scheme orchestrated by members of V.F.D. The Baudelaire parents killed Olaf's parents at a opera house. Count Olaf used this connection, this proximity in background, to warp Fernald's feelings. He turned him against his stepfather and V.F.D. in general by sharing some aspects of his own backstory.

"Fiona!" the hook-handed man cried. "Is it really you?" "Aye," the mycologist said, taking off her triangular glasses to wipe away her tears. "I never thought I would see you again, Fernald. What happened to your hands?" "Never mind that," the hook-handed man said quickly. "Why are you here? Did you join Count Olaf, too?" [The Grim Grotto, Chapter Ten]

It would also explain why Fernald is reluctant to share some aspects of his past with Fiona (such as the way he lost his hands, for example) even though she knows about the Anwhistle fire. Although she's begun to scratch the surface, there are simply aspects of the murder which are worse than she thinks and which Fernald is not ready to divulge. Indeed Fiona could very much blame both Fernald and the Captain for her mother's death. Her stepbrother fears that. It's likely that the reason he lost his hands has as much to do with their mother than it has to do with Gregor. If we had to guess, we'd say he burned his hands trying to rescue his mother at Anwhistle Aquatics.

What makes this theory credible is the cover story which the Captain used to explain away his wife's disappearance. More specifically, it involves a manatee. And a manatee shows up in another dubious disappearance story :

"Have you lived your whole life on this island?" Klaus said. "Yes," Friday said. "My mother and father took an ocean cruise while she was pregnant, and ran into a terrible storm. My father was devoured by a manatee, and my mother was washed ashore when she was pregnant with me. You'll meet her soon. Now please hurry up and change." [The End, Chapter Three]

"Oh, Ish," he said, his eyes shining bright, "I told you many years ago that I would triumph over you someday, and at last that day has arrived. My associate with the weekday for a name told me that you were still hiding out on this island, and–" "Thursday," Mrs. Caliban said. Olaf frowned, and blinked at the freckled woman. "No," he said. "Monday. She was trying to blackmail an old man who was involved in a political scandal." [The End, Chapter Eleven]

However this story is later proven to be untrue: Miranda Caliban and her husband were on opposite side of the schism which divided the island. Thursday left with the Baudelaire parents, while Miranda remained on the Island with their daughter. She made up the entire story. It's a little too much of a coincidence that two different disappareance cover-up stories share the exact same weird detail about a manatee.

"Have you been here before?" Violet asked. "No," Kit said, "but I've heard about this place. My associates have told me stories of its mechanical wonders, its enormous library, and the gourmet meals the islanders prepare. Why, the day before I met you, Baudelaires, I shared Turkish coffee with an associate who was saying that he'd never had better Oysters Rockefeller than during his time on the island. You must be having a wonderful time here." "Janiceps," Sunny said, restating an earlier opinion. "I think this place has changed since your associate was here," said Klaus. "That's probably true," Kit said thoughtfully. "Thursday did say that the colony had suffered a schism, just as V.F.D. did." "Another schism?" Violet asked. "Countless schisms have divided the world over the years," Kit replied in the darkness. "Do you think the history of V.F.D. is the only story in the world? Bu: let's not talk of the past, Baudelaires. Tell me how you made your way to these shores." [The End, Chapter Eight]

"Occasionally someone leaves," Ishmael said, and looked down at the Incredibly Deadly Viper, who gave him a brief hiss. "Some time ago, two women sailed off with this very snake, and a few years later, a man named Thursday left with a few comrades." "So Thursday is alive," Klaus said, "just like Kit said." "Yes," Ishmael admitted, "but at my suggestion, Miranda told her daughter that he died in a storm, so she wouldn't worry about the schism that divided her parents." "Electra," Sunny said, which meant "A family shouldn't keep such terrible secrets," but Ishmael did not ask for a translation. "Except for those troublemakers," he said, "everyone has stayed here. And why shouldn't they? Most of the castaways are orphans, like me, and like you. [The End, Chapter Ten]

At this point, it seems more likely to be one of those memetic code phrases which V.F.D. likes to use. "Eaten by a manatee" is a slang term that adult volunteers use to hide something horrible from their children. So what does "eaten by a manatee" mean, exactly? Surely it doesn't mean "dead", as Thursday was clearly alive and well when Miranda started spouting those lies. "Eaten by a manatee" is not used to cover up deaths, it's used to cover up betrayals. Instead of telling young volunteers that someone went to the other side of the schism, parents tell them the person was "eaten by a manatee". It's the ultimate way to sever the parental bond. It's common to tell someone who betrayed you: "you're dead to me". V.F.D. takes the expression to its literal extreme.

So when the Captain affirms that his wife was eaten by a manatee, he means that she actually betrayed the organization. It's not obvious because she didn't go to Olaf's side of the schism (as Fernald did later) but rather to the other side of another schism: that is, she chose Gregor's side in his feud against Kit Snicket. There are indeed multiple schisms within the history of V.F.D. The schism between the "noble" and "villainous" side is the first one and the most important one, but the "noble" side suffered other disagreements: Ishmael vs the Baudelaire parents on the Island, Kit vs Gregor, Lemony vs his mentors in "All The Wrong Questions", Dashiell and Theodora vs Gifford and Ghede, etc.

And on that topic, the newspaper clipping which Violet Baudelaire found in the grotto is especially revealing:

" 'VERIFYING FERNALD'S DEFECTION,' " she said, reading the headline out loud, and then continued by reading the byline, a word which here means "name of the person who wrote the article." "By Jacques Snicket. It has now been confirmed that the fire that destroyed Anwhistle Aquatics, and took the life of famed ichnologist Gregor Anwhistle, was set by Fernald Widdershins, the son of the captain of the Queequeg submarine. The Widdershins family's participation in a recent schism has raised several questions regarding..." Violet looked up and met the glare of Olaf's henchman. "The rest of the article is blurry," she said, "but the truth is clear. You defected – you abandoned V.F.D. and joined up with Olaf!" [The Grim Grotto; Chapter Ten]

Violet missed the point of the article entirely. The text clearly mentions a “recent” schism; that is, not the original one which happened while Dewey and Kit were about four years old and which split the organization into two. The “recent” schism is clearly the one which divided the “noble” volunteers into Gregor’s followers and Gregor’s adversaries. And note that this is the “Widdershins family” who is involved in that particular schism; not just Fernald.

"You should have seen the fire," he said quietly. "From a distance, it looked like an enormous black plume of smoke, rising straight out of the water. It was like the entire sea was burning down." "You must have been proud of your handiwork," Fiona said bitterly. "Proud?" the hook-handed man said. "It was the worst day of my life. That plume of smoke was the saddest thing I ever saw." He speared the newspaper with his other hook and ripped the article into shreds. "The Punctilio got everything wrong," he said. "Captain Widdershins isn't my father. Widdershins isn't my last name. And there's much more to the fire than that. You should know that the Daily Punctilio doesn't tell the whole story, Baudelaires. Just as the poison of a deadly fungus can be the source of some wonderful medicines, someone like Jacques Snicket can do something villainous, and someone like Count Olaf can do something noble. Even your parents –" [The Grim Grotto; Chapter Ten]

As Fernald warns the Baudelaire orphans, the newspaper clipping is propaganda meant to disguise the volunteer’s more questionable behaviours. It purposedly fails to mention that the Captain helped start the destruction of Anwhistle Aquatics, for example. So the author clearly wants us to question the official narrative. And for some reason, as Fernald starts defending his own version of the events, he starts spewing unsavory revelations about the Baudelaire parents. Why would he do that? Is he projecting his own family issues on the Baudelaire legacy? That would be fitting. We already know that the Captain did morally questionable things for V.F.D. It’s not a big leap to assume that his wife committed some crimes of her own.

[gellavonhamster]

001 B/B/L or 002 Lemony Snicket or both

001 B/B/L

when I started shipping it if I did: hmm, some time after getting into fandom and reading content with this ship and letting it devour my mind? I know that it wasn’t immediately after reading the books and I know that based on my posts here and the asks I answered it might be even possible to track when this happened but that would take too much time

my thoughts: it simultaneously makes canon less and more tragic: less tragic becauce no love triangle/unrequited love and more tragic because that means Lemony lost not one, but two people he loved. But canon is tragic in any case and I love this ship too much so I’m willing to suffer, haha. Also I think the degree to which I’m currently invested in this ship is partially due to how I project a little on 2/3 of it when writing about them and 3/3 of it being the kind of people I could have a crush on

what makes me happy about them: like I said already, it eliminates the love triangle for good + it’s one ship but, like, so many relationship dynamics within it! I’ve already written about my vision of Bertrand/Beatrice in the previous ask - the contrast of their personalities, the initial dislike turned into deep mutual understanding - and then there’s also Lemony/Beatrice that is (in my head) more of a ~High Romance~ but mixed with them being weird in the similar way, and Bertrand/Lemony that I imagine starting out as them both being suspicious of each other but also craving each other’s approval and friendship but also No, I Can’t, I’ve Decided to Dislike Him (well, that’s mostly Lemony). This is getting incoherent, I’m sorry :D Also it is my headcanon that, while the three of them weren’t a thing for a very long time (it was L/B first, then B/B/L for a comparatively short period of time, and then B/B), it was a very happy time for all three of them and they were head over heels for one another  

what makes me sad about them: the fact that two of them canonically die and one is left an unhappy man and an eternal fugitive :)))

things done in fanfic that annoys me: I don’t think I’ve read any fics with this ship that have annoyed me, actually, but in general I find it annoying, in the context of this ot3 or not, when one of Beatrice’s relationships is largely priorotized over the other (especially L/B over B/B). They’re both equally important from the point of view of ASOUE narrative (L/B as the reason ASOUE is written, B/B as the reason the protagonists exist and are put into the situations described in the books) and, I believe, for Beatrice herself. 

things I look for in fanfic: I get that this is, like most sugar bowl generation ships, a sad ship by default, but I want more happy things... pre-canon when everything still is more or less okay, or some AUs. Also smut (I mean what)

who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: hmm, if each of them has to end up with someone else... Bertrand with Ernest, Beatrice with R, Lemony with his Editor (under the condition that the Editor is not Moxie)

my happily ever after for them: I’m basically repeating what I’ve already said in replying to the ask about B/B, but still: B and B both survive the fire, start looking for their children and meet L on the way, and together they find V&K&S 

who is the big spoon/little spoon: does that even work for three people? Anyway, the one sleeping in the middle is usually the one who’s had a more difficult day because the other two would want to comfort that person

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: long conversations that drift from literature and/or art and/or theatre to absolutely nonsensical topics still discussed with serious faces, all while lying in bed pillowed on one another

002 Lemony Snicket

How I feel about this character: probably my favourite Snicketverse character and definitely one of my favourite literary narrators (right after Peter Grant from the Rivers of London series). I appreciate his sense of humour and the fact that he still has hope for the best after everything that’s happened to him and wants his readers to have that hope too. Also he’s very much of a little bitch (especially in ATWQ) and we shoudn’t forget that

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Beatrice and Bertrand (preferably together)

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Lemony and R - I have a Lot of Feelings about their friendship

My unpopular opinion about this character: I definitely disagree with all those posts about how he, in contrast to Severus Snape, is an example of how one should treat the children of your ex who married another man, because Lemony didn’t actually help the Baudelaires, but if we’re comparing these two characters, then you know what... at least he didn’t bully children and call it teaching unlike some others

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: we don’t know for sure but I like to imagine that he and Bea II became a family

my OTP: B/B/L (see the answer above)

my cross over ship: not a ship, obviously, but I still want a fic about him meeting Flannery Culp from The Basic Eight, in any context from a dream to Daniel Handler Extended Literary Universe... do I have to do everything myself

a headcanon fact: the worst driver out of the three Snicket siblings and doesn’t even have a driving licence (while Jacques has a real one and some fake ones and Kit has a number of fake ones)