#irving b

[bitchthefuck1]

love that in the wellness session Ms. Casey tells Irving his outie is "a skilled lover" or whatever and you're like, okay but how would they know any of this, they could be making it all up. and then you meet outie Irving and you're like. no actually I buy that, that checks out

[fanfoolishness]

*sobbing* stop it stop it I’m already dead

UGH this is so heartbreaking and so accurate, it’s crushing! Especially if outie Irving ever experienced any discrimination or was ostracized for being gay in the military. If that was one reason he left the military or joined up with Lumon, that would add a whole other terrible sadness and cruelty to everything 😭

some thoughts wrt the two established "romances" in severance so far (burt/irving and helly/mark) inspired by @figmentof who pointed out how irving had to find out mark and helly kissed from the corporate video in s2 e1 and how he must have felt seeing his co-workers' love affair like portrayed like that, and how it ties into the queer narrative at play here which uses workplace dynamics and policies as very clear analogues for real-life prejudice against queer couples. I mean, just look at this:

it's not just documented, but celebrated. used as propaganda for how the conditions on the severance floor have improved. proof that the severed workers are happy. and how even though he is unaware of the sociopolitical meaning of all this, lumon is very not-subtly telling him that what he had with burt is inherently lower and less valuable than this.

irving doesn't even know homophobia exists and yet he is still affected by it, it still seeps into every corner of the way his and burt's romance progresses. burt is positioned as an unacceptable love interest from the jump. irv is actively discouraged at every turn from pursuing it. their friendship is viewed with disgust and apprehension from their coworkers. burt working in a different department that's hated by MDR. dylan himself not being homophobic in the sense he opposes their relationship because they're both men but his attempts to keep them apart still has a parallel sort of prejudice behind it and still ultimately has the same effect as if it WERE driven by homophobia. irving is made to feel perverse for wanting contact with burt. he's told this is for his own good.

and then, just as they manage to overcome that immediate resistance from their peers and escape to a place where they can explore this blossoming romance on their own terms, burt retires. for all it matters to irv, he's dead. and then irving is given the option to live the rest of his life with grief that will never heal, or kill himself too, because there is no reality where they get to be together. that's just the way things are. of course they wouldn't get to be together. he was unreasonable and childish for ever hoping that could happen. this is just the way it goes for innies. he's told to get ahold of himself and not make a scene.

but the thing is, the standards are not the same for all. a heterosexual romance gets upheld as the shining example of success and fulfilment for the severed employees, whilst a homosexual romance is ridiculed and invalidated, and written off as something that was simply never meant to be. and even more importantly to irving, a heterosexual romance is APPROVED OF by lumon, and by extension, by kier. irv held back from allowing himself to even call his and burt's relationship a romance, because his god had told him it was wrong, he followed the handbook, thinking this was what kier wanted, and then finding out after suffering the worst heartbreak imaginable because of it, that this WASN'T EVEN TRUE. it's simply just that someone like HIM doesn't get to have something like this. his love is not the kind of love god wants. he does not approve of irv's love. cynical and manipulative though that approval may be (even within the context of the corporate video, the helly/mark romance is only being celebrated to further the narrative that lumon care for their workers, but the point still remains that it was THEIR romance specifically used to suit this end), when your entire life has been in pursuit of that approval, it must be devastating to learn it was never on the cards for you.

he and burt even used the fact kier met and fell in love with his wife in the same circumstances as them to justify this to each other - and they were RIGHT, god does approve of falling in love with your coworkers - this simply just doesn't apply to them specifically. and if irving needed any more proof that he no longer has a place at lumon, that he's better off not existing at all than existing with this pain that cannot be remedied, pain that won't even be acknowledged for what it is, a symptom of a sickness which plagues the entire severance system, pain that he is simply expected to choke down and get over - this is that proof.

and that's the POINT. they're TELLING us that this is unjust, and there's a double standard. they're using the ways the innies experience romance and the difference in lumon's reaction (lumon being the collective of all the management we've seen, lumon as a singular entity) to burt/irving vs helly/mark to comment on how queer people are not afforded the same level of respect or validation IN REAL LIFE, for their attachments, their love, their pain, their suffering. it is NOT just incidental that irving's romance is with a man. it would not WORK if his love interest was a woman. the POINT is that they are both men and how that puts them at a disadvantage, even if they aren't aware of the prejudices of the outside world, even if they don't TECHNICALLY apply on the severance floor, there are very clear analogues which still end up oppressing them in equivalent ways that they would be suffering if this were a normal workplace in the outside world.

it genuinely sickens me to my stomach that even in a world so divorced from reality and the sensibilities of regular society, a queer couple is still made to suffer and feel inferior in a way that perfectly mirrors their real-life counterparts. how they will never, EVER be allowed to exist in a world where their love could thrive freely and uninhibited - they never get to taste the joy our world has to offer people like them, but they are still somehow subjected to all the pain it has to offer them regardless. it's such horrifically devastating writing. it makes my skin crawl. I can't stop thinking about it

[mxdzin]

l-o-v-emergency!!

[rosie-toast]

Lets go team!

[tony-buddenbrook]

With Irving seemingly being an ex-military man, do you think he went through the same thing as innie!Irwing before leaving the army? With the "don't ask don't tell" politics, it feels eerily obvious that Irwing worshipped his father and joined the army only to discover his sexuality and rebel against the establishment because he fell in love?

Innie!Irving seems to be very trusting, friendly and open-minded, but he is also fiercely loyal to his principles and ideals (and people around him, too, which is less obvious because he lacks the "us vs them" mentality that loyal people sometimes display). Loving Burt and being willing to go through hell for him is perfectly natural to his character, after all he was immediately locked in on trying to help Helly to transition to innie life, BUT the series misdirects us because he does it in THE MOST awkward way.

But he does help! He wants to get her out of the office and make her move physically (instead of sitting around), make her curious about the world, which is actually what Helly needed, he just quoted the scripture the whole time, and we were thrown off by that!

And if we take those characteristics at their face value (friendly, open-minded, loyal, brave, values integrity, wants to be helpful and knows how to be helpful) then yeah, hot outie!Irwing goes very well with that!

Innie!Irving is also quite dramatic and appreciates art, and guess who wears cool leather jackets and paints every night? (and no, it's definitely not just to communicate, innie!Irving wouldn't have been able to perceive it if it wasn't something that Irwing's body enjoys doing and knows how, I think)

I actually think that all innies use outies' social skills and have the same core values! At the very least, both Marks are very skilled manipulators, both Dylans are altruistic and value family above all else (in fact I think Dylan's thing for perks might have been an expression of despair that he had to go through severance for his family, a very serious sacrifice, and a subconscious desire to overcompensate for that) AND both of them are VERY awkward and focused on performance (Dylan's ambitions as an echo of his desperation?).

With Helly it is purposefully difficult, because we are definitely being misdirected to misunderstand Helena! Right now it seems that Helena is very lonely and fell for Mark like immediately, from videos (the proverbial erotic fixation, if you will!), and that she is confident and is good at masking her true emotions. Something that Helly is notoriously bad at. Did Helly fall for Mark that quickly? Idk I think she might have? Not sure.

[demonparamour]

The idea that Irving and Burt find each other in multiple resets is cute but, to me, misses the point. They only meet and fall in love this once because things in life are all up to chance. And this is all they get

[infamousmonkey-cat]

listening to the severance podcast and adam scott was talking about how irv and burt bond because they’re both interested in art and like… yeah of course 😭 irv is an artist but the only art his innie has access to is propaganda. it explains so much about him

[orangesnail]

Please. stop praying for my grandpa!!!!! You are making him too strong. He broke out of the severed floor and Mr Milchick can’t get him. He’s too powerful.

[oi-esh]

Red Wine Supernova

Helly is really precious.

Britt Lower is incredibly talented.

Fall right into me

[andillwriteyouatragedy]

honey, you're familiar

a severance fic about irving, burt, and the impulse to create art

Irving feels an impulse to make Post-It-and-pen art for Burt— who frames and hangs it for all to see. and thus begins an absurd courtship ritual.

🖊 read now on ao3! 🖊

[jetbougan]

the werk is mysterious and important

[capyclara]

welcome to hell[y]

[ughhhdavid]

[laughy-sapphy-blog]

when the gay situationship so bad you spend your first conscious moments in five months screaming and crying and trying to throw yourself down the nearest flight of stairs

[shmlnbstrcnd]

IRVHEADS RISE!!!!!!!

[rocktheholygrail]

Hannibal (2013-2015) Severance (2022-)