#like I genuinely feel like Logan is more sympathetic in this moment than Kendall is at the end of ep 9

[viviqueue]

There’s something so haunting about Kendall & how in many ways he has become crueler than his father. I think part of why Roman decided to get tossed around by protestors was primarily based on Kendall emotionally abusing him right before for his understandable breakdown after not properly grieving Logan’s death. Their dynamic always had a certain vulnerability to it that might be gone after that conversation. He’s already betrayed and been betrayed by Shiv, and will likely continue to break her down so that she knows her place in the sibling hierarchy. If Logan couldn’t hold a woman in his head, what does that mean for Kendall as it relates to his relationships with women? He tried to manipulate Jess into staying through verbal insults, he tried to emotionally manipulate Rava into staying for the funeral despite there being clear signs of civil unrest brewing. He has failed every woman in his life, and his relationships with men are strictly based in terms of dominance and manipulation. He may very well succeed and come out on top in the end, but who will he go to when he needs to be consoled?

I think for as abhorrent Logan was as a character, Ewan’s stories in my eyes puts him in a better light than Kendall when we consider the contexts they both grew up in. Logan’s cruelty was crafted in his lived experiences of being blamed for his sister’s death and the relentless abuse that came from it. That’s a kind of trauma that would take decades to fully unravel even with therapy, and the scars on his back were emblematic of his past always being in his the forefront of his consciousness. His abrasiveness and abuse can’t be waved off or justified, but asserting that he made these decisions of a sound mind is ignoring aspects of his characterization. I don’t think many people go through what Logan did and come out of it undamaged or even alive.

Kendall on the other hand grew up in luxury and was not primarily informed by trauma and physical abuse inflicted upon him. He has a sound enough mind to recognize things like fascism, homophobia, and misogyny, but makes conscious choices to support them when given the opportunity, even at the cost of everyone around him who might be impacted. He is choosing to ostracize himself from his loved ones in order to surpass his father because he is the most arrogant sibling and will not leave this world without claiming his birthright. And the most consistent thing about all these characters, but specifically with Kendall, is that their wins are always followed by crushing losses. With everything we know so far, I can’t guarantee that Kendall’s making it out alive as the story ends, at least not the one many people grew to love.

[katierosefun]

can I ask where you are in your Succession watch? what are your faves and current ships, if you have any? (sorry if you've been asked this already!)

okay okay okay so i have THOUGHTS, and i'm glad that you asked!

anyways, i'm on episode 2 of season 2! so still relatively early, but i can't wait to watch more! my current fave characters are shiv and willa, if only because i just . . . i really love shiv out of the three siblings? i pity kendall, and i'm slightly more intrigued in roman than i was at the start of season one--because like, idk, all the roy siblings are plainly not great people, but i can't help but want them to have . . . at least . . . somewhat okay lives? like, kendall's most sympathetic when you see him getting chewed out by logan + when you see him around rava and his kids (the season 1 finale when he's dancing with his kids . . . the song i wanna dance with somebody but the lyric being i wanna dance with somebody who loves me . . . and cutting to kendall . . . dancing with his children . . . yeah no i actually felt my heart twist at that scene). and roman's interesting to me in that he's like . . . a pretty textbook definition of an immature asshat, but when he has good moments, he seems to actually have good moments? (like, especially when they were all out at connor's house? because roman seemed to genuinely care if kendall was getting himself high or not, and i think there was partially guilt there on roman's behalf. but like. i think he does genuinely care about his older siblings, so i'm interested in seeing more of that depth.)

but rambling aside: shiv is probably the character i'm most drawn to, just because i always gravitate towards the oldest-and-only-daughter type characters. she's interesting to me in that she's separate from the company, and she's working politics, and i think that gives her some sense of I Am a Better Person Than the Rest of My Family--and maybe that's somewhat true, but from what i've seen, there's def. a seed of that roy family fucked-up-ness in her too, whether she likes it or not. but like, she's trying, i think. in her own way. she's manipulative, absolutely--but god, when she told nate in season 1 that "wouldn't it be nice to just...wake up in the morning and not feel like a shitty person?", my heart broke a little for her. my heart broke a lot for her when logan said "you're marrying a man beneath you because you're scared of being betrayed!" and my heart broke for her when she was rambling to tom about how she's not sure about her relationship with him but then ended it with "fuck, i love you" and oh boy oh god is she just a mix of all these little characteristics that i think are just genuinely, depressingly relatable in that she's smart + clever and seems to have it all but is pretty clearly Messed Up from her own perception of love + desire + etc etc etc. (so. it's delicious.)

i wish i could write. like. a whole essay on willa too, in that i didn't really know what to make of her character at first, and given that she doesn't have a whole ton of lines, i still . . . weirdly adore her? maybe because of her iconic line to tom, when she said "at least i'm only getting fucked by one of the roys, yeah?" like GO OFF WILLA!!!! I LOVE U!!! just because i think willa's . . . she seems so unassuming, but it's pretty clear that she can see right through everyone in the roy family. it's also really interesting to see her relationship with connor (who . . . like . . . yeah, at first i felt bad for him, but now i don't really like him because he's like. he's the type of person who thinks he's a good person, which makes some of his dickhead qualities that much worse. like, if you're a dickhead but know you're a dickhead like roman, that's slightly more endearing than being a dickhead and still thinking you're the Good Guy, which is what connor roy feels like to me). idk. willa honey pls date me instead <3333

oh, and i suppose for male characters, i lowkey love tom. like. he's insane. but i fucking love him. he's a pathetic bisexual man. he's my pathetic bisexual man. i want to rattle him around in a box. i want to punch his face but i also want to kiss his stupid forehead and tell him to actually talk to his wife. also, to figure out his feelings about cousin greg because tom sweetie . . . that's not how you talk to your crush <3 i love him. i thought he was the saner one in the roy family mess. i was so wrong. he's so stupid. i love him. i can't talk normally about him because every time he shows up on screen i just go "oh, MAN" really loudly because there's not a single boring moment with this stupid pathetic man

as for ships . . . tbh, i'm kind of a part of the "roy sibling x therapy" bandwagon, but if i want to be honest, i'm def. part of that crackhead energy of whatever's going on between tom and greg. because. like. are they insane? yeah. do i want them to make out and then kinda destroy each other? yeah. (no seriously because starting from episode one i was messaging one of my friends just screaming "WAIT SO THEY'RE REALLY LIKE THIS? STARTING AT EPISODE ONE?????" because what the fuck do u do with that energy.)

but on a more serious note, i think a part of me genuinely unironically likes the idea of tom and greg together because outside of their weird-ass energy, there's a sadder component to them in that like. it seems like tom's genuinely. lost around the roy family. like, i think shiv does love him--in whatever her definition of love might be--and greg genuinely loves shiv (distressed sad sounds), but also? but also, i think tom likes taking care of people, and more than that, i think tom needs someone who's genuinely sincere. shiv is absolutely . . . well .. . . . i love my girlboss gaslighting queen so much, but when i say sincere, i also mean someone who doesn't play in, like, 4d chess as a hobby, you know? i think tom might need someone like that in the long run, which breaks my heart because on the other hand, i also really pathetically adore

tom and shiv because okay okay okay they're also awful for each other, but i just. like. i'm weirdly so invested in their stupid awful marriage. a part of me wants them to be happy together. another part of me wants them to divorce because that might make them happier. a third part of me just wants them to keep up this funny weird marriage and now that it's an open marriage, tom can live his best "I Have Two Hands" life by being with shiv and greg--

but outside of that, tom and shiv just feel like a huge tragedy to me. i've been vaguely spoiled for season 3 (. . . . i have no idea what's up with the nero references, something something pushed his pregnant wife down the stairs?), so i'm already bracing myself, but oh god. i don't know, they just make me so sad, so sad because i think they both actually love each other but they also don't actually love each other but also they were happy at some point but also i don't think they're ever going to get that happiness back and AGGGGGH

i'm also weirdly digging kendall and stewy? like, i dunno. no one can break your heart quite as much as your best friend, and i think stewy genuinely cares about kendall. (and rava cares about kendall! i think i ship kendall with anyone who actually GENUINELY loves him, because i think kendall's different from his siblings in that . . . i think he has genuine people in his corner who actually give two shits about where his life goes? whereas it seems that roman doesn't have anyone except his siblings, which is a pretty volatile relationship, and shiv has tom, but we've already discussed how volatile that relationship is . . . idk, my heart always feels something for kendall whenever he's around stewy and/or rava. like! look at those people. they care about him! they're pissed off at him, but i think they're pissed off at him because they know he can do better or that he's capable of being better. pls kendall ditch your stupid family and either date stewy or work things out with rava and be a better dad idk dude just break the family cycle, you lame pathetic meow meow)