#percevin

[wallbeatjournal]

anon, your enthusiasm means so much to me. in three parts:

one: "percival/kevin had what hirarchie wanted" agree and disagree. obviously in the metatext percevin (sorry) IS a comment on the villain/henchman authority/grooming/abuse dynamics of the earlier seasons. it does enrich the hirarchie narrative by pulling back the veil on the exploitation inherent in hiram's hench relationships. it does. hirarchie makeout subtext becomes percevin makeout text.

but i'm also going to say that i don't think hiram would be satisfied mind-controlling archie. one of the things that makes archie unendingly interesting is that he gives hiram an outlet for the punishing, dominating, masculinity-affirming violence that he doesn't have in his conflicts with the women of his family. and if archie is unable to act out and challenge him, archie loses his luster.

two: "percival reminds archie of hiram" i mean. yeah absolutely that's like his whole deal, testing archie's ability to cope with another hiram type of guy activating all of his trauma responses. they even box. they even box. can we talk about how they even box, they do-over the 3x21 boxing plot????

and. you can't tell me archie offering percival "do whatever you want to me. starve me. chain me up" as punishment/collateral isn't coming out of his hiram-attuned instincts. you just can't. sorry.

three: "percival should have been hiram" yeah and no imo - mark consuelos would have served as hiram in this story position. but i do think it's impactful to the riverdale #cycles and #trauma narratives to show the riveradults encountering their childhood abuse&exploitation tools being used by a different guy. "are they still as vulnerable to these tactics and dynamics as they were in their teen years, or have they healed and grown enough to find a different way through it" is a question i liked seeing an answer to. i loved superhero-teamup-as-metaphor-for-peer-support-and-community-solidarity in contrast to the way they all got alienated from each other due to trauma in their teen years.

and i loved the various reflections on white supremacy in usamerican media that having a white villain like percival unlocked - mark consuelos as hiram in the percival position wouldn't have done that for us for obvious reasons.