#richie ; convo

[bixels]

The idea that uni protesters are "elitist ivy-league rich kids larping as revolutionaries" on Twitter and Reddit and even here is so fucking funny to me if you actually know anything about the student bodies at these unis. Take it from someone who's going to one of the biggest private unis in the US, 80% of the peers I know are either from the suburbs or an apartment somewhere in America, children of immigrants, or here on a student visa. I've heard about one-percenter students, but I've never met one in person. Like, don't get me wrong, the institution as a whole is still very privileged and white. I've talked with friends and classmates about feeling weird or dissonant being here and coming from such a different background. But in my art program, I see BIPOC, disabled, queer, lower-income students and faculty trying to deconstruct and tear that down and make space every day. So to take a cursory glance at a crowd of student protesters in coalitions that are led by BIPOC & 1st/2nd-gen immigrant students and HQ'd in ethnic housings and student organizations and say, "ah. children of the elite." Get real.

[starkidblubber]

Richie: Isn't it weird that people kill mosquitoes just because they're annoying? 
Paul: Damn, if people did that to each other, Ted would've killed me years ago.

[whitehartlane]

micky covering half his face as richy was taking the penalty 😭

[voydhund]

[xtinyslip]

❝ i don’t give a shit! you threw me under the bus! ❞

sam wasn't sure why she was still having to deal with his shit after what he had pulled on her. sure, trying to kill her and tara was reason to never speak to him again but before that. the fact that he had used her? pretended to love her? he was lucky they weren't having a repeat of what she did to him that night. "you have some nerve saying that to me? richie, you fucking used me and i let that happen. i let you." she scoffed but it was more at herself for ever being that stupid to think he cared. even for a second. "what did you think was going to happen?" @fcdcdmcmories

[gas-station-trackphone]

what is ur opinion on the mtf trans richie headcanon? its kind of gay erasing isnt it?

personally, i love a trans Richie headcanon. usually i like fics with gay ftm richie or sapphic mtf richie. i dont read a lot of fic where Richie is a straight trans woman exclusively interested in men if that’s what you mean by gay erasing (bi Richie is my beloved but that’s a different conversation), partly because I’ve never seen a fic like that (im sure they’re out there though) and partly because it would feel too ooc for me if Richie of any gender identity wasn’t also queer in his sexuality. to actually answer your question, it doesn’t bother me that other people make that content if they’re just sharing their hcs respectfully like the rest of us, and hcs/fanfiction are more reflections of the creators than the characters anyway so i assume they have a personal attachment to that hc the same way im personally attached to mine.

tldr unless someone swerves into my lane im not gonna assume there’s any ill intent in making mtf Richie content, they can do their thing i just won’t read it if i don’t want to

[slashersweethearts]

really luv pondering the duality of my oc ships bc both amber and richie pulled the cute but weird girl w little to no real connections outside of them who had literally never been w anybody else.

n yet amber wound up w the most obsessive bitch to walk woodsboro’s 2 streets and 1 cornfield who would need the jaws of life just to be kept away from her bc she will NOT leave her tf alone BUUUUT she is down bad enough to be willing to kill for her. even after getting broken up w and stabbed in the shoulder.

meanwhile richard is out here fighting for his LIFE just tryna get his bitch back bc it turns out his detached from others to a clinical level shawty (who didn’t even date him out of any romantic interest. she saw him as like a brother she just didn’t know how to turn him down w/o being and/or feeling mean abt it 💀) surprise surprise could also just detach herself from him w relative ease 😭 and he only cheated ONE TIME!!! (that she knows of 😭)

[eroticwound]

riiiiiiichiiieeeee baby :’(

“richie i’m not gonna drop this ass”

[asexualasshat]

I wanna keep writing but it’s 3 am and I’m 27 I’ll never recover if I stay up to finish the scene

[donetbhlmao]

every time i rewatch the bear i think about how sydney (often) actively resists opening up emotionally to/getting closer to carmy - more under the cut

moments that immediately come to mind:

when carm asks syd about her dad in s2 e2: she interrupts him and brings the convo back to food.

when carmy asks syd about her new place and how her dad is feeling about the move in s3: i don't remember the actual episode but she interrupts him again to talk about work. what was the reason!!!

when carmy initially asks about syd's mom in s2: she has shown that talking about her mom is difficult (see: her convo with marcus at her place when she made him a beautiful meal), so this could be ambiguous but i think still worth mentioning.

WHEN CARMY TELLS HER SHE LOOKS NICE IN S3: she immediately takes off her bow???? i havent been able to stop thinking about this beat because why does she do that. does she not want to be perceived by him that way? does she feel guilty because she just got back from meeting with another chef for another position (thereby potentially dissolving her and carmy's partnership)? WHY WHY WHY (also she's so real for this because i think it's at least partially meant to signal that she's uncomfortable with his attention if he's not going to accompany it with meaningful communication). yes she favors scarves in the kitchen and she was getting ready for work but i think there's something else going on and have been rotating this scene in my head like it's a rotisserie chicken.

the fact that she half-lied about why she came to work at the bear in the first place, and, relatedly, that he made the best meal she ever had: maybe carm caught onto this one but she doesn't ever openly tell him that she's a fan of his work (and that he made the best meal she ever had!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) i say half-lied because she almost immediately tells him that she knows who he is. so.

i've been thinking a lot about syd's feelings for carmy and how she likely fears emotional intimacy with him. it's a stark contrast to how easily she opens up to marcus or asks richie questions about his daughter or even mentors/becomes friends with tina.

carmy is deeply interested in syd as a person and SHOWS it - in fact the few times in s3 that he's civil to her is when they are not working in the stresses of the kitchen and he's asking her about her life.

i can't think of a time where syd asks CARMY about his family (remember - she asks richie about michael), and when he opens up (without prompting from her!!!) about michael being an addict to her she lightens the mood with a joke, and when he opens up about how donna was a nightmare and he's trying to reclaim cannolis, all she says is "whoa." (btw i actually love sydney because she's so emotionally stunted like that's my girl <3)

she will open up about sheridan road, and her fear of failure (so inherent to who she is and her motivations in the show!), but not so much about HERself and her personal life. it's fascinating.

an exception to this is when syd tells carmy to call richie and apologize - even then it's not syd "asking" per se, but it is her taking a step and knowing what's best for carmy (and the kitchen) in that moment.

i think this is meant to indicate how carmy is different from everyone else in syd's life - almost like he doesn't "fit" into any of the other boxes she has for people.

now, i personally read this as romantic. there's something BIG blocking sydney from accepting that, though, and i think it's that carmy is so tied to her passion, her profession, her LIFE'S WORK, and she will not, cannot, fuck that up. we all talk about claire being an obstacle to a potential romantic connection between the two - and she is - but i truly think sydney's unwillingness to confront her interest in carmy is a bigger, more substantial hurdle (though not at all impossible to overcome!)

[whenmemorydies]

Sydney won't take Shapiro up on his offer

We all know that Sydney has the technical skill, the people smarts and the good business sense to find work outside of The Bear if she so chose. By the end of season 3, she's being pursued by one chef in particular (Adam Shapiro of Ever) to join him as he opens his own restaurant.

While she could leave The Bear - serving Carmy right for his treatment of Syd this past season - I don't think she's going to be jumping ship to Shapiro anytime soon. This is based on the conversation that Syd had with Shapiro in 3x07 Legacy. That convo had some call backs and call forwards that speak to a misalignment of values when it comes to running a restaurant together. Lets get into it.

Joy, collaboration and control

First, Shapiro tells Sydney that he wants to run his new restaurant but he doesn't want to cook all the time:

This contrasts to Carmy and Syd's discussion in 2x09:

Carmy: You still love to cook, right?

Sydney: Yeah.

Carmy: Yeah?

Which is followed by their cheeky chat about omelettes with boursin, chives and ridged potato chips (oooh fuck).

So we know Sydney loves to cook.

Carmy does too, even though we know he may not think its fun. Recall his convo with Richie in 2x01 Beef:

Carmy: This shit's not fun for me. (I swear he's saying this and not what the subtitles are saying lol)

Richie: Yeah, but you love it.

Carmy: That doesn't make it fun.

Still, there's the joy - the fun - we know that Carmy and Sydney have when they menu plan and cook together:

We also know from season 3 that both Carmy and Sydney are head down in the kitchen at The Bear. They're both overseeing the cooks, plating and running expo.

Contrast this with Shapiro who wants to run things but doesn’t want to cook every day. I’d go so far as to say he may not love cooking enough to want to keep doing it. Ultimately, Shapiro wants the control that comes with restaurant ownership but doesn’t want to take part in the creation - in the collaborative process - required to build his restaurant’s vibe (recall him telling Sydney it could be whatever she wants it to be in 3x07 Legacy):

Like @freedelusionshere has said repeatedly: Sydney craves collaboration. She did it all on her own with Sheridan Road. She's does not want to be running things on her own again at The Bear. She's reticent about relying on Carmy because as an only child and someone who ran her own business, she's used to being self-sufficient. Post 2x02-season-2 Carmy who bailed on the restaurant to numb himself with Claire and season 3 Carmy who's gone full Michelin-mode, icing her out of so much of the planning is probably giving Sydney even less reason to let herself be vulnerable enough with Carmy to fully rely on him. She indicates to Marcus in 3x05 Children that the idea of relying on someone is scary for her.

Given what we're shown in episodes 3x02 through to 3x04 prior to the above admission from Sydney, its almost certain that the "someone" she is talking about is Carmy.

Still, Sydney knows what she and Carmy can do together based on their frankness with one another in season 1 and their collaboration in season 2. She knows what Carmy promised her in 2x09 Omelette: that he wouldn't let her fail and in 3x01 Tomorrow: that he would never leave her to do it all by herself again. (OK we know he's gone in the entirely wrong direction on this in season 3 by fully taking the reigns himself…but the man is able to course-correct (remember how he made things right with both Marcus and Sydney in 1x08 Braciole?) and I hope he does this early on in season 4).

Above: Carmy reassuring Sydney in 2x09 Omelette that he won't let her fail and that she's not alone this time. Below: Carmy's vow to never leave Sydney to live a life apart from him run the restaurant alone again in 3x01 Tomorrow.

But Shapiro is not offering her any of that. He's letting her take the reigns - and consequently, the fall if anything goes wrong with his new venture - and I'm pretty sure that reality: that the buck for an entire restaurant with a full suite of staff is going to stop with Syd, is even more terrifying and misaligned for Sydney than what is happening at The Bear.

What Sydney doesn't know (but may suspect from Shapiro's offer to give her full control of the restaurant with precious little reason to - how did this man even get her phone number to begin with?) is that Shapiro may have a history of throwing other people under the bus to take the fall for his mistakes. Recall that the first time we are introduced to Shapiro in 2x07 Forks, he is yelling at the crew at Ever about a smudged plate:

After time-costing the effect of the smudge (47 seconds!), Shapiro insists that whoever caused the smudge own up to it. When no one does, he yells across the table at Richie's guardian angel, Garrett:

Shapiro: Fuck you, Garrett!

Garrett: Yes, chef. Fuck me.

Later in 3x10 Forever. we learn that its actually Shapiro who's known for smudging plates (initially from a guest at the dinner who makes a crack about smudges after Shapiro introduces the first dish of the night, and then from Luca in Ever's kitchen):

What's notable is that Sydney is present for both of the above smudge gibes. So while she may not know that Shapiro has a habit of blaming his staff for what are likely his own mistakes (RIP Garrett), she is made aware in 3x10 that the dude is sloppy and notoriously so.

Does it matter if Shapiro is a mess in the kitchen? Honestly, I wouldn't give a shit (lol) BUT I'm not the one pursuing a career in the restaurant industry. Sydney is in this business because she loves cooking AND because she wants to be inspired. This is the same woman who sought Carmy out at his family's old sandwich shop after trying one of his meals. She wants to be the best and she knows that in order to do that, she needs to learn and work under the best. Or the most excellent. Same diff.

Does Shapiro meet the standard that Sydney has for a mentor or collaborator? I don't think so.

Inheritances

Cutting back to 3x07 Legacy: earlier in their convo, Shapiro tells Sydney that he wants to start clean and he doesn't want to inherit anything (presumably from his current job with Chef Terry at Ever):

This is meant to be Shapiro addressing Sydney's concerns from 3x04 Violet when he catches her as she's leaving the train station:

Sydney: It's been a long month [at The Bear].

Chef Adam: Ah. That bad?

Sydney: No, just-- Restaurants.

Chef Adam: Yeah. Right? Why do we do this to ourselves?

Sydney: 'Cause we're crazy.

Chef Adam: Yeah. What was this month's crazy?

Sydney: Um. The kind that's inherited.

Chef Adam: *Nods emphatically* Understood.

The trouble is, as Carmy clearly lays out for us later in 3x07 Legacy, restaurants are built on inheritances. They're ancestral, like a family tree:

Carmy: Like, um, something would start somewhere, and then, uh, people would take that thing and then they would take it somewhere else. So, all these parts of an original restaurant, they would end up at a new restaurant and that kind of thing. That would happen over and over again. And then all these parts of all these restaurants, they would sort of-- You know, they would find each other. And then new people would take those parts and they would put 'em into their restaurant. And the whole thing, it would, um-- It would start to happen all over again.

Marcus: So, like a family tree or something?

Carmy: [looks to Syd who has her back to him, closing her locker] Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

In the context of family, we inherit things from our ancestors whether we want to or not. These things can be genetic (like skin colour, hair texture or the shape of an eye), psychic (intergenerational trauma, you old dog), economic (inherited wealth? I don’t know her), religious or cultural (like a well-loved dish passed down in families).

Some of these things are obviously strengths, even gifts of a kind. Others are challenges that we need to meet. None of them can be ignored. To do so - to start "clean" without trying to work through and integrate our inheritances, good and bad - is done at our own peril. In season 3, this is what Carmy has been doing: he gives little time to the good lessons he's learned from mentors and collaborators like Thomas Keller, Andrea Terry, Daniel Boulud, Mikey and Natalie Berzatto, Michelle Berzatto, Pete, Richie Jerimovic, Gary Sweeps, Ebraheim, Manny, Angel, Marcus Brooks, Tina Marrero and Sydney Adamu, and latches onto the toxic behaviours and practices of David Fields and his mother, Donna Berzatto. To his credit, Richie rightly pulls Carmy up on this in 3x03 Doors (You're not fully integrated!).

When Shapiro says he wants to start clean and doesn't want to inherit anything, he posits a future where no lessons are learned and where no joy or pride is passed down. This is a future without memory. And to quote A.S. Sivanandan (and my tumblr username-sake):

When memory dies, a people die.

Or to put it another way: living a life without memory, without history, is no life at all. Its living in a decontextualised void or vacuum. And neither voids or vacuums hold the requisite components for supporting life.

Shapiro's wish for no inheritances also reminds me of this promo still for The Bear which @thoughtfulchaos773 posted about recently:

This is a shot of Carmy in the kitchen in Empire. The writing on the wall next to him reads:

Its only after we've lost everything we're free to do anything.

This quote was likely written by Chef David Fields who made a living out of terrorising his staff, getting them to subtract everything from their lives until their world revolved around his kitchen. Recall him telling Carmen in 3x10 Forever:

Chef David: So you got rid of all the bullshit, and you concentrated, and you got focused, and you got great. You got excellent.

The "bullshit" here being Carmen's entire existence outside of work. Fields allowed no inheritances from any of the staff in his space. The result? A team likely suffering the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and god knows what else.

Sydney is not about voids or vacuums. She is not about living a life without context. She has shown us time and time again that she listens to history and does her best to integrate it. My favourite example of this is her building an entire fucking kitchen in The Beef's parking lot when the restaurant loses power and gas.

Despite her own trauma from the world of catering, she remembered the lessons she learned there (particularly around innovation and resourcefulness) and she saved the day - and The Beef - from ruin.

Now while Carmy is struggling to integrate in season 3, he has never shied away from inheritances in his work. The most salient example of this is the sandwich window at The Bear which still serves up the Italian beef sandwiches that his family is known for. Something tells me that if it had been Shapiro in Carmy's shoes, he would have nixed that idea completely.

The devil is a snake

And finally, unrelated to any life lessons inferred from the show is the allegorical warning about Adam that we are given in 3x01 Tomorrow.

Recall this scene in the third season premiere where Carmy, Luca and Shapiro are shucking peas at Ever.

Its clear Carmy is working at a speed that Luca and Shapiro find it hard to match. Shapiro is seen looking over at Carmy's tub of peas and whispering fuck in surprise/jealousy:

The camera then dips to Shapiro's tub of peas, which we can see is running low compared to Carmy's.

There are also what appear to be three apple slices on Shapiro's cutting board. They only appear at his work station. Carmy and Luca do not have anything other than peas in front of them.

We know that almost everything we see and hear on screen in The Bear is intentional and I reckon these apple slices are no different. So what could they mean?

The Bear utilises a lot of Biblical imagery and narrative and I think these apple slices continue in that vein. In the Old Testament of the Bible, there is the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve is seduced into eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil by a serpent. In Western retellings of the story, the forbidden fruit is often described as an apple. As a result of this deception by the snake, Adam and Eve are booted from Eden.

Back at The Bear, we have three slices of apple on Chef Shapiro's cutting board. I think these represent three attempts by Shapiro to tempt Sydney to join his new restaurant (i.e. get her to eat the forbidden fruit that will result in her getting booted from The Bear and the life she's built there)

In season 3, Shapiro puts his offer to Sydney twice: once in 3x07 Legacy and again in 3x10 Forever:

I suspect that Shapiro is going to try one last time to get Sydney on side in season 4, but she'll turn him down. Eve might have trusted a snake but Sydney's got better instincts lol.

Now whether she will stay at The Bear is another story and one entirely dependent on Carmy getting his shit together in season 4. But the way I see it, Sydney certainly won't be leaving her found family in order to join Shapiro. I mean who has time for disloyalty, smudges and snakes when you have people to feed and make happy?

[therandomtoad]

Nerd Headcanons because this post was only supposed to be about one but I went a little wild-

I headcannon Richie as Aroace(Asexual, Demi-romantic), so I like to imagine Grace befriending him due to his lack of interest, and then becoming borderline obsessed with him due to how completely abstinent he is, meanwhile he's just like, "Why are you even here? Go away"

I also headcannon that Ruth is the only reason Richie and Pete were even friends. The way I picture it is that Ruth and Pete had to do a math assignment together in middle school, and they weren't really working together, more like working around each other, and all the sudden Pete makes a dumb Star Wars reference and Ruth flips out. Like, she's so excited that she completely lights up and starts rambling to him about her headcannons and ships, and Pete just sits there kinda stunned until she brings up a headcannon that he actually thinks is interesting, So all the sudden the two are just having a conversation about the things that make the headcannon so good, and they get so invested in the conversation that they don't finish the assignment before the end of class, so Ruth invites Pete to sit with her a lunch the next day. So he goes to sit with her, and there's this blue haired weeb(idc if its not canon, Richie had a blue hair phase) who's arguing with her, when the weeb notices Pete and shoots him the nastiest, bitchiest look on the planet, and Pete's just like "i^i". And Ruth introduces Pete as her math buddy and starts talking about their Star Wars convo, and Richie goes on a rant about how Star Wars is stupid and Pete starts arguing his points, and is turns into an actual fight. And then later Ruth is talking to Pete later in class and Pete's like "Hey, Your friend sucks-" and Ruth is like "Yeah, he's such a bitch. Don't worry, I put pickle juice in his monster this morning" and Pete's just like "Wtf bro, what is your friendship-"

And the reason that Richie and Ruth are friends is because in elementary school, Ruth used to eat glue and Richie used to doodle girls in pretty dresses so he got picked on. So Ruth just kind of adopted him as her friend, and they just naturally developed a sibling like bond over time.

I also headcannon that Ruth's parents were also nerds, and they like nerdy shit things and are super supportive(Ruth and Esther would totally get along. They're Cousins or siblings, take your pick), But Richie has a weird dynamic with his family, where he's not really understood by them so he gets more territorial over his interests, and Ruth understands that so she lets him ramble about whatever he wants, even if he's kind of being a dick about it. I also Headcannon that Richie was actually on the swim team for a while(I grabbed that headcannona from someone else), and was way more chill being able to connect with others, but Max saw Kyle talking to Richie after swim practice before a football game, and he started spreading rumors that Richie was gay, and eventually he dropped out due to harassment.

Pete and Riche would've gotten along way better while Richie was on the swim team, and they probably considered themselves actual friends, but as Richie lost his feeling of belonging on the Swim team, their relationship would've deteriorated again, but Pete would've realized that he's just abd angst fucking bitch and hated him less for it.

Ruth totally looked into swimming the minute Richie said he was into it, and she totally helped him practice outside of school. She was the one cheering the loudest for him at meets, and she'd yell at him like a coach when they practiced together.

Ruth probably has people telling her to shut up all the time, so she's a fiesty little shit when it comes to clapbacks. She can think of them fast and on point, and likes to make a game out of it. Unfortunately, you cant do that on stage, so she feels helpless to defend herself and thats why she has such bad stage fright. She's probably a really, really good actor, too. I imagine her being able to break down sobbing like her baby was hit by a car, only to smile and bow Meer seconds later. She's probably fucking wonderful.

[bladeforgrrrl]

VIOLET tried to give richie opportunities to prove she wasn't a narc loser, really she did. but it seemed like they were too busy managing violet's fun ideas! so when violet had extended an olive brach in the form of a position as spotter, she should've known it wasn't going to play out the way she wanted.

"c'mon, richie, grass is basically nature's padding!" violet said, her voice borderline a whine. "first you tell me i can't do a front flip over my drum set during gigs and now i can't even do recreational flips?" it was also kinda fun as hell to antagonize richie, violet had found. unstoppable force vs. immovable object etc. except violet's unstoppable force was just pure obnoxious behaviour.

Richie watched the scene unfolding from their perch on the front porch, perfectly rolled cigarette dangling from their lips. Her resolution of the night was firmly to not get involved. Richie was serious about the music, about the band's potential, which was the whole reason for even taking this gig in the first place. If Richie wanted to babysit adults, she would've become an executive assistant for some bigwig asshole. Instead, she was leaning against the railing on Major's majorly bare porch, debating the merits of intervening with Violet's antics versus letting her go for the gold.

On the one hand, Violet was the quickest to give Richie shit for trying to 'dull her sparkle' or whatever. On the other hand, what the fuck was Richie going to do if their drummer busted her hands?

So, begrudgingly, Richie put out their cigarette and pushed themself off the porch, taking long strides towards Violet. She put her hands up, showing she meant no harm, "Alright, Carly Patterson, give it a rest." Richie sighed, "You do know gymnasts use, like, padded floors for a reason? Ground's a hell of a lot less forgiving."

[xtinyslip]

“if i knew you were gonna be screaming in your sleep, i would’ve left you at the side of the road.”

sam hadn't meant for this to happen. she hadn't meant to end up in such a vulnerable and stupid situation with richie but it had happened. she was here in the car with him. was she going to elaborate on why she was in such a state? no, that was frankly none of his business. however, she did have a plan and that involved him being closer right now… rather than further away. "wouldn't you love to know what i was dreaming about?" turning her head slowly, hand moving to check that she had still had her penknife ; in which, luckily, she did. how the fuck had she fallen asleep next to him like that? she was angry at herself. "richie, why didn't you? leave me at the side of the road?" @fcdcdmcmories

[dissectedgrrl]

i love the "all of jons characters are related" headcanon so im gnna give the smallest addition to it by saying paul and emma are the fun uncle and aunt. emma REALLY likes richies friends and she takes them places all the time. paul is bad at talking to kids but he wanted to have a relationship with richie so he watched all of aot. now thats 99.9% of what their convos are about

[goddessxdivine]

do we think that Syd at any point talked Carmy down from his insane behavior while in the walk-in? cause they were together after he got out. we know because she brought him coffee and they had the “don’t let it happen again” and “it’s never going to happen again” convo. so like at what point from him yelling “get Syd” and her telling him to call Richie, did they converse while he was in there … asking because i want the footage lol