#the Blumenthal trio

[mikimeiko]

Ted Lasso Season 3 - one gif per episode (with the first gif from the first scene and the last gif from the last scene) | Baz (Basil) Primrose, Jeremy Blumenthal & Paul La Fleur

[wyvernspirit]

Wish there was more fics that explored the fact that residuum comes from Whitestone

Cause let's be honest "Percival tortured as a teenager Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III" would NOT be happy to find out Trent Bitchface is using Whitestone resources to torture teenagers

I also just want to see Percy and the Blumenthal trio (and Beau) talk 👉👈

I like seeing my fav characters interact with each other sue me

[tunedtostatic]

The Blumenthal trio in cr2 made me think of a quote I heard last summer on the Locked Tomb episode of the Wizards vs Lesbians podcast (in the case of Caleb, Astrid, Eadwulf, and Ikithon, I guess that would be Wizard vs Other, Bisexual Wizards) so I went back to find it. I've transcribed the relevant section below for other Blumendrei enjoyers (yes I used an upside down smiley face as a tone indicator it's efficient)

(This quote includes significant SPOILERS for the Locked Tomb series; I personally wouldn't consider them book-breaking spoilers, but your mileage may vary, so heads up)

--

Isaac: I was, I wanted to, to get your take on what, um, you think these creatures represent--the revenant beasts, the planet ghosts.

Alexis: I mean to some degree, we don't really know, we haven't really seen them up close enough to know--

Isaac: Well we can't. 🙃 We've heard them described, but it just, the way that they fill anybody who's done the lyctoral process with mortal terror upon seeing them, um, I first thought, oh, this is a representation of like the unreasoning horror of death, but that's clearly not the way that this book thinks about death or treats death.

Alexis: (agreeing) No.

Isaac: I was like oh it's guilt actually, (Crosstalk, agreeing: Yeah, yes!), that's what guilt does to your brain. [Chuckles.]

Alexis: Well and--Yes! I think it is guilt, and I also think that it's, um, I think that it's supposed to be sort of the world outside your abuse bubble.

Isaac: Yeah, because it turns out, you know, we get a little smell of this in the epilogue--that there is actually a huge universe out there--

Alexis: With like shops, with like stores! And sausages! And…

Isaac: Yeah, it's like this really, it reminds me of Utena--uh, I mean [laughs] we might have to reset the Utena counter too, if that's a thing we want to do--

Alexis: The thing is I don't MIND talking about UTENA! {as opposed to Homestuck}

[Both laughing]

Isaac: But, the, John's like, 'It's a shame the world is the way it is' thing really reminds me of {?? Utena character} in both his creepiness and his, you know, 'Well, this is the way the world and the universe that exists, incidentally the one that I created by my laws and that I've trapped you all in, and that I've sealed you into by your guilt and sin for a thing that I manipulated you into doing.'

Alexis: Right, and this is honestly where the abuser and the empire really converge, because that is both the logic of the abusive parent or significant other and it is also very much the logic of empire.

Isaac: Yes. But it turns out, and it turns out there is in fact an entire universe outside the, like, these horrible tiny worlds that are all that is left of, uh, of Earth's solar system (Crosstalk: Yes. Yes, so--) and they don't actually enjoy being ruled by John and his empire.

Alexis: Yeah. And so I think that the resurrection beasts are their guilt; they are the, the outside world; but you know, and the thing is, when you're in, you know, an abusive situation, guilt and shame and terror are some of the things that keep you in. (Crosstalk: Yeah.) And, you know, often it's--your own mistakes can get very much weaponized against you and the way you feel bad about them can be very much weaponized against you and I think that, you know, the Resurrection Beasts are a very good example of this, but I think they also work fairly well as a metaphor for the guilt, the sort of collective guilt for war crimes and other atrocities that our empires commit. Because this is what happens when you kill a planet, it turns out; you get…a revenge monster.

Isaac: Yes. And, one of the things about the revenge monster is that it's impossible for you to think critically or clearly about it because the overwhelming feeling of shame and terror, just, uh, overrides everything else, overrides your entire brain, and so you continue to make mistakes in an effort to either deny or fall into that oblivion. Um, you're either, it's either not true or the guilt is so severe that you have to throw yourself into Hell, [chuckles] neither of which are actually the way things get better.

[sparring-spirals]

listen. l i s t e n. the best quality of the Mighty Nein is the way they circle the wagons around each other. They fight to save each other. That is the point.

They all complement each other, they all come in and stack up under each other like bricks, steadying a wall.

veth, his partner in crime, pulling together an unconventional plan with unconventional tools (smearing glue on a cloak collar, like shooting arrows at hidden books).

beau, his empire sibling, his fellow nerd, his professionally-trained-to-root-out-corruption sister, working with his partner in crime to tackle trent, physically bringing him to the floor, holding him in an unyielding grip.

fjord, his blood pact bro, the one he shares solemn and steady conversations with, the one who once was so eager to go to the cerberus assembly, so excited to learn magic from caleb, being the one to cast counterspell when caleb was running on empty.

caduceus, grave cleric, (their cleric), a little fragile and so wise, the one with the foresight to cast death ward, his omniscience keeping caleb standing, just long enough.

jester, the cleric (their cleric), her hands steady, asking Caleb- do you want him, dead or alive? The same hands that could kill, turning to him and healing him for 70 points instead.

yasha, his fellow introvert, woman of few words but with heavy meaning, a sword on his chest, steady, like a mountain, like a guardian angel. "If you try anything, I will kill you."

and oh- essek, casting hold person at fifth level. holding him still. essek, too, is held there, despite his fear, despite the danger of retribution. essek is there for them- for him. and is steady, and ready.

and eadwulf- choosing to do nothing, instead of something. astrid, hands coming in where Caleb's falter, activating the robe with sure hands (sealing her fate, sealing her side).

pieces, coming together to make a whole. Stones stacked to support a center. Interlocking puzzle pieces to make a picture. I don't have anything more poetic than what already played out on screen. I love the Mighty Nein. (and they love each other).

[my-least-favorite-savior]

Should we first talk about why no other Volstrucker has ever left?

First of all, a big part of Trent’s process is making sure that they have nowhere else to go. First, he isolates them from their peers at the Academy. (Caleb says that Trent was originally one of many teachers he had the Academy, and then Trent became his primary teacher. Bren had no friends aside from his fellow Volstrucker trainees.) He takes over their schedules so they’re spending all of their time with him and others who are under his thumb, and he tells them that it’s because they are special and better than their peers anyway. They’re fifteen at this time, so they believe him. Then, he makes them kill their family. It’s kind of brilliant, in a sadistic way. He subjects them to slowly escalating abuse for years, and then he hands them a match and tells them to burn their only bridge away from him.

Let’s assume that Astrid really does have an uncle, and wasn’t just playing along. Of course she hasn’t spoken to him in years. What could she possibly say to him after murdering his sister? Making them kill their immediate families is also a pretty good way of blowing up their relationships with their extended families.

It’s not like Trent stops controlling them when they reach adulthood, either. They live in houses on his estate and report to him daily for orders. Trent chooses them when they’re 14 years old, destroys everything else they have, and keeps them right under his thumb for the rest of their lives.

Then he calls them family He takes their original families from them, but he offers his own twisted mockery of a family in return. And they take it, because it hurts less than empty space where their parents used to be. Caleb called the Volstrucker locked up in Rosohna his sister without ever having met her. Trent invited Caleb over for a family dinner. What happened to their parents was an unfortunate necessity, but they don’t have to feel alone; the Volstruckers are their family now; Trent is their family now.

The second reason they don’t leave him or tell anyone is that Trent specifically chooses students who are unlikely to do that. Trent chooses his students partly for the fun of it, to see what he can sculpt out of their unique natural talents, but he’d be a fool not to consider their temperaments as well. It’s easy to imagine Bren, Eadwulf, and Astrid as teachers pets who were eager for Trent’s approval as teenagers. Even now that they’re adults, Trent is very intentional with when and how he praises them, and praise is his go-to way of love-bombing Caleb at the dinner.

Trent has access to all the students at the Soltryce Academy. This is already the pick of the litter in terms of the Empire’s magic-wielding teenagers. Anyone he chooses is going to be gifted. He has the luxury of looking at other factors, like how eager they are to please him, how susceptible they are to pro-Empire propaganda, and whether or not their families will be missed. (Is it really a coincidence that Bren, Astrid, and Eadwulf were all from the same rural town that is firmly under the capital’s thumb? Probably not.)

So, after he picks out kids are that going to respond well to his brainwashing, he brainwashes them. That’s the third reason none of them have ever left before.

He tells them they’re family. Not by blood, but by shared goals and shared suffering. I can’t prove that Trent ever actually said that, but it fits perfectly with the way the Blumendrei talk about each other and with Trent’s view of the world. The pain they endure together bonds them (and they’ve got matching tattoos to prove it).

Their pain protects the innocent of the Empire. They do their bloody work so others don’t have to. They endure this pain so others don’t have to. Someone has to hurt, because that’s how the world is, and if it’s not the Volstruckers, it will be the innocent children of the Empire.

Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made. Your innocence. Their lives. Someday, maybe your life. These sacrifices are what keep little Empire children safe and warm in their beds at night. It’s for the good of the Empire. It’s what any good Empire citizen would do. You should feel honored to have been given this opportunity.

Trent inflicts pain in on them because pain makes them stronger. Because they are smarter and stronger than their peers and they can save the Empire, if they just let him teach them. Trent hurts them because he sees the potential in them and wants to bring it out. Trent hurts them for the greater good. Trent hurts them out of love.

That’s what he tells them. That’s what he told them at dinner.

They’re spoon-fed a million excuses for their own abuse, and they have little choice but to swallow those excuses, because (reason #4) Trent made them complicit in their own abuse, and each other’s abuse, and the murders of their families. The alternative to accepting Trent’s apologism put Bren in an insane asylum. “All of that pain and suffering and death was absolutely unnecessary and you not only subjected yourself to it for no reason, you helped for no reason,” is not an easy thing to process.

Liam has done a really good job of showing how Caleb struggles with that and how it led to so much self-hatred. And Caleb had a loving support network. Most Volstruckers have one or two equally broken people from their class that they can mostly trust, if they are lucky. Most Volstruckers are only given one framework to process these feelings through, and it’s the abusive framework laid out in #3.

We can’t go without mentioning that shared guilt is one of the oldest tricks in the book to get a victim to keep quiet. It’s the classic ‘You’ll be in trouble too.’ “Do you really want to go the king and confess to the murder of innocent Empire citizens? Your own family, no less?” It wasn’t like Trent put the poison in the food or threw the fireball.

Reason #5: Lots of people already know and simply do not care. While Astrid’s comments in e131 do imply that the king doesn’t know what Trent has been doing to the children of his kingdom, the Cerberus Assembly knows and has known for a while. Every time Caleb has brought up his abuse with a member of the Cerberus Assembly, he’s gotten empty sympathy and dismissal. He hasn’t even had to explain the abuse to them. Multiple people have heard that he was a student of Trent Ikithon’s and immediately responded with sympathy... but also in ways that made it clear that they didn’t plan to do anything about it. The Cerberus Assembly knows. Ludinus would be very bad at his job if he did not know, considering that Trent recruits from the Academy. The Volstruckers are used to Trent doing what he does out in the open, in front of other high-level officials.

It’s not like Trent is hiding his abuse of them, either. Trent takes kids home for the summer and they show up for Intermediate Transmutation the next fall with fucking experimental crystals in their arms. Ludinus knew. Even Vess knew. The Volstruckers know that Ludinus and Vess know. At best, they likely believe that there is no point in talking. At worst, it reinforces everything Trent is telling them and makes them believe that they are the problem if they can’t tough it out.

Last but not least: mortal terror is the sixth reason why no one has ever gotten away from Trent before. Trent broke Bren’s brain and then made him disappear for a decade. Trent made all of their families disappear. Do you think Astrid got investigated for murder after some poor neighbor found her family’s bodies? No. Trent made that disappear. How easily could Trent make one Volstrucker disappear? Volstruckers die all the time, after all. There wouldn’t be many questions asked about a Volstrucker’s death. There might not be any questions asked at all. Who would notice a Volstrucker was missing, except for other Volstruckers (who are loyal to Trent. And terrified of Trent. And may have helped with the murder.)

So that’s why Caleb is the first to ever leave. (1) Most Volstruckers have nowhere else to go. (2) Trent gets to hand-pick students to abuse, so obviously he’s going to pick ones that are likely to respond well (by his standards) to his abuse. (3) Volstruckers are brainwashed into accepting Trent’s abuse apologism. (4) Volstruckers are made to feel morally culpable for their own abuse and are not given space to process these feels outside of the brainwashing framework Trent provides them with in #3. (5) People with power don’t care; people who care lack power; people with both are out of reach. This is a pattern embedded in their psyches well before they kill their parents. (6) Trent could literally straight up kill them have a couple of teenagers dig a shallow grave in the woods. No one would ever ask questions.

[beckyblah]

Arsonist’s Lullaby

[sixofclovers]

choking back tears, wow embarrassing they still love him

[skaadshotn]

Astrid delivering on giving us FEELS.

Sooooo I wanted to finish this before last thursday but I’m slow as fuck. That moment though !!!

[ Ko-fi ]

[the-b-hive]

“The love that the three of us shared...”

[aeli-tan-art]

Good old days

[escapist-dreams]

Trent: If I am ever shot, what do you do?

Astrid: Reload.

[kazisonline]

Marisha speaking the truth, First Jester dominating Astrid, now this, Caleb is constantly having a bi panic in addiction to the regular panic, all of his crushes are fighting

[sparring-spirals]

astrid and eadwulf and caleb really just. oh man. what a fraught trainwreck of emotions and experiences. "its complicated" doesnt even begin to cover it, huh caleb

[my-least-favorite-savior]

Eadwulf was the goth when they were teenagers but he chilled a little as he got older and now out of nowhere Bren’s going to come back and just be goth as Hell with a goth drow boyfriend and Wulf’s going to have to up his game. 

[thechekhov]

The Reluctant Puppetmaster