#but also hi gerri and caroline <3 <3 <3

[loverboyromanroy]

having a good time! thriving, even!

[romulussy]

what if i start gerri/caroline posting again. what then.  

[no-tenderness]

Okay but here’s the thing, Roman telling Gerri that she doesn’t respect him is just. such transparent bullshit. She was the ONLY one who had enough respect for him in S2&3 to invest in him, commit to helping him, ask him to “stick with me, Roman,” etc. Roman’s honest and true raison d’être is to be needed and the fact that she showed him genuine attention and affirmation and even affection was filling part of that emptiness that was left again and again by Logan, by the siblings, by Caroline, by any “normal” relationship he’s had with anyone else. And she offered him so many warnings and lifelines, especially in S3, and now he’s punishing her for the Ordeal of Being Known by her. There is So Much I can say about that breakup scene, but Gerri saying, “you’re not your father,” is both the worst thing he could possibly hear and also a positive thing about Roman as a character. He’s not Logan and Gerri was shaping him into a different kind of leader. Not better, necessarily, in the context of the overarching [waves hands] corporate capitalism or whatever, but effective and shrewd and less mercurial than his father. “I work for waystar, not Logan Roy” — she SAID it ages ago. The Old Guard has been part of Waystar likely for more than half of the company’s existence and now these kids are grief spiraling and trying to Become their dad and burning it all down and for what? Gerri’s quiet “I am good at my job.” is, at this point, the only thing she knows For Sure in this current situation. She is good at her job. She has survived for ~30 years in this place because she is Good at her Job. Roman has benefitted directly from her Being Good at Her Job and he’s throwing back everything she taught him back in her face. Gerri respected Roman and he knew that, but couldn’t handle being Seen and can’t forgive her for that.

[akajustmerry]

Jumping in your inbox! Only to ask, is there anything in particular you wish Succession fans would talk about more, that you haven't seen them talk about? Hope you're having a really good evening!

hello, I love your url 😂 and thank you! stuff I'd like to see people discuss more is (quickfire round):

wish people would just generally discuss Logan's abuse of the Roy siblings in less competitive terms. I think it's really weird and uncomfortable to see people argue who had it worse when we spent 4 seasons witnessing how this man uniquely tortured each of his children in ways that fucked them all up for life in deeply irreparable ways. like, grow up. would anyone who is trying to argue one sibling had it worse than any other actually want any of their childhoods? no because they are all horrific.

I generally wish people would look into the real world influences and inspirations for succession more. I think people would get more out of the show and see its brilliance more clearly with its proper context. particularly the political and class context!

it's really hard to have nuanced conversations about women on the internet, but I really wish people didn't view the women in this show purely as either victims or #girlbosses a lot of the time. I wish there was more discussion on how their victimisation as women co-exists and even informs their abuse of others. I'm thinking primarily of shiv, gerri and Caroline when I say this.

oh I wish very much there was more discussion of naomi pierce! I think she's such a wonderful character whose existence says so much while doing so little. I'm a low-key hardcore kenomi shipper too so I wish there was more love for them as a couple too. Also just wish people talked about Rhea more I think she's one of the greatest characters of all time.

Wish people would discuss/understand that Succession isn't an "ugly show," it's actually shot in the very specific Dogme 95 tradition and while it may not seem cinematic to some, it's a very intentional artistic choice and if people appreciated that intentionality more then they would understand succession is very beautiful in its own way.

Kinda wish ppl would not discuss Logan as a cartoonist villain. I feel like the series goes to great pains to show how Logan is a complex human being and while his abuse isn't excusable, it's not simple either.

I also don't think it's discussed enough how shiv refers to Tom taking advantage of her early in their relationship when she was going through a dark time. Shiv briefly refers to a period where she was really low before she met Tom and then Tom sort of pulled her out of it but the way Tom talks about shiv during that time it's like she was disassociated which is yikes. I don't really see Shiv's mental health discussed anywhere near as much as the boys and I think there's way more to say about it!

these are just off the top of my head as I'm falling asleep! obviously this is relative to my experiences with the fandom so there very well might be places where these things are discussed and if so that's great. hope you have a lovely day too <3

[gerrydelano]

DANNY GOING 💥 ANON HERE. HEWWO. I AM SO GLAD THIS ISN'T CANON

this is perhaps??? the 8th time im rewriting this??????????? but i keep coming back to it. you're one of my favourite authors period so i HAD to just fuckging. absorb all of this so i could process it correctly.

okay okay so

1. widower tim breaks my fucking heart. like really there is no way to properly convey this to you over the screen. like. his whole thing is love, right? it's why he's the witness in literally every iteration of the gtcu. so for him to have to actually Witness gerry's death and be the most broken i have seen him across three aus where the world ends in every one of them breaks me. beyond belief. you and ren made him my favourite (next to danny) and then some. waugh

1b. 'a spire in the fog' A LIGHTHOUSE WITHOUT A LIGHT, YOU COULD SAY?

1c. i don't remember the ronologue it was exactly but it said that marriage wasn't a serious consideration but wife is a nickname that gerry loves?

2. pink is jon's honesty colour. he is wearing a pink kurta. i am going to sob.

2b. the description of the sunny day that gerry died on makes me wail.

3. MELANIE'S EVERYTHING. I LOVE HER SO MUCH. I LOVE LOVE LOVE THE IDEA OF HER MAKING A MEMORIAL VIDEO FOR GERRY FEATURING ALL THE STATEMENT GIVERS WHO WE HELPED. TIMOTHY HODGE. CAROLINE. CALLUM.

4. divishah and the cocoa. god. actually rewinding a little to say that i made it to 'no more estrogen' before crying. sasha did lose a sister!!!! HER BROTHER DIED AND SO DID HER SISTER. FUCK

4b. okay back to the cocoa. that was really kind of her to come all the way down to the archives just to bring them all a treat i love her so much.

4c. SASHA LIKE. REVERSE WITNESSING TIM? IDK HOW TO EXPLAIN IT BUT GOD. GOD GOD GOD /pos

4c(i) sasha and tim's sections ending the same then danny's ending as the inverse of that. they are the siblings 4ever.

5. DANNY. DANNY!

5b. okay i am really fucking pleased because i think i figured out a through line here. I will put it in a second ask because i need to back (9th time now!) to make sure i am correct so i will leave my miscellaneous observations here

danny only names himself in his dialogue once he recalls coming back when gerry can't

he calls himself the bull and Martin the tamer like how the contortionist did

tim standing in the doorway and blocking him out reminds me of hlm when danny comes to tims house the first time and tim refers the black out curtains he had to get bc of jon's stalking? that's like. the loosest connection ever lmao but it's a parallel and it hurts. (warm and solid vs cold and intangible...)

seconding this by the description of tim's eyes being the same way as the 'nothing. and nothing hurt' that keeps popping up in rtd.

also thanking you for letting danny cry? that sounds weird but it's nice to see a moc that just. is allowed to let it out. i am rotating him (all of them really) in my head

BOOM ANOOOON i'm so glad to see you! you really did just Infiltrate My Brain with that ask and i got completely overtaken and it feels like it's been more than 5 days ngl. thank you So much for the inspiration, i did have a lot of fun with this exercise, it was a challenge to kill my favorite LOL.

cracks knuckles here we go

1. widower tim breaks MY heart! "his whole thing is love, right?" you GET IT! his whole thing IS love! i can't see him as anything other than the witness at this point, even if pbr!witness is extremely different and Much Wetter than the original rtd!witness. him witnessing gerry's death in here is actually just fucking awful because he'd subsist on it in a very specific way; the arrangement renders it a suicide just as much as a murder. writing him this broken was so painful but so satisfying djhfkjdf tim is a worthy favorite to have! he's always been my favorite of the original archives crew, if it wasn't Blatantly Obvious by how much we center him LMAO.

1b. a lighthouse without a light.... you're krilling me, boom anon. shrimply krilling me.

1c. i believe it was the one about gerry being a transfem gay man!

2. pink! is the jon honesty color! yes!!!! he's been quite forthright this whole time i think, they're all really just. wondering what the point would be in anything else.

2b. i neeeeded that anachronism there so badly, just. it's a bright summer day! it's never actually raining or dreary when things like this happen (unless you recall that it was raining in venice when tim was drowned. that time it rained.) but generally, the world goes on. i think... i also just wanted that sunny day to be a little reminder of the kind of person gerry was at his core. symbolism etc etc.

3. i was SOOOO STUMPED ON MELANIE for a WHILE before i remembered she was a youtuber and then i exploded on the spot. her video is titled "the long overdue absolution of gerard keay" and she works for six months to make it perfect and it gets a lot of bad attention and skeptics but mostly condolences and maybe even a few people who had their own experiences but didn't recognize who he was until they saw a picture of him smiling. she'd include selfies they'd taken together as proof of her knowing him. i'm crying a little.

4. sasha losing a sister is a phrase i had a hard time with because there are so many ways to read it, like. that was her best friend's wife, and so kind of her sister that way, but also just. a sister. no more estrogen. no more joy.

4b. divshah is a sweet and thoughtful little bee girl and i am so sorry to her forever because people definitely make fun of her but GERRY NEVER DID! GERRY NEVER DID!

4c. sasha reverse witnessing tim GUHHHH yep! yep! her whole corruption thing is about grief, too, it crosses lines! they all have to do with loss in one way or another!

4c(i). YES YOU NOTICED THE INVERSE YESSSS my work here is complete

5. DANNY INDEED! FUCK!

5b. 9 times jhbfkjnfkjn wildman! i'm crying again!

observations:

YES I AM SO GLAD YOU NOTICED THAT TOO i didn't want him to name himself much in his pov section but i needed to use it there and GUH. you are the most observant and you made my night jdfhbdk

always comes back to the bullfighter and the bleeding man dunnit

that's a fun connection to make tbh!!!! i was saying to ren today "you know what'd Suck the most? if tim didn't even let him in the house and they just talked in the doorway" and they were like "then you have to do it. if it sucks the most that's what you have to do." and YEP! it sucks the most to me!!!! for precisely that reason!

tim's eyes also hurt me like hi mr. spooky man maybe work on that a little bit please g-d you're gonna scare a small child like that. very good connection to rtd though you are NAILING IT and i am over the MOON.

danny crying is extremely important to me for that reason too yes g-d. like. all the other men cried in this, too (especially tim YIKES, MAN) but something about letting danny just weep openly and in such a human way felt like. g-d he's needed this for such a long time. so much longer than anybody is able to count. he needed to let that out and be held through it and he needed to accept that comfort and it's not the first time, really! i try not to be too restrained with letting characters cry because there are a thousand reasons that somebody might like, feel good about seeing it just play out naturally and without shame.

thank you so much for your observations and your enthusiasm and just, everything, jfhbkjnfkjn gosh WOW thank you!

[brookheimer]

hi! i started following you when i found your veep posts after i finished the show! I've been enjoying your posts discussing the shiv pregnancy plotline and i love all of your analysis posts! ❤️ i'm also REALLY hoping they don't pull an amy plotline on this, but i don't think they will. and this message below got really long, i'm sorry!

i think shiv's plotline is also a new way to look at femininity and womanhood through her eyes. she's considering if it will hold her back professionally, and also how people may see it as an excuse to treat her differently or fragile bc of it -at least that's how i took the fall scene and her conversation with tom on the steps. it does seem like she might be trying to prove something to her mom. she also mentions their mom the most (maybe the same/more than roman does?) and their conversation last season in italy wrecked me, personally.

i don't always agree with shiv, but at those exact points it's just like the aspect and pain of how she's seen or treated differently bc she's a woman is emphasized and it stabs right through me. like, i get it. i can truly understand what it feels like, and they portray that perspective perfectly.

awww oh my god hi !!! so glad to have another veep expat onboard here there are disconcertingly few of us. and yes i completely nd totally agree -- i'm - gulp - maybe looking forward to the pregnancy plotline possibly?? like, do i trust succession to do it well? not entirely. but do i trust it more than any other show currently airing that i can think of? ummm yeah probably. i am also a known Complicated Female Character Aficionado and while i have always liked shiv a lot, for some reason i never quite resonated with her the way i have some other female characters -- not entirely sure why that is, maybe it's the wealth, but maybe it's the lack of focus on her inner life in prev seasons. not that she isn't complicated or interesting, but that a lot of what we know about her really only relates to her relationships with men and how she exists around them -- which is obviously an incredibly huge aspect of her character and the lives of women generally (i fuckin know it is for me), but we haven't seen much of who she is outside of that. and even if she's literally nothing outside of that, i still want to see and explore it, because that's character depth too (she's so wrapped up in roy-style masculinity that she literally doesn't know who she is outside of it etc).

to me, the most interesting shiv scenes have largely been the ones she shares with other women -- with gerri, with her lawyer friend, with the woman she talked out of coming forward about cruises, with fucking caroline?? like, there are just a lot of Career Women Who Shove Down Femininity To Exist In Masculine Worlds in television these days, and i just want to see some more interiority with shiv, because i know it's there, we get hints of it and it plays across snook's face in every scene. i'm not saying i want to be explicitly told every aspect of her life -- god, no, that would be an entirely different show -- but that i want some like focus on her, not her relationship with tom or logan or kendall or roman but something with the purpose of developing her. more than any other character on the show i feel like i just know so little about her life before, beyond, outside of waystar royco. and if there isn't stuff beyond that, then i want to see that too! i just think there is so much that could be done with shiv that hasn't been quite covered already (it is an ensemble show, after all) and i'm really hoping this plotline will kind of fill that void. maybe it won't, maybe it'll suck, but maybe it will be the deep dive into shiv i've been waiting for. praying and praying and praying succession does for shiv what i so desperately wanted veep to do for amy brookheimer fr <3

[peniscat]

missing gerri hours SO… do u have hcs you want to share 🤲

hi hello kat thank you for enabling me during these trying times <3 it’s been a while since i’ve last thrown some gerri hcs together so some of these might be familiar to some people hdksfjs. unsurprisingly this got long so... under the read more <3

she did choose to marry baird but if she truly had had a choice, she probably wouldn’t have married anyone at that point of her life. marrying baird meant influence and stability which in turn helped her career, and being an unmarried woman in the 80s in an environment like waystar wouldn’t have been a good look.

she doesn’t mind being a mother though it’s also another thing she wouldn’t probably have chosen for herself. she acknowledges that she could have been more present in her daughters’ lives during their childhood, but she also refuses to feel too bad about it. in her opinion she has always been there when it mattered.

she also didn’t mind baird and they became pretty comfortable with each other during their marriage. gerri got baird’s job after he died mostly because she already knew most of the secrets and because she was genuinely good at her job. but also because waystar desperately needed more women at the top. while she would have liked to have gotten the job solely due to her competence, she’s not gonna complain.

she genuinely has never wanted to be at the top. she much prefers orchestrating everything from the sidelines. that doesn’t mean she has never thought about what she’d do if she was the one in charge. that is why she doesn’t really like being the interim ceo – in paper she might be at the top, but in reality she’s just being logan’s puppet.

she has always kept her daughters away from waystar as much as possible. she knows why the waystar office walls are made from glass these days. she and baird have attended copious roy family events but their daughters have rarely made an appearance.

has a very delightful frenemies-sort of a relationship with caroline. in a way where she is invited to caroline’s wedding and they have one extremely fake conversation filled with pleasantries but after that they both roll their eyes.

she actually likes marcia.

has spent the past 30-ish years not really liking the roy kids. she hasn’t really let that affect the way she actually works with them: even if she thinks that kendall is pathetic and that roman is stupid, if she has to, she helps them.

obviously she doesn’t think that roman is that stupid anymore.

though if the situation was different she probably would think that shiv is the most competent one out of them.

if roman sends her another dick pic in his life she’ll probably have him murdered. no one will ever find his body <3

she’s bisexual because that makes me happy and i get to decide these things

her team-up with roman is probably the most daring thing she has done in years. she doesn’t exactly regret it but wishes she’d done some things differently.

mostly listens to older music but occasionally also some hit songs from the early 2000s her daughters used to listen to

unwinds by playing games on her phone. she’s unbeatable in candy crush <3 also started playing word games with roman and also beats him in that all the time.

the biggest workaholic you’ll ever see. probably spends more time at the offices than at home.

grudgingly takes blood pressure meds every morning. she doesn’t mind getting older and she doesn’t have many regrets, but she does find it annoying to see the ways her body is starting to age. what do you mean you don’t recover from jetlag in a day or that you don’t survive on 4 hours of sleep anymore? bullshit, thinks gerri.

and finally, if there was a competition about who’s the baddest and biggest milf out there, she’d win it every single time <3

i’ve now decided that there is such a competition. gerri kellman, winner of waystar’s milf of the year award since 2004.

[janhooks]

1, 14, 21 for the fandom negativity meme lol

the character everyone gets wrong

a lot of people get logan and caroline wrong. like they portray logan as just a stern tyrant and miss out on his evil whimsy, like how he peppers his speech with fairy tale allusions and gives everyone nicknames and how much of his abuse is disguised as a "game". or they portray caroline as just an ice queen which is very different from how i see her which is that she's flighty and can shower her children with sympathy and affection for like, 5 minutes a time but is incapable of real support or emotionally difficult conversations.

also, and this is based on what other characters say about them in canon so i kind of get why people just accept it, the idea that roman has an especially strong case of mommy issues compared to his siblings (not that he doesn't have them! the show definitely makes the case particularly in late season 3 that his thing with gerri is in part a reflection of or reaction to his relationship with his mother). also the idea that kendall just straight-up doesn't care about his children, like people actually thinking that he forgot sophie's name in 3x02. he does love them but is unable to prioritize them. he will always be the son of logan roy before he's the father of sophie and iverson.

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

i don't think it's a bad thing because i don't think that the purpose of fanfiction should necessarily be to perfectly reproduce canon but rather to pull at a thread from canon and use it to create something new but i think canon roman would be too grossed out by puke to be bullimic. his "eating disorder" is more anorexia-adjacent.

also, and this is a bad thing, characters going to therapy and learning to be better people as if they haven't all had decades of therapy already

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

probably how good the political/social commentary is. i don't think the damage the roys is really effectively or vividly portrayed after season 2. like i can't think of anything in seasons 3 or 4 that portrays the collateral damage of the roy family as searingly as the whole waiter storyline or the scene from 2x09 with shiv and kira. the political storyline basically consists of the writers contriving situations that would give the roys outsized influence in the election (incumbent steps out of the presidential race post-primary due to bullying by logan and ATN, allowing logan and the roys to basically unilaterally pick the republican nominee; fire in polling place in wisconsin gives the roys the opportunity to "pick the winner" [or not, judging by the throwaway line about the courts in the finale, but the show definitely wants us to feel in the moment like they are really picking the winner of the election]). i mean, i'm fine with the way that succession uses "the times we live in" as backdrop and not as like a teaching opportunity for audiences but i think it's a bit silly when people think succession is making a grand statement about the nature of fascism

[explosionshark]

for the tv ask: succession 🫡

Favourite character: of the main characters i'd say roman. at the end of the day i still want to feed him to the woodchipper, but i do think his particular brand of fucked uppedness is the most tragic and compelling to me personally

Funniest character: well. also roman.

Best-looking character: MARCIA ROYYYYY though it's tough bc succession is a cornucopia of milves. shouts to j smith cameron as well.

3 favourite ships: i don't have ships for succession in a fandom way really. though roman/gerri is the first m/f fic i've sought out in years. aside from that - i find tom and shiv very compelling. uh. idk. marcia and caroline should hate fuck.

Least favourite character: greg and/or kendall

Least favourite ship: tomgreg. c'mon

Reason why I watch it: it's well done tv. smartly written and brilliantly acted. it's gorgeous to look at. and by this point i'm invested in how it'll turn out.

Why I started watching it: i'm gonna take this opportunity to be That Guy but I did start it right as s1 was ending. i was home sick one week and needed something to keep me occupied and i heard it was good!

tv series (or game or whatever) questions

[naturalblue22]

all succ ships

kenstewy: 1/10. they have no chemistry

tomgreg: 3/10. tom wishes he could find someone who loves him, greg has lana del rey brain disease. in theory they're the perfect match but in practice they're moons circeling different planets or whatever the tomgreggies say. have the writers prepared another heartbreak for tom? i hope so.

romangerri: -10/10. Gerri deserves so much more. roman deserves to have his head stuck in the toilet.

naomi/kendall: 3/10. they're too similar to make a satisfying couple. i would love to see them as friends though, or maybe, if naomi moved up in the ranks of pierce, as rivals

willa/connor: 2/10. the cringiest couple price goes to them. they're fun until you think about how Willa drew the short stick and is now stuck with connor. what if that happened to you? very scary

marcia/logan: 4/10 and all four points are for the promise of a divorce next season. Marcia is my favorite senior generation character and she should go out with a bang

logan/death + logan/good parenting: -1/10. do people not get what this show is about?

roman/that politician: 8/10. it would be funny to witness on tumblr if this went canon and tomgreg didn't and i would like to see the roman stans justify him kissing nazis

shivtom: 10/10. dream couple. the role reversal. the non-role-reversal. Shiv's complete disinterest in tom and tom's sway from sticking it to the big woman to desperately trying to have any meaning to her. "you love me."

gerri/logan: 1/10. i can't see them as anything but a work relationship

togan: 5/10. it's a crackship but maybe tom realizes that to climb the career ladder he may have to climb the ceo..... maybe logan's homophobia covers up a repressed part of him that longs for the touch of another man.... tom has seen logan's genitals......

shivwilla: 9.5/10. oh the intrafamilial drama of this one! Willa is trying so hard to be in love with connor and when she almost believes it her newly divorced sister-in-law of all people is the one to bring her back to reality. not 10/10 because they've never interacted in canon.

kendall/frank: 1/10. where did i find this ship? i guess it would be risque vorbiddene love

marcia/caroline: 4/10. why not. they would fight a lot probably. i also want this immensely

romtom: 1/10. omega4omega/beta4beta couple. where's the tension

gerri/caroline: 9/10. incredible. in canon they have never met but i don't care. i ship it.

froman/rank: 5/10. it could very much happen and i prefer it to romangerri because i like gerri more than frank

tomgerri: 3/10. this one is also plausible and since they would get pissed off at each other constantly it would be fun to watch. 3/10 because gerri deserves better than tom

frogan: 7/10. it's just tomgreg in old. logan would get super posessive over frank and frank would crawl back every time he'd get kicked. in a way they're perfect for each other

gilnate: 2/10. this could very maybe happen but i wouldn't care much. they get some points for the possible scandal

[lesbiankendall]

for the succ asks - 6, 9, 18, 27, 31 (hope thats not too many lol)

6. who deserves to take over wr?

no one lmfao. waystar needs to go under and the siblings need to lose all their money tbh

9. how did you get into succession?

GOD it's............i was taking an year long break from tumblr at the time (2021) and would go on twitter sometimes to entertain myself and there was this person i followed (not even a mutual) for a previous fandom and they livetweeted the first couple of s3 eps when they aired and i was bored so went why not. and started watching. and i cannot emphasize enough how much spur of the moment decision that was jdflkgf it usually takes me 6+ months to get around to watching anything i wanna watch. truly a miracle i started watching it.

18. hottest scene

not gonna lie the 3x08 shiv scene where she's having a manic meltdown after she talks to caroline. babygirl i'm so sorry about the trauma but you're so hot my knees would've buckled immediately. sorry to tom but i'm different.

27. do you think baird and gerri had a happy marriage?

i havent really thought about them at all tbh but @stewyhosseini-bf brought up a really good point imo - with what we know about waystar and logan and how things go there, i feel like there's no way things would've been all smooth. work and by extension logan will always take precedence in your life if you're part of the inner circle.

31. sexuality headcanons

kendall stewy and rava bi (the throuple that could've been)

shiv lesbian

roman gay

also naomi & tabs canon bisexuals you will always be famous <3 and lawrence and his boyfriend <3

[reasoncourt]

so if we’re talking about roman dying in s4 (and logan potentially having an indirect hand in it) how do you think it would happen? aside from a tragic jerk-off accident or exploding from the impact of gay sex, of course

dee, we literally have the same brain because you pre-empted my first two thoughts: tragic jerk-off accident and gay sex. You didn’t pre-empt my third thought which was that rory or macauley culkin are introduced as roman’s evil twin (foreshadowed by his siamese twin comment) who caroline has been hiding in the attic all this time (à la hugo from the simpsons). But i’ll assume you also want that to be put to the side.

Look, honestly I don’t know what the state of play will be in s4. Will roman still be involved in the takeover? how long will it take him to go back to logan? will they need him for the mencken angle, etc.? Maybe roman gets an arc where he becomes a part of mencken’s staff idk. S3 finale left everything up in the air. Vlada @technojizz floated the idea a while ago that roman could be in a bad enough headspace to do something to himself and i can see that potentially.

Aside from that, i think in the past we’ve seen logan’s actions put roman in harm’s way - e.g., argestes, turkey, and to an extent he’s the reason roman had to go pick up kendall in the therapy episode and it might just be me but that car scene puts me on edge everytime (honestly, though, it was probably just foreshadowing the crash at the end of the season rather than anything to do with a later arc for roman). 

Basically what i’m saying is that I think there’s an escalation there in the harm coming to roman via logan. And logan is the reason roman is now friends with a fascist. So i can imagine Mencken’s politics causing a lot of unrest and roman getting caught in the middle somehow. That would be interesting for a number of reasons - shiv would see logan’s corruption of roman as the reason for him being in that position, kendall would blame himself for being absent during season 3, logan would be aware of his own part in the whole thing, and connor has a strong bond to roman + is involved in the political side of things now.  This would also be interesting for gerri because she was his mentor during that time as well. Yeah, idk. Thoughts <3

[ebbarights]

with open eyes liveblog

i'm not ready for this. i haven't pre-grieved enough it turns out. i feel sick

on the bright side the only spoiler i have is that shiv did something controversial? which isn't a spoiler i would say but i'm actively avoiding reading the post currently greyed out behind this open tab

stewy not on kendall's side??? that's a fucking first. it's not but it is

okay so this is just like 1x06 right. literally a repeat?

last intro :(( i'm soo fucking sad. im sad. sadsaddsad oh yay arian. saaaaaaad

EBBA

shaved matsson cursed. hate that

matsson as shiv's puppet i don't think he's gonna like that. if their deal goes through i would be really surprised

theories about roman running to mommy literally right. love that though

tomshiv is making me want to rip myself in half like rumplestiltskin. specifically the shiv part obvs

i'm sure smart people have already made posts about this but. caroline called shiv.

NEW JESS NO

"let's bag him and tag him" dog (gone rogue) motif? idk anything about hunting

roman looking beat up in a normal t shirt wearing bracelets these are my dreams come true

caroline is so real. eyes ARE disgusting. face eggs

LAWRENCE YEE

kendall looks like a fucking disney villain driving up in his range rover in a suit sing-songing roman's name

SHIV TITS

okay tomgreg scene time to think about other things. everything revolving around roman is my dream finale <3 i want him to be okay but i also love it when he's not okay. you can't lose when you play both sides

shiv is way too sure of winning so she's for sure not winning huh

tom said grinder like- [i am shot in the head before i can continue]

fully flexing my swedish here

caroline is so right. get out you guys

wait sib alliance back on?? can this be real

i hate to say it but i think kendall's right he should be the one to take over

them talking about roman's breakdown while he's hugging himself is exactly what i wanted but it will make me want to kill myself forever

noo guys don't go in the waterrrrr don't you know about the motif

roman talking about sharks in the water is literally me but this time for real for real because i do have a debilitating shark phobia

if succession genuinely has a fucking. shark attack in it. (once again on my birthday) like that's legit fucking personal. jesse armstrong has read my diary and wants to ruin my life

i just googled 'succession shark' that's how paranoid i am lmaooo

kendall don't. DON'T go in the water

i know it's ridiculous i don't like the killing kendall conversation. this is the finale please don't play me with rn

okay the music is starting which means this scene is over and they can get out of the water right please get out get out right now

are they gonna actually accidentally kill kendall. or will it be on purpose and that was a double bluff

they are spending wayy too much time on this scene for a series finale that's already pretty long so. something's definitely gonna happen with the fucking smoothie. i feel sick

okay scene is over i feel like an idiot but relieved lol. maybe just a last happy siblings scene? if that's the case i'm glad we got that. i'm happy that scene was so long

wait shiv hasn't done anything controversial yet. is this like. a double bluff? i don't know how that would work i don't think that's the case

connor's peepaw slay

hope this isn't the only time gerri shows up but if it is i'm glad she's there at all

krank real

okay tom told shiv i know what's gonna happen and i think i'm okay with that kind of betrayal

i LOVE that greg's fucking parasite both sides shit finally came to bite him in the ass. if greg has a bad ending succession has a good ending

matsson screaming for ebba that's me.

yeah that's what i thought. i'm okay with that. like i wanted more for shiv and for the sibs but that was never gonna happen

living for the karoline hugo rivalry

STEWYYYY

okay stewy queer confirmed <3 like we all knew but still. also that line is gonna sustain the kenstewys for months

GERRIII and immediate zoom on roman lol

noo roman he seemed so weirdly okay until now. the pill scene is coming up huh

jesus i. i can't think of anything to say. poison

so my guess right now is. kendall is becoming logan but he also loses the vote. so he did That for nothing

it's literally 1x06. kendall sitting where logan sat, frank doing the notes

they're 4-4 and roman's next. 1x06 babyyyyyy

you could argue he made a different choice because he voted for kendall this time but. just like 1x06 he was pressured into that vote by a guy who uses physical violence against him. still with the parallels

they just said 6-6? did they count votes we didn't hear or am i an idiot

please don't threaten suicide right now ken. now's not the time

i think lying about the waiter is the worst thing kendall has ever done and that includes the scene with roman just before

i hate that roman said iverson and sophie aren't kendall's kid (real 'just playing devil's advocate' move) but i loooooove that he defended shiv <3

living for disillusioned roman. he might make kendall kill himself but he knows what's up

yeah i don't see an ending where kendall lives

tomgreg final breakup <3 i hope greg dies in a ditch

gerri's safe <333333

the romelukas ao3 potential though

good ending because ebba wins. can't believe i have the url of someone who won succession

roman drinking a martini :((((

roman drinking a martini :))))))

jesus christ kendall and colin

don't go near the water kendall. kendall listen to me.

okay think i'm gonna do a round-up post

[heartsbreaking]

no one asked but i think the order of roys that meet ophelia and thus have a role in her life as she grows up is as follows (obviously this can change with plotting but this is what i think)

shiv (gave birth to her) & tom

connor & willa - despite how shiv feels about connor, i think the wounds from the final season will probably still be too fresh for shiv for either of her brothers to be there while she's pregnant, but i think if connor's not literally in slovenia he and willa meet the baby first. im not saying they're there for the birth cause shiv seems like the type to be specific about who's present but of her siblings connor's the one she has the least beef with at the time of her pregnancy. willa got shiv a slightly out of touch but very thoughtful baby shower gift. conwilla meet ophelia first

greg - obviously tom's gonna want greg gregging for him even if he takes paternity leave (but DOES HE is the question), greg is very worried he is going to drop ophelia. he receives a lot of ribbing from tom about it. greg is too scared to hold ophelia.

roman - i have a hard time picturing roman being good around babies and i think he'd get in his head about it, but i think he'd be able to try and put things behind him so that he could be in his nieces life. he got out and even if he didn't consciously process it this way, i think he'd want to be a presence in ophelia's life that wasn't so in things. like i do think for a while shiv, kendall and roman were low/no contact early in ophelia's life but i think roman might use meeting ophelia as a first step to trying to repair what they broke during the early months of shiv's pregnancy.

gerri - while not technically a roy, she's shiv's god mother for that reason alone i almost put her above conwilla because part of me thinks that as shiv's only maternal ish figure (sorry caroline) she'd want to be at the birth, but also kinda think she wouldn't. i'm torn so that's why she's here. either way, gerri either meets ophelia first or she meets her a few months after her birth.

ewan - ewan meets a point to meet ophelia before he croaks. he's a pain in the ass about it as he is about everything, but he'd eventually meet ophelia (and probably give the parents shit for naming her after such a tragic character) i want to think he'd appreciate ophelia's middle name being rose but i'm not sure.

caroline & peter - caroline was busy which was why she couldn't be with shiv when she gave birth (according to caroline) either way she and peter meet ophelia around the baby's first birthday. peter cares more about meeting ophelia than his wife does. caroline is as backhanded as always.

kendall* - i feel like kendall meets ophelia last because he's the most likely to be mad at a baby for taking his place. he initially operates under the assumption that tom's gonna want his child to follow in his footsteps and take over the company, then kendall realizes shiv had a baby girl and he's probably a little happy about that because he doesn't think either tom or shiv are going to be setting ophelia up to take over for that reason alone. he's vindicated. he takes the longest to meet ophelia because shiv doesn't want to speak to him for the longest time. he probably first meets ophelia when she's 3-6 years old.

*this is assuming kendall didn't kill himself

[mollrat101]

Love the contrast of how Roman feels about Logan finding Tabitha and Gerri attractive. 

When he first sees Tabitha one of the first things he says is “Dad would love her”. Which is an incredibly weird thing to say, thank you Roman. Later, Caroline also approves of Tabitha and says Roman should marry her so he proposes later that night. 

But then in “Tern Haven”, one of the things Gerri says to him when he comes to her room is “What would your family say if they knew you were here?” to which he says he doesn’t care. And then when Connor answers “I don’t know” to Roman’s question if Logan ever slept with Gerri, he looks distressed by the very idea of them together. 

I just think it’s interesting that for a character who so badly wants his father’s approval, he doesn’t want his relationship with Gerri to be hinged on that. I almost wonder if Roman really is attracted to Tabitha or if he is just drawn to her because she’s the type of woman he thinks he should be with and gets the approval of his parents. It’s hard to say one way or another, but it’s worth thinking about it considering how difficult he finds it to express himself sexually with Tabitha. 

I just feel like it would’ve been so easy to present it as Roman pursuing a a partnership with Gerri as something negative for Roman, but it’s not. It’s actually helping him grow and become more confident. But it’s also in a weird way helping him to rebel a bit because his attraction to her isn’t based on how Logan would feel about it. But it also doesn’t feel like he does just to piss off his dad either. 

I know that things are about to get ugly for them soon (haven’t even gotten to season 3 yet, but I’m close), but I think I will always find this moment of time in their relationship fascinating. 

[loverboyromanroy]

if roman is gonna be exploring his sexuality w men in s4 do you think that means romangerri is dead for good 😭😭

i'm gonna start by saying it is so so way too early to speculate on full storylines in season 4 considering the writers just barely got back in the room and i'm guessing they don't have the full season figured out...but for funsies let's do it anyway lol

short answer: i don't think j is going anywhere and i think roman and gerri's stories and character development are too tied up in each other to suddenly go to nothing. there will be things in season 4 for them together and in regards to each other. that being said...no happy endings is the motto!

long answer about a couple things i think we could possibly see for roman and gerri in season 4 below the cut. and when i say long answer, i mean long answer lmao sorry!

first and foremost, i think they're gonna have to acknowledge the fracture that results from the way season 3 ended. they've had minor tiffs (shareholder meeting, dick pic convo), but i think it would be very sexy delicious for them to have a proper fight about it. kieran and j have both said something to the effect of "gerri wanted to help him, and roman knew she wanted to help him, but there was just nothing she could've done", so what is the outcome of that? i think even if roman knows gerri's intentions weren't to hurt him, he could very well be embarrassed/hurt by how it all went down, and we've seen that when he's embarrassed/hurt, he runs and/or shuts down. or, alternatively, he could confront her about it, they could argue, but it would be a moot point because, again, there's nothing she could've done. i think if they have a real argument about it, they hit an impasse and decide to put some distance between themselves slash take some time apart from their relationship/alliance/whatever you want to call it.

then there's the mencken of it all...

so in rewatching the roman/mencken exchange in 3x06, i think it makes sense that he may became a major player in roman's season four storyline. one of the things that stood out to me when it aired and again when rewatching was the way he does the "i wanted to talk to you about something" line that he does to gerri in 3x02. it's not the same kind of conversation and he's not really asking the same thing of mencken that he was asking of her, but the familiarity of the way he so easily finds himself conspiring with jeryd (sp?) from that point is obviously reminiscent of the way he is used to conspiring with gerri.

i also think the whole pick the president thing will come back big because, if we're following the show's timeline and caroline's wedding was in june, a theoretical "republican national convention", which they reference frequently in 3x06, would likely take place in august, and obvi election would be november. if they lean on needing the president's help to get the deal done, or to keep the regulatory antitrust stuff from stopping them, whatever, then yeah maybe the focal point (because for two and half seasons the focal point was the shareholder meeting lol) is the election.

it's also like...we're moving past the point where the titular succession is about succeeding logan. i think if they hone in on the politics of it all in season 4, it would be about "succession" in the sense of who will be next to succeed the role of president

all that to say MY idealized roman/gerri season long arc for season 4 would be that they have a little fight and take a little "break", roman gets in too deep with the politics/mencken of it all, becomes a little bit enamored with him, tries to fuck him and gets fucked over because of it. i think if something went disastrously with mencken, especially if it had to do with sex or something he was embarrassed/ashamed of, he wouldn't look to his siblings for advice, he'd come back to gerri looking for help. alternatively, maybe it looks like roman going down the politics rabbit hole and gerri, realizing that she does genuinely care about his wellbeing and seeing that he's going a little insane, tries to pull him back out of it.

and that's really more if it goes down the roman/mencken route! i think there's a case to be made that he goes in that same direction but with lukas – he's like i'll endear myself to the new boss because i've got good ideas and he likes me and instead of taking over for dad i'll just take this all over from him in a few years, things goes haywire, he comes back to gerri for help or gerri has to save damsel-in-distress roman

all of that also to say that doesn't factor in a lot of other show-wide things! like sibling stuff – i genuinely don't know what the writers have in mind for the three kids and the fallout of logan deciding to sell, which could also dramatically shift all of their storylines. what about logan and gerri's relationship in the wake of her sexting with his son? do we come back to that at all? where does tom's thing come into all of this? who knows!