#imagine if we get ''ben kim join tmc challenge'' from s4 days finally fulfilled lmao....truly too much to hope for

[unproduciblesmackdown]

rian atm being established as someone who is just kinda helping taylor with stuff (and going “are you sure” and/or questioning them about things, but still helping out, but also more on that further down ig) sure could seem like it’s Too Good To Be True like, this is billions, gotta brace for imminent problems, but then again i was pondering it like well yes it’s billions and you gotta go “uh oh” abt a character for their simply being on the show, conflict & problems are inevitable & thematic Requirements, but maybe it need not be so imminent or even necessary that there’s any big issue here, even if down the line rian is not so “yeah i’m helping”ly parallelly aligned with taylor

just b/c you look at where taylor is left off at the end of s5, which naturally writers knew about ahead of time, and they sure are more hard pressed for allies / people who will directly help out than ever, certainly including the fact that even axe in s5 being largely unhelpful to actively & deliberately making decisions that were counterproductive to / sabotaged taylor, he was still at least partly an ally and had that (by now mostly former) mentorship role, which taylor doesn’t have with prince at all. they’ve worked together and Can work together (and now have to work together) and i’m sure prince won’t just come in swinging for no good reason & be trying to antagonize taylor / might hope and/or try for a lasting alliance or whatever, but taylor wants that autonomy thanks and already has reasons to hardly want a closer business partnership here / to do anything that will require they stick around longer

and beyond that, of course their relationship with wendy is not at its highest point (although also, who’s wendy more closely aligned with now, i’m sure her and taylor’s dynamic will continue to be relevant / a whole thread in overall plots), and they Have worked with chuck kind of for 2 sec but it was annoying & they probably aren’t going to wanna immediately go to him like “oh i’ll help you take out prince” and also chuck’s efforts at taking out axe didn’t quite work anyways, and lauren’s especial support was mostly in the realm beyond [she’s just providing the regular employee support at work] and of course that didn’t end too well, although the breaking point problem was in fact in the realm of the Workplace Regular Employee Support, and then there’s how, despite everything in s4, apparently all it took was mafee going “damn i miss sitting with my boys. which when push comes to shove, just means dollar bill of all people, i guess. that scamp” to Cancel Out everything with taylor. like, guess we’ll see if that’s not true, but everything points to mafee now somehow feeling unbeholden to any particular connection there / acting like he’s forgotten they exist i guess if he’s just wandering out with bill on a whim. o.k.

so anyways what i mean by all this is that it would make sense if part of the reasoning behind “we want/need this new character to do stuff with taylor” is about knowing that taylor wouldn’t really have anyone reliably On Their Side going into s6 otherwise*, and maybe they don’t want that to be part of whatever arcs they’re planning for taylor (at least not at the start of things) and thus set rian up as someone to help them out in whatever they’re gonna be doing ever, rather than them just doing everything themself / having no one with whomst to turn relevant thoughts/motivation into external dialogue

*naturally, winston has been aboard the whole damn time and is now The remaining tml and has been supportive and done and said helpful things for taylor and never really let them down that we know of, but it sure doesn’t seem like the writers would put him in the role that rian seemingly has, as he may not be “serious” enough (and/or the whole possibility that the perspective of billions’ writing is that yes there may as well be like a ranked chart of Who’s The Smartest Characters that’s regarded as a “real”/objective concept here and, even if winston is smart, the [he’s autistic] stuff is like, a lack of “social” or “emotional” “intelligence” "or what have you”....this sure could be illuminated through rian also, as someone who has been willing to talk to him and doesn’t hate him, but guess we’ll see) like much that could be mulled over / discussed there but. just seems like “if rian and winston are the only named employees taylor has (which, there might be new named tmc employees introduced this season) it would be ‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’funny‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’ if winston STILL got no increased prominence, to taylor in particular, because of this” is a matter where like, it’s completely plausible that they will, in fact, be That hilarious(tm) (and whether or not they have any particular reason to be unwilling to write winston as having a more serious role in supporting taylor / be anyone they turn to or seek input from, or whether or not we can ever figure out what a hypothetical reason is even supposed to be, all the precedent we have just suggests They Are Not Writing It and no reason to not presume this may well continue)

and tbt to the matter of rian being a mirror for taylor (at least since they outright say they are seeing themself in her) and someone who questions taylor and can easily be disappointed about things here in a way she’ll theoretically quit over, and the matter of how taylor might regard whatever happens for rian re: themself, whether as that mirror to their Past Self or their Present Self’s impact/influence on things.....taylor’s in a different enough position now, where they haven’t been the newcomer intern for a good few years now, and with prince in axe’s place (and dollar bill having fucked off for the moment...) the Machismo Culture factor is probably diminished somewhat (or at least changed up some) where taylor’s just not As out of place as they were, though of course that’s still a factor and always will be. but just that maybe now it’s like, okay, taylor more than ever has this established place at the fund (even if they don’t really want it) and maybe they’re not so much actively struggling to prove themself / get anyone to listen to them, so Questioning / Criticism can come from a different place and a different direction, namely rian as this person who can herself question / criticize taylor, and who can inspire this self reflection / questioning / criticism in taylor b/c taylor perceives this similarity..........

and also we don’t know where tf taylor’s arc is going to start out this season, much less where it’ll go, and every 2 or 3 episodes any given character is like in a different world going in a different direction, and we also don’t know what else rian will get up to, b/c maybe soon enough she’ll be too busy with other stuff to be doing as much like [helping or questioning or causing introspection for taylor] but so far so “that was rian’s one moment of dialogue in the trailer and one shot of her tells us nothing abt what she’ll be getting up to either, but she sure is Here, and if she’s gonna have arcs then she’ll probably do stuff besides being talking with taylor (or being talked To by taylor)” and there’s absolutely no way to predict things even if we Knew all the factors that are gonna be at play, which we definitely don’t b/c it’s billions and they’ll throw surprises at us from the start. so idk, this is to say things will change and also that if rian’s written in This Much, which she is, she’s probably gonna have more stuff happening vs just helping taylor out anyways, But even the fact that she is / will continue to be like the most relevant employee supporting taylor’s big strategies or whatever doesn’t necessarily have to lead to “well, that has to go to shit, and soon, b/c billions” b/c it could well just be about knowing taylor could use Anyone Else to consistently help them out, and nobody else being available, except winston, but they never write him or them like that thus far so New Character it is and god knows what rian’s dynamic with winston is meant to be about if anything but that’s just another little classic wynnstan Shrugggg ongoing mystery that also cannot be guessed at at this juncture, b/c this is billions. tl;dr