#succession 4.06

[pynkhues]

The way Roman is swept into Kendall's escalating mania when it's just the two of them, and swept into Shiv's sneering cynicism when it's just the two of them, but can see through both when he's actually on his own for a minute 10/10 middle child syndrome, no notes.

[zalrb]

[askarsjustsoswedish]

Alexander Skarsgård, Sarah Snook – Succession 4.06 Preview – Lukas Matsson, Shiv Roy.  HBO Max (x) 24 Apr ’23.  Thanks SwedishDelish.

[89era]

honestly I think tomshiv will win. kendall and roman are just fucking around and have no idea what they’re doing. tomshiv both have one goal in mind - money and power. they’ve seemingly teamed up and I believe they’ll somehow get the deal through because of their joint goal, despite ken + rome trying to nuke it.

the shareholders, the board, and the market will be happy. the board will realise that shiv should be heir and that they made a mistake choosing the brothers, etc. etc.

[siobhans-roy]

SUCCESSION 1.10 “Nobody Is Ever Missing” 4.06 “Living+”

[jimmymcgill]

Succession 4.06 "Living+"

[benzatthanin]

SUCCESSION 4.06 | Living+

[cinematicnomad]

SUCCESSION ▸ 4.06 living+

[romulussy]

SUCCESSION — 4.06: Living+

[littlecarmine]

can we do the huggy thing?

SUCCESSION— 4.06 “LIVING+”

[killbilled]

SUCCESSION 4.06 - “Living+”

[pynkhues]

Hey! I just want to say I’m so sorry that I probably just spammed your notifications, I just discovered your succession metas and have been reading and obsessing over them. I LOVE your perspective on this show, I’m kenstewy fic-writing at the moment and your metas have definitely given me new ideas.

I would love to know your opinion about Kendall and his speech/potential speech impediments? The bathroom scene in 1x10 with Logan and Kendall seems to be the most obvious incidence of Kendall having a stammer - could it be trauma related, autism related etc?

Hey! You never have to apologise for spamming my notifications! It’s always fun to see someone going through my old posts, haha – especially because it usually reminds me of theories I’d had or connections I’d made in the past.

And yes! I’m always interested in the way the show approaches all of the various behaviours of the characters, and Kendall’s stammer is pretty interesting to me because characters on the show have never explicitly weaponised it in the way that they have with Kendall deliberately avoiding eye contact or his kneejerk discomfort to physical contact. Roman’s imitated him before, but when he does, he tends to focus on Kendall’s vocal disfluencies (or his tendency to uh a lot) as opposed to his stammer (which sure, is a fluency disorder in itself, but I do find it interesting that it’s not something specifically targeted by Logan, Shiv or Roman given their tendency to weaponise - - well. Everything).

It's especially interesting in the sense that it’s such an obvious thing to be a capital-I issue on the show. An audible imperfection to the ears of the characters around him and the world he exists in, and yet it’s less likely to be an issue than his fumbled negotiation tactics or his refusal to look his sister in the eye when they’re talking, and honestly, I think that comes down to the fact that it’s gone when he’s ‘on’.

This is a slight tangent, but your ask made me think about Megan Washington, who’s a singer-songwriter from my hometown who I really love. She did a TED talk almost ten years (!) ago about her stammer, and it’s one that really stuck with me as a fan of hers. In it, she mentions how singing was a big part of her speech therapy as a child, because it’s almost impossible to stutter as you sing. The exact reasons for that are unknown, but studies do indicate that singing uses a different part of your brain to language, and it’s a part of why music is used a lot in speech therapy.

On top of that, she talks a bit about how she was taught to utilise a speech technique called smooth speech which she doesn’t like to use outside of interviews, where she says the “economy of airtime is paramount” because it doesn’t sound like her, but it helps her get through it, and it helps her to perform, helps her to get to the bit where she sings, which in turn is when she feels the most like herself.

Not to apply Megan’s real story to a fictional character, but I do wonder how much Kendall’s been taught to perform his speech, because – especially after the last episode – I think it’s apparent that he’s at his most eloquent and fluid when he is performing. Hell, he likes performing, which can sometimes feel at odds with his awkwardness and his tendency to not seem remotely comfortable in his own skin, but I do wonder if a part of that comes down to – as in Megan’s case – feeling more like himself on a stage because he’s been taught techniques to communicate a version of himself when he’s up there.

When Kendall stammers, or has moments of vocal disfluency, it does tend to be with his family, and it does tend to be under moments of stress. Whether that’s provoked by his anxiousness around his father, or whether he drops techniques he doesn’t feel the need to use around his siblings and just speaks as himself, or whether it’s a combination of both those things (which I suspect it is), we could debate all night, haha, just as we could debate whether there’s an underlying cause for it (which I go on and off actually – a speech disorder can just be a speech disorder, although it does often co-exist with other diagnoses such as autism and ADHD and, interestingly, drug-use triggered issues).

I do think though that it’s probably something Kendall’s had since he was a child, and that he likely saw someone about it and underwent therapy for it, and given how he engages and really does utilise music to communicate throughout the series, I can really see that being a sort of anchor for him in terms of all of that? I don’t know though! This is quite a bit of speculation, haha.

What do you guys think?

[fearwakes]

Succession 3.09 / 4.06

why don't you throw out all your stuff for love

[magnusedom]

SUCCESSION (4.06) | LIVING+

[lesbiankendall]

SUCCESSION 4.06 “Living+”

[siobhans-roy]

SUCCESSION 1.02 “Shit Show at the Fuck Factory” 2.06 “Argestes” 4.06 “Living+”