#whats his relationship to tozer and hickey

[caleblandrybones]

what is tommy armitages deal. I ask this with no animosity but I remember maybe one line of dialogue from him throughout the whole show and yet he gets a nickname. is it his curls and big wet eyes

[saints-who-never-existed]

Still thinking about Dundy today.

Thinking about what a compelling and absolutely stellar choice it would have been, had Hickey recruited him onto Team Mutiny.

Thinking that, out of all the lieutenants, Le Vesconte may well have been the best choice.

Like, I don't actually believe that he would be seduced so easily. I believe he's ultimately a good person who's loyal to command (at least while Fitzjames still lives) and who, above all else, is loyal to the men.

But he's also pragmatic and ruthless, is capable of subterfuge, and ultimately, is willing to be at least somewhat complicit in the deaths of some men if it ensures his own survival and the survival of others.

And that's not nothing!!!

[laststandx3]

what are ur best terror ships??? /wllipt

so as you might have guessed I have a soft spot for hickey. so hickey/gibson and hickey/tozer are my faves.

Adding on this i can add the unappreciated and overlooked but with actually a lot of potential ship: gibson/tozer, hear me out: they're in a situationship with the same weird little guy but they're polar opposite (introvert vs extrovert, judgy vs friendly, self-reliant vs loyal, it's-not-personal-but-it's-finished vs get-me-off-these-chains-cornelius!, we'll-be-flogged vs walking to the gallows together aka not wanting trouble vs risking everything) and yet those two clever, practical, peaceful, skilled men fall for the same guy.

I think exactly for those contradictions they can have such an interesting dynamic.

If Billy had more scenes people would appreciate him more. Tozer gets flashed out a lot more, has different interactions and we get to see his character arc. Billy's arc tho happens mostly off-screen. even his talk with irving is off-screen. we don't see how billy reacts AFTER the flogging (it's implied he and hickey didn't interact much and that hickey spent more time with the marines) but then again we see so little from billy's pov one really needs to pay attention to him to notice the shades of his personality.

anyway. i got lost, back to the question: gibson/hickey/tozer is my ot3, because on one side

-> tozer adds a sense of stability to hickey/gibson that they alone don't have.

on the other side

<- gibson is the reality check to hickey/tozer. dont get me wrong but hickey/tozer is also (much slower than hickey/gibson) on a self-destruction path. you know tozer can't say no to hickey until it's too late. So billy would be the canary to the coalmine that can be hickey's lastest scheme.

basically I'm a hickey shipper, with the right setup i'm all for hickey/manson, hickey/irving, and even hickey/hartnell. hickey/goodsir too! i forgot about them

i see why people might enjoy hickey/crozier but i'm not part of the 'fuck that old man' club so i don't actively look up for those.

I can also see the appeal for hickey/jopson, but to me jopson isn't flashed out enough to be interesting. he's just very needy for crozier approval. to me he doesn't carry anything on his own, he's got eldest daughter syndrome and he's the guy from tweeter who says i don't have an opinion on my own, if a beautiful girl tells me to change my mind I will. but for crozier. sorry for the jopson enjoyers. nothing personal, that character doesn't resound with me. i don't have daddy issues.

other ships i enjoy are: tozer/armitage, manson/hartnell, heather/being alive, anyone/hodgson bc hodge is a case study, it's interesting for interpretation. honorable mention goodsir/silna

honorable non-mention bridgens/peglar, bc they're already happy in canon or into a realtionship of some kind so i don't feel the need to explore that more.

and this is it.

hope you found this answer interesting and...not to long and have a good day <3

[even-in-arcadia]

I was rereading "Lovers of the Human Flesh" by Caleb Crain as one does and I was very struck by two particular lines in relation to one Cornelius Hickey:

Incorporating what you love is a sure way to see that it never escapes from you.

and

Eating something is a way of keeping it with you forever, but it is also a way of destroying it.

I don't need to delve into the implications for Hickey's actual cannibalism - that's been done by those better (and more attached to Hickey) than I. What I want to talk about more is this concept in relationship to Hickey's ambitions to godhood.

Hickey has a plan always, at all times. It's a plan that shifts based on what seems best for him, what seems most convenient, and whatever he thinks his relationship to Crozier is at any given moment. They all essentially make sense in a scrappy, aggrieved, mutiny kind of way. Until: Solomon Tozer tells him, horrified, that he witnessed the Tuunbaq eat Mr. Collins' soul. Hickey says, specifically, that this merits a change in plan. He spends a long time by himself on a hill doing --we'll never know what.

EC/Cornelius Hickey, a man who clearly has never known a love that didn't turn on him or leave, has determined to be become melded to the Tuunbaq, an eater of souls. Gibson turned on him by falsely representing their relationship to Irving; Crozier turned on him by denying the "clear" bond they had and denying Hickey's gift of Lady Silence; he's been betrayed by this entire voyage that was supposed to take him to Oahu. Who knows what other loves have betrayed him.

If the Tuunbaq can eat souls, if Hickey can become connected with that power, then perhaps he too will be able to incorporate souls! Perhaps he will be able to finally ensure that something, someone will never turn on him. And if those souls must be destroyed in the process, what is it to him? Has the world not spent his entire time on earth trying to destroy him? (Conjecture: but given what we learn of him, the Nagaitis lore, and the cultural & economic context in which he exists, I think this is reasonable.) He yells into the Arctic air:

Bugger Victoria! Bugger Nelson! Bugger Jesus! Bugger Joseph, bugger Mary! Bugger the Archbishop of Canterbury! NONE EVER WANTED NOTHING FROM ME

He feels abandoned by every institution of society, and so he is going to create one in his own image. He offers a captain, an officer, a marine, and a ship's boy: the ship's hierarchy in miniature. If he feeds the Tuunbaq their souls and then melds with Tuunbaq himself, he can eat society and reconstitute it not just in his own image but in his own person, with only his chosen loyal followers, those who do want something from him. As Crain says, "In Freud's Totem and Taboo, the cannibal feast is the founding act of crime and sharing that binds society." That's the founding myth Hickey is not just counting on but trying to actively create.

And maybe, maybe! When he has access to Tuunbaq's power - will he have a line on those souls as well? Tuunbaq devours both body and soul in tandem, suggesting they are connected. As Hickey has already eaten of Gibson's flesh, maybe he can reconstitute and reingest that as Gibson's soul. Thus the destruction becomes the resurrection becomes the incorporation. Crain writes: "The body is a convenient boundary for the definition of the self. [...] in practice the peculiar act [cannibalism and homosexuality] violates that boundary. The act offers an ecstatic union." A cannibal rat wedding, if you will.

Crozier says to Hickey, "You must be a surpassingly lonely man." Hickey doesn't deny this. He merely says "Not for long." This is about power, but it is also about an end to loneliness, to his sense of betrayal at all levels and at every turn. Of course, it doesn't work out. In not caring about who suffered the consequences of his actions, he failed to take into account that incorporation & ingestion involve destruction. He thought himself the instrument of this, but by failing to see the Tuunbaq unto itself, as something other than a tool, as the independent Arctic that could never stomach Western society and live: he turned that back on himself and so was himself destroyed.

[ascendent]

up late and literally can’t sleep bc i’m thinking about jopson and little and crozier

and you know what? i’m just gonna say it: if anyone’s “psychosexually obsessed” with crozier, it’s little, not jopson

crozier is jopson’s boss but he’s little’s captain. jopson can receive crozier’s grumbling and other complaints neutrally, can look after him with composure, because of their familiarity; little is wildly uncomfortable when crozier behaves badly, absolutely hates seeing him vulnerable and ceding authority, because that compromises the pedestal he should be on. it’s little who freaks out on hickey because “the captain ordered you to be quiet!” it’s little who is in tears at losing crozier to the mutineers. his weakness is his captain, which is why tozer plays on his doubts in terror camp clear; there’s a reverence there that goes beyond crozier and jopson’s quasi-familial coworker relationship.

and it’s really interesting! lots to say here that i can’t quite articulate about class/status/hierarchy and seeing people as they really are

[theterrorreversebang]

Presenting, for your viewing and reading pleasure: the final collection of this year's Terror Reverse Bang, a feast of gorgeous artwork, beautiful fic, friendship, laughter, tears, …some horny. OK, a lot of horny.

You can find the AO3 collection for the event here. Summaries and links to the artwork below the cut.   

Thank you all for going on this fantastic journey with us.

Eat well and enjoy.

- ❤️, Charlie and Vio 

amateur operator (T, hickey/irving tozer/irving, 10.5k)

artwork and concept by entangled_system

fic by pointyshades

At an isolated research station at the top of a warming world, in the most inhospitable place on Earth for communications, John Irving studies signal propagation - and studiously avoids the obvious metaphor. John’s had a lot of practice at ignoring the obvious, but when an improbable random contact with an amateur radio operator calling himself "EC" leads to even more improbable regular contact with the same operator, not even John can ignore the ridiculous reality: a growing relationship with someone he knows only by their call sign; a relationship conducted half in Morse code.

John's real-life connections aren't going half so well, and neither is his research: his radio equipment keeps suffering accidents, and he can't stop getting into arguments with Sergeant Tozer, the man assigned to help him fix it. Frustrated, he turns even further toward his relationship with EC - and finds himself being urged down a path of paranoia as to who is actually damaging his equipment.

an arcane kind of murder (M, fitzier, 7.5k)

artwork and concept by pretendingday

fic by shakespeares_girl

At the Baronet Franklin's annual tourney, a series of murders begins. Francis is pressed into investigating, with the help of James Fitzjames. But Lord Franklin won't cancel the tournament, and the murders are getting more and more violent.

as per my last email (E, joplittle, 67.2k)

artwork and concept by mitarashi8

fic by manicpixiedreamjop

Edward Little has lived his life the way he thought he was supposed to. He went to a good university, got a good job as the head of PR at Erebus men’s magazine, and bought a home. He blames the fact that he hans’t dated since university on the fact that he doesn’t have time and not the fact that it terrifies him, and spends what little free time he has trying to pretend he isn’t miserable.

His neighbour Thomas Jopson has lived his life the only way he knows how. He fought his way from a childhood in foster care into a degree and a career that he loves, spending his days doing social work and his evenings volunteering with a local nonprofit supporting queer youth in the foster system. He plans his days down to the second, hardly allowing himself time for anything outside of work and sleep, but he is, at least mostly, satisfied.

When Edward’s boss is quoted saying something homophobic, it’s Edward’s job to clean up the mess, which leads him to the nonprofit that Thomas volunteers with. This new connection has the potential to turn both Edward and Thomas’ lives upside down. If only the two of them actually liked each other.

barghest. (T, joplittle, 10.3k)

artwork and concept by oughtnots

fic by derry_rain

Edward Little is a humble accountant in the late 1920s, but he has lately become haunted by visions of death: his own death, in the form of a great black dog not unlike one that bit him as a child. When his endless visions of ice and snow and the black dog won't end, he finds himself turning to a paranormal private eye: Thomas Jopson.

be that my cue to crave you (E, little/le vesconte, 9.6k)

artwork and concept by bilgewater01

fic by orchis

“If I could eat anything right now—”

“Henry.”

“Anything at all, from all the dishes and delicacies I've ever stuffed my face with—”

“Henry.”

“I think I'd go for an apple,” he finishes. “How awfully pedestrian of me. Nothing fancy, just an apple, and I don't even have the strong teeth for it anymore.”

“Henry.”

He huffs. “I hear you,” he says, and Edward can imagine him frowning, lips pursed. He wishes he could see him in the dark. “Tell me what you'd have, then, and I'll shut up about it.”

As the dark winters of the Arctic stretch before him, Edward yearns and craves and waits.

dear john (T, hodgson/irving/little, 16.6k)

artwork and concept by turnofthesentry

fic by mxjopsonfan

When John receives an anonymous love letter he resolves immediately to find the culprit. Little does he know that he is about to go on a voyage of self-discovery, realisations of deep affection, and three of her Majesty's naval Lieutenants showing how incapable they are of being Normal About Feelings.

ice wine (M, fitzier, 19.9k)

artwork and concept by o-rchidae

fic by melismata

Sir John, English wine pioneer, has survived every crisis since the 70s. Surely three bad harvests and a global pandemic aren't such a big deal? Fortunately, everyone else at Parable Wines agrees the business urgently needs saving. Unfortunately, no-one agrees how.

iceblink luck (M, fitzier, 30.4k)

artwork and concept by marella-moon - x

fic by perenial

October, 1987. With the Thatcher government entering its third term, Defence minister Sir John Franklin looks to offload two of his dockside London properties: one, a successful dance school directed by celebrated principal danseur James Fitzjames, and the other, a century-old boxing gym helmed by former middleweight Olympic hopeful turned disgraced misanthrope Francis Crozier.

In a show of generosity, Franklin offers Crozier the chance to buy out the gym he's poured over a decade of work into. It should be the opportunity he's been waiting for – except Crozier's barely keeping the gym afloat as it is, and Franklin's asking price far exceeds his means. With only one month to cough up the funds or forfeit the gym, Crozier finds himself backed into a corner, fighting for a piece of history he refuses to let go and against a past that's just waiting for him to give in.

matching such unlikes (G, fitzier, 7.5k)

artwork and concept by asparklethatisblue

fic by acephalous

In which Sir John tries his hand at matchmaking: after all who could be a more perfect match for his dear niece than James Fitzjames?

our flag means mutiny (T, hickey/gibson, 8.5k)

artwork and concept by o-rchidae

fic by borderparasol

Cornelius Hickey, William Gibson, and Solomon Tozer have successfully pulled off a grand mutiny, stealing HMS Terror to sail on the open seas and live their life free from the shackles of the Empire, plundering and making their living as pirates!

So...now what? And does anybody know how to fish?

provenance (M, jopzier fitzier silna/goodsir, 7.7k)

artwork and concept by kaupaint

fic by hangingfire

Three relics of the lost Franklin Expedition.

“Don't you get it yet? It must act like a recording, fixed in the floor and the walls. Right in the substance of them, a trace of what happened in there. And we pick it up. We act as detectors, decoders, amplifiers … It would have to be in the stone.”

—The Stone Tape, Nigel Kneale, 1972

reform your behaviour (E, irving/jopson, 9.4k)

artwork and concept by royaielfroot

fic by somelikeitred (ringofboubt)

After finding Hickey and Gibson in a compromising position, Lieutenant Irving intends to inform the Captain immediately. But when he finds Jopson first the Captain's steward persuades him to be lenient.

“Is it necessary to condemn the men -," Jopson considered his words, searching for the phrasing least likely to spook the lieutenant, "-over a desire for companionship? Is it so unforgivable for a man to be lonely?”

John studied him carefully; unable to formulate any response. Surely, Jopson could not be arguing that such vices were acceptable.

sent to the sea (E, annfitzrossier, 10.4k)

artwork and concept by brainyraccoons

fic by swanfloatieknight

After James Ross rescued them, Francis and James return to London in 1848. Francis lives with the Rosses in married bliss.

If only he could stop thinking about James Fitzjames, the bond they shared in the Arctic, and the last letter he sent that Fitzjames never replied to.

sweet to tongue, sound to eye (T, hodgson/irving/little, 10.1k)

artwork and concept by brimstone-cowboy

fic by unnecessary

After an Admiralty party bidding them farewell, the lieutenants get lost in Hampstead Heath. But not all is as it seems...

those wretched beings (M, multiple characters, 7.8k)

artwork and concept by melisusthewee

fic by notinmylab

A very literal take on the idea that colonialism is an infectious disease and that English ships are the carriers. Or, a zombie AU where Something Else is on the ice with them.

unerring devotion (T, jopzier, 7.5k)

artwork and concept by awhbeans

fic by yellow

Everyone else called Francis Frank, but in the quiet of their tent Thomas called him Francis.

Francis wore his two identities awkwardly, like an ill-fitting suit he couldn’t take off. He slipped into old fashioned speech and complained that people thought it affected. But Thomas liked it, just like he liked that Francis still let him call him Francis, and didn’t insist they were different people now. Quite the opposite.

If anything, Thomas was the one who had taken his two lives and separated them neatly, folded them and put them away. With Francis he could take out Thomas and put it on, like crawling into another skin. It was worn and battered but Francis seemed to like it best, and Thomas was glad of it.

---

Thomas Jopson and Francis Crozier are reincarnated. They find each other, and then they set out to find their missing men.

unknown by name or rank (E, joplittle, 17.1k)

artwork and concept by mitarashi8

fic by hypallepse

Years after the Great War, in a tiny illegal pub in the British countryside, Thomas met an awkward veteran and Edward a mysterious war nurse. They almost crashed in their desire to get to know each other, they shared an evening like no other, before having their night cut short by a police raid. How to find the other back with no memory of each other’s name or address? Why even try?

Both of them will stumble in the dark, battling the remnants of the war, unaware of the secret they will unearth in their effort to get that new chance at life.

[charlesdesvoeux]

vampterror au-- some people and when they were turned:

crozier: sometime in the mid-to-late 1500s and early 1600s. need to do more research on irish history but rn i feel strongly about this time-frame. his maker probably died in the 1600s.

fitzjames: georgian vampire, maybe 1750s-1760s. MAYBE made by lady jane. him and crozier are often drawn to one another; essentially an on-and-off couple. but they are NEVER 100% quitting one another. might spend a century apart but always come back to the other.

james clark ross: made by crozier in the late 1600s; crozier's first companion. probably remained together as pretty much husbands until the late 1700s; had a more-or-less amicable break-up (although crozier was kind of devastated) and are still cordial/come together occasionally.

ann coulman ross: made by jcr in the 1770s-1780s. at first crozier was very cold to her and resented her "coming between" him and jcr but eventually warmed to her and they became friends.

john franklin: ooooold vampire. like late 1400s-early 1500s vampire. made by lady jane who is probably at least 100 years older than him. she made him after the death of his first wife. died in the late 18th century maybe.

sophia cracroft: lady jane's human niece from the 1300s, the first vampire made by her aunt. spent some time as crozier's companion i think during 1800s-1820s or 30s maybe but then left. 2nd oldest vampire in britain ie very powerful.

lady jane franklin: 1300s vampire. very old and very powerful. by this point probably the oldest vampire in the british isles???

eleanor franklin: john's daughter by his human wife, made into a vampire by her father (late 1400s-early 1500s). difficult relationship with both him and lady jane, but close to sophia. dad's death in the late 18th century sends her spiraling. a great vampire, in the same way that hickey is a great vampire (see below). i can see her becoming friends with hickey eventually.

hickey: made by crozier in the mid-1830s. a prodigious killer who relishes in his nature. crozier thought he was an interesting, downright fascinating guy at first but then eventually came to find him wearisome and dumped him and hickey will be forever pissed off about it, it's like being abandoned by your father.

billy: made by hickey circa 1848. the thing is though, both bc billy was sick when he turned and also hickey didn't really know what he was doing he "came out wrong"-- essentially, it's like he's suspended in a dying state for all eternity: moribund but unable to die. it's pretty rough and he resents cornelius for it. some days are better and others are worse; sometimes he can leave the coffin and hunt and all that, but a lot of the time he can't really do all that much. resents hickey, but loves him too.

tozer: made by hickey circa 1850s-1860s, a very good hunter and for a long while hickeygibson's "third" which he resents but also he simply cannot quit hickey. like maybe he'll go away for a couple years or something but he WILL eventually come back to hickey and coming back to hickey also means coming back to gibson so.

armitage: also made by hickey circa 1850s-1860s. was already friends with/looked up to tozer before he became a vampire, and tozer essentially refused to quit his friendship with tommy after he was turned but he was also ADAMANT that he did NOT want tommy to be a vampire!!! he's too good he doesn't deserve our wretched existence!!! i think one day tozer really pissed hickey off and he turned tommy out of spite.

pilkington: made by tozer after tommy BEGGED him to turn him, prob in the 1910s or 1920s, ww1 vet. tommy essentially said "you will never love me like i love you, i have spent more than 40 years being the one you only turn to when hickey disappoints you, I WANT ONE PERSON WHO IS FOR ME". i think him and tommy are very devoted to one another. but also tommy still has very complicated romantic feelings towards tozer that frustrate pilk.

jopson: made by crozier in the 1850s. was crozier's extremely devoted human servant before getting turned. where hickey was a disappointment jopson was (in crozier's opinion) an astounding success. gets a monopoly on crozier's love for a good decade at least but then OOPS fitzjames comes knocking and he's feeling kinda jealous and insecure. which leads us to...

little: a human who managed crozier's business interests, knew about the vampirism and was desperately in love with jopson. after fitzjames comes back jopson turns him out of jealousy and feeling betrayed by his beloved crozier. poor little. initially his love is not enough to heal jop's broken heart but i do think eventually jop comes to actually love him and they become long-term companions. prob made in the 1860s.

le vesconte: regency-era dandy, made by fitzjames in the 1810s. very devoted to jfj but knows that once james gets with crozier he's pretty much kicked to the curb for a while, and it hurts him. still revels in being a vampire. fun guy. on-and-off with fitzjames for all of eternity but a second-choice forever.

hodgson: made by le vesconte in the 1830s-40s. they have a good time but i wouldn't call their bond necessarily super deep. like friends who are roommates.

irving: made by hodgson in the 1850s. struggles immensely with religiosity and vampirism and the like; i mean SEVERE emotional and mental health struggles. hodge is extremely devoted to him; irving does love him in a way but also resents him for turning him into a monster. being a vampire also means a permanent rift with william malcolm, who is a human; he considers turning him but decides he cannot curse him with this horrible burden, and malcolm dies a human. i think it's possible that he meets and connects with gibson over their ambivalent (to say the least) feelings on vampirism and maybe finds a new purpose in becoming gibson's "keeper" and taking care of him (prob during a time when hickey and gibson are broken up)

henrietta lefeuvre: made by dundy in the 1860s-1870s. they do spend quite a while being fairly happy companions but eventually she was like "i'm only a substitute for when fitzjames isn't here and i can't handle that anymore" and eventually decided to travel alone out there and find who she is outside of dundy etc. i think eventually lady jane and sophia take her under their wing.

stanley: turned by fitzjames in the 1850s-1860s, were companions for a while but jfj got bored and dipped. which made him very mad. a pretty good vampire, keeps his kills clean. very discreet.

des voeux: turned by stanley in the 1910s. relishes his nature but is not very controlled with his kills; obsessed with stanley, who's always leaving and coming back and leaving and coming back etc. eventually falls in with hickey's little "coven" ie hickey, gibson, tozer, armitage and pilk. him and stanley are on-and-off forever but they're absolutely never quitting the other for good. i could see him dying in the 2020s which throws stanley into a spiral.

trying to place silna and goodsir in this au but I'm still not sure. might come back to it later

[synesindri]

so admittedly i did think it was a little bit random when they started calling the mutineers a coven but i've seen the light now so here are my thoughts on this kickstarted by this description of a common 19th century british witch archetype:

literary representations of witches would also be underpinned by popular tales recorded by folklore collectors in most parts of Britain, which portrayed such people as utterly wicked, possessed of all too effective magical powers, and ending up brutally punished by death or injury

— ronald hutton, "Witches and Cunning Folk in British Literature 1800–1940," p29

1. "utterly wicked." i mean. no justification needed for this one probably.

2. "possessed of all too effective magical powers." not directly, but hickey is weirdly unaffected by sickness and starvation and exposure and exhaustion compared to the others (a lot of his off-the-rails behaviors/mentalities later on do map on reasonably well to symptoms of lead poisoning and other things going on, but like, he isn't bleeding or losing teeth and i would sell my soul for my skin to look the way his does even during the very worst of everything, so). he also clearly has a lot of power over many of the men, in an understandable leadership way that is more reliant on charisma, bribery, planfulness, and situations than magic, but it does seem kind of magical at times

3. "ending up brutally punished by death or injury." hard to get more brutally punished than literal bodily bifurcation. the rest of the "coven" likewise meet brutal ends.

4. devil shenanigans. lots of focus during this time period in british lore on witches and devil worship. obviously the tuunbaq is not a or the devil and it is troubling to suggest as much (even in its role as a fabricated entity that does not actually belong to the culture it has been inserted into). nonetheless, it is presented fearsomely in a way that seems likely to be understood as demonic or hellish by a christian crew such as the men of terror and erebus (it might even be described as such canonically? i don't remember specific examples and i haven't checked). certainly everyone has a good christian "avoid that thing" reaction to the tuunbaq — everyone except hickey, who finds it appealing and sees an opportunity to seek power through it, much as folkloric and literary witches of the era were depicted as doing through the devil.

5. christian inversions and rejections. the mutiny arguably really kicks off with the murder of lt. irving, the most outspokenly christian person in the group. christ symbolism through the "punished as a boy" scene through framing and posture. as lt hodgson so kindly spells out for us, cannibalism and (catholic) communion both involve the consumption of human blood and flesh. at mutineer supper time i was briefly convinced they were about to say grace (totally subjective on that one but whatev). hickey going up the hill to listen to his thoughts was very prophet-like imagery. hickey's final speech rejects god and religion. probably there are more examples but i think that's enough for this post that is already longer than i planned for it to be.

6. sexuality part 1. witches of the time and place were associated with non-normative sexual practices (including homosexuality, promiscuity, femdom, sexual coersion, so on and so forth). hickey is directly depicted in a sexual and romantic relationship with another man (who is also the one who first suggested mutiny in the first place, solidifying the narrative importance of the connection between gay people and mutiny. be gay do crimes but for serious). idk what the stance in general fandom scholarship is about the hickey-tozer dynamic, but i would say that is plausibly depicted as at least being implied to be not 100% heterosexual, which is particularly notable because that has important potential effects on how the power structure of the mutineer camp works — a chaste rank-based collegiality has a very different vibe than a situation where the main guy in charge and his second in command might be fucking (or kissing, or holding each other's faces in a sort of tender pseudo-religious way, or whatever else they might have been getting up to together) — this is getting a bit off from witchcraft but certainly there are many comparable depictions of witches coercing powerful men to do their bidding by using sexuality (see my non-existent au i just thought of just now that's based on lewis's the monk, i guess???)

7. sexuality part 2. witches also were notorious for doing castration to people. sorry, irving.

8. sexuality part 3. perhaps most notably witches were regarded as having sexual relationships with the devil. none of the mutineers ever gets it on with the tuunbaq obviously (although i feel confident that some adventurous fic writers out there have probably made this a subject of their study), but it is KIND of attempted symbolically. i talked about this already but it bears repeating here that the tongue is an erogenous body part generally, and there is possibly some mild extra narrative emphasis on that symbolism for hickey specifically, so the metaphorical self-castration of him cutting out his own tongue and offering it to the tuunbaq is a little bit giving weird sex. it's also giving nun/priest/monk-like disavowal of the potential for (at least a few types of) sex with human beings in favor of pledging oneself to a deity.

9. human sacrifice. common trope with witches, and the clear point of hickey's dragging everybody up that hill with him when he goes also to attempt to sacrifice part of his own human self to the tuunbaq.

10. identity. this is a little less solid but there's often kind of a sense that witches aren't who they claim to be? see lewis's the monk again, with (spoilers, i guess) the character of monk rosario revealing himself actually to be matilda, a seductive witch, who eventually does a double reveal that she's a demon. the "i'm not really cornelius hickey" reveal is giving that, a bit.

[georges-chambers]

give me ur top 5 terror ships and the main reason they make u feel so many feelings 🥰

Thank you so much for this ask, I'm very excited to share all of that!

5. Hickey/Crozier

While I do ship them, I also just love watching their whole dynamic and interactions as characters because of the way they're opposites on many levels yet also extremely similar. Or at least, they start similarly. And while I think a lot of how Hickey felt about Crozier was either exploitative or at the very least that he would be like any of the other captains/officers, and useful to exploit but nothing else, the longer the show went on and the more Hickey seemed to just kind of be losing it, the more he also seemed absolutely fixated on Crozier in a way that did become something else. He had so many opportunities to end everything, as did Crozier, but neither did, and why could be a lot of different reasons.

4. Hickeygibsontozer

I put this instead or just HickeyTozer or HickeyGibson because I honestly can't choose between them and feel like the dynamic between the 3 of them post-mutiny would have absolutely been even more interesting if Gibson did survive longer. I feel like Hickey and Gibson were very often alternating between showing actual, very real love for each other, and hurting each other first from miscommunication (Hickey risking punishments and encouraging Gibson to as a form of showing love, Gibson trying to stop all of both out of self-preservation and because he Didn't want Hickey to be punished, among other things), and then later just hurting each other much more deliberately because both were fucked up enough truly only for each other. It really is wild how out of the 3, Tozer is probably the least fucked up, mostly just because he seemed to initially turn to Hickey out of respect, seem to want to turn away from and leave him out of fear, and even then, even after so much, he would lean into Hickey's hands at his face in a way that still suggested he took more comfort in him than he probably expected he ever would. Also, had Gibson lived longer I feel like he would have had way more actual control over the mutineers in a way which may have lead to Tozer being surprisingly loyal to him in a similar way.

3. Goodsilna

I think Goodsir and Silna's whole relationship did initially start as something of a studying thing, at least on Goodsir's part, but what was both good in general yet bad as far as he may have seen it was that he was fairly quickly unable to keep seeing her as just that. It seemed like throughout a lot of interactions, other characters would be very quick to easily discuss her or others as not 'real' humans in at least some way, but Goodsir still seemed unable to think of Silna that way, whether that was when he was trying to learn her language to better communicate with her and (it seemed) out of just wanting to know it, or even when that was much later and he was forced with never talking to nor seeing her again, causing her death, or leaving his own people behind. They're another pair that I just like the dynamic of a lot even not as a ship. I also feel like Silna did think of Goodsir in a different way to many, understanding him in a similar way to how he understood Collins, and offering him the comfort and possible support no one else seemed to. I very often think about aus in which Goodsir did come to realize how the real problem Was more than just how English people were there, but what brought them there, and that they would not be much better if he were able to get back, so he just joins Silna and her people in the way Crozier did.

2. Fitzier

This one is harder to describe just because I feel like so much has already been said about it but I'll say what I like anyways. I like how the whole time, it seems like Crozier is always a representation of all the true knowledge and just understanding of things that Fitzjames first hates because it makes him feel like even more of a fraud but comes to take so much comfort in that it starts to result in him opening up to Crozier in a way Crozier so quickly and so completely comforts and accepts. It really feels like only those circumstances allowed for that which is painful because Fitzjames like Needed that with someone, and yet that was almost definitely the only scenario in which it would've happened. So a lot of them as a ship is sort of doomed from the start not because they wouldn't be good, they would be perfect, but what brought them together would always also doom them. (This isn't to say I don't like fix-it fics or similar I adore them this is just what I think of them in canon).

1. Jopzier

I do know that they were supposed to be read as having a father and son dynamic but I gotta say I still don't really see it. There's an amount of devotion Jopson has to Crozier in general that goes beyond what seems like any actual relationship could have, and even after if not especially when he is promoted to lieutenant, it seems like him being Crozier's steward was just the most convenient way for him to actually express and make something out of those emotions. And Crozier does seem to care so much about Jopson too, but he seems unable to understand that Jopson would, really, love him that completely just because he's him, and not because he felt it was his obligation as his steward to do whatever he could for him, or maybe his obligation as a lieutenant. Which results in a distance between them that Crozier put there only just because he already thought it was there which agonizes me but I do love it.

I feel like saying the only reason I didn't put Bridglar here despite it being what I'm currently most focused on is because I do like them but they're whole dynamic is actually healthier and so much genuinely better than whatever the hell is going on with a lot of these ones that what's fucked up is the circumstances they're in, so I feel like even if you removed them from the Terror I'd love them.

[maedhrus]

for the ask meme, your thoughts on the following for the terror?

💛❤💚💕

💛 (a popular ship you can't get behind): hickeytozer. very much regrettably, because i know there's some great meta and fanworks out there, but romantically they just don't compel me. i think it's because, with hickey, i like to see him in ships that have him on more of a back foot (hickeygoodsir rattles my brain!). i like hickeytozer interactions where it's more tozer realising that the self-help group he signed up to is now out for his blood

❤ (which character is the most egregiously mischaracterised by fandom): i think a lot of people use franklin as the Designated Evil White Man which is frustrating both because historically and in the show he's pretty empathetic with the men, if misguided, and they like him back! also, it really misses the broader point of the show that all the men are evil because they are tools of imperialism. individually, they are kind, decent men, but the system makes them monsterous and the native population suffers for it. by pinning all the expedition problems on franklin, it removes so much of this. to be fair, i don't think this is, like, an endemic issue, but i've seen it enough to irk me

💚 (what does everyone else get wrong about your favorite character): *blasted at 100% volume* edward little is a COMPETENT and GOOD lieutenant!! he's been shafted with crozier at his most miserable and destructive, he's dealing with a spirit bear, and he's still empathetic to the men, advocates for them, and endeavors to get as many home as he can! way too many people seem to think he's this trembling dog that will die if spoken to and is unable to lead in any capacity and i just don't believe it! to be fair, i think with characterisations surrounding little or jopson or characters like them, it's more difficult because they don't really have a lot of screen time, and with little especially, we see him reacting to things, not really introspection

💕 (what is an unpopular ship that you like): there are three that i feel very compelled by that have relatively few work imo. 1) hickeygoodsir, because goodsir's ability to just cut right though hickey's farces is incredibly and hickey enjoys that so much! perception of the other (derogatory), 2) hickeyirving, because wow irving, you seem to have a lot of unexplored issues about sexuality and all of this seems to come to the forefront when you talk with hickey, what's up with that?, and 3) irving and his bestest friend in the whole wide world, william elphinstone malcolm. the Historic Basis drives me crazy (their letters to each other are so so intimate and sweet); boyhood friends to situationship to "i will wait the rest of my life waiting for you to come home despite my knowledge that it's futile"; this man is, like, the origin of irivng's sexual crisis and i love it and i wish more people wrote about them. signed, your very affectionate friend by blazeofglory is an absolutely incredible duology speculating on this relationship and how irving views it and i would highly, highly recommend!

[birdthatisbored]

Solomon Tozer king of doing fuck all actually. For the bulk of the show he's all mutinous talk without action and then his actions all end up being all but useless or even actively harmful to Hickey's cause (why did you walk up to Crozier and give him a list of your co-conspirators Solomon? What did you hope to achieve Solomon?). Tozer thinks he's Hickey's right hand but he really is just there to lurk intimidatingly in the background while Hickey struts his stuff. I think that from some point after carnivale up until he wakes up chained to a boat Tozer believes wholeheartedly that Hickey would do anything and everything in his power to see them all home safe just like he promised, but Hickey only sees what Tozer can do for him which seems to be not much at all and would never rely on him for anything important, especially something that involved personal sacrifice. Hence the boat chain. Which is so far from Tozer's perception of their relationship it's almost laughable and also deeply sad. Anyway my point is Solly baby drop his ass I'd treat you so much better. Probably still wouldn't let you scheme with me but that's for the best don't you think?

[hypallepse]

Ohhh tell me more about the HickeyGibson?

Omg hello

So this one I wrote in a daze like 17k words in one or two weeks two years ago. I need to edit it and it's a go. It's very very self indulgent.

There is a poem by Arthur Rimbaud about his relationship with his lover, Paul Verlaine. Rimbaud uses his lover's pov (here a woman but we know) to hate on himself mostly. He describes himself as a tyrant, magnificent and mesmerising but cruel and distant. Fragile and loving sometimes, but full of contradictions. I love Rimbaud's poetry and his work in Saison en Enfer is just incredibly raw and human. (Here is the translation I used) (Please check the mess that is Verlaine and Rimbaud's relationship.)

What about hickeygibson?

Gibson is a very snobbish university french lit teacher who rants about his despicable ex boyfriend using this poem to say "he's such a douchebag, look he's just like Rimbaud!" (Not a compliment)

And Hickey is a chaotic transmasc anarchist living outside of society and leeching on his "rich" boyfriend. And he may not be the absolute douchebag the start of the fic makes it out to be.

Lots of unreliable narrator Billy (I am innocent and he is vile), not linear narrative, talk of activist purity, french poetry, a bit of sex, John Irving meddling, Tozer being an excellent wingman.

[saints-who-never-existed]

Episode Nine: Random Rewatch Observations

1. Took me a few rewatches to realise that the ships boy Fitzjames is talking about in the beginning, who ran out into the fog and returned, is Golding. Sneaky bit of foreshadowing there!

2. Fitzjames is already clutching at his bad arm in the scene where they’re preparing to burn the dead.

3. Is it just me or does Hickey’s accent get noticeably stronger once they’ve split from the main group? You can really hear it, I think, in his first line here – “Lieutenant, worra miracle!”

4. That little call-back to the Chinese sniper story just guts me every time. It so perfectly exemplifies how far they’ve come individually as well as how their relationship has developed. Crozier has enough tact and emotional intelligence to poke fun in a positive and companiable way, and Fitzjames has enough humility to take the ribbing on the chin.

5. Few little interesting shots of Tozer interspersed there while Hickey and Hodgson are talking. Never really thought about it before it seems now to me an indication that Tozer already has an inkling that he and Hickey aren’t as on the same page as he thought they were.

6. That’s such a weird and enigmatic expression Hickey has on his face while he’s stabbing poor Gibson. Like, I honestly couldn’t tell you what I think he’s feeling in that moment. There’s not really anger there, I don’t think, despite the furrowed brows but I don’t see any great remorse or sadness either which one might expect for him murdering a former lover. I just see incredible concentration, like he’s just totally lost in ‘the practicals’ of survival.

7. I live for the Crozier/Blanky exchange:

“Are you mad?!”

*Enthusiastic nodding and laughing!*

That’s exactly the conversation I often have with my own friends when I’m on my bullshit or doing something daft just for a laugh, and anything that makes me feel akin to a king like Blanky is always good.

8. There’s just a split-second pause after Bridgens lifts Peglar up in his arms that breaks my heart every time. It’s like he’s realising that this is it, that Peglar really is dying now, like he’s taking a moment to himself to try to reconcile both that terrible thought and the idea that he’s powerless to do anything about it.

9. Speaking of power, it’s always impressive to me that an old dude like Bridgens has the strength to just heave Peglar up into the boat like he does. But then again, that might speak to how malnourished and light Peglar is now as much as Bridgens’ strength.

10. There’s someone on the ground behind Hickey right after they’re talking about making camp (with another bit of foreshadowing about a ‘friendly face’ – i.e. Golding). Hard to tell who the person on the ground is though and whether they’re just resting after hauling or have actually collapsed.

11. I’ve posted a bit about it before but it’s so interesting to me that Hickey should choose Hodgson specifically when he’s threatening Goodsir.

The relationship between Hickey and Hodgson is interesting to me in general. Despite working so hard to manipulate him and bring him into the fold, it always seems to me like Hickey doesn’t actually want Hodgson to be a part of the group that much and for his part, Hodgson really doesn’t want to be either. It’s a mutual feeling and is part of what makes it so hard to tell whether it’s the group that isolates him at mealtimes or whether he does it to himself.

I wonder if it’s that general disconnect that makes Hodgson the choice to be used as part of the blackmail, or whether Hickey assumes, however wrongly, that Goodsir will care more about the well-being of an officer, a man of similar class and social standing to himself? Or whether it’s something else entirely?

12. Also! Interesting that it’s De Voeux’s voice we hear right afterwards, that he should be the one threatening a fellow officer.

13. Finally, I’ve come full-circle back to Bridgens and Peglar, the relationship that inspired the video that featured the quote that first inspired this blog.

Another very simple but very heart-breaking layer to things that strikes me now is based around that refrain – “I love the sea, I love the sea”. I very much read it to be a veiled declaration of love for Bridgens himself, of course – what Peglar is really saying is “I love you, I love you” but the simple fact also remains that these guys really would have just loved the sea itself.

I’m sure for many it would’ve just been a job, a way to make a living, but for many others, if not the majority, they would’ve been in that line of work in the first place because they enjoyed, even loved being at sea. That line then speaks to that love and to the boyish enthusiasm they’d all have felt at the start of the voyage, the eagerness for adventure. It also contrasts sharply with their current gut-wrenching reality - that the sea itself, something so many of them would’ve actively loved, has betrayed them so terribly and doomed them.

14. Nooo Little! Don’t waste your patented Awkward Shoulder Pat of Comfort on that wee worm – he doesn’t deserve it!

[afterthefeast]

ok ep 1 rewatch thoughts

appreciating a lot more how crozier’s relationship with both franklin and fitzjames is actively bad, not merely difficult. also that this obviously plays into the overall themes of civilisation and imperialism. crozier is not from the imperial metropole and is treated as such, and his manner is accordingly brusque and, well, uncivilised, whereas franklin and fitzjames cultivate (in jfj’s case very consciously) imperial charm and civility, but obviously this is pure vanity and an affectation which is actively harmful to their crew. when he’s stuck in an environment which operates on the rules of victorian social engagement, crozier’s lack of civility means he will never be listened to no matter how clearly he articulates obvious truths, and f&f’s extreme reliance (for various reasons) on that civility for power means they cannot capitulate.

really really liked hickey closing young’s coffin - i dislike the interpretation that hickey is just a psychopath who cut loose after things went to shit because it’s so boring. moments like this are good reminders that even though okay yeah he had already killed a guy for a free trip hickey nonetheless adhered to some of the basic trappings of, i guess, civilisation as defined by human respect (not civility a la the above point). AND it’s crucial that this is shown specifically through his insistence on respecting the dead, when it’s the lack of that very respect that will characterise some of his worse deeds later on.

ALSO very important in this scene is that tozer is the one telling him it doesn’t matter; foreshadows that tozer will be pretty chill with cannibalism later on

the fact that stanley makes goodsir perform the autopsy on young even though he doesn’t want to - obviously foreshadowing the eventual intrumentalisation of the body for cannibalism, but also showing how the hierarchy of imperialism means that those at the bottom have the bloodiest hands. for all that obviously franklin and the other officers are at the top of this scale on the ships they’re still at the end of the day bit players in the overall imperial project, and as dispensable to the admiralty as you might expect - those at the centre of power, who never have to succumb to the moral sacrifices (cannibalism, abandoning your friends etc) that the Terror crew have to. worthy reminder as well that franklin, whose desperation for glory is obviously an inherently imperial one and is also what dooms everybody on board the ships, dies in ep3 and so is spared all of the suffering and moral capitulation that’s in store for the rest. and of course ultimately this scene’s key purpose is reminding us that goodsir is the instrument of imperialism whether he realises this or not, and despite his otherwise staunch moral compass and openness to silna is complicit in colonialism as much as the next member of her majesty’s navy.

collins’ diving into the sea and seeing billy orren’s corpse still the scariest thing in this whole goddamn show

franklin continues to irritate me more than anything but there’s something interesting to the fact that he is extremely beloved by his men but very clearly loves them only as instruments for his glory and because he wants to be liked. i mean this was obvious the first time but it’s worth repeating because i hate him so much. more germane is the reminder that he’s really religious - im too tired to properly figure this one out atm but something something eucharist monologue, christianity being easy to twist and warp vs the crew and franklin especially (and even goodsir) being completely uninterested in netsilik beliefs (taking silna’s dad’s charms pretty clearly dooming them).

also interesting in the context of the above is the fact that fitzjames is like, obviously more popular with the officers than franklin. specifically gore, it seems, because he looks to fitzjames first for approval when crozier asks him about seeing the sun-dogs, and fitzjames also nods at him when franklin initially dismisses his ice reports. nonetheless a good example of how fitzjames’ social skills have got him where he is but aren’t enough to prevent disaster because he can’t (and won’t) really put them to use where they would be needed (siding with crozier against franklin).

speaking of fitzjames he also looks actively terrified at several points during the last ten minutes. and franklin makes no effort to reassure him get this man a better father figure stat

[corneliushickey]

Sorry I can't word this coherently but your Hickey and Crozier meta is always fire so. I think I noticed a strange, very discreet mirror situation going on between Hickey and Little.

My first point of reference was that there are several instances where Crozier is planning to punish Hickey and Little is like uh sir he does have rights there's a procedure here ("a full court martial is required" |"what evidence do we have against him?") and it made me think how Hickey is actively leading the rebellion amongst the various men who feel wronged or abused by Crozier, and that he gets on it basically the moment Crozier hurts him

And then Little gets treated like absolute shit by Crozier almost the whole time and he never wavers in his loyalty, even when Tozer is outright calling it all out during the mutiny. He even wants to go rescue Crozier from the mutineers and holds off dying until he is sure Crozier is still alive

And like. It kills me that they never interact? Bc I feel like they could've had a really interesting conversation? The fact that Little is the only officer who tried to kinda defend Hickey but also the one who opposed him the most in terms of their relationship to Crozier?

Idk man I'd love to hear your thoughts

i'm so sorry man, this seems really well thought out on your part. but i don't remember which one little is.

[pulquedeguayaba]

The C the C the open C my beloved

More than God loves them

Ugh the callback of this line to EP1 with Franklin 💔💚💔💚💔 Like in both cases there's a genuine fondness for both men but with Francis it's like a more concrete, non judgemental and more impactful imo kind of love (leaving the cans to the mutineers), instead Franklin is a words of affirmation (and more judgemental) type. James' relationship with Francis is more equal than the one he had with Franklin allowing for more love?

Going back to England, lady Jane's appeal thanks to Charles Dickens 🤢 woman can tell a speech that appeals to middle and upper class English sensitivities ngl, an orator like her husband.

THAT ZOOM IN TO HER FACE AND MOUTH TO CUT TO THE JAW OF ONE OF THE MEN THE ABSOLUTE USELESSNESS OF IT ALL

Tommy Hartnell was the one taking the most after Francis I think, in terms of leadership, like during the mutiny and the tuunbaq attack, standing his ground and protecting the men in the boat, offering support after the mess.

Those are some big ass boats and it must had been an absolute pain in the ass to haul them 💀

In love with the shot of Fitzjames exposing his reopened wound to the men, the composition that of a baroque painting

Dundy and Little proposal and the double meaning of allowing them "to rest" 💀

The way the camera follows and frames Hickey, first as he's with Billy in the tent. Despite the cynicism and the (supposed) pragmatism, being tender with him. Making up his mind, he goes out of the tent, goes to his to grab his knife, stabbing him in the back no less. So much to dissect about the rat man.

Speaking of dissecting, his threat to Goodsir so that he cuts Billy up. How Goodsir is trying to come to terms with it and the way the tent blows hard in the back of his head. Then the change of frame and the threats to Hodgson off screen, proving again that this show is a workplace comedy.

People have been commenting about the contrasts between Billy's and James' deaths, but also the parallels, how were they related to Francis and Hickey each.

James' death oh my god 😭 the intimacy, the resignation, the complete love and trust between these 2 men. The fact that even us the audience aren't allowed into their last moments together, and the fact that Francis refused to offer a speech or service to the men.

This episode has no restraints, going punch after punch (even in the more quiet moments). Immediately after James is buried, Blanky breaking the news to Francis, the tragedy, but also the camaraderie, the banter between them as Blanky implies his plan with the forks.

BLANKY BEING THE ONE TO FIND THE PASSAGE. We're reminded (just like the men) after like 6 episodes what this was all about. And he also gets to go like the goat that he is 🔥

The fact that they were able to find a place as desolate as the real KWI. The sterility of it all, this party of white men are a plague to the land, causing others to suffer for no reason.

The fact that the tuunbaq is going first after the mutineers, dude knows where the most rotten apples are (looking at you Des Voux)

The moment of the cannibalism that is both heightened and understated, Hickey wasn't impressed.

Hodge I'm so sorry but I'll always zone out during your Catholic anecdote, like Goodsir probably did.

Tozer sharing what happened with Collins. Everybody cried so much during this episode and with good reason.

Bridgens death :( the corpse lying on the side. The breaking of the main pairs in this episode by the death of one of them, leaving only the "strongest" alive, but Bridgens refused to it.

Really like the callbacks to history here and there, and in this episode is way more obvious, I think; there's some bending of facts ofc. Kept thinking about Woodman's book about Inuit testimony, about the splitting of all the parties and their fates, and that in real life they did find game (still wasn't enough for whatever it is that went down and which we might never know), but points are being made so some distortion is allowed.