#changing up my format

[starshipcaptainjojo]

Continuation (sort of) of this writing prompt

So Sunspot is on your couch under your heating pad while Elliot fusses over him like this is totally normal.

You made tea. The baby’s asleep and your husband won’t be home for a while yet- you called him already but he said “Is he staying for dinner?” like this was all totally normal.

So.

Sunspot. On your couch. Totally normal.

“I’m late for club,” Sunspot rasps unhelpfully when you shove tea under his nose, careful not to slosh it onto the bandages wrapped around his neck. “I need to go home and rest.”

“You have a concussion,” you didn’t mean to use Mom Voice but, alas. Mom Voice it is. “You’re sitting here, awake and drinking tea, while we figure out what to do with you.”

“Yes ma’am,” Sunspot says, surrendering to Mom voice.

“My teacher Mr. Right wouldn’t criticize you so much if he knew you saved my life,” Elliot tells Sunspot, sitting crosslegged by the couch helping you peel potatoes for dinner. A dinner Sunspot- AKA Eliot’s teacher Mr. Holman Right- will apparently be staying for.

“I think he would,” you grumble, and Sunspot laughs wetly from the couch.

“It’s cool that a super hero is here,” Elliot says speculatively, testing out if you’ll go on one of your usual anti-heroics tangents.

“Better here than anywhere else,” you agree sourly. “After this stunt you’re both grounded.”

Elliot complains, something about doing the right thing, something about villains ganging up on you.

You only tune back in when he mentions Sistern and Jumbro.

“What were they doing with you?” You dart a glance over at Sunspot, who is suspiciously quiet.

“They attacked the comic shop. Said it was for nerds.” Elliot looks away. “I know we’re not supposed to talk about it but-” he cuts himself off with a sharp look at Sunspot.

Sunspot already knows you’re Barracuda. You had this conversation the first day you met in plainclothes at Elliot’s school.

“Sunspot and I used to work together,” you tell your son, whose eyes light up with annoying amounts of hero worship. “He made the right decision bringing you here.”

“Used to? What, you retiring already?” Sunspot’s concussion is making him giddy. It’d worry you but he’s also heckling you, so he’s probably fine.

“Elliot go set the table. We’ll eat when your father gets home. You can play videogames once the table is set.” You point to the kitchen, but Elliot’s already moving. The most motivated teenager ever now that videogames are on the table.

With Elliot out of the room you sit on a chair across the coffee table from Sunspot laid out on your couch.

“Why are my former colleagues going after kids?” You drink your tea and watch Sunspot rub his eyes tiredly.

“No villains like you anymore, Barracuda.” He shrugs helplessly, “the era of villains is pretty much ending. I’m a glorified status symbol for the city. Sistern and Jumbro are not long for this world.” He quirks a sad smile. “They want their boss back. Your shoes are too big to fill you know.”

“Sounds almost like you miss me,” you tease.

“I do.” He says it so candidly that it makes your heart clench. “These new villains want to harm the world because the world hurt them. You are a class act.” He shakes his head. “You wanted to topple the world to make it better for yourself. Kids these days just want to watch the world burn.”

“That why you became a teacher?” You push the plate of saltines at Sunspot insistently. He takes one and nibbles it obediently.

“If I can save even one kid from becoming another Jumbro, I will feel accomplished.” He smiles wryly, “and if that makes you want to blow up another statue of me I really wouldn’t mind it.” 

“I appreciate you saving Elliot. Not that I’m surprised you did it of course.” You cross your legs. “The hero commission should give you some backup instead of a commemorative statue.”

“Nah they’d rather pay cops to shoot kids.” Sunspot lies back and closes his eyes.

“Eyes open, Sunny Boy.” You snap your fingers twice and his eyes flutter open. “Concussion watch.”

He sits up by force of will, listing to the side a little before righting himself.

“I never liked that you called me Sunny Boy you know...”

“That, Sunny Boy, is why I called you Sunny Boy.”

He shakes his head. “Sunspot. It refers to-”

“The spot on your face?” You raise your eyebrows and he seems surprised you mentioned it. In thirty years of beating the hell out of each other you’ve never once talked about it.

“So you can see it,” he mused.

“Of course I can see it. A birthmark in the shape of the sun on your shoulder? Kind of hard to miss.” Heroes. Honestly. You wave a hand dismissively. “Not sure how you lived a normal life with something like that.”

He smiles wryly. “I cover it at school.”

“I know. That was a joke, Sunny.”

“I like that it’s a birthmark.” He smiles at you, all tired eyes and barely healing wounds. You patched him up earlier but you itch to clean him up again. It’s an almost maternal thought- which is a little gross honestly. Mom-mode is hard to turn off. “Seemed weird to me you never wanted to acknowledge the ‘spot’ part.”

“I’m a woman, Sunny.” You gesture to yourself in case he missed that fact over thirty-plus years. “If you think I’m going to comment on an aspect of someone’s appearance that they can’t change, I’m no better than those douchebros or corporate leeches trying to set human interaction and empathy back decades.”

He laughs, and coughs because his throat was strangled by Jumbro.

You... might have to come out of semi-retirement for a day to set Jumbro on the right path.

You haven’t bitten off a dick since you got married. Harold might be into it, if you explain the situation to him first.

Food for thought.

“You’re smiling.” Sunspot raises his eyebrows. “And you’re showing Barracuda teeth.”

“You remember how they said I used to bite penises off?”

He crosses his legs. “Yes.”

“Did you ever think I really did it?“

“No,” he says, legs still very crossed.

“Liar.” You lean back in your seat. “I was just thinking Jumbro might benefit from losing what tiny dick he has.”

“Please don’t castrate a stupid man for me with your teeth. Feels... wrong somehow.” Sunspot sighs. “You never threatened me with that either, but they said you had a taste for... manflesh.”

You both scoff a laugh at that phrasing.

“If I did bite dicks off- which I am not admitting to- I wouldn’t be interested in doing it to you. You don’t seem to be obsessed with yours so taking it from you might not even do anything.”

You’re lying.

Well, you’re not lying. But the idea of going anywhere near Sunspot in an intimate- or even predatory- way never even crossed your mind.

If you’re honest with yourself-

“It’d be too weird, anyway,” you deflect.

He grimaces. “Wholeheartedly agree.”

The door mercifully opens and closes and Harold gets home. He finds you both sitting across from each other in silence, leans down and pecks you at the whorl of your hair.

“Sunspot. Nice to meet you. Hon, I’m gonna check on the brat, then we can eat. You guys look so awkward it physically hurts me. Work it out before it spoils dinner.”

He then pauses, your perfect crazy husband. He turns to Sunspot and holds out a hand. The two men shake, looking seriously at each other.

“We missed you at our wedding,” Harold says, not letting Sunspot’s hand go. “But obviously you’ve been keeping an eye on Elliot. So. You know. Open invitation to dinner. Always.”

“I thought the wedding invite was a joke,” Sunspot admits. 

“Nope,” you and Harold say together.

Harold steps back, nodding to himself. “Alright. Well. Work the awkwardness out, then we’re eating.” He gives your shoulder a squeeze, then heads to the den yelling the countdown to his arrival that makes Elliot save his game in a hurry.

“He’s very nice.” Sunspot sits back down. “Couldn’t picture you marrying someone but... he weirdly makes sense.”

“He found me bloody in a ditch.” You smile fondly. “He asked if I was gonna bite him.”

“Did you?” Sunspot looks more awake now, which is good.

“Only once he asked me to.” You grin, and Sunspot grimaces.

“Gross. It feels like my sister is trying to tell me about her sexcapades.” He hears the words only after he’s said them, eyes going wide. He covers his mouth.

But he’s right. Also it was hilarious.

“Yeah. I’m glad I don’t know anything about your love life either.” You smile, no teeth this time. He smiles back.

“Got any tips? I’m pathetically single.” Sunspot laughs and coughs again.

“We’ll find you a nice... uh. Girl? Man?” You never really thought about Sunspot's orientation, but a man who wears skintight white spandex could go either way.

“Yes,” Sunspot confirms and you snort a laugh.

You stand up and stretch. “Let’s go have dinner. We can work out what you’re going to do about Jumbro and Sistern afterward. I have some fun ideas for you.”

“No,” he says, but it’s not as firm as it should be. He sways when he walks, but he fusses when you gently support him down the hallway.

Somehow, you both make your way to dinner together like this is totally normal.

#changing up my format #writing-prompt-s #writing prompts #my writing #writeblr #writing prompt

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

In the shape of you, something new.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #Better drawn mdzs #Yeah let's toss this in the 'mixed' category. Keeping you all on your toes with the quality of my work in this series. #I had to fire off some expectation-lowering shots to rebuild my energy. #I enjoy opportunities to experiment with formatting and challenge myself B*) I really like how this came out! #In this case; I have been thinking about this comic for nearly a year! The reunion scene! #The start of the festering! The longing LWJ feels contrasted against the reality that WWX has been fundamentally changed. #This is the shape of someone you knew. This is no longer the person you had in your head. Maybe that person never existed. #We build up expectations of who we want people to be - but they are never *who* that person is. #Loving the JC & LWJ parallels with this concept as well; they are both self-inflicted victims of pushing their expectations on WWX. #But we are who we are. We cannot become the idealized version of ourselves that lives in another person's head. #And I love how WWX comes back a little (a lot) horrifying. In his actions and appearance - he has changed. Maybe for the worst.

[titenoute]

Meme redraw OG Rayman prefers to choose kindness whenever he can...

V.2 :

But sometimes, you gotta send a message.

#...that's the second time I draw a relatively pacifist cartoonish character choosing violence in the span of 2 years #and he's purple themed too...kinda #uh #it's not much but it's weird it happened twice #oh well #ramon #rayman #it's been a struggle with those pictures bc guess what #I had to format the computer #and I *thought* I had all my CSP materials backed up in a file #but apparently they changed the placement of the material files without a warning and I didn't back up jack on the cloud #I have a few brushes I had put aside just in case and did well to do so #but all the brush and presets I've created are gone...color palettes included #i am an adult i am not going to cry #back up your material files kids #don't be like me #meme

[itsdefinitely]

fun times

#general john macnamara #wilbur cross #tickle me wiggly #hatchetfield #id in alt text #definitely art #came up with this comic while my apple pencil was broken #and proceeded to ferment until i got a new one #i wrote the id in a kind of story format but if you want me to change it let me know #and now i disappear for the next few weeks 👍 #tw gun

[sollucets]

wandee goodday, episode two

#wandee goodday #wandee goodday the series #ployphach phatchatorn #great sapol #rowan gifs #khaotunq #userjamiec #those were my confirmed taem enjoyers from last post :') #as promised im here to gif Her again! #i like this conversation very much. taem gently correcting him on a) a lil light misogyny and b) putting her up on a pedestal #and him genuinely taking her words to heart & applying them later on in the episode #all done in a cow suit! bless #i have a severe case of side character enjoyer for this show #also no my caption format is never consistent! ever! i know this and hate it and unfortunately will never change either

[biblically-accurate-dca]

experimental sunman yaaaay

(ruin spoilers under the cut)

#my art #daycare attendant #dca fandom #sundrop #sunnydrop #eclipse #<- for real this time #ruin spoilers #eyestrain #im still figuring out eclipse in my brain.... but overall they actually havent changed much abt my interpretation of the dca #since my hc for them is that they started off as eclipse while they were being used for the theater #and then they somehow separated into sun and moon after they were reprogrammed for the daycare #and then the virus came along and further separated the two from each other..... #which makes eclipse seem more like a 3rd person rather than the previous combined state of the two... so who knows how the hell they work #i really like the ambiguity tho :] i've always enjoyed it when the line between sun vs moon is super blurry and uncertain #it makes it more interesting #anyway. tumblr kept fucking up my post format on mobile so i had to fix this on desktop lol. if it breaks again though im shitting myself #ruin eclipse

[fictionadventurer]

I'd have been much less intimidated by the idea of writing poetry if I'd known that all you have to do is:

Have a thought

Write it down

Find a cooler way to say it

#plus there are pre-made (yet totally optional) cool formats that make writing feel like solving a puzzle! #it also helps that i don't expect any of these to be good #so i can just throw words down and be pleasantly surprised if any of them sound good #this is also a good exercise for my easily-distracted brain #instead of thinking up an image or idea or vibe and saying 'i should create a story that can use that' #the image/vibe/idea can be the whole project! #nice change of pace #adventures in writing #poetry

[chalamet-chalamet]

These are insane (IG credit to holycolorfulpig)

#timothee chalamet #sorry y’all for those who initially reblog he’s #I had to change the format because my app was acting up #Chanel #men’s fashion #April 23 #commercial #nyc #havana rose liu #timothée chalamet

[quikyu]

HOORAY! IT’S TRUE!! I TOO LOVE MONEY!!!

I’ve received a couple of messages from people asking how they can support me online! In the past, simple likes and reblogs have always warmed my heart. But now… I crave Cold. Hard. Cash! Muahaha

(Not really, though!)

You can find my Ko-Fi here!

Don’t worry, you won’t have to sacrifice any of your precious pennies if you don’t want to. But if you do have spare bills to spend, consider funding my debilitating Pokémon Plush addiction…

#kofi #ko-fi #quikyu banter #quikyu artiste #My kofi can also be accessed from my Carrd! Talk about convenience #Fun fact i drew these images over a year ago LOL i just never got to actually setting up a kofi until now #edit: I changed the image formatting because its annoying to scroll through lol

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

Steve: I don't know how I'm going to pay my rent. *unbuttons shirt*

Eddie: Oh, I think there's a way. *unzips pants.*

The rest of the spicy six playing monopoly:

I mean, except Argyle:

#stranger things #eddie munson #joseph quinn #stranger things s4 #eddie stranger things #eddie munson lives #steve harrington #steddie #steve x eddie #the spicy six #argyle stranger things #not my meme format #don't know who originally came up with the monopoly thing #i changed the names to steddie and the spicy six #steddie and the spicy six would be a great band name

[froggyrights]

Dream & Undertale

#the image limit is my mortal enemy #i hope this looks okay idk if the formatting will work #anyways i had an eviler version with tweets about. some people #but it made me me want to throw up so bad i changed it #post dedicated to my beautiful supporters nunki and archie #ok now im going to sleep goodbye #dreamwastaken #yrsa rambles

[anartisticalniche]

He noticed some commucion one day as he strolled around the plaza looking around for inspiration.

A crowd of some sort had formed around a corner; they were cheering, laughing at something- or someone- that he couldn't really see, due to the amount of people present.

As he approached the cheering citizens, his eyes lit up at what he witnessed.

A pair of men, two brothers he believed, were performing acts of comedy and telling jokes, keeping the audience they had gathered captivated.

They were foreign, he could tell, as the thick accent reverbted in their joyful voices. Their clothes dirty and broken in places, but the glint in their eyes lightning up whatever state their physical form were at the moment.

The man remained astonished: he could smell talent a mile away, and he believed he had just stepped a mine full of gold with these two.

After everyone had scattered, he approached, and while they remained wary, he simply clapped cheerfully.

"Bravo! You boys put on quite the show! I'm really impressed!"

He bowed down, a gleam in his eye: "My name is SMG4, and I'd like to offer you both an opportunity. How would you fine gentlemen like a better stage than the dirty streets of the Mushroom Kingdom?"

Here we go! First prologue of A Corsair Freebooter, aka how the Mario bros met SMG4.

The poor boys were immigrants that performed around the streets for money, and the blue man himself took a bit advantage of it and recruited them for his plays in theater.

(I want to point out that he doesn't straight up become friends with them... he's a bit of an asshole like in the first era in canon, where he mainly focuses on getting famous and popularity through his work...

He'll get there though in terms of friendship, don't worry!)

#added a few familiar faces in the crowd (FM and X eheh) #just changed them up a bit is all #also i dont know if i want to keep this format of telling the story or not #we'll see if you guys like it #smg4 #smg4 mario #smg4 luigi #smg4 pirate au #a corsair freebooter #my art

[blinkpen]

brainstorming mechanics for a bloody mary of my very own

#mog art #artists on tumblr #horror #monster #this is for a self-contained horror project with its own story entirely unrelated to MantleDwellers #and by project i mean... possibly live action..? never thought i'd say that but anyway- #she might cameo in MD though or show up once as part of its Monster of the Week format bc My Original CreepyPasta Monster My Rules #speaking of rules there's more to this setup obvs n other effects n powers and i'm still playing around with her appearance #adjustments n such; already will be changing 7 nights to 12 bc Clocks #blood cw #death cw #want to get the specifics just right so there's room for protags to get fucked over when they think they've won #AND there still be the loophole that lets you Actually defeat this thing #or at least neutralize it after summoning so you don't have to commit 2 sit in a chair u cant ever move every night until you die

[absolutely-not-my-main-blog]

Everyone says they love a devastatingly painfully slow burn romance until I, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia—

#macdennis #iasip #it's always sunny in philadelphia #text #pay no attention to the tags behind the curtain hashtag normalcore hashtag silly #meme #anmmbposts #*girl who still has faith in them and trusts the structure in spite of it all* #*girl who has thoughts on the tragedy of stagnation in the sitcom format and parallels and contrasts to waiting for big mo in the themes of #change and what must happen first in order for such a lasting change to occur* #meant to say waiting for g*dot but anyway #ignore my tags look at my post #it wouldn't be the gay gay*ss love story for the ages without the excruciating wait because of who they are and what the show is #and what they're trying to break and subvert #as long as there is eventually follow through which i again do still have faith in/think they're legit building towards even if it feels #like a tease because of how many ways other media has burned us but they still have time to make the build up mean something

[2hoothoots]

i was having a chuckle to myself last night about Gristol, and how his plans are basically:

Restore Ford Cruller's memory

Find Maligula

???

Profit

but then... of course they are, right? this is Gristol we're talking about. Fatherland Follies drives home again and again that he's still operating on a child's logic, a warped and reductive version of the world that he never bothered to grow out of. both of his memory vaults center on the images of his childhood, this idealized version of the past that he clings to no matter what. and that's still how he remembers Maligula, too - as this saviour figure, who rushes in to help him when he's in trouble.

[ID: Two slides from Gristol's memory vault, Glory to Grulovia! Left: Gristol clings to Maligula's back as she summons waves to sweep away his assailants. Right: Gristol and Maligula waving from a balcony as the people cheer. Gzar Theodore brandishes a dagger in the background.]

like so much else, Maligula represents a return to this idyllic childhood - to the peace and simplicity of his youth, when he was free from worries and responsibilities. in his mind, he doesn't need to make any further plans - once Maligula's back, everything will go back to normal. Maligula will make everything better.

...is what i thought, but then i remembered this line:

[Screenshot source. ID: Gristol, in Truman's body, bows on his hands and knees in front of the newly-awaked Maligula. The caption reads: "Yes, High Priestess! I am here to correct the mistakes made by my father!"]

and that's kind of interesting, right?

to be clear: this happens directly after Maligula sees Helmut-in-Gristol's-body, and recognises him. her line before this is:

"Little Gzesaravich! Have you come to pay for your father's sins?"

my first thought was that Gristol hadn't expected to still be in Truman's body by the time he managed to find Maligula, and this was him trying to placate her and buy some time until he could explain the situation. but watching the cutscene back, that's clearly not what's happening here. Gristol is answering as himself, and his response of throwing himself to his knees before her is, as far as i can tell, genuine.

so what is going on here?

in Fatherland Follies, there's this line in the ride narration that stuck out to me:

"Why didn't the Gzar help Maligula in her time of need? No one knows, but historians agree - it is Gzar Theodore's biggest failure."

other lines mention Gzar Theodore's "mistake", and it's wording Gristol himself echoes in the screencap above. evidently, he believes that his father abandoned Maligula, leaving her to her fate at the hands of the Psychonauts, and it was that mistake that lead to them being driven out of the country - that mistake which he seeks to correct. maybe he even feels like he has a debt to repay to her for his family turning their backs on her all those years ago.

the 'High Priestess' thing, though - that's kinda weird, and threw me for a loop the first time i played the game. it took me until my second playthrough to connect the dots, and remember how the room in the Lady Luctopus - Gristol's room - was full of Delugionist scribblings and symbols.

[Screenshot source. ID: left, the walls of the hidden backroom in Gristol's hotel suite, covered in scrawlings of eyeballs and Maligula's name. Right, the pinboard from the hidden backroom. On its surface are photographs and newspaper clippings connected by pieces of string.]

i mean, look at this stuff! he had a whole conspiracy board and everything!

we learn very little about the Delugionists and their beliefs as a whole during the game, but i think drawing the connection here suggests two important things. one: that Gristol was in deep with this stuff. i don't know how he linked up with them - maybe via old family connections, or just good old-fashioned digging (we know he's skilled at worming his way into peoples' good graces, after all) - but it seems likely that he's begun to internalise their ideas, maybe even warping his own memories of events. and two: the Delugionists themselves are, if you'll pardon the pun, pretty far off the deep end.

like... i understand why PN2 didn't go heavy on the "mass-murderer cult worship" aspect of things, in the end, but man this is such a tantalising glimpse into the wider mythos around Maligula. Gristol is proud and haughty and thinks himself above everyone else; the fact that his first reaction seeing Maligula is to throw himself to the ground at her feet says so much about the way he's come to see her. he's not just trying to bring back Maligula, his childhood bodyguard. he's trying to bring back Maligula, the High Priestess of the deluge, the semi-mythical figure whose supporters believe even death couldn't stop. he doesn't even flinch at the way she confronts him, and maybe it's because he's bought in so completely to this deified figurehead, this idea of Maligula; more a living force of nature than a person. and it all comes back to the same place: an abdication of responsibility, not just to the person who protected him when he was little but to this avatar of floods and destruction. Maligula will make everything better.

i'd write more about my thoughts on the Delugionists but that'd be taking a hard turn into speculation, and this is already kind of long and rambling so i'd better end it here. but what an unexpected and evocative line, right? it's some of the only stuff we have to go off of regarding the Delugionists as a whole, but i think it does such a good job of hinting at the wider story - at teasing another layer to the mythos surrounding Maligula, one whose ripples we see throughout the game but which never quite breaches the surface.

#psychonauts #psychonauts 2 #bored waiting at the airport so you get more psychonauts meta from me #the delugionists have been on my mind recently (because i Might Just have an upcoming au lorepost about them and also cults are fun) #so tossing my thoughts up here because people seemed to like the last few times i did this #and also it's my blog and i like to talk :) #related vent i HATE drafting posts in the tumblr editor because if you hit crtl+z to try and undo a formatting change #it deletes like half the post you just typed out #(yes i did it again while i was writing this. yes i'm still salty. why do i even bother) #what else... this is just becoming a disconnected thoughts dump #but if you've seen my posts you knew what you were signing up for when you hit the button to expand the post tags #there's new art coming hopefully this weekend if i can get it finished! it's more mermaid au designs #i'm two and a half weeks late for mermay but it turns out starting a new job and moving house doesn't leave you with a ton of free time #but that's okay it's never too late for mermaids #omg and artfight's coming up next month too! geez #i gotta make refsheets for the fsau trio because i would LOVE to get art of them #and this year i don't have a thesis to crunch on so i might actually have time to participate #oh and then in august i'm having top surgery! will make a proper announcement post for it at some point #i say 'announcement'. it's just a life update but it's nice to share #i'm super excited about it :) #i might end up blogging the process and recovery but obviously it won't be going here lol. i'd put it on my main #idk if anyone would find it useful but when i first started looking into surgery i had like very little idea about the whole process #and it's only through joining a bunch of online support/discussion groups that i managed to find more info and resources #so hey it might be useful to share? we'll see #our flight doesn't land for another fifty minutes so now i'm just writing in the tags because i'm bored #alright i'll proofread this and then post it when i land and have signal again. peace out yall hope your pride month is going well

[brookheimer]

roman is free in the sense that he is free from waystar, but he is not free in the sense that he has 'escaped the cycle.' roman realized everything is bullshit and left, but that's not what actual meaningful freedom would be for roman. what rome needs is for business and family to finally make a clean separation, for him to be allowed to love his family without molding himself into an image of logan that he isn't. waystar has always been the only way the roys know how to interact with one another, and it still is. in that sense, nothing has changed. roman's declaration about the nothingness of waystar is not actually a change, because he still marries waystar to family, and thus believes family is nothingness as well -- functionally, there's little difference between that and the opposite belief that both waystar and family have meaning and are 'real.' what the roys need is to realize waystar is bullshit and family is real, but roman went from thinking both have meaning (family has meaning thus waystar has meaning) to thinking neither do (waystar is bullshit thus family is bullshit). nothing changes, the cycle keeps on cycling. finally family has been severed from waystar (what he's needed all along -- he's never really cared about the business, only his family, and the business was the only way he could be with his family, so he tried and failed time and time again to mold himself into the businessman his dad wanted him to be), and while this is a good thing, it's coupled with his realization of the hollowness of the family itself. in hindsight, this was inevitable, i think -- if waystar royco was the beating heart of the roy family (which it was), there's no conceivable severing of the two that would allow the family to maintain functionally intact.

i do think that roman will have relationships with his family after the finale (shiv is definite, con is likely, kendall is also likely because roman is incapable of not being around his family and can't imagine a world in which they don't return to each other somehow), but he's aware for the first time of the nothingness of their bonds, something that everyone has already known except for him -- something, i think, that isn't even entirely fair. they do love each other. there is something there. and now that waystar is no longer part of the equation, maybe there's hope for real relationships beyond transaction, beyond business, beyond logan. but none of them believe that to be possible. roman always used to, but for the first time, i think he's not sure. he's free of waystar, but the roys never managed to functionally healthily uncouple family and business, so being free of waystar also means being free of family -- it has to mean that. he's convincing himself it's all nothing and he doesn't care, and that won't last. but, in my opinion, neither will the distance between the siblings. i think it'll take time, but they'll come back together, albeit in varying degrees (i doubt shiv and ken will ever have quite the same relationship again, for instance). roman is free of waystar but not because he realized it's not necessary for family -- because he 'realized' family is not necessary, that family is nothing too, that everything is nothing. it's an empty sort of happiness, unsustainable and hollow. but i do think there is hope. i think it'll be okay for rome in the long run (family-wise, at least). i just don't think nihilism is a salve capable of healing deep cuts, only a bandage allowing them to stay hidden for a little while longer.

in life and in death, waystar royco and the roy family are eternal partners, inextricable from each other -- and so long as the two remain conceptually married, it'll be hard for roman to find legitimate happiness: if one is dead, then the other must be too. he ends the series the same as he started it, believing fully in logan's conception of family as a business unit (meaning now that both are bullshit), people as economic units (meaning now that both are bullshit), and roman himself as the son who couldn't be the heir and thus was never much of a son at all. logan dominates his worldview just as much as it always has. sure, roman acknowledges that everything is bullshit now, but that's even more logan than his previous viewpoint which was a naive sort of belief in family. now, it's all just bullshit. everything's bullshit. it's logan with nihilism as the dominant frame (rather than capitalism), but regardless of roman's thoughts on the meaning of things, the structure of the world is the same one that logan taught him. he is free from waystar, but he is haunted by its ghost and always will be.

#yes i said the 'roman is free (by choice) thing in one post however that was literally just to match the format of the #other parts of the post to make the con punchline work LOLL. needed to clarify my actual thoughts - that was mad oversimplification #anyways tl;dr - he's realized the business is nothing (!!) which means family is nothing (...) and logan's worldview prevails (fuck) #don't know if this makes sense or is even accurate to my thoughts bc 77% of my brain is focused on shiv rn lmaooo #succession spoilers #roman roy #casey shut the fuck up about roman roy #succession #so many thoughts to think. #idek if this is what i actually think LANDASJDNk i might change it later or post a new thing i just needed to clarify that i do not think #roman is actually free and that other post was just phrased that way to make the joke work LMAO #long post #100