#in all his hubris cromwell thinks he can handle it because he's really smart and has escaped abusive dynamics before but uh-oh!!!

[vaguely-concerned]

...wolf hall!henry viii/cromwell version of the locked tomb pool scene, except that at the end of the book henry cheerfully eats cromwell's soul and chops his head off with all the whim and vigor of ianthe snacking down on babs

#I assume there must be a fandom overlap of some kind here lol #I am aware I am being absurd but I'm having fun and that's all that really matters <3 #wolf hall #the locked tomb #and yes. yes I am saying what we're all too afraid to say wolf hall!cromwell is cavalier coded fdakshj #I am mostly being funny here but there are some very interesting thematic parallells to me between these series #especially when you hold henry and john up to each other and marvel at the overlaps even tho their backgrounds couldn't be more different #they're just the very hungry caterpillaring up everyone else in the narrative and everyone frantically has to try to live with it #at the beginning of the books cromwell has a family and his wife and his daughters and wolsey and rafe and seems quite happy #and then by the end his whole life is swallowed up by henry because that's just what henry does #in all his hubris cromwell thinks he can handle it because he's really smart and has escaped abusive dynamics before but uh-oh!!! #both book series are partially talking about imperialism filtered through a lens of narcissism #master secretary thomas cromwell 🤝 the lyctors 'I must restrain my cannibal king/best and only friend' #well about that folks. I don't know how to tell you this but --