#look okay as much i loved both farleigh and venetia as characters

[spacecasehobbit]

Oliver's last conversations with each of Farleigh, Felix, and Venetia are so consistently fascinating to me. Each of Farleigh and Venetia think that they are calling Oliver out, forcing him to face the harsh truths of his own insignificance, while Oliver stands passively by and lets them reveal their own hypocrisy before revealing the true fragility of their positions, the power that he has over their lives.

Farleigh towers over Oliver, belittling him against the backdrop of this party that is supposedly for Oliver and is full of people whose regard for Oliver spans from indifference to outright hostility. Yet while he thinks that he's giving Oliver his victory speech, gloating over the fact that it is Farleigh, not Oliver, who will stay at Saltburn after this summer, he's also admitting to the tenuous nature of his own position there. "I was invited," he tells Oliver, when Oliver questions his presence at the party, along with, "I'll always come back," and, "This is my house."

The contradiction that Farleigh doesn't even realize he's admitted to, however, is that people don't have to be invited back to their house. He's always been as much a guest as Oliver, but he's the one who can't face the possibility of getting kicked out for good. Thus, Farleigh is the one who is really clinging to hope instead of action, the one who will never be fighting quite as hard as Oliver to ensure that possibility doesn't come true.

Farleigh gloats over Oliver's loss and takes Oliver's silence as proof that he is right. When really, Oliver doesn't gloat or bluster or protest. Oliver listens to what people tell him, and then Oliver acts.

It's the same thing we see in Oliver's confrontation with Venetia in the bathtub after Felix's funeral.

Venetia is clearly devestated by her brother's loss, and she is looking for someone to lash out at. And what a convenient, easy target Oliver seems to make. So polite, so soft-spoken, so awkward and innocent and small.

A harmless moth, batting up against the windows. At the same time, a parasite, consuming what wasn't his to take. Eating holes in her family - her family who would have greedily consumed every last drop of the sad, pitiful life he fed them for their own amusement, before casting him aside like a moth-eaten sweater abandoned in the back of a closet.

She calls him out, too, for wearing Felix's aftershave (but not the fact that he's wearing Felix's bathrobe, interestingly enough), while she's the one sprawled in Felix's bathtub. "I bet you're even wearing his underwear," she tells him scornfully, and he kisses her to prove that she'll still kiss him back, that for all her mocking words she's just as desperate as he is to cling to any scraps of Felix left behind. That for all her words to the contrary, he is a scrap of Felix left behind.

And then the harmless moth puts holes in her wrists, puts her in a hole in the ground, and walks away.

In contrast, the confrontations with Farleigh and Venetia make Oliver's confrontation with Felix in the maze all the more devastating in a different way.

With Felix, Oliver isn't quiet. He isn't timid or passive or small, and he is trying desperately not to listen when it's Felix telling him to go away, to stop, to give up, with nothing else he can latch onto for hope of a different outcome. With Felix, Oliver shouts, he protests, he snarls. He loses control of his voice and his body, even pins Felix up against the minotaur statue while he begs Felix to listen to him because he doesn't know what else to do; all he has are these words that he desperately wants to be true, that Felix doesn't want to hear.

It's Felix who is forced into silence while Oliver talks, and it is Felix who finally sees the truth that Oliver can't bear to face in himself.

It's Felix who tells Oliver, "You make my fucking blood run cold."

And he's the only one who gets it right.

#saltburn #saltburn meta #oliver quick #felix catton #farleigh start #venetia catton #look okay as much i loved both farleigh and venetia as characters #both of them were lashing out at oliver in those scenes due to their own insecurity or grief #neither of them really understood him #and he knew that and used it to his advantage #felix was the only one who actually saw the hard truth oliver wanted most to bury #felix and oliver both wound up seeing the worst parts of each other #the parts that neither of them wanted anyone else to see #which is.... #honestly really sad

[sandpapersnowman]

2,3, 8, 11, 16, 24!

SO MANY okay I'm doing saltburn, gosling, and baldurs gate fandoms lol

2. a headcanon you weren't sure about but have come to like

I've been stuck on this for like 10 minutes but I can't think of any headcanons I haven't immediately liked or disliked orz

3. a character that fandom has helped you appreciate

saltburn: Venetia for sure!! I've been reading a fic where her and Oliver become friends and talk on the phone together a lot, it leaves me cold by nicelittlestyleslad!!!

goslings: I still have yet to see half Nelson but Dan is definitely a character I don't think I would have even looked at if not for sascha and his amazing henry/Dan stuff!

baldurs gate: fandom has taken me from hating gale to being neutral on him tbh. he's. okay I guess

8. you hope more people will come to appreciate ___ (a ship, trope, episode, etc)

saltburn: desperately want more fics where Felix is just. such a bottom. I've read some feminization fics w him recently but they just didn't hit like I wanted. I need that man dressed like an egirl

goslings: RICHARD AND HENRY my toxic yaoi boys I love them so much

baldurs gate: we need more wyllstarion. I need them to surpass bl**dw**ve as the top astarion ship

11. what fic or piece of art are you proud of making?

saltburn: oh man I'm really loving the fic I'm writing for kyn, your love can do what no one else can, and I have tons written ahead for it ksfnfn

goslings: I love my richard/henry series so much. they're both such weird characters and they go together So Well, I love them, and I have a lot of fun writing them!!

baldurs gate: honestly I love everything I've written for astarion but I Especially love one I'm working on for ascended astarion and my terrible bard guy. it's awful and I'm having a blast

16. a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

saltburn: spoilers but. the fact that Felix looks at Oliver's lips in that one close shot in the maze. the fact that Oliver is petting his face with his thumb in the shadow of his cheek. also Oliver baring his teeth when he's silhouetted with farleigh hoooogh

goslings: not technically a character thing but the fact that ryan gosling has called himself 49% woman. I love him. also listen to Dead Man's Bones

baldurs gate: when astarion smugly goes to pick a lock and rolls a 1

24. how has fandom positively impacted your life?

man I could go on forever about how almost all of my friends have been met through fandom, or how I write every day because of it, or how I'm actually like learning and getting better at drawing because I want to draw certain things

fandom has also done a lot of bad for me in the form of being subjected to shitty takes and meeting a few awful people but for the most part like. I would probably not have otherwise found a sense of community anywhere else because I've been so socially reclusive my whole life

and it's helped me develop socializing skills that DO make me confident enough to talk to non fandom people and like people irl and stuff

Basically like. despite all the wildness I'm grateful that I've been able to find like-minded cool people in basically every fandom I've been in

more specifically though

saltburn: so much of the fandom is like very young adults I've noticed? but it's funny being called grandthey at age 26

goslings: the goosecoooord I love yall and I love all the stuff we do. I've written so much stuff I never would have dipped my toes in because yall have been cool and supportive and awesome

baldurs gate: astarion made me and my girlfriend bisexual and has also gently bridged my knowledge gap to dnd to the point that I could probably enjoy playing it/ttrpgs in general

thanks for the ask!!! :3

#ask games #anon #asks #anon asks