tomwambsgans

[tomwambsgans]

if someone who's actually knowledgeable about star wars has already made a better version of this meta post pls link me but in the meantime. i'm up thinking about the rich vein of character implications and foreshadowing done by the star wars references in 1x3 lifeboats (and where it briefly resurfaces in 1x6)

like, firstly, upon rewatch this becomes a clear symbol of waystar being a fascist organization (prior to the audience seeing evidence of that) and tom's likely consciousness of the fact, as he ascends:

i'd assumed that the "grill on the exhaust vent" line was directly from star wars for the longest time, only to search it and find that it comes 100% from succession lol. of course it's tom saying "all the death star needed was a grill on the exhaust vent and then the rebellion wouldn't have had anything to exploit." but even that alone, funnily enough, feels like a solid parallel to what's to come. whether he knows it or not, tom is accurately calling out waystar's very simple weaknesses for what they are. and he's right that he'll be the one fixing it, or at least trying to.

also you get the sense from this that tom has either recently watched the movies and/or that he's just a big nerd about them and has that reference on tap. which isn't part of the analysis as much as it's just fun but anyway,

...kendall as vader/anakin is a pretty fun parallel, but tom as c3p0 is both fucking hilarious and perfect in the scheme of things.

the humor is that if tom was placing himself in a SW role in his head, here, it was likely a general or something. only for kendall to swiftly knock him down to something so much more accurate -- a protocol droid. you're built from scrap, tom. programmed for etiquette and it's made you high-strung and constantly anxious lmao. now, i've covered the robot thing in a more thorough parallels post, but with c3p0 specifically it's just so fun in particular not only bc of c3p0's personality (and how this scene hints what we'll learn about tom's), but bc of the matching roles that he and r2d2 play in star wars:

constantly together, basically immortal due to being droids, defectors from the republic, comic relief... and integral to very important events. these seemingly unimportant hunks of metal just keep lucking (or unlucking) into the most pivotal moments in history.

i also think it's important to note that tom immediately accepts his role as c3p0. because then, when he later says this,

it's completely undeniable that greg is the r2d2 to his c3p0, not anyone else. therefore not mine as in "i'm his owner." therefore a different kind of mine.

and of course, it works. r2 is the droid between them who can act spontaneously. who may get them into more trouble but who can also get them out of it. who may not be able to speak basic, but who 3p0 can understand while most others can't. and who is EXTREMELY useful, with a lot of unexpected skills and tools under his belt. it's uncanny.

finally, these are basically the same image:

#tom wambsgans #tomgreg #1x3 lifeboats #meta #mine

[tomwambsgans]

home from school.

prints + merch + dm for comm info

#roman #art

[tomwambsgans]

SUCCESSION ▸ they’re trying to body snatch him. history’s being written.

#oh shit this is good stuff #meta #gifs #logan

[tomwambsgans]

been watching fall of the house of usher with my dad and honestly I think the most interesting part of all these succession knock offs is seeing, quite clearly, what a) the writers of these variant shows found most interesting about succession personally which is fine and b) what the studios think made succession successful. like, tfothou is clearly Netflix saying "what people like about succession is a rich family of monsters tearing each other apart" and white lotus is like, "what people like about succession is the fact these rich people are horrible" and the righteous gemstones is like "what people like about succession is the shambolic bratty children trying to take over a dying business" and morning show season 3 is Apple being like, "what people really like about succession is the big scary company deals" but none of them actually holds a candle to succession because what people ACTUALLY love about succession is how rich it is. how there's so much more to it than just rich people being horrible or kids being bratty or any of the surface layer shit these knock off variants try to make their whole shtick. also, most of all, succession actually had class consciousness, which none of these shows have because they're still operating under the MO that audiences deep down still find such wealth aspirational. something succession not only rejected in its ethos, but arguably shamed its audience for within the show itself.

#meta

[tomwambsgans]

"So I guess I felt like I needed to experience that, as rigorously as I could, so that I might be able to understand it better, and thereby embody it so that the audience can have a palpable felt experience of it."

Jeremy Strong on Kendall Roy || Succession Season 2

#kendall #cast #jeremy had to have fucked himself up so much by internalizing kendall like this goddamn #gifs

[tomwambsgans]

it's actually really embarrassing how you're trying to flee my haunted castle right now

#logan to kendall #actually this is just straight up the plot of the show #successioncore

[tomwambsgans]

i thank god that succession was created during the golden age of video edits. blessed especially are the romangerri editors

#romangerri #video

[tomwambsgans]

Which Succession Character Are You?

#this is pretty cool #but also ultimately mistaken. i'm tom

[tomwambsgans]

Conwilla serving Lady Gaga at the A Star is Born press tour "100 people in a room" speech realness

#conwilla #<3

[tomwambsgans]

youse ever think about how our first shot of shiv is her talking to tom about what to buy her dad for his birthday saying it doesn't matter because pleasing her dad is losing game, and the last shot of her is in the car with Tom barely a word left between them because he's assumed the position her father held by her own hand because it was the only way she wouldn't completely lose her dad's game?? do you guys ever think about that??? nah me neither haha

#shiv #meta

[tomwambsgans]

SUCCESSION 1x09 | Pre-Nuptial

#these could be shots from an acclaimed late 60s horror film #shiv #gifs

[tomwambsgans]

something i'm just noticing now is that in this is not for tears, logan sends naomi off the boat before the cruises war room because he "needs absolute privacy." but later, willa is sitting next to connor the entire time they're discussing who will go to prison. doubly meaning that logan doesn't care about connor enough to interfere or be threatened by willa's presence, and that kendall was specifically isolated

#:( #meta #kendall #connor

[tomwambsgans]

Shiv sees something in her – she’s fun and sparky. Not a deadeyed hanger-on. SHIV Right. So what do you do? Who are you? TABITHA Oh I’m nobody. Don’t worry about me.

#hmm #shiv #tabitha #gifs

[tomwambsgans]

i'm convinced that tom's simultaneous need for greg to be As Close As Possible, and also at arm's length, is not just his hypermasculine inability to be vulnerable but also heavily informed by his history as a closeted/repressed gay man. like, knowing how much it hurts to get close to other men who don't/can't ever return that closeness.

and he's almost certainly attracted to greg in the first place bc on some level he senses that greg is the same as him... though he can't be quite conscious of it because it hurts him to know what he needs for the very same reason. but greg is also someone that tom can keep close to him - like he decides preemptively, all under this notion that greg is straight (because tom can't conceive of a man who isn't straight because if he did then he'd have to accept that he himself is one): even if there isn't a desire to be close with me on his end, i'll just make sure that he has to be. i'll engineer that desire myself.

#in a way tom has always been a 'sad i get from being with you vs the sad i get from being without you' guy #tom wambsgans #tomgreg #hc #meta #mine

[tomwambsgans]

STEWY HOSSEINI IN SUCCESSION SEASON 3

#he flares his nostrils so gayly #stewy #gifs

[tomwambsgans]

could talk about the grand dramaturgy of succession dialogue forever. a great majority of the most poignant lines are half incoherent, gramatically fucked, all just bits and pieces of images put into words poorly, its such a shakespeare move and such a bold and confident use of language like it really does floor me. we think these grand horror things, at times like these, these ice shelves are gonna come at us in the night and take our heads off. its not true. he was an old bastard. and he loved you

#succession is literature to me

[tomwambsgans]

kendall + shiv | siding with each other

#shiv #kendall #gifs