Shiv Roy - Blog Posts

i can't stop thinking about how the show portraits Roman's intimacy issues in a way that feels too close to home when it comes to SA and how it affects your relationship with sex and being intimate in the future. He can only link feelings of pleasure to shame, such as when him and Tabitha try to have sex in s2e5 (you can literally see it on his face that asking her to "play dead" is something that makes him ashamed, but it's the only way he can manage to do it. If there's an element of wrongness there) or the times where he gets turned on by Gerri degrading him and can only manage to feel pleasure from it.

I haven't finished the show yet but, from what I've seen online, I believe the writers will not expand or explore that. However, I still believe his fixation with "taboo sex" (from constantly joking about it to performing) plus the issues with actually doing it and some jokes here and there about being abused as a child, is not there merely for laughs or as a proof he's "a creep or a weirdo" (plus, it's canon that Roman often says stuff that actually happened with a joke tone, so people can't tell it's real)

...or I might be projecting, idk

(also, the whole thing with Logan putting Shiv's hand under his pants due to the "confusion" morphine caused him is weird af. More people should comment on that)

What really bothers me about the way some people talk about Succession is the way they never allow for any grey area or complex characters.

PAIRING: lesbians!tomshiv

SUMMARY:

remembered in S4 when Tom mentioned flying to France to Shiv, something about a silk shirt and "do you like this? do you like this?" and then I wrote that moment in France except they're lesbians? yeah!

The time an upset Kendall spent 3 nights up in the tree and Roman broke his leg scaling the trunk

Aka the day before Logan had the treehouse taken down

"She runs hot. She makes boogeyman out of the clothes she dumps on her bedroom floor. Always has."

Hooow do people not talk more about this quote? The way Logan talks about Shiv here is so interesting given their dynamic

I will say I am so fucking glad we get to finally see some of shiv's rage this season. it's been blubbering under the surface for the entirety of the show and it's finally coming out, slowly, in small increments but it is. but it's still really fucked up how even now, even after everything that's happened, everything that's been done to her, there isn't really a response there from other people, mostly. when she loses her shit at tom on the phone this episode because he FUCKED HER OVER, he doesn't even acknowledge it, it's just 'I don't know what you mean, I don't know maybe Sara made a mistake. I want this to be amicable' literally gaslighting her and making seem as if she's the crazy one for freaking out after he did this to her. same goes for her outburst at the karaoke bar. no one really knows how to respond and she's just left with this ever-simmering rage, that, if she lets it out, proves to everyone around her that she's just the hysterical woman. and if she doesn't it just eats her alive without anyone even taking fucking notice

katya goncharova // shiv roy parallels

Over the seasons, tom has definitely proved himself to not just be the love struck country mouse trying to make it in the big city and to find his place in this family. His flown under everyone's, especially Logan's radar for most of the series except when the siblings feels they can use him to their advantage. i feel like he is going to take advantage of the fact that all the kids have fallen out of Logan's favor for the running of waystar or at least for one of the top jobs and take him and his loyal servant/ friend/ confidante Greg with him. Tom has proved himself loyal when he offered himself as sacrifice for Logan and the company, something that all three kids have failed to do throughout the seasons. (Kendall many times, shiv considering a (fake) job offer from Raya, Roman when he told Tabitha to make contact with Naomi about the Peirce deal and possibly tanking it. it might not have been a betrayal but it was in Logan's eyes. I also think that Roman messing with Gerri was a betrayal to Logan). Tom has also proved that he values the company and the shareholders over his personal relationships by him giving up Shiv and the boys in the last season. Whereas Shiv couldn't do the same with Tom at the end of season 2. Tom has played the game very well. His smart, educated and experienced (Shiv is smart doesn't have a lot of cooperate experience, especially runny a multi-billion dollar conglomerate), his loyal and devoted and 'kinda family'. Logan is vulnerable (him and Marcia aren't as solid as before, his kids are out, the company is going through a very public merger and the world is speculating about his age and health) Logan is in desperate need of some more allies in his corner and Mr wambgans is smart enough to see that.

Shiv failed to reward Tom's loyalty and devotion throughout the shows either with her expressing her love and deeper feelings, requesting an open marriage the night of their wedding, keeping him in the dark about her own moves in the company and the moves of others, not showing her concern for him going to prison and telling him that 'she doesn't love him'. Unfortunately in the world of Succession it's defiantly not straight forward as now Logan will reward him in the way he wants. I for sure think Logan will fuck both him and Greg in the next season, i also think either tom or greg will try and fuck over the other. Logan doesn't reward loyalty unless the reward also benefits him as well. I see this with Frank, Kendall's godfather, who has been loyal to Logan for many years and rewards that when they need him for something but the moment his useless Frank is told to 'Fuck off'.

Tom is in a great position at the end of season three, even though his head of Cruises, his position in the family and kinda at 'the seat with the big boys' as put in season, is largely because of his proximity to Shiv. I do wonder that even though tom betrayed Shiv for Logan, i wonder even still Logan might to be 100% about rewarding the man who hurt his only daughter. Logan is not perfect and maybe seeing their marriage possibly sour in the next season, might also sour his tolerance for Tom and his presence. i feel like Logan's got a few more shit cakes for tom to eat, especially with the merger with gojo coming up.

The thing is, they're all reflections of Logan. Kendall, Shiv, Roman, they all are different refracted images of him, in ways that can make them cruel and in ways that can make them entitled and angry and childish, and yes, in ways that can make them a candidate for CEO.

But the problem is, they're broken mirrors. Logan made sure of that. They're shards of glass scattered on the ground, with Logan towering above them. This makes them sad, confused people incapable of maintaining relationships, and also, makes them disqualified for ceo.

Then there's Tom. Sure "the guy has issues" but really? He's fine. And the issues he has? Logan has no real emotional power over him.

So while the kids were crafted into these distorted, fucked up versions of Logan and then stuck in a blender for 30 to 40 years, Tom was able to walk in, unaffected, and take on aspects of Logan of his own accord.

It's interesting, because Logan hated him until season 3, but then he was able to offer himself up as a sacrifice and appear more clear headed than Logan's emotional, needy children. And while his parents are at least well off, he's more of a "self-made man" than the kids could ever really be, which reflects Logan's fight to the top.

He's a smaller mirror, he may not hold the depths of Logans twisted nature (not yet anyway) but he's a clear, unbroken mirror. In raising his kids for the crown, Logan disqualified each of them, but the new, more distant son could be everything he wanted in a successor.