His Name Was Jason, And Today Is His Birthday.

WET LEG Chaise Longue, 2022

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.

Nothing is “TMI” for me. I’m nosy as shit. Tell me everything. Spare no detail.

god. GOD...

the presidential sash for the first time ever was handed over by the people of brazil

the fascist ex-president bolsonaro ran away from brazil and refused to participate in the ceremony, breaking one of brazil’s democracy’s staple traditions that is to hand the presidential sash to the successor. lula received the presidential sash from individuals representing the brazilian peoples.

this going to be a long post, but it’s really important for us.

francisco, 10 years old, swimmer of corinthians, a brazilian sports club. he lives in a outskirts of são paulo. after watching a movie about lula, he saw that he could be a president too.

aline sousa, 33 years old, garbage collector since she was 14 and the 3rd generation of collector in the family. aline is a mother of 6 boys and 1 girl, in 2012 she was elected director secretary of the CENTCOOP-DF (a central of work cooperatives of collectors in distrito federal, brasília) and 3 years later the first president of the entity.

chief raoni metuktire, 90 years old, dedicated his life to the defense of the amazon and the peoples of the forest. he is recognized by indigenous and riverside communities as one of the main representatives of the struggle to preserve the forest and the amazonian peoples.

weslley viesba rodrigues rocha, 36 years old, metallurgist from ABC region since he was 18 years old. married and father of two boys, cauã, 18 years old, and apolo, 2 months old. he graduated in Physical Education with the help of fies (a program of the ministry of education for funding the higher education of the undergraduate students). weslley is also a DJ in the rap group ‘falange’. 

murilo de quadros jesus, 28 years old, teacher, graduated in portuguese and english languages (UTFPR) and lives in curitiba.

jucimara fausto dos santos, cook born in palotina. she dedicated her life to cooking and it was in a cooking contest at vigília lula livre (a civil movement supported by several brazilian social movements and union entities to help free lula from the prision) that jucimara was called to make bread. today she cooks for the employees’ association of the state university of maringá.

ivan baron, 24 years old, he’s from rio grande do norte and at the age of 3 had viral meningitis, a disease that caused his cerebral palsy. ivan is a reference in the anti-capacitist struggle and considered one of the ambassadors of inclusion in an exclusionary society and he’s also part of the lgbtqia+ community

flávio pereira, 50 years old, from pinhalão - paraná. he is an artisan and was at the vigília lula livre for 580 days helping with daily activities.

aline sousa passing the sash.

this was honestly one of the most beautiful moments in brazil’s history.

music is sooo music.. and i couldnt be happier about that

You are Connor Roy, and you are the only child of one of the most powerful men in the country. Your father eclipses everything in your life, and you are rarely denied anything. Anything that is, but his time. There are nannies for that after all. You are raised to believe that the business he is building before your very eyes is your birthright. You're a little fidgety, true - a little bit soft. Your mother will sometimes rest her forehead on yours and call you a dreamer. You think she means it as a good thing, so you aren't sure why she says it so sadly.

You are Connor Roy and when you're 10 years old, your mother decides that she's had enough of everything you've ever known. She takes you with her to find "something different, something real." She calls it the adventure of a lifetime, but the faraway look in her eyes when she grasps your shoulders like a lifeline makes your stomach turn. So what does your old man do to get you back? What does he do with all that power his friends are always reminding you of? Absolutely nothing. With every day you spend without him, the reality of who your father is seeps into your bones and you feel real fear for the first time in your life. The reality is that being soft will not be tolerated and that family is only what Logan Roy says it is. The reality is that you are weak, and your father would never fight for a weak boy.

You are Connor Roy and when you're 13 your mother is carted away to a place upstate. No one asks if you'd like to visit her, but your father scoops you up and tries to sit you on his knee the way he did when you were younger. You're much too big for that now though, awkwardly sliding off and sitting next to him instead. She's a psycho he says. She put you in danger he says. Part of you is furious. Part of you is seething at him for saying that, for abandoning you, but mostly you feel relief. For the first time in three years you have more than enough food to eat and are not constantly worried that the alimony check will be spent on booze and pills. Your father, for all his faults, is sturdy and secure. He's your old man and he came back and this time he'll be all the strength you need.

You are a twenty year-old Connor Roy and you are peering into the eyes of your replacement. They're dark, not like yours, but the tufts of hair peaking out from the blanket that swaddles him remind you of your own. You hold him in your arms and he peers up at you, a soulful gaze that sucks you in until you're completely lost. Spellbound, you pull him a little tighter and sink into the nearest chair. You should hate him, you know, but the idea of hating someone so small makes you sick. In those eyes you can see the same promise your father probably sees; This one doesn't have a crazy mother in the middle of nowhere, this one is a clean slate, this one can be strong when all you can be is weak. Holding that newborn in your arms you resolve not to fight as your birthright is snatched by a tiny thief - to instead cling to this new, better family your father is building and to build them up in return. After all, family is what Logan Roy says it is.

You are Connor Roy and you do what you can. You stay present, stick around when you could be off making something of yourself. You give yourself to them in little ways, in ways you wish Logan had given himself to you. You take your little brothers on fishing trips, you let your baby sister climb on top of your back and dig her heels into your kidneys as you crawl on the hardwood. But part of you will always want to be as far from your father and his overbearing presence as you can. The houses you have built are always rural, always quiet and lonely, everything that Logan Roy isn't. You don't want to think about why that is. When you aren't there you know he pits them against each other, you know that they're starting to claw the weakness out of each other. The love you offer them is met with derisive snorts and rolled eyes - they become more like your father than you could ever dream to be. You're left behind, abandoned again, deluded and desperate in thinking that someone - anyone - could love you the way you need.

As much as I miss all the non Roy characters I almost see their absence as a direct example of how they drive their loved ones away, and how those loved ones seem almost better for it.

They don’t need the Roy siblings, the main characters, in their lives, and they can and do choose to remove themselves from relationships that cause stress or do not benefit anyone in pursuing. The Roy’s genuinely cannot fathom someone not putting up with them, through the worst things they do or say, until they’re all in the grave and it confuses them to see people disengage from their presence, something they couldn’t even think of doing to their father. at least that’s what I think

タンポポ (Tampopo) 1985, dir. Jûzô Itami.