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illya kuryakin:

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napoleon solo:

just because i haven’t posted more The Man from U.N.C.L.E fanarts doesnt mean i’m not obsessed anymore okay.

I’M TRYING SO HARD TO GRASP THEIR CHARACTER BUT IT’S SO HARD COZ I HAVEN’T DRAWN REGULARLY IN LIKE 4 MONTHS!?!?

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

Celebrating 10 years of the movie- TMFU fanart card and pass wallet available now..!!🥳

Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, The Man From UNCLE

You know what my mission is?

Same as mine was. Kill me if necessary.

I know the feeling, anon! Sometimes when I think about the trio, my heart just aches! Like, compare these pictures: 

Doesn’t it look like the same day!? Same outfit, same ties in her hair?! Mr. Schmidt must have been good friends or even family to Dr. Teller, and Gaby’s mother must not have been around to take care of her when he was gone (Gaby was 1 years old when WWII broke out, so perhaps something happened to her mother during that time period?) My question is, why would Dr. Teller defect to America without trying to take Gaby with him? Was it impossible for him? Was leaving her his way of hopefully keeping her safe? Did Gaby know he was in America (before Waverly probably told her)? Was she still waiting for her father to come for her? She seemed surprised when Solo told her her father lived in the suburbs, owned a Cadillac, and had fat little dog called Schnitzel. 

According to [this] Gaby was probably around 7 years old when the picture was taken and that was probably the last memory she had with her father before he defected to America. (Check out the whole timeline in that link—it’s very interesting.)

I think Dr. Udo Teller kept that picture with him where ever he went. It was his last good memory with Gaby. He wouldn’t see her again until 18 years later. But it doesn’t seem she kept a picture of him… maybe she hadn’t forgiven him for leaving her behind? She considered Mr. Schmidt her father since he had raised her for those 17 years until his death in 1963.

I personally consider canon whatever the actors say about their characters, so I go with Armie’s canon that Illya was placed in an orphanage after his father was sent to the Gulag. I figure that the writers had their reasons, character development wise, as to why they wrote Illya Kuryakin as the son of a traitor and the implications that go with that. Guy Ritchie encouraged the actors to come up with their own backstories of the characters as well, so Armie would have done his research as he was preparing for the role.

Here are some more reasons to kinda back up why I consider Illya being placed in an orphanage as canon. (However, despite my research, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is set in a fictional world, so I’m sure Guy Ritchie took some creative liberties with the characters. I haven’t done extensive research on this subject, so if anyone would like to add information or correct me, please feel free! I love to learn!)

After being caught for embezzling party funds, Illya Kuryakin’s father, would have been considered an “enemy of the people” / “Traitor of the Motherland”.

Because of this, Illya and his mother would have likely been convicted and arrested for being family members of a traitor of the Motherland. However, after 1938, family members were no longer automatically arrested. The wife of a traitor was not automatically arrested unless she was deemed "politically untrustworthy or socially dangerous" or knew about the "counter-revolutionary activity" of her husband. Now I find this interesting, because after Illya’s father was shipped off to Siberia, his mother became very “popular” with his father’s friends… So I’m wondering… if she did know about her husband's activities, (which, given this post, it’s far more likely that Illya’s father was a patsy and hadn’t embezzled funds at all but was being framed), she should have been arrested, but because Illya’s father’s so-called friends were framing him, they wouldn’t want her to be arrested so that they could do to her as they pleased, or perhaps they threatened that if she didn’t do as they wanted they would send her away like her husband or send Illya to a labor camp.  So now that they’ve discredited, made an embarrassment of, and sent Mr. Kuryakin to the Gulag, and evidently had Mrs. Kuryakin at their mercy, what use does anyone have with a rightfully protective 10-year-old? Illya is still the son of a traitor, so they will deal with him accordingly.

For being a child of an “enemy of the people”, and perhaps being deemed "socially dangerous" because of his “psychotic episodes”, Illya was likely placed in a special-regimen orphanage. The orphanages had a particular view of children who were family members of traitors. The Communist Party had a “theory of socially inherited criminality often informally described by the traditional Russian proverb, "an apple never falls far from the tree”.” And, unfortunately, “orphanage staff often beat, underfed, and abused such pupils.” This coincides with the backstory of how Illya got his scar: “…as he was sort of going through the orphanage type schooling system of kids that they’re trying to raise, he just got beat.”

“Any misbehavior was understood as the product of a counter-revolutionary upbringing, and punished harshly. Treating children like budding criminals had diverse effects. In some cases, the induced "class guilt" inspired orphans to prove their loyalty to the ideals of Communism.”

I think the above passage helps reveal why Illya had a “disturbed childhood” and what contributed to his drive to became the very best, the “hammer”, as his tattoo says, “to Mother Russia’s sickle” even.  The orphanage, or some other interested party, also saw he “was a physical specimen” and “train[ed] him to become a spy”. To show his loyalty, perhaps even to show he wasn’t like his father, he became the youngest to join the KGB and became their best within three years.

I wonder what contact he was allowed with his mother? Would he have even been told what happened to her? Would he assume she was sent away like his father? Would he only hear rumors whispered of her popularity with his father’s friends? This is pure headcanon territory now, but as @tennyowithanunclespecial has reminded me, Illya’s mother likely would have had a lot of influence and pull because of her popularity, so she might have pulled some strings to visit her husband in the Gulag for a brief few minutes. With this one-time opportunity, Mr. Kuryakin would want Illya to have some token of his love, so he gives his wife a watch he had acquired in the Gulag and has her promise to give it to Illya if she ever sees him again....

So years later (perhaps Illya is a young adult already in the KGB), after the Pobeda watch was made around 1945, Illya finally sees his mother again. He finally learns what really happened to his parents.

So, we know Solo joined the army as the occupying force in Europe in 1945 and was 16 years old at the time. He was noted for his disguised service from 1945 to 1958 and within that time rose to the rank of sergeant. During this time he discovered the vast profits to be made selling art on the blackmarket.

Now after his service, he lived in England for a time and snuck his way into European high society. Perhaps while attending a gala at Duncombe Park in Yorkshire, he sees an exquisite Rambrandt he must possess. While he’s casing the place, he notices someone in attendance who doesn’t belong, who doesn’t belong in this high society extravaganza like himself—and this beautiful woman is casing the place for the Rambrandt as well! Evidently they team up for most of the newspaper clipping say “thieves”.

For 6 years they work together on a burglary spree that baffles police because they leave no evidence behind.

They steal a Rodin sculpture of “incalculable value” from a bank vault in Florence, Italy. In the newspaper (which I roughly understand—I’m not fluent in Spanish), it mentions how the manufacturer considered the vault “impregnable to thieves” due to it’s complex closing system. Police believe that the thieves broke into the bank at midnight after some of the guards changed over from patrolling the building.

They go on to steal more paintings:

(I found the painting on a stock website!)

And a pearl necklace is stolen from a bank lockbox:

I wonder if Solo gave the necklace to his partner in crime?

Because of these “prolific thieves”, a special task force of police from 4 different countries is created to catch them. For 6 years Solo isn’t caught. Then on June 11th, 1958, Solo’s mistress betrays him to the CIA. He is arrested and incarcerated in Rochester, New York.

The judge in his case likely took into consideration his service in the military, and with the CIA arguing that his talents would be wasted in prison, his 15 year sentence was suspended in exchange for a plea bargain of some sort and that he would work for the CIA the rest of his remaining 10 year sentence.

I feel like his sentence would have been reduce even further if he had given up the art and antiquities stolen, but his mistress probably still had them or sold them on the black market.