old age ain't no place for sissies

i don’t think she votes yes to “save kendall” or to try to finally set her brothers free. and i don’t think her main concern was that ken was becoming their dad. she absolutely noticed and didn’t love it, but that was not her motivation in betraying him. she was thinking about herself.

it’s tempting to make a martyr out of her as she is the only female child and we see her suffer the onslaught of misogyny that comes with that. but to make her into a saintlike figure who got beat takes away the power and intelligence behind her decision.

at this point she’s stuck between two non ideal choices, but she recognizes that they have accidentally made her the single most important player in the game. because while she can’t have the outcome she’d prefer, she has the power to decide the fates of everyone else. the written off lone woman now holds in her hands the fate of every man in her life.

so she thinks about the long term benefits of both options and realizes that one side leaves her completely without any leverage.

her brothers have proven to her multiple times in the last few days alone that they will cut her out and walk all over her the first chance they get. siding with them leaves her nothing to bargain with. she would just have to hope that ken would actually take care of her. and that level of vulnerability is not only unacceptable to her, it’s stupid. and shiv fuckin roy is not stupid.

so she thinks about the other side and about what she actually wants for her life. and against her better judgment, it’s becomes unfortunately clear that she wants tom. the way she wants him is not altogether loving or even good but it is necessary to her. she sees relationships as having winners and losers and she chose this man specifically so that she could be confident in her ability to win. except now he’s grown some balls and made himself unavailable to her.

she may not like the way her husband is evolving but she already placed her bets on him, so she’s sure as hell not losing to him now. there’s also a part of her that feels intrigued by this new man she’s married to. it’s interesting to have a sparring partner in him instead of having to looking for excitement outside of their marriage.

so for maybe the first time ever, she processes what tom has said to her and thinks about what he actually wants.

he needs her to prove that she cares. he needs to know that she is capable of sacrifice. if she can’t find it within herself to do this for him, then she will lose him, and by extension, she will lose.

siding with tom gives her the opportunity to once and for all make a grand-stand gesture of love, but more importantly, it creates leverage for her. never again will he be able to hold the moral high ground over her head. never again can he say she doesn’t love him. never again can he call her selfish or uncaring. above all, he can never betray her again, because she just removed all of his moral justification for turning on her. he doesn’t realize it yet, but she’s just taken back all the power in their relationship. just in a more subtle way than she’s used to operating.

and just like that, she has the ceo of a multi billion dollar company in her pocket, while situating herself as the only descendant of logan roy to still be playing the game, having removed her brothers from the equation permanently. she may still be far from the top but she’s creating a path for herself to climb.

so yes, she’ll let tom play king for a day, and she’ll have his baby and say “congratulations,” and play the gracious wife, but tomorrow is a new day with lots of room to maneuver. and when her husband puts out his hand, she’ll place her own on top. but she won’t grasp it because she doesn’t need to.

got another HP commish of some young/newlywed malfoys aw yeh

This is just a spot to gather all my posts about the beta / legacy editors and cutting posts into one place, mostly so it's in one easily shareable link for people who ask. (Last updated February 21, 2023.)

WHAT'S EVEN GOING ON — This long post explains pretty much everything in great detail. It covers the different editors, the different extensions required for cutting posts and how they work, some glitches you may encounter, and reasons the two systems aren't compatible. I highly recommend reading this one before any of the others, as it provides the most context.

TRIM REBLOGS GUIDE — An overview to just Trim Reblogs.

USING TRIM REBLOGS WITH THE LEGACY EDITOR — If you aren't willing to commit to the beta editor yet, at least learning how to use trim reblogs will make a world of difference to your partners using it.

BETA EDITOR OVERVIEW — An overview to the beta editor, the differences it has from legacy as well as its new features.

TRANSFERRING THREADS TO BETA / TRIM REBLOGS — An overview of how to actually go about transferring threads cut with the old system (editable reblogs) to the new system (trim reblogs).

DOUBLE POSTING GLITCH 1 + HOW TO FIX — Goes over a glitch you may encounter when using trim reblogs on a post that was originally made with the legacy editor, causing your reply to duplicate upon posting.

if you’re talking about something like this-

it’s actually fairly easy! simply pic the background image you’ll be using, i chose this one

next, choose the texture you want to use. i google “crumpled paper texture” or “folded paper texture” usually to find what i need. for the example, i used this one

2020 NETFLIX PSD BY STORYTELLERDORIAN

Please reblog if downloading

Font used: San Francisco regular, bold & bold italic

Requires some photoshop skills and use of clipping masks

Includes: Who’s Watching, home page, show overview & episodes pages (both full screen & minimal), show page (both playing and paused), show promo page (full screen & minimal) and a show thumbnail template

Made May 2020 from the UK site