succession coping

Succession (Jesse Armstrong, 2018-2023)

Don and Peggy + Hands

“Betty accuses Don of never saying “I love you,” and she’s right both about him and the show in general: There are very few instances of characters using those exact words on Mad Men, even though we see people in all kinds of situations where that would be normal… That’s why Sally saying it to her father in “A Day’s Work” was so jarring. Sally didn’t grow up in a house where that was an everyday thing to say, and Don certainly didn’t, either. When the phrase is uttered at all on the show, it’s often to highlight how useless the idea is.” — Margaret Lyons

it's in part the power of stability. in logan's world in particular, the reward that is afforded those who know their place is his approval. the child most profoundly affected by this, of course, is roman:

but there's also the matter of kendall's sense of self being tied to his birth order, to the point that it contradicts reality:

and shiv, who tries and fails to rise from where her womanhood has placed her in her dad's eyes and proceeds to fall flat on her face... and who gets to bond with him through misogyny. she rises up by pushing other women down:

...and think of the events prior to the show, where the CEO role had yet to be dangled over anyone's heads but kendall, where neither roman nor shiv were even involved in the company and they were both simply happy for him to finally, officially move up.

really, prior to logan's near-death and everything getting shaken up, this must have held completely true:

Such a rich store of myths enfolds Paul Muad'dib, the Mentat Emperor, and his sister, Alia, it is difficult to see the real persons behind these veils. But there were, after all, a man born Paul Atreides and a woman born Alia. Their flesh was subject to space and time.