#david percival

"..."

"I like the quiet ones."

"There'll be two bodies instead of one if you don't shut up, Percival."

Fuck so hot🥵🔥😍

Atomic Blonde is fundamentally a Bisexual movie. Lorraine Broughton is trapped between "two sides" of the Cold War (i.e. different gender(s) v. same-gender attraction; British and/or American vs Soviet) and thus loyal to neither in her role as the double-agent, Satchel (the Bisexual). Her ultimate - alleged - loyalty to one side costs her deeply. The movie can also be read as a call for solidarity between queer communities if you stretch the metaphor and consider the characters through the lens of sexuality.

Lorraine's allies/superiors mistrust her credentials, despite being aware of her knowledge as a spy (and a person who has loved men). She and James Gascoine are implied to have, at least, had a friends-with-benefits thing. Lorraine also disassociates at several points while recounting the movie's events to the spymasters. Once is when she discusses seeing James' body. Another is when Delphine Lasalle, Lorraine's current lover, is murdered. Likewise, the ones who would accept her (the Soviets) turn on her in the end, too, because David Percival "told them everything." Aka, she is not really a traitor to the British (she is not actually a Lesbian).

Furthermore, Atomic Blonde can speak to the concerns of Lesbian (and other non-Straight) women: such as heteronormativity. Delphine, I can see as a young and accepting Lesbian or a less experienced Bisexual. Either way, Lorraine is older and wiser than her in spycraft (living as a queer woman). She tries to mentor Delphine - to warn her of their profession's risks (that homophobic society dislikes all queer women because we disrupt and complicate its rules. Likewise, queer women's different approaches to combatting homophobia and heteronormativity can, unintentionally, set us at odds with one another without communication).

It is because she ultimately does not "switch" sides that Lorraine makes so many sacrifices along the way. For she cannot change her nature and thus is punished both by bigoted potential allies AND a homophobic society. Lorraine plays at being Soviet when it suits her, but even when she reveals her hand and maintains her "loyalties," she is demoralized and incredibly bitter about the "fruits" of her labor.

Lorraine loses Delphine because of that conflict, and her "allies" could, in the future, use their knowledge of her history to their advantage and her detriment. Historically, this tracks with the perilous positions many real-worls queer governmental employees endured. Post-WWII, the CIA was purged of queerness as much as possible. In some - limited - ways the CIA and its forerunners were more accepting of queer employees. (Obviously, the situation is more complicated, and I am in no way praising the CIA's "allyship" here). Lorraine is told explicitly that her mission (wherein she met and had sex with Delphine) "never happened." It is implied that she would face (severe) consequences if the truth were, so to speak, outed.

I want a David Percival in my life! 🔥🔥🔥