but then there’s strong, evans, and heather at the start of punished, as a boy, which at first glance seem kind of strange. from what little we see of them, all three seem to be decent enough guys--- tuunbaq doesn't have the same reasons to kill them as with the others. and besides, if it just wanted to kill them, wouldn’t it have been killed far more men in the five months between the ladder and punished, as a boy? why did it kill them, and why then?

as in many cases, my thoughts naturally go to the parallels between crozier and silna. both inherit command of something (the men of the expedition, tuunbaq) after the violent death of the previous leader (sir john, silna's father), but that something proves to be a burden beyond their control, it dies under their command, and the two of them finally wind up in tragic exile.

it follows, then, that their respective responsibilities, the men of the expedition and tuunbaq, functionally parallel each other. (by no means am i equating their actions, this is only in relation to the crozier/silna parallel)

anyway, by this point in the show's chronology, even though sir john has been dead for five months, crozier is in command in name only. of course, with the ships ice-locked and the arctic winter set in, there isn't much he can do, but by this point he's still clearly mired in alcoholism and the past, and not inspiring confidence among the men. i would argue that crozier does not fully assume command of the expedition until halfway through a mercy, when he emerges from his cabin after enduring withdrawal, especially considering that scene comes directly after the scene where silna cuts her tongue out. that is the moment they both take command.

returning to tuunbaq: i see tuunbaq’s attack in punished, as a boy as almost a rebellion of sorts, though not towards its own leader. by coming onto terror to attack heather and strong, it attempts to tell crozier, "you aren't doing your job. maybe putting some of your men in danger will wake you up."

and this is especially the case with evans, since he isn't killed in the initial attack. tuunbaq only kills evans after crozier lets him out of his sight. two things there--- for one, crozier and evans were almost certainly not the only pair of men that briefly split up while searching. and for another, even if they had stayed together the whole time, it really wouldn't have mattered; tuunbaq is absolutely capable of killing two men at once. so why evans? why the man that crozier is with, rather than anyone else? it wasn't just for the sake of killing him. it wasn't because they split up. it's an attempt to communicate to crozier through violence.

meanwhile, we see the same thing with hickey. it's in punished, as a boy that hickey first lays eyes on tuunbaq, and immediately afterwards, hickey decides to kidnap silna. he enacts violence towards a leader (though not his own) in almost the same way that crozier intended to. it's easy to miss the fact that hickey's actions towards silna in the episode are extremely close to the ones crozier would have enacted towards her, had the weather not been so bad. crozier intended to effectively kidnap silna in order to interrogate her--- again, communication through violence. it just so happened that hickey got to her first. at this point in the show, hickey is only under crozier's command as much as tuunbaq is under silna's; not in practice, but with the assumption that they will be. hickey and tuunbaq both end up engaging in violence as a means of communicating with silna and crozier. (again, not equating their actions, just identifying a parallel!)

Tuunbaq clearly ships it (cutting them in half and smushing them together is a form of shipping idk what to tell you)

Evans insisted on going out to find Strong

“A brick to the boys” = he’s the slightly older boy who was nice to us and we all had massive crushes on him

Strong being large and, well, strong, but shy and flattered by the attention

Strong himself was a ship’s boy on his last assignment before the expedition; I imagine him feeling responsible for the boys and maybe wants them to have a better experience than he had - imagine him getting stressed the fuck out when someone flirts with Evans and not being able to figure our if he’s being protective or jealous

I know this is not a very specific drawing suggestion I’m trying to give you vibes in the hope that it might spark something

If not then that’s okay I will continue to preach my Strong/Evans propaganda everywhere always

anon you're definitely onto something .

DAY #95 — JULY 27, 2025

And a remix under the cut, for good measure:

I'm really struck this time by the juxtaposition of the officer's dinner on Terror (and laughed outloud at "tell us about Birdshit Island again, why don't you? That's a capital story!") and the Terror's crew dinner.

William Strong (left) has such big-brother energy here - he's eating with David Young (who's actually Erebus's ship's boy -- what's he doing? I'm guessing he's just Terror's boy for show reasons), Robert Golding and Thomas Evans (who're really Terror's boys) and later in the show we find out that all the boys do see him as a big-bro ("a brick"). But who's also there: Hickey!

What's he doing? In scene, he's talking about Neptune's rank (obvi his rank is Lt. Bestest Good Boy) -- but it strikes me this time, why's he eating there, with them? Now I notice in screencap he's not even eating (no plate)! None of them are actually, they're drinking - is it grog time? Is it tea? But anyways, why's he with them? He's a Petty Officer himself, actually, as Caulker's Mate and could be (possibly *should* be, #navy people let me know) with the others, like his boss Mr Darlington & the carpenter & his mate (Mr Tom Honey & Mr Wilson). Why's he there? It picks him out, to me, that he doesn't mess with (as in, sit while eating & drinking with) them, but with the boys & Strong. Maybe he doesn't have a 'usual' spot? Weirdo.

I've spent enough time in crib-rooms (meal areas in mines) and lunch rooms to know that it's usual to have 'your spot' and eat/take breaks with the people you usually do -- really struck me this time that Hickey's at their table. Will keep an eye out this rewatch as to where he's sitting.

Also, this expression: