#logan roy backstory

[flock-of-cassowaries]

No Montreal house. I wonder if Logan resented how the city had changed as much as my own ex-Montrealer dad did.

#the quiet revolution #anglo-quebecers #montreal #logan roy #logan roy backstory #succession #succession scripts #s4e10 #with eyes wide open #sticker perambulation circuits #connor roy

[stilgar]

i really do find gerri and logan's relationship so fascinating. they had a million ensemble scenes together, but never really one alone. she was his right hand man, his girl friday. she knows his secrets. there is nobody more loyal than gerri, he says. she says that she loves him and will always be there for him, but remember she works for waystar not logan roy. she was wearing her viking hat early. she technically spends much of the series as his named and actual successor. she's his puppet and he doesn't trust her. he disparages her behind her back and to her face, and still she's one of the only people to ever stand up to him and make him change his mind. she's his daughter's godmother. so far as he knows, his son was sexually harassing her. she was the new thing once. they may or may not have fucked. the last thing he did before he died was try to kill her.

#succession #gerri kellman #logan roy #i am begging for one crumb of backstory

[cparti-mkiki]

#you thought i wasn’t gonna do a cliché ripped photograph?? #this thing would definitely appear on Bad Succession…. tragic backstory. maybe with a flashback #my art #succession #logan roy #connor’s mom #i suspect the brian cox reference photo for logan is glaringly obvious but you know. lol

[sonicblooms]

the redmonds

randall redmond hopscotched from career to career before he stumbled upon a dwindling tech company that he quickly acquired and built back up. he’s keen to eventually pass his now booming business down to his son, hector, who would much rather spend his days watching old cartoons and sketching character designs. will randall learn to accept their differences, and his son’s disinterest in being a future CEO, or will he end up pushing his only child away forever?

#ts4 #ts4 cas #simblr #randall's role model is geoffrey landgraab can u tell #and logan roy too #hector is my meow meow he can do no wrong x #ruby's ageing up soon so i'm populating the save w more families #yea i'm in my npc backstories era again #lest i forget fish boy and his family

[theghostofloganroy]

I think about Logan Roy probably more than what is considered healthy.

#logan Roy #there’s not been a single character that I need to know their entire backstory #more than I need to know Logan’s #and what’s so interesting to me is that he is such an amalgamation of contradictions #that there is no right or wrong way to analyse him #succession

[myplasticadversary]

But yeah, the thing about female Logan is that, with how she wouldn't be able to navigate the world exactly the same way and her marriages would also likely play out differently, her children would also turn out very different people to the point where it's kinda hard for me to conceptualize. Hmm...

#also i'd need to get a history guy to help me with her backstory lol #logan roy #succ gender fun #succession

[emperor-king-jess]

When Logan has those moments where you can see he actually IS sick. Like in retired janitors of Idaho. It makes me feel so icky and sad when I root for the sibs. Like season 1 Kendall was this spoilt kid, upset he didn’t get his turn with daddy’s company. But there’s the possibility Logan is detrimental to waystar in this state. I hate Logan but he’s soo interesting.

This is like how bnha is the aftermath of a shonen. The abused kid grew up and became massively successful and brought his family with him. Except for those who didn’t make it. But he grew up ugly. He never healed and his kids have to deal with it.

#with tomgreg teaming up wi th begin next szn we’ll probably get more backstory #also my grandpa has dementia and the fake dead cat reminded me of when my grandpa cried because his brother was leaving for America #like 70 years ago #made me sad #AND THE WATCH. #he disrespected toms gift but also he sees how fucked Roman is #succession #Logan Roy #kendall roy

[littlesolo]

Logan Roy Backstory

#logan roy #succession #twitter

[flock-of-cassowaries]

Of all the terrible ideas Roman had while at the studio… this was one of the worst.

(This is an actual prop from the show’s prop auction, here: https://entertainment.ha.com/itm/movie-tv-memorabilia/memorabilia/succession-hbo-r-original-2018-2023-brian-cox-logan-roy-animation-art-book/a/41179-5075.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

It appears they were thinking of including an animated segment, perhaps in “Dundee”; here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lKx0z2Jw_II?si=t3rYmUN8KEBHUMzt )

#succession #logan roy #logan roy backstory #what roman did in l.a. #succession animation #succession props #Youtube

[nativehueofresolution]

i find the gerri backstory lore that we've gotten across several interviews to be interesting for many reasons - but it stands out to me how much potential insight it gives into gerri's side of romangerri. j smith-cameron's mentioned gerri's husband baird being quite a bit older than her and being an important figure at waystar, and that was kind of gerri's way in to waystar. connor suggests in "dundee" that there was a possible affair between logan and gerri when she was "the new thing", and j and brian cox have both said they believe there was probably a mutual attraction that didn't go anywhere due to logan's respect for her husband - it's been indicated in interviews baird/gerri and logan/caroline were quite close friends at one time, which is supported by the fact they were shiv's godparents.

i don't imagine present day gerri has any regrets about not sleeping with logan per se - she takes care to avoid mess - but on the other hand, i can see it being a little irritating that the deal-breaker in this equation was the fact that gerri was 'claimed' by another man. and given the culture of waystar and the business world in general, i think it probably took a long time for gerri to stop being thought of as 'baird's wife' and having to endure jokes about sleeping her way up with baird and/or logan (the fact that connor apparently clocked their attraction i think means others would have too, even if it was never consummated).

roman on the other hand doesn't even remember gerri's marriage or baird at all until he gets some serious prompting, and he clearly thinks of gerri's role as something due to her merit - she's got killer instincts and is good at her job. he has a childlike reliance on her ability to get him out of trouble at times, but that's again based on his ideas of gerri being really smart and powerful so she can save me, not any potential connections. she's firmly her own person in roman's mind (as much as any non-roy is a person to roman). so now gerri has this princeling who's obsessed with her - and suddenly she's on the other side of the equation as the older partner with a young flame, and he just so happens to be the son of the man who passed on an affair with her but he has no thoughts about her late husband and in fact repeatedly pursues her while she has other boyfriends. i think there's kind of a power rush that would come from that role reversal. from having to claw her way up from being a powerful man's pretty young wife to now being the older woman a powerful younger man desires because of her domineering qualities; from being dismissed by the father to chased after by the son; roman suggesting a relationship that's a combination of business and pleasure so she can help him land ceo after living through many years of insinuations she was angling for that type of arrangement. quite apart from the ways in which roman's feelings for her are a useful tool, i think it'd be hard from her to completely ignore the satisfaction the role reversal brings.

of course, it's not a true reversal, and gerri knows that - she understands that she will never truly outrank him and so giving him power over her is dangerous, so she never fully goes for it. roman sexually harasses her and she's punished for it; roman throws her under the bus when it suits him and tries to brush off how her career has been derailed because of his actions. but even so, i think the illusion of being on the other side of the power/sexual dynamics she's had in the past would continue to have a certain sway for her.

#i admire how the show never really dives deep into characters' backstories and is very present day focused. #the bad version of succession would have so many flashbacks #but that said i think that these backstories are out there to find because they add a lot of interesting dimensions #romangerri #gerri kellman #succession #kaitlin speaks

[shivblogger]

It’s been one year since the end of my dear, dear world of a tv show, and I wanted to try and reflect a little bit on why I love it so much. I’m sure all of this has been said before but I love my little tv show and I love discussing it with all of you and I will be talking about it until I die! 

I’ve turned succession over in my mind so much that I don’t even know where to begin. There is so much being discussed at once. Corporate greed, American politics, extreme wealth and its consequences, generational trauma, familial inheritance, the death of old media. How power and status become all that matter when money is something that never even passes through your mind. How tying your personal identity to capitalist structures so closely makes your humanity become a weakness, a roadblock to be trampled over as thoroughly as possible on your way up. 

Of course, the siblings are the true heart of the show. The weight of Waystar being put on Kendall’s shoulders at age seven, only to be shrugged off by Logan in adulthood. Roman, forever the weaker dog, playing the fool to avoid fighting for something he didn’t want. Shiv’s stubborn insistence that she can be seen on the same level as her brothers despite endless evidence to the contrary. The icy, wealth insulated bubble they were raised in; never having to live as real people, but only knowing abuse, isolation, and mistreatment from their family. Their complete disregard for how their own power and wealth affects people, and their endless ability to fail with no repercussions. Clawing to their goals with everything at their disposal and nothing to lose, but still losing anyway. Learning from childhood that loving their siblings means tearing them apart and spending the rest of their lives fighting that endless uphill battle because it’s all they’ve ever known. 

Does it even matter that the love is there, when all that love means to you is knowing what soft spots will hurt the most when you hit them as hard as you can?

And the worst part is, they’re fighting for nothing, they’re bearing their teeth while everyone else laughs on the sidelines because they’re a complete fucking joke. They’re unqualified children fighting for the throne of a dying empire that can only be won by gaining approval of a man who despises them for the upbringing that he brought upon them.

There are very few pieces of media that are able to depict tragedy in the true sense of greek or shakespearean classics. Where the events and actions are framed in such a calculated, gutting, beautiful way. It physically pains me seeing Succession framed as “the business show” when the humanity and tragedy of the roy siblings is written and developed so thoroughly well that I know I’ll never be able to find something comparable to it again. The characters are so fully formed that you can see their mistakes and losses coming from a mile away. Every decision made is informed by countless layers of development and backstory. Every line of dialogue matters and even seemingly throwaway lines make you reinterpret characters’ actions from episodes or seasons ago. “Dad’s view was, yours aren’t real.” One line in the last ten minutes of the series finale, completely reframing kendall as a character.

I could go on about the writing, directing, production and costume design, cinematography, blocking, the choice to shoot on film, the absolutely perfect casting… but this has already reached an insufferable length, so, another time.

There’s lots of speculation on what happened post finale, if they could ever come back from that board room. I don’t think there’s any way through life for the siblings other than hand in unlovable hand. What’s crawling back to each other one more time, after all of the hurt and betrayal that you’ve already let pass? “He never saw anything he loved that he didn't want to kick, just to see if it would still come back.” It’s the only love they have. It’s all they’ve ever known. 

#hbo succession #succession #shiv roy #roman roy #kendall roy #cross posting because a bunch of notes app screenshots on twitter just doesnt hit the same way a giant block of text on tumblr does

[pynkhues]

Oh you know I need your dream cast for a Succession prequel, Sophie

(x)

Okay okay okay, SO first thing's first, my dream Succession prequel is set against the 80s clusterfuck expansion into parks because every little bit of canon we got about that era just cooks. You've got Logan meeting Frank (and probably Gerri), Logan's whirlwind romance then toxic marriage to Caroline, Logan starting to have the golden trio and reconnecting with Connor and dealing with the aftermath of what happened to, and with, Connor's mother! Plus Ewan may or may not be still involved in the company? (I choose to think he is!)

As a result, a lot of my casting is partially determined by the age the characters would be then, which means I've had to change some actual dream casting (Romola Garai as 40yo Gerri, my beloved), but it's also a pretty fun era to think about so that's fine.

Anyway, let David Tennant as Young(er) Ewan invite you in:

I really love the Snr. Roy's being from Scotland, and their backstory feels so entwined with Scottish WWII history, so I wanted to honour that a bit in the fancasting, but all the same, I think I probably would've cast David Tennant anyway. I think he can sell that simultaneous moral superiority and absolute hypocrisy in a way that Ewan needs, and honestly, I just love the idea of him reading Jesse Armstrong's dialogue, haha.

Was Karl working for Logan in the 80s? I choose to believe yes, because I love him. Jack Lowden's been one of those actors who's popped up in a few things I've watched lately - Fighting with My Family, Small Axe and Slow Horses in particular, and I've been consistently pretty impressed with him? I think he's got a good handle of comedic timing (important for anyone taking up the Karl mantle) but also is a compelling dramatic actor and I think he could kill it opposite...

David Rysdahl as Young Frank! I've always figured Frank would've been a bit younger than Logan, and I love that little glimpse we got in canon of Frank having been brought in to advise on the parks acquisition and then Logan basically making him an offer to stay. There's something extra crunchy there for me if Frank's a little wide-eyed at the time and Logan oozes that charm that we know that he can turn on when he wants to. I like the psychosexual drama, and I also like the idea of Frank having this weird sort of connection to Caroline and Kendall because he met them while he was still impressionable / in the midst of being swept up.

But yes, haha, David Rysdahl I think is a bit of an up-and-comer, which is kinda funny given he's been in a lot of stuff. I've liked him though in the newest season of Fargo, and lowkey think he looks a bit like a young Peter Friedman.

Honestly, I just loved her in Swallow a lot, and she played the smart, unhappy, unhinged, WASP-y wife there to such perfection that I think she'd be ideal for a young Gerri who's still better known as Baird's wife than as counsel. There's such an attitude and vulnerability to Haley too which I think would match J's quite well, plus they have a bit of a similar look too which works for me? I want to see her claw her way in! And I also want to see her toxic relationship with Caroline which leads to her being Shiv's godmother.

Speaking of...

Honestly, I went through a few people for Caroline and she was surprisingly hard to cast. A lot of actresses who felt like they might fit the bill - Michelle Dockery and Claire Foy were two that sprung to mind - didn't really work as I didn't think they could quite balance the acidity with the blunt charm and playfulness that Harriet Walter just does so well (and honestly is a testament to what an actress she is). But then! Jessie Buckley! I've loved Jessie in everything I've seen her in, from Women Talking to The Lost Daughter, but it was actually thinking about her turn in Misbehaviour which made me think of her for this, exactly because of how she can play, well playfulness.

Plus I think she'd be a lot of fun opposite...

I did say I''d go with a Scotsman! Ewan McGregor's been in a few mmm, less good things lately, which makes a turn in a role like Logan Roy could potentially be pretty great. He's always been a remarkable actor, and one who, I think, can find the heart in any role, which is arguably what any actor playing Logan needs. Plus I always tend to think Ewan has chemistry with everyone he acts opposite, and I think he could really sell Logan's naked charisma in this era in a way that would make sense given he's making some pretty questionable choices across the board in the 80s. Plus, y'know, to the point of the post that inspired this one, I think him playing Logan would do a lot of psychic damage to people who could only ever see Logan as perpetrator of abuse and never as product or victim.

#also i lowkey think alan ruck looks a bit like david tennant? #i think it's sort of around the eyes #which makes that casting fun too #i always wonder what ewan's wife / marian's mother must've been like #but yes #making this post has made me want to write this fic again haha </3 #hbo succession #recastings #kinda #welcome to my ama #logan roy #ewan roy

[racefortheironthrone]

I have come to realize, I don't quite understand what a back-up story is? Like, do some comic issues just sometimes have too much space for the main story so they include another, smaller comic at the back?

No, it's usually the reverse: the creators have a story they like, but that's too short to make up a full comic, so they attach it as a bonus feature after the A-story.

To me, the acme of how to do backup stories are Chris Claremont's Classic X-Men. In an era before trade paperback and omnibus collections were common, in an era before there were digital comics libraries where you could access the entire back catalogue of entire companies on demand, Classic X-Men reprinted everything from the Roy Thomas/Neal Adams Silver Age through to the big hits of the first hundred or so issues of the Claremont run with edited captions and dialogue and interstitial panels and pages of new art.

However, Chris Claremont wasn't satisfied with tinkering around the edges, so the first 44 issues of Classic X-Men included backup stories by him and Ann Nocenti. These short (usually ~8 page) stories included a lot of "deleted scenes" - so you get to see how things that are alluded to but not shown in the main narrative, like the beginning of Logan and Jean's attraction in the immediate wake of Giant-Size #1, or Emma Frost's Hellfire Club scheming against Jason Wyngarde or Selene during the Dark Phoenix Saga, or Jean Grey wrestling with what it means to be the Phoenix with the help of Storm and Misty Knight, or why Nightcrawler stopped using his image inducer and came out of the closet as a mutant, etc. These scenes "danced between the raindrops" of canon, where they added richness and flavor to the main story without being essential reading.

But more and more, Claremont and Nocenti used these backup stories to fill out backstories through "period pieces." It is in these stories that we see Max Eisenhardt escape Auschwitz and tragically lose his daughter Anya, or go from being a Nazi hunter in South America to a mutant separatist terrorist when he learns the truth about Operation Paperclip. It is in these stories that we see Jean Grey's psychic powers awaken when she experiences the tragic death of her childhood friend Annie Richardson from inside Annie's mind, and how that shaped her understanding of life and death and what it means to be a mutant.

I would argue that these stories are essential reading, because they're often where Claremont (and Nocenti) found the emotional core of his characters, the motivational drives that make them who they are.

Alternatively, backup stories are where creators could take advantage of free "real estate" in anthology books, team-up books, and annuals to tell more fantastical and imaginative B-stories that wouldn't have fit within an overarching narrative. So we get weird stuff like Margali Szardos casting her adopted son Kurt Wagner into the literal Inferno of Dante Alighieri, or straight-edge Harlan County miner's son Sam Guthrie romantically abducted by an intergalactic cat burglar who also happens to be a cockney Joan Jett, and so on.

And that's what I like about backup stories - they're like miniature paintings, where the artists get to stretch their creative muscles free of the burden and pressure of the magnum opus.

#comics #comics meta #xmen #xmen meta #claremont run #chris claremont #ann nocenti

[waystarresourceco]

Scott Nicholson on Colin's relationship with Logan, the Roy kids, and on Colin's backstory. (x)

Excerpt from an interview with Scott Nicholson with Vulture - Dec. 6, 2021

#colin truly is the Luca Brasi of Succession #Logan doesn't trust easily or often and yet #highly recommend the whole interview btw #Scott Nicholson #Colin Stiles #logan roy #roy siblings #hbo succession #cast interviews #succession #kendall roy adjacent? #roman roy adjacent?

[roysreader]

My top fanfics of 2023 (so far)

I published or updated 60 works on AO3 this year, a lot of them are snippets but still, my most productive writing year yet.

2023 was the year of Succession so most of my top picks will be for that show but there are a couple of outliers marked with an *.

In no particular order, here are my top seven fics that I wrote or completed this year:

I’m Just Ken (And I’m Enough) (Succession/Barbie crossover)

And I’m Watching the Cruisers Below (Gerri Kellman backstory)

And Breathe Me (Succession/Six Feet Under crossover)

Complicated Airflow (A history of Kendall’s stutter)

My Empire of Dirt (Logan Roy backstory)

Poison & Wine (Missing RomanGerri scenes)

*The Curse of Home Farm (Emmerdale, 1920s AU, co-written with MissGeorgieTate)

Also in no particular order, here are my top seven completed fics that I read this year (I’ve kept it to those published this year):

*Out of Touch (The Bill, great insight into Mickey Webb post-attack)

you love blood too much (but not like i do) (A deep dive into the chaos that is Roman Roy)

the birthday party (the perfect post-finale fix-it, bonus Roman and Shiv are twins)

i bite at the hand that feeds me (flashback to a Roman and Logan incident)

aeneas, and a whimper (stunning Shiv character study)

An Oral History of Waystar Studios Feature Animation (made me laugh a lot)

art imitates life (I’m not usually into RPF but this is very clever)

#AO3 #succession #barbie 2023 #Fanfiction #the bill #mickey webb #best of 2023 #gerri kellman #kendall roy #logan roy #roman roy #shiv roy #Emmerdale #rpf #romangerri

[rollercoasterwords]

ok sorry now i am thinking about how. logan smiled when kendall tried to kill him. and kendall saying "he made me hate him and then he died." bc like...yeah he made u hate him but he also made u him. obviously we don't know the details on logan's backstory but we can garner enough to know that hatred + specifically hatred of the father figure fundamentally shaped him--made him into a killer, a person who could run the family business the way he did. logan needed kendall to be as ruthless as he himself was; he needed to know kendall would do whatever it took to come out on top, step on anyone to get there, including his family, including his father. the paradox of logan roy is that he demands his family's loyalty but then views that loyalty as a weakness, as subservience, as being too willing to bend. i truly do think that the moment when kendall got on live tv and went after his father again, after failing so utterly the first time--that little smile on logan's face...i think that's what cemented kendall as successor in logan's mind. kendall is the dog that logan kicked until it finally bit back, because he needed to know that it would bite.

and now logan gets what he wanted: control. he gets to haunt the family from beyond the grave; he gets to live on as a ghost in kendall--even his name is right there, Kendall Logan Roy. he's dead but he's already resurrected himself in his son. kendall will keep doing what daddy wants and he'll be ruthless enough to do it because logan made kendall hate him so much. and u can see that kendall is trying to deny it, trying to tell himself and his siblings that it'll be different, that he wants them all together--but look at what's already happening. look at what's already playing out. roman throws shiv under the bus and ingratiates himself to kendall because he'll do anything to just keep close. shiv swallows the promise that this is real because she wants it to be, but she already knows she's been shoved aside. kendall makes roman think his voice is valued, but then goes over his head to do what's best for business--which he can only do because he doesn't have the same loyalty to logan. because logan made kendall hate him. and now kendall's a killer and roman's still a dog and shiv is still a little girl and connor is still a nobody. and logan roy is still there, haunting all of them.

#SO many thoughts!!!!!!! #the haunting + possession metaphors abound etc etc #succession #txt