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#obey me and be free

greatmuldini · 1 month

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The Iron Harp

We’re all in prison together, Johnny, one way or the other.

Act 1

Outwardly, Joseph O'Conor's play is a simple tale of love and loss in times of war: set in rural Ireland in early April of 1920, the action takes place on the property of an English industrialist whose mansion has been taken over by a contingent of IRA volunteers. Their leader is Michael O'Riordan, a gifted poet-musician in civilian life and conveniently the peace-time manager of the Englishman's estate. Michael has recently been wounded in action; now blind as a result he is no longer on active duty but still responsible for an English prisoner of war. Being a man of his word, Captain John Tregarthen has made no attempt to escape, earning Michael's trust and eventually his friendship. He also earns the friendship and love of Michael’s cousin Molly Kinsella, with whom he spends long days roaming the extensive grounds of his idyllic prison. Dreaming of a future life together, the lovers are oblivious to the feelings of their “best friend” – who ends up sacrificing his love for Molly in what he hopes will be a lasting gesture of selflessness only to find that Fate intervenes, with devastating consequences for them all.

Completing the quartet of characters is the dark and “indistinct” figure of IRA commander Sean Kelly, a dark and "indistinct" figure who emerges from the shadows to immediately assert his authority not only in military matters but - crucially, and disturbingly - in those of the heart as well. Specifically, it is the heart of Michael O’Riordan that Kelly claims to know better than O’Riordan himself. As a flesh-and-blood character Kelly is difficult to pin down: cold and calculating by his own admission, he expresses admiration for Michael's hot-blooded fighting spirit. Michael's own startled response to Kelly entering "like Nemesis himself" is ambiguous at best, and even his description of Kelly as a “good friend” comes on the back of a warning to Johnny that "he won't like you."

When Kelly tells Michael that he has never been wrong and does not know what it means to feel regret, the sense of foreboding is inescapable, yet Michael never seems to give in to the negativity emanating from his old wartime comrade who admonishes him to see his friends “as they really are” and not as “you want to see them.” Ironically, Michael refuses to see an enemy in John Tregarthen, but he is equally stubborn in applying the same criteria of honour, loyalty, and friendship to Sean Kelly, who seems troubled by this flaw in Michael’s character: "you love people too much."

Michael's emotional warmth stands in stark contrast to Kelly's impersonation of infallibility - which Michael seems to accept as a token of his friend's unassailable integrity. He continues to defer to Kelly's judgment when a messenger arrives with bad news from the front: three IRA fighters have been killed in skirmishes with British forces, and reprisals must be carried out. Twisting the metaphorical knife in the very real emotional wound, Kelly as the commanding officer nominates blind Michael to be the impartial instrument of God's justice. Forced to select three victims for execution, Michael all but collapses when one of the chosen names is that of Captain John Tregarthen.

Act 2

After he has persuaded Johnny to flee the country and reunite with Molly back in England, Michael is left alone to guard the now empty house. Blind and unable to defend himself, Michael is powerless against two marauding Black & Tans who break into the property and proceed to taunt and abuse the solitary occupant. It does not take them long to realize their victim is an IRA member rather than a civilian enjoying certain protections. Further violence is prevented only by the surprise return of Captain Tregarthen, armed and in uniform, who holds the attacker at gunpoint until Kelly and his entourage arrive to take the men away. Where any other human being would have expressed relief or gratitude at the discovery that the life of his friend has been saved, Kelly’s reaction is characteristically impassive, betraying, if anything, a degree of irritation at the unforeseen complication that has shown the condemned prisoner – the enemy – to be capable of compassion and self-sacrifice in saving the life of his friend. Human qualities that Kelly explicitly claims not to possess. As if to prove the point, he responds with the formal announcement of Tregarthen’s impending execution.

The order is to be carried out within three days, enough time for Kelly to travel to headquarters - and return with a firing squad. But first he must interrogate the captured Tans. While Kelly is thus occupied, Molly manages to convince the love of her life to take her with him. Johnny only agrees to the plan on the promise that Michael will convince Kelly to rescind the execution. If Johnny and Molly can make their way to Belfast on the early morning goods train, and from there to England, all will be well. Michael knows how to distract the guards, and Molly can bribe the train driver to let Johnny jump aboard. Three loud whistles will give the all-clear. With hopes of future happiness rekindled, Molly and Johnny each rush off to their respective tasks, and Michael is left alone with three empty glasses that he cannot see – a detail that does not escape Kelly’s notice as he re-joins Michael to formally accept his plea for clemency. Which he says he will duly submit to "the general," but in his estimation the chances of success are slim. "For God's sake, don't build up hope," he tells Michael before agonizing – to himself – over how to soften the blow for Michael: by bringing the execution forward and keeping it secret, he is certain he can spare Michael the pain and the guilt of having to witness the event.

Act 3

In the pre-dawn hours of the following day, Michael and Johnny are wide awake and waiting for the sentries to change and the train to whistle. Thinking the house empty and their enemies far away, they pass the time in a dreamlike state of high anxiety, reciting heroic poems and melancholy songs in whispering voices, so as not to miss the stroke of six to mark the end of their nightmare and the beginning of a new life – only to see Kelly standing in the door, with orders for Johnny to be executed at dawn, 24 hours earlier than they were told originally. Michael's world is falling apart, he pleads with Kelly, he begs him to show mercy, but an almost equally distressed Kelly reminds him that "I have never promised you hope." Johnny declines the comfort of a priest or minister and is led away to meet his fate offstage while, also offstage, Molly will be waiting in vain for the love of her life to board a train that will never arrive.

Left on stage for their final confrontation are Michael and his Nemesis, both knowing full well that nothing they can do or say will change what Kelly might term the preordained outcome of their efforts. To Michael's accusation of "trickery" (by which he means Kelly's surprise return before the agreed time), Kelly offers no subterfuge, no defence, and no evasion. Instead, he says, Michael’s agony is self-inflicted: it was, in fact, his own stubborn insistence on hoping against hope that has now led to anguish and pain. The only way for Michael to end all suffering, Kelly explains, is to give up hope. Unless he manages to see past the private pain of the moment and becomes a distant observer, Michael will forever be "tortured by hope."

Here Kelly is borrowing from the Conte Cruel tradition made famous by Edgar Allan Poe but named after a collection of short stories by the French symbolist writer Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. A useful definition of the genre is that it concerns "any story whose conclusion exploits the cruel aspects of the irony of fate." Not only does Kelly borrow the concept, and the title from Villiers' tale, The Torture of Hope, he even recounts the plot to underline his point:a hapless victim of the Inquisition escapes his prison cell only to stumble into the arms of the Chief Inquisitor. The lesson for Michael is that, like the victim, he keeps on hoping for release only to suffer defeat over and over again. There are no similarities, however, between himself and the sadistic Inquisitor, Kelly says: his mission is to ease Michael'ssuffering, not to prolong it.

We are given no reason to doubt Kelly’s sincerity, but neither can we reconcile the apparent contradiction between his declared intention and putting Michael’s best friend before a firing squad. If Kelly wants to end all suffering, as he says, surely, a good start would be to save Captain Tregarthen’s life? It is the argument that Michael himself is trying to make, by reminding Kelly of his god-like powers. Michael’s understanding of those powers differs fundamentally from Kelly’s own. Michael’s life-affirming principle of hope and Kelly’s seductive all-consuming fatalism are the two opposing philosophies that take centre stage in the final scene – while John Tregarthen dies a largely symbolic death offstage.

Johnny’s death is symbolic in that it is not the tragedy at the heart of the play. Michael O’Riordon is the conventional male protagonist whose existential crisis we are witnessing; Michael is unable to prevent the execution of his best friend; and to make that very point, his best friend must die. Michael’s blindness contributes to this failure in the course of the play but read as a metaphor it turns Michael into “one of us.” His blindness leaves him vulnerable to attack and it echoes our own sense of powerlessness in the face of an overwhelmingly hostile universe. The reverse, however, is also true: being blind, and being a poet, puts Michael in the illustrious company of the Blind Bard, an archetype of Western literature since at least the (mythical) time of Homer: the blind singer/seer whose “inner vision” surpasses that of sighted humanity. His Irish equivalent – and explicit model for Michael - is the (dwarf) Harper of Finn, whose iron-stringed instrument has the power to move its audience to tears. Michael O’Riordon is both vulnerable and endowed with the superpower of emotional insight – fundamentally human qualities that Kelly admires in Michael, and which he admits he does not possess.

Kelly is an abstract concept in human form; even while he is evidently the cause of human suffering, in his denial he appears to be channelling the sadistic Inquisitor. The apparent contradiction is of our own making, though: Kelly is Cruel Fate personified. He represents that which we like to imagine as the source of all our woes - the betrayals, the injustices, the disappointments which inevitably end in what we define as tragedy and what to the rest of the universe, that hostile universe, is of no consequence whatsoever. If we substitute “hostile” with “indifferent,” then Kelly becomes the antithesis to Michael’s humanity – his indifference is as inhuman as the infinite, indifferent universe. Conversely, Michael is not concerned with an infinite universe; his frame of reference is on a human scale, and very finite. Finite. When Kelly challenges Michael to take his place and adopt his abstract, God-like perspective on life, death, and the universe, Michael does reject the responsibility – but also the indifference required for the position. If the promise of a pain-free existence did not convince Michael to abandon hope, Kelly's failure to shame him into admitting defeat is a testament, at the very least, to human perseverance: we will forever be prolonging the agony to delay the inevitable. (1/4)

#Patrick McGoohan #Patrick Macnee #Katharine Blake #Douglas Campbell #played the four characters in #The Iron Harp #on Canadian TV in 1959 #the plan was to explain EVERYTHING in one brilliant post #well the good news is there will be four posts now wahoo #but I'm already posting out of order because I can't decide on the illustration to go with the historical background #as for the play itself #if you have made it this far and you still care #whether the characters are consistent with the general message the author is trying to convey #your powers of perseverance are truly heroic #the problem I think is that the story does not always align with the metaphor #which I still maintain is the human condition #we cannot ever beat death but we carry on regardless #is it just me or does that cryptic cry from #Free for All #obey me and be free #sound like something the evil Inquisitor or Sean Kelly would say #For Fleetstreetpauline #miss you always

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anintrovertedechoe · 11 months

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Lucifer: who the fuck took my demonus i just wanna talk

the brothers knowing that whoever did is fucking dead:

MC: it was me.

Lucifer: what.

MC: it was me.

Lucifer: why??? you literally can’t even get drunk off it????

MC: it tastes like capri sun and i miss it you whore

Lucifer: what the fuck is a capri sun

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5mary5 · 1 month

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Female mc visits the gynecologist

Obgyn:so are you sexually active?

Mc: yes

Obgyn: are you on birth control?

Mc: no

Obgyn: *looking at the 7 men that came with her for support 🤨* why?

Mc:....they are all infertile-

(This is written on the basis that demons cannot get humans pregnant btw)

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messysketchyobeyme · 4 months

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There’s a lot of things that Mammon wants to say to you but can’t.

He wants to tell you how much he likes the way your eyebrows scrunch up wherever you’re concentrating on something important.

He wants to tell you that he spends a good chunk of his time staring at his D.D.D., willing for you to send him a text.

And, when you do finally text him? He wants to tell you how giddy he gets every time. It’s to the point where he has to wait a few seconds to text you back, or else he’d just send you some incomprehensible key board smash every time.

He wants to tell you that the sound of your voice is enough to send him spiraling. It’s the same sweet voice that calls out to him every morning, laughs with him during RAD, and hums to your favorite songs playing on his car radio. It’s also the same voice that he hopes would someday whisper sweet nothings in his ear when nobody is looking.

He wants to tell you that he often plans his future with you. What it would be like to live with you permanently, whether you two would stay in the human world or the Devildom, and how often you guys would visit the other world. It isn’t something he can dwell on for too long.

He wants to tell you that there have been multiple times where he catches himself staring at you for far, far too long. It isn’t something that he does on purpose, but sometimes the moonlight catches the light in your eyes at just the right angle that he can’t help but to marvel at your beauty.

He wants to tell you that he craves your touch constantly. He needs to feel your hand in his constantly, but the second his skin grazes yours, butterflies flutter anxiously in his stomach. It’s too much to bear sometimes, but he can’t imagine being away from your touch for too long.

He wants to tell you that he daydreams about you a lot. His mind makes up so many scenarios about you against his will. He spends his time thinking about sharing an umbrella in the rain with you or other cutesy romantic things. He realizes that he may have a problem when he subconsciously doodles his thoughts rather than writing his notes in class.

He wants to tell you how much he l— lo— lov—

Mammon wants to tell you how much he cares about you, but how can he when he can’t even admit it to himself?

#obey me #obey me mc #obey me mammon #Drabble #mammon x reader #this is cringe but I am free

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zephyrchama · 4 months

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An idea for around lesson 41~ in OG Obey Me! when the brothers come to the human world.

In their first week, they all go somewhere with MC to celebrate. MC is very used to going out and drinking demonus alongside them, as it does nothing. So nobody thinks twice about ordering a round of drinks for the table. Maybe two rounds. Maybe just keep the drinks coming. It's a happy reunion, after all, and the house is close by.

MC drinks enough to get absolutely plastered by the time anybody realizes what's happened. You now have a table of seven very flustered, concerned demons and a human who can barely sit up in their chair.

#I feel like Solomon would know. he'd see it coming. but he'd stay silent for the lols.#I wanted to write a little story about this but am too busy so just posting this instead. maybe i'll come back to it.#i'll be free-er in late february #obey me!#obey me #obey me mc #obey me scenarios #obey me scenario #obey me headcanon #obey me headcanons #obey me brothers #obey me x mc #alcohol tw #drinking tw #drunk tw #obey me x reader #obey me imagines

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oliver-crow · 2 months

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LEVIATHAN I LOVE HIM OMG

#im cringe but im free #omswd leviathan #obey me leviathan #obey me levi fanart #obey me #obswd #trans rights

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5mary5 · 2 months

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I have this little headcanon cause i was reading the comic of obey me and we as mc have been given the neutral name zephyr in the very early chapters since we are a sheep and all and they want to make it inclusive since the name itself is gender neutral but I was thinking that let's say one day the curse is solved and sheep!mc gets their body back but the characters continue calling mc zephyr, what if one day someone (probably a side or secondary character) brings up the fact that "hey you know what? Your face doesn't really scream zephyr" and mc is like "yeah that's because that is not my actual given name, my actual name is ________" and the characters are like "😱😱😱" I mean they did know that this wasn't their real name since they gave it to them cause they can't just call them human and all but it's still shocking to hear it coming out of their own mouth, they would also probably coo when mc tells them their birth name because it means they learn more about their favorite person, well I mean they would coo at everything mc does regardless so-

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cosmicstarlatte · 4 months

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Can I share this silly scenario that's been rotating in my mind?

So, MC has a sort of signal when they're up for free use in the HoL, they wear a black choker around their neck, and usually wear their hair up so the brothers can see it. So the brothers have kinda been Pavlovian conditioned into getting excited whenever MC has that combination of choker and hair up.

Somehow, Diavolo learns about this. He trolls the brothers by giving MC a fancy choker to wear at the next fancy event at the demon lord's castle. The brothers spend the entire event completely frustrated, and only get more frustrated when Diavolo insists MC spends the night at the castle.

nsfw mdni // mc gets called 'little one' once

AAAAA AAJSGKGKFKDJGH

I LOVE MEAN DIAVOLO YOU DONT UNDERSTAND

You know damn well Diavolo would do some shit like that, I particularly feel he does it most to see Lucifer get riled up; the rest of the brothers are just a bonus to the shenanigans.

Dia would probably point out the beautiful jewelry in front of other guests, even go as far to touch the beautiful choker around your neck, noticing how each of the brothers just grit their teeth. /screaming

The brothers do spend the entire night frustrated, not only have they been conditioned, they now feel like everyone else might jump at you at any second!

That being said, I feel like Mammon would be the one who whines the most, asking you to take it off. </3 😭

Omg at the end of the event you and the brothers are finally excited to go home but Dia stops you, placing a hand on your shoulder.

"MC are you sure you don't want to spend the night?" His hand gives you a small squeeze before lightly massaging your shoulder. "You look like you could use some rest little one. Dont worry Lucifer, I'll take good care of them."

At this point Lucifer isn't even hiding his annoyed face he's just DONE lmaooo

"No, we shouldn't impose on you Lord Diavolo, c'mon MC—" Lucifer takes your hand but you reluctantly hold back.

"Well actually Lucifer I am pretty tired—"

LUCIFER EYES JUST BULGE OUT AHAHAHA (along with the rest of the brothers)

Mammon snaps out of it quick, sweeping you off your feet and going, "Nope. We're going home, cya!"

And Lucifer just smirks and shrugs at Dia, "Looks like we can take care of MC, thank you."

pls this ask was so funny tysm for sharing akskdfkkg

anyway if it were me I'm a hoe and I'd let a few of the brothers hit through out the night anyway, we'd escape for a few minutes when no one's watching 😌

#raise ur hand if you'd wear that collar 25/8 OOOO WEEEE 😩🤚#and I'd smash Dia too ofc bc that's bae fr 🤭#✩ — the star: javert!#obey me #obey me headcanons #obey me smut headcanons #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me crack #obey me shitpost #obey me imagines #obey me smut #◇˖・ﾟ— › cosmic obey me . ⊹#tw free use #cw free use

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