there will be poems

This is the least surprising thing I’ve ever read, yes :) and thank you, I’m so glad you like the lyrics! Anyway, here’s a snippet from the first chapter of “hic, ille, tertius,” the Terror Lieutenants wip: 

Oh man, I haven’t touched this one in a while! It’s an afterlife AU fic about Henry Collins, and I actually had a few new ideas for it literally today, so I might go back and revisit it somewhat sooner rather than later – here’s an excerpt: 

Oh my gosh, I love that you asked for this one, I actually started it as a gift fic for you before my fic-writing crisis, so that’s definitely happening if/when I manage to finish it. I’m giving you no context whatsoever, but he’s a tiny bit of Bridglar, I hope you like! 

When Henry could at last bear to pull himself away from the warmth of John Bridgens’s arms, he loosened their embrace with an apologetic kiss to John’s shoulder, before looking up into John’s dark eyes. To his horror, he found them swimming with tears. 

“John,” Henry said. “What’s wrong?” 

But John only cupped Henry’s face in his warm, sturdy palm, and gazed at him, saying nothing, so Henry pushed himself up on his toes and pressed a quick kiss to John’s lips and tried again. 

“John, I don’t understand, we’re together now, whatever’s the matter?” 

Smiling sadly through his tears, John stroked Henry’s cheeks. “You’re here, that’s all,” John said.

Henry nodded, encouraging. 

“I didn’t think–” John’s voice broke, but he rallied. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

Okay SO you’ve already seen pretty much all of the LeoRoss, but I’ll give you a tiny fragment that should be new to you. 

“Tender You Go,” is another matter, and I’m afraid it really won’t be very fun at all: there’s a longer excerpt under a readmore for length and also extra content warnings for cannibalism & major character death.

Hello! Thank you for the message (re: this post) and I’m so glad to be able to spread the gospel of Freddy!

I very much appreciate the correction about Irving – I'd neglected to mention that line about Irving's temper from the memorial:

It's very interesting to me that this fairly gentle reference to a bad temper is emphasized rather than softened in the <1> footnote:

<1> "It would appear that while in the "Belvidera" he was not very popular on account of a hot temper and a rather domineering manner. He was better informed than the majority of his compeers, had decided opinions, and was prone to become dictatorial. We can readily imagine, from personal knowledge, that in early life such may have been his tendency." (pg. 18)

The phrasing of this is footnote seems very odd to me in terms of the contrast between "can readily imagine" and "from personal knowledge" — how clear and actually available was this evidence to the memorial writer(s)?

Regardless, yes, Irving did have a temper, and he knew of it and was trying to, well, improve himself!

I think my internal conflict over his portrayal in the show is more akin to my issues with the depiction of Sir James Clark Ross — I think that (in the main) there are a great number of choices to praise, but the slight lean toward anger and away from empathy is frustrating. In the case of Ross, this failure (for me) comes from the implication that Sir James wasn't still good friends with Lady Franklin in 1847, but his frantic worry in last episode rings true; in the case of Irving, though the bad temper is, as you say, in character, and my sadness comes from the fact that we don't get to see his evident self-awareness of his own flaws — as well as his capacity for change, his potential for kindness — until only moments before his death.

(I also think that there's a tendency to misinterpret Irving's tone in his confrontation against Hickey as homophobia, when it's important to remember that Irving believes that he's dealing with an abuser, in which case his anger is more than justified. It's not his fault he's been lied to by Gibson, who took advantage of Irving's inclination toward mercy and kindness. His outburst against Manson is his real sin, and I can't help but wonder if — since we know that a large section of Manson's story line was cut — there might have been, once, a resolution to that major moment of personal failure for Irving.)

I know that in so short a series, that's an impossible ask. But it's still a request I want to make — I'd like even more thoughtful depictions of John Irving, I suppose, and I hope they reach the same public that saw the show, because he deserves to be remembered well. I fully and completely agree that it would have been wonderful to see more of "his humor and more nuanced relationship to faith," yes!

Thanks so much for the message!