For My Money, The Most (only?) Interesting Thing About Frank Harkness Is Seeing Where River Cartwright

For my money, the most (only?) interesting thing about Frank Harkness is seeing where River Cartwright gets his crazy streak from.

River spent most of his childhood and youth raised by his grandparents, in what I can only imagine was a mostly pleasant stereotypically repressed British upbringing. His hometown is wealthy and picturesque. He probably went to a nice university and did mostly normal university things there. And yet he is, canonically, a maniac, who is ready to commit violence at any given moment. My two favourite examples:

s1: beats his erstwhile friend unconscious

s2: chokes a random cab driver (and then tells him "I'm one of the good ones". Lol, okay honey bunny)

And he also has the other side of the coin, which is that he's unruffled by the prospect of enduring physical violence himself.

And Frank sees this in him, instinctually.

When Frank tells Taverner that River is a poor fit for MI-5 and that's why he's mouldering in Slough House - ask yourself, where is the lie? River is constitutionally ill-suited for life in a modern bureaucratic institution, even if that institution does spy stuff.

He would never join Frank's operation because unlike Frank, he has good in him, or at least he wants to do good. But ooh, he also wants to be good at what he's doing. He wants to feel good in the way you feel good when you're doing something that comes naturally to you.

The most best thing about the scene between Frank and River at the bar in season 4 is when Frank gives him a few crumbs of praise and River just fucking eats it up, despite himself. Because actually he IS good at the kinetic stuff. But what drives that side of him is also what gets him continually shit on by the Service. And it must feel amazingly good to have someone recognize and validate that potential in him, even if it's coming from his nutcase absent father.

Lamb sees River's potential, of course, but he never shows it or overtly encourages him because Lamb understands him and knows that he's already got a big head and no impulse control and that he needs to learn to get over himself and calm the fuck down. He doesn't need the OB filling his head with Rudyard Kipling nonsense or Frank Harkness selling him American-style on the glamour of being a mercenary. He needs someone who can show him how the world, in all its ugliness, really works. That's what's going to keep him alive and possibly intact in some sense.

I think this is all pretty obvious but I've been trying and failing to plot a River Harkness AU so here are some thoughts that arose on father/son dynamics.

More Posts from Generalpenguinangel and Others

5 months ago

Not exactly my thing but reblogging because I like the energy. Those two would make River and Spider look like two kittens fighting over a piece of string.

I'm only 2 and a bit seasons in but by some cursory ao3 scrolling it seems no one is matching my freak re: Slow Horses

not one single fic for Jackson Lamb/David Cartwright? Hello??? Don't call yourself a fan of old man yaoi if you don't want Jonathan Pryce and Gary Oldman to fuck nasty. Gary Oldman yaoi, come on, it's IN THE NAME


Tags
3 months ago
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E03 – Bad Tradecraft
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E03 – Bad Tradecraft
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E03 – Bad Tradecraft
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E03 – Bad Tradecraft
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E03 – Bad Tradecraft
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E03 – Bad Tradecraft
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E03 – Bad Tradecraft
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E03 – Bad Tradecraft
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E03 – Bad Tradecraft
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E03 – Bad Tradecraft
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E03 – Bad Tradecraft

Jack Lowden as River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E03 – Bad Tradecraft

5 months ago

Can we fix it? No, we can't!

Due To Park Budget Restrictions, Lamb Has Tasked River With Fulfilling A Number Of Odd Jobs Around Slough

Due to Park budget restrictions, Lamb has tasked River with fulfilling a number of odd jobs around Slough House.


Tags
4 months ago

⚡️10 People I want to know better ⚡️

Thanks @daydreamgoddess14 for tagging me. I'm doing this so I will feel like less of a creep commenting all over your fic. 😄

Last song: Death From Above 1979 - Romantic Rights

Favorite color: green

Last movie: Barbie? I think?

Last TV show: Shafted (aka Super Males)

Sweet/savoury/spicy: Thai food so I can have them all at once

Relationship status: married

Last thing I googled: "requin ou raquin"

Current obsession: Slow Horses/Slough House series, Jack Lowden, Paul Mescal (I've never seen anything this man has been in but I watch his interviews, wtf self). I'm about to finally start Onyx Storm, so good chance I'll get pulled back into those books (they are so bad! but also so addictive).

Looking forward to: The improv class I signed up for starts next week.

No pressure tags: @ghost-woods @jamietarttsnorthernattitude @rivercartwrong @bobfloydpilled @too-many-rooks @cartwrong @ofnightandlight @louisaguy

2 months ago
Dr. Sharp Angles And Dr. Soft Curves

dr. sharp angles and dr. soft curves

(hidden angst explained in tags)

1 month ago

Maybe. Or addicts can love their kids and at the same time be a bad parent in some ways because of their addiction. Sometimes people with a substance abuse problem can turn it on and superficially keep it together in some settings but not in all aspects of their life all of the time.

Honestly, I hate this idea that because he visibly loves his kids that means that his addiction can't possibly be negatively affecting his parenting. You can love your kids a lot and also fail them in some ways. You can love your kids a lot and still choose your substance over them sometimes. It's not always black and white. And I think it's extremely unrealistic to think that someone with a drug dependence serious enough to motivate them to commit crime and endanger their job (that is the culmination of years and $100ks of training) is able to just completely separate the effects of that addiction from other significant parts of their life.

There's love in the sense of the emotions you feel for someone and then there's love in the sense of how you actually show up for someone. Those two things don't always align.

frank langdon isn't a bad dad because the whole point is that he's an addict that doesn't "appear" to be an addict. he's functional, he's alert, he is focused and engaged and yes, at times, erratic on account of the drugs in his veins but he is always present and if he's that way in the e.r., it stands to reason that he would be that way at home too. he's probably a bad husband to his wife because they don't want to be with each other. if we're being honest. that tends to make you a bit shit at things, when you have to do them and you don't wanna. but he wants to be a dad. he wears his kid's bracelet on his wrist. he calls them just to hear their little voices. he's locked in on the dad thing and, finally, i think that if you're a person who is analyzing the pitt and the conclusion you come to is that frank is a drug addict ergo frank is a bad dad then i think that speaks more to a subconscious and unjustified association between addiction (an illness) and one's personal value to the tune of addicts have no distinguishable personhood outside of their addiction and non-addicts do which is probably not great but understandable considering how disdainful and hateful the world at large is to addiction as a concept. anyway.


Tags
2 months ago

OP, thank you for seeing this and saying this.

Guess what, FRANK? The reason you can work so hard at being a doctor is because your wife gets up every time a kid is puking at 2 am and every morning 365 days a year to make then breakfast. She makes sure there's milk in the fridge, toilet paper in the bathroom, and clean underwear in your drawer. She sends your mother her favourite flowers for Mother's Day and writes your name on the card. And she probably quit her consulting job at McKinsey to do all that.

And that's why he actually doesn't deserve Mel. He doesn't understand or respect the woman he already has. Addiction? Yeah, whatever. Call me when he goes to rehab for being a sexist jerkoff.

Honestly This Is The Only Thing He Deserves An Ass Beating For. Everything Else He Can Recover From

honestly this is the only thing he deserves an ass beating for. everything else he can recover from


Tags
3 months ago
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E06
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E06
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E06
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E06
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E06
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E06
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E06
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E06
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E06
Jack Lowden As River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E06

Jack Lowden as River Cartwright Slow Horses – S01E06

2 months ago
#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All
#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All
#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All
#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All
#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All
#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All
#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All
#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All
#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All
#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All
#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All
#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All
#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All

#which could mean absolutely nothing at all

+bonus

#which Could Mean Absolutely Nothing At All

Tags
Loading...
End of content
No more pages to load
  • sphinx2005
    sphinx2005 liked this · 1 week ago
  • maris-claude
    maris-claude liked this · 1 week ago
  • euelios
    euelios liked this · 3 months ago
  • timrousbeastie
    timrousbeastie liked this · 3 months ago
  • greenkiwifruitseeds
    greenkiwifruitseeds liked this · 3 months ago
  • its-didu
    its-didu liked this · 3 months ago
  • alexjcrowley
    alexjcrowley reblogged this · 3 months ago
  • alexjcrowley
    alexjcrowley liked this · 3 months ago
  • annaelizabethhenry1
    annaelizabethhenry1 liked this · 4 months ago
  • elsker-teoretiker-stjernekikker
    elsker-teoretiker-stjernekikker liked this · 4 months ago
  • the-omnishambles
    the-omnishambles liked this · 4 months ago
  • the-wasteland-baby
    the-wasteland-baby liked this · 4 months ago
  • rustygalaxy
    rustygalaxy liked this · 4 months ago
  • falle-ness
    falle-ness liked this · 4 months ago
  • robertgroveenthusiast
    robertgroveenthusiast liked this · 4 months ago
  • thekneethief
    thekneethief liked this · 4 months ago
  • im-being-so-normal-about-this
    im-being-so-normal-about-this liked this · 4 months ago
  • medievalsmithy
    medievalsmithy liked this · 4 months ago
  • sluggishequines
    sluggishequines reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • mantishrimpy
    mantishrimpy liked this · 4 months ago
  • anna-sova
    anna-sova liked this · 4 months ago
  • torchbearerkyle
    torchbearerkyle liked this · 4 months ago
  • sophien-99
    sophien-99 reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • beforetimebedevils
    beforetimebedevils liked this · 4 months ago
  • manon-de
    manon-de liked this · 4 months ago
  • slowhrses
    slowhrses reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • wisegladiatorkitty
    wisegladiatorkitty liked this · 4 months ago
  • somanyflippingbooks
    somanyflippingbooks liked this · 4 months ago
  • walkingmemery
    walkingmemery liked this · 4 months ago
  • knoxious-and-devoted
    knoxious-and-devoted liked this · 4 months ago
  • inagudrin
    inagudrin liked this · 4 months ago
  • weirdlime
    weirdlime liked this · 4 months ago
  • gracebase
    gracebase liked this · 4 months ago
  • sparxflame
    sparxflame reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • sparxflame
    sparxflame liked this · 4 months ago
  • andiwouldliketospendngk
    andiwouldliketospendngk liked this · 4 months ago
  • rmyun
    rmyun reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • slowhrses
    slowhrses liked this · 4 months ago
  • yiiiikesmish
    yiiiikesmish liked this · 4 months ago
  • uk-fashion1962
    uk-fashion1962 liked this · 4 months ago
  • disappearinginq
    disappearinginq liked this · 4 months ago
  • bluewintermoonposts
    bluewintermoonposts liked this · 4 months ago
  • europienpufferfish
    europienpufferfish liked this · 4 months ago
  • peasandhoney
    peasandhoney liked this · 4 months ago
  • edbaldwin
    edbaldwin liked this · 4 months ago
  • leclercdr3
    leclercdr3 liked this · 4 months ago
  • remixedroses
    remixedroses reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • remixedroses
    remixedroses liked this · 4 months ago
  • mollytreg
    mollytreg liked this · 4 months ago

Just out here working through my sexual obsession with Jack Lowden.

77 posts

Explore Tumblr Blog
Search Through Tumblr Tags