So I Was Rewatching Saltburn And I Had An Epiphany!

So I was rewatching Saltburn and I had an epiphany!

Farleigh is in love with Oliver.

Like, embarrassingly, stupidly, head over heels.

I mean, I knew he had a thing for Ollie, with the jealously telling Felix about him and Venetia, the Richard III would put in the work line followed by him being completely disarmed when Oliver suggests that he fucks him, and then the actual Oliver seducing him scene, but I only just realized the extent of it and how far back it goes.

First of all, Farleigh notices Oliver before Oliver sees Felix for the first time.

So I Was Rewatching Saltburn And I Had An Epiphany!

Yes, I got the script because I'm complete Saltburn trash at this point. So when Farleigh is introduced, the script describes him as beautiful and pansexual, walking among a group of alpha hotties. So in the film, he's with two hotties, a guy and a girl. He has his pick. There's no reason for him to point out Oliver or what he's wearing to them, unless he's trying to impress them, but why would Farleigh Start need to impress them? He's already the centre of that group. Sure the script also describes him as an imp with a cruel streak, but after rewatching I feel like that's a blatant misdirection. I mean, he got expelled for sucking off teachers. Nerdy prep is exactly his type.

He says, "Hey cool jacket," to Oliver. If you interpret that line as being delivered by the beautiful and pansexual Farleigh Start, not the impish and cruel Farleigh Start, it's pretty much a come on. I'm mixed race like Farleigh and it kind of reminds me of those back-handed compliments white people give you when they think you're hot or cute 'for a brown person.' It's kind of hilarious to see it subverted like this, but obviously Oliver is less amused. Why would he interpret it as anything other than more bullying? Which it kind of is, so fair enough. But it's the kind of bullying people do when they get a crush they don't know how to handle. A little boy pulling on a girls pigtails. And it's obviously worked for Farleigh before. Why would he need to try any harder than that?

After Farleigh's comment, Oliver sees Felix for the first time. Farleigh is also there, but Oliver's already smitten and doesn't really notice him beyond, "Oh, it's that jerk from earlier and he's next to Felix, where I should be." Then you get a few other bits that wreck me. Oliver ducking from the window when Felix looks up, Oliver trying to sit at Felix (and Farleigh)'s table at the mess hall, but being unable to, Michael causing the disruption, but it doesn't even interrupt Felix and Farleigh's conversation. (Which ties in nicely to my theory of how the original Oliver wouldn't have gotten Felix's attention even if he screamed, he had to mold himself into what Felix wanted just to get noticed, but one theory at a time).

Next up, we have the tutor session that Farleigh is late for. Before Farleigh gets there, Oliver is humiliated and belittled for completing the reading list, which dooms Farleigh even more when he shows up and the tutor starts fawning over him. Oliver doesn't know Farleigh and Felix are cousins yet. He's just the guy that was snide to Oliver when he first got there. The guy at Felix's side that Oliver keeps measuring himself against. So yeah, Oliver is pissed off before Farleigh gets there and that cute little knee touch isn't going to change anything.

Yes, Farleigh, I also count the amount of times my crush uses a word in their essay despite still being hungover from last night's party, just so that I have something to talk to him about… Oh wait, no, that's just you.

The way he looks up at Oliver with those big brown doe eyes when he says, "I counted". The way he keeps looking up to gauge his reaction to all his comments. The way he's looking at him, period.

And Oliver doesn't fall for his cuteness and charm because he's just convinced that the intent behind his words is malicious. Poor Farleigh. He must have been so confused. People usually fold but here's this guy, meeting him blow for blow. He's never had to "put in the work" like this. What the hell.

The tutor sessions with Oliver and Farleigh (where Farleigh is framed lower than Oliver) actually serve as a nice parallel to a lot of the scenes where Oliver and Felix are together (and Oliver is framed lower than Felix). We don't really see that when Farleigh and Felix are together. They're usually at a similar height in those scenes.

Then we have the scene in the bar where Felix calls Oliver over and Farleigh has that panicked, "Oh shit, my crush is here," look on his face before it settles into resignation as he realizes Oliver is, "another one of Felix's toys". Finally the mystery is solved. This is why Oliver didn't fall for his charms at the tutor sessions.

So, Oliver prefers Felix to him, huh. That's just fine. He'll deal with the rejection by giving Oliver a hard time about buying the next round. That should push him away from Felix…oh shit, it brings them closer together. And now he looks like the douchebag.

Then there's this bit where Farleigh is looking at Oliver and Felix (mostly Oliver, the prior shot establishes which side of the room he's on, which happens to be where Farleigh's looking) and his party hat horns mirror the minotaur/how Oliver looked when he confessed his love to Felix later on. Oliver, you need to see how much Farleigh fucking loves you. Look at him, Ollie. Just look at him. (He can't, he's too busy looking at Felix)

Anything to get Oliver to notice him. Anything.

Cut to Oliver's arrival at Saltburn, where Oliver joins the rest of them in the library and Farleigh loudly cuts off Elspeth gossiping about Oliver and his parents because hearing, "We were just talking about you" would be better than hearing whatever was going to come out of Elspeth's mouth next. And I mean, he's already the asshole. This is actually so sweet.

And we all remember this scene. This clearly made his day.

But then we get the encounter with Venetia and Felix and Farleigh both being equally pissed at the breakfast table. And yeah, everything goes downhill from there. It's the reason Oliver seduces him and gets him thrown out for what's literally just another desperate attempt to drive a wedge between Oliver and Felix.

No, Oliver, he's not going to behave. God, yes. Don't stop.

Farleigh was down so bad he literally got honeytrapped and framed. Twice.

Between Felix, Oliver and Farleigh, there are really no winners. They really all got wrecked by love, huh.

You know it's funny that the only person Rhaenyra was faithful to was Harwin haha, fans can now say that man was her greatest love and I won't try to defend Daemyra.

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notme2001

2 years ago

Random Thoughts ❤️‍🩹

A dynamic that's been hinted at and should be expanded upon in the game, for Today's Topic: Mammon and Michael's Relationship

Warning: Spoilers for Obey Me, mentions of unseen characters, neglect? (Kind of)

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It's a bit baffling to me that the devs haven't addressed this, but the fans surely have! For better or for worse (mostly worse for Michael tho).

But really, the concept of the brother's previous relationships and what they mean to them now that they're demons, is really fascinating.

We get bits and pieces from Simeon and how he deals with his complicated emotions towards the demons he once called brothers, but that's a topic for another day.

So let's break down what we know about Michael the Archangel:

Michael is the leader of the Celestial Realm's legion of angels.

He was described as Lucifer's "twin," having been very close to one another.

During his early life in the Celestial Realm, Mammon was once the little brother of Michael.

According to Asmodeus in Lesson 27-19, Michael couldn't handle/didn't know how to deal with Mammon, and as such, Lucifer had taken Mammon under his care.

Michael himself has been described as "too upfront about his desires," and places unreasonable responsibilities and tasks upon the people who work under him.

However, many of those same angels respect him and see him as a good person.

Both Mammon and Raphael view him as "weird" and "socially inept."

Many of Luke and Simeon's tasks to Michael, according to the chats, are to find and bring him sweets. He apparently has pretty lavish tastes.

Luke has stated repeatedly that Michael is one of his mentors and reports directly to him.

And according to Simeon, Michael is "calm, yet stern" when he is angry, and he prefers to talk things out as opposed to physical discipline.

Now, as fun as it would be for Michael to be this extremely cold, two-faced perfectionist that tormented Mammon during his younger days in the Celestial Realm, bringing this moral dilemma about how angels are not always the "pure and virtuous" beings we all see them as, I'm sad to say that that's not what we got here (rip fanfic writers).

But really, game Michael is far different than the absolute bastard people write him as. And that in and of itself, intrigues me.

So how did Michael treat Mammon during their time together?

Now, seeing as Michael has a tendency to thrust work onto other people, you would think that would serve as an aspect as to why Mammon was removed from him. But I don't think that was the case.

Think about it, despite how he might complain, Mammon DOES enjoy working. Whether that be physically: finding jobs to pay off his debt, to help someone, or to buy MC something as a gift, or mentally: keeping tabs on his family's emotional states; Mammon can and will get stuff done when he puts his mind to it.

And Mammon most definitely will learn and help all that he can when it comes to the people closest to him, so what was the issue?

Well, according to Mammon himself:

Not exactly the most respectful image Michael nor Raphael had of Mammon, right?

I'm sure that we all can picture Mammon as a rambunctious little tyke who the elder angels had trouble "controlling."

With that in mind, Michael most likely didn't have much faith in Mammon's ability to help him either. As a brother, nor a protégé.

So I'm willing to bet that Michael wouldn't let Mammon do much, or try to distract him with menial tasks that Mammon knew were not important.

Imagine how insulting that would be for Mammon. The guy who pushes work on other people, won't trust you with helping him out. Willingly. Ouch...

This would only spur Mammon on even further to misbehave and get into trouble, possibly for attention.

Which is an interesting contrast to Lucifer.

Because despite how reckless and irresponsible Mammon admittedly is, Lucifer trusts him the most out of all of their brothers to help him.

Yes, Lucifer is the guy who insists on doing everything by himself most of the time, but even he can't do everything.

And I think that was a part of why Mammon accepted Lucifer instead of Michael, aside from admiration that is: Trust.

As Mammon said, Lucifer saw the potential in Mammon, brought him up to be one of the greatest warriors and/or angels in the ENTIRE Celestial Realm. So much so, that Mammon even became Lucifer's official assistant.

That, and the fact that Mammon witnessed Michael push most of his responsibilities onto other people, would draw Mammon towards the ever-reliant Lucifer.

Lucifer inspired and trusted Mammon far more than Michael ever could. Michael only saw him as a troublemaker, and Mammon recognizes and appreciates Lucifer for seeing that there was more to him than that.

Now, as for Mammon's feelings about Michael, I don't believe that Mammon holds any ill-will towards him, but he's not exactly thrilled about talking about him either.

When Michael is brought up by either Luke or MC, Mammon becomes slightly uncomfortable. I mean, who can blame him?

As much as the idea of Michael being an all around bad guy is very far-fetched, I can imagine Michael hurting Mammon in a few ways. It wouldn't be on purpose, but it would add a bit more motivation for Mammon to favor Lucifer over Michael.

Aside from Michael not trusting Mammon, either physically, emotionally, or both, I can imagine a scenario in which Mammon had overheard his then-older brother venting to Raphael or Lucifer about him.

We all know how emotional Mammon can get, and I'm sure his younger, angelic self was no exception.

Can you imagine how devastating that would be for a young child to hear their older brother complain to his friends about him? That would be soul crushing!

This would play into the two-faced concept of Michael that the fans are attached to. Sure, Michael can be a fairly good person, but he IS the type to bad mouth the people he doesn't like or has problems with, in private.

This in contrast to Lucifer, Mammon, and quite frankly, all of the brothers, who are very blunt and upfront about how they feel about someone.

Thus, would end Mammon's ability to rely on Michael and their brotherhood.

HOWEVER! That doesn't mean that Michael doesn't still care about Mammon!

Luke has mentioned to MC before that Michael does, in fact, miss Mammon, Lucifer, and the others. To the point where he has collected all of their past belongings, including but not limited to, Lucifer's ring.

Once again, a topic for another day, but Michael's feelings over what happened could prove to be interesting.

Simeon himself reminisces over losing his family, and Michael has proven to be the same in his own way.

The situation over Lilith's ordered execution and the battles that followed suit was conflicting on both sides.

Michael, Simeon, Raphael, and the other angels may have won the war, but they lost a lot.

But I do remain adamant that Michael and Raphael overcompensate that guilt by establishing to the angels at the time that the rules are the rules. And by winning the war, it was seen as their proof that violating those rules would have dire consequences.

Which could play into yet another reason Mammon didn't get along with Michael at the time: Michael could never see the bigger picture.

Michael never fought for anything other than the order for the Celestial Realm. Yes, Lucifer was similar in that regard, but he would never turn his back on something he believed was wrong or right. Especially for family.

You could do so much with these ideas! The stories, character development, and histories are endless!

Sadly though, I'm not confident that the writers of Obey Me would give Mammon the space to talk about his experience with Michael or his younger years as an angel anytime soon. But I guess we'll just have to see about Michael when he gets here, won't we?

Author's Note: Hopefully, I did a decent job at explaining my thoughts here! If I add any more details to this, don't be surprised. As you can see, I was very passionate about this topic.

I do wonder what Michael will look and act like in the game. I know that he's probably going to be a love interest, but I honestly hope he isn't. I know Obey Me is an otome game, but we can at least have a few characters that aren't romancable.

Reading fanfics about Mammon and Michael is really interesting! Almost all of them paint Michael as this abusive authority figure to Mammon, and how this abuse seems to continue into present-day with Lucifer and all of his over the top punishments. Again, I've only scratched the surface on this topic. Many people have different views on Michael already, and we haven't even physically met the guy! Sorry Michael! :(

With all of that being said, thank you all for reading, have a lovely night or day, and I'll see you later! Byeee! 💗

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notme2001

1 year ago

I totally get him, i would've done the exact same thing.

Buck saw his date coming in through the hospital glass doors, dressed in his firefighter uniform, covered in soot and ash, and thought yeah, I wanna shove my tongue down that man's throat right now

And we all can relate

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notme2001

1 year ago

Boy, I felt that one

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notme2001

10 months ago

i don’t know about you guys but the main reason i am still on tumblr in 2024 is BECAUSE it is the most cloutless least influential social media app out there and that is the experience i am after. absolutely none of this will ever translate into significant attention or real success in my life and that is so beautiful.

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