Oh, btw, I totally forgot to mention that that Laudromat that Stan was at is not in Washington D.C. It's a couple of blocks from me.
And it's like, I completely understand where Elizabeth is coming from too, but since she's very forcefully pushing everyone else around to get her needs met to whatever extent they can be, and he's always the one acquiescing (since a marriage just can't work with two bulldozer personalities), I always end up feeling so much sorrier for him. And add to that Paige's "can I go now?" when he's telling her his dad died when he was 6? Poor Philip. I kind of long for the day when he just blows his top and lets it all out just because it has to suck keeping all that bottled inside, whether he manages to deal with it and move past it mostly or not.
Yes, this is what just kills me about Philip--and pretty much all characters like that. Because it's not like Elizabeth's a villain who's just being selfish. I get how things are hard for her, how in some ways they're harder for her. But that's a separate issue from the way she deals with people that makes her really hard to get anything from. And that's made worse by Philip's instinct to just acquiesce. That's why I wanted to be careful to say that he wasn't communicating things rather than making it as if it was about Elizabeth preventing him from speaking up. Like, she is making it harder, but ultimately he's also just choosing to keep quiet. (Heh, and the all of two times he ever tries to give his pov he's often ignored.)
It's funny, too, that I was reading comments where people were discussing which one they found really scary when they got angry. There were votes on both sides, and both of them are deadly so they're really even. But to me it's like, if we're specifically talking about them losing it and getting angry, I think Philip would be worst, if only because when we see Elizabeth losing it those aren't the times when she's the most scary. She's deadlier when she's focusing everything on what she's doing.
I also read another interesting comment on Tumblr where the person said she felt like Elizabeth's coldness was an armor she put on to protect herself, where Philip's iciness was his actual personality, despite how friendly and personable he seemed. And I could actually see what they meant. Like I don't think they meant that he was secretly a sociopath or had no heart, just that when Philip was being cold it was more natural. When he gets genuinely angry it's kind of there, where as when Elizabeth gets furious it's more an explosion of lashing out that can cause a lot of damage but isn't more dangerous than when she's trying to be unemotional. You can see why she doesn't tap into that in the field.
Re: sistermagpie's thoughts on first watch
Yes, this is what just kills me about Philip--and pretty much all characters like that. Because it's not like Elizabeth's a villain who's just being selfish. I get how things are hard for her, how in some ways they're harder for her. But that's a separate issue from the way she deals with people that makes her really hard to get anything from. And that's made worse by Philip's instinct to just acquiesce. That's why I wanted to be careful to say that he wasn't communicating things rather than making it as if it was about Elizabeth preventing him from speaking up. Like, she is making it harder, but ultimately he's also just choosing to keep quiet. (Heh, and the all of two times he ever tries to give his pov he's often ignored.)
It's funny, too, that I was reading comments where people were discussing which one they found really scary when they got angry. There were votes on both sides, and both of them are deadly so they're really even. But to me it's like, if we're specifically talking about them losing it and getting angry, I think Philip would be worst, if only because when we see Elizabeth losing it those aren't the times when she's the most scary. She's deadlier when she's focusing everything on what she's doing.
I also read another interesting comment on Tumblr where the person said she felt like Elizabeth's coldness was an armor she put on to protect herself, where Philip's iciness was his actual personality, despite how friendly and personable he seemed. And I could actually see what they meant. Like I don't think they meant that he was secretly a sociopath or had no heart, just that when Philip was being cold it was more natural. When he gets genuinely angry it's kind of there, where as when Elizabeth gets furious it's more an explosion of lashing out that can cause a lot of damage but isn't more dangerous than when she's trying to be unemotional. You can see why she doesn't tap into that in the field.