2025-01-07 19:43:15 ¶ ● ⬈

somuchbetterthanthat:

> Here and then I think about Elias being a genuinely boring person to 99% of the world by the time it’s the 2000s and all his circle of Good Society Gentlemen Horny for their weird Academic friend obsessed with Ghosts Stories are dead.

> Not just boring, but easily dismissed, as well (“waste of a suit”), (“A dull little man” // “Gertrude was the one who scared me”).

> And I don’t know, it always drives me a little insane in the BEST way. I love it. I love that his little joys in life are spreadsheets, filing, The Horror Stories of Other People that Are Not Him Thank You, and cake. I love that he is mild, that he looks utterly inoffensive, that he’s passive and only shows glimpses of how Cruel and /how much he enjoys being Cruel/ in very specific situations (1. i have all the power and everybody in the room knows, 2. They want to see an evil man i’ll show them an evil man 3. EVERYTHING I WORKED TOWARDS FOR CENTURIES IS SET INTO MOTION I AM WINNING)

> It makes it extra tasty, with that additional external point of view from characters, that Jon explicitely says that Elias is the most knowledgeable man he knows when it comes to paranormal: Jon actively seeked out Elias enough to be aware of that. It’s also delicious to have him say “Elias is a hard man to pin down” because it means that Jon RECOGNIZES that Elias is not just his boring, inefficient superior; that there are myriads of other things he’s yet to uncover about him and all.

> I think it’s nice for us all boring people to have represention in villainy. I said it over on bluesky and all but I know in my heart his perfectly tailored three-piece suits are all different shades of grey (Ah,,), except for the black ones that are for fancy events, and the “extravagant” navy blue ones for “fun” events like Institute parties.

> he has inside jokes with himself with his cufflinks and that’s basically it.