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0denseSo since this year, I've quit making original posts on tumblr, partially in protest of the nippocalypse, partially to practice disengaging from it as a social media platform, and partially because if it does finally go down, I don't want to lose my recorded train of thoughts.
John Mulaney Voice: but then, this week, the strangest thing happened!
To repost, I've jumped into the waters of tumblr fandom, and it's largely been great for meta! Analysis is so much easier than fic :_D I'll drag the creative words out of myself somehow though!
1) gwinny3k asked: I love the idea of Pikalov briefing Tarakanov. Passing his notes! Giving him some tips on how to handle Valery. (Boris is a total comrade, don't worry about him, but Legasov...)
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dw repost: yeah! Boris, you can level with, and sure, Legasov’s doing his best here, but he’s not one of us in the same way. Or, would that mean that they both underestimated him, before he dropped the Bio-robots bomb?
- Fun thought, considering how Tarakanov all but said a prayer with the liquidators every time, would he possibly hate Valery just a bit for saying it first, just for 90 silent seconds every now and then?
a few other headcanons and such re. Tarakanov:
- yeah, between Pikalov driving the dosimeter himself and Tarakanov giving all the liquidators a chance to opt out, I would think they would have to get along
-- but even if Pikalov did try to fill him in, there’s no way he was actually ready for it all
- I’m trying to write a thing where Tarakanov catches on or calls out that Boris is Accountable for Valery, because he has enough on his docket without worrying about worrying about their shenanigans spilling over onto the rest of the production as well
-- (this is the sort of writer’s block that would probably benefit from another angle if anyone’s interested)
- Also re. scientist-wrangling, idk if he ever crossed paths with Ulana, but when she and Valery are doing their thing, Tarakanov could turn to Boris like holy hell, there’s two of them. And Boris just has to almost laugh, because it’s Tarakanov’s turn to be steamrollered with something.
- Seeing as Boris is the oldest and highest-ranking of them, there’s no way Tarakanov’s calling Boris by his first name without it going both ways, so that’s the Nikolai, Boris, and Valery brain trust, there. But again as the resident top of the food chain, I assume Boris had to initiate the [tutoiement] there as well? So at their rate, it was probably something in the style of “It’s 2am and only now I’m realizing that the roof has been leaking right by my glass, Yevdokimovitch is too many syllables for how fed up I am right now, you can skip it, Nikolai.”
- the obligatory self-indulgent sad one: hey what if he heard about Valery via Boris? Like, he was out off somewhere*, slightly out of the loop, and makes it back to Moscow, and runs into Boris, who looks like he’s about to decapitate someone if they cross him, and wow, what’s put you in a mood? / You don’t know? / Know what?
-- and Boris has to be the one to break the news
-- * potentially being promoted unlike certain other people, but he’s absolutely not going to bring that up in Boris’ face, and not after a funeral
they can talk more at Spitak. Or so to speak, when they both know what’s coming.
2) Anonymous asked: re Tarakanov being all "Boris come take yo boy I can't stand a moment longer with him" Legasov seems like the type to overwork, get cranky and frustrated in the morning when everyone just came in but he hasn't left in two days. Stands to reason local military leader shouldn't manhandle the scientists - no matter how very much he wants to - so "Go tell comrade Shcherbina his scientist is about to attempt to call-up General Secretary again." 1/2
John Mulaney Voice: but then, this week, the strangest thing happened!
To repost, I've jumped into the waters of tumblr fandom, and it's largely been great for meta! Analysis is so much easier than fic :_D I'll drag the creative words out of myself somehow though!
1) gwinny3k asked: I love the idea of Pikalov briefing Tarakanov. Passing his notes! Giving him some tips on how to handle Valery. (Boris is a total comrade, don't worry about him, but Legasov...)
tumblr link
dw repost: yeah! Boris, you can level with, and sure, Legasov’s doing his best here, but he’s not one of us in the same way. Or, would that mean that they both underestimated him, before he dropped the Bio-robots bomb?
- Fun thought, considering how Tarakanov all but said a prayer with the liquidators every time, would he possibly hate Valery just a bit for saying it first, just for 90 silent seconds every now and then?
a few other headcanons and such re. Tarakanov:
- yeah, between Pikalov driving the dosimeter himself and Tarakanov giving all the liquidators a chance to opt out, I would think they would have to get along
-- but even if Pikalov did try to fill him in, there’s no way he was actually ready for it all
- I’m trying to write a thing where Tarakanov catches on or calls out that Boris is Accountable for Valery, because he has enough on his docket without worrying about worrying about their shenanigans spilling over onto the rest of the production as well
-- (this is the sort of writer’s block that would probably benefit from another angle if anyone’s interested)
- Also re. scientist-wrangling, idk if he ever crossed paths with Ulana, but when she and Valery are doing their thing, Tarakanov could turn to Boris like holy hell, there’s two of them. And Boris just has to almost laugh, because it’s Tarakanov’s turn to be steamrollered with something.
- Seeing as Boris is the oldest and highest-ranking of them, there’s no way Tarakanov’s calling Boris by his first name without it going both ways, so that’s the Nikolai, Boris, and Valery brain trust, there. But again as the resident top of the food chain, I assume Boris had to initiate the [tutoiement] there as well? So at their rate, it was probably something in the style of “It’s 2am and only now I’m realizing that the roof has been leaking right by my glass, Yevdokimovitch is too many syllables for how fed up I am right now, you can skip it, Nikolai.”
- the obligatory self-indulgent sad one: hey what if he heard about Valery via Boris? Like, he was out off somewhere*, slightly out of the loop, and makes it back to Moscow, and runs into Boris, who looks like he’s about to decapitate someone if they cross him, and wow, what’s put you in a mood? / You don’t know? / Know what?
-- and Boris has to be the one to break the news
-- * potentially being promoted unlike certain other people, but he’s absolutely not going to bring that up in Boris’ face, and not after a funeral
they can talk more at Spitak. Or so to speak, when they both know what’s coming.
2) Anonymous asked: re Tarakanov being all "Boris come take yo boy I can't stand a moment longer with him" Legasov seems like the type to overwork, get cranky and frustrated in the morning when everyone just came in but he hasn't left in two days. Stands to reason local military leader shouldn't manhandle the scientists - no matter how very much he wants to - so "Go tell comrade Shcherbina his scientist is about to attempt to call-up General Secretary again." 1/2
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dw repost: 2/2 And then have unique pleasure of listening to them very publicly screaming at each other as to why promised protective gear still hasn’t arrived, what has a higher priority than properly equipping people who they’re sending to die, and other greatest hits. There’s a lot of people nonchalantly smoking cigarettes around, eavesdropping because this is sadly the best entertainment mother Russia provided them with in this sad place. The KGB agent is openly facepalming because wow. Just wow.
You know, it’s funny you mention Tarakanov removing himself from Valery every now and then, because I came close to mentioning something a bit unflattering - I wonder if Pikalov didn’t end up mentally cross-referencing Legasov with Bryukhanov et al, to an extent. Ofc, Legasov isn’t anywhere near as insufferable as to place his own ego above the safety of others, but he’s still a deeply awkward man, and an outsider to an extent. Pikalov has no time for bureaucrats, for people who give orders without regard for the real effort necessary to actualize their plans. And in his defense, Legasov is expressly horrified by everything that’s happening, and he’s picking the best out of bad options, but still, he didn’t give them any choice but to keep sending helicopters out after that first showing. It’s not Legasov’s will, but it’s still his signatures on the orders, his ideas that are being carried out, and we know he blames himself, but it wouldn’t be surprising to me if Pikalov did as well, just a bit.
And so the brief he gives Tarakanov on Legasov isn’t as flattering as one Tarakanov might’ve gotten from Boris. Still, Tarakanov rolls up and on first pass, Legasov and Shcherbina are a united front. It’s a much better impression this time, and the two of them are determined not to put people in any more danger than everyone already is. Of course, yes, it’s better to deal with the West, better to subject them all to that round of bureaucracy, to dig through the space program and pull favors, anything but putting people up there. And they’re thrilled together when the lunokhod starts, so whatever apprehensions Pikalov had passed down about Legasov lift.
And then, scene 446. It’s funny when you gif it, but actually, not funny at all.
We in the audience, holding the scripts, know that Valery has been trying to vanish, rather than speak up, that he’s horrified by the conclusion he’s come to, that he’s defeated, but he’s still the one to have voiced the unthinkable. Without pulling out secondary materials, 3,828 is enough of a figure for pause.
So, Tarakanov is the one with the benediction for the biorobots, and he’s their superior officer, not Legasov. He’s the commander ordering them out onto Masha, and I’ll grant him the awareness not to hide behind shifting blame, but he wouldn’t be saying those words at all if Legasov hadn’t said ‘biorobots’ first.
So, no, I can imagine that in Tarakanov’s book, Legasov doesn’t get to mess around and be cranky from not taking care of himself. He doesn’t get to make things harder for anyone, not when he’s already the reason Tarakanov is sending conscripts out to the edge of their lives every day. He doesn’t have that right, and how dare he make even more trouble?
Deal with your scientist, Shcherbina. Not Boris, not when he’s this close, because no, Nikolai doesn’t have the right to take it out on Legasov either. Legasov doesn’t get to indulge his bad habits with insomnia, and Nikolai doesn’t get to indulge himself by bawling him out.
But hey, at least when Shcherbina does it, yeah, the rest of them get a show. Boris throws a great tantrum, and Legasov’ll finally pass out after. Really, everyone wins. Relatively speaking, at least.
3) Anonymous asked: Well. The way show shown it biorobots are both Tarakanov and Legasov failures. Science has no way to deal with the fallout nor does military technology. It was fantastic that moonrovers worked but both Shcherbina and Legasov clearly expected Tatakanov to have access to some classified technology and while he's came up with some ideas they ended up just opting for killing people because literally nothing else was there. I doubt he held biorobots against Legasov is me point. Not after the Joker.
dw repost: 2/2 And then have unique pleasure of listening to them very publicly screaming at each other as to why promised protective gear still hasn’t arrived, what has a higher priority than properly equipping people who they’re sending to die, and other greatest hits. There’s a lot of people nonchalantly smoking cigarettes around, eavesdropping because this is sadly the best entertainment mother Russia provided them with in this sad place. The KGB agent is openly facepalming because wow. Just wow.
You know, it’s funny you mention Tarakanov removing himself from Valery every now and then, because I came close to mentioning something a bit unflattering - I wonder if Pikalov didn’t end up mentally cross-referencing Legasov with Bryukhanov et al, to an extent. Ofc, Legasov isn’t anywhere near as insufferable as to place his own ego above the safety of others, but he’s still a deeply awkward man, and an outsider to an extent. Pikalov has no time for bureaucrats, for people who give orders without regard for the real effort necessary to actualize their plans. And in his defense, Legasov is expressly horrified by everything that’s happening, and he’s picking the best out of bad options, but still, he didn’t give them any choice but to keep sending helicopters out after that first showing. It’s not Legasov’s will, but it’s still his signatures on the orders, his ideas that are being carried out, and we know he blames himself, but it wouldn’t be surprising to me if Pikalov did as well, just a bit.
And so the brief he gives Tarakanov on Legasov isn’t as flattering as one Tarakanov might’ve gotten from Boris. Still, Tarakanov rolls up and on first pass, Legasov and Shcherbina are a united front. It’s a much better impression this time, and the two of them are determined not to put people in any more danger than everyone already is. Of course, yes, it’s better to deal with the West, better to subject them all to that round of bureaucracy, to dig through the space program and pull favors, anything but putting people up there. And they’re thrilled together when the lunokhod starts, so whatever apprehensions Pikalov had passed down about Legasov lift.
And then, scene 446. It’s funny when you gif it, but actually, not funny at all.
We in the audience, holding the scripts, know that Valery has been trying to vanish, rather than speak up, that he’s horrified by the conclusion he’s come to, that he’s defeated, but he’s still the one to have voiced the unthinkable. Without pulling out secondary materials, 3,828 is enough of a figure for pause.
So, Tarakanov is the one with the benediction for the biorobots, and he’s their superior officer, not Legasov. He’s the commander ordering them out onto Masha, and I’ll grant him the awareness not to hide behind shifting blame, but he wouldn’t be saying those words at all if Legasov hadn’t said ‘biorobots’ first.
So, no, I can imagine that in Tarakanov’s book, Legasov doesn’t get to mess around and be cranky from not taking care of himself. He doesn’t get to make things harder for anyone, not when he’s already the reason Tarakanov is sending conscripts out to the edge of their lives every day. He doesn’t have that right, and how dare he make even more trouble?
Deal with your scientist, Shcherbina. Not Boris, not when he’s this close, because no, Nikolai doesn’t have the right to take it out on Legasov either. Legasov doesn’t get to indulge his bad habits with insomnia, and Nikolai doesn’t get to indulge himself by bawling him out.
But hey, at least when Shcherbina does it, yeah, the rest of them get a show. Boris throws a great tantrum, and Legasov’ll finally pass out after. Really, everyone wins. Relatively speaking, at least.
3) Anonymous asked: Well. The way show shown it biorobots are both Tarakanov and Legasov failures. Science has no way to deal with the fallout nor does military technology. It was fantastic that moonrovers worked but both Shcherbina and Legasov clearly expected Tatakanov to have access to some classified technology and while he's came up with some ideas they ended up just opting for killing people because literally nothing else was there. I doubt he held biorobots against Legasov is me point. Not after the Joker.
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dw repost: Yeah I do get what you’re saying, but I want to zoom out for a second actually. Bear with me, I’m picking up an example along the way.
So, back on the 26th itself, the reactor’s blown and something is evidently wrong. In the control room, they’re not 100% sure what, but Perevozschenko’s sure, for his own part. But.
in scene 107:
Akimov tastes the metal in his mouth. Then:
AKIMOV: Comrade Perevozschenko, what you’re saying is physically impossible. A core can’t explode. It has to be the tank.
Perevozchenko looks at Akimov in disbelief.
and in scene 138:
STOLYARCHUK: Sasha–
AKIMOV: What is it you want, Boris? If it's true, then we’re all dead. A million
people are dead. Is that what you need to hear?
More shocked silence. Then Akimov turns to Toptunov.
AKIMOV: We’ll open the valves by hand.
That doesn’t make sense. It’s wrong and it gets himself and Toptunov both killed (see: @pottedmusic’s scene vs screen post for details), but the key part is that he wasn’t doing it out of willful malice. Ulana talked about the human problem, that we make bad decisions out of efforts to insulate ourselves from horror. This is unfortunate, but not the mark of an intrinsically bad person*, not in my eyes. Making poor decisions under stress isn’t evil, just human.
(*the definition of ‘a bad person’ is thesis material and I’m spending this semester on governance; ‘freelance ethicist’ isn’t on my business cards)
So what does this have to do with Tarakanov?
Now, this is all entirely conjecture, because I want to be clear that we see nothing of the dynamic between Tarakanov and Legasov after Legasov says ‘Biorobots’, during the actual Masha sequence. Legasov isn’t in scenes 457-460, so we’re all inventing our own takes on what could be happening back at camp. But, with an element of Doyalism, my take is that Tarakanov would be written with as high standards for humanity as Akimov was, and that means fallibility and all.
I don’t think it undercuts Tarakanov to say that he might’ve made a bad call. Everyone’s stressed to the gills, and just because the physical toll is easier to quantify, the mental stress isn’t any less present. Intellectually, he knows that Legasov is as much a hot mess as the rest of them; possibly more, for being onsite so much. Intellectually, he’s not blaming Legasov for doing his best. It’s just, his best is still awful, just like everything here is awful. It’s not the height of emotional maturity to transfer frustrations from an order to the one who issued it, but he’s not playing with a full deck, here. Things slip, when you’re stressed, and now, Tarakanov’s best is losing its shine as well.
Is that a failure per se? I don’t think so, on anyone’s parts. Hey, the line is ‘not great, not terrible,’ here, so we’re deep in utilitarianism, not strict kantian universalizability. Ulana is closest that voice to that highbrow deontology, but she’s not around for this issue. You could power Kyiv with how much Immanuel is turning in his grave, but within the bounds of the series, counting 600k liquidators vs 60 million people in Byelorusia and Ukraine alone is still a victory.
That is not a happy sentence. Rolling.
Also, for the sake of argument, I’m not sure Legasov or Shcherbina assumed Tarakanov would have some sort of magic solution. With all due respect, what does he bring to the table? This is a problem of nuclear physics, so Legasov has a seat. This is a problem of infrastructure and supply, so Shcherbina has a seat. Tarakanov is a general, whose job it is to …command soldiers. So that’s what he does. He didn’t find Joker, the TK did. He didn’t come up with the lunokhods, he mentioned bulldozers and Shcherbina knew they were too heavy and Legasov remembered the rovers*. He ends up working within his own purview, just like anyone. Heck, Pikalov was better-suited to this cleanup; he was from the chemical division, so at least they had training and gear. Tarakanov got green conscripts and bupkis.
(*hey, unrelated, but I’ve been hyped about the nasaversary, so do you think the nerds at the kurchatov institute were cross-pollinated with space fever? Joe average probably wouldn’t remember specific pieces of space tech off the top of their head; has legasov been keeping up with the space race?)
4) Anonymous asked: Same anon as re Tarakanov. Wow you have a whole headcanon as to why he doesn't like Valery and I mean you do you but I don't think one needs to be emotionally involved to dislike the show!Legasov. He's weird. He barely drinks. He smokes but that only means he lived through the 60's. His idea of humor is correcting rhetorical statements and he's liable to fly off into unnecessarily detailed explanations when he's nervous. And he's nervous all the time. This is not how Russians are supposed to be.
dw repost: Yeah I do get what you’re saying, but I want to zoom out for a second actually. Bear with me, I’m picking up an example along the way.
So, back on the 26th itself, the reactor’s blown and something is evidently wrong. In the control room, they’re not 100% sure what, but Perevozschenko’s sure, for his own part. But.
in scene 107:
Akimov tastes the metal in his mouth. Then:
AKIMOV: Comrade Perevozschenko, what you’re saying is physically impossible. A core can’t explode. It has to be the tank.
Perevozchenko looks at Akimov in disbelief.
and in scene 138:
STOLYARCHUK: Sasha–
AKIMOV: What is it you want, Boris? If it's true, then we’re all dead. A million
people are dead. Is that what you need to hear?
More shocked silence. Then Akimov turns to Toptunov.
AKIMOV: We’ll open the valves by hand.
That doesn’t make sense. It’s wrong and it gets himself and Toptunov both killed (see: @pottedmusic’s scene vs screen post for details), but the key part is that he wasn’t doing it out of willful malice. Ulana talked about the human problem, that we make bad decisions out of efforts to insulate ourselves from horror. This is unfortunate, but not the mark of an intrinsically bad person*, not in my eyes. Making poor decisions under stress isn’t evil, just human.
(*the definition of ‘a bad person’ is thesis material and I’m spending this semester on governance; ‘freelance ethicist’ isn’t on my business cards)
So what does this have to do with Tarakanov?
Now, this is all entirely conjecture, because I want to be clear that we see nothing of the dynamic between Tarakanov and Legasov after Legasov says ‘Biorobots’, during the actual Masha sequence. Legasov isn’t in scenes 457-460, so we’re all inventing our own takes on what could be happening back at camp. But, with an element of Doyalism, my take is that Tarakanov would be written with as high standards for humanity as Akimov was, and that means fallibility and all.
I don’t think it undercuts Tarakanov to say that he might’ve made a bad call. Everyone’s stressed to the gills, and just because the physical toll is easier to quantify, the mental stress isn’t any less present. Intellectually, he knows that Legasov is as much a hot mess as the rest of them; possibly more, for being onsite so much. Intellectually, he’s not blaming Legasov for doing his best. It’s just, his best is still awful, just like everything here is awful. It’s not the height of emotional maturity to transfer frustrations from an order to the one who issued it, but he’s not playing with a full deck, here. Things slip, when you’re stressed, and now, Tarakanov’s best is losing its shine as well.
Is that a failure per se? I don’t think so, on anyone’s parts. Hey, the line is ‘not great, not terrible,’ here, so we’re deep in utilitarianism, not strict kantian universalizability. Ulana is closest that voice to that highbrow deontology, but she’s not around for this issue. You could power Kyiv with how much Immanuel is turning in his grave, but within the bounds of the series, counting 600k liquidators vs 60 million people in Byelorusia and Ukraine alone is still a victory.
That is not a happy sentence. Rolling.
Also, for the sake of argument, I’m not sure Legasov or Shcherbina assumed Tarakanov would have some sort of magic solution. With all due respect, what does he bring to the table? This is a problem of nuclear physics, so Legasov has a seat. This is a problem of infrastructure and supply, so Shcherbina has a seat. Tarakanov is a general, whose job it is to …command soldiers. So that’s what he does. He didn’t find Joker, the TK did. He didn’t come up with the lunokhods, he mentioned bulldozers and Shcherbina knew they were too heavy and Legasov remembered the rovers*. He ends up working within his own purview, just like anyone. Heck, Pikalov was better-suited to this cleanup; he was from the chemical division, so at least they had training and gear. Tarakanov got green conscripts and bupkis.
(*hey, unrelated, but I’ve been hyped about the nasaversary, so do you think the nerds at the kurchatov institute were cross-pollinated with space fever? Joe average probably wouldn’t remember specific pieces of space tech off the top of their head; has legasov been keeping up with the space race?)
4) Anonymous asked: Same anon as re Tarakanov. Wow you have a whole headcanon as to why he doesn't like Valery and I mean you do you but I don't think one needs to be emotionally involved to dislike the show!Legasov. He's weird. He barely drinks. He smokes but that only means he lived through the 60's. His idea of humor is correcting rhetorical statements and he's liable to fly off into unnecessarily detailed explanations when he's nervous. And he's nervous all the time. This is not how Russians are supposed to be.
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dw repost: sup Tarakanon! I’ve just caught up with your first one so maybe I should’ve done these both at once but oops, breaking things up.
But no, I don’t think he doesn’t like Valery! I don’t want to sound like I think he hates him, I don’t get that impression from anything. Yeah, Legasov’s weird, but the world is upside-down and backwards here, one scientist with some tics isn’t untenable. I think he has perfectly solid respect for both Shcherbina and Legasov; they’ve been here since day one and they’re doing their best with the situation. They’re even making progress, they should be lauded!
It’s just.
Nothing at all is how it’s supposed to be. If I thought that Tarakanov sincerely didn’t like Legasov, if Tarakanov thought Legasov was a problem who shouldn’t be there, the conclusion is that absolutely none of them should have been there because it shouldn’t’ve happened. Booting Legasov wouldn’t fix anything; rewind to the 50s and give Anatoly Alexandrov and Yefim Slavsky a stern talking to, if you really want to needle folks. It’s not on Legasov; it’s just that he’s the closest magnet for frustration, unfortunately.
The really important thing for me about the characters we’re talking about is that they emphatically do not come from a place of malice or cruelty. Honestly, I wouldn’t be able to stand that; adding small-minded meanness to something already so miserable would be too much for me and I wouldn’t’ve finished watching. It’s when good people are still pushed to the point of exhaustion that I feel for them. It’s human. It’s awful. Obviously I’ve never been in such a high-stakes environment as that, but everyone has days where your coworkers are just getting on your last nerves and getting nasty at your own friends is just an awful feeling. That’s all I’m seeing. Not evil, just frustration.
And actually re. Legasov’s sense of humor, I’ve got an armchair psych opinion on that, too - c/p and formatting my tags on this gifset of Legasov correcting Gorbachev:
so ofc, I’m looking at this the same way as the bit with the lunar rovers, and my thoughts are:
a) I want to think of it as his sense of humor - like ‘oh no, it’s not 50 million it’s worse than that! it can still get worse would you believe it!’ which isn’t funny but by getting in his superiors faces and correcting them with Even Worse News, there’s a kick in that!
but, b) unfortunately, in the context of unrelenting miserable tension, I’m not sure how much space there is for humor vs precision as a coping tool. guesstimating 50% odds of the meltdown reaching groundwater and condemning 400 miners to 25% early deaths is, perhaps, something of a slightly mildly possibly generally stressful situation! so, when in doubt: be exact. be perfect. be prepared and correct and irreproachable in concrete details whenever possible, bc the rest of his life is slipping apart so damn but he’s going to be certain about something at all. Which, I find very psychologically plausible (eg: akimov’s denial in the control room when he needed to be able to issue reasonable commands and see them followed through; even when it got him and toptunov both killed it was what kept him sane right then)
But I like option A better.
5) Anonymous asked: Space race was the shit yo. These men grew up in the 60's. As in were young men then. I don't think there was a soul left in most desolated reaches of Sybir that wasn't cross-pollinated with space fever. If you do a bit of googling you will find yurts build by remote tribes that still have a little shrines of Yuri Gagarin set up. Not to mention space exploration was really a point of national pride. And there was not much to be proud of in the 70's. 1/2
6) Anonymous asked: It's cute how we basically agree re Tarakanov possible attitude towards Legasov after biorobots but from opposite sides and for different reasons. Re Legasov psychology - as a character I don't know if it makes sense to psychoanalyze him. Personally I completely lost my grasp on him three separate times. First with the biorobots. It was really like thunder. Then when it turned out he knew what was up with the reactor before he even sent Ulana out into the world. And the third time when Ulana 1/2
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dw repost: 2/2 When Ulana had hard time convincing him to speak up. He was all “They’re going to shoot me.” and I was like “So… what? You’d prefer to slowly waste away?” From there I am perfectly aware I do not understand show Legasov at all - tell me more. Re his humor - he is definitely funny but I doubt it’s on purpose. The one instance of him being funny on purpose might have been when he was teasing Boris about the moon rovers not being on the moon. If that was even what he was doing. We can’t tell.
lol that’s the fun of fandom! we can meet in the middle then :D
My Personal Hot Takes, bc yeah those are some weird moments of his -
1) Biorobots
yeah man way to bring the whiplash on a lighter scene!
Legasov removes his glasses. Stares down at the calculations on his notepad. Utterly defeated.
LEGASOV: We use biorobots.
He finally turns to look at them. Grim.
LEGASOV: Men.
And so, the unthinkable has finally been said.
In my head, this one makes sense when held up next to his first big No, in the first committee meeting. Someone’s gotta say the unthinkable, and for all that he doesn’t fit the Hero Mold, that’s so much courage. We already know he doesn’t want to be the one to have to do it, but if not us, who.
I think it’s a role he actually picks up early on, and he might resent it, but his job is to be the bearer of bad news. Four hundred chest x-rays, four million. The meltdown has begun. Sixty million people. Every hour, hour after hour. Five years. This is a problem of science, and as the ranking scientist, he gets to share the joy.
Khomyuk rolled right up with terrible news, but she doesn’t have the same authority and therefore pressure over her. Also, the way I read it, she’s got more spine than he does in the first place. He wilts in the conference room, versus, well -
GORBACHEV: How long before this happens?
LEGASOV: Approximately 48 to 72 hours.
Khomyuk watches their panic rise. Good. Panic is appropriate.
and even more to the point,
LEGASOV: The water in these ducts– the level of radioactive contamination–
KHOMYUK (just say it): They’ll likely be dead in a week.
Legasov can sass Charkov and jab at Gorbachev, but he didn’t want to be here the same way she chose to join in. She’s the one who’s difficult and stubborn, and he’s the one who doesn’t want page three to be real.
But it is real, and he isn’t going out of the way to make trouble for anyone by derailing the meeting or dropping the biorobots bomb. If there was any other way, he wouldn’t’ve said it, and even if he hadn’t been the one to finally spit it out, it would’ve been the same conclusion finally drawn. He just has to be the one with the guts to put it on the table before it gets any worse.
2) the Volkov article
Yeah this was Not a good call on his part, being exogenous about it.
I mean, it’s entirely one thing to not run his mouth when they’re sitting in an actual KGB prison, but really, he had no other time? Didn’t I just say it was his job to bring the bad truths?
I guess we’ve got to take what he says at some face value. The circumstances necessary to turn AZ-5 into a detonator aren’t ordinary working conditions, so why worry about something that won’t happen? I don’t think he thought it would be a problem.
But I think it comes down to fear. Sorry. If he read that article, he would have to convince anyone to do anything about it, and he likes his job. He saw what happened to Volkov, and he’s scared of losing his way of life as well. It’s not particularly noble, but I understand it like that, at least.
I think that’s a great character bit, then. Someone who’s fully formed out of the gate isn’t as interesting, but he’s got an obvious history of cowardice. It’s much more interesting to watch someone develop into a better version of themselves.
3) what on earth constitutes ‘enough’
But again, he’s scared, and it’s entirely within his rights to be scared and assert his end of life preferences. Yes, he would rather waste away on his own! Or if not waste away, still make the choice himself in a year. Then he could do it under his own capacity and he can have the science he loves in the meantime! What’s so bad about a long illness when you get to keep your autonomy and your passions? Who wants to get shot? (not yelling at you, just getting in his head lol)
(just for one second I’ll recommend Bognar on QYALYs and DALYs in like 2015 or something and Molewijk et al on emotions in case deliberation in like 2011 and also iirc Schuchter on EoC in like 2017, I don’t have the abstracts in front of me but further reading is always fun)
But here’s the thing. When you say Legasov makes less sense in episode 5, I agree so much, because the only way I understand the finale is to get Doyalist (I’m actually summarising thoughts from a previous meta I left on dreamwidth, which has the quotes from the script and podcast as supporting evidence and all):
Unfortunately, I think episode 5 has the weakest writing altogether. 1-4 are characters grounded in history, and 5 has characters grounded in Mazin himself. I’m not sure that’s a bad thing, because in the name of the story, everything needed to wrap up in a timely manner, and inventing the trial proceedings was very compelling. Paraphrasing the last podcast, ‘from the first episode, we’ve been asking just how on earth an RBMK reactor explodes, and we’ve been a bit sidetracked by the drama of cleanup’, so we need to reorient ourselves for the showdown. Mazin’s got a lot of irons in the fire, and he juggles them well, but by grounding the episode in the story rather than a more direct historical drama, everything feels different. Suddenly, his agenda isn’t recounting events, it’s his own synthesis of an issue.
In my mind, he picked an excellent problem to tackle through the lens of this story. But, suddenly, we’re not telling a story, he’s giving a position on the matters of epistemic injustice (in which case you want Miranda Fricker’s oeuvre and Ishani’s 2010 response, to start with) and virtue epistemology (look for Zagzebski and Fairweather in like 2001; I can’t teach them, but I can rec them)
So yeah, I totally agree, it’s harder to understand the characters in episode 5 because in a sense they are not the same characters we’ve been following. Mazin picked a great soapbox, but to hear his words come out of the characters is jarring.
So. I think. That the reason we were given that scene as it was, with Legasov so reticent to speak up and Khomyuk so pushy, was as much Watsonian - his fear - as Doyalist - Mazin’s need utilize his oc Khomyuk as a voice of virtue. Exogenously, we can see that she’s citing the righteous position, because, as the last monologue says, the truth doesn’t care about us. It’s vast and external and to hide it or hide ourselves from it is an exercise in futility.
Further hot take: As much as it sets up Legasov’s actions later in the episode, this scene turns on Khomyuk, instead. As Mazin’s primary oc, everything about her has a specific purpose. She’s braver than him, she’s smarter than him, and now, she’s the voice of justice. It would be unconscionable to falter at the 11th hour, and she has the dead at her back to motivate him ( @pottedmusic has another script vs screen, for more on her). And now, she’s here to push him into action.
But Mazin also wrote a hero who is scared. Our hero faces real consequences if he acts in a certain way, and because he is a very reasonable fellow, he is terrified. Legasov has been weak, before. He has taken easy routes previously, and he is sick and exhausted, now. He doesn’t want to have to do this; he would rather finally be able to stop and rest.
Honestly, I dig having a hero who’s so troubled. It’s the fact that he has familiarity with cowardice and ultimately chooses otherwise that makes him so great. Give me a flawed protagonist any day.
7) pottedmusic replied to your post “It’s cute how we basically agree re Tarakanov possible attitude…”
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dw repost: pottedmusic replied to your post “It’s cute how we basically agree re Tarakanov possible attitude…”Characters who are cowards and all-around ~problematic~, coming around to do the right thing, a day late and a dollar short, are a narrative kink of mine, which is why I loved Valery’s & Boris’s character arcs. (I love Ulana too, obvs, but a character arc is what she doesn’t actually have.)
pottedmusic replied to your post “It’s cute how we basically agree re Tarakanov possible attitude…”(And what would Ulana’s character arc even be? I guess, if they wanted to change her in any way, they’d have to make her slide towards cowardice, or rather mercy for individuals rather than abstract millions? She wants to protect millions, so she pushes a very real individual under the bus: makes sense mathematically. Valery is the opposite: abstract millions of deaths are a concern, but he doesn’t decide to speak up until he learns that a very real individual is dying.)
@craig you get back here and give us more on Ulana!
gosh yes, I get that he had a specific story to tell and she had a specific role in it, but wow I wish she was given more development than his spokespiece. Like, for a character of convenience, I’m super glad he picked her, but I still feel like
[gif of John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, turning on the spot in confustion as though searching for something]
so where’s the rest of her? what’s her story??a blank, my lord
but dude yes, as Valery’s foil, I really dig the way you frame her ruthlessness. Here I’d been, thinking about her as the deontic angle, but yeah she’s taking the choice away from him for the name of the ends. I guess it doesn’t hit me as cruel because I’m so very sure that, if it would work, she would take his place as the sacrifice at the drop of a hat. It just so happens that he’s the ~important~ one.
Maybe a cool arc would be seeing how she gets there. Assembling the iron we see, rising to the point of her own lab and assistant despite a director who only sees a difficult woman. There’s so much about after the series, but pre-series might have more space to maneuver for an arc where she could develop.
She falls asleep in her office, what’s her life like outside it? Dmitry also comes in on saturday, what’s their work like? What about Brest? Marina instantly knows what Ulana is calling about, has Ulana always been sticking her nose in things, then? And how did she meet Marina? At school? Did either of them once work at the other laboratory? Does she like Simonov or was it just on all night? What if she could have used that as an opening to get Dyatlov talking? Craig you can’t give us a character like this and not expect us to want more!
also, how much longer until the recess conversation stops hurting, asking for a friend, ps the friend is me, why do they have to have such good last words to each other, why are the only things called ‘beautiful’ the dance of radiation and Boris raising his eyes to his homeland, mazin why
dw repost: sup Tarakanon! I’ve just caught up with your first one so maybe I should’ve done these both at once but oops, breaking things up.
But no, I don’t think he doesn’t like Valery! I don’t want to sound like I think he hates him, I don’t get that impression from anything. Yeah, Legasov’s weird, but the world is upside-down and backwards here, one scientist with some tics isn’t untenable. I think he has perfectly solid respect for both Shcherbina and Legasov; they’ve been here since day one and they’re doing their best with the situation. They’re even making progress, they should be lauded!
It’s just.
Nothing at all is how it’s supposed to be. If I thought that Tarakanov sincerely didn’t like Legasov, if Tarakanov thought Legasov was a problem who shouldn’t be there, the conclusion is that absolutely none of them should have been there because it shouldn’t’ve happened. Booting Legasov wouldn’t fix anything; rewind to the 50s and give Anatoly Alexandrov and Yefim Slavsky a stern talking to, if you really want to needle folks. It’s not on Legasov; it’s just that he’s the closest magnet for frustration, unfortunately.
The really important thing for me about the characters we’re talking about is that they emphatically do not come from a place of malice or cruelty. Honestly, I wouldn’t be able to stand that; adding small-minded meanness to something already so miserable would be too much for me and I wouldn’t’ve finished watching. It’s when good people are still pushed to the point of exhaustion that I feel for them. It’s human. It’s awful. Obviously I’ve never been in such a high-stakes environment as that, but everyone has days where your coworkers are just getting on your last nerves and getting nasty at your own friends is just an awful feeling. That’s all I’m seeing. Not evil, just frustration.
And actually re. Legasov’s sense of humor, I’ve got an armchair psych opinion on that, too - c/p and formatting my tags on this gifset of Legasov correcting Gorbachev:
so ofc, I’m looking at this the same way as the bit with the lunar rovers, and my thoughts are:
a) I want to think of it as his sense of humor - like ‘oh no, it’s not 50 million it’s worse than that! it can still get worse would you believe it!’ which isn’t funny but by getting in his superiors faces and correcting them with Even Worse News, there’s a kick in that!
but, b) unfortunately, in the context of unrelenting miserable tension, I’m not sure how much space there is for humor vs precision as a coping tool. guesstimating 50% odds of the meltdown reaching groundwater and condemning 400 miners to 25% early deaths is, perhaps, something of a slightly mildly possibly generally stressful situation! so, when in doubt: be exact. be perfect. be prepared and correct and irreproachable in concrete details whenever possible, bc the rest of his life is slipping apart so damn but he’s going to be certain about something at all. Which, I find very psychologically plausible (eg: akimov’s denial in the control room when he needed to be able to issue reasonable commands and see them followed through; even when it got him and toptunov both killed it was what kept him sane right then)
But I like option A better.
5) Anonymous asked: Space race was the shit yo. These men grew up in the 60's. As in were young men then. I don't think there was a soul left in most desolated reaches of Sybir that wasn't cross-pollinated with space fever. If you do a bit of googling you will find yurts build by remote tribes that still have a little shrines of Yuri Gagarin set up. Not to mention space exploration was really a point of national pride. And there was not much to be proud of in the 70's. 1/2
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dw repost: 2/2 So yeah it is 100% certain Legasov was up to date on the latest space exploration developments. As to moral equivalency between “failure” and “evil”… Um? I do not consider failure to be a moral judgement. But. I remember my own attitude towards Legasov changed considerably in light of the idea coming from him. It’s monstrous. You can’t help seeing a person who is able to go from “under co circumstances can people go there” to “let’s just send people” as a monster. 3/2 )))
3/2 Yeah. I just don’t think Tarakanov did. For soviet Russia this was really normal and show kind of made a point of it. It’s ok when people die for the motherland. It’s Legasov change of heart that is striking here. Or was it even? He was willing to do what had to be done - despite it being stupid and mostly useless - because something had to be done. Military leader would understand that attitude. I just think any issues between them would be personal rather than professional. And that’s ok.
Aight there’s a lot of things happening here but I already said I wasn’t going to be fandom’s ethicist so I’m not gonna lecture the blue void. If you really want to get into that, it’ll only even possibly happen off anon. Also, I’ve got the submit box open for longer ideas.
But. In the realm of character meta.
There’s one aspect here that I do want to contrast with. You’ve got it as that “[a m]ilitary leader would understand that attitude” and that Soviet norms allow for certain procedures. Which, obviously, to be a professional and member of society, you gotta conform. That’s one thing, fine, yeah.
However, to say that someone would disregard what you previously took to be a universal statement (”You can’t help…”) on grounds that they have X job in Y society means that you’re disregarding a certain amount of their potential. Really, just because he’s a Soviet, you don’t think he could feel bad about what was going on? Did he trade his moral compass for a lapel pin? Do you give it back in little chunks with every promotion, or is there a cutoff around starshy praporshchik when you just lose all perspective all at once? I can’t buy that. What about his option to be as horrified as you are?
Being familiarized with something doesn’t mean it’s acceptable. We can interpret the screen however we all want, but in the script, Tarakanov’s having a Certified Bad Time. He’s weary. He’s embarrassed by their lack of resources. He’s concerned for the liquidators. He’s asking his higher-ups for anything and getting nothing. They’ve been coming up with stupid ideas because no one can bear to accept the premise of biorobots.
None of this is the mark of someone who’s ok. If he was so comfortable with death, why not skip straight to it! if he was so comfortable with his people dying, why armor them at all! Who needs a 90 second limit? There is righteousness and honor in martyrdom, but the direction is ‘respect people who have died’, not ‘try to die/kill people because it’s so great’. And certainly don’t try to make that a purely Soviet impulse. but good heavens, insinuating that Tarakanov was “ok” with it just because he was part of it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
So yeah, this is a personal problem he hypothetically has with Legasov. He understands. And he participates, because he’s a professional. But on a personal level, this is reprehensible But I’m harping on calling his lecture a prayer because that’s what Mazin called it, and you don’t pray without a depth of feeling.
And I can’t accept that he doesn’t feel absolutely awful about what they’re up to. There is nothing ok about it.
(nb that I got shirty here and it's not my best showing. I just don't have the extra resources on hand to be an ethics instructor for the internet; I come here to turn my brain down.)
dw repost: 2/2 So yeah it is 100% certain Legasov was up to date on the latest space exploration developments. As to moral equivalency between “failure” and “evil”… Um? I do not consider failure to be a moral judgement. But. I remember my own attitude towards Legasov changed considerably in light of the idea coming from him. It’s monstrous. You can’t help seeing a person who is able to go from “under co circumstances can people go there” to “let’s just send people” as a monster. 3/2 )))
3/2 Yeah. I just don’t think Tarakanov did. For soviet Russia this was really normal and show kind of made a point of it. It’s ok when people die for the motherland. It’s Legasov change of heart that is striking here. Or was it even? He was willing to do what had to be done - despite it being stupid and mostly useless - because something had to be done. Military leader would understand that attitude. I just think any issues between them would be personal rather than professional. And that’s ok.
Aight there’s a lot of things happening here but I already said I wasn’t going to be fandom’s ethicist so I’m not gonna lecture the blue void. If you really want to get into that, it’ll only even possibly happen off anon. Also, I’ve got the submit box open for longer ideas.
But. In the realm of character meta.
There’s one aspect here that I do want to contrast with. You’ve got it as that “[a m]ilitary leader would understand that attitude” and that Soviet norms allow for certain procedures. Which, obviously, to be a professional and member of society, you gotta conform. That’s one thing, fine, yeah.
However, to say that someone would disregard what you previously took to be a universal statement (”You can’t help…”) on grounds that they have X job in Y society means that you’re disregarding a certain amount of their potential. Really, just because he’s a Soviet, you don’t think he could feel bad about what was going on? Did he trade his moral compass for a lapel pin? Do you give it back in little chunks with every promotion, or is there a cutoff around starshy praporshchik when you just lose all perspective all at once? I can’t buy that. What about his option to be as horrified as you are?
Being familiarized with something doesn’t mean it’s acceptable. We can interpret the screen however we all want, but in the script, Tarakanov’s having a Certified Bad Time. He’s weary. He’s embarrassed by their lack of resources. He’s concerned for the liquidators. He’s asking his higher-ups for anything and getting nothing. They’ve been coming up with stupid ideas because no one can bear to accept the premise of biorobots.
None of this is the mark of someone who’s ok. If he was so comfortable with death, why not skip straight to it! if he was so comfortable with his people dying, why armor them at all! Who needs a 90 second limit? There is righteousness and honor in martyrdom, but the direction is ‘respect people who have died’, not ‘try to die/kill people because it’s so great’. And certainly don’t try to make that a purely Soviet impulse. but good heavens, insinuating that Tarakanov was “ok” with it just because he was part of it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
So yeah, this is a personal problem he hypothetically has with Legasov. He understands. And he participates, because he’s a professional. But on a personal level, this is reprehensible But I’m harping on calling his lecture a prayer because that’s what Mazin called it, and you don’t pray without a depth of feeling.
And I can’t accept that he doesn’t feel absolutely awful about what they’re up to. There is nothing ok about it.
(nb that I got shirty here and it's not my best showing. I just don't have the extra resources on hand to be an ethics instructor for the internet; I come here to turn my brain down.)
6) Anonymous asked: It's cute how we basically agree re Tarakanov possible attitude towards Legasov after biorobots but from opposite sides and for different reasons. Re Legasov psychology - as a character I don't know if it makes sense to psychoanalyze him. Personally I completely lost my grasp on him three separate times. First with the biorobots. It was really like thunder. Then when it turned out he knew what was up with the reactor before he even sent Ulana out into the world. And the third time when Ulana 1/2
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dw repost: 2/2 When Ulana had hard time convincing him to speak up. He was all “They’re going to shoot me.” and I was like “So… what? You’d prefer to slowly waste away?” From there I am perfectly aware I do not understand show Legasov at all - tell me more. Re his humor - he is definitely funny but I doubt it’s on purpose. The one instance of him being funny on purpose might have been when he was teasing Boris about the moon rovers not being on the moon. If that was even what he was doing. We can’t tell.
lol that’s the fun of fandom! we can meet in the middle then :D
My Personal Hot Takes, bc yeah those are some weird moments of his -
1) Biorobots
yeah man way to bring the whiplash on a lighter scene!
Legasov removes his glasses. Stares down at the calculations on his notepad. Utterly defeated.
LEGASOV: We use biorobots.
He finally turns to look at them. Grim.
LEGASOV: Men.
And so, the unthinkable has finally been said.
In my head, this one makes sense when held up next to his first big No, in the first committee meeting. Someone’s gotta say the unthinkable, and for all that he doesn’t fit the Hero Mold, that’s so much courage. We already know he doesn’t want to be the one to have to do it, but if not us, who.
I think it’s a role he actually picks up early on, and he might resent it, but his job is to be the bearer of bad news. Four hundred chest x-rays, four million. The meltdown has begun. Sixty million people. Every hour, hour after hour. Five years. This is a problem of science, and as the ranking scientist, he gets to share the joy.
Khomyuk rolled right up with terrible news, but she doesn’t have the same authority and therefore pressure over her. Also, the way I read it, she’s got more spine than he does in the first place. He wilts in the conference room, versus, well -
GORBACHEV: How long before this happens?
LEGASOV: Approximately 48 to 72 hours.
Khomyuk watches their panic rise. Good. Panic is appropriate.
and even more to the point,
LEGASOV: The water in these ducts– the level of radioactive contamination–
KHOMYUK (just say it): They’ll likely be dead in a week.
Legasov can sass Charkov and jab at Gorbachev, but he didn’t want to be here the same way she chose to join in. She’s the one who’s difficult and stubborn, and he’s the one who doesn’t want page three to be real.
But it is real, and he isn’t going out of the way to make trouble for anyone by derailing the meeting or dropping the biorobots bomb. If there was any other way, he wouldn’t’ve said it, and even if he hadn’t been the one to finally spit it out, it would’ve been the same conclusion finally drawn. He just has to be the one with the guts to put it on the table before it gets any worse.
2) the Volkov article
Yeah this was Not a good call on his part, being exogenous about it.
I mean, it’s entirely one thing to not run his mouth when they’re sitting in an actual KGB prison, but really, he had no other time? Didn’t I just say it was his job to bring the bad truths?
I guess we’ve got to take what he says at some face value. The circumstances necessary to turn AZ-5 into a detonator aren’t ordinary working conditions, so why worry about something that won’t happen? I don’t think he thought it would be a problem.
But I think it comes down to fear. Sorry. If he read that article, he would have to convince anyone to do anything about it, and he likes his job. He saw what happened to Volkov, and he’s scared of losing his way of life as well. It’s not particularly noble, but I understand it like that, at least.
I think that’s a great character bit, then. Someone who’s fully formed out of the gate isn’t as interesting, but he’s got an obvious history of cowardice. It’s much more interesting to watch someone develop into a better version of themselves.
3) what on earth constitutes ‘enough’
But again, he’s scared, and it’s entirely within his rights to be scared and assert his end of life preferences. Yes, he would rather waste away on his own! Or if not waste away, still make the choice himself in a year. Then he could do it under his own capacity and he can have the science he loves in the meantime! What’s so bad about a long illness when you get to keep your autonomy and your passions? Who wants to get shot? (not yelling at you, just getting in his head lol)
(just for one second I’ll recommend Bognar on QYALYs and DALYs in like 2015 or something and Molewijk et al on emotions in case deliberation in like 2011 and also iirc Schuchter on EoC in like 2017, I don’t have the abstracts in front of me but further reading is always fun)
But here’s the thing. When you say Legasov makes less sense in episode 5, I agree so much, because the only way I understand the finale is to get Doyalist (I’m actually summarising thoughts from a previous meta I left on dreamwidth, which has the quotes from the script and podcast as supporting evidence and all):
Unfortunately, I think episode 5 has the weakest writing altogether. 1-4 are characters grounded in history, and 5 has characters grounded in Mazin himself. I’m not sure that’s a bad thing, because in the name of the story, everything needed to wrap up in a timely manner, and inventing the trial proceedings was very compelling. Paraphrasing the last podcast, ‘from the first episode, we’ve been asking just how on earth an RBMK reactor explodes, and we’ve been a bit sidetracked by the drama of cleanup’, so we need to reorient ourselves for the showdown. Mazin’s got a lot of irons in the fire, and he juggles them well, but by grounding the episode in the story rather than a more direct historical drama, everything feels different. Suddenly, his agenda isn’t recounting events, it’s his own synthesis of an issue.
In my mind, he picked an excellent problem to tackle through the lens of this story. But, suddenly, we’re not telling a story, he’s giving a position on the matters of epistemic injustice (in which case you want Miranda Fricker’s oeuvre and Ishani’s 2010 response, to start with) and virtue epistemology (look for Zagzebski and Fairweather in like 2001; I can’t teach them, but I can rec them)
So yeah, I totally agree, it’s harder to understand the characters in episode 5 because in a sense they are not the same characters we’ve been following. Mazin picked a great soapbox, but to hear his words come out of the characters is jarring.
So. I think. That the reason we were given that scene as it was, with Legasov so reticent to speak up and Khomyuk so pushy, was as much Watsonian - his fear - as Doyalist - Mazin’s need utilize his oc Khomyuk as a voice of virtue. Exogenously, we can see that she’s citing the righteous position, because, as the last monologue says, the truth doesn’t care about us. It’s vast and external and to hide it or hide ourselves from it is an exercise in futility.
Further hot take: As much as it sets up Legasov’s actions later in the episode, this scene turns on Khomyuk, instead. As Mazin’s primary oc, everything about her has a specific purpose. She’s braver than him, she’s smarter than him, and now, she’s the voice of justice. It would be unconscionable to falter at the 11th hour, and she has the dead at her back to motivate him ( @pottedmusic has another script vs screen, for more on her). And now, she’s here to push him into action.
But Mazin also wrote a hero who is scared. Our hero faces real consequences if he acts in a certain way, and because he is a very reasonable fellow, he is terrified. Legasov has been weak, before. He has taken easy routes previously, and he is sick and exhausted, now. He doesn’t want to have to do this; he would rather finally be able to stop and rest.
Honestly, I dig having a hero who’s so troubled. It’s the fact that he has familiarity with cowardice and ultimately chooses otherwise that makes him so great. Give me a flawed protagonist any day.
7) pottedmusic replied to your post “It’s cute how we basically agree re Tarakanov possible attitude…”
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dw repost: pottedmusic replied to your post “It’s cute how we basically agree re Tarakanov possible attitude…”Characters who are cowards and all-around ~problematic~, coming around to do the right thing, a day late and a dollar short, are a narrative kink of mine, which is why I loved Valery’s & Boris’s character arcs. (I love Ulana too, obvs, but a character arc is what she doesn’t actually have.)
pottedmusic replied to your post “It’s cute how we basically agree re Tarakanov possible attitude…”(And what would Ulana’s character arc even be? I guess, if they wanted to change her in any way, they’d have to make her slide towards cowardice, or rather mercy for individuals rather than abstract millions? She wants to protect millions, so she pushes a very real individual under the bus: makes sense mathematically. Valery is the opposite: abstract millions of deaths are a concern, but he doesn’t decide to speak up until he learns that a very real individual is dying.)
@craig you get back here and give us more on Ulana!
gosh yes, I get that he had a specific story to tell and she had a specific role in it, but wow I wish she was given more development than his spokespiece. Like, for a character of convenience, I’m super glad he picked her, but I still feel like
[gif of John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, turning on the spot in confustion as though searching for something]
so where’s the rest of her? what’s her story??
but dude yes, as Valery’s foil, I really dig the way you frame her ruthlessness. Here I’d been, thinking about her as the deontic angle, but yeah she’s taking the choice away from him for the name of the ends. I guess it doesn’t hit me as cruel because I’m so very sure that, if it would work, she would take his place as the sacrifice at the drop of a hat. It just so happens that he’s the ~important~ one.
Maybe a cool arc would be seeing how she gets there. Assembling the iron we see, rising to the point of her own lab and assistant despite a director who only sees a difficult woman. There’s so much about after the series, but pre-series might have more space to maneuver for an arc where she could develop.
She falls asleep in her office, what’s her life like outside it? Dmitry also comes in on saturday, what’s their work like? What about Brest? Marina instantly knows what Ulana is calling about, has Ulana always been sticking her nose in things, then? And how did she meet Marina? At school? Did either of them once work at the other laboratory? Does she like Simonov or was it just on all night? What if she could have used that as an opening to get Dyatlov talking? Craig you can’t give us a character like this and not expect us to want more!
