Troubled Blood - *Spoiler-laden discussion*

[EllacottObsessive]

Setting this up for Strike and Ellacott fans to talk about spoilery things.

Ooh I was just coming on here to ask for some fanfic recommendations please! I haven't had chance to listen to the podcast yet but am v much looking forward to it

Oh I have found my people. I love these books and can’t seem to settle with any other books since finishing TB. I’m going to have to reread it.
EO, thank you for the podcast which is pitched at just the right level. It’s just fantastic and your voice is perfect (has a hint of JKR herself about it).

I read somewhere that Tom described Strike as being a big bear of a man with a soft middle & I think that’s a pretty good description along with JKR comments on strike not doing self pity. If he’s in pain literally or figuratively he either swears or drinks. Though thinking about it, drinking isn’t really dealing with pain just numbing it....

Shipping I think TV strike is less intense than book strike, mostly because so much of the books get cut in the adaptation. Tom gives good ‘intensity’ but I don’t think the directors wanted it for the tv adaptation, I think they were after more ‘very masculine with tragic back story allowing fir moments of broody vulnerability’ 😆

Going back to self-care for Strike. He drinks to numb physical and emotional pain, smokes too much, eats unhealthily, ignores pain to the point where it causes more damage.

I'm imagining Leda, as much as she loved him, would have been somewhat neglectful about routines, hygiene and cleanliness. Or at least not consistent with it. That would have been in sharp contrast to Joan. She would have made sure he was clean and had routines etc.

Of course, the army would have instilled discipline in him. Most of that seems to around creating order in his environment though and not necessarily about himself.

I think he has a tendency to revert back to his chaotic childhood self in not really looking after himself.

Hi!
I've just found this thread, just what I need right now!
First of all I listened to the book in Audible instead of reading as a kind of trick to make myself exercise.. I walked for 4 days just to listen to it! I wouldn't recommend the Audible version though, there were too many truly stupid accent attempts.
The second thing I want to mention and the only thing that I couldn't get on with is all of the angst and entitlement surrounding gift giving. I know that it came together as a plot point by the end of the book but all of the prancing around getting pissed off with flowers and chocolates from what are essentially colleagues for a birthday, I just couldn't get on with. Those parts actually made me dislike Robin a bit. I had to distance all of the ungrateful nonsense as it didn't really sit with the rest of Robin's character. I just found it to be a bit of a lazy way of writing about women and in total opposition to everything else about Robin and the writing of female characters in the book.
I loved it though.. great book and I'll be giving the podcast a go

Yes, they are colleagues but also more than that. Robin thinks of Strike as her best friend and as a business partner, so she has higher expectations from Strike. She puts thought into her gifts because it shows Strike that she cares about him. He doesn't realise the significance until she points it out to him. I did laugh when he bought salted caramel chocolates because he has a vague recollection that there was some chat about it.

It's like my brother and me. I put a lot of thought into what he would like because I care about birthdays, but he couldn't care less about his birthday or anyone else's as it's just not important to him. It could be quite hurtful but I don't mind.

The salted caramels was such a facepalm moment, because the reason he remembered was because Morris had done it first, iirc. Like, dude. Do not be putting her in mind of that twat!

I think it's a way of showing up the contrast between Robin and Charlotte. Charlotte thought nothing of sabotaging Strike's birthdays and throwing his presents out the window if he had displeased her in anyway; Robin is able to exercise self-control and think of other people's pleasure, even if she is unhappy herself. She works hard at working out what people like - she's generous and thoughtful, unlike Charlotte who was demanding and selfish, and showed her generous side only when it suited her own goals.

Also Robin comes from the sort of family where they care about these things, and Strike didn't really have the sort of stability where family members make an effort to show your importance to them. He can make green dress sort of big gestures, but that routine relationship maintenance has never been modelled to him.

Birthdays and celebrations and gifts (and funerals and flowers) are really important in Troubled Blood because they mark where the characters stand in relationship to each other. When Strike sees a family celebrating an 80th birthday at a pub, just for a second he thought Robin had organised a surprise party, which he would have hated, but also it would have been a mark of her affection for him, and he wonders if anyone will be with him on his 80th - it's the very beginning of him thinking whether he does really want to be alone for the rest of his life. When Robin sends flowers to Joan's funeral, it's a reminder that he does have a family of sorts back in London. Morris' gifts of chocolates (and Strike's of flowers) don't take into account what the person would really like to receive and so they are not relationship building gifts, just gifts of convenience.

When Strike takes Robin to choose perfume, he's getting her something she really wants - and also I think facilitating her evolving into her own person. She's rejected the perfume Matthew likes, and won't choose the perfumes Sarah and Charlotte wear. She chooses a couple of perfumes in Liberty that she likes - so she's in control of who she is becoming - but then seeks Strike's opinion - he is involved in and approves her transformation, and that's important to her.

Four paragraphs on presents. I really need to get a life.

I've just finished Troubled Blood... I LOVED it and gasped at the last page 😁😁😁

mcgonagalscat It was a wonderful ending I gasped too, thought 'where did I see those names in this book', and then puzzled it through with a big grin on my face at the end.

parental you explained it much more eloquently and thoroughly than me.

Did Robin's brother ever apologise to her about the dinner party and for telling his girl friend about her sexual assault. I know she avoided them but still...

@EllacottObsessive

The salted caramels was such a facepalm moment, because the reason he remembered was because Morris had done it first, iirc. Like, dude. Do not be putting her in mind of that twat!

I think he didn't do it cos of Morris but because of the conversation where Morris got the same idea from, IIRC.

Shipping see my forthcoming monograph, "Shaggable You": Perfume as a Signifier of Identity and Transformation in JK Rowling's Troubled Blood'.

😂😂😂

I think he didn't do it cos of Morris but because of the conversation where Morris got the same idea from, IIRC.

Yes, that's kind of what I meant- he had a vague recollection about Robin and salted caramel, and leapt to a conclusion, but as a reader, you already know that Morris has played that weak arse crap, so it's going to be really badly received.

He'd have been so much better off with Shaggable You. Although, while we're at it, can we appreciate the chutzpah involved in even making that joke? It's obviously a joke, and it gets a wonderful laugh from Robin, and it's clever enough to, if necessary, act as an opportunity for her to gently demur without embarrassment for them both, while also obliquely referencing shenanigans.

It's like he's saying "I didn't do this before because all the names were overtly sexual, and I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but I know we're best mates and you're happy with that, so I feel happy enough to make a saucy joke to see how you respond"

Only, obviously funnier.

Like he did with the Ilsa matchmaking comment, he's naming the elephant in the room with the Shaggable You joke, and releasing the tension.

And the thing is, if he had gone for Shaggable You, he would have been making a decision about who she wanted to be by choosing a perfume for her that basically identifies her in relation to him, as a shag, and forcing an identity on her. The whole idea of choosing a perfume for someone is weird, anyway - it's such an individual decision. This way, she chooses who she wants to be - warm, bruised - and checks to see if he likes this more complex version of her than mere vanilla.

This monograph is writing itself...

I think you should guest on EO’s podcast.

Yassssss!

@EmpressWitchDoesntBurn

I think you should guest on EO’s podcast.

We need to make her podcast so popular that she gets to invite JKR and Tom Burke to be interviewed as special guests, and we can all go to hold the mic and make the tea.

And Holliday Granger!

All three of them in EO's sitting room while we skulk around pretending to be sound engineers.

And all that adorable self deprecation about him possibly preferring the vanilla fragrance because it smells like food. He's definitely telling her his interest in her is more grown up than biscuits.

Writing episode 2 now. You all know the topic, if you've listened to the first one...

@EllacottObsessive

And all that adorable self deprecation about him possibly preferring the vanilla fragrance because it smells like food. He's definitely telling her his interest in her is more grown up than biscuits.

Yes! (It's a wonder they don't snog there and then, really.)