You be frank, I'll be earnest.

former asouerp blog for Ernest Denouement, now just my ASOUE and hotel related side blog. // dm me if you’d like to rp on discord or something tho I love rp lol // main @halliepenopop, hi I’m Hallie and I like hotels

[beccagelb]

look if we rp, you are more than welcome to send me headcanons at ungodly hours, TALK IN ALL CAPS ABOUT OUR BABIES, and send me like ten memes a day. I honestly won’t be annoyed and I won’t mind. In fact, I want you to.

[sincerely-ernest]

no hail hydra jokes. organization is literally supposed to be nazis. I’m Jewish. This blog is Jewish. Asoue is Jewish. Quit it.

[sincerely-ernest]

its horrible but also I love it

[sincerely-ernest]

secret vfd maps revealed!!!!omg imagine all the secrets this holds :0c :3 :3

[sincerely-ernest]

ok so you know how there’s like parallels between the adult generation and the child generation, and the idea is like the whole story could happen again unless the children decide to take things in a new direction? 

I think they reason why they included the whole duncan moment is they might be trying to make duncan/quigely/violet a parallel to lemony/bertrand/beatrice. You see another relationship parallel with kit/olaf and klaus/fiona (tho idk what they’ll do if kassius is fiona i love her but that age difference….), so I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what they’re doing here too

tho tbh it’s always made most sense to me that the parallel for the quagmires would be to the denouement triplets, but idk guess that might not be what they’re doin here

[sincerely-ernest]

I mean literally the genius of the Penultimate Peril is how David Handler takes all those ideas you had about who noble people are and how involved you have to be and established relationships and turns them on their head.

I mean I clearly love the Denouement brothers, but I love them because of the way they are portrayed. Like if you just read the book you’d think “oh Ernest is the mean one because evil tm” bc that’s the context you have throughout the series but like. If you take the context clues that no firestarter uses the sebald code, then the code speaking concierge who doesn’t know who the baudelaires are (and is super rude) must be frank. And the baudelaires figure out the concierge who helps klaus (while also secretly knowing who klaus is) must be aiding Olaf in his plan, so Ernest.

And that’s just bonkers! Suddenly the Noble Man is a huge jerk who doesn’t have time to teach people and is super rude, and the wicked one is supportive, complimentary, and down right charming. That’s not what you think of a firestarter at all. Up until now firestarters are slimeballs, and firefighters are kind and good. But like not here! Not now!! Not really!!!

The part that puts Ernest above the rest for me is how he’s loyal to his family and his hotel first and the fire starters second. he shows this ambiguity that makes you wonder how evil he really is. If Ernest was loyal, Olaf should’ve known about Dewey, and the library, and the clocks, and the rooms in the dewey decimal system, and the baudelaires, and all this important stuff Ernest totally knew and just never told him. Hell, if Ernest was really loyal, he would have helped Olaf escape. Ernest helps to demonstrate how Kit’s moral compass may be biased, and how someone who may be neutral can be judged to be “evil” by his associates, not his own actions. And who knows, maybe Ernest was evil at one point, but he’s not now. If he was, he would have helped his “boss” more

I just think the denouements are pretty neat

[sincerely-ernest]

I do see what you guys meant when you said the quagmires are super fucking bland in the new series. Where are their redeemable quirks? Why is Duncan’s thing crying? The romance between klaus and Isadora feels like it came out of nowhere but I also understand it might be used to replace the Fiona plot line bc it sounds like they’re casting Fiona older but nonetheless it’s bonkers. I have no poems. I have nothing. Wtf

[sincerely-ernest]

I wanna know what Fiona’s dress is

I know it will probably be very practical bc that’s who she is but I’ve always imagined she’s valued fashion as a way to connect with her late mother. And she follows all of these old old fashion magazines her mother kept around, and follows those trends bc those are the only ones she knows.

bc of the shape of her glasses and her hairstyle and idk just the whole ambiance of the book it felt like Fiona was really into mod fashion as compared to everyone else. I’m sure wel only see her in scuba wear but that’s what I’ve always felt

let Fiona be cute dammit

[sincerely-ernest]

sometimes a family is two widdershins, twenty snow scouts, and phil

[sincerely-ernest]

we did not need a scene clarifying what cakesniffing meant. we needed more quagmire time. the quagmires are so just pathetically downtrodden and beaten by life it would have been nice to have the foil between kids who have given up and accepted their fate and the Baudelaires who kind of help drag them out of their misery. I really didn’t like how sparkly clean they were. at no point did it feel like those are some kids being abused in a corrupt school system who lost their triplet brother and one of their best friends.

the quagmires have an intense sadness to their story and personality, almost more so than the baudelaires. but uh sure didn’t see that. they were just so normal.

don’t get me wrong I’m not saying “give me kids with depression I prefer that.” but they are depressed. they’re in so much immense pain and you don’t see that. you see hi we’re wonderbread and oh you ask us about our brother or parents? let’s look down sadly. and now we’re back! I think by showing kids in grief and then show them make friends and slowly heal through their new support system would have been so much more effective than pink girl roasts you, sings song.

[sincerely-ernest]

I’m so happy they decided to make Orlando just. actually a personality. I know the original book uses a lot of freak show imagery, and it’s common in freak shows of an unspecified era to have people who you cannot tell their gender (bearded ladies, effeminate men, etc etc gross) but the original version of Orlando was just gross. it was a gross fetishization of a character who’s lack of gender identity was considered horrid and evil and they are deemed probably the most crazed of the troupe. that’s so nasty.

When Daniel handler said he wanted to rework characters, I think the best example is Orlando. I wonder how much pressure was placed on him by publishing houses and editors to make Orlando the way he was, and how much was handler, and how much was the time period, but what really matters is they took this otherwise stereotype of crazy nonbinary person who likes to be a gender they are not which is so gross and made them into a smart, intelligent and incredibly well spoken character who can eloquently show their beliefs and personality, while still remaining villainous in the process. however their villainy is not defined by their gender (or lack thereof). what amazing growth, I would die for Orlando

[sincerely-ernest]

Ernest and Frank when they’re like the only people to survive the sugar bowl gen besides Lemony

If we were in your position we’d just not die. I mean rip to the rest of you but we’re different.

[sincerely-ernest]

I know a big part of the appeal of asoue is because it’s set outside any one time period but tbh ever since when I first read the books when I was little, I was always convinced the series was set in the 60s.

The 60s were a time period set in between old technology and Cold War, the time between major censorship and the movie renaissance, the age of the sexual revolution, the age of progress. And I think the 60s has pretty much all of the necessary technology ever mentioned so you never need to go further modern, and it has that very good mix between the fashion of the 40s and 50s and the mod fashion popular in the day. It was probably the most clear visual divide between generations like. ever. And I love the idea of violet wearing an aline dress with a Peter Pan shirt with big puffy sleeves and Klaus just out here in his black turtle neck with a bunch of adults stuck wearing the clothes of the 50s. It’s a literal juxtaposition between old and new, a generation who did not want progress and is stuck fighting old fights with old morals and a new generation who is ready to move away from that towards actual social change.

Plus you can keep the volunteers fighting disease

[sincerely-ernest]

why do people ignore the denouements? are they not friends

au where both sides of the sugar bowl gen bullies the shit out of the denouements. frank cries.

[sincerely-ernest]

You know. The fire starters don’t want kids. Olaf wants the Baudelaire children for their fortune, but overall, no fire starter is recruiting in kids. It’s mostly to steal their wealth and fortune and send them to boarding school, but it’s not to brainwash them into their side or organization. The only kid we know of who’s a fire starter is Carmelita and she joined very willingly.

I like to think Ernest is the nicer of the brothers, but I also like to think he was being particularly kind because he sees himself in the Baudelaires. Someone lost and betrayed. And all of his advice and messages are cryptic enough that they could be considered advice to the kids (especially Klaus). He’s not aiding in whatever firefighter plan there is but he’s also not telling Olaf the scheme. If anything, he’s stalling with the whole crow plan and giving the kids time to escape.

Everyone leaves the firefighters for their own reasons. Fernald left because he’s making bioweapons. It’s heavily implied Dashiell was no longer part of VFD as a neutral entity who disappeared. Esme left because she felt betrayed. Olaf left for obvious reasons. We don’t know where Sir stands, but he probably left for the firefighters jerking him over in business. And I think Ernest left because he realized how they hurt him and his family.

I’m convinced that my theory where you leave the firefighters and you’re immediately socially ostracized and vilified has to be real. Because no one has the same end goal but everyone has been betrayed by the firefighters. How far you go to embrace your new title depends

[sincerely-ernest]

each denouement has specific jobs assigned to them by the brothers. one of the easiest ways to figure out who is who is by seeing who does what.

Ernest lights every single candle in the dining room, as well as the fireplaces during the winter and any fireworks/menorahs for holidays. he’s the only one with a lighter and is not afraid of fire. Ernest also spends the most time interacting with the employees with payment/time off/HR/etc. he’s the most personable of the three.

In addition to his job at the library, Dewey spends tike researching each guest and assigning them to the most appropriate room. If he’s not in the library he’s probably at the front desk with bookings. He also likes to fold towels or help with menial repetitive tasks if anyone needs an extra hand.

Frank spends most of his time overseeing others and rarely does activities himself unless absolutely necessary. He prefers to delegate his tasks. Spends the most time outside the hotel with dry cleaning/newspaper delivery/caterers/mail/etc

[sincerely-ernest]

one day sunny will forget. she will still have a fear of heights, a certain distaste for mushrooms, and maybe she’ll never like to look people in the eye, but she’ll forget. she’s far too young to remember. not just her parents, but the year from hell under Olaf’s terror. she’s practically just bea 2’s older sister. and violet and klaus still love her, but resent sunny a little for her privilege to forget. there will always be distance between the Baudelaire children.

And of the Baudelaire children the one most likely to defect to the firestarters, it will be sunny. She is volatile and she will forget. The other two shove their emotions down and play by the rules, but not sunny. or maybe she’ll be the one to be radicalized into VFD because she will forget the lessons learned about how the noble side lacks nobility. Maybe her siblings will be impassioned and sunny will be neutral, building her life away from everything else. whatever path she takes, she’ll still be separate.

I wonder if sunny relationship with her siblings is much like Lemony’s. There’s love between him and his siblings, but distance. even if kit visits him in stained-by-the-sea, there’s still distance. there’s things he can’t remember and things he disagrees with. there are questions left unanswered that he will never find out because the ones who could help him are gone. I feel like lemony takes special care to describe poor sunny Baudelaire. maybe not because she’s the baby, but because (like him) she is the youngest.