Bio art for my best girl on FR. She has a long way to go before becoming the beautiful circus ringmaster I want her to be (I still need to give her Trail and buy the stuff for her definitive outfit), but boy am I in love.
Her design is partly based on the bearded vulture, my second favourite scavenging bird. The "mustache" is actually long feathers growing down the sides of her snout.
Someone asks Martin if he actually cares about his daughters. He laughs at the joke he thinks they made.
Alternative version and thoughts under the Read More (please read the content warnings in the tags before clicking through!)
Epithet: ☆Dumb☆
Martin Blyndeff is a carefree man.
Despite his uncomplicated character, I have plenty of thoughts on Worst Dad and his impact on his daughters -- particularly Lorelai, but she isn't the focus on this piece and I'll talk about her another day.
I think what gets me about Martin and Molly is how efficient he is at shutting her down. Whether or not he's aware of what he's doing (it doesn't matter), it's really telling how smoothly he's able to do it. In the Museum Arc, he unloads another night shift onto her, rapid-fires excuses for why she has to take the night shift, takes credit for the school worksheet which she filled out, then changes subjects so she'll drop it. And he does it often enough that Lorelai has caught on to it, to the point that the first thing she does in the book is use his name to shut Molly down too. No matter what, if it's up to Martin, then Molly will have to shut up and deal.
I wonder how much of this DARVO-adjacent behaviour is a result of losing Calliope, if at all. I mean, I really, REALLY can't see how someone like Calliope would've fallen for Martin as he is today; we know he's always been the personification of the word "carefree" and Callie was an anxious workaholic mess, but honestly the Martin we see would probably just constantly stress her out even more (which he did sometimes). He was already rather senseless back then, but I can't help but think having Calliope to take on every burden for him for over 15 years and then losing her so suddenly must have exarcebated the learned helplessness. And since Molly was the one who took over, he just went "well I guess it's her job now", dusted off and went right back to his little world of toys and blissful obliviousness.
And speaking of Molly. She was suffering so much in that house, and yes, there have been plenty of walls of text about the verbal and emotional abuse she suffered from Lorelai, but I feel like we don't talk enough about Martin's complete dismissal of her feelings, thoughts and protests, and how deeply that affected her. He was the one who taught her no one would listen to her. He was he reference point Lorelai used to take advantage of her. He parentified Molly and made her bear the brunt of their financial troubles. And he did it all with a genuine smile across his face.
Martin Blyndeff sucks and I think we should talk about him more.
I talk to absolutely no one; couldn't keep to myself enough / And the things bottled inside have finally begun to create so much pressure that I'll soon blow up
