#extraordinary lougferd

[mossy-crow0]

this is how that scene went right

[razberrypuck]

the sudden horrifying realization that it took your youngest son almost dying in your arms for you to be there for him. or something

[fizzfangzz]

Got past Wonderlust e24 (halfway through e25 now but that's irrelevant) and Extraordinary Lougferd I have so many complicated emotions about you. It's just. God. He couldn't have been any other way, could he? From the bits of fandom content I saw from before this episode had been released, I'd been thinking he'd be cold. Dismissive. Like I'm sure pretty much everyone else in this fandom did. But he's not, and it makes so much sense — you meet him and of course, of course there was no other way for him to be; a cruel and neglectful father may have the capability to create such a "wonderous", "whimsical" estate, certainly, but there's just...something about the fact that, no, he's not like that. If he was — well, it'd seem almost overplayed by now, I'm sure. It's about the fact that he is exactly what you'd expect the creator of all these things to be: Adoring, kind. Full of love. Spacey. Not fully there. Almost childlike. Head always up in the clouds, thinking about other things. He really, truly loves Troy and Randy. He would give the world for his children — but he doesn't know what they really want, much less what they need, always assuming and talking over. He is the "Type C" of the rich parent you picture in your head, I guess is a good way to put it.

And, what's more, I think Troy's behavior makes so much more sense with his father being the way he is than if his father was the way we assumed he was. I think if Extraordinary Lougferd was the way we assumed he was, Troy would not be a college freshman at the age of twenty-five. He would not be losing any steam-sledding races. He might not even be steam-sledding at all...and he most definitely would not be where he is right now, with Blink and Runt and WD. This is not the behavior of the child of a hateful father. This is the behavior of the child of an absent father, an adoring father. Perhaps a bit too adoring, too lenient, at least regarding how he was early-campaign.

I dunno. Just. Shout-out to JRWI for consistently, in every campaign I've watched, having families that are strained, and having them not be flat and one-dimensional. Troy and his father and brother. Jay and her parents. William and his brother. Dakota and his aunt. Hell, even Shilo and Emizel, whose parental relations aren't gone into too much, have some layers to them! I've found that in a lot of media I consume, especially popular media, family members — especially parents — who characters don't get along with tend to be...terrible for the sake of it. We only see one perspective, and that perspective makes those relatives the bad guy, the plot device for your characters to move on from and get over. Overcome. Denounce. Unlearn the teachings of. Just Roll With It doesn't do that. These parents and siblings are complicated. Sure, they might be a bad guy, but there's a reason they ended up that way. And maybe they're not a bad guy! Maybe they're an aunt struggling with grief and addiction, trying and failing to raise her nephew. Maybe they're a mother who never sees her husband and daughter, who is trying to balance so many different worlds and points of view in her hands, all while slowly dying.

Maybe they're a father who can't get a grasp on reality, who is always looking to the future without considering what's right in front of him.

[poisonheartfrog]

I think it's so interesting that instead of being a cold and distant Jayson Ferin type father, Extraordinary is warm and physically affectionate with Troy and still doesn't listen to him, doesn't respect his chosen name, and didn't provide the emotional support that Troy needed when his mom died.

[sagesparrow394]

Still thinking about the Lougferds, how we were all set up to think ‘oh Troy’s family are going to be evil people’ given how Troy talked about them (or more accurately how he didn’t want to talk about them)

But (aside from the colonisation) no not really, they’re just all struggling with grief and coping in unhealthy ways. Extraordinary throwing himself into dreaming and fantasy so he doesn’t actually have to confront the pain. Randy forced to pick up the slack of the actual work Extraordinary left behind, leaving him bitter and exhausted and taking his frustrations out on his little brother because who else is around? Not his dad.

And that leaves Troy, abandoned by his dad, unable to connect with his overworked brother, having to process the death of his mother all alone. No wonder he became so desperate for validation

[masonhasbean]

SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 22 OF WONDERLUST

You have been WARNED. OKAY.

soooooo... That clockwork soldier Troy theory that's been circulating since the START of the campaign. Huh? (This will be a very incoherent ramble lmao strap in)

Think we've just gotten the most Troy Lougferd 'lore' out of an episode yet. Mainly to me:

Troy HAS A BROTHER? HE'S NEVER MENTIONED EVER HAVING A SIBLING?

His father is NOT happy about their name being slandered rn.

But what REALLY GOT ME. What was most NOTABLE to me was Bizly recounting a memory Troy has of being in the government building as a young child and his father explaining the invention of the clockwork soldiers to the board or whatever.

WHY. IN THE FUCK. WOULD YOU TAKE. YOUR YOUNG CHILD THERE. IF HE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE INVENTION YOU WERE PRESENTING.

Bizly says it's hard to remember because Troy was SO YOUNG. But the moment felt grand enough he still does! Why would Extraordinary Lougferd, member of the Council, bring his kid to a meeting like that if Troy was too young to even consciously remember it.

To me it doesn't read as a "I brought my boy so he could see me present this new Chapter in technology for our world" it reads as a "I brought my boy because he IS the invention I'm presenting."

(it's either Troy or his apperent brother. That's all I can think about rn)

ANYWAY-

[atlassparrowishere]

Hello, welcome to i have thoughts about Troy

brought to you by episode 24 of wonderlust (spoilers below the cut)

Losing a parent is one of the hardest things to go through, child or adult. I lost my own father at 14 quite suddenly and from context clues it’s likely Troy lost his mother pretty young and suddenly though we don’t know for sure. Let’s proceed with that assumption though, just for brevity’s sake and all that. Losing a parent genuinely turns your world on its head and fucks you up. You have to learn to rely on the other parent for everything and that’s hard to do sometimes. What’s worse is when the other parent shuts down. When they, subconsciously and in their grief, choose to not parent anymore and throw themself into whatever distracts them. That hurts worse than the death in my experience, because that’s a betrayal. You watch your home just become some house. A house that’s haunted by the living as a distance grows and ruins you. Thats what tends to drive a wedge in a family after a death, especially parental, when the others are neglected. There’s nothing that hurts worse than grieving the loss of someone just down the hall from you, from grieving the living instead of the dead.

I distinctly remember as a teenager finding any excuse to not be at home because being in that house hurt more than the burnout and exhaustion. If I was home, I was barely present and only pulled it together for my siblings. Because I wasn’t the only one who lost two parents at the price of one and they needed somebody. I know in my heart that I’ll hold that against my mother forever, no matter how much time has passed and how many apologies I may get Especially because most of the time she acts like nothing happened.

To watch your parent throw themself into work and ignore and neglect you then act like none of it fucking happened is salt in a gaping and festering wound. The worst ghosts are those of the living and the worst death is that of one who’s just a closed door away.

Hearing Troy in those few short lines confront his father about losing him with his mom made me cry harder than any other piece of media because those hit home, they are aimed with accuracy and anger of loss and grief. I think their relationship will forever ruin me as it’s like holding a mirror to me and my relationship with my mother after she died with my father.

I believe they had a good and loving relationship before that happened and the tenseness of being forced to realize you still love someone after they broke you and your relationship like that is palpable in the scene.

thanks for enjoying the ramblings of a person with too much experience with grief who understands Troy in a way that most others probably won’t and god i pray they never have to

[wispywilliam]

Friendly reminder Trameighlton (Troy) Lougfred met his father and his brother with frosted tips.