#michael tate

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

Round I

Michael Tate (Greater Boston podcast)

Michi (Avatar: the last Airbender)

I know Both/Neither

Voting ended onOct 9, 2024

[do-you-know-this-adhd-character]

Do you know this (canon) ADHD character?

Michael Tate, from Greater Boston

Yes, I know him and knew he is ADHD

Yes, I know him, but didn't know he is ADHD

No, I don't know him

Voting ended onMay 9, 2024

Proof: Confirmed in the mini-episode Farewell Dmitri.

[hephaestuscrew]

Michael Tate was introduced in Greater Boston as someone mourning his best friend; his grief after Leon's death is a key part of his character arc. Four seasons later, in his farewell letter to Louisa, we hear him thinking of himself as a best friend who someone else would mourn - a kind of tragic role reversal. In that letter, Michael refers to both Leon and Louisa as his "best friend". As he faced the prospect of death, he thought about how it felt for him to lose Leon and he used that experience to empathise with the grief and anger and regret that Louisa would feel at losing him. He tried to ease the pain that Louisa would feel at his death while knowing that he couldn't. There's something so powerful to me about that potential cycle of loss. Michael, whose narrative has been so shaped by grief, had to confront the idea of someone grieving for him with a similar intensity…

[captainsalmonid]

might as well post blasphemous michael/leon fanart trilogy here

[writingpun-art]

forgot to put these here lol. Greater Boston Sbux

[applebunch]

wait hey i just realized that greater boston has 5 seasons like the 5 stages of grief. hm. oh no. i kinda wanna see if there’s actually anything there, so im just gonna speculate...

season 1: denial. leon’s ghost isn’t yet confirmed to truly exist, so his haunting is much more... metaphorical in tone. there’s a seance made in an attempt to speak to him and a persistent theme of michael claiming/believing himself to be haunted by leon’s ghost, saying he’s still there, helping him, which sounds pretty denial-y to me. (yes, even though he was right. he was both right and also in denial. you understand.) (chelmsworth tries/succeeds at starting red line, and leaves before he can become mayor. michael tells him that there will be consequences, and chelmsworth ignores him.)

season 2: anger. red line is officially a thing, and so is leon’s ghost. i don’t remember a lot about what specific events occurred in season 2, actually, other than that there definitely was anger, i think? the anger isn’t exactly unique to this season, tho, there’s a lot of anger in season 1. emily feeling angry about her marriage, isabelle, angry about injustices, nica, angry about being abandoned, lashing out at complete strangers all of the time.  i guess anger might be the driving point of season 2? it’s why emily is even a problem, and why nica stoops so low. (one thing that IS unique to season 2 is that this is where EVERYONE starts being angry at CHELMSWORTH for leaving them behind,)

season 3: bargaining. (chelmsworth comes back, with the intentions to make amends!! he even offers gifts!! he is turned down. hard.) michael gets to talk to leon again and michael pleads with leon to play chess with him, forgoing sleep and food. one game? it’s just good to hear your voice again... and leon, at first, relents, but once the game is done, leon tells michael that he needs to let him go, once it’s obvious that this isn’t good for him. again, michael’s pleading- no, he’s bargaining, that there’s so much value in the way that michael’s person-hood is being overwritten with leon’s own, in the way he’s losing himself in leon’s thoughts, his feelings, his memories. leon’s a CHARACTER again, and his friends are looking for him. sure, leon’s a ghost, but he’s right there! within arms reach and not behind the inconceivable barrier between life and death! it’s almost like he never died! ...but.

speculation:

season 4: depression. it’s not safe to hold on to leon that way. as evidenced by michael and poletti, talking to leon is too dangerous for most people. it hurts them. badly. deeply. leon is dead. he killed himself, and his return as a ghost doesn’t change that. everyone has to move on, for their own sake and his. leon hasn’t exactly “come back to them.” not by choice, anyway, and he’s leaving once he gets the opportunity to do so. that’ll probably be pretty disappointing, and, y’know, really depressing.

season 5: acceptance, leon doesn’t want to roam this world as a ghost anymore, and wishes to return to his rest. he needs help to do so, and he’ll most likely need it from those who loved him most. they finally let him go, and accept that, this time, they’ll really never see him again.

[saintfu]

LEON Hundreds, if not thousands, many of whom you don’t know.  It took me a long time to process this. Again, when turning on the faucet, it’s hard to figure out how many drops of water are available if you don’t risk flooding the house. But over time I noticed that the… well… water pressure was less intense, for lack of a better metaphor. And then I started noticing specific people I used to have access to were no longer available. Yourself. Isabelle Powell. Michael. Gemma Yeah, what the fuck do you two have going on, anyway? Leon We were… we are friends. Best friends. Gemma Like… friends or quotation-mark “friends”? Leon I don’t know what “quotation-mark ‘friends’” means. Gemma Come on, man. Like Ernie and Bert. Leon We are certainly not muppets. Gemma Do you love each other? Leon Yes, of course. Gemma Okay… Leon Oh. But no, not romantically. Gemma You sure? Leon Yes. Why is that so surprising? Gemma I just… I don’t know too many men that like… have that kind of relationship. Who are friends and who love each other to this degree but are not— Leon Romantic? Gemma Yes. Leon That’s too bad. Isn’t it? Gemma Yeah. I guess it is.

Greater Boston Episode 42, “Wonderbug”

[greaterblogston]

Nica finally reads the farewell letter Michael sent her in 'Farewell Nica,' a mini-episode out November 15th.