#rebecca blithely

[thegenderfucker]

Rebecca Blithely from Strange Empire my beloved

[patron-saints]

i ate my weight in your words

chapter one: clarification

fandom: strange empire

words: 785

chapters: 1/3

rating: T, allusion to sexual assault 

characters: dr. rebecca blithely, mr. morgan finn

content: rebecca really super duper wants morgan to understand her, so she writes a letter about it

Mr. Morgan Finn,

I know what I know with certainty. The things I do not know, I long to find out. Morgan, you are something I do not yet know, and I fear I may have lost my chance to discover what secrets you hold.

I rarely find a need to explain I often fail to see why actions require lengthy explanations. In this case, however, it seems, mine might.

read on ao3

[woozapooza]

Favorite Characters 139/∞: Rebecca Blithely (Strange Empire)

I should like to look into those bodies. Look because of the secrets they hold, the science in them. I am no believer but in nature.

[topher-kapn]

Ok so lets break this down now shall we? 

Morgan has been in love with Rebecca for the entirety of this series, but has held back, has found one reason or another to find themself unworthy of Rebecca’s love. Morgan’s breasts revealed them as AFAB in episode seven, and ever since, while they obviously still held Rebecca in high regard, they’ve put off having an actual discussion of what their physical form means for the possibilities of relationship because they assume that Rebecca is disgusted by the fact that she was “tricked” into having sex with a woman in episode four. 

Morgan Finn’s sexuality and gender expression have indeed been met with revulsion and physical assault when revealed to others, and the nicest thing that Morgan can assume is that the late Dr. Thomas Blithely was correct in assuming that Rebecca would want to marry and have children, as was considered “natural,” for a woman to desire in the late 1860s. 

Morgan Finn assumes that because they do not have a penis, Rebecca is disgusted by them and their advances. Morgan assumes that posession of a penis is required to have “the sex that pleases” Rebecca, but Rebecca immediately denies this twice-over, as I’m sure she would have done sooner if she’d ever realized that Morgan had been assuming so long that Rebecca hated them for their gender. (Rebecca’s on the autistic spectrum remember, she simply doesn’t understand why gender roles should or would be important). 

To Rebecca it’s not the anatomy that matters, but rather the mind. I’m sure if she had the words for it she’d identify as pansexual or something along those lines. Morgan though, that anxious little beanpole that I love, still is assuming that Rebecca doesn’t have feelings for them. And furthermore, Morgan hasn’t understood how Rebecca could possibly have put up with the attention she’s been receiving from John Slotter recently, so they jump immediately to that. Oh, you’re into minds, so you’re into John Slotter’s mind more than mine!

This I would argue is primarily a miscommunication, and if Rebecca could read the subtext of why Morgan was jumping to this conclusion, I argue she would here reafirm for a third time that, no Morgan, you anxious ass, I’m into you and your mind.

But it’s a valuable miscommunication because it leads into this conversation about morality that finally makes it through to Rebecca. Rebecca murdered a man back in episode two, and displays no remorse about it until this final episode after having this discussion with Morgan. Shortly after this discussion we see her discussing with Kat how the two of them have some of that same potential for evil as John Slotter, and ultimately when John Slotter dies she leaves his body in the ground, which I believe is a direct result of this conversation with Morgan.

This conversation that KissMyWonderWoman saw as the end of any possible relationship between Rebecca and Morgan was for me exactly the opposite: I saw in it new beginnings for Rebecca, she’s now taking precautions to ensure that she doesn’t end up becoming the kind of person who will cause the amount of harm and suffering that John Slotter did. This conversation is not the end but rather the beginning of something beautiful and complex and something that can help both characters grow. 

[carnelianflames]

Rebecca Blithely

[thegenderfucker]

wholesome Strange Empire au where there is nothing sinister about this image

[thegenderfucker]

tired of seeing Rebecca Blithely get infantilised. she is an autistic adult who has spent her life between a mental institution and being paraded as a science marvel in a highly sheltered social environment who suddenly gets dropped in an unstable, unfamiliar context. her inexperience does not make her a child.

[topher-kapn]

I literally dressed up as Dr. Rebecca Blithely for Halloween. Constructed a make-shift bustle using 2 skirts and a fanny pack, and just now on my lunch break I walked to the nearest hat shop to spend $42 on a hat that looks passably like a bowler if I roll the rim up and pin it. All for a costume that nobody gets because nobody has seen this show 😭