Tommy Shelby as a character is one of the most complex and interesting on TV and even film.
He has many flaws, yes, as well as virtues, but in general he is a bad person, but he also paid for his actions.
The first two seasons, for me, are when he has more depth, he is more complex but also more interesting. Because he has two sides, his cold side and his soft side, and that mix is what makes him love to watch, and you want him to win.
We see that he is not just an evil gangster, he is actually a man completely scarred by his experience in war. So traumatized, he hears the sound of shovels on the wall in his mind. He needs drugs and not even that works. And it is something that affects him, we see that he is someone who is frozen inside, he is not interested in love, happiness or peace, he knows that all that is not for him, and it does not seem like he wants to have all that because he is angry with life.
But his relationship with Grace is when he changes, and there we see his soft side. His relationship with her shows us a man who inside did want to find peace again, to love and be loved, he wanted to be understood and accepted and to be loved for who he is, he also knows that he is not a good person but for her, he wanted to change. He wanted to be better. It's because of that side that I think people are attracted to Tommy.Or at least a large part of the audience.
We also see his soft side with his relationship with his family, it is a very complex relationship they have. They also have their own traumas, their own demons, not only Arthur and John from the war but also Polly and Ada.
Polly lost her two children, that's why she is a tough woman, who also hates the world they live in, because of how they were treated. And she is very protective of her nephews and niece, since she could not protect her own children.
Tommy loves his family, as they love him, but they are not a family that expresses it, they also have a toxic relationship, like when Tommy takes Arthur's medicine. They love each other but they also resent each other, they see themselves reflected in each other, Tommy has not been able to overcome the trauma of the war, but he can hide it, but he hates that Arthur cannot, and he resents him for that. Arthur is trapped in his own demons to see what is happening around him.
Now starting in S3, is when everything changes, the family changes and Tommy changes. His soft side is gone, gone with Grace, and that's when, as an audience, you start to struggle with, okay, I don't like Tommy anymore as a character, but I used to love him, and you start to question, should I like him or not?
Because you understand why he is like that, you understand his change and you were seeing how he was changing for the better, how he had found happiness, as he said it, he almost had it all.
In S4 to S6, Tommy is really really angry with life, he is now willing to die, and he just wants to fill his emptiness with his ambitions but what it does is the opposite. The more he has, the more power, the more money, he has another child , he marries his secretary, but all of this makes him feel emptier, more depressed and more alone. But we, as an audience, see how he treats people, how he uses them, how he has an abusive relationship (for me unnecessary) with his secretary whom he had to marry. And you understand and at the same time you don't understand. And you say ok now he is a very bad person. Even in his relationship with his family, he changed completely, the family was broken and never healed again.
Now, the problem with the female characters, outside of Ada and Polly, is that it is not about them, so the writer showed what was necessary, but did not go into depth, why they do what they do so we can fill it, with our imagination.
So you have a love/hate relationship with Tommy throughout the show but there isn't enough material to have the same relationship with the female characters.
And apparently, from a group in the fandom, if you are a fan of Grace, but not Lizzie, you are a misogynist and incel.
Well, the insults are welcome, because I was able to connect with the character of Grace, and with the story between Tommy and Grace. And I would never like the story, for me abusive and toxic, of Tommy and Lizzie, nor connect with her , and no, it has nothing to do with her being a prostitute in S1. It's the least important thing to me, especially because we're talking about a show about gangsters, murderers, who gouge out people's eyes.
And let's be honest, if there is a whore on the show it would be Tommy
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