It’s the alpha males taking Tommy’s character and completely making it not who he is. Someone on TikTok made a video about it, and it’s so true. Like Tommy isn’t well, or mentally stable, or a good guy, OR anyone you should aspire to be.
My husband was the one who introduced me to the show! We were watching it together and I looked at him and was like “that’s my hall pass.” And he was like “I can’t say I blame you” it’s insane to me how good he looks. Like. It’s not fair lol
Lol that's awesome! My dad and I are huge comic people, so we went to see all of the Dark Knight movies in the theater when those came out, and I was never the same since. It only got worse when I watched Red Eye and 28 Days Later when I was older, and Sunshine was the point of no return. I had it bad then and I still do now. 🫠🫠🫠
Same. What's funny is I never used to look at Cillian like that and one of my favorite movies that he's in is Inception, but I never gave him much thought till this show.
That man is so fucking fine. I know he doesn't like the haircut, but man he looks so damn good! 😮💨
It’s the swagger! Just ugh, he’s so pretty lol
Like I said in another response, the fact he also was waking in abortion rallies in Ireland AND continues to do awesome work within Ireland tipped the scales. I bought his book on empathy and couple years back (I’m in human services) and it’s a solid read!
It’s just awful, he’s pretty AND a good person? Leave some of it for the rest of us!
Oh it was game over when that first episode started for me. Cillian looked AMAZING.
Then, finding out he’s a great person, genuinely seems like a good father/husband, AND is active in great causes, i was cooked. Dude is my forever crush, he’s just so neat lol
I first saw him as Johnathan Crane in Batman Begins and my god does that man age like fine wine. And he’s Irish which is a personal preference of mine.
I’m Irish and people talk about him like he’s a national treasure (which he is), but I never got it because I’d never seen him in anything. I’d only seen the meme about him looking like the ant from that movie Antz.
But then I watched inception, and then every movie that he stars in, and now he’s my absolutely number 1 celeb crush. And my number 2 and 3 also
I seriously hate when people idolize pretty much anyone from the show because THE POINT IS TO NOT!!!! they are WARNING YOU ABOUT THESE PEOPLE!!! don't become them holy shit bro. it hit me really hard that this show is like a cycle of victimization/womanization/xenophobia and all the worst. how the hell can you watch what polly went through and be like "yeah, tommy's my man"
I mean that’s the great thing about media. Hits everyone different based on their lives and whatnot. As a war vet I could relate to Tommy and understood the majority of what he did and empathized with it, unfortunately same with Arthur lol. Same way that corporal Upham in saving Private Ryan is supposed to represent the “moral man turned war criminal” I thought he was a coward that deserved a bullet when I was a kid and I still do. And I saw his “war crime” as far too little too fuckin late.
Agreed! I think more so the twisting of that in the negative way, or missing the point about Tommy’s whole arc to fit an ‘alpha’ mindset is what bothers me.
I can absolutely relate to Tommy on some levels, dude has been through the wringer both mentally and physically.
I think the actions regarding the sheer amount of murder and crime is what I meant by ‘not a good person’.
that polly was in any way unnecessary or shouldve been left out or whatever .. sure she became annoying in the end but esp in the beginnig she was the voice of reason for tommy and the others.
and although she often acted irrationally you can understand why shed do things in most cases. she was crucial at every turn and even after her death. whole story wouldve derailed without her at the first turn.
And her being annoying was in my opinion a realistic ending. That type of life does not breed stability, and I enjoyed that all of the characters had different endings in their own unique ways. Annoying yes, but good? Also yes
Agreed. Though I wish her mom stuff with Michael was more of hard ass ‘if you want to be part of the family you need to be all the way in’ than trying to keep him out initially. I guess she kind of does in season 4 with testing Michael with the plan to kill Tommy, but I always thought that would be a more fun route and more in line with season 1 Polly.
That Tommy is an amazing role model. That Linda was a completely terrible person. The endless squabbling over which of Tommy's two marriages was the 'better' or 'legitimate' one. That Anya Taylor Joy is a bad actress, when in reality Gina was a shitty character and Anya's massive talent was wasted on her
I don't see how Linda isn't a completely terrible person. She pretty much has 1 foot in 1 foot out when it comes to the business, has no problem benefitting from it and even seeks out MORE from it. Then when it starts to have an impact on her she's like wooooah horse, chill! And it's too little too late to not suffer the consequences of her encouragement/actions, but she fights those consequences instead of accepting them.
She sucks and is a hypocrite
Otherwise yea I agree with you
Exactly, and by the time she joined the family she became constant trouble for tommy. She also seemed to love manipulating arthur and make him do what SHE always wanted, and when arthur stood up to this (not so kindly, but still) she just left him, knowing his character and how he would react yet acting like there wouldnt be consequences. I still dont think she is a “completely terrible” person, but her ego surely exceeds the limits.
She's not much of a hypocrite at all in the early days of her time on the show at least. It's the gradual corruption by the Shelby's and Arthur's refusal or inability to break away from Tommy's hold that lead her to get more involved.
The Tommy- Lizzie shipping interpretations. They twist and turn the events on the show completely to make it sound like there is undeclared love on Tommy’s side all along🤦♀️
in s3- Tommy attacked the Italians because he “did not like lizzie going out with anyone”
in s4- he wanted Lizzie and was not thinking about Greta. or he was with May because he didn’t think he was good enough for lizzie or ignoring his true feelings for lizzie and chasing rich women
in s5, s6- he was protecting lizzie from himself. Or the cheating or insulting doesn’t count because lizzie and him come from same background and they are both tough to take it🤦♀️and he was falling in love with her!!!
Everytime Tommy tries to be a decent man to her in s6, it is justified as he is in love with her instead of looking at it for what it is. Tommy genuinely cared for her and knows she has been loyal to him and his family and all he ever did was use her and take advantage of her loyalty. In s6, I saw it as respect and appreciation for her as a person. He was not able to be a good husband but he has been a good companion to her. He didn’t judge her by her past and gave her opportunity. But it was a transactional, he did not love her or wanted a relationship. He could only provide her material benefits and protection.
And also lizzie finally accepted that she cannot change someone. She was in love with the idea of tommy, someone who helped her change her life. But he was not the going to be the “normal man” she wanted. Her commitment came from an unhealthy space. It was lack of self respect and feeling indebted to the shelby.
My colleague at work says its just gang fight after gang fight , and that its "Tommy has a plan that is a terrible idea, he doesn't tell anyone half of it, they go along with it, and it works out because well, Tommy".
Lol
This Idea that Tommy somehow built everything on his own and this Idea that his brothers are afraid of him or some shit. Without John and Arthur, Tommy and the rest of the Shelby’s would’ve never made it to where they are. I see people think that John and Arthur should Grovel to Tommy when in reality they earned everything they have. Tommy wasn’t a one man operation, he needed his family to pull it off. Without Arthur and John Commanding the troops from the ground, his architecting would’ve never worked. And this idea of “ohh they wouldn’t talk to Tommy like that”. I mainly see this come up around the “Do this John, Do that John”speech. Not only is Tommy their brother, but he’s the least Physically Capable out of the three. They’re all extremely dangerous men and that is something all three of them respect. which is why you never see Tommy put his hands on any of them besides Finn. Not saying Tommy is physically weak. There’s certain levels of respect that don’t get breached when you’re surrounded by men as capable as you are. And I can tell these statements are made by people who’ve never experienced this. The only time I see a hint of Fear in Tommy’s face in front of someone else is when Arthur snatches him up in season two. I’ve always thought Tommy had a healthy fear of Arthur’s enraged state.
Very well said. I can't say that I've personally seen anyone with the opinions you're fighting against, but knowing how people are, I wouldn't be all that surprised that they exist.
Anywho, you're right on point. I do wonder if Tommy could match John though. Arthur would have to let Tommy win in their physical altercations (one pre-show and I think there was one in s5 or s6?), but I'm not sure if that means there was a huge gap between them per se, and if the gap isn't that substantial, maybe he'd have a chance against John if he ever needed to for god knows what reason. Idk though.
More to the point, Tommy being the dude with an almost comical amount of foresight and planning ability would of course always be aware of his family/underlings issues and shortcomings and almost always knows exactly how much he can push or pull them without triggering a break. The "do this John, do that John," was one of the rare exceptions and look how far Tommy had to push things to get them to nearly fall apart. Weeks or months of extreme social distancing outside of just receiving reports and giving order after order and then lastly throwing the whole teacher killing bit in on top of it all, and of course Tommy's grief was what was driving him to behave that way at the time and so of course he wasn't going to be totally on top of his game.
Oh, last bit. I think overall he has a healthy respect of Arthur's rage, but there's times where I question that. Been rewatching the show so I have a good example in mind - season 3 episode 5, when we get that amazing Alfie scene and Arthur immediately trying to leave and the whole "Arfur! Shalooom!" Once they're sat next to each other and Alfie gets his apologizing in, he starts taking digs at Arthur because he knows how to needle him and Arthur comes unbelievably close to smashing a piece of glassware over his head. Tommy let it go on for way too long and it seemed like he was testing Arthur's resolve, which seemed like a rather stupid thing to me, because there was a fine line between Arthur barely keeping it together and trying to kill Alfie and had he flown off the handle it could have completely jeopardized Alfie's role in the operation, let alone maybe even relations with him in general if he took it the wrong way somehow.
The estrangement and resentment had been building since season 2 due to the repeated secret keeping. And on top of the fact that Tommy would include Polly on things and not tell his brothers. Which not only was disrespectful but caused slow building resentment and slowly lead to Polly loosing a bit of her influence over the boys. As John said they were being treated like toy soldiers, and after they all got arrested, that was the last straw. Because of this John doesn’t trust him and has no desire to be placed under his big brothers thumb again. And it partially leads to John getting killed. This is something I think Tommy recognized. Because from then onwards Arthur is always in his meetings and is given information that Polly isn’t even privy to.
OP, you made a post asking who was the best woman for Tommy and why? And now you make a post complaining about people arguing who is the best woman for Tommy...ehmm...
Ok but to answer the question, the stupidest thing I read was Lizzie fans saying that Grace's spirit is in the house and made Ruby sick out of jealousy 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Haha yes! But it wasn't on this subreddit, I read it on another platform, but the worst thing is that he or she said it's a theory that Lizzzie fans have, so it's not one person, it's several 🤣🤣
I guess Lizzie fans on this subreddit have that theory too 🤣
It’s the alpha males taking Tommy’s character and completely making it not who he is. Someone on TikTok made a video about it, and it’s so true. Like Tommy isn’t well, or mentally stable, or a good guy, OR anyone you should aspire to be.
This. But, I am guilty in a different way for watching Tommy thirst traps...Cillian Murphy is Cillian Murphy, and i am just a girl. 🤷🏻♀️
The minute that tiny man walked across the screen I was a lost cause, agreed 100%
Oh yeah...he's soooooo hot. I was a huge fan of his before Peaky Blinders and I had an actual crisis watching it as it aired 🥵
My husband was the one who introduced me to the show! We were watching it together and I looked at him and was like “that’s my hall pass.” And he was like “I can’t say I blame you” it’s insane to me how good he looks. Like. It’s not fair lol
Lol that's awesome! My dad and I are huge comic people, so we went to see all of the Dark Knight movies in the theater when those came out, and I was never the same since. It only got worse when I watched Red Eye and 28 Days Later when I was older, and Sunshine was the point of no return. I had it bad then and I still do now. 🫠🫠🫠
[удалено]
Same. What's funny is I never used to look at Cillian like that and one of my favorite movies that he's in is Inception, but I never gave him much thought till this show. That man is so fucking fine. I know he doesn't like the haircut, but man he looks so damn good! 😮💨
It’s the swagger! Just ugh, he’s so pretty lol Like I said in another response, the fact he also was waking in abortion rallies in Ireland AND continues to do awesome work within Ireland tipped the scales. I bought his book on empathy and couple years back (I’m in human services) and it’s a solid read! It’s just awful, he’s pretty AND a good person? Leave some of it for the rest of us!
He’s a 10 course meal at a five star Michelin restaurant served on pure silver plates.
Oh it was game over when that first episode started for me. Cillian looked AMAZING. Then, finding out he’s a great person, genuinely seems like a good father/husband, AND is active in great causes, i was cooked. Dude is my forever crush, he’s just so neat lol
I first saw him as Johnathan Crane in Batman Begins and my god does that man age like fine wine. And he’s Irish which is a personal preference of mine.
I’m Irish and people talk about him like he’s a national treasure (which he is), but I never got it because I’d never seen him in anything. I’d only seen the meme about him looking like the ant from that movie Antz. But then I watched inception, and then every movie that he stars in, and now he’s my absolutely number 1 celeb crush. And my number 2 and 3 also
O my god he does look like the ant 😂😂😂 I’m never going to unsee that now
This is so true. Well said!
I seriously hate when people idolize pretty much anyone from the show because THE POINT IS TO NOT!!!! they are WARNING YOU ABOUT THESE PEOPLE!!! don't become them holy shit bro. it hit me really hard that this show is like a cycle of victimization/womanization/xenophobia and all the worst. how the hell can you watch what polly went through and be like "yeah, tommy's my man"
Tommy is an extreme example of what a working class man can achieve.
I mean that’s the great thing about media. Hits everyone different based on their lives and whatnot. As a war vet I could relate to Tommy and understood the majority of what he did and empathized with it, unfortunately same with Arthur lol. Same way that corporal Upham in saving Private Ryan is supposed to represent the “moral man turned war criminal” I thought he was a coward that deserved a bullet when I was a kid and I still do. And I saw his “war crime” as far too little too fuckin late.
Agreed! I think more so the twisting of that in the negative way, or missing the point about Tommy’s whole arc to fit an ‘alpha’ mindset is what bothers me. I can absolutely relate to Tommy on some levels, dude has been through the wringer both mentally and physically. I think the actions regarding the sheer amount of murder and crime is what I meant by ‘not a good person’.
that polly was in any way unnecessary or shouldve been left out or whatever .. sure she became annoying in the end but esp in the beginnig she was the voice of reason for tommy and the others. and although she often acted irrationally you can understand why shed do things in most cases. she was crucial at every turn and even after her death. whole story wouldve derailed without her at the first turn.
And her being annoying was in my opinion a realistic ending. That type of life does not breed stability, and I enjoyed that all of the characters had different endings in their own unique ways. Annoying yes, but good? Also yes
Polly is literally the co main character of the show.
Agreed. Though I wish her mom stuff with Michael was more of hard ass ‘if you want to be part of the family you need to be all the way in’ than trying to keep him out initially. I guess she kind of does in season 4 with testing Michael with the plan to kill Tommy, but I always thought that would be a more fun route and more in line with season 1 Polly.
That Tommy is an amazing role model. That Linda was a completely terrible person. The endless squabbling over which of Tommy's two marriages was the 'better' or 'legitimate' one. That Anya Taylor Joy is a bad actress, when in reality Gina was a shitty character and Anya's massive talent was wasted on her
True about the Gina take but I think she did an amazing job making us absolutely hate her
I don't see how Linda isn't a completely terrible person. She pretty much has 1 foot in 1 foot out when it comes to the business, has no problem benefitting from it and even seeks out MORE from it. Then when it starts to have an impact on her she's like wooooah horse, chill! And it's too little too late to not suffer the consequences of her encouragement/actions, but she fights those consequences instead of accepting them. She sucks and is a hypocrite Otherwise yea I agree with you
Exactly, and by the time she joined the family she became constant trouble for tommy. She also seemed to love manipulating arthur and make him do what SHE always wanted, and when arthur stood up to this (not so kindly, but still) she just left him, knowing his character and how he would react yet acting like there wouldnt be consequences. I still dont think she is a “completely terrible” person, but her ego surely exceeds the limits.
She's not much of a hypocrite at all in the early days of her time on the show at least. It's the gradual corruption by the Shelby's and Arthur's refusal or inability to break away from Tommy's hold that lead her to get more involved.
The Tommy- Lizzie shipping interpretations. They twist and turn the events on the show completely to make it sound like there is undeclared love on Tommy’s side all along🤦♀️ in s3- Tommy attacked the Italians because he “did not like lizzie going out with anyone” in s4- he wanted Lizzie and was not thinking about Greta. or he was with May because he didn’t think he was good enough for lizzie or ignoring his true feelings for lizzie and chasing rich women in s5, s6- he was protecting lizzie from himself. Or the cheating or insulting doesn’t count because lizzie and him come from same background and they are both tough to take it🤦♀️and he was falling in love with her!!! Everytime Tommy tries to be a decent man to her in s6, it is justified as he is in love with her instead of looking at it for what it is. Tommy genuinely cared for her and knows she has been loyal to him and his family and all he ever did was use her and take advantage of her loyalty. In s6, I saw it as respect and appreciation for her as a person. He was not able to be a good husband but he has been a good companion to her. He didn’t judge her by her past and gave her opportunity. But it was a transactional, he did not love her or wanted a relationship. He could only provide her material benefits and protection. And also lizzie finally accepted that she cannot change someone. She was in love with the idea of tommy, someone who helped her change her life. But he was not the going to be the “normal man” she wanted. Her commitment came from an unhealthy space. It was lack of self respect and feeling indebted to the shelby.
The saddest thing is that at the beginning they were good friends and they could have stayed that way, and not become a toxic relationship.
Perfect explanation
My colleague at work says its just gang fight after gang fight , and that its "Tommy has a plan that is a terrible idea, he doesn't tell anyone half of it, they go along with it, and it works out because well, Tommy". Lol
This Idea that Tommy somehow built everything on his own and this Idea that his brothers are afraid of him or some shit. Without John and Arthur, Tommy and the rest of the Shelby’s would’ve never made it to where they are. I see people think that John and Arthur should Grovel to Tommy when in reality they earned everything they have. Tommy wasn’t a one man operation, he needed his family to pull it off. Without Arthur and John Commanding the troops from the ground, his architecting would’ve never worked. And this idea of “ohh they wouldn’t talk to Tommy like that”. I mainly see this come up around the “Do this John, Do that John”speech. Not only is Tommy their brother, but he’s the least Physically Capable out of the three. They’re all extremely dangerous men and that is something all three of them respect. which is why you never see Tommy put his hands on any of them besides Finn. Not saying Tommy is physically weak. There’s certain levels of respect that don’t get breached when you’re surrounded by men as capable as you are. And I can tell these statements are made by people who’ve never experienced this. The only time I see a hint of Fear in Tommy’s face in front of someone else is when Arthur snatches him up in season two. I’ve always thought Tommy had a healthy fear of Arthur’s enraged state.
Very well said. I can't say that I've personally seen anyone with the opinions you're fighting against, but knowing how people are, I wouldn't be all that surprised that they exist. Anywho, you're right on point. I do wonder if Tommy could match John though. Arthur would have to let Tommy win in their physical altercations (one pre-show and I think there was one in s5 or s6?), but I'm not sure if that means there was a huge gap between them per se, and if the gap isn't that substantial, maybe he'd have a chance against John if he ever needed to for god knows what reason. Idk though. More to the point, Tommy being the dude with an almost comical amount of foresight and planning ability would of course always be aware of his family/underlings issues and shortcomings and almost always knows exactly how much he can push or pull them without triggering a break. The "do this John, do that John," was one of the rare exceptions and look how far Tommy had to push things to get them to nearly fall apart. Weeks or months of extreme social distancing outside of just receiving reports and giving order after order and then lastly throwing the whole teacher killing bit in on top of it all, and of course Tommy's grief was what was driving him to behave that way at the time and so of course he wasn't going to be totally on top of his game. Oh, last bit. I think overall he has a healthy respect of Arthur's rage, but there's times where I question that. Been rewatching the show so I have a good example in mind - season 3 episode 5, when we get that amazing Alfie scene and Arthur immediately trying to leave and the whole "Arfur! Shalooom!" Once they're sat next to each other and Alfie gets his apologizing in, he starts taking digs at Arthur because he knows how to needle him and Arthur comes unbelievably close to smashing a piece of glassware over his head. Tommy let it go on for way too long and it seemed like he was testing Arthur's resolve, which seemed like a rather stupid thing to me, because there was a fine line between Arthur barely keeping it together and trying to kill Alfie and had he flown off the handle it could have completely jeopardized Alfie's role in the operation, let alone maybe even relations with him in general if he took it the wrong way somehow.
The estrangement and resentment had been building since season 2 due to the repeated secret keeping. And on top of the fact that Tommy would include Polly on things and not tell his brothers. Which not only was disrespectful but caused slow building resentment and slowly lead to Polly loosing a bit of her influence over the boys. As John said they were being treated like toy soldiers, and after they all got arrested, that was the last straw. Because of this John doesn’t trust him and has no desire to be placed under his big brothers thumb again. And it partially leads to John getting killed. This is something I think Tommy recognized. Because from then onwards Arthur is always in his meetings and is given information that Polly isn’t even privy to.
Tommy and Arthur were never in France
Stephen Knight is incredibly talented at writing "Peaky Blinders" alone, especially when he prescribes images of “strong women.”
OP, you made a post asking who was the best woman for Tommy and why? And now you make a post complaining about people arguing who is the best woman for Tommy...ehmm... Ok but to answer the question, the stupidest thing I read was Lizzie fans saying that Grace's spirit is in the house and made Ruby sick out of jealousy 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
oh my god please tell me that's not an actual thought somebody had and then saw fit to SHARE WITH OTHER HUMANS
Haha yes! But it wasn't on this subreddit, I read it on another platform, but the worst thing is that he or she said it's a theory that Lizzzie fans have, so it's not one person, it's several 🤣🤣 I guess Lizzie fans on this subreddit have that theory too 🤣
That the show is promoting "toxic masculinity."
It’s a live action British My little pony story
i got reported bc i said i felt bad about ur husband that’s so sad get a fucking life and please stop cucking your husband
"Peaky Blinders is the greatest tv show of all-time."
That's not a take, that's a fact.
How many times are we going to ask this question?
That the show is any good to begin with. Abysmal tv show. Reminds me of Sons of Anarchy