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Thomas Shelby: The Broken Psychology of a Powerful Man — Transcript

by Storytellers · 2,544 words · 373 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00is there anything you cannot achieve
0:02when you are utterly unafraid of death
0:04when you are in opposition to your
0:07enemies willing to risk everything and
0:09anything at any point in time especially
0:12when this ruthlessness and risk-taking
0:15is combined with extreme intellect with
0:17both strategic and tactical Mastery
0:20which allows you to always even if it's
0:23often just barely be one step ahead of
0:26the enemy and come out on top film and
0:29television is filled with such
0:31characters Outlaws who with a
0:33combination of brilliant intellect
0:35ambition willingness to cross more
0:37boundaries and sheer force of will rise
0:40from the lowest positions in society to
0:43the very highest whether it is a farmer
0:46who made himself a king or a Birmingham
0:49gangster who Rises to the very Halls of
0:52parliament both of whom coincidentally
0:54have strong violent but somewhat less
0:56intelligent older brothers
0:58[Music]
1:00I think
1:02so you don't have to of course many of
1:05us guys are fascinated by such
1:07characters as they almost all come from
1:10Humble and Powerless Beginnings but
1:13through ambition and intellect achieve
1:15everything we want or at least think we
1:17want to have wealth power status women
1:21respect it is no surprise then that
1:24YouTube is filled with videos on how to
1:27dress like Tom and Shelby how to move
1:29like Tommy Shelby how to think and act
1:31like Tommy Shelby and so we stare deeply
1:34into the piercing blue eyes of these
1:36protagonists hoping to see everything we
1:39know we could be reflected back at us
1:44that's of course acting like Thomas
1:46Shelby and being Thomas Shelby are two
1:49completely different things Tommy Shelby
1:52is not a character who does not fear
1:54death he is a character who more often
1:57than not longs for it because he is
2:00psychologically and physically in an
2:03incredible amount of pain and so in this
2:05video I want to explore that pain how it
2:08drives his ambition and success but also
2:12how it is inescapable and truly not
2:15something we want to experience in our
2:17own lives
2:19damn them for what they did to you in
2:21France as anyone who has watched peaky
2:23blinders knows for Thomas Shelby as for
2:26many of his contemporaries his
2:28psychology is marked by the traumatic
2:31experiences the first world war left
2:33with him it is logical to assume that
2:36PTSD has always existed and is as old as
2:40War itself but the first world war and
2:43its nature of industrialized mechanical
2:45Warfare whilst the first war where the
2:48medical community formally recognized
2:50and tried to understand the horrible
2:53psychological effects it had on the
2:55soldiers that fought it historical
2:58estimates vary but we can say that
3:00somewhere around a million World War One
3:02soldiers suffered from Shell Shock and
3:05nervous illness across Germany France
3:08and England because shell shock PTSD or
3:12nervous illness or however we want to
3:14call it can of course manifest itself in
3:17many different ways from amount or at
3:20least less visible internal symptoms to
3:23extremely severe easily recognizable
3:26external symptoms in the first episode
3:28of the series The most prominent example
3:32of the leather version of shellshock is
3:34Denny whizbang who suffers from random
3:37psychotic and violent outbursts often
3:40triggered by small things
3:48you're a human being Danny you're all
3:51right you're all right of course when it
3:54comes to Tommy his PTSD is much less
3:57publicly visible it is hidden away in
4:00nightmares and hallucinations that
4:02mostly occur when he is alone when it is
4:06quiet at night in fact during most of
4:09the day in his interactions with family
4:11and enemies it actually seems as if the
4:15war has freed Thomas that it has made
4:18him more powerful Tommy and his comrades
4:21faced certain death in the war and in
4:24their minds had already lost their lives
4:26so when they returned as Tommy Shelby
4:29says himself they would see the rest of
4:31their days as a bonus and live as if
4:34they had nothing to lose we were spared
4:38the enemy never came
4:40we all agreed
4:45that everything after that
4:47was extra
4:48and especially Thomas takes this to its
4:51extreme in his Ambitions every time his
4:54family warns him not to punch outside of
4:56his weight class that he should not
4:58provoke men more powerful than him
5:00because they will come down on the peaky
5:03blinders and Destroy them he does so
5:05anyway for Christ's sake why hey why why
5:08because we [ __ ] can because we
5:11[ __ ] can and if we can we do without
5:14the fear of death he is willing to risk
5:16it all in the pursuit of more money and
5:19more power except I would argue it
5:22differently as I was re-watching peaky
5:25blinders I realized that especially in
5:28the earlier Seasons that although Tommy
5:31is in a lot of pain due to his PTSD
5:33although his heart is broken he still
5:36has hope that at the end of his
5:38Ambitions he will find peace the
5:41difference between Tommy and his family
5:43is that they see mortal danger in
5:46provoking enemies more powerful than
5:48them especially when they are already
5:50making an incredible amount of money
5:53Thomas
5:54you're a bookmaker a robber a fighting
5:56man you're not a fool
5:58you sell those guns to anyone who has
6:00used to them you will hang however to
6:02Tommy the Mortal danger is in simply
6:05having any person or organization with
6:08more power than him out there and this
6:10belief was shaped by his experience in
6:13the war where every conviction he held
6:16in a higher authority or ideology
6:18whether it's God socialism politicians
6:22or the king is shattered it is in the
6:25war that he realizes that those in power
6:28do not use that power to serve those who
6:31they have power over instead they simply
6:34see them as tools as Canon father to be
6:37used to achieve their own goals and
6:40Tommy never ever wants to be in that
6:42position again and this is why
6:45throughout the series he is such a great
6:47strategist who almost always comes out
6:50on top he knows how those in more
6:52powerful and privileged positions than
6:55him think and he uses that he
6:57continually presents himself to his
7:00enemies as a tool to be used by them and
7:03to be discarded after and most of them
7:06plan to do this but underestimate him as
7:08they see Tommy as just a working-class
7:11gangster as less than them living with a
7:14bunch of [ __ ] gypsies whether it's
7:16Billy Kimber the Italians or Oswald
7:19mostly and Tommy always uses this to his
7:22advantage to outwit and outmaneuver his
7:25enemies and take over their business and
7:28he does this not only with opposing
7:30gangsters Ira soldiers and the Russian
7:32aristocracy but throughout the series
7:35often behind the scenes he deals with
7:37the English government in similar ways
7:40often revealing at a crucial moment a
7:43secret deal he had in place with
7:45Churchill or other members of government
7:47that saves his or his family's life at
7:51some point in the near future Mr
7:53tertoble want to speak to you in person
7:55Mr Shelby
7:57thank you
7:59he has a job for you now to a certain
8:01extent we can attribute this to somewhat
8:04sloppy deus ex machina writing but in
8:07many ways it does really illustrate
8:09Tommy's philosophy after the war even
8:12though he is still just a bookmaker and
8:15a local gangster when he gets
8:17opportunities to either hold the
8:19leverage over the government or present
8:21himself as a tool to them he takes it
8:24even though it might call down the
8:26institutional power of the entire Empire
8:29upon his head because he has seen what
8:32can happen when you have no leverage
8:34when you are just a normal working-class
8:36man taking the king's Shilling to go off
8:39to war for a supposedly Noble purpose
8:42now as I've said I think that Thomas
8:44Shelby in the early seasons is still
8:48hopeful that when he reaches a point of
8:50influence wealth and power when there is
8:54no rival gangster politician or
8:56ideological organization that can touch
8:58him that he will find a sense of safety
9:01and peace for both him and his family
9:04nearly God forget everything
9:08however it is in the second half of the
9:11series that Tommy starts to realize that
9:13he will never find that piece he is
9:15looking for there's no rest for me in
9:18this world
9:23perhaps in the next now there's a
9:26sequence in season 4 episode 6 that is
9:29the most important part of this analysis
9:31but it is also a sequence that I have to
9:35approach extremely carefully I do not
9:38want to suggest in any way that I know
9:40anything about what shellshock or PTSD
9:43feels like I am lucky to have never seen
9:46the horrors of War but I do somewhat
9:49know what nervous illness feels like as
9:52I've mentioned in my last video I've
9:54recently had a period of extreme health
9:57anxiety due to people around me getting
9:59scary diagnoses and the frustrating
10:02thing about health anxiety is you're not
10:05just worrying about being sick while
10:07nothing is wrong you actually start
10:09experiencing a lot of physical symptoms
10:12in this period I put so much stress and
10:15anxiety through my body fearing that
10:18something was wrong that my nervous
10:20system became hypersensitized that it
10:23was constantly sending alarm signals
10:25even though nothing was actually wrong
10:27in my body even after six doctor visits
10:29multiple blood tests and an x-ray when I
10:33finally accepted that it was in fact
10:35anxiety it still took my body weeks to
10:38calm down out of fight or flight mode
10:40and among the symptoms that I
10:43experienced was constant 24 7 dizziness
10:46joint pain extreme muscle tightness
10:48ringing in my ears numbness and tingling
10:51in my face and hands headaches and
10:53eventually something called the
10:55realization it was not a fun period and
10:57it took me a long time to believe that
11:00it was actually anxiety and an
11:02oversensitized nervous system instead of
11:05anything physical and to know that what
11:08I experienced was likely but a fraction
11:11of what actual Soldiers with PTSD and
11:14Chelsea go through well that's scary so
11:17even though he keeps it extremely well
11:19hidden from his family and especially
11:21his enemy
11:22Thomas Shelby is suffering immensely
11:26both physically and psychologically from
11:28nervous illness and in the second part
11:31of the series he starts to realize that
11:34achieving all of his goals all of his
11:36Ambitions is still not an escape from
11:38the nervous illness he suffers from in
11:41fact it is exactly when he tries to rest
11:44when he tries to enjoy the fruits of his
11:47Ambitions that his PTSD becomes the
11:50worst starts when you stop when you rest
11:55nerves
11:58oh
11:59it is only when he is planning
12:01strategizing fighting for his life that
12:04he feels okay that he feels normal when
12:07your body is constantly in fight of
12:09flight mode when a war is Raging in your
12:12head the only way to feel normal again
12:15is to actually be in one that made all
12:18them tablets
12:20needed another [ __ ] War I
12:22and so for Thomas Shelby there is truly
12:25no limit to his ambition because as soon
12:28as he stops he is in pain he gets sick
12:31the only thing that helps him soothe his
12:33suffering in more Quiet Moments is
12:36alcohol and opium but of course in the
12:39end that too is a destroyer of worlds
12:42Yeah well yeah yes the [ __ ] booze
12:46this the booze the booze God and the
12:48Boo's gonna let me bounce and the only
12:50healthy way he can get some peace whilst
12:52violently taken from him and so
12:54especially in the last seasons of the
12:56series his Ambitions have no bounds he
12:59cannot stop or else his PTSD and nervous
13:02illness take over his life he has to
13:04keep fighting his enemies and he has to
13:06keep winning forever and for all the
13:09ways in which on the internet we all
13:12seem to want to be like Thomas Shelby as
13:15smart effective strategic and
13:17charismatic as him being stuck in a
13:20Perpetual state of having to fight for
13:22your life either externally or
13:24internally is actually Horrible no
13:28matter what he achieves no amount of
13:30power money status women or mentions can
13:33help him escape the pain he is in he can
13:36never truly enjoy what he has achieved
13:38when you are broken internally nothing
13:41external can fix it it is no surprise
13:44then that multiple times during the show
13:47Tommy questions if he even wants to go
13:50on what the point of it all is
13:52especially because despite his
13:54willingness to risk everything in
13:56pursuit of his Ambitions he does still
13:59have a lot to lose because for all the
14:01focus we place on Tommy's stoicism his
14:05non-reactiveness and ruthlessness he is
14:08also someone that cares deeply that
14:10feels deeply he is a man that loves and
14:14this is something that goes for other
14:16similar characters as well they might
14:19not be afraid of death but they do fare
14:22for the death of their loved ones and
14:24ultimately the cost of their Ambitions
14:26is that they do lose the people they
14:28love either they become collateral
14:31damage or they live in fear and disgust
14:34and so these characters often lose
14:36everything even though they have
14:38everything in the end when you take on
14:41the entire world it does often end but
14:44one way but although it was expected
14:47Tommy Shelby has a different fate
14:49throughout the last season we see him
14:52come face to face with the consequences
14:54of building his criminal Empire more and
14:57more and his PTSD is spiraling out of
15:01control as well he knows that he has to
15:03change that he has to let go of both his
15:06criminal Empire and the World War One
15:08demons in his head but of course the
15:11ambition to change and actually doing it
15:14are two completely different things
15:16Tommy is trapped in two ways for 15
15:20years he has been building a criminal
15:22Empire and once you are completely
15:25immersed in that world it is incredibly
15:27hard to escape it simultaneously on the
15:31internal side he has never properly
15:33processed his nervous illness and PTSD
15:37from the war of course this is in many
15:39ways not his fault although shell shock
15:42was recognized by the medical community
15:44after the first world war any kind of
15:47treatment was still in its infancy and
15:49many sufferers were never recognized or
15:52helped Tommy's heart and mind were
15:56broken in the war and despite his
15:58Charisma intelligence and ambition that
16:01we the viewers are so attracted to in
16:04the end it has cost him the life of a
16:06brother the life of an aunt and
16:08surrogate mother the life of one wife
16:10and a daughter while his second wife and
16:13son have left him it is only after once
16:16more after facing his own death and
16:18coming within inches of it that he can
16:21finally let go finally find peace
16:34lost and so 15 years after the war ends
16:39in Armistice Thomas Shelby finally finds
16:42peace in his mind but simultaneously the
16:46world is preparing for another War

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