keensers:

WELL, FELLOW WORKPLACE ASSOCIATE, SINCE YOU REALLY ASKED FOR MY SLEW OF EMOTIONS ABOUT THOMAS HAMILTON…… well. ye shall receive

1. thomas is an incredibly stubborn idealist. he has what’s basically a pipe dream about remaking nassau and not repeating the mistakes of the old world, and he works tirelessly to make that pipe dream happen. he literally does not stop until his asshole father throws him into bethlem. as miranda says, he’s a Great Man not because he’s concerned with politics, or prudence, or propriety, but because he just doesn’t fucking know when to quit chasing that. he’s not crazy! he’s an idealist who is physically incapable of not working towards his goal, even when it lands him and the people he loves in dire straits. he knows he can’t actually ignore the “pirate problem,” but he sees it as a relatively minor obstacle in his way.
he’s compassionate and hellbent on doing the Right Thing, but he seems pretty unconcerned about what actually happens and what gets lost on the path there (i think this also ties into flint’s probably-true rationalization that ‘if thomas knew how far we’d come, i don’t know if he’d want me to stop’).

“let them whisper,” he says about the london gossips, not because he is unaware of the consequences of that whispering, but because he is PERFECTLY aware and just doesn’t give a fuck. that’s why miranda tells james that men like thomas need men like him – at that point, james is still much more of a pragmatist (though, arguably, he remains one) who can be counted on to balance thomas’ fucking unbelievable determination.

2. thomas is probably, like, eight snakes in a trenchcoat level manipulative. he’s no john silver, who i would personally rank as uhh twelve snakes in a trenchcoat, but he’s definitely not an innocent uwu flower.
the flashbacks we get with him and james are rosy, but they’re also
revealing – thomas “i asked my former classmates who are your bosses at
work about you and realized you’re smarter than any of them” hamilton is thomas “would play devil’s advocate with the devil himself” hamilton is thomas “i need to trust you to do what i want to do for the Good Of Nassau and if i can’t do that then you can leave” hamilton. he basically says to james, “i know this plan sounds insane and i want you to talk me out of it, and i’ll counter each of your arguments point for point” and then, we can only assume, ACTUALLY DOES IT. this says that he’s smart and well-spoken, yes, but it also says that he knows exactly what to say to convince someone. during the Fateful Family Dinner, he says (way too calmly, by the way, which also speaks of a Lot of experience with not losing his cool) to his dad, “i can convince these 5 people of my plan without even starting to argue.” and he probably could! 

3. as has been written about already by wiser and more coherent people than i, thomas is someone who is capable of loving and being loved by james mcgraw and miranda barlow, which means he’s probably at least slightly an asshole. yeah, he’s forgiving, yeah, there’s a tendency even in his enemies to view him as somewhat of a saint (peter ashe), but like, he spends a pretty high proportion of time in the flashbacks chuckling at james’ asshole tendencies. HE THINKS IT’S HILARIOUS WHEN JAMES MCGRAW IS BEING A DICK. the “illiteracy is the real scourge” exchange, anyone??? and ALSO, an enormous theme in the show is the notion of letting go of shame – of being one’s truest self – and that comes to us from thomas to james. i think we can pretty safely assume that thomas knows about james’ moments that hennessey thinks of as “dark and wild” and loves him anyway, and doesn’t treat that part of james as something to FORGIVE. “know no shame” encompasses that, too; not only the shame of having loved a man, but james’ shame at not being good enough for thomas, from which we can infer that that TRUEST LOVE isn’t one which needs to forgive “shameful” qualities but one which acknowledges those qualities and doesn’t give a fuck.

4. lastly, for now, because i need to shut the fuck up, i think that thomas is one of the most interpersonally kind characters on the show. i don’t mean kind as “nice,” since as i said, he’s kind of a dick – i mean that he cares a great deal about the people around him. while i mentioned above that he isn’t super worried about what/who is lost on the way to achieving his goal, he’s also totally unable to NOT try and help someone if that’s within his capacity.

ANYWAY….. gonna stop yelling here, or i will yell forever, but. i am still down for more asks!!!