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Succession is over, but the discourse will likely continue on Succession Twitter, a network of fan accounts that analyze, meme, ship, and recontextualize the Roys.
Succession Twitter, or “succtwt,” is a stream of fan edits, theories, and hyper-updates, and over the last couple of years it’s grown in size and scope, providing a secondary promotional outlet for one of HBO’s biggest shows. Though, of course, the fandom often produced wildly different interpretations of characters’ motivations.
The account No Context Succession has been around since July 2019, when only one season had aired so far, and is one of the earlier fan accounts that got popular.
Anna runs the account, which has more than 287,000 followers. She tells the Daily Dot she started it after trying to find an image of “Kendall having his breakdown in the bathroom from the pilot. I checked existing no-context Succession accounts and either they didn’t have that particular image or appeared to be inactive. I thought I might as well start my own because aside from Kendall’s bathroom breakdown, I felt there was a lot of potential for fun posts from the show.”
Anna says Succession Twitter “was a very small place” when she started the account.
“I do run a big fan account,” she says, “but the only fans I actively engage with are a few friends, most of whom have been watching since season one, and I do all of that on my personal account.”
Meg runs the @successtextpost account, which has more than 14,000 followers. She started it in March 2022, “because people on my normie Twitter wanted me to stop talking about Succession so much, a perfectly reasonable request that I was completely unable to honor.”
A lot of the succtwt accounts have an area of specialization, and for many it’s Kendall Roy, a phenomenon that’s been dissected in multiple thinkpieces over the last year or so. Meg’s focus is Kendall, but she makes “memes and edits that connect Kendall’s storylines to my favorite singer, Mitski.”
“Many young women do seem to relate to Kendall, though he doesn’t cross any gender thresholds with me,” Meg says. “I relate to Kendall because I struggle to define my self-worth beyond what is told to me by other people. Kendall sees himself as a last name, as whatever Twitter tells him, as what his dad calls him, as what his dad wants him to be, as what the world expects him to be. I’m a 23-year-old grad student who still doesn’t really know who she is, and clings to others’ definitions of her. So in that regard, I’m very kendallroycore.”
Related is the babygirlification of characters like Kendall and Roman, which received some criticism online, especially after the last few episodes of season 4.
“I fully support it as long as we’re not minimizing their faults,” Anna says, “because I believe the fact these are deeply flawed and complex characters is what makes them so babygirlfiable to begin with.”
Rachel runs the @princekendalll account, which has more than 6,000 followers. It started as a Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire account, but after getting into Succession “pretty late,” she pivoted. As her handle suggests, Rachel’s favorite character is also Kendall, whose “drive, as well as his tendency to self-sabotage, are all too familiar.”
“Something I have loved so much about my time on succtwt has been the nuanced discussions about the moral failings of these characters,” Rachel says. “How these people came to be the way they are, what forces move them. Which lines, if any, won’t they cross?”
But she says succtwt is aware that relating to these characters doesn’t mean they endorse their actions.
“We can’t add a disclaimer on every tweet to acknowledge that the Roys and the characters on this show in general are terrible people,” Rachel says. “But I cannot emphasize enough that we know this. We spend hours (too many hours, surely) each week analyzing these characters. How could we not know?”
The fandom also tried to amplify allegations of predatory behavior against Nicholas Braun, who plays Greg. And cast members have interacted with Succession Twitter: J. Smith-Cameron, who plays Gerri, often responds to or clarifies fan theories, and cheekily addressed theories about Roman and Gerri after the finale. Natalie Gold (Rava), recently responded to one of Meg’s tweets. And Arian Moayed (Stewy) has quote-tweeted fan tweets.
“I hope people know how absolutely strange succtwt is,” Meg says. She affectionately calls fans “little freaks.”
Meg says she’ll keep tweeting through Emmy season, since several cast members are likely to be nominated. Anna says she’ll likely post during Emmys season too, and maybe for Father’s Day.
“If I still have things to say about Succession, I’ll tweet,” Meg says, “even if it’s just my dad who sticks around to like ’em.”
Days before the finale, HBO Max rebranded as Max, and nobody’s really happy about it. The streamer won’t ever have another Succession, but the fandom that grew around the show, especially in season 4, revived TV discourse at a time when the Musk-run Twitter is devolving into an anti-art, AI-obsessed, far-right cesspool.
However, I don’t foresee the same level of engagement happening for HBO’s new Sunday-night show, The Idol.
Audra Schroeder is the Daily Dot’s senior entertainment writer, and she focuses on streaming, comedy, and music. Her work has previously appeared in the Austin Chronicle, the Dallas Observer, NPR, ESPN, Bitch, and the Village Voice. She is based in Austin, Texas.
