#[Your Title/Position]

[mrs-gauche]

I got the latest issue of the "GameStar" magazine (the article itself was already published online two months ago apparently, but the hard copy came out three weeks ago), which had a few pages about Veilguard (and a review of the whole series), and while it didn't include any new information, I thought the final "personal opinion" piece by the author was really sweet, so I wanted to share it on here, too. (The author is this magazine's editor-in-chief, who was one of the journalists who got to see the full one-hour presentation of Veilguard at Summer Game Fest. I tried to translate it as best as I could. :3)

"Dragon Age means the world to a lot of my colleagues. To my co-worker Alex Schneider, the artbooks are pretty much part of his office equipment, Heiko's boss Rae can basically quote the prequel novels from memory — backwards —, and my co-worker Steffi rushes through the hallways like a vacuum cleaner every time there is the tiniest new piece of rumor about Dragon Age to "absorb". I am more lukewarm about it. Yes, I've played Dragon Age Origins multiple times and enjoyed it very much, but Thedas was always too theatrical and not believable enough of a world for me to really get immersed in it. So the fact that even I walked out after the one-hour presentation thinking: "Damn, when is my flight back home, I need to (re)play the whole trilogy again!" - that's saying something. Again: The Veilguard still has a lot to prove. That it knows how to fill its world in a meaningful way, that its mechanics offer enough depth and most of all: That it tells a good story. But during my conversation with Corinne, every second felt like I was talking with people that understand exactly what made Dragon Age so good. The kick-off to Veilguard is as brilliant as it is intense, sparks curiosity for its world and amidst all the action, it doesn't forget to show a bit of heart. Whatever comes out of it after its release: For years Bioware hasn't looked as promising as it does now."

I also got the "PC Games" magazine, but that one had even less information than GameStar, even though they put it on the cover? :/ (Had to buy it anyway of course, because it has Dragon Age on it 🤡❤️)

[mars-ipan]

Hi, it's me again. I decided to follow your advice and try to seek out your 'actually serious' analysis, which led me to your komahina bible, the most easy to find compilation of this supposed analysis. Here are my thoughts-

1) Overview

- Most of this 'analysis' isn't analysis but a summary/overview of the game. It's not so much a 'bible' as a children's book summary of the bible, which at that point it would be better to play the actual game itself. It's clear it was made for a presentation on the 'uninitiated' if you will, but if that's the case, you shouldn't be advertising it as the literal bible on the subject.

- When you are not regurgitating points from the game beat by beat, the screen is halfway filled with either manga panels or fanart. My gripes with manga panels are, that even though they do depict the events of the game, the way they can be depicted by the artist can be pretty subjective due to the freedom of the medium in comparison to sprites, and that the role of one character can differ depending on whose pov manga it is (chiaki vs nagito). Fan art therefore should be scrutinized even more since it fully depicts abstracted and even the fandomified version of events, leading to situations where it's either unclear what is actually happening or betrays your more shallow view of the characters (i talk abt this later.)

- When you do use pictures directly from the game it's either a possible screenshot from a memorable moment or dialog from the wiki, limited almost exclusively to the freetime events. This leads me to believe that you haven't actually played the game(there are other factors hinting towards this) or watched a Let's Play of it, but going off of merely information that's already widely known and circulating within the fandom, and easy to search on the wiki.

2) Incorrect/Questionable information

Here I'll compile a lot of information that's either plainly wrong or baffling to having come to that conclusion , leading more credence to the theory that you either haven't actually played the game or your memory of it isnt as good as you think.

-"if Nagito's plan went off of without a hitch, he would have killed anyone that was closes to him at the time" plainly wrong. Komaeda's goal from the start was to make himself the victim, so by dying this way his death could have meaning and help the others. For somebody that keeps talking about Komaeda's "Martyr complex" this is truly a weird take to have.

-"Nagito...got the nurse for sure sick" is there any proof that specifically points to Komaeda for this? I believe the takeaway should've been that Mikan got sick because she was around all of them AND she overworked herself trying to take care of them. Is this just an awkwardly phrased attempt to make more of a connection between Tsumiki and Komaeda? I don't think you needed more than the ones that already existed.

- "he helps Junko brainwash a bunch of students" Kamukura at neither point in the anime or Danganronpa 0 was ever specifically implicated in the brainwashing. He never 'helps' Junko, especially in that way. If you meant, participates in the student council killing game, you should've said that, but even then his agency and influence is limited.

-"they found the Remnants and captured them!"...no, they didn't. The Remnants presented themselves as survivors and the Foundation took them in. They handed themselves over willingly. It was a pretty big piece of the final part of the game...

3) Komaeda and Komahina

- "Nagito's habit of putting people on pedestals" Where. Sure, he certainly parrots the belief that the "Ultimates" as a unit are at the top of the food chain and should be prioritised, but its clear that doesn't exactly carry over to his classmates like teruteru, Kuzuryu and even Souda sometimes. Just because of a few positive comments refering to them as Ultimates and the trial which he literally breaks down in, this is a hard position to support.

-"Nagito manipulates Hajime into playing the game" How. He literally just told him to play it. How is that manipulation. Also, isn't it a bit unfair to put the blame on Koizumi's death to him as well? I think they were multiple factors playing into this, but sure, how else are you gonna convince people that Komaeda is a twisted fucking cyclepath that loves leading people to their deaths.

-The way that you say the Kuzuryu/Pekoyama relationship mirrors Komahina as 'I will give up my agency for you/ I just want you' is also confusing. Unless of course you mirror Peko's struggle with her agency and harmful beliefs the clan enforced on her with Komaeda's own belief system, in which case, idk man, i feel like you are giving a bit too much credit to the supposed severity of Komaeda's views and trying too hard to make Hinata the 'rational' and 'grounding' one in the relationship.

- Again, the amount of times you refer to Komaeda as a freak for doing something 'weird' or even being drawn weirdly doing it , mostly in the manga, makes me belief this isn't just an affectionate tongue in cheek joke as you claim, but an actual way in which your interpretation of Komaeda is colored.

-"it doesn't excuse his nonchalance towards tragedy and murder but explains it" what needs to be excused here exactly? Komaeda doesn't need to immediately bawl his eyes out when someone gets killed or else he's suspicious and...bad? I am confused with what you mean by this. If you mean that Komeada shouldn't be so nonchalant about murder because he's constantly trying to kill someone else, that is plainly incorrect and i explained above why.

-Posturing about Komaeda's 'black and white thinking' while in the next exact slide you show fanart of him smugly explaining he has Borderline. First, i want you to explain to me the black and white thinking in a way that isn't "oh, the friends and classmates i previously liked turned out to be fucking terrorists". I think that's a pretty justifiable situation for your thinking to go from white to black. Also, if that is enough credence to assign Komaeda BPD, you really don't know how BPD works, especially since you assigned it to the one character you constantly talk about being a freak (and also lust...pseudo lust? after).

- The insistence with Hinata not really understanding Komaeda and running away, even if he wants to understands him is pretty suspect, especially when compared to the game. Hinata is confused and overwhelmed yes, but it's not just that he wants to understand Komaeda but that he still feels fondness for him, he still follows his advice and puts his faith in him and the way he mourns him in Chapter 5 is also pretty indicative of this. It's just another part in the pattern in you making Hinata the confused, rational, 'morally pure' man that's 'tempted' by 'corrupted' manic pixie mentally ill demon Komaeda. Something tells me your priest AU isn't so much playing with dolls as much as...what you actually believe these characters dynamic is.

- The whole page where Servant is basically made into a joke about how hot and sexy and freaky he is doesn't help your point either.

-The most damning evidence of course is a drawing in the second to last slide, wherein Komaeda is supposed to be analogous to 'guy who has something wrong with him' (distorted, freak, mentally ill) and Hinata is analogous to the guy that 'is the only one that understands them' (the rational one, the relationship of understanding doesn't go both ways).

- Your slide with sources is pretty vague and unclear. Also the way that you credit "Your superior mind" before the game itself when all you've been doing is repeating and misinterpreting the plot of the game is ...ironic

So yeah, that's all I got. Feel free to 'debunk' my observations as much as you please, I just want to know if there's actual basis behind everything you just said or I should go digging for 'the actual serious analysis' yet again.

i think you forgot that fandom is meant to be fun

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

James Vowles, you will not see heaven

[meeda]

🩷💜💙what bisexuality means to me🩷💜💙

bisexuality means joy • bisexuality means bliss • bisexuality means comfort • bisexuality means confidence • bisexuality means acceptance • bisexuality means truth • bisexuality means faith • bisexuality means strength • bisexuality means hope

but most importantly:

bisexuality means love

[lyfrassiredda]

introducing the unwilling captain of the Dynamos, former Inspector Second Class Lyfrassir Edda! 

The AU where lyfrassir tries to hunt the prison mechs down with their shiny new eldritch powers (and a gun) for ditching them while their system was vored by a crusty imperialist’s eldritch sugar mommy.

Unfortunately, they’re not the only survivor of a Near Mechs Encounter interested in finding the crew of the starship Aurora— not by a long shot.

[inkyweenus]

Thinking about time travel and all the secrets Lu Guang is keeping. And how long he's been keeping them.

And also what his limitations are... because I don't think he knows as much as he thinks he knows.

I've got a lot of thoughts and a lot of questions. I tried to organize them in the hopes to maybe work out some ideas, but it got a bit... Much. Weigh in if you have thoughts because...I'm clearly vibrating in place wanting to talk about this. But anyway, here we go.

How is the present affected by future dives into the past? (Alternate timelines or pre-determined track)

This section is basically me asking a lot of questions that might just be writing holes or maybe not and we just don't find out for, like, 6 years. And that's fine. I'm here for it, I just need to sort out all these theories in my head.

In S1E9, LG looks into the surveillance photo and sees CXS on the solo dive. Is this because CXS was currently in the photo? Is it because CXS had already done the solo dive and so LG was seeing the affected photo? Is it because CXS was always going to go into the photo, so LG saw the past that always was going to be?

When Liu Min called from Xu Shanshan's phone, was it because CXS was always going to set up the meeting? What if CXS hadn't come to that conclusion and didn't reveal himself in Shanshan's body? Would the call have never happened? Does Lu Guang allow this huge "deviation" because he saw it was supposed to happen? Did he lie about what he saw in the photo? Was his elevated concern in that moment he claimed was about CXS's potential mental state while of going into his friend's potentially dying body actually about CXS starting the game? Is he just as clueless as everyone else and now everything is spiralling?

Chen Xiao. Chen Xiao, Chen Xiao. Oh man. "Nothing will be affected" my ass Lu Guang. Pretty sure you created an entire person that didn't previously exist from that mission. Sure, all the people that were supposed to die in the earthquake died, but Chen Xiao did NOT have a wedding ring on when he came to the photoshop to hire them. He was a miserable man with regrets he couldn't move past, including missing his "first love." Now, I get that first loves have a lot of weight, but he's like 30+ and so desperate... this is not a man who looks at his wedding ring with care and sings his son to sleep. But he becomes that. Where did that child come from?!?

Just because the 12 hours after the photo are the same doesn't mean that the 12 years after it are. Lingering resentment--or the lack thereof-- is a strong shaping force. Also. Chen Xiao's lack of regrets from a successful mission means that he never would have hired them to dive in the first place. So to make it full circle, Chen Xiao "returns" to the photo shop (for the first time?) to have CXS develop the photos he took himself on the camera he saved from the wreckage...And, I have to assume from the implication of a new timeline, THAT is how they get paid for the job. How much are they charging to develop film? Was it worth it??

Does LG even know about this kind of change? Is it just too far out of his range to see? He didn't seem to know about Emma until he saw the news, so maybe he's limited in what he can see, but he found that article pretty fast, so maybe he knew something was happening. It's hard to know.

What are the extent of LG's powers? Is he from the future?

He always says not to ask about the "past or future." I assumed this meant the future of the past that CXS was currently in, but what if he also means the future of the present that we're currently seeing? Can he see the future of the present he's in now?

In season 1, he knew that CXS would appear as himself when he dove into the surveillance camera footage. How? It was obviously CXS's first time doing that, but maybe not LG's. If it was his first time, how did he know?

We recently learned that he can see the present through surveillance footage the same way he does looking at footage of the past. Does this mean he can also see 12 hours into the future? It's 20:44 when LG unlocks Chen Bin's phone, so it's probably around 21:00 when he uses his powers. Does he know how things will unfold? Does he see the twins moving through the building? Does he realize there are two of them?

He's obviously been up to something this whole season: watching the clock, hiding photos, opening up stitches without much physical effort beyond using his powers... 🤔

My current crack theory is that LG reopening his stitches while using his powers to watch the fight is actually related to him escaping and/or jumping off the boat to free CXS. I'm not sure how because it's definitely more than 12 hours between the events, but something is up.

It's not surprising to me that CXS and Wang Juan were controlled through touch. The moment Li Tianxi reached out her hand to shake CXS's I yelled at my TV. It looked too similar to LG reaching out to start a dive.

And I yelled even louder when she made contact

CXS can dive on his own and LG can see into a photo on his own. The physical touch only connects their minds, it's not necessary to activate the powers. Could LG touch CXS and communicate telepathically without diving into a photo if they had an activation touch? Does LJ need a time travel element to get into CXS's head?

I think Li Tianchen's powers at least are touch related because when he touched Xixi, CXS lost his connection with LG. But I think there may be something else going on with the twins. I'm just not sure what I think yet. We wouldn't know if one was possessing the other because their eyes are the same.

How do the powers manifest, and what does that mean for Lu Guang's backstory?

I think we saw the moment when Li Tianxi and/or Li Tianchen acquire powers. Was it a predisposition that unlocked during a highly traumatic moment or did it just manifest somehow from an extreme desire to take control of the situation?

Li Tianxi was a child who wanted to communicate and be present but felt trapped in her over stimulated body. Li Tianchen was a boy with strong ideals and a sense of protectiveness... without the strength of an adult body to follow through with that protection. While they were holding the photo, huddled together in close physical contact after Tianchen's head injury, one of them or the combined force of them was able to 1.) take over their mother's body and 2.) blank out Xixi's mind to the point of cutting CXS's connection with LG and eventually the whole photo. But something went very wrong along the way. Maybe some signals were crossed.

CXS is a highly empathetic person. He feels so much for everyone and wants to connect with people emotionally. And his powers reflect that. We know CXS has probably at some point had a strong enough desire to go back in time, if anything to see his parents.

What, then, do the circumstances look like for a logical, emotionally reserved--but deeply caring--person to acquire powers to see snapshots of the past? What would drive him to want to change the past so much that he manifests these powers?

We know CXS had never done a dive without LG before he temporarily went rogue in S1E9... because he didn't know he could do it until he tried.

We know S1E1 isn't the first time they dive. CXS nags LG about having heard the rules a hyperbolic amount of times. So the powers aren't new at this point. But I don't think they both had powers before they met. So how and when did they get their powers? Was it when they met? When they travelled abroad? After some accident or something?

LG just shows up in CXS's life unannounced. Twice. And that's how they got close. Was it just the random fated meeting of soulmates as per fiction standards or did LG intentionally seek out CXS for more timey-wimey reasons? Did meeting LG activate CXS's powers? Did they experience something together to have compatible abilities? Did LG already have his and teach CXS how to manifest his own? How much did LG already know before he picked up that basketball?

I have this other crack theory that I absolutely hate and don't want to be true at all and almost certainly isn't, but, like...what if if LG and CXS are actually the same person from different timelines. Like LG is a version of CXS that doesn't get to have familial love and maybe experiences too much trauma, and he goes back in time to give himself some semblance of a home and a set of rules to hone his powers without altering the timeline that he's actively changing. They're intentionally written to be two halves of a whole, and there's been more than one joke made about LG being a ghost or not existing. I hate it. But it's in my head.

One last question for today... because I have to wonder:

Who makes the rules?

Has LG just read enough books to feel knowledgeable about how time travel works? Is he from the future trying to maintain a desired outcome? Are they following the rules of a third party who's orchestrating the flow of events from a distance? Are they... Leaving their fates to the ones who aren't in control?

[eolewyn1010]

So I just stumbled across an online article that celebrates "30 years since paragraph 175 was abolished in Germany", and now I'm pissed again. Pissed in Eastern German, mind you. You make SUCH a point of East Germany when it comes to the admittedly pretty horrid election results, but you won't mention that half of Germany waved its essential farewell to Paragraph 175 all the way back in 1958? That the ties to Paragraph 175 were cut for good with the DDR's penal code of 1968? It's been at the very least 56, in effect even 66 years since East Germany had its farewell to this. But sure, pat yourselves on the back for reinforcing a homophobic law on all of Germany upon reunion, and then not getting rid of it before the year I was born. Which is, you know, A BIT LATER than it could have been. But sure, point your fingers at Eastern Germans and mutter about their right-wing mindsets and what fucking hillbillies we are.

[the-black-bulls]

I watched the BC movie with friends and I have a lot of thoughts about it. I loved the animations, the voice actors, the fights, the teamworks. It’s a must watch movie for every Black Clover fan.

However the movie also reminded me why I think Clover Kingdom is a shitty hellhole of a place with no hope for changing and that Julius is an incomptent Wizard King and the Black Bulls should’ve been vigilantes or anti-heroes or their own self-proclaimed squad untied to the system that is built to discriminate them.

I like this series but it’s full of hypocrisy and pro-authority agenda that were only ever truly highlighted by Zora before he also ended up indirectly serving it.

(TW: rant in tags).

[straight4joekeery]

Teach Me How To Love In Your Own Lyrics

(Part two)

Prev

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With the finals happening, his classes were actually quiet for once. Except for the constant “Mr. Harrington may I use the restroom?” At least they used correct grammar. His fourth period was by far his favorite of the classes (although he would never admit it). They were the smartest group and they actually listened. They got done impressively quick leaving them with 20 minuets of class. He collected their papers and leaned back on the front of his desk. “So,” he begins, “anyone have any fun summer plans?” Which he knows is like the most teachery question to ever be asked but oh well.

They all had the basic answers : going to the beach, spending time with family (he loved the kids that said this), and the classic going to spend every day at the arcade. However, there was one answer that stuck out to him.

“What about you James?”

“I get to go to my favorite bands’ concert!” He sounded so excited

“Oh really? Who?”

“Corroded Coffin! They’re coming to Indy!”

Sometimes Steve forgets how big they actually are so the answer kind of took him by surprise. “That’s awesome! Okay random question. Show of hands, who listens to Corroded Coffin?” Almost every single kid raised their hand. Wow. They are in for a treat.

“Now I’m sorry kids but I think I have you all beat, I am 100% their biggest fan.” All the kids protested. James especially about how “I don’t see your tickets!” Steve grinned “okay okay maybe not but…” he reached behind him to his desk in search for something. He pulled out 2 Polaroids. One was from about 5 years ago of him and Eddie on the swings at the local park. They may or may not have been as high as a kite, but that wasn’t important. The other was more recent. It’s the two of them in the Wheeler’s basement. Eddie is playing the most ‘metal’ song ever his guitar while Steve plays a kazoo. He smiles at the memories to himself before turning the pictures around to the kids and saying, “Is your best friend the lead guitarist?”

The kids were in awe. James stood up and pushed his way towards Steve. “You?”

“Yes?”

“Friends with THE Eddie Munson?”

“The one and only, yes.” He looked so shocked? Excited? Angry? He could not read any of his students emotions no matter how hard he tried. James turned around and sat back down with the same expression plastered on his face.

All of the class wanted to know how they knew each other. Oh. Steve had to make up a story on the spot. He really couldn’t say “oh yeah when the inter-dimensional portal opened up I went looking for him, because y’a know he had murder charges and had to hide, but anyways long story short he died and I gave him cpr, and we have been BFFS since!” So he goes with:

“Well we went to high school togeth-“

“WAIT!”

“What now James?” he sighed

“You went to school here right?

“Correct.”

“That means Eddie went to school here?!?!”

“Yeah? The whole band did, now if I can cont-“

“WHAT???”

Steve took a deep breath, “now can I continue?” James mumbled some sort of yes. Steve laughed, “Okay. So yes we went to high school together but we didn’t really now each other then. We were on opposite sides of the field I guess? He started his own d&d club. And I..” he sighed, “was on the swim team.” All the kids booed. He laughed and continued, “I know I know. Anyways, we met through mutual friends, and after all said friends left town he became my best friend, not to mention I have saved his life.” The kids were all silent except for (you guessed it) James.

“What is he like?”

“What do you mean?” He asked while looking back at the pictures.

“Like is he one of those celebrities who’s really mean in person?”

Steve snorted, “not at all, he may look like he’s really mean but I swear he’s the sweetest person I’ve ever met,” he paused and smiled, “This one time his car broke down so I drove him home and,” he giggled, “he saw a cat on the side of the road. He yelled at me to stop the car, and we had just went to get fast food, so he jumped out of the car, gabbed the cat, and started giving the cat fries. I had to force him back into the car. He cried actual tears for HOURS because he didn’t get to keep the cat. He already named it too. Get this, Jameson the third. He doesn’t even know a James let alone a Jameson.” He set the pictures down and glanced at his watch. “Oh guys we have 2 minutes before the bell rings. So yes James he’s super nice.”

When the bell rang and they all told him goodbye. They seemed more cheery then normal. He was glad for that.

It was his lunch period next. He wanted to look over some papers so he stayed in the classroom. He got done but didn’t want to leave, so he just stared at the ceiling and got lost in thought. He thought about Eddie leaving. He really got sad just at the thought. 3 months was going to be a long time. He realizes that he hasn’t even left and he misses him. The only person he’d have left in Hawkins would be the English teacher Julie Smith and to be honest she’s starting to annoy him. He doesn’t know how Eddie did it for a year. He thought that maybe Steve didn’t mean as much to Eddie as Eddie did to Steve. He quickly discarded that thought along with the tears that were now rolling down his cheek. He felt like they all needed a formal goodbye to Eddie. And that’s when he had a great idea. He picked up the phone and dialed Robin.

“Helllooooo?” She answered

“Robin.”

“Steve! What’s up?”

“I have an Idea but I kinda need your help.”

“I’m listening. ”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next

Here is part 2! To be honest this wasn’t planned at all. It was meant to be a paragraph or two of part three but oh well. More stuff for you guys 😉. I think I might love making Steve cry. Idk why I do it constantly tho. This part is also kinda short :(. Anyways hope you enjoyed! I think this one is pretty good. You can probably tell how low my self esteem is by this 🤷‍♀️. Ngl i kinda hate it. Oops. So far I have parts 3 and 4 written. I think I will post one part a day. Also part count update: it’s now going to be 7-9 parts! Comment or reblog if you want to be tagged!! Thank you for reading!! <3

Tag list: @asbealthgn @queerbeansworld @bird-with-pencils @vecnuthy !!

[tosailuponthesea]

if you're a literal god and you can't prove your girlfriend innocent until her reincarnation shows up 1000 years later to do it for you, you're bad at your job

[charmre]

Feel weird bc I told a classmate (in the closely tied writing concentration) that I didn't think that 'art director' was a legitimate school concentration/track

And they haven't responded...😬😬😬

[altfire]

sucks i cant look up starfield on any social without seeing a million posts about how bad it is and how its flop is affecting the industry. like i understand the gripes and the game def isnt the huge success bethany thought it would be but god is it a crime to want to see ANY content from actual fans

[batsplat]

Between Marc’s 2015 Cota qualifying and his 2019 Brno qualifying which one do you find more impressive. (Also, what made him such a good qualifier cause if I’m remembering correctly vale and Jorge are tied for number of career poles at 64 or something and Marc has 94 I think, did his riding style just suit fast 1 lap times?)

oh, I'm definitely more of a 2019 brno type of girl. 2015 is a fun bit, great sense of drama with the propped up bike and the sprinting and all that, good job keeping his head under pressure. but fundamentally once he gets to the line in time to do his lap, it's not all that surprising he pops it on pole at one of his specialist circuits. still, cool visuals with the bike buckling under him and everything, got the novelty value going for it. brno 2019 is more fun because it is genuinely just an exceptional performance even by his standards, and the whole session is enjoyable to watch with everyone unsure about what the right tyre call is. when they say it's started raining again!! people taking their umbrellas out while marc is clinging onto that dry line... when he does another lap and goes even faster... idk, I do enjoy a proper good mixed/wet performance anyway, that one was definitely memorable. it's also the session where he pisses off alex rins, prompting rinsy saying that marc doesn't respect other riders, so it gets an automatically boost for me in causing some much-needed drama

as for why he's such a good qualifier - well, you mention the record vs valentino and jorge, but given the respective scopes of their careers I don't think it's quite right to group them together. the tiers basically go casey/marc, then jorge somewhere in the middle, then dani/valentino at the bottom. (also, I have the ghost of jorge lorenzo on my shoulder telling me to set the record straight: he ended his career on 69 poles to valentino's 65.) not to be facetious, but the reason why marc was so good at qualifying is that... well, look, he's just an incredibly gifted rider. he's fast. or so I've heard. you wouldn't really describe him as more of a saturday than a sunday man either - he was just very well-rounded. both marc and casey were very adept at throwing the bike around the circuit whatever the conditions... just kind of that x factor that allowed them to consistently hustle up a fast lap in every situation. if anything, it's valentino who was the outlier here in terms of career achievements vs qualifying prowess - he was the one who was just such an exceptional racer that any slight shortcomings as a qualifier only ever cost him later in his career (where his qualifying did begin to drop off, but that is also an age/format thing). obviously still a very good qualifier by normal standards... it was just never his forte. valentino had a career long preference towards harder tyres (which is partly a height + weight thing in terms of getting heat into the tyres), plus he was generally at his strongest late in races when the grip of the tyres has gone and it was a lot more slippery for everyone. his working process was also a bit more... hm, incremental. languid, shall we say. than marc's and especially casey's, who of course was always the guy who was fast everywhere immediately. the way valentino went about things, he was more prone to pulling some pace out of the bag last minute - plus prioritising race set-up, playing to his strengths and banking on a decent qualifying result to be enough to keep him in the mix. and jorge's somewhere in the middle where he WAS very good at stringing together a fast lap and was also super consistent about putting that thing on the front row - just not casey/marc good - because... well, in this rather potent group of riders, that's roughly where he falls by most metrics

bit more talk about this here, but in terms of actual stats... here's how it shakes out (this is just for premier class starts and is already a little out of date for marc, I'll update some of these spreadsheets once the season's done)

and just for seasons where they were top five in the championship standings, to limit it to the broadly competitive seasons

obviously you still have to apply a little context here - for instance it'd be fair to say that casey had tougher competition on average in qualifying than either marc or valentino. but like. just to give you a broad sense of where they're at

[cesium-sheep]

it is so weird in retrospect that they make all these medical drama shows and they're all about fucking interns, like why is that. is it just cuz they're presumably younger and hotter and more volatile? but then there are so many moments where they want to emphasize the Medical Drama rather than the interpersonal drama and it's like, none of these people are qualified to do any of this. these are little infant babies. at least on house they're actual attendings.

[essektheylyss]

Because it's the first song on my afternoon daylist, sometimes I just idly remember how Castle put its eponymous character intro to "Everybody Loves Me" by OneRepublic, and honestly, what an utterly correct choice.