#[or i guess ''got them wrong'' isn't entirely correct]

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

reading dungeon meshi

[auraunbound]

[Doing this rewatch of RWBY is making me realize I got some lore details wrong.]

[antianakin]

Hey, I have a question to ask, and I'm gonna ask this to a few others cause I'm not a huge Star Wars expert on this.

Ever since The Acolyte aired, the jedi have been portrayed more as space cops. But, since when were they space cops? I thought they weren't like that. Am I wrong?

They AREN'T space cops, you're entirely correct, it's Leslye Headland who is wrong.

Here's the thing you have to understand about Leslye Headland and fans like her: they will claim to their dying day that they love the Jedi while sitting there talking about how the PREQUELS Jedi specifically were awful failures who doomed themselves by being heartless assholes who failed and/or abused Anakin and helped bring about the destruction of the Republic because they were simultaneously too political and not political enough.

When the Prequels first came out, they were received... poorly... by a large chunk of the adult audience. And it became a THING to hate the Prequel trilogy for a long time. After a while, people started deciding they didn't want to hate the Prequel trilogy, but they didn't actually LIKE some of the things in the films that were different from the legends canon that had already existed for years (primarily the way the Jedi had been interpreted), and so they chose to come up with interpretations that allowed them to "like" the Prequels better. The primary one that's become so popular as to basically end up considered the actual real intended message of the films is that the Jedi had become corrupt by the time of the Prequels, they were too old-fashioned and strict and stuck in their ways (specifically in that they forbid their members to love and were beholden to the Senate) and that this allowed Palpatine to win and Anakin to be seduced to the dark side, so they're the REAL villains of the entire story and the audience is SUPPOSED to dislike them.

In fairness to these fans, there IS a theme in the Prequels of an institute that's supposed to stand for peace and goodness being corrupted into an organization that is run by fear and greed. It's just that the institution in question is the SENATE, not the Jedi. And we spend a LOT more time with main characters who are Jedi, going out and doing cool fun Jedi adventures, than we do in the Senate with any of the known Senate characters doing political things. The only Senate character who could be considered a main character in the Prequels is Padme and a LOT of her more political scenes got cut from the films in order to focus on Anakin's story instead. Even in TCW, most of Padme's "political" episodes and storylines just devolve into action adventure plots instead. So it isn't hard to understand why people focused in on the Jedi and assumed that the story was ABOUT the Jedi rather than the politicians and picked up on a theme about corruption that was very much THERE and just misapplied it. But it's still wrong.

Leslye Headland appears to be one of those fans. A LOT of Star Wars fans of a certain age tend to follow this particular headcanon. Dave Filoni is another one of them, despite his reputation as George Lucas's "padawan" and the person who understands Star Wars the best after Lucas (spoiler alert: he's not).

So what we're getting in the Acolyte is a VERY intentional critique of the Jedi becoming more political I guess, more beholden to the Senate, and therefore becoming more like "space cops" instead of... I don't know... space Knights of the Round Table maybe? I think there's this concept that the Jedi should be more free spirited like... fairy god parents wandering the galaxy just handing out random miracles to worthy people and smiting the unworthy or some shit instead of being intergalactic ambassadors for the Republic, helping to resolve conflicts with legal backing and power.

This is something that's been around for DECADES now. It's in plenty of other books and comics that have come out during and since the Prequels, it's in TLJ, it's in TOTJ and TOTE, it's in the Ahsoka show, and now it's in The Acolyte. And it's obviously floated its way around fanfiction plenty, too. It's almost impossible to avoid if you talk to any other Star Wars fans from that age group (and even honestly fans YOUNGER than that age group because a lot of the older fans basically taught their children and younger siblings to hate the Prequels or that the Prequels were about the corruption of the Jedi, or younger fans just picked it up via osmosis if they spent almost any time within fandom the way I did). But it's becoming a thing that newer shows are really hammering in as if it's real canon. Headland genuinely believes that it is and we know that to be true because she's flat out SAID THIS in an interview she gave before the show aired. She 100% believes that the point of the Prequels, George Lucas's intended message in those films, was that the Jedi were corrupt and had fallen from grace. Her show is written with this misinterpretation of the films as a foundation for how she portrays the Jedi.

And that's how you get the Jedi suddenly feeling like "space cops" when that's so very clearly not what they are in anything Lucas ever created.

[retributory]

Thank you for the post saying Binghe wouldn't care if he found out Shen Yuan replaced Shen Jiu, I saw a post on that danmei confessions blog that was something like "Shen Yuan being compared to Helen of Troy is accurate bc they both bring ruin to those around them, since if people found out about Shen Yuan then Cang Diong would want Shen Jiu's body back for a burial (so they would basically exorcise Shen Yuan out of it I guess and he'd die again) and Luo Binghe would break up with him for not being able to trust him anymore" and that pissed me off so much bc like. Worstie how can you read the novel and be this wrong about everything in it. Personally I don't think people know Shen Yuan replaced Shen Jiu (except maybe Binghe) but if they found out about how he was forced to due to the System, like he was a hostage and cursed by some entity, they certainly wouldn't blame him or force him to leave. I mean literally the only person who would mourn Shen Jiu is Yue Qingyuan, and he likes the current Shen Yuan too! He wouldn't want him dead either. Idk how some people can misinterpret a novel's point this bad but I wish they'd stop talking about it as if they're facts

yeah idk the average user on that blog appears to be reading entirely different novels and you go in the notes and people are nodding sagely as if the posts make sense. like if the actual text of the novel disagrees with you i think you're just wrong lol.

and yeah they . . . pretty much have already guessed it isn't shen jiu anyways. like they don't know who it IS, or what exactly the truth of the situation is, because the system and such are out of their scope of knowledge, but they're quite confident in running theories like "qi deviation-induced amnesia and personality change," so they don't consider him the same guy anyways. they were actively shocked it WASN'T possession (though the possession theory is kind of correct. lol). it's also so weird to think that cqms would (for lack of nicer terms) give a fuck at all if sy DID maliciously possess sj. in the original timeline it's made pretty clear no one comes to sj's defense except yqy, because sj specifically desires that outcome. sj isn't some helpless baby at the whims of everyone around him - he specifically and intentionally seeks to ruin his own life and the lives of everyone around him, or at the very least make them as miserable around him as possible. thus, no one else likes or misses him at all, and in fact every peak lord at that meeting was jumping for joy that they got Other Guy instead of sj, which is a contributing factor to why they just decide to simply not call him out on it.

i also think (says guy who posts about svsss 3 times a day) people are like. taking it too serious. you're not supposed to be seriously considering lines of thought like that because svsss is a transmigration parody novel of xianxia power fantasies - whatever exists in the background exists purely to support the world of this satire. and while that certainly is a fun topic for meta - i enjoy reading posts like that! - it becomes irritating when the meta is framed as if somehow you are in the wrong for enjoying a novel the way it was intended to be enjoyed by the author, and that the only True way to enjoy it is through enlightened meta-contextual analysis that assumes all the characters are actually different people.

someone on that blog was like "why doesn't svsss expand on the lore and fights and characters!!!" because they don't matter to the story my friend. not every novel is lord of the rings. this is xianxia transmigration parody novel my friend. just read . . . an actual stallion novel. actually really do that because then you'll form a connection with sy because these things are written SO bad and then you'll understand him LMFAO

[runnning-outof-time]

Cyril Needed A Friend | Tommy Shelby x Reader

Request: no - written for @look-at-the-soul ‘s 900 follower celebration

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x reader

Summary: Tommy comes home from business to find that his family grew by one while he was away.

Warnings: none

Word Count: 1174

A/N: congrats on hitting 900 followers, Mar! I hope you like what I did with this little story. I couldn’t resist adding Cyril in too. Enjoy! :)

Let me know if you want to be tagged in stories similar to this one!

Tommy thanked the driver as he pulled the car around to the front door of his home. He grabbed his briefcase and opened the car's door, stepping out before looking up at the sound of nails scratching against the concrete. He immediately knew who that was, and upon looking up, he was greeted by the big, lovable lunk that was Cyril.

"Hello, Cyril," he greeted the dog, dropping his briefcase down to the ground so that he could bend down and use both of his hands to pet the dog.

"Dad!" the excited voice of his daughter, Ruby, made him look up from the dog and fix his eyes on the door of the house once more. There, he saw his daughter rushing out of the front door, something cradled in her arms, with his son, Charlie, following close behind. He could also see his wife, (Y/N), in the shadow of the doorway.

"Hey, Rubes. Hey, Charlie," he greeted both of the children, a smile on his face before he focused on what was in Ruby's arms, "what have you got there, Ruby?" he asked her, his eyebrows raised in intrigue.

"It's our new puppy, daddy!" Ruby happily exclaimed, moving closer to her father so that she could show him the dog that was nestled in her arms.

A look of surprise formed on Tommy's face, and he glanced up at (Y/N) then, seeing her leaning against the doorframe with an amused grin on her face. "Our new puppy?" he asked his daughter then, hoping he'd get some clarification. He knew nothing of this new addition to the family.

"Yes! We got him yesterday. His name is Pip and he's only a year old," Ruby gave some details of the dog as she thrusted it closer to his body. He could now see that the dog was mostly black, but had some brown on his underbelly and around his face.

"A Yorkshire Terrier?" Tommy questioned, wondering if he had his breeds correct. This dog was like the poster image for that breed though, so he was pretty sure that he wouldn't get it wrong.

"Yes, dad! How did you know?!" Ruby was thrilled by her father's answer.

"Lucky guess," Tommy grinned at his daughter, her excitement making his heart swell.

"Would you like to pet him, dad? He's super soft and he doesn't bite. I promise!" Ruby insisted.

"I hope he wouldn't bite," he commented on the second half of his daughter's statement, his words making her giggle. He smiled at Ruby before obliging her and petting the dog on the head. The pup, happy to be getting attention, pressed his head against Tommy's hand as he was being pet.

"Isn't he the sweetest?!" Ruby exclaimed, overjoyed that her father had given in and gave the dog a pet.

“He is,” Tommy appeased his daughter, hoping his smile stayed believable as his eyes found his wife’s again. She looked to be having the best time watching this interaction go down.

“Come on, Pip, let’s go inside!” Ruby exclaimed as she turned around on the gravel and made her way back to the door. Charlie, who was giving Cyril some love, stood and followed his sister, the bigger of the family’s two dogs moseying in behind them.

Tommy sent a wide eyed look to (Y/N) before he grabbed his briefcase and walked up the two, concrete steps so that he could get to where she was standing.

“Welcome back,” she greeted him, kissing his lips quickly before she pulled back to send a smile in his direction.

“When was the decision to get a second dog made?” he asked her, wanting to get the details of the new yorkie that he’d just met as soon as possible.

“A few days ago,” she responded nonchalantly, not seeing the entire situation as a big deal.

“And you didn’t think to consult me on it?”

“Oh stop treating this like it’s a matter of business, Tommy. It’s a bloody dog,” (Y/N) said to him, letting him know that he was making too big of a deal out of this, “the kids are always fighting over who gets to play with Cyril, who does not like the torture that he goes through, but he puts up with it, so I decided that they’ll have a dog each. Ruby picked this puppy out from the shelter. The workers said that he’d been there since he was a baby and that no one had shown any interest in him. We couldn’t not get him. And plus, Cyril seemed like he needed a friend…it was a win-win,” she happily gave him the run down of why she’d made this decision.

Tommy stayed silent for a few moments as he thought about what she’d said. (Y/N) looked at him expectantly, waiting for what he had to say in response. After those moments passed, Tommy let out a sigh of defeat. “How did she land on the name Pip?” he asked, switching the topic of conversation just slightly.

“Pip is short for Pipsqueak. Ruby chose that name because ‘he’s so tiny’,” she informed him, using their daughter’s exact words while explaining the decision behind the name that was chosen.

“That makes sense,” Tommy nodded, slowly but surely warming up to the idea of having a second dog around.

“He’s been really good with Cyril so far…they love each other already, I think,” (Y/N) smiled, thinking about earlier this morning when she found them curled up next to each other in the dog bed.

Tommy was about to respond, but he got cut off by Ruby, who was screaming to them from another room: “mum, Pip peed on the ground again!” Hearing this made Tommy’s eyes snap to his wife, his previous smile now gone. (Y/N) sent him a sheepish one in response.

“He may still need to work on being house trained,” she said, her words hesitant as she wondered how Tommy would respond to her statement.

He only sighed and shook his head, deciding that he’d finally head inside. Once he entered the foyer, he found Ruby, who was holding Pip with a frown on her face. “Can we please keep him, dad? I promise he won’t have any more accidents,” she said to him, using her best begging eyes.

Tommy looked at the dog and then back at his daughter. There really was no argument here. Only one answer was clear: “yes, love. We’ll keep him,” he assured her, his words making the biggest smile break out onto her features. She hugged the dog before hugging his legs in a thank you. He just patted her back softly before she ran off with the dog in her arms.

He knew one thing as he watched her run away: she couldn’t promise that he wouldn’t have anymore accidents in the house, but she damn sure would love that dog with everything she had. And who was Tommy to take that away from her?

Tagged: @mgcldydrms @the-anxious-youth @cloudofdisney @look-at-the-soul @elenavampire21 @mrsalwayswrite @julkaamazing @evita-shelby @lilyrachelcassidy @notyour-valentine @shelbydelrey @december16-1991 @onlydeadcells @peakyswritings @just-a-blackhole @watercolorskyy @strayrockette @peakyduchesss @alexxavicry @captivatedbycillianmurphy @yummycastiel @dark-academia-slut @tommystargirl @stevie75 @lyarr24 @signorellisantichrist @zablife @anotherblinder @midnightmagpiemama @cillmequick @rangerelik @lovemissyhoneybee @dandelionprints @letal-y-poetica @raincoffeeandfandoms @itscheybaby @gypsy-girl-08 @lora21 @insanitybyanothername @depxiety @dragons-are-my-favorite @sunsetbeachesandwriting @forgottenpeakywriter @cilliansangel

MASTERLIST

[chronicbeans]

Hazbin Hotel Rewrite - Worldbuilding

A reminder to everyone that I made this for FUN. I'm putting the critical tags in for those who don't like hearing rewrites and criticism of the show (which I also put in to explain why I make the changes I do).

This post is mainly about some worldbuilding changes. These include things such as how sins work, what sins are, an extra... dimension...? Reality...? Whatever Heaven, Earth, and Hell are considered to be, there's another area just for God's and Goddesses (you heard me right, there's more than just the Christian God here).

TW: Criticism of Hazbin Hotel, Criticism of Religion is Mentioned (as I feel that's what Hazbin is Trying to do but Failing), Some Parts of Lore is Purposefully Confusing Because the People in Charge Have no Idea What's Happening

The world(s) of Hazbin Hotel is going to be changed to more accurately fit what I got the vibe it was trying to do - critique Christianity's ideas of sin and redemption. However, I feel like it fails in many departments simply due to the lack of worldbuilding revolving around it. For one, what if you aren't a Christian or don't believe in the Abrahamic God in general? What is considered a sin? What isn't a sin? How does redemption work? And on a side note, how did Alastor's use of (offensively shown and represented) Voudou actually work if, supposedly, Christianity is the "correct" religion of this universe and we can guess that Voudou isn't due to no mentions of it being so?

I have something that could possibly clear up some of those things, and while it probably creates some plot wholes of it's own, it still fills the very majority ones available: All religions are true and real, meaning all Gods, Goddesses, Saints, and anything in-between are true too. The only reason why Heaven and Hell are the afterlife at the moment is because Christianity is the most common religion in the world, and because most people are expecting to go to Heaven or Hell when dying, they decided to make that the afterlife until another religion becomes the biggest. When that happens, they'll change it to whatever that religion believes the afterlife to be.

This can help with the critique of sins that I mentioned. See, in this world, because all religions are technically true, the Gods/Goddesses themselves don't know. It's become a clusterfuck that they cannot keep track of, so they have decided that whatever you believe causes eternal damnation will be a sin for you. Which, in turn, causes no one to really know what a sin is. One person got into Hell for just committing suicide, which they believed was an unforgivable sin, while someone else got into Heaven despite doing so because they didn't believe it to be a sin at all.

This can also explain how Adam got into Heaven despite not knowing what he did to get in - he is full of himself and believed he did no wrong, and none of his actions in life were things he believed were sinful. And now that he's aware that all religions are technically true, and that everything is confusing because of it, he doesn't know how to answer the question in a way that isn't even more confusing. The whole "All Religions are True" thing is confusing, which is the entire point of it.

This can also allow people to still act in ways that could be critiqued. In Hell, critiquing anybody is still hypocritical, but when you believe your own sins were not as bad as another's, it wouldn't be surprising if you decide to criticize them for that. Meanwhile, that person may not have even been in Hell for that action because they didn't believe it to be a sin. The same goes for Heaven, where people who have a holier than thou attitude may criticize others in Heaven for actions they deemed sinful in life, while that person, again, didn't see their actions as sinful.

Essentially, sin is whatever you want it to be, which makes it practically meaningless to have those rules in the first place and pointless to judge others based on it.

This would also explain Alastor's powers (which in my own rewrite will be reworked and all of the offensive stuff cut out for obvious reasons, but for the purposes of explaining this rewrite I shall mention). Because Voudou is a true religion, the powers and rituals would still hold the powers they do. The same would go with any other religion, as well, even the religions made as a criticism of certain teachings. Even Pastafarianism, aka The Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster, which was created to critique the teachings of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution, has a place among the other Gods/Goddesses. Why? Because there are people who claim to believe in it.

Speaking of places, the place where the Gods/Goddesses and Saints all stay is called The Waiting Room. It's where they wait for their turns to control the afterlife and be the most common religion. The only ones not present at the moment are the Abrahamic God and Christian Saints, as they are in Heaven keeping things running. The Waiting Room is where you can find many religious figures simply hanging out and chatting to each other respectfully and on good terms, which is a stark contrast to how many religious zealots on Earth treat others with differing beliefs. This is the place where you can walk in and see Baron Samedi hanging out at the bar with Hades, the both of them complaining to each other about how the humans are depicting them so negatively in modern media despite them not really being bad people. Then, you can look to your right and see Shiva and Vishnu fighting on whether to demolish a broken piece of furniture or to try to fix it.

I am not entirely certain yet, but it may take the form of a small world with the religious figures staying in a large hotel. In that way, it can mirror the Hazbin Hotel. While the Abrahamic God and Heaven may not approve of the idea of the Hazbin Hotel, some within The Waiting Room might approve of it. However, since they are not part of the most common religion and have no big power over what goes on in Heaven or Hell unless it involves their religion specifically, they don't have much sway.

If I'll ever make designs for the other religion's figures, I'm not sure. I don't want to accidentally mess them up, so the most I might do is make a design I had in mind for the Von Eldritch family member tricking Alastor into thinking he is Baron Samedi, which is just the Von Eldritch member dressing up in an outfit based on the popular depictions of him. Which some might see as offhandedly designing a part of Baron Samedi. However, if I were to ever write down a chapter or something involving them, I'll try to base their personalities off their depictions in their original folklore/history.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

You're analysis are always very insightful! Your considerations about Malleus' restricted options in terms of partners made me wonder if Kalim would end up in a similar situation as him. This is of course entirely speculation, since we don't know much about how his parents got together, but to me it makes sense that in the future he might have to deal with something like an arranged marriage. He isn't royalty, but the Asim family still has a great deal of commercial and political sway in the Scalding Sands, so it's difficult for me to believe that they would just let the heir marry whoever he chooses. And despite how carefree he may act, I don't think he would reject an arrangement made by his family. He seems pretty aware of all the obligations that come with being an heir to the Asim. Besides, rejecting a spouse that was chosen for him might put said person under a lot of public scrutiny, and I don't think he would want anyone to go through that

[Referencing this post!]

Oh, hmmm 🤔 I actually never really though about this kind of thing for Kalim so I guess now is as good of a time as any www.

I do think like there would be some selectiveness involved for Kalim too, given the financial power and political influence in the Scalding Sands that the Asims hold (and that's not even mentioning their connections via family, some of which are royalty, and business partners). There's also been several attempts on Kalim's life, so there would probably be an intense screening and background check process for anyone courting Kalim. Who knows if they're actually there to kidnap him or to take his life??? The Asims would have very legitimate concerns, so they have every right to be vigilant and suspicious of those who may try to take advantage of Kalim's kind-heartedness and gullibility.

Mm, I do feel like (overall) Kalim wouldn't be in as much of a tight spot as Malleus?? I get the sense that his parents are way more open-minded and truly care about his happiness (unlike the Briar Valley senators) so they wouldn't exactly force him to marry someone he doesn't actually love. Rather than a "you have no say in this matter" arranged marriage, they might instead present Kalim with a pool of potential candidates that have already been vetted and encourage him to try them out? Like, go on various blind dates and see if he "clicks" with any of them. There would be more trial and error, more exploration allowed (since there isn't as much of a demand for Kalim to have an heir, especially not right away; he has so many other siblings and family members who could help or assume roles in the business). I believe this is similar to how matchmaking is done in some Asian countries (although I'm not too familiar with the concept, I've only learned a little about it through some podcasts). From my understanding, they try to "match" applicants with someone of a similar social ranking as you (so in Kalim's case, he would probably be meeting people who are also mega wealthy) and based on what you (and oftentimes your family) are looking for. If it doesn't work out, then there's less of a chance for backlash since pretty much anyone can use these services and a perfect match isn't a guarantee, especially on the first attempt. Please feel free to correct me if I got any information here wrong!! ^^

[totallyveryallosexual]

I see a lot of people say that people self diagnose neurodivergence because it's "quirky" or cool or something, which shows a lack of understanding of self diagnosis that I would like to correct.

1. I personally do not think I have autism because I "saw a tiktok and related to it". I think I have autism because I fulfill the diagnostic criteria that I have looked into extensively. I have sensory difficulties. I get overwhelmed by sound, and light, and the wrong fucking texture un my clothes or food. I was made fun of my entire childhood for "taking things too seriously", and I took what people said at face value, because I took things far too literally. I spent my entire childhood figuring out how to act normal, how to say the right thing at the right time so I wouldn't be made fun of or excluded. I am extremely comforted by various types of stimming, but was punished as a child for anything considered fidgety or abnormal. I love biology, and can infodump to you about genetics (special interest) for hours. This is an interest that can be considered abnormal, and it has consumed most of my available brain space for many years. Also, every single autistic person I've ever met has clocked me in about five seconds and immediately told me I have autism. The truth is, people don't self-diagnose themselves with a highly stigmatized disorder unless it is seriously impacting their lives.

2. Autism, especially in girls and bipoc, is often missed. If they can learn to mask it, it doesn't get diagnosed. I got straight A's all throughout high school, and I had teachers tell me that they thought I had autism, but that it was probably fine because it didn't impact my academics or my life. Spoiler alert: it did! People think that when a seemingly functional person claims to have autism, they are hopping on a trend, but most of the time, they are suffering. I was depressed and sometimes suicidal before I figured out I had autism. I got called a psychopath for things that should have been recognized as symptoms of autism, and a lot of the time I believed it because I didn't have any other words for myself. Our society is shitty and if you aren't a little cis white boy, it's much harder to get diagnosed.

3. Diagnosis is expensive, and hard to access! A lot of people don't realize that it's a privilege! It costs a lot of money to get diagnosed, money that not everyone can afford. It's also hard to get a diagnosis because of social stigma, especially if you figure out you have some form of neurodivergence under the age of 18. I'm a month shy of being a legal adult, and I know that while I'm working towards it, it will be a while before I can get properly tested and diagnosed. My mother, who would scream if she ever saw me wearing noise cancelling headphones in public, is not going to help me get a diagnosis. My mother, who has thrown what can practically be considered temper tantrums over me stimming (literally just tapping my fingers against each other) is not going to help me get a diagnosis. The children of parents who aren't ready to give up their image of a perfect child and think autism can be wished away don't have the same access to diagnosis as the children of parents who are willing to work with them and contribute financially, and neither does any adult who has gotten through life alright but struggles financially because They Have A Disability!!!

In conclusion, don't shame people who diagnosed themselves. I absolutely think the end goal should always be to work toward a professional diagnosis, but that isn't always feasible for people, and we can't sit around slowly drowning in the meantime. If you are worried about self diagnosed people taking away resources: guess what, there are no resources!

Self-diagnosis shouldn't be quick. It comes after a long time spent diving through symptoms and diagnostic criteria. But it gives people without access to diagnosis the ability to nonetheless understand themselves better. For me, it means being able to say "I'm overstimulated, I'm going to find a quiet place" instead of sitting and suffering. It means being able to say "I'm going to sit on the floor instead of my desk, because that grounds me and stops me from spiralling". It means stimming when I'm overwhelmed, and stopping when I need to, all without shaming myself or thinking of myself as lesser for not being able to do things I was told I should be able to.

[accirax]

Revisiting My Original DRDT Death Predictions

If you haven't been following what's going on over at @av-multifangan, Venus and I have been posting one of our fangans, Danganronpa: One Shot. Hooray! But, more relevantly to this post, we also posted the rules to a game that we've been playing for a long time-- a game through which you can score your performance at guessing how a fangan's kill order will go after viewing only its prologue.

Said old game was also invoked when we began watching DRDT, so I thought it would be a fun trip down memory lane to see what my genuine initial predictions for the entire killing game were after viewing just a little over an hour of Despair Time content.

While all of us non-cast-and-crew members obviously don't know the entire kill order at this point, I can rest assured that these predictions, well... ain't it. But, that's part of the point! To prove that even the creators of this predictions game can be terrible at it, and that there's no shame in making a guess and then changing your mind!

... Oh boy.

SPOILERS for DRDT through the end of Chapter 2, and IMPLIED SPOILERS for SDR2 and v3!

Well, no use in dilly-dallying. Here's my predictions sheet:

(god damn why is the quality so bad--)

If you haven't read the rules of our game, I'll quickly summarize them here. You have to predict the killing game using the most standard formula: one Chapter 1 victim and killer, one Chapter 2 victim and killer, double kill in Chapter 3 with one killer, one Chapter 4 victim and killer, one Chapter 5 victim and killer, and four survivors with a "surviving" (until Chapter 6) mastermind. These roles are listed out in rainbow order (Chapter 1 death = red, Chapter 6 = purple), and victims are marked with an X while killers are circled. The survivors are circled in purple, with a cyan star on the suspected mastermind.

At the end of the game, you gain points based on how far off you were, such that a low score is good. It's +2 points for getting the role wrong (victim vs killer/mastermind vs survivor), with an additional +1 point per chapter for how far you are off from the characters' last.

Although the quality is low, hopefully you can figure out what I predicted using those instructions-- or the image ID, if it's still too tricky. And, of course, I'm going to go through all of my choices below, starting with

XANDER in the role of CHAPTER 1 VICTIM

"Accirax," you may ask. "Why are you acting so doomed about your predictions when you literally got 1/4 of the confirmed deaths correct?" Unfortunately, my friend, I was already spoiled about Xander's death before I started watching DRDT. I'm very grateful that I had no idea about the circumstances of Xander's death (AKA, him stabbing Teruko) going in. But, I think I'd seen some thumbnail somewhere of Xander's BDA and knew he was a goner.

Hence, this was a free 0 pointer for me. I'm not that cool.

ARTURO in the role of CHAPTER 1 KILLER

Now, why I thought Arturo of all people would be the one to kill Xander is beyond me. I think my rationale was that, at the time, Arturo was giving me early death vibes, and this was the only spot I could put him in?*

This is one of the predictions that I know is wrong, because the Chapter 1 killer spot has already elapsed. The best I could do now points-wise is if Arturo is the Chapter 3 killer (I'd get +2 points for being two chapters off), which is definitely still feasible! Still, I wonder now if Arturo's vibe is too obvious for being a killer, and if he would ever be willing to put ~Julia Rosales'~ life in jeopardy by attempting to escape. J certainly isn't doing herself any favors with that Felicity reveal, at least.

ROSE in the role of CHAPTER 2 VICTIM

*This is where things get... a little complicated. As I already said, I had been spoiled to the fact that Xander was the Chapter 1 victim. However... I also thought I had been spoiled to the "fact" that Rose was the Chapter 2 victim?

I really don't know how this happened. I have a distinct memory of seeing a Tumblr post containing something that sort of looked like what I imagine an Ultimate Art Forger Lab could look like(?) talking about how the characters needed to investigate to figure out who killed the Ultimate it belonged to. I thought I remembered seeing Rose's face, but this was before I had ever watched any DRDT content. So, it's possible I had the wrong fangan, or accidentally stumbled into someone's AU.

It was pretty funny looking back on my Chapter 2 viewing experience, though. When Teruko got Rose's secret, I was like, "oh, it totally makes sense that DRDTdev would give Teruko Rose's secret as a natural way to hear about Rose's backstory before she dies. Clever." And then we got to the day of the motive reveal, and Rose is there, and David says that Arei of all people is missing, and my jaw dropped. "Spoilers," indeed.

It sucked for me at the time of making this sheet, though, because Rose was, like, the only woman I got survivor vibes from (other than Teruko). But, I thought I couldn't mark her as such! Of course, Rose could be a Chapter 3 victim for all I know, meaning that being "forced" to put her in this spot could actually be good for my predictions. However, scoring 0 points on Rose is fully off the table now, which is a bummer.

DAVID in the role of CHAPTER 2 KILLER

"Why couldn't you have put Arturo as Chapter 2 killer--" I also thought I had been spoiled that David was the Chapter 2 killer. If I didn't make Arturo the first killer, the earliest I could have put him would be Chapter 3 victim, which is hardly early at all. And yes, I thought I'd been spoiled on three out of "four" of the canonical deaths when I originally watched the series. That's just my life (/lh).

At least this one is obvious to figure out why I thought it was the case. I started watching DRDT in May of 2023, about a month and a half after 2-11 dropped. Hence, I knew DRDT was on hiatus, but I was under the impression that it was a hiatus after Chapter 2 had finished. I'd also seen 2-11's thumbnail, recognized it as David, and (along with having spoilers about David's "true personality") concluded that David must be the Chapter 2 killer.

Live footage of me watching 2-11 for the first time:

"Ah, there he goes... Man, we're gonna have to wrap this murder up quick, huh? I guess that's why he's admitting to it... Haha, 'Teruko, we fucked up'... WAIT, WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S A HIATUS ON AN UNSOLVED MURDER?!"

I decided quickly afterwards that I no longer believed that David would be the Chapter 2 killer.

Finally, we're done with roles that already happened/that I had "spoilers" for! You'd think that would automatically make them better (because most of them, at least, have not been disproven), but there are still plenty of things that contradict what I believe will happen now, at least.

LEVI and HU in the role of CHAPTER 3 VICTIMS

Relatively, though, this one isn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, these two aren't my leading candidates for Chapter 3 victims, but I'm not actively opposed to this happening.

The idea of Levi nearly evading dying at the end of Chapter 2 only to actually become a victim in Chapter 3 is a little puzzling, but still narratively on the table, imo. So much happens in a DRDT Chapter's worth of daily life that Levi could definitely still serve enough of a narrative purpose to justify his continued survival/eventual victimhood in that Chapter. Especially if that purpose had something to do with the fact that he was injured-- for instance, if it's important for an Arturo arc of learning that he actually enjoys taking care of others, or if the killer has to exploit Levi's injuries in order to have the strength necessary to take him out.

Meanwhile, I've long held the opinion that Hu will be a big character in the Chapter 3 Daily Life by virtue of not having done a whole lot in the Chapter 1 or 2 Daily Lives-- she definitely has content, but the majority of the important stuff occurs in the Chapter 2 Trial. Currently, I'm of the opinion that that spike of content wouldn't result in a same-Chapter death, but following in the footsteps of Xander and Arei, it definitely could. Same with Levi if he's a Chapter 3 focus, honestly.

J in the role of CHAPTER 3 KILLER

I really still want to believe that J will be a killer. Why? It's because, in my opinion, Ultimate Effects Artist is a talent that is totally optimized for being a blackened, whether it actually happens or not. You know why the idea of J and Arei swapping places was so popular? Because Ultimate Effects Artist is the kind of talent you give someone if you want to pull a trick like that off!

However, all of that "murder is despicable" talk is really cramping my style. Why would J ever become a blackened after opposing the idea of murder so openly?

(It'd be pretty funny if it was all an act so that people would use that as an argument to her credit down the road.)

It's possible she could have a crisis of faith/breaking point that would change her mind, but I doubt that would occur as quickly as Chapter 3. Or result in her killing two people. Sigh.

AREI in the role of CHAPTER 4 VICTIM and EDEN in the role of CHAPTER 4 KILLER

OKAY HEAR ME OUT BEFORE YOU ACCUSE ME OF CALLING EDEN EVIL--

Chapter 4 is, oftentimes, the sacrifice chapter, right? It's a killer that makes everybody cry, because they'd never normally do something like this, but ultimately decided to kill in order to spare their friends and take the bullet themselves. I'm, like, 99% sure that's what I was imagining for Eden. Whatever the motive may be, Eden would be the small and scrawny sacrifice killer in sort of a reversal of the buff curse...

... taking out the mean bully girl that everybody hated as the victim, if she had to choose someone.

I'M SORRY I'M SORRY STOP HITTING ME WITH ROCKS-- (/j)

But yeah, I definitely remember predicting that part of the surprise of the case was that the small nerdy girl was able to take out the Ultimate athlete mean girl. I don't know how I managed to deduce that Eden and Arei would have an important relationship with one another after the prologue (in which they don't really talk at all, to my memory), yet managed to get it so horribly wrong. Predicting that Eden would kill Arei was just in my DNA, I guess, even if I originally envisioned it for a different chapter.

In the light of Ace being declared the Chapter 2 killer, this one is just embarrassingly wrong. Evidently, Eden would never stoop as low as to kill Arei. The good news for me, I suppose, is that Arei will only net me +2 points, as the role was correct (V=V) while the chapter was 2 off (4->2).

As for Eden being the Chapter 4 killer, that's not one of my top spots for her. If I had to pick, I'd probably guess either Chapter 3 victim (especially if paired with Charles Ch3 Victim, this could really knock the wind out of Teruko's sails if needed), Chapter 5 victim (allows her a long period in the story that isn't a survivor nor a killer), or just a survivor (and/or mastermind). If she were to be a killer, then maybe I'd predict Chapter 4 along the sacrifice angle? Not with Arei, though.

MIN in the role of CHAPTER 5 VICTIM

+6 points (5->1) (V->K) on Min is... not the greatest score. In fact, it's only one fewer than the general max possible character score of 7, reserved for Chapter 1 deaths mistaken as Survivors and vice versa.

I think my original prediction for Min was that she would not necessarily be Teruko's support character emotionally, but that she would be a useful aide when it came to solving the mysteries of the Class Trial. Then in Chapter 5, to force Teruko/the other innocent students to solve the high-stakes Trial on their own, she would have to disappear.

Looking back on it, I really enjoy how Teruko is far and away the best at solving the Class Trials in DRDT-- she would have already earned the title through her connections to, like, literally every character and theme in the story, but making her the principal mystery solver really hammers the idea that she should be the protagonist home. Having Min be on Team Spotless for even one Trial might have diminished that effect, so it makes sense that she became the first blackened. Girl was too powerful to live, smh.

WHIT in the role of CHAPTER 5 KILLER

Personally, I've always gotten the vibe that Whit is one of DRDTdev's Special Little Guys. Perhaps it was the way that he showed up in three character introductions-- Charles', Hu's, and his own-- that made me think he had Favorite Character Privileges. As such, even when (get ready for a truth bomb) I didn't really like Whit after watching the Prologue for the first time, I always thought he had late game energy.

(I don't know how much it really comes across from my blog, but I'm actually fairly critical of new series when I pick them up for the first time, unless I've heard many positive recommendations from friends/online personalities I admire. Other than the spoilers, I hadn't heard too much about DRDT before I started watching it, so, unaware of DRDTdev's writing skills, I was worried that Whit would essentially be a poor man's Kokichi. As someone who really likes Kokichi, that biased me against Whit. Then, of course, I actually watched the series and Whit won me over very quickly. And the rest is history :) )

I’m not really sure why I went killer over victim, other than the possible “I’m making Min the victim and therefore Whit has to be the killer.” Maybe it was that Kokichi-ness that made me think that he'd be the man behind the slaughter? ... Even if Kokichi wasn't actually the blackened in that case? It might've also been an effect of wanting him to be just that much closer to surviving, to fully break the hearts of everyone who was rooting for this Special Little Guy to survive.

Like, uh... me. Um. Well, I do genuinely currently think Whit will survive right now, so... I'm willing to take a +3 if that's true!

TERUKO in the role of MASTERMIND

Yeah, I predicted that Teruko would be the mastermind because I'm a basic bitch (/aff). Uh, I'm not being affectionate towards myself, to be clear. I'm only being affectionate to those who still hold the (fairly, I think) popular opinion that Teruko will be the mastermind of DRDT. She's a popular choice because there's a lot going for her! I still ranked her as third most likely back in my mastermind analysis!

Everyone who plays Venus' and my game is forced into the same default formula (to make comparative scoring easier), and that formula locks in the protagonist as a Chapter 6-er, because of how frequently that is the case. Even so, I feel fairly confident now that Teruko will survive until Chapter 6 anyways. The more times she says "I'm the Ultimate Lucky Student and I can't die" and then doesn't die, the weirder it would be if she suddenly did drop dead in, like, Chapter 4.

As for whether she actually is the mastermind... dude, I have no idea. Back at the time I wrote that post, I named J and Rose as my most likely candidates, but now J has gone on a whole anti-murder bend and I'm growing increasingly worried that Rose is going to be the Chapter 3 killer (probably unfounded, but still). That would leave Teruko as the most likely option, but Teruko's behavior at the end of Chapter 2 felt anti-mastermind coded to me, too, even if she forgot about it...!

We are not reviewing my mastermind theories here and now. Next!

CHARLES in the role of SURVIVOR

If you're a giant fucking nerd (/j), you might have noticed that I said I made my DRDT predictions after viewing "just a little bit over an hour of Despair Time content." However, the Prologue is under an hour. What gives?

Well, I... broke the rules of our game, actually. You're supposed to make your predictions sheet after viewing the Prologue only, but I went straight from watching the Prologue into Chapter 1 on the same day, and I forgot to make my sheet until watching Chapter 1 Episode 1. Sue me.

At any rate, I'm sure you can figure out how watching 1-1 would make me think that Charles would survive. Obviously, I knew that other characters beyond Charles would get focus in later episodes, but that still doesn't change the fact that DRDTdev chose to highlight Charles and Teruko's relationship as the first thing we saw in the first chapter of their story. Even without that extra content, though, he's also very reminiscent of Danganronpa's "Jerk" archetype, which survived in every canon DR game.

All that said... obviously, I don't think he's going to survive anymore.

I've been saying that Charles is a Chapter 3 victim-- at least since that analysis I just linked, even-- and I will probably continue to say it until proven false by the story itself. He is simply arcing too fast, and Whit needs to be confronted with that grief he prefers to ignore, no matter what his eventual placement is. We got one real Trial with Charles to prove what a smarty-pants he is, but now that he's pulled that "out of your element" card, he's off to break down into two or more simpler substances. AKA, decompose.

If he's not a Chapter 3 victim, though, Survivor is at least back on the table.

ACE in the role of SURVIVOR

Here we have it! Proof positive that I (falsely) believed that Ace would be a survivor all on my own, without taking into account anyone else's opinions! My incorrectness is mine and mine alone!!! (/j)

So, yeah. Funny coward man go brrrr and character arc into survival, except then he didn't. I have to imagine that's the basic premise behind why so many people believed that Ace would survive. I don't really have much to say about this choice beyond that.

I don't like that I'm already tanking another +6 points (S->K) (6->2) from Ace, though. Save me Xander-zero-point spoilers, you're my only hope.

VERONIKA in the role of SURVIVOR

Whaaaaaaaat was I cooking here?

I guess I kind of remember. I think I was imagining Veronika along the lines of a poor man's Sonia (like I said, critical) due to her more apologetic attitude towards rambling and presenting others with horror concepts in the Prologue. With my prediction that Whit would die in Chapter 5, I guess I might've also been thinking that Veronika could then fill in that "comic relief" void in his absence? I also had Ace there, though. Moot point; every DRDT character has the capacity to be hilarious.

There are a lot of places I could see Veronika landing in this killing game, but survivor really isn't one of them. I could see Veronika as a Chapter 3 victim or killer for The Vibes, Chapter 5 victim or killer if she takes on more of a main antagonist role, or Mastermind also for The Vibes. But survivor is just... odd. At least from this point in the story, what business does the "fangirling over acevi dying" girl have taking up one of those coveted survivor slots? Surely either someone would think to kill her or she would decide to kill before four more chapters elapse!

That being said, locking in Veronika as a late game character isn't terrible in my eyes. Being "barred" from making Rose a survivor, I remember that Veronika was the girl who I initially got the second most late game energy from. Those Chapter 5 or Mastermind scenarios won't score terribly here if they come to pass.

NICO in the role of SURVIVOR

I want to mention here that, despite my other spoilers, I did not know that Nico was nonbinary going into Despair Time. Therefore, I didn't make Nico a survivor under the premise of "I'll have two girls, two boys, and one enby survive!" I don't really remember why I did make Nico a survivor, though.

My best guess is that I put them there for cast composition purposes. From the Prologue, all of Charles, Ace, and Veronika are pretty over-the-top in their own ways: Charles is overly condescending, Ace is really loud, and Veronika is an exaggerated fangirl. Adding in a quieter character like Nico would have been a nice way balance to the others... or at least, so I thought with only the Prologue to go off of. Now I know that Ace and Nico surviving together was incredibly unlikely to be the case.

Speaking of Ace, now that he's dead (and therefore can't be a survivor), my opinions of whether Nico could survive have definitely gone up. However, I still don't think that Nico surviving is particularly likely.

There's definitely potential for redemptive survivors in DRDT with the "fighting your fate" theme they seem to be setting up. But, I think that's more likely to play out with someone who might have committed murder before the killing game (like Levi) or someone who did terrible things, but never went so far as to physically attempt another student's murder (like David), than someone who actually attacked someone else and nearly succeeded. For media in general, I think it's much easier for audiences to forgive something that happened off-screen and/or to characters that barely exist than something that we saw visible evidence of on a character who many people adore. Nico's attempted murder just seems like a big hurdle to overcome on their path to survival, dude.

That being said, I've written before that for both in-universe and meta reasons, I don't think we'll ever see Nico as a blackened, which already eliminates, like, half of my options moving forward. Logically, that would conclude that if I don't think that Nico will become a victim, then they're likely to survive. I do (currently) think that Nico will probably be a victim sometime in the future, even if I'm not certain in which chapter. For the sake of my score on Nico specifically, I guess I'm rooting for Chapter 5. I already know that they wouldn't be robbing Min of a perfect zero, at least.

And that's my tally so far, a total of 14 points out of a possible... well, I actually don't know what the highest possible score is, both because math is hard and because I don't know what bonus rules, if any, will come into play in DRDT's future. It's 14 points across 4 characters, which comes out to an average of 3.5 points per character.

Comparatively, most of our game sheets have come out somewhere in the high-30 to mid-40 points range (predicting is hard). Across 16 characters, means that it's usually an average of, like, 3 points per character. So, I'm doing worse than usual, but not by a whole lot...!

But, how well I do isn't what matters. The important thing is that I had fun while making it, and got to think about what patterns and possibilities can arise when you look at the basic facts of a character's simplified personality and talent in time with their role in the story!

So if you want to have fun making a predictions sheet like this of your own, you should totally go read Danganronpa: One Shot's Prologue (before Chapter 1 starts airing on Friday) over at @av-multifangan and fill out that game's prediction sheet. That would mean that this shameful shameless attempt at cross-promotion would have succeeded at one of its desired effects! Or, if that's not your cup of tea, you could also fill out a predictions sheet for DRDT moving forward, and just acknowledge that Xander, Min, Arei, and Ace were placed after the fact. Who knows, maybe I'll make a sheet like that too, so we can compare.

Thanks for walking down memory lane with me, and I hope to be back with more DRDT content soon!

[spinji]

Do you have any idea why Nana continued to dehumanize Shigaraki after learning that her murderer groomed him to be evil?

I think what a lot of people don't get with the whole "you might have to kill Shigaraki" thing is that Nana (and Torino by extension) aren't removing his autonomy when they say that.

At a certain point, it doesn't matter who's fault it is for turning someone into a villian. The entire purpose of Deku's rematch with Muscular is to make it clear that some people aren't going to stop destroying things and hurting people by talking about their abusive dad or their dead mom or whatever tragic circumstances led them here.

Tomura has also reached a similar point, refusing to compromise on his goal to destroy the causes of his suffering. That includes both All for One and the society that left him to rot. AFO meticulously planned a lot of Tenko’s misfortune but he didn't manipulate the strangers that passed him on the street. He didn't create that feeling of abandonment, only pointed it in the wrong direction. Tomura not making this choice for himself because he was groomed genuinely doesn't matter anymore because these are his choices now. He's shown multiple times to understand that AFO is using him against All Might and for his own ends, but he doesn't try to get away and turn to the heroes; he tries to get away so he can be a villian on his own terms.

It's easy to forget, since he's the protagonist, but Izuku's optimism about saving the crying boy at the core of who Tomura is, is a massive outlier and his leaps in logic aren't always solid. Nana is very callous when she talks about it, my personal guess is it's because she's still not fully willing to face her sense of guilt that her attempt to save her son from AFO led to the creation and abuse of Tomura. But she is still correct, regardless of what pain lingers inside Tomura, it is too late to help him.

Even when Izuku reaches his hand to Tenko when he is at his absolute most vulnerable, he maintains his loyalty to the league. He's been cast from society for so long that there's nothing that can convince him to stop. He would rather die destorying than live in a world he couldn't change.

In fact most of the major deaths in the league maintain this theme. Twice would rather die fighting than let his friends get screwed over by his own shortcomings again. Toga would rather die a free girl that lived as she pleased than fall in line with society. The heroes didn't choose to kill any of them from the outset, they could have gone quietly at any time to save their own skin, but their cause was more important.

This is what Nana means when she maintains that Shigaraki dying is a possiblity that needs to stay on the table, because he won't allow anything that isn't victory or death. It's tragic but I think it helps convey the message that the ending wants to, that change in how we treat the strange and disparaged doesn't just need to happen, but it needs to happen sooner. You can't just wait until a villian tries to blow up the country to try and help them, you need to give that kindness to everyone before those villians can even exist.

Sorry this got off topic because I really hate how people simplify the ending as bad writing when to me it seems really obvious that Horikoshi was going for a bittersweet ending with the league. They did destroy society but didn't live long enough to see what it rebuit into because even trust in one person trying to save them isn't enough when you're this far gone.

Either way, Horikoshi's writing style leads to a lot of necessary intuiting about the characters to actually understand the motivations for how they act. I think Nana ends up being a particularly rough victim of this because her stoicism and blunt attitude is very obviously supposed to be a front.

She opened herself up to others and All for One killed her loved ones, so she guards her heart the best she can to avoid showing more weaknesses. She does feel like a failure to her legacy; she never fully believes she made the right choices regarding Kotaro or Tomura. But if she cracks then not only is she done but AFO will make it his duty to twist the knife and hurt the people she cried for too.

She's a contrast to Izuku serving as a cautionary what-if scenario if Izuku's big open heart just makes more people targets by association (which it does!). She's not entirely right when she calls Tomura a monster but she isn't being entirely honest with herself either.

[cidr-monologic-trials]

TRIAL PART 1 IS OUT, LET'S TALK ABOUT IT!

I can't belive it actually happened, but the first half of the trial is actually out. At the time of writing this, currently been 17 hours since it come out, the reason I didn't make this post earlier (aside from timezone shenanigans) was because I wanted to leave some time for everything to settle in before giving any thoughts.

Now, I want to start by taking a look back at some points from the trial and comparing them with my original theory.

How Star's Portals work!

While I correctly guessed that Star used her portals to move to the kitchen undetected, I backfired on how they work.

My original theoiry was that the Portals allowed the user to move through the floors as normal, but coudn't teleport the user anywhere else.

The actuall way they work is that they allow the user to temporally, create holes in most walls (depending on the thickness.)

I actually remember seeing someone theorize that the portails might work that way, so while I got it wrong, props for those out there that correctly guessed it.

Cartman is the second witness!

While I did mention my suspictions of Cartman saying the truth uncontolably being a side effect of the sauce on previous responses to ASKs. I completley ignored it on my OG theory, and as such, I think a mention is necesary.

That said, I still maintain that he used the Monosauce to alter the scene of the crime.

While this might not seem posible at first due to him deniying seeing any of them or Star in the kitchen, with him still being under the side effects of the Monosauce confirming he isn't lying.

Cartman has shown that unless he is specifically asked about something, he does have some controll over the truth serum by means of saying half-truths.

Meaning that while we know he didn't see any of them, we still don't know what he saw in the kitchen. Him making sure to not mention seeing Cupcake, seems to me like an small hint that he did see something in the kitchen. Why try to hide it if by that point it had been confirmed that Cupcake saw him?

I think the important part in Cartman statement here is that he didn't see ANY OF THEM. He coul've perfectly seen Star's body, unrecognizable by either the darkness of the room, the killer covering Star with the Sweater and Sky mask, triying to hide her in the cabinet etc... But since he didn't know it was specifically her, he was able to loophole his way out of being forced to say what he saw.

And talking about Star...

THE MYSTERIOUS MONOKALLER!

This was the last point that was brought up in the trial as a means of creating suspense for part 2 as now our main suspects are Jenny & Mabel, the only ones without their Monokallers.

In my originall theory I theorized that the Monokaller originally belonged to Jenny, before it fell off during the scene in the Gym. And the fact that she dosen't have hers seems to indicate I was correct in my guessing.

Mabel also not having her, I think is just a red hearing sice, most people where expecting her to be the culprit due to her close conection with the main character.

Ultimatley both of them being presented as irrefutable culprits I think is just suposed to be something to draw our attention away from the real culprit and into the two characters most voted as guilty, so we can have a twist later on about who the real killer is.

And speaking of later, I'll like to point out some things that got mentioned but didn't get a full answer.

STAR WAS TIED UP!

I'm guessing this will be covered in the second half as while the posibility was mentioned, the conversation was quickly derailed to Catman being a suspect due to him being in the kitchen last night.

THE BLACK SWEATER & THE SKY MASK!

This was one of the most discused about points, before Gaz redirected everyone's atention towards the Monokallers. As such I think is pretty safe to say we will be coming back to this in part 2.

But for now the thing we landed on, was the fact that the killer went around the entire floor just to drop the sky mask in it's place.

My theory for this, is that the killer returned the sky mask in case someone noticed that one was missing and decided to investigate in peoples rooms in search of it, returning it now, intead of during the investigation where there's more chances to be caught. And also using that as an oportunity to leave Jenny's monocaller on Mabel's lab as a means of incriminating her. The knife as I mentioned on my OG theory, I think it was Carman meddling with the Crime scene.

Also, we know there's a secret passageway that conects that floor with Dipper's bedroom, who at thay point was empthy. The painting that acts as an exit can't normally be opened from the outside, but that woudn't be a problem with Star's scissors, so if the killer discovered that that was there he could've have used it to move between floors.

And... I think that's everithing I wanted to talk about!

My opinions on the case haven't changed that much to be honest, after seeing everyones interactions during the trial I still think Morty did it, with a very slight suspiction towards Bubbles.

Although at this point, I don't care if I was right and Morty is the Killer, I just need Mabel to be inocent.

I've been triying not to get personal feelings for the characters get in my way of analizing the case, but I'm sorry, Mabel killing an innocent person just to save Waddles, specially at the very begining of the Killing game when the characters are suposed to be closer to their OG counterparts is just no.

I'm sorry but that sound more like the version of Mabel that the internet made up, and led to the "You are extremly selfish, die" meme. And i'm really hoping that's not the route CiDr takes with her character.

As allways, feel free to leave any coments or send any asks about what you thought of the trial or my own theories.

[itsclydebitches]

ted's, "it's not about me. it never was"

and all I felt from trent was, "oh, but it was"

I thought trent was going to stick to his word and tell ted why he was wrong...

but I guess ted just summed up his outlook and something trent so loves him for, so trent couldn't deny ted's wish. but there's got to be a future out there where, while still published as "the richmond way," trent still goes on and tells ted why, for trent, ted was entirely wrong about that.

I feel like in the show I want Ted Lasso to be -- and, crucially, the show I thought it was; the show it arguably should have been based on every other episode that came before this -- Trent would have corrected him. Because this is not an acknowledgement that Richmond doesn't belong to Ted, or even Rebecca, which is a reminder that I like. Ted allowing the fans to sit in on the practices and Rebecca selling portions of the club to people like Mae highlights the heart of the team, that this club "means something" to the community, to quote Trent. However, the book is explicitly, specifically about this particular season of football and how Richmond came to have their Cinderella moment... which is all due to Ted. I get why "Believe" is framed as the fourth factor in Total Football (and frankly I think it would have been a better title for Trent's book if he had to reject The Lasso Way), but belief is only the end result of the work Ted has done. Anyone could have waltzed into Richmond and said, "Believe in yourself!" but it wouldn't have done a damn thing because it was the unique approach of The Lasso Way that taught everyone what belief really means. Ted is the fourth aspect because it is only through his methods that generic concepts like Belief, Friendship, Trust, Compassion, etc. become understood well enough to be implemented despite the obstacles.

So yes, I think Ted is wrong. Trent isn't arguing that Richmond belongs to him, he's arguing that Ted irrevocably changed Richmond for the better... which is true. But the finale doesn't commit to that argument because, frankly, the finale commits to VERY little that the rest of the show lays out.

Ted Lasso spent its whole runtime arguing for Roy/Keeley and then dodged it at the last moment.

The finale argues strongly that Rebecca is already a metaphorical mom to the team and the fans, but then throws in a literal, blonde-haired blue-eyed daughter in at the last second.

The show has consistently framed Beard/Jane as an abusive relationship -- from Higgins intervention to Beard talking to God about his addiction to "pain" -- but the finale irrevocably fames this as true love instead.

Our wonderful queer plot-line made it clear that Colin was too scared to kiss his fellow after a game because that would out him as the only pro, queer footballer... and then he just does it anyway. Which I'm not upset about on its own, to be clear, rather I'm upset that there was no setup for why Colin's feelings changed; why he's suddenly willing to shoulder an understandable, HUGE downside.

The finale argues VERY strongly that Ted should not go back to Kansas. In fact, I plan to write a whole damn essay on that. He's clearly not himself, Rebecca is begging him to stay, Beard is staying and is in tears over the idea of betraying him, they haven't won the whole thing yet which provides a practical reason for him to stick around, Ted literally questions whether he's making a foolish, horrible choice as he's sitting on the plane... and then he does it anyway.

This finale is chock-full of choices that don't match up with what the rest of Ted Lasso has written, or even something from earlier in the finale itself. When Trent says that he's going to push back against any criticisms and explain why they're wrong, outside of the jokey "I'm a passionate writer, an ~artist, who is a little on the arrogant side," it sets up a moment for Trent to indeed correct one of them about their view of the book. After all, he's been the observer all season and arguably has a more objective understanding of what's been happening around him than they do. We've already seen it! Trent stops Ted and (accurately) explains how no, he hasn't changed tactics. You've been doing this for three years. I can see that even when you can't.

The show sets up the moment where Trent will explain that Ted is the foundation of Richmond's success and, presumably, helping him come to terms with staying here.

... and then we never got that.

There were honestly so many parts of the finale that I loved, but most of them were details like the Sound of Music farewell, or putting the "Believe" sign back together. Structurally, one of the few things I really bought into was the team winning the West Ham match and losing the league... which was unfortunately soured after the fact because that now reads as the PERFECT excuse for Ted to stay another season, yet he doesn't. I'm trying so hard not to read the whole thing pessimistically given how many of those details I loved, but when the core plot of the episode has so many problems, damn is it difficult. Other than Rebecca, it felt like the whole cast, Trent included, just gave up on Ted and given my very strong feelings about Kansas I wanted to shake the episode by the shoulders and go, "Stop acting as if this is a good thing just because this is what the writers originally planned! Did you learn nothing from HIMYM??" There are these moments, like with the book note, where you get this sense that everyone is respecting Ted's wishes, but that they thoroughly disagree with them, and the show never hits the point where Ted's viewpoint is appropriately challenged in a way that would make him reconsider. Despite the fact that Ted is a character who frequently needs to be challenged due to limited, inaccurate perspectives brought on by his anxiety (this season gave us "Find out before you freak out" as a big example). I legit had hope for a moment when Sharon showed up, thinking that Ted's therapist of all people would be able to articulate why giving up his family/support system to play his mother's approved version of fatherhood might not be the best decision... but, like so many other aspects, her return didn't amount to anything other than a wholesome callback.

It's a tragedy, frankly. As in, the genre definition. Everyone in the Ted Lasso cast is living the Rom-Com ending of found family, new romantic relationships, and bright, happy, humorous moments... except for Ted himself, staring pensively into the camera as he comes full circle, back to where he began. Back in Kansas. Back (non-romantically) with a woman who doesn't like him very much. Back trying to be a perfect father because that's what's expected of him + that's what his trauma demands of him. And now he's dealing with Jack, no Beard, no American football, no professional soccer, no visits as the rest of his family undergoes major life changes. Just Henry and the reminders from Season One that you're allowed to be a goldfish. After all that growth Ted has gone backwards.

I said before that obviously they were setting up the Kansas ending -- I'm not saying it came out of nowhere, not at all -- but I really don't understand how anyone can watch that and not feel depressed as hell about it. Ted Lasso is a show that consistently left me feeling good and hopeful and nearly giddy with pleasure. It says something that after finishing yesterday I mostly just felt hollow.

[princeescaluswords]

Dude, you're reaching lmao. It's not because Scott is a POC, it's because he's a dumdum. Everything else in the show focuses on the Hales, almost as if it should have been their show. Instead we got a show about the side character, who happened to be Scott. Ultimately, it comes down Tyler Posey's acting at the end of the day. His performance simply isn't riveting in a word, compared to *pretty* much everyone else on the show. Sure, I can admit racism exists in Teen Wolf, like it does in any other piece of media created in Hollywood, but this theory is just... come on dude. The mental gymnastics you had to pull for this one lmao. If you don't like Sterek that's fine, but I promise you this one isn't about race. It's about two hot dudes who look good together, end of.

To be quite honest, I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone accuses me of writing this anonymous message to myself, because I couldn't ask for a clearer and more egregious example of fandom racism. But let me assure you, I did not write this. This was an unsolicited spasm from a Sterek shipper. I'd like to say it was an outlier, but everyone reading me knows it isn't. This author assures you and me that "this one isn't about race" immediately after being as racist as humanly possible for an entire paragraph.

First they lead off with 'Scott is a dumdum," as if the 'lazy and uneducated Mexican' stereotype doesn't actually exist in United States culture. To which characters are they comparing Scott to make that claim?

It wasn't Stiles who figured out how to convince Derek in Season 1 that Peter was playing him. It wasn't Derek who figured out that Gerard was dying of cancer and executed a plan to prevent him from using Derek to cure himself. It wasn't Isaac who took the information he learned from Gerard in order to use Deucalion's weakness against him, and it wasn't Peter who manipulated Jennifer into confronting them at the distillery. It wasn't the Sheriff who figured out that Derek was kidnapped and who had kidnapped him. It wasn't Liam who guessed that the Benefactor was a banshee. Was Scott always right? No. But interesting characters actually are wrong sometimes.

What they mean by 'dumdum' is that Scott didn't automatically believe he was bitten by a werewolf because Stiles, a white male character, told him so, even after Stiles had joked about it earlier that same day. What they mean is that he didn't stop playing lacrosse because Derek, a white male character and complete stranger, ordered him not to do so or he would kill someone. (Scott didn't.) What they mean is that Scott didn't automatically treat Allison as the enemy when Derek, a white male character, tried to bully him into doing just that. (And all Scott did by refusing to treat Allison as an enemy was save Derek's, Isaac's, and Jackson's lives.) What they mean is that Scott didn't execute his enemies the way Peter Hale, a white male serial killer, insisted was the only correct way to be a werewolf (though for some reason that wasn't supposed to include Peter himself). What they mean by 'dumdum' is that Scott didn't submit to a white male character, as they see is only right and proper.

All the characters made mistakes, including Scott, but only Scott gets labeled an idiot because of them. Why isn't Stiles a dumdum for taunting a captured alpha werewolf in Night School? Why isn't Derek a dumdum for biting three teenagers with no idea how to manage them on a full moon (especially after saying to Scott that he might have no idea how to train bitten wolves)? And so on. I think it does indeed have something to do with Scott being a character of color, and the evidence is on my side.

Then, because this has nothing to do with Scott being a character of color they decide to discuss how the show 'focuses on the Hales.' Usually, adventure shows do focus on the antagonists and the villains because they want to underline who the heroic protagonist has to defeat. Which Scott did. Repeatedly. It is fandom racism that some people can't tell who the villains are because the suspects are too white and good looking.

And then the anon goes after Posey's acting, because fandom has never ever tried to explain away their racism by saying that an actor of color is inadequate for the role. /sarcasm Weirdly though, that it turns out his acting was 'riveting' enough to carry a show through 100 episodes and an effing reunion movie!

But, as they say it's the "end of [discussion]" that Sterek is only about two hot dudes who look good together. I suppose that could be right, but it doesn't explain why a huge part of Sterek shipping is absolutely and precisely about proving a character of color, whom both said hot dudes' characters canonically loved, is a 'dumdum.' Why would the Sterek fandom have to constantly rewrite the show to focus on the Hales (and their Self-Insert with the Stiles Name Tag) if the show was already focused on the Hales. This frenetic need to piss on the lead protagonist of color is found throughout the Sterek fandom, with the goal of expressing their displeasure that the 'two hot dudes who look good together and happen to be white' are not the lead protagonists.

BUT IT'S NOT RACISM. End of!

[godtier]

so i got an email from RT about the last season and i'm kinda annoyed

first there was this:

brother, just say it was because of the strike lmao c'mon now. we all know that's why you're pushing it back

tho don't get me wrong, i will always support a creative team pushing a release date back to perfect the product (whether it's a show, movie, or video game), but this was just stupidly phrased and they coulda just said it. i'm guessing WB was like "no don't mention it at all for the love of god"

then there was this:

now the way this reads to me is that only first members get to watch the season?? traditionally, first members got the release ... well, first. then, non-paying members got the release a few days/a week later. that makes sense to me and it's how it's been since forever. the last time i bought a first sub was for the shisno paradox trilogy and i didn't need to be coerced into it; i wanted to see it as it came out. doing it like this seems really fuckin stupid.

and, in case anyone missed it, rt already removed all seasons of rvb off of their youtube channel. so the only "official" way to watch rvb (aside from DVDs/blu-rays) is their site.

not only that, but just seven episodes? and yet it's gonna be released as a (presumably) feature-length film? so if we're to assume the "movie" cut is gonna be about 90 mins long (being generous here), that means each episode is gonna be about 12-13 mins long, which is fine... but just seven? idk, for the last season, i would have thought they'd have gone all-out and produced a more "standard" length season.

for reference, the average season length (not counting rvb: zero) is about 19-20 episodes. the season with the smallest number of episodes (again, not counting zero) is s17 with 12. i'd have been satisfied with 12, but 7 is just... what. how are you gonna wrap up an entire 20+ year-long series with 7 episodes?? if the episodes were 30 mins long each, then i'd be like "aight let's go son" but if my assumptions are correct, 12-13 min long episodes isn't enough

idk, i was probably gonna renew my first sub anyway, but the fact that they're locking it out entirely unless you either buy first or buy WB's movie-version... it just seems yucky

tbh, if you ask me and consider all the main cast seasons, rvb ended with s17. it had the best wrap-up imo (aside from s5, but only OGs will agree that's a good ending point, myself included), and it tied up everything neatly and left it open-ended. the boys had their biggest adventure, donut got to shine (yes i'm biased), and it ended in a place where you could feasibly imagine them living out their lives in peace, like they deserve.

it's been a long time since i was active in rvb fandom (and it was here, on this very tumblr!) but i'm wary about going forward now. i'm gonna watch it somehow, but i've gotta figure out the best way to do so. i'm hoping they either clarify that they meant that first members are getting it ... first (as it has always been) and the wording was just bad, or they roll back on that stipulation and just leave it the way it was.

[worrywrite]

I finished reading Harrow the Ninth. And I'm a little shell shocked. But I do have things to say.

I don't think people really get it. That or I got it all wrong. But I don't think people that bag on these books know what's really wrong with them (and there are things wrong with them, they have weaknesses).

To be clear. I read them happily. As happily as you can read them at least. I like them. They're good books. Their strengths and power do outweigh their flaws. I think I might have even loved them a little.

But I don't think people get what's going on when they read them and don't like them. They're latching on to flaws that they don't understand and can't articulate. They miss the finesse hidden beneath the layer of memes, gore, and trope. And when I say finesse, I mean it.

I'm not huge on 2nd person narrative, it catches in the brain a little and doesn't go down smooth like 1st or 3rd. But it is done so well in Harrow.

And there's more but I'm putting it in spoilers.

Okay, actual spoilers:

I don't think that I could call the narration in HtN 2nd person. I think that's a misleading way to represent the way the book unfolds. If you read the whole book and then tell someone it's in 2nd person present tense, you're wrong. It's 1st person past tense. The difference is that the supposed 2nd person narrator is actually part of the unfolding events and they're literally telling the story as it happened from their perspective, but their perspective is that is a person trapped in the passenger seat for most of it.

And I think it's a disservice to describe it as 2nd person and hard to read because that misses the point entirely and sets an expectation that just isn't true.

Okay, so what are the actual flaws of the books.

Well, first, focal point agency. The main characters, the protagonists, don't do much in the way of guiding the narrative. It is very much a story that happens to them. They are outmatched and outgunned the entire way down and only make it through on technicality or pity. It kind of sucks the wind out of the sails of "we do bones, motherfucker" when "doing bones" does nothing and the only solution to that problem is to follow through on someone else's plans and make the sacrifices that someone far more powerful than you wants you to. Characters generally thrive in positions of narrative agency, even when they make a plan and it sucks they've still done what they were trying to do and their character has led the way for things to follow. It lends to a much stronger story when the main character (from a non-metanarrative standpoint) acts like one.

Secondly, the shear cerebral drudge of the language. You can get a headache from this prose if you don't slow down to a snails pace. I often found myself, especially in HtN, stopping to digest a phrase or passage and look up words to double check if my context was correct--and in the meantime my eyes were moving ahead while my mind slogged behind. The prose is accurate but still convoluted to a degree many people probably don't have the patience for anymore. This may be more of a problem with people than with the book, but it doesn't quite matter unless the book gets read.

But just... The delight I felt reading "You never could have guessed that he had seen me." I was giddy. I kid you not. Seeing that flip of narrative context caused some radical joy. Even if some things had been spoiled for me, seeing it play out was a treat. This is the finesse. You can see that Muir had a plan for (I would even call it a twist...) a unique story idea and they carried that plan out with a dedication that must have been very tiring. Because it is very carefully laid out and teased and foreshadowed and then revealed. And then it's revealed again. And again.

I texted a friend that I felt like I was falling down a staircase in slow motion.

[batsplat]

hiii your weekly sete ask:

wow his 2005 season was really Cursed affggghjk. like what do you mean he’s 7th with 7 retirements (more than that years top 4 combined) but also is the only guy aside from valentino in top 7 to not finish lower than 5th place…..

valentino was the curse really worth it being runner up to capirossi and melandri TWICE and in a row (joking)

haha... yeah... 'retirement' in motegi... definitely wasn't so eager to seal the title at honda's home race that he made an ill-advised overtake attempt on melandri and cleared them both out... two completely unrelated dnf's... haha...

anyway!! yeah!! valentino would make that trade with you all things considered - always got on well with capirossi, with melandri admittedly you have the whole drama of melandri thinking valentino switched up towards him... but tbf you do have to say valentino was impressively dogged at keeping melandri's first win at bay for as long as possible. the six races valentino doesn't win that year are estoril (very wet, kinda just settled for second), laguna (unfamiliar with the track and would never be one he really liked, finished behind the two americans who knew the track well), motegi (crazy how we'll just never know how that dnf happened... oh well let's move on), sepang (a bridgestone-dominated weekend, sealed the title there though), turkey (hampered by a poor start) and valencia (my god is he mid there, also he tried to smash himself up before the race which I swear he does like. repeatedly at that specific circuit. guess he knows he has the off season to recover)

the way the curse shakes out is that for the rest of sete and valentino's careers, whenever they both finish a race valentino is ahead. not a single exception! not one! but the thing is, right, sete's actual finishing position of seventh in the championship in 2005 is extra cruel because it... just is not representative of how competitive he was that season? this is where it becomes useful I have my 'curse tally' notes... 2004 we've already covered, 2006 is more depressing than fun (how is your luck so bad your ambulance crashes into a bus fifty metres before the hospital entrance), but 2005? oh yeah that sete season is fucked. do you know who won the best qualifier award that year?

narrator: he did not win his home race on sunday

you can also read the qualifying prowess from the average grid positions, and it's not even particularly close. sete averages 2.82 for the season, ahead of valentino at 4.12 and hayden at 4.29. he bags five pole positions, exactly as many as valentino. his average finishing position when he actually makes the chequered flag is 3.6, the third best that year behind vale's 1.44 and melandri's 3.5. unsurprisingly, 2005 is the only season this century where the strongest qualifier does not win a single race. that just isn't a thing that happens!! it shouldn't happen!! this is not a man who was suddenly slow. he also hadn't been particularly crash-prone in his previous honda seasons... one dnf in 2003, two in 2004... and seven in 2005. a nightmare

which raises the question... okay, not winning races is one thing, but what the fuck happened to sete? if you're not just slow all of a sudden, how are you suddenly dipping from p2 to p7 in the championship standings? so. *cracks knuckles* *gets out notes* let's go one by one and tally up exactly how sete's season went wrong (parentheses used to indicate grid positions, e.g. 'g2', and finishing positions, e.g. 'p2')

jerez (g2/p2): after a feisty start, sete leads the entire race up until three laps to the end - when valentino executes his overtake and looks all set for the win. but valentino makes a mistake on the final lap that lets sete back past, and he's frantic in his attempts to correct the error... it looks like sete might have this one won, until valentino steals it from him at the last corner, barging him aside with one foot off its peg. (more on the final lap here.) valentino's victory, immediately controversial, is followed by various post-race theatrics as the spanish crowd voice their displeasure and valentino rubs it in their faces. on the way to the podium, valentino breaks the fourth wall to mock sete for clutching at his shoulder - which he is then forced to walk back in estoril as it turns out sete had actually been injured (clips here). more on this, from broadbent's 'ring of fire':

(details of the gresini/zerbi dispute included below the cut)

estoril (g2/dnf): an increasingly wet race - conditions in which sete has always been excellent in (first 500cc race was won in the wet too). sete's shoulder is still injured from the jerez collision and he'd crashed that weekend already, but he leads comfortably at the start... it's always tricky to be in the front in those conditions and he ends up crashing out of the lead in lap 16 out of 24. would valentino have been so comfortable settling for the podium if sete had still been in the race?

shanghai (g1/p4): another wet race, this time at a new circuit. perhaps sete's confidence was dented by estoril, or perhaps he just wasn't quick enough in the conditions. he doesn't get the ideal start from pole, though he briefly runs ahead of valentino - before vale overtakes him and disappears into the distance. for most of the race, sete runs second, until eventually wildcard jacque overtakes him. with a few laps to go, sete's suddenly losing speed... it looks like he's dealing with some kind of mechanical issue and he's shaking his head down the straight. on the very last lap, his teammate melandri overtakes him for the final podium position. after the race, sete said he had already felt on the warm-up lap that something was wrong with his tyre, and that it was all he could do to minimise the damage and coax the vibrating tyre to the end

le mans (g4/p2): sete had won the two previous races at this track, beating valentino on the final lap in 2003 and extending his championship lead in 2004. this year, both sete and valentino get quite a poor start, and exit the first few corners seventh and sixth respectively. valentino starts his charge to the front before sete does - and sete's progress stalls for a bit when he makes an absolute hash of one of the chicanes. eventually, valentino is on the rear tyre of his teammate edwards, but takes his sweet time overtaking him.... sete hunts them both down, firing in lap records as he muscles his way to third, and valentino is quickly informed of just who is catching him. valentino overtakes edwards, but edwards quickly gets him back - which opens the door for sete, who slips past for second. the three once again converge and valentino eventually manages to get sete back. edwards runs it a little wide and valentino squeezes past, with sete able to take advantage of the open door to get through too. they quickly gap edwards and as sete stalks valentino, the commentators hype up the prospect of revenge, of 'payback time'... valentino takes a new circuit record on the final lap to hold sete off. he extends his hand for sete long enough that sete eventually acquiesces - in doing so affording valentino a courtesy his rival had not extended to him at sepang the year before

mugello (g2/dnf): this time last year, the first public cracks of the valentino/sete relationship were just starting to show. but a fight for victory between the two of them was not to be this time round. sete keeps p2 off the line; after some opening lap scrapping that includes a valentino overtake, sete is still in p2. then his teammate melandri rudely forces him wide while overtaking, so that sete briefly drops back to fourth - before muscling his way past capirossi and into third. he tussles a bit with biaggi... but ends up crashing on lap five. it already feels like curtains on any championship aspirations

catalunya (g1/p2): before the weekend, valentino says he believes melandri and biaggi, not sete, will be his main championship rivals. sete starts on pole, with valentino likewise on the front row. valentino gets a somewhat poor start... by the end of the first lap he's back in the mix at the front. the first few laps are frantic, with melandri leading most of them and making his teammate's life, uh, unpleasant - but eventually both valentino and sete make their way back and break away from the field. soon after, sete gets past valentino and leads the race. for a while, it looks like he's breaking away from valentino just a little... eventually, it becomes obvious valentino has just been biding his time. with three laps to go, vale eases past down the main straight into the braking zone of turn one, and immediately proceeds to destroy sete's circuit record on dying tyres. he wins the race fairly comfortably from there

assen (g2/p5): juan martinez, sete's crew chief, is taken ill on thursday with a migraine. he recovers to come back to the box on saturday, but unsurprisingly the team is on the back foot as a result. (remember, martinez used to work for valentino, and he is someone valentino explicitly blamed for what happened at qatar 2004.) sete starts reasonably well from the front row, second early on behind his teammate melandri before eventually falling behind hayden. meanwhile, valentino has gotten a typically atrocious start and gave himself a bit of work to do. sete eventually makes his way back past hayden - but unfortunately lets valentino through too. at the end of the seventh lap, valentino gets past sete at his beloved final chicane. after that, valentino goes on to win the race while sete languishes in fifth

laguna seca (g13/p5): sete executes a strong comeback ride, besides losing a duel to biaggi which I suppose is a new low. but the main thing I have to bring in at this juncture is one of my favourite sete's moments. this is from broadbent's 'ring of fire' again, in the context of the re-introduction of laguna to the calendar and the discussions around that. just remember that valentino has been tormenting sete for like, over half a year, and sete has not lashed out at valentino once publicly. but here... he finally snaps - and takes it out on the real enemy: marco melandri

quick friendly reminder that melandri was sete's teammate that year

donington (g2/dnf): the race is held in truly appalling conditions. sete - who, remember, was a known wet weather specialist - takes the lead early on. he crashes on the third lap, one of ten riders not to finish the race. after wobbling about in the front-running pack for most of the race, valentino eventually takes the lead before pulling comfortably clear. he mimes playing the violin while crossing the line; this was interpreted by some as mockery of his less fortunate rivals, which valentino refuted

before the race, valentino took another opportunity to twist in the knife:

"when I see gibernau I always want to arrive in front of him" uh huh

sachsenring (g2/p2): valentino had quite a few problems with his bike that weekend, with a tricky build-up to the race. initially, hayden gets the holeshot, as valentino starts piling up the pressure and sete gets stuck in traffic. but the race is red flagged - and while hayden again gets the holeshot at the restart, valentino quickly disposes of him and sete soon does likewise. sete swiftly overtakes valentino ("'take that', said sete gibernau, 'I mean business'" says one of the commentators) and leads from there, with valentino in hot pursuit. for a few laps, valentino ends up behind hayden - and once he gets past him again, he's seven tenths down on sete with six laps to go. valentino closes in and on the very last lap, sete goes wide into the first corner, letting valentino through

always thinking of the suggestion valentino was intending to overtake sete at exactly the same place he had been overtaken in 2003 (from here):

brno (g1/dnf): despite the summer break in between (where sete reportedly did a lot of training), this might as well have been a direct continuation of the previous race. sete leads out front as valentino determinedly muscles his way into second place so as to not let sete escape. on the very first lap, valentino overtakes sete - in a section of the track where sete was planning to overtake capirossi if capirossi got the holeshot (more on how forthcoming sete was being to the commentariat here and here, icl when I replied to those asks I didn't remember quite how bad it was). on the third lap, the two exchange a few overtakes, and then it's sete in front. valentino makes a mistake to give sete a bit of breathing room and almost let the pack swallow him up, but he escapes again to get on sete's tail. around halfway through, valentino takes the lead - and then, with just over four laps ago, valentino deliberately slows down and practically invites sete to go past, before slotting back in behind him. valentino takes the lead at the final chicane of the penultimate lap, setting the stage for a final lap showdown, except sete is beginning to lose touch... and then he slows down. sete has run out of fuel

japan (g7/dnf): all eyes on valentino - who starts from eleventh for his first matchpoint race - as he starts making his way through the pack. on the first lap, valentino's already made his way past sete for sixth. tragically, all footage of the race after this point was erased so we will simply never know what valentino got up to after this point in time, but sete reportedly crashed on lap eleven. "gibernau's wretched season continues, when will it end for sete gibernau... it's almost a year now since valentino rossi put that witch's curse on him at qatar and said he would never win another race, you've got to wonder..."

sepang (g2/dnf): as the riders storm down to turn one, sete and hayden make contact and barely keep their bikes upright - sete is knocked down to sixth. valentino ends up right behind him on the first lap once again, but gets stuck behind him for a little longer as sete works his way past hayden... before sete and nakano go down when the former attempts to overtake the latter on lap two. "sete gibernau's appalling season continues...." - sete begins to walk off before sinking to his knees in despair

qatar (g2/p5): back to the place where it all started. sete deploys some feisty riding to keep that second place off the line against both valentino and hayden. he takes the lead from capirossi on the third lap and valentino takes advantage to immediately force his way into second - ready to exert pressure on his enemy. but sete builds up a healthy advantage as his teammate melandri increasingly puts pressure on valentino. melandri and valentino exchange overtakes as sete's advantage ebbs and flows, eight tenths at one point while his two rivals tussle. could this really be the "resurgence of sete gibernau"? with six laps to go, valentino shows his front wheel to sete, but it gives melandri the opportunity to get past. as valentino attempts to return the favour, melandri cuts off his nose and causes valentino to almost run into the back of him - payback for motegi, which makes valentino run wide and almost fall back into the clutches of hayden. it looks like it will be a fight between the two gresini riders for the win as valentino is 1.2s back, but he quickly claws his way back into contention and is helped by the gresini duo scrapping. and when melandri has another go at sete, sete runs on into the gravel... "the man who has cracked once again is sete gibernau" "and I'm sure both marco melandri and rossi are smiling under their visors" from the commentary team - valentino snatches the win once again, with sete finishing a disconsolate fifth

phillip island (g3/p5): so much for another front row start, with sete getting battered around to fifth through the first few corners and quickly being pushed down to sixth by his teammate. from there, it's an unspectacular ride to fifth, as valentino claims another victory

turkey (g1/p4): another start from pole, but melandri gets the jump on him from the start. sete puts pressure on melandri and eventually gets back past to take the lead...... and then goes wide and runs it into the gravel. he recovers from sixth to a painful fourth. "you can just imagine valentino rossi grinning, can't you, behind his visor, when he saw that happen"

valencia (g1/dnf): once again, sete starts from pole.... surely, surely he has to win one of these? valentino starts from fifteenth on the grid, which you'd have to say is as good a chance as you're going to get to catch a break from the man. sete is shuffled down to third on the opening lap but is right on the tail of melandri and hayden, setting the field's fastest lap on lap two. on lap four, sete slows down... "and the spaniard's wretched season could end in the only possible way, another disappointment at his home round and yet more misery for movistar" - an engine failure. his teammate escapes out front while sete works through his grief on the side of the track

so, having assessed the evidence in an appropriately scientific manner... well, yes. sete was kinda fucked. you have plenty of bad luck, you have races where he's simply not fast enough, you have races where valentino forces the issue and beats him in a straight fight, and then you have quite a few races where sete makes a clear 'unforced' error. it's not even necessarily the crashes that are most painful - with sachsenring, qatar and turkey standing out as real low points, times when he feasibly could have had valentino (as well as his teammate, who he also dislikes) beat. his wet weather dnf's will also have been a bitter pill to swallow, as well as valentino's lovely habit of snatching circuit records as he pulls clear from sete right at the end of races. and all the while, valentino is happy to taunt him with his failures, reminding sete again and again of how he is no longer the challenger he once was. all the while, the narrative of the curse gathered momentum, ever more likely to make its way back to sete. with every failure, the pressure grew. there's got to be at least ten races where sete on pace could have been in victory contention, five races where he bags pole, fourteen front row starts... not a single actual win. and that's how you put together a curse, kids

here's the gresini/zerbi dispute:

Movistar Honda team manager Fausto Gresini sent an open letter to the media on Thursday night in response to a private letter sent by FIM President Francesco Zerbi to MotoGP riders Valentino Rossi and Sete Gibernau following last weekend's clash during the Jerez race. Mr Zerbi´s letter had invited the riders to reflect upon the incident, and to remain as positive examples for all MotoGP fans - asking them to fight fairly and without will of revenge. The FIM President also wrote that he didn't see any infringement to the rules, but stressed that this kind of situation shouldn't be repeated. The comments made by Gresini were: "I fully agree with President Zerbi about the fact that sportsmanship is the most important thing. There's no room for bitter feelings between two great riders, but in the meantime, I'm still perplex." "In this letter, Sete and Valentino are treated equally as if Sete had some responsibility in the facts, and I can't agree with that. I believe there is a contradiction when the FIM president writes 'there isn't anything to reproach you for from a legal point of view', and then warns that what happened in Jerez must not occur again." "It means that we're still far from a situation where all have equal rights, in a sport as dangerous as ours," concluded the Italian manager. [here is the presidents response]: Dear Mr Gresini, I should not respond personally to your open letter given to the press, but through the intermediary of my lawyers; however, considering that I subscribe to the rules of courtesy and that I believe private life is a right that no-one can deny, I am not going to enter into a controversy - an easy one given the ridiculous arguments in your letter. The only thing that I want to stress and which, as a man, mortifies me is that I am mistaken in my judgement of men. And that I say on an individual level far more than on an institutional level. With much bitterness, Francesco Zerbi FIM President NB: I am sending this letter to the press because your employee, by violating all principles of education, more so than of law, did not hesitate to betray the confidence that had been granted to him.

like "with much bitterness" why is everyone in this sport so dramatic. what was everyone on this year