#“I hate her annoying ass”

[seasonfivebitchsaveme]

Bitch what you looking at?

[butwhatifidothis]

I LOVED To Be a Creature, and it genuinely creeped me out to see the things Edelgard and Hubert said to Byleth (though it's the same as the game, stripped out of its voice acting and background music, the dialogue is so much more horrifying). Really makes me wonder if Edelgard's love for Byleth is genuine in any way. Do you think there's any real love there or is it just obsession?

Thank you!!! I had a feeling that placing Edelgard and Hubert's words in a context that isn't meant to make them look flattering would really let their casual racism shine, and I'm glad it's seeming like that is in fact the impression people are getting lol. SO sorry for the late answer btw 😭😭😭

As for whether Edelgard's love is genuine... I got opinions lmao.

got a bit long lmao under the cut it goes

If Edelgard felt the way she does for Byleth on exclusively SS and CF, I could maybe see how this is a "genuine" love (insofar as a love steeped in "I may hate your race but you're special and Not Like The Other Ones because I think you're special to me" can, uh, ever be genuine, in any case). But because Edelgard still feels as strongly towards Byleth on AM and VW where she quite literally never talks to them directly in any meaningful way, it becomes waaaaay more like she's just weirdly obsessed with this person who saved her one singular time ever five years ago from an attack Edelgard set up. It makes the "love" way more forced and contrived and obviously trying to squeeze tears out of the player for standing up against the cute girly trying to murder them. Or, alternatively, it makes Edelgard come off as manipulative, saying that she just wanted to walk with Byleth and it makes her so sad to HAVE to fight Byleth because BYLETH wouldn't stand by HER - and she's saying this on AM/VW to a person she's talked to in conversation a cumulative, what? Hour? Two? Maybe a few days, being nice? Over the course of, being as absolutely generous as physically possible and not counting the five years Byleth was missing... two fucking years? She's shitting herself over fighting this stranger she doesn't fucking know? Yeah, sure buddy, whatever you say - you see what I mean?

And honestly even outside of those two routes, I think it's more that she sees Byleth as being hers rather than actually liking them for who they are. A body to stand next to her and tell her how right she is and comfort her - who doesn't have the background of "I was literally raised to think this is my only purpose in life" muddying the sincerity of the brown-nosing - who also happens to also act as The Perfect Fighter and The Perfect Strategist to actively help her get what she wants. That view of Byleth being a tool doesn't really go away unless they marry her, seen by how they quite literally get nothing for all they've done for Edelgard should they go unmarried to a noble (guess they just weren't meritable enough once their use to her was done).

As well as how much more Edelgard doesn't like Byleth disagreeing with her or otherwise going against her flow than pretty much anyone else in the game - you lose supports points if you don't think the Black Eagle Strike Force name she made is good, she quickly denies the notion that Byleth is detached from others/emotions and insists they are just like she is, she gives them the same callous and thoughtless words she was apparently given once in her life while they are in the midst of mourning their recently murdered father so that they get over it already and get back to being useful to her (directly saying she will only reach out her hand when it's time for HER to move forward, not when BYLETH heals from WATCHING THEIR DAD DIE IN THEIR FUCKING ARMS MAYBE A WEEK AGO). She never treats Byleth kindly unless they do everything she wants, which like. Isn't love???? At all????

There's just this... weirdly possessive air Edelgard has around Byleth that always threw me off, especially with how easily she admits to have been willing to kill them so far into CF and how readily she cuts ties with them the second the fighting's done (which is particular because how just how clingy she was to Byleth everywhere else - you know during all that time Byleth had a use to her). Incorporating that into being an intentional part of her character is certainly interesting, but not in a way that's flattering to the idea of Edelgard genuinely being in love with Byleth lmao.

Personally tho, even disregarding almost everything else, the simple explanation is that I don't think you can really sit there and say you love someone while openly hating part of their racial heritage. Wild thought, I know lmao

[crovoroh]

For now breath slow, hear my voice dont go

[creationsekai]

i think an AU where Ena and Akito become a singing team is fucking funnty

[stynamo]

Kind of annoyed by the echo chamber on here when you can just go look at the numbers. I sat up all night and watched the numbers roll in.

The big shift to the red everywhere was not because more people were voting for Trump. There was a demographic shift in who voted for Trump, which is concerning. But Trump actually got LESS votes than in 2020. The problem was people did not get their ass off of their couch to go vote for Harris. The Dems got 15 MILLION less votes than in 2020, which translates to a big red shift EVERYWHERE. Those 15 million less votes didn’t go to Trump, they just didn’t show up.

Y’all didn’t show up. And I’m very frustrated that you’re blaming Latinos or the zoomers that can’t even vote yet. If you didn’t vote, you don’t have the right to whimper and complain about this.

YOU cannot blame men of colour for this. YOU cannot blame your dumbass twitter feed. You didn’t go vote at all. And you know that. Don’t you???

[senseiwu]

Every time the crystalised discussion on twitter comes back and they get to Lloyd's issues with his father i want to freaking rip my hair out

"Lloyd's in the wrong" "Lloyd was an ass" (<something I literally just saw)

God forbid a child hurt by their parent BE HURT. BE UPSET.

[pallanophblargh]

We still have this little critter, and she has successfully healed from her spay.

She rejected her homemade cone of shame (rolled up soccer socks courtesy of J) so we got her a proper baby shirt. It’s shocking we got her into it, and that she tolerated it as well as she did. She may be a shit, but she’s a good kid at heart. Maybe because she’s so stinkin’ cute.

It is probably wishful thinking, but her manners seem to be getting better. She still hasn’t been formally introduced to Zelda, but we can already tell she’s a little bully, so keep your fingers crossed because it would kinda suck to rehome her.

(It’s doubly hilarious because I’m the “no more cats can’t deal argh!” sort and this lil shit just HAD to choose OUR yard as the place to hang out in.)

Mammals are so utterly frustrating!

[goldiipond]

You're literally the only person on the internet that actually somewhat likes Kersti's annoying ass. At least the only one I know of. Seriously, what do you even see in her.

you're asking a lesbian why she likes an angry little fairy woman that is really mean for no apparent reason my man i really don't know what to tell you here

[batsplat]

Batsplat, I am not into tennis exactly but this year I have been exposed to a lot of Tennis meta, per se. I love reading through your tennis posts they reveal such a rich human side to a sport, esp the agassi sampras post. Wanted to ask, if you have read Infinite Jest and what you think of it. Additionally, do you see any parallels between motorcycle racing and tennis? Fundamentally different sports, but still crazy in their unique ways. Keep posting, many hugs!!

hugs back to you anon, really am very pleased that post has struck a chord... going to put a pin in the infinite jest half of the ask because I recently got another ask about that book and want to organise my thoughts a bit more. tldr I have a lot of fondness for the thing. I actually reckon being invested in tennis is a bit of a cheat code where that book is concerned, like it kind of gives you something to immediately latch onto... dfw has a reputation for being the writer about tennis - and he does capture something of the soul of the sport, both in IJ and in his essays. in IJ, he makes it feel claustrophobic and inescapable, like a curse of the blood. as it should be. there are many descriptions of the sport itself I love, ways it is integrated into the narrative, the meanings that are extracted from it... I'm not sure there's a concise way to talk about IJ and if anything that feels like it'd be against the spirit of the book, so for now I'll leave you with this: dfw knew ball, but his taste in tennis left much to be desired. religious experience my ass

anyhow, let's transition to the other half of the ask with an IJ quote chosen completely at random

'We're all on each other's food chain. All of us. It's an individual sport. Welcome to the meaning of individual. We're each deeply alone here. It's what we all have in common, this aloneness.’

on tennis and motorcycle racing - I think I do have a bit of a problem in answering this question in that those disciplines are the only two individual sports I have followed closely for a long period. (I suppose f1 is edging itself into that conversation, but that at least is relatively closely related to motogp.) so there is a bit of a 'getting a lot of boss baby vibes' issue here in that... things I feel are similar between the two of them might be equally present in croquet or skimboarding. but, well, I can only talk about what I know. I think they can both be quite lonely sports, though tennis is lonelier. motogp can be circumstantially lonely, tennis is so in its soul. this is because competing in a tennis match is such a fundamentally lonely experience in a way I'm not sure any other sport replicates. motogp is loud - tennis is defined by its silences. motogp is defined by its action while tennis lives and breathes in the negative space. the connection between ball and racquet is infinitesimally brief... the time between points stretches out as a void. a tennis match is a thing of many rhythms, superficially reliable, yet the experience of living through a match eats away at your perception of time. the match is provided structures by its units, wherein each can feel like it lasts a split second or a decade. motogp is fierce and noisy and full of life. tennis is empty

I think you can probably draw numerous fairly trite parallels between the two - the emphasis on one-vs-one duels, for instance, albeit a non-negotiable element of tennis in a way it isn't for motogp. different virtues and tropes represented by different athletes... offensive, defensive, the wild talent, the cunning mastermind, the tenacious and the feeble and the limited and the all-rounder - archetypes of a sort that recur even when the exact way they express their archetypal nature varies between sports. perhaps even a fanbase that neurotically oscillates between yearning for drama and hounding almost anyone who supplies it. there's some ways in which I have to follow the two sports completely differently... for instance, I am far more sensitive to injuries in tennis and tend to get peeved when anyone competes with injury - one of my least favourite things about federer (amongst some sturdy competition) was how big a virtue he made of never having retired from a match, and how it influenced the generations to come. I mostly stand by the same principle when it comes to motogp, but it does force you to readjust your idea of what kind of an injury is acceptable to compete with. (obviously to some extent this is just practicality - I'm sure plenty of tennis players would love to try and compete with broken ankles, but that sort of thing just physically isn't possible in tennis.) motogp is considerably less stressful to follow because of how concentrated it is. there's nothing quite like the death by a thousand cuts that experiencing a drawn-out defeat in tennis inflicts on you

but none of that is particularly interesting or insightful. I actually think following tennis has given me a pretty good grasp of sports psychology because, not to brag, tennis is kind of the sport for understanding derangement. I'm not talking in terms of pure drama - unfortunately, motogp is miles ahead of us on that front. but in terms of actually understanding the intricacies of how competition fucks with the brain... motogp is so macro, races are building blocks of entire seasons, your results in march help determine your standings in november. it's also a lot more mysterious - I can't read as much into motogp results as I can into tennis, not just because of my personal level of expertise but also for the simple fact that there are far more hidden performance variables in motogp, mainly related to machinery. when I talk about how 'clutch' a player is in tennis, I can show you actual numbers to describe what I'm talking about that I can pull up for any player (unlike for instance stats relating solely to title contenders) and have a pretty big sample size and can be used to meaningfully draw conclusions. a big reason why tennis is considered the mental torture sport is because of its unambiguously deeply fucked up scoring system, making use of the units of 'point' and 'game' and 'set' within a single match to ensure that all your effort can be repeatedly rendered meaningless in numerous ways. what this does help us with in analysis terms is that not every point is 'equal' - they might be in literal terms, but the stakes vary drastically. which affects the amount of pressure you are under and what type of pressure it is. to use a very basic example, one measure of 'clutch' performance might be how a player competes in tiebreaks, given that they are inherently higher pressure situations where you can compare those points to the baseline of all the other points. tennis and motogp (+ motorsports more broadly) are kind of on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how many raw numbers like that you will have at your disposal - with plenty of other ball sports like basketball or football or baseball slotting in somewhere in the middle

and what this DOES help you with is that if you are a proper student of tennis... y'know. you'll probably have a slightly more refined understanding of how mentality in sports works. more than just sorting every athlete into two categories of 'mentally strong' and 'choker', which is how a lot of discussion can read. even on platforms theoretically interested in serious sports analysis. how pressure affects competitors... so many motorsport discussions feel oddly naive to the basic concept that competitors may handle pressure completely differently if they are ahead or if they are behind. sometimes you hear motorsports reporting treat mentality as completely irrelevant, outright say that people should stop focusing on psychological factors... which is just not the kind of thinking you get away with in tennis

that being said, the real lesson tennis can teach you is if anything the very opposite: often, performing better under pressure is only very loosely correlated to mental strength. this is a bit of a bugbear of mine so if I've posted this before my apologies, I always have a version of this rant in my brain and genuinely cannot recall if I've put it on here before but... look. say you have two tennis players in a match. say each player is winning roughly 50% of the points, both players managing to drive up their side of the scoreboard. but say that one player, player A has to take a lot more risk to do so - and is aiming for about half a metre inside the baseline in every point. say the other one, player B, can aim for a way more comfortable metre inside the baseline. now say you get to a pressure situation, a tiebreak. tension rises, the muscles get tight, it's harder to swing through the ball... let's say that both of them are suddenly more likely to misfire - and that in every third shot, they will miss their target by over half a metre. even if the pressure has the exact same effect on both of them, player A will end up making more mistakes than player B - and they will be doing so disproportionately in the tiebreak, a high pressure situation. which means that on paper, they are less clutch than player B, even though in reality they have both been affected to the same extent by the pressure of the situation. one simply was always operating with a bigger margin of error, which suddenly became more noticeable in the pressure situation

this is obviously an extremely simplified understanding of tennis and it's never going to be as straightforward as that. the point however is that a lot of what people think is mentality ends up being down to technique. good technique isn't just effective - it's repeatable. it's all about optimisation, right... it's even the little things, like how much your technique asks you to use *force* - there are different muscle movements that are going to be affected in different ways by stress. if your motion always looks the same, then it's more likely you'll be able to repeat it under pressure - if you tend to hit the ball wildly differently each time, then however well you are doing it, quite likely that's going to be tougher to do under pressure. good technique is replicable even under pressure, but having good technique is obviously in itself not reflective of mental strength. in tennis, it is critical how much margin of error players have - both in terms of where they literally aim in shots, and in terms of how much a small deficit in absolute performance will spell relative catastrophe

and again. all of this is extremely basic. but it does feel like... how do I put this diplomatically. sometimes it doesn't feel like everyone's on the same page even with this basic stuff. because at the end of the day, it's going to roughly be the same situation in motogp, right? champions are seen as particularly clutch versus competitors who aren't champions... and sure, there probably is an element of mental strength to becoming a champion (though often that will also be in terms of macro career arcs, key choices and so on, not just performance in the moment) but it's not going to be that simple... because better riders are operating with a bigger margin of error. if you assume that every crash in every pressure situation is a uniform case of choking, then, y'know, this is bad analysis. fans are entitled to their bad analysis, but that doesn't make it any less bad. there is a tendency to just assume that the best athletes are the mentally strongest, rather than just blessed with a wider window of performance, and it can be. slightly galling. icl this a bit of a theme in a lot of the stuff I write, if you know to look for it lol (e.g. here)

reading the passage back it's... well. a bit funny. any tennis fan familiar with my history as a tennis fan will immediately recognise what match traumatised me so thoroughly I still see its shadow everywhere I look. sports, don't you love it

obviously there are more contemporary examples you could pick up on, but this is incidentally something that slightly ticks me off when people discuss valentino's rivals. like, with all love to casey, it is a lot easier to be 'mentally strong' and 'not broken' and bounce back from psychological torture when you have enough talent in your index finger to disrupt the orbit of a small moon. no shit he had better chances of rebuilding his confidence than some of his precursors. the game's rigged! always has been

none of this is to say that mentality doesn't matter in sports, which would be a bizarre stance for me to take. if player A and B had the exact same margin of error in their shots, one of them would still play that tiebreak better - and that's the clutch factor. it's just often harder to tease out than you might think, even in a sport with so many numbers at the tips of your fingers. sometimes you're just not going to be able to tell from the outside at all. that's the loneliness, right - constantly observed, but fundamentally unknowable. and of course, there's far more to get into here... given that tennis does demand more engagement from the outset in matters of psychology. it is a sport that is all about interaction, where every choice you make preempts the choices you believe your opponent is about to make - it's all psychology, all the time. motogp brings the macro dramatics in its rivalries (or, well, one guy did anyway), but tennis provides far more tools to understand said dramatics... it cannot help you understand motorcycle racing, but it can help you understand its psychology. but I think I'll leave it there lol. idk if these are really the parallels this ask was looking for, it's just really how I think about the two. obviously I'm biased in that I think tennis is the most important sport in existence, just like mr wallace. every bit of motogp analysis I write is inevitably shaped by my experiences with tennis, which probably also limits me in some ways. but, y'know. it is what it is. it should also be said that most tennis fans don't understand shit about sports psychology either. we persevere

anyway. yeah. for the parallels between the two. main takeaway - like I said, the game's rigged. always has been

incidentally, here's a passage of IJ I was thinking about recently

Bodies bodies everywhere. A tennis ball is the ultimate body, kid. We're coming to the crux of what I have to try to impart to you before we get out there and start actuating this fearsome potential of yours. Jim, a tennis ball is the ultimate body. Perfectly round. Even distribution of mass. But empty inside, utterly, a vacuum. Susceptible to whim, spin, to force — used well or poorly. It will reflect your own character. Characterless itself. Pure potential. Have a look at a ball. Get a ball from the cheap green plastic laundry basket of old used balls I keep there by the propane torches and use to practice the occasional serve, Jimbo. Attaboy. Now look at the ball. Heft it. Feel the weight. Here, I'll… tear the ball. . . open. Whew. See? Nothing in there but evacuated air that smells like a kind of rubber hell. Empty. Pure potential. Notice I tore it open along the seam. It's a body. You'll learn to treat it with consideration, son, some might say a kind of love, and it will open for you, do your bidding, be at your beck and soft lover's call. The thing truly great players with hale bodies who overshadow all others have is a way with the ball that's called, and keep in mind the garage door and broiler, touch. Touch the ball. Now that's … that's the touch of a player right there.

cutting it off there... obviously dfw being dfw, this paragraph continues another dozen odd pages. (I say this with fondness; unsurprisingly the parts of the book about jim and his father are some of my absolute favourite.) maybe you can guess why I was thinking about it... motogp worships its machinery - tennis has no such affection for the tools of its trade. even when we philosophise the body of the ball, all we can truly access is its emptiness. a ball is like a body because it is empty... that's the illness of a mind touched by tennis right there

[atopvisenyashill]

i almost put cassandra clare on that rec list i’d like everyone to applaud my restraint

[elevenenthusiast]

This forced ass el hate 💀

“The mess she created” we just gonna sit here and act like all of this isn’t Henry’s fault… putting the fault on an innocent 14 year old girl who was abused for her powers like how tf was she supposed to know that opening a portal to the upside down was gonna lead to consequences 💀 she was trapped in that lab for so many years plus that’s on Henry because he’s the one fucking around and she shouldn’t make up for his actions.

I can NOT stand these people at ALL like this is the reason why i barely interact in that fucking side of twitter.

[nonokoko13]

Call me Mahoro because I also think her brother is hot af Btw the plot twist in this series is that Arajin is going take his crush last name but not because of her. Sorry for the spoilers peace and love in the planet Earth

And could somebody make this Marito teddy bear real? It's a basic and essential need atp

[spot-splatter-splash]

Maturing is realizing I actually really adore Jewel and her obnoxious personality. I love you annoying women

This will be your downfall however because I will put you through the wringer you will be put through the horrors for the sake of character development

[tvgals]

daily reminder taylor swift is dating a racist

[zackcollins]

I did a match where my brother was Gardener Symmetra and I was B.Va. Our other DPS was Pumpkin Bastion. So this motherfucker just goes "I'm the gardener, you're the pollinator, and that's my crop."

[williamkisser]

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh (she's got me like nobody)

Can't read my, can't ready my

She's got me like nobody

Can't read my, can't ready my

She's got me like nobody

Can't read my, can't ready my

She's got me like nobody

Can't read my, can't ready my

She's got me like nobody

Mum-mum-mum-mah

Mum-mum-mum-mah

Mum-mum-mum-mah

Mum-mum-mum-mah

Mum-mum-mum-mah

I wanna hold 'em like they do in Texas, please

Fold 'em, let 'em hit me, raise it, baby, stay with me (I love it)

Love game intuition, play the cards with spades to start

And after he's been hooked, I'll play the one that's on his heart

Oh, whoa, oh, oh

Whoa, oh, oh

I'll get him hot, show him what I've got

Oh, whoa, oh, oh

Whoa, oh, oh

I'll get him hot, show him what I've got

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)

I wanna roll with him, a hard pair we will be (hey)

A little gamblin' is fun when you're with me (I love it)

Russian roulette is not the same without a gun

And baby, when it's love, if it's not rough, it isn't fun (fun)

Oh, whoa, oh, oh

Whoa, oh, oh

I'll get him hot, show him what I've got

Oh, whoa, oh, oh

Whoa, oh, oh

I'll get him hot, show him what I've got

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)

I won't tell you that I love you, kiss or hug you

'Cause I'm bluffin' with my muffin

I'm not lying, I'm just stunnin' with my love-glue-gunnin'

Just like a chick in the casino

Take your bank before I pay you out

I promise this, promise this

Check this hand 'cause I'm marvelous

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face

(She's got me like nobody)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)

Mum-mum-mum-mah

Mum-mum-mum-mah

Mum-mum-mum-mah

Mum-mum-mum-mah

Marvelous

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

Can't read my, can't read my

No, he can't read my poker face

(She's got me like nobody)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face

(She's got me like nobody)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)

P-p-p-poker face, f-f-fuck her face (mum-mum-mum-mah)