#I'M SORRY FOR NOT BEING ON BUT I LOVE ANDY DAVIS | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

zingaplanet · 8 days ago

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hi, i adore your blog so much. <3. what are your thoughts on the state of fedal in 2024, especially as we approach (cries) rafa's retirement at davis cup?

Ergh I missed this one sorry! Although this might be prime timing considering what just happened during the retirement. I've been wanting to be as candid on this as possible for a long time and voice what all of their fans are thinking but I'm afraid I might cause quite some pain. So forgive me lovely tennisblr, here are just my two cents:

If you ask me what their relationship is like now, I've got to say I have no idea and I think that's a v telling answer. Fed retired end of 2022 and has been busy doing insane sponsor stuff for the whole year. He still showed up at tennis stuff (e.g., for Andy at Wimbledon, etc) but we can never tell how much engagement he actually has with the players anymore. Hence, even though he mentions Rafa a lot more often than others, I think we need to take it with a grain of salt here because the media sharks are simply pouncing on every opportunity to get a story from this too.

One thing I am quite sad about tho, is how everything after the mega publicised retirement ceremony seems to be a bit too PR-stunty. I get it, the rivalry was a big thing in the tennis world but with that photo going viral and winning all sorts of awards, being used in motivational sports speeches etc - it kinda transcends tennis now. Federer and Nadal have both always been bigger than tennis, but perhaps now that they are getting the attention together, it's getting a bit much.

When they mentioned each other throughout interview snippets all year, only sometimes do we get to see what's going on behind the scenes. Other times, from my perspective, it feels sadly like they have been media briefed after the whole whirlwind about how to make this as positive a press for them as possible without revealing too much. On this, I have to say, Federer is still a maestro - I have never seen an athlete with as much PR talent as him. I work a lot in comms and he is a simple branding wet dream, he says all the right words you want to hear, the same message in many different versions of sentences, but never actually reveals what's going on. Rafa used to be much more of a trainwreck early in his career but he has improved so much with age. He still sometimes, fascinatingly, slipped up tho, and seemingly only during Spanish interviews, when he's a lot more honest. In several of the Spanish tv and radio interviews he did this year, he seemed to hint that on the one hand, Federer is the only one he still speaks to regularly in tennis, but on the other hand, he gives a strange indication that they're not as close as they used to be?

I think it's quite predictable though. After Federer retired, they were now freer to build on the friendship without any of the rivalry hurdles - but at the same time, I think they didn't realise how much the intensity of the rivalry played such a central part in what made "them" special. It's such a push-pull enemies-friends delicate line they've been mastering how to tread all these years. It could be difficult to find footing now that tennis no longer binds them, and their initial obvious differences (you know, the "calm Swiss maestro - passionate Spanish fighter" kinda narrative) begin to show again. I don't necessarily think this means they can't connect without tennis ever again, it's just a bit like your school friends. When you graduate, you no longer have that connection of going to class together or hanging out during recess - but the truest bonds always survived, and after a few rough years, your good friends are still there.

If I'm honest, I think they are at the point where they're a bit unsure what to do with one another but might be forced to play a bit of a part as the media has lumped them "the eternal rivals turned friends fairytale". I honestly feel like the media and public interests might have made it a bit awkward between them. You can see a little bit in their PR stuff - Rafa namedropping Fed a little and sometimes a bit tired when he constantly got asked about Federer in his post-match pressers recently, and Roger doing stuff like the letter. The letter is v generous, heartwarming, and such a loving tribute - and I have no doubt he wrote it himself but it's a v public thing that would've and could've landed better just being delivered in person directly? Or perhaps in a speech for him. But the whole social media stuff seems a bit fishy.

Of course we all don't know what he did or didn't do privately, the same goes to whether this is all really true or they are both just v busy dealing with a big change in their lives (Fed newly retired doing a gazillion sponsor stuff and travelling the world, Rafa dealing with a career ending injury and retirement) - they might simply not have the headspace --or even want-- the other to be such a significant part of their lives at the moment, as these two new things they are experiencing are something uniquely theirs.

The retirement ceremony is a whole other story I could write lots of paragraphs about (don't encourage me!). But I think if we learn something this year, I think it's that athletes unequivocally deserve personal space, and we should never meddle with their personal lives too much.

For the first time in their lives, they will now be fully retired, out of the limelight, able to enjoy all the things we take for granted (like travelling anonymously! or trying out restaurants in new cities)! It's what they deserved after giving us 20+ years of blood, sweat, emotion, and passion on the court and in the limelight. They both owe us nothing. I think if they both disappeared from the spotlight next year (albeit unlikely) or decided to just grow their friendship in private and never appear publicly together again - that is completely their right. We can only show them support and thank them for all the amazing things they did to make our childhood and our lives so wonderful.

#fedal #federer #nadal #roger federer #rafael nadal #tennis #retirement

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hearts-lover · 6 years ago

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My opinion about Kingdom hearts 3

This post contains Spoliar to the Kingdom Hearts 3, if you haven’t played or beaten the game, I recommended you just move on the next post. I also will be talking about the Character, the Game, and the Fandom(mostly about the people who dislike Kairi role in this game) in this post, so if anything I said offended you by any meaning, I’m sorry, but this is ‘Merica where I’m at, so I can’t feel bad about hurting someone feeling even if I just speak a specific group of them or dissing their favorite character. Wow, I haven’t upload a thing in my account for years and now today is the day. oh, as for Kingdom hearts 3; love it. but I do wanna speak my opinion about this So just to get this out of the way, Kingdom hearts 3 have a pacing problem, and I'm pretty sure everyone knows that but I really don’t have any issues with it, granted this is a very annoying issues because as a Kingdom hearts fan, we never had any issues with this kind of stuff, even the previous KH game like Kingdom hearts 0.2 and DDD, but as someone who watches anime being dub and that dub being out of pace is a very common thing and most of the times, the Series Dragon ball Super have suffered the same thing, people simply talking too fast and most of the time they get cut off, making their sentences seem like a waste of breaths, but in Kingdom hearts 3 The pace in there seem so slow until we move away from the Disney and Pixar worlds, the pacing seems okay in my opinion. well besides the “character bring back to life” pacing, but I’ll speak about that soon enough.

but, let talk about the worlds; Olympus - I really didn’t enjoy this world, but that doesn’t mean I hate it. I really like how Sora and the other interact with Herc and Hades and I like how you get to explore and literally goes up to heaven to help Herc and save Zeus. (though I am a bit disappointed that we wouldn’t able to meet the other gods, like Herc Mom)the reason why I didn’t enjoy these worlds it so Empty, even in Zeus home, where if you revisit Olympus and you enter the gate, the first area doesn’t have any heartless until you progress through the area, but that first area is so big, perfect to fight those groups of heartless again like when we first get to that area to help Herc.

Toy Box - One of my favorite world so far, as a fan of the Toy Story series, its really good to see Woody and Buzz interact with Sora and the other, and I like how Buzz choose to keep an eye on Sora, Donald, and Goofy, even though he can be stupid, like the fact he doesn’t believe he is in another world despite the fact he was able to shoot real Lazer, the fact there was no human ANYWHERE even the newest Toy story that was having their grand opening thus there should be Kids and Adults in there EVERYWHERE and the fact that the heartless appear as soon you couldn’t find the other toy or Andy. Idk I just feel like he did all this and be controlled by the darkness, just so Woody can roast Young Xehanort and Sora saying “heart are everywhere” for the 10th times lol

Kingdom Of Corona- My least favorite world, While I do enjoy the interaction between Sora and Rapunzel (make me surprise that nobody in the community ships them since she and Eugene never have like a romance development beside her and Sora. I also hate that when Rapunzel wanted you to swing with her into another area, you locked up into a slow walking and controlling Sora is so annoying, even the festival is confusing, even if I read the tutorial I still mess it all up until I realize that I have to button depend on what color of the circles, but even then when the dancer group up, how are they expect me to hit the Circles, let alone get a perfect in there if the beat doesn’t even sync (in my opinion that is) plus the world seems a bit too big for me, even with a map, maybe its because the tree and grass look the same thing, but eh.

Monstropolis - once again, one of my favorite world, Mike and Sully even Boo (despite they reuse her voice from the movie) is enjoyable to see and the interact make it seen like their one big family just trying to protect boo, and I wish we get more of that in the Kingdom Hearts series, for now, Sora Donald and Goofy, as well as Sora Riku and Kairi, will have to do. It's also cool to go through the monster factory and see some new stuff we haven’t seen before in the movie, I think that bits are pretty cool alone itself.

The Caribbean - My all times favorite world, as a fan of The Pirate of Caribbean this was a win for me, the Graphic, the world, even chasing the Black Pearl inside the Davy Jone Locker Kept me smiling throughout of the game. I thought the Crab collection is gonna be annoying, but I actually enjoy it, because it's everywhere, so you won’t be lost and worry about trying to find that last one crab. I am dissappointed about the water fight style, I know that we grow up in the previous game that we were able to use 3 combos in the beginning and the waterfight style shouldn’t be different, but I feel like they could’ve done more other than “Bubble, Swing, Swing, Whirlwind” combos

Arendelle - I really don’t understand why many people hate this world, I do understand that Sora doesn’t have NO purpose to be in there beside without realizing that when Sora Compare Elsa and Riku and realize Riku have been pushing him away just to keep him safe (where that is pretty cute.) and half the cutscene doesn’t help you what is going on what happened where its basically forces you to watch the movie, (similar what of Corona dealt with) to understand what is the relationship between Elsa and Anna, and why Elsa think that shes dangerous (Granted, Frozen is the 13th Grossed movie of all times so everyone with their mother must watch the movie, including Tangle) But other than that I enjoy the World, everytime when I see Sora run and able to see the snow actually move unlike what Halloween Town was able to do in KH2 when you get to see Santa, and able to find Olaf Body and his reaction to each body (and the fact that Sora literally grab a ball of poo) was great in my opinion. Also, you guys are very bold to expect “let it go” NOT to be in the game. that like Playing Kingdom hearts and know all of the character and story and expected Master Xehanort to NOT be the main antagonist.

San Fransokyo - Easily, one of the most boring world I had to go through. Sure you get to meet the Big Hero 6 and Sora making up the team names thus acting like a dumb puppy and the boss was interesting, but...that pretty much its. San Fransokyo wasn’t even that interesting until you beat the world, basically, the world is “talk to the person to progress” kind of thing, cause most of the time, once you finish what you had to do, and you have an option to save or buy some stuff, and that it. if you want to move on to the story, talk to Hiro, making me think that they rushed this world mostly than Arendelle and Corona, and when they say this world to be in the game? 2015? to be honest, what a waste of a world.

Now we have done with that, let talk about the Pro and Cons

Pros:

I really enjoy the interaction between Vexen and Demyx, even though it was a one-time thing (sadly) it's really good to see Nobodies from Kh2 talking to the Nobodies from CoM, Kinda remind me of Pinky and the Brain from The Animaniacs

Goofy is still Smarter than anyone in this Universe and I LOVE IT.

I’m glad that in Monstropolis, it takes place after the event of Monster Inc., so we can have more interact between Sully and Mike, I even like when sully say “its time to bring the scare out” I think that alone is a good line.

I have the same ps4 that was announced back on 2012 and I used it when I played KH3, thus I never had a Ps4 pro, but even then, the game feel and look beautiful and I couldn’t stop playing it.

I like the Gummiship section, I like how it gave you a choice if you should go and collect some items, but also give you a choice if you wanna annoyed them, then again, you do have to face the giant boss in that section, but you only get to face 3 of them and depend on how well you are, you’ll be leveling up like crazy at the end of the day, I mean the ship was able Lvl. 26 when I reach to the Keyblade Graveyard.

The magic is powerful and useful to use.

Sora’s Smile special. That's all.

CAPTAIN MOTHER FUCKING JACK SPARROW

Cons:

I didn’t enjoy the reaction command, sure the Keyblade Transformation is useful by itself, but when you have another command that you wanna use but if you hit Triangle before you hit R2 to switch, you’ll waste your finisher just like that. and it also doesn’t help if you just wanna get the treasure but wasted a useful command you been saving.

Master Yin sid alone. I hated him when he claimed Riku as a Keyblade Master, and I hated him just as much. because here a thing he has stated that Sora can’t go with Riku or Mickey until he has the power of awakening, where he didn’t use that until he follows Aqua to find Ventus, this man have the nerve to say that Sora isn’t ready despite the fact that he was able to save 10+ world when he was just 14, granted he did lose his power thank to Xehanort in the events of DDD, but in KH3, he was able to turn into his second form and play similar as his full power as KH2 (when you unlock all his abilities) summon a Pirate ship, A blaster, was able to do his first Keyblade transform after he finishes with Olympus. and Yin sid, have the nerve to say that he needs the power of awakening to support Riku and the King, and yet he was able to save Aqua WHILE NOT BEING A KEYBLADE MASTER AS RIKU AND MICKEY IS ONE and wake up Ventus to after seeing aqua getting hurt without even learning how to even use the power. and uses the same power he doesn’t know how to use to save his friends. Master Yin Sid is a horrible master and nothing will change my mind.

Donald being a bully, I never have seen Donald abuse Sora like this before, maybe it's having to do with Goofy being smarter than anyone in this universe, and I know that Donald personality was supposed to be annoying and him acting annoyed. But remember when Master Yin Sid and Pete stated that Sora was weaker than he was in the previous game, and how its really got into him, and remember Sora was able to save Aqua and Ventus without being a Keyblade master, since Yin Sid is basically saying that Riku was able to learn the Power of awakening thus that what make him Master, similar to Mickey. did you also remember Donald say “Sora needs work” and he says this AFTER he saves Aqua and Ventus, yeah, this Donald isn’t the Donald I know and love in the KH universe?

This game gives us a lot more question than an answer. Like why did Roxas came from the sky where his Vessel suppose to be with Ienzo, how did they able to create Xion if she was a Clone of Sora, why did the old princess heart move on and seek a new princess heart (plus does that mean Kairi isn’t a princess anymore), Shouldn’t Elsa heart be more stronger than a Princess heart since she's a queen. and some that I can’t even word it out.

The pacing, pretty sure you knew about that

The Final boss was...a little disappointed compared to the 1st 2 games of KH

Power level is bullsh*t (I'll be talking about that later)

Now I GOTTA speak my opinion about the Fandom reaction of the game and BOY there is a lot:

Regarding to Kairi:

I have seen a lot of people both Kairi fan and non-fan usually say about how Kairi character have been downgraded to be a typical Love-interest to Sora (despite the fact that has always been a thing in KH1 and KH2, there literally can’t be any more to hint to these two together) and how she basically basically the Damsel in distress, where I could say the same thing to these “would-be-master” No hates on Riku Mickey or Aqua, but lemme recap, Riku earned the title ”Keyblade Master” after he finished with his Mark of Mastery, after that and him learning more about Aqua, he contain and use an uniform where Yin sid say that it’ll help him when he faces the heartless in realm of darkness, and Mickey confirm that even the weakest heartless can be dangerous in the realm of darkness. and His keyblade was destroyed and mickey’s was badly damaged and wished Yin sid to upgrade the keyblade and make Riku a new one since he left the old one in the darkness, they return there only for mickey to be captured by the heartless, and Riku had to face Aqua and the heartless, (he even working together with his dark self), but even after all of that “HE STILL NEED SORA” I understand that Sora is basically a golden child and have been fighting heartless more time than Riku since he worked with the darkness in KH1, but that doesn’t mean he useless, he can fight, Both Sora and Riku have a Rival and it could be hint that they were using the wooden sword since they were kids, so they must’ve have SOME experience, and since this is the same dude who entitles a Keyblade master, and I know that some of you will say “but you just say that Mickey confirm that the hearless is stronger in the Realm of Darkness” and you’re would be right, if we didn’t have Yin sid and Sora.

Yin sid basically told Sora 2-3 times that He needs the power of Awaken in order to go and help Riku and Mickey, even when Sora/Ventus say that he’ll go and Save Aqua, what did master Yin sid say “You need the Power of awaken” but he didn’t need to, He just needs to follow his heart, and he did, and he found Aqua keyblade and use that to reach to Riku, only for him to use that power to Ventus. after he saves Aqua.

and Sora; remember what Yin sid said (where I won’t repeat myself) and remember Pete say that he is weaker than he remembers, HOW DID HE ABLE TO DEFEAT A KEYBLADE MASTER AFTER COMPLETE 7 WORLDS? Granted, there could be a development where he could be getting stronger in each world he completed, but Yin sid say that the Darkness has Stripped his power and even Pete called him weak, there is no way that he was able to catch up to Riku level where he never lose power in the first place AND able to defeat a Master Keyblader by himself with no help and with no “power of Awaken”

in fact I could even say that both Riku and Mickey is more than a Damsel than Kairi since They have to be Saved by Sora twice where Kairi was being used of being Sora motivation to fight at his fullest, and Master Xehanort stated that he needs 9 clashes between 13 darkness and 7 lights to in order to forge the X-Blade and with Kairi Death being the 9th, she was used to create the X-blade.

and the fact that no-one even comments about these make me REALLY consider for the fandom, but you know my opinion.

Overall, I think Kingdom hearts 3 is a great game with a lot of Nostalgia in it, but I feel like Nomura tried to hard to make KH3 look pretty other than answering story, where there has been other games where you can have an interesting story and Gameplay before KH3 even release.

Overall, Please play this game with a grand of salt (for the people who haven’t play KH3)

#Kingdom hearts 3 #kh3 spoilers #kairi #KH3 review

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