#a history of Maserati

[guy60660]

Alfieri Maserati | F1 History

[fainfrumos]

Contrast, Mdina [26.12.24]

[celestial-tapir]

on the scale of pointless things to be mad about this is probably up there, but I will never forgive Becoming Elizabeth for turning the child King Edward into a Prince Joffrey clone for no reason and I'm glad the show was cancelled

[nick-cassidy]

james rossiter is always a lil hostile to max günther when he’s on comms . so badly need a tell all in what happened in those final months @ Maserati

[apartmentsmoke]

there hasn't been a day since the breakup when buck and tommy haven't thought about each other

there's one day that tommy spends working on his newest project car, a 1969 maserati ghibli he spent too much money on, and as he's cleaning his hands off he thinks okay. i made it a day without thinking about him. a beat later he thinks fuck, then he thinks evan would love the history of this car, because tommy did a dive the same way evan dove into billy boils' backstory - and then the dam's broken. tommy drinks a beer and mopes.

across town buck's not baking. he's not checking his phone. he's getting home from an evening run. he set a punishing pace, focused on step after step, and when he's turning the key to enter his empty loft all he's thinking about is a shower - and then he takes his shoes off. sees the shelf that tommy helped him put up. he sighs, open his fridge, spies tommy's favored beer and bypasses it to grab some flour.

[someone-else-reading13]

life really is a before and after reading aftg. like i’ve been in a lot of fandoms, obsessed over a lot of characters. and yet, there hasn’t ever been a piece of media that has come even close to how much i think about aftg on the daily.

i can’t even begin to count the amount of things/words that stopped being what they were and became references to this series

a hand to the nape? BIG reference

the color orange? reference

a sports team with orange uniforms? REFERENCE

keys, stay, pipe dream? reference

percentages? referenceeee

going for a run? reference

anything written by edgar allan poe? yep, that’s a reference

california? millport? columbia? maryland? reference

majors like math? history? business? reference

Maseratis and CIGARETTES???? REFERENCE

french? german? spanish? more references

armbands? black combat boots? reference

colored contacts and hair dye? you bet, reference

i could go on and on, but i think you get the point.

[boxboxblog]

Women in Motorsports

Hello, this post is answering an ask about women in F1 and F1 related series. Great ask, let's go.

History:

So, unfortunately the history of women in motorsports is a combination of good and bad, but mostly bad. It's a story of limited opportunities, constant barriers, and many female racers being seen as the exception rather than the rule. F1 still to this day is a male-dominated sport, and even as recent as the 2010s many men in F1 deemed female racers to be a bad idea, or that women could not handle it. F1 legend Stirling Moss stated in 2013 or 2014 that "Women don't have mental strength for Formula 1 and would find it tiring" so this really is a culture in F1 that only in recent years has started to change.

But all throughout this history, women did fight for the right to race. Who were these women?

Maria Teresa de Filippis

The first woman to race in F1, she entered the sport in 1958. She competed in five Grand Prix's with Maserati and Behra-Porsche, and finished 10th in Spa. She possibly dealt with the worst of what the F1 world had to offer, as she was even banned from racing at some tracks, even being told at one point that "the only helmet a woman should wear is the one at the hairdresser's". While she only competed for a short time, she was a pioneer for women in motorsports.

Lella Lombardi

Lombardi is probably the most well known women in F1 history. She grew up racing, competing in karting at a young age and then rising up through other series, before being brought into F1 in 1974. She would race in F1 until 1976, and throughout her career would score points multiple times. Even when she left this series, she would still race for many years to come. While she is not the first woman in F1, she is perhaps the greatest trailblazer, as her performance and competitive spirit inspired many future female drivers and even garnered respect from many F1 legends.

Divina Galica

A famous British athlete (part of their olympic ski team) Galica also pursued a career in motorsports after performing well in a celebrity racing event. She competed in karting, then moved into F2 and F1. She raced in three Grand Prix's between 1976 and 1978, but unfortunately never qualified for the race.

Desiré Wilson

Known as one of the most accomplished female racers in the world, Wilson is the only woman to win an F1 race (as of right now), but this was in the non-championship series, Aurora AFX British F1 Series. Her only entry in the F1 championship series was the British GP, of which she did not qualify. Outside of F1, she had a thriving career, competing in Indycar events, winning the Monza 1000km, winning the Silverstone 6 Hours World Championship, winning the South African Formula Ford Championship, racing in Formula Pacific, the 24 Hrs at Le Mans, and more. A truly impressive racer and career.

Giovanna Amati

The most recent female F1 racer, Amati raced for Brabham in 1992. She had three entries, but did not qualify for a race. Outside of F1, she had a great career. She attended a motorsport academy from a young age, competing in her first series, Formula Abarth, in 1981. She then moved up to Formula 3 and Formula 3000 (scoring multiple win sin both series). She was able to secure a place in F1 after serving as the testing driver for Benetton, but her poor results meant she was fired quickly. After that, she went into other series like Monza 1000km, Sebring 12 hrs, the Ferrari Challenge, etc.

Development and Test Drivers:

Sarah Fisher: Indycar driver, tested for McLaren in 2002

Katherine Legge: Tested with Minardi in 2005

Susie Wolff: A Williams test and reserve driver in 2012, and the last woman to take part in a F1 race weekend as she drove in a FP in 2014. Currently the head of F1 Academy

María de Villota: Test driver for Marussia in 2012. Died from injuries in a crash.

Tatiana Calderón: An IndyCar driver who served as the development and test driver in 2017-218 for Sauber.

Jamie Chadwick: 2019 Williams signed her as a development driver until 2022.

Difficulties:

So, what are the difficulties or barriers that have held women back from competing. There are several, of course. In the early days it was general sexism and the belief that women could not handle racing that did it. The g-force of the car was deemed too aggressive, and even with technological advancements that have lowered g-force, this stereotype that women are too physically weak still lingers. The financial barrier is also a big one. Racing is extremely expensive, and securing a strong sponsorship is required to compete at the highest levels. But sponsors also tend to not go for female drivers as they view it more as a risk, because it is such a male-dominated sport. The general treatment female drivers have received over the years has also discouraged many from pursuing an F1 career. They are often treated to a lot more scrutiny and vitriol than there male counterparts, and on top of that are overly sexualized. I don't quite remember who, but one prominent F1 figure once stated that women should not compete because the second they put on a race suit, they are a sex object to be fantasized about. For young women this would be a massive deterrent to continuing their career. In general, the barriers women have dealt with are a mixture of all of these things put together. But what has the F1 world to try and alleviate these problems?

The W Series:

This series came about in 2019, and was a free-to-enter series for women intended to create a clear pathway and offer them more exposure. It was paused in 2022 after funding issues, and today is not in use. This did help launch the initiative to get more women into motorsports and gained the drivers who compete a lot more public attention.

The F1 Academy:

Launched in 2023, the F1 Academy is a series in the F4 category that is designed to provide support for female drivers, as well as higher access to sponsorships opportunities. Many modern drivers say that the biggest difficulty women in modern motorsports face is the lack of sponsorship opportunities, so the academy attempts to alleviate that. The Academy has their own races, but also trains the drivers on technical skills, media training, and physical conditioning. While this program is sometimes seen as controversial, mostly because people feel that it is condescending to put women in a separate category, this is mostly because people do not realize the purpose it. The goal is to help these young female drivers gain attention from sponsors so they can go on to afford to compete in the general categories, like F3, F2, and eventually F1. It is not intended as anything but a jumping off point and training center. Sponsors do not tend to go for young female racers because of the F1 gender bias, so the academy attempts to get rid of this, not replace the lower level series, and help the drivers gain more public attention.

The Future:

So, due to this growing momentum in recent years around women in motorsports, the question comes around; when will be see a woman in F1? I wish I had a good answer to this question. Most people believe that we could see a female F1 driver within the next decade, while others think it may take longer than that. As for how the academy helps, we haven't see the results quite yet. The drivers for the F1 Academy certainly have received much more attention that they would have due to the series, but they are still in the first generation so there are not clear results. The good news is that big name teams like Ferrari are starting to support young female drivers through their junior programs, and so perhaps we will see a female F1 driver sooner than we think. It still is a bit of an uphill battle, but I am optimistic about the future.

Alright, I hope I answered any questions about this topic. As a woman and a motorsport enthusiast, this a topic is very near and dear to my heart. Thank you again for the fantastic ask.

Cheers,

-B

[frenchcurious]

Maserati A6 GCS styled by Pinin Farina.. - source History's Scape.

[maxwell-grant]

The Penguin Episode 5: "Homecoming" Breakdown

BREANNAH: I think, if Oz had it his way, I think Victor would carry on Oz's legacy. AMY: Do you think that Victor can ever see Oz as his Rex Calabrese? BREANNAH (sighs): I think that is what Oz wants. I think if Oz had it his way, by the end of this series, Victor would want to plan Oz's funeral and have a parade through the streets and be the, um AMY: The biggest parade ever? BREANNAH: The biggest parade ever. - The Penguin Podcast Episode 5

(Art by @butcherbilly)

(Episode 1) (Episode 2) (Episode 3) (Episode 4) (Episode 6) (Episode 7) (Episode 8)

I wanna know who decided to bang up the Penguimobile so meticulously to give it the angriest, most anthropomorpic scarred face a Maserati can possibly have, on the second before it's given a Viking funeral. That thing looks like a wounded animal and I refuse to accept this was accidental.

I knew we were in for something special when it opened with "Did I ever tell of Rex Calabrese" and the Penguinmobile being burned, and then it turned out to actually be a funeral for the Penguinmobile and the history of why Oz wanted a Penguinmobile so badly, why was it so deeply important for him as a kid to dream that one day he'd get a big flashy stupid car to roll down the block with, and what burning the Penguinmobile means to him now.

"It wasn't just a car, it was a chariot. Made a kid with a bum leg feel like even he could be king." "End of an era."

"Only the good die young." Sure hope that bodes nothing terrible for Victor's future.

It is pretty funny that Oz has Tiktok installed on his phone and that this one scene confirms it exists in this universe, the jokes just kinda write themselves there.

Vic sure seems like he's rapidly getting a taste for the action, the decision he's made is bringing a fight out of him no one but Oz had ever really imagined was there. Not only is he getting comfortable with doing violence on Oz's behalf and making his own decisions, but he's gotten to a point where he's starting to actually look up to Oz, seeing him the way Oz wants to be seen.

Oh hey it's the police chief from The Batman, glad that he shows up here, especially in a context where he gets to eat shit.

I wish Eve Carlo showed up more, so far she hasn't really had too much to do although this episode definitely is the most we've seen. Someone who Oz doesn't really have much leverage with because she sees many of the cracks in his image and who's had a target on her back because of him the moment we were introduced to her, her protectiveness over the girls, the stuff mentioned in the commentary, all of that is interesting and I expect we're gonna get more elaboration regarding her down the line - it's already a big question mark whether she'll even survive the show.

"That's what I do, I fix things. That's all I ever fucking do."

I like these moments of pathetic defiance and pained regretful self-serving vulnerability that we get from Johnny Viti in this episode, with Sofia eating the scenery with the power she now holds over him even as what he reveals still very much hurts her.

The painful vulnerability of Francis nearly burning the house down while softly clutching a catcher's mitt, steeling up and joking with Victor about her bruises, and the sheer happiness and pride overflowing from her as she practically dances to the news that her son gassed an entire family to death, God what a character. She waited her whole life for these scumbags to die and die by her son's hand, it's gonna be a real gutpunch when or if she finds out the truth.

Oz doing everything he does so he can come home one day and have his mom tell him she's proud of him, and at the happiest and most prideful we've ever seen (and probably will ever see) Francis, he wasn't there to see it, and it was only because Victor spun a lie for him.

I wanna take a little aside just to highlight some of Shohreh Aghdashloo's comments regarding Nadia Maroni and her final moments, and this is probably the character I'm going to most miss because I was very interested in everything that she brought to the table, the history and the perspective that this character brings to Gotham, and what went into her creation and death.

She's coming from a huge family. She left the revolution behind. She has traveled the seven seas, she has learned a lot, and therefore she herself has been revolutionized. She's where she cannot tell the difference between right and wrong. All she's trying to do is to save her family, her husband, her son, and what's important to them. There is no right and wrong there. Which reminds me of a poem by the Persian poet Rumi, which says, "Beyond the notion of right and wrong, there is a field. Would you like to meet me there?". That's where she is standing.

Her country was invaded. Foreign occupation. Now she needs to make another country her country, and then save herself and her family. And she's willing to do everything to the point that she would even sacrifice herself for this family.

I guess when you go through a lot and do not have time to think about your doings, your past, your present, what's going to happen in the future, you're just involved with something like a snowball that comes out downhil. You really don't think properly. All you do is action, action, and what's right to do right now.

If she had been thinking thoroughly, she would have not done that - The Penguin Podcast Episode 5

‘Why does Nadia go there? She can send people to bring her son back,’” Aghdashloo says of Nadia’s characterization as an Iranian mother. “But she doesn’t, because she calls her son ‘joon,’ ‘dear,’ and she is ready to sacrifice herself for him. We can’t help it.”

Every time an Iranian mother talks to their son, their name is always followed by “joon,” or “dear.” And at the end of the conversation, it usually ends like this: “ghorbunet beram.” “I sacrifice myself for you.” Nadia literally sacrifices herself for her son. That is the best part, for me, of this scene. If she were a real mob boss, she wouldn’t get herself involved with this. But she is a housewife. She makes mistakes. That scene means so much to me. I’ve been asked, “Why does Nadia go there? She can send people to bring her son back.” But she doesn’t, because she calls her son “joon,” “dear,” and she is ready to sacrifice herself for him. Ghorbunet beram. - The Penguin’s Shohreh Aghdashloo Couldn’t Let Nadia Stay Quiet, by Roxana Hadadi,

Having established that, Jesus Christ.

Oh so that's why Shohreh Aghdashloo's name and eyes were superimposed behind the burning car the whole time in the credits, you fuckers, that's why.

The "You know my reputation?" line from the movie always took a whole different meaning with the show, but with that scene, Oz cooking a mother and her son alive while they embraced and gleefully watching it all happen, is the first time we see him deserve the reputation he boasted about, it's a real what-the-fuck moment in a way that even the stabbing in Episode 2 was not, in part because this was not necessary, and it was extremely premeditated. Oz may have done it only after the Maronis locked the door and tried to kill him, he may have done it as payback for them stealing his shrooms and trying to kill him, but he had already doused Taj in gasoline first. He likely expected Nadia to be there to retrieve him. He waited until Taj was in her arms. It's fucking vile and impossible to justify even more so than the other vile unjustifiable things Oz had done up to this point.

Extremely cool and good that, when asked if this is the worst thing Oz has done, Lauren Lefranc very quickly said No. Cool, cool cool, fun times ahead.

I highlight those excerpts where Aghdashloo discusses the character's morality because it is important to how the Maronis function differently from the Falcones, as we'll see with Sal later, but also the fact that Oz is not targeting people who are morally below him. He is not sticking it to the man by attacking the Maronis. Everything Aghdashloo describes above about Nadia's morality and decision-making aligns with how Victor and Oz function, but Nadia has more family to lose, and she respects a code that Oz wipes his ass with and actively exploits to beat them with. The Maronis still think that they can survive in this town by being strong principled gangsters, when this is a city of villains.

Something about the image of a self-pitying American gangster gleefully burning a middle-eastern family alive, under the pretense of payback but largely because he could get away with it.

"I think there's a reason that we're more interested in the life of the villains nowadays than Madame Curie or, you know, Dostoevsky, is the fact that we want to know what happens to a person that turns them from a human into a creature."

“Maybe today, where we’re standing at the junction of history, we need to get to know our villains so we know how to deal with them,” she says with a wink." -

I can't say too many of the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul comparisons have been particularly warranted, but Oz losing his shit at daylight in a yellow/orange-lit deserted junkyard because he ruined his entire drug batch as a result of his cruel recklessness is an extremely BrBa/BCS moment, no notes.

Extreme credit to Colin Farrell that he's nonetheless able to elicit sympathy, despairing over his lifeline turned to ashes in his hands and begging Victor to get his mom somewhere safe, not even being able to name where exactly she would be, because even his mastery over the city is failing him.

Congratulations Sofia, you've risen up to the role of Batman Supervillain so fast that you even get your own Harley Quinn now

Dr.Rush is almost aggressively pathosless compared to everyone else in the show in a way that I think works for his role, that his presence is wildly uncomfortable to us in a lot of ways, and that he's even breathing speaks still to Sofia's buried need to have someone, anyone, in her corner, even a guy who was complicit in her torture.

It's easy to parse his sticking around as attraction to Sofia and I didn't quite know what to make of it, but Theo Rossi laid out a lot of very insightful commentary on the podcast regarding what he saw as the driving force of the character and those got me seeing Dr.Rush as a genuinely interesting spin on the Arkham psychologist. Even if very much not intentionally, I do think he's actually offering an interesting meditation on the broad strokes of Harley Quinn, specifically what drives an ethical-but-naive psychologist to throw themselves wholesale into submitting before the higher force-of-personality offered by a supervillain, even without being manipulated into doing so.

He, like many of us in life, was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I think that he went in with the best intentions to go into Arkham, and then he realized what Arkham was, and how horrific it was. I think, to deal with that, because someone who gives their entire life to a specific profession is kind of sheltered from real feelings, if you're dealing with other people's feelings. And I don't think he ever really explored his, in a way. So he gets this opportunity, and he sees what she has become, this butterfly. She had become something else. And he was so dying to become something else other than himself. And he had spent all these years after Arkham numbing himself and doing whatever. A lot of this came to me months after shooting (laugh).

There was a very significant part in Ep.2 where she slaps him, and what we had written in there is that he looks like he enjoyed it. It's like that he enjoyed the feeling of pain because he needed to feel something again. I think that he's become so incredibly numb to watching this horrific thing that he basically lost himself, and why he now dedicated his life to doing whatever was because he needed to rectify his soul, in a way, for what he had seen in this horrific thing.

This is someone who's lost in every single way due to the profession that they had followed, which in probably the beginning sounded like a really fantastic idea. I think that it's dedication to something and seeing now, adding on physical violence, this violence he's seeing, this true, horrific thing, and then also adding on guilt, and adding on, "Is she innocent? Am I complicit? How do I-"

And then add on his own stuff of, "I want what you have". How did you come from the depths of the worst place a human can be, to literally be thrown away, like we were just saying about Rosemary Kennedy. How do you come from there to gain your power and be fully in control? And really strut, like this peacock, where you go, "Oh my-How do I get that?". That's the superpower.

RIP in shit Johnny Viti, you died as you lived, being the idiot who thinks this is still about the money and not sending a message.

Like the other piece of shit backstabber in Sofia's life, all she needed him for was to open the door.

Extremely great incorporation of the Gigante name here, as is Sofia going to war with her mother's coat and painting her as a force too great for the Falcones to handle, assembling the final piece of the great burning self-mythology of family injustice she needs to put on a show as a Batman Villain, looking like she stepped out of the Tim Burton movies and declaring the new order everyone's gonna have to get in line with or die.

Sofia once again demonstrates the ways in which supervillains not only exist, but take over the existing orders: She arrives at the table with warpaint and fur, addressing these men as wronged underdogs like her and her mother, showing herself as a boss who will seriously and almost aggressively not screw them over for the sake of getting a cut, who will pay them ludicrously and generously if they stand by her as she chucks the royal lineage of Gotham in the trash and reaches out to their biggest enemies, as she guns down the Reasonable Businessman on the table so they can take the money caked in his brain matter - and only if they address her by her new nom-de-guerre first, of course.

Of course money is less than dogshit to her - she grew up never wanting for it, then she spend 10 years where it never mattered / actively screwed her over, and now she's single-minded on achieving vengeance and viewing money as only a necessary conversation tool - money was what Milos and Viti cared about, and that way of thinking died with them. They were the dinosaurs who thought they could out-reason or just buy out the meteor.

This is how traditional crime gets it's back broken in Gotham: the mob spent two decades with cheat codes to infinite money, and then Batman took it away, and at the moment they most needed to seriously reorganize and adjust for having limited money, the freaks they created killed them and are now taking over with equally impossible promises far more appealing to regular people, continuining the chain of dominoes that reaches all the way back to the day Thomas Wayne saved Carmine Falcone's life and kicks off why and how Gotham City becomes the place where people like the Batman and the Riddler and the Penguin exist.

It is not only the episode where Sofia comes out to the world as a supervillain, but it's the one where Oz begins doing the same, as we'll see in the end.

This new order is also part of why Sofia ultimately extends an invitation to Sal Maroni. A thing that I was not expecting about Sal, that Clancy Brown brought up as soon as he showed up on a post-episode segment, is that Sal Maroni is easily manipulated. He is the closest we've ever gotten to a classic Honorable Gangster, to a strong and silent Gary Cooper type, the Don who genuinely cares about honor and family and fairness, and he is a sucker. A dumb sucker who lost before the story began, only kept losing while in jail, who needed his wife to coach him and do the real work, and now needs Sofia, who's aiming to become an actually successful Honorable Gangster, to come in her place because he can't even avenge his family on his own.

He is not totally defenseless given the prison escape, but really the main reason he's not visibly and immediately and obviously clockable as a dumb sucker is because Clancy Brown is playing him, which fits his role as a counterpart to Carmine Falcone, Gotham's first villain The Hangman, because nobody would expect John Turturro to be the serial killer king orchestrator of everything wrong in the world. Sal is the anti-Carmine Falcone, and that's why Sofia extends him the grace of an invitation. Because he wouldn't have thrown his daughter to the wolves like that over nothing.

She knows he is right about "You Falcones eat your own", it's how she got here after all. I don't think she respects Maroni, but I think she respects every other man in Gotham even less. At least this one actually honors his word, for what good it does him, and he has just as much reason to pursue her war against Oz as she does, and in the new way of things, in this post-Batman world they live in, it is Justice and Vengeance that rule the city now.

Getting to see the horrific state Crown Point's in also goes a long way towards adding justification for Victor's decisions. That was where he lived up until Oz took him in, Squid was the most powerful person in his life up until that moment, that was the apocalyptic tragedy his beloved neighborhood had turned into. Victor has that love for Gotham and that connection to the family that died here, that the city took and he cannot accept that. That's what he shares with Oz, and with Bruce as well. Of course he couldn't leave it all behind to join Graciela in the sunset, of course he couldn't leave this city anymore than Oz or Bruce could.

Oz getting a bitter taste of his own bullshit when Eve maneuvers around his insecure temper tantrum and makes herself small so he can feel big and not endanger her any further, and he knows it - on some level he has to know she's playing him the way he plays everyone else, and he will go along with it.

Crushing stuff in that scene with Francis - Oz spinning too many plates and despairing and sinking morally and emotionally the whole episode, and then when he thinks he gets to just rest, when all he wants is to go back to his mom's arms for a beat, she shreds his heart to pieces and holds his feet to the fire so he will get back to work. Even more fucked up is that this is her doing the best she can possibly do for him at the moment, because that's how Oz gets things done. Through her negative reinforcement, when he's backed into a corner, when he's desperate and with no way out, that's when he gets miracle solutions and right now they desperately need one.

"My ma, she's what keeps me good" - even if that were even remotely true, your mom doesn't want you to be good, she wants you to win.

We're back to the shithole I raised you in and the only way we're getting out is if you become the Penguin, so be the fucking Penguin.

AND SO HE FINDS HIS OWN BATCAVE

Speaking as someone who always liked Penguin living underground as much as (maybe a little more) the Iceberg Lounge, no small part of me is happy that this one gets to do both, and that this choice of lair comes with a whole story. Oz used to play around here with his brothers, and now he's bringing along a new brother to join him down there.

Burned down to nothing but trauma and resourcefulness and the only person who hasn't given up on him, this person who's seeing him the way he wants to be seen, this kid who embodies the best of him, someone who makes this whole thing worth doing in the first place.

BREANNAH GIBSON: (on the comparison to Walter White and Jesse Pinkman) I think that's a great comparison, especially as you get into the later seasons of Breaking Bad where Walt just becomes this sort of, unrecognizable character from the pilot, and Jesse is - is sort of his moral compass. I think, in a way, Oz and Victor have a similar relationship because Oz keeps him around because he wants to mentor him, and in that way you can see that there's something good in Oz.

Like, I know that he says that his ma is good, and I think he believes that when he's saying it to Victor, but Oz would never admit that in the real situation that they're in, Victor is his moral compass here. Victor is the good in the situation, and Victor is that naive kid from the same neighborhood that Oz grew up in, that maybe Oz wants to see succeed.

And if he helps Victor succeed, he succeeds. And I think there's part of that that Oz is really enjoying about their relationship. And especially in this episode, you know, after Ep.3, Victor's all in. He came back for Oz. He saved him. He's now like, "It's the two of us, and there's nobody else." - Penguin Podcast Episode 5

Armed with these, he storms the underground to prove he can do the impossible and build an empire with two buckets.

Not just the faint last hope, but the first thing he has that's actually by his doing - not owned by the Falcones and leased to him in his role as their court jester, not something he's paying other people to let him use, something he took for himself and then grew into a whole thing.

Which is what The Penguin does - he builds and grows and takes over and expands until Batman has to deal with him. Among the Batman villains, he is the empire builder, and this is where he starts. So far he's just been fixing, now it's time to start building.

And I'll leave the final words here with @davidmann95

OZ USES THE SAME ABANDONED SUBWAY SYSTEM AS BATTINSON BECAUSE THEIR HERO/VILLAIN PARALLEL IS ROOTED IN THEIR SHARED LOVE OF GOTHAM (AS WELL AS THEIR CONNECTIONS TO THE FAMILIES THEY LOST AS CHILDREN IN THIS TAKE THAT BOTH LEAD THEM HERE), SO GOOD

we talked around it a little before but this was definitely the 'okay, fuck it, I guess I'm a supervillain now' episode

Oz, the scummy wheeling-dealing doublecrosser trying to keep all his bullshit in the air and maneuver his way into a successful partnership with anyone he can that he can eventually get on top of Someday, reaches the end of his rope

So now The Penguin has to live in his subterranean childhood trauma lair to defeat all his enemies outright by eating Gotham from the inside out with Arkham super-drugs

[apoptoses]

Have you ever been reading Devil’s Minion and thinking to yourself, “damn, I just can’t nail down a face for Daniel”? Have you watched Interview with the Vampire and felt like neither Christian Slater nor River Phoenix hit the mark for you?

Allow me to introduce you to James fucking Spader.

Look at him! Is that not the face of Daniel, completely fed up with Armand feeding his cigarettes down the garbage disposal?

He’s got the naive and beautiful face but ALSO the defiant yet beseeching thing down! Also he was like 22 here, which is right around the age Daniel met Armand so he’s at peak Healthy, Pretty Molloy here. No wonder Louis decided to take him home!!

“Do you know what a zip code is, or a tax bracket? I’m the one who buys all the goddamned airline tickets. Millions. How are we going to get millions! Steal another Maserati and be done with it, for God’s sakes!”

Spader is the original 80′s pretty boy you’d assume starred as the leading man in some schmoopy romances or schlocky teen dramas and he did that for a minute. Like check him out in Pretty in Pink-

 Is this not peak Night Island Daniel, in his Miami Vice looking bespoke suit ready to head out with Armand for the night?

Look at him snuggled into his blanket in Tuff Turf, like Daniel hungover and forcibly woken up to honky tonk piano tunes!

But the deliciousness doesn’t end at his looks. Because in true Molloy fashion that man said ‘you know what? I wanna make movies for freaks and weirdos only’

In Sex, Lies and Videotape he plays the sweetest pervert who loves interviewing women about their sex lives, video taping it, and then watching them back naked but not actually getting off! He’s impotent, he’s a gentle and lovely weirdo, there’s vampire!Daniel fodder for days in this one.

Crash is a horny flick that defies all explanation and really you need to go in blind if you’re gonna watch this one, but let me just say this: If Spader and his Wife in this film aren’t the most Daniel and Armand coded couple in cinema history I will eat my shoes. Also there’s tons of beautiful footage of him driving around at night with his blond hair ruffling in the breeze.

Your prefer your Daniel with glasses? Oh, perfect, because in Bad Influence he plays a sweet guy who gets into a fucked up situation with a toxic friend and a sex tape!

In Storyville he lets himself be thrown on the floor and lays there submissively before getting involved in yet another sex tape scandal!

Don’t even get me started on Dream Lover, another smut filled romp (with some filthy deleted scenes if you google the uncut version) which has the most Devil’s Minion promo photos of all time-

Like! Get the fuck out!

I could just go all day about his body of work but some of it you’ve just gotta see for yourself. In pretty much every film you’re guaranteed smut with him being deliciously submissive, extremely gentle with his hands, and down for all kinds of kink. And in most of his movies he gets bloody at least once, like-

this is a shitty picture i took of my laptop but look at the blood at the corner of his mouth! Vampire activities!

In summary, let me hit you with a photo dump:

Daniel laying in a cheap motel room during the chase years!

Daniel with delightful 70s hair!

More glasses!Daniel!

Daniel with a half-buttoned 80′s shirt looking so beautiful it’s no wonder Armand couldn’t NOT turn him!

It’s dark, he’s wet, he looks exhausted!

He’s the ideal beautiful Molloy Weirdo and I will not be accepting any other arguments, goodbye!!

[99orphans]

man i love The Penguin

because they had the balls to say "let's take characters from The Long Halloween, one of the best Batman storylines out there and take the characters and just...not.

The Hangman? mmm how about instead of cops, she kills hookers. mmmm and instead of Sofia, it was actually Carmine and he framed her.

Oh and the titular serial killer who was so good that there were multiple suspects, it took Batman a whole year to figure out who it was, and at capture, he still had Batman thinking it might've been one of his best friends?

Yeahhh actually that's lame, how about now he's just a drug addict aaand we'll kill him off in the first episode.

This surely will make all the fans happy, it's not like this is one of the most beloved arcs in all of Batman history."

They really made a show right before October, my most favorite spooky season, and instead of capitalizing on The Long Halloween, said "meh, generic mobster show"

Not to mention taking the Penguin, the Gentleman of Crime, one of the most famous villains not only in Batman, but also of any villain ever; and now he's a greasy mob rat.

Like i understand we're getting sort of an origin story type thing and all and character development and he's moving up the ranks and stuff but like

WHERE'S THE BIRDS???

YOU'RE TELLING ME SUDDENLY THIS MAN CARES MORE ABOUT MUSHROOMS THAN EXOTIC AVIAN SPECIES??? WHERE'S THE HEISTING?? WHERE'S THE EGGS??? WHY IS HE DRIVING AROUND IN A MASERATI??? WHERE IS MY TOP HAT‽‽‽

i want

a Brennan Lee Mulligan amount

of bird facts

coming from this mobster.

[animentality]

Trans exclusionary feminism is stupid for many many reasons but the most damning reason for me is its inherent belief that all women everywhere are victims, and women throughout all of history have been oppressed victims, and this universal victimhood can be shared by all women of all ethnicities and cultures throughout all of time in memoriam.

Equally and universally.

Not only is this not true, but it's especially ironic because terfs tend to be straight white cis women who are ideologically, as well as genetically, related to suffragettes whose main platform was "Why should black men be able to vote? White women are more important."

It's honestly laughable in between the tragedy.

Like oh, women everywhere know the same pain and experiences?

Yes, white women living on a luxurious 3000 acre plantation actually have the exact same experiences as enslaved black women serving under them.

Yes, white women in South Africa had it just as hard as the black female victims of apartheid.

You're so right.

Idiot.

Trans exclusionary feminism isn't just trans exclusionary. Its intersectional exclusionary too. It's white feminism.

But that isn't shocking.

Terfs tend to be middle class white women whose greatest problem is deciding between a Samsung or an iPhone.

And between a Maserati or a Tesla.

I think of that Bill Burr quote.

Where he says that white women have completely taken over the civil rights movement, by swinging their Gucci booted feet over the line and stepping in front of people of color.

That's what I think when I see terfs here and everywhere else trying to insist that "women" are wholly anything.

The fuck they are.

No group is wholly anything.

People are very complex individuals and there is no fucking hive mind of humans anywhere.

Your labels are arbitrary and pointless, as is your Swiss Cheese of an ideology.

[silhouettehistory]

Mid-Engine SilhouetteHistory

Silhouettes of 35 mid-engine sports cars. How many of them do you recognize?

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[sunriseabram]

Omg bodyguard Neil please!!

Nathaniel Bodyguard AU | Part 3 | 27/12

Kevin automatically began to back up, nearly falling through the court door as it slammed behind him. It didn’t take more than a second for his guard dog to sense danger, shoving Day behind his back. The blonde was shorter than Nathaniel had imagined five feet to be, but he was a solid presence nevertheless. He could smell the bloodlust radiating off Nathaniel in waves and physically braced. 

Smart boy.

“Nate,” Kevin choked; Nathaniel scoffed.

“The one and only. Still not dead,” Nathaniel replied. “Father really did try his very best. Shame I was better."

Keeping one eye on Kevin, Nathaniel observed Andrew Minyard for what he was. No more than five feet tall, Andrew was nothing more than an idiot in way over his head. His presence was undoubtedly intimidating, as were the four knives slipped into armbands. Still, his apathy barely unsettled Nathaniel, nor did it even slightly surprise him.

Ichirou had provided Nathaniel with a full background check, even though he didn’t bother to read past the basics. He didn’t harbour enough fucks to read into Andrew Minyard’s history, and he didn’t care about it either. All Nathaniel needed to know was that he could kick his ass. That was all that was necessary.

“What do you want?" Kevin asked. “Not that I��m unhappy to see you, Nate, I swear. But you usually don’t come around for no reason.” Kevin took a shuddering breath. “Are you here to kill me? I swear I can be better. I can do more, Nathaniel–”

“Relax, Day.” Nathaniel stubbed out his cigarette against the black paint of the Maserati, watching Andrew’s eyebrow twitch in annoyance. “I’m not here to kill you. I’ve come to collect you. Think of it like a free yakuza taxi service.”

>

[jtl-fics]

New kings with the meals rarely eaten please?

WIP Wednesday - Closed (9/13/23) | New Kings AU

"Whatever," Kevin rolls his eyes knowing that Neil would at least learn something about history just through sheer osmosis. "We're going to have to buy a good camera and a microphone set up too." he says, "I'll start looking into it." he says wondering if there would be reviews online for that sort of thing at this point or if he's better off going to a Best Buy.

"We?" Neil asks brow raised.

"Yes 'We' it's our YouTube show." Kevin crosses his arms. "Besides, if you have enough money to buy Andrew a Maserati then you have enough money to pay half the cost of a good camera for our show." he huffs.

"Kevin I am not using money my mom stole from the mafia to buy you a good camera and mic set-up." he says looking at Kevin like he's an idiot.

[kae-karo]

Writers Truth/Dare Asks: 🥐🍓🔪🦷🌿

AHHH HI AEWIN <3 for context (x)

🥐 ⇢ name one internet reference that will always make you laugh

uhhhh honestly jin ling's uncle (x) always gets me lsdkfjkljsdf but i'm not sure if there's anything that i'm like 'this will make me laugh every time' yk?

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction?

oh boy i mean i don't think it's a particularly interesting story as far as stories tend to go? many of u know i started off in the dan and phil fandom which is where i sort of stumbled my way into fanfic, and i think that was the first time i had a "oh, people can write and publish stuff without having like...a novel that's published by a publishing company?" realization? which probably sounds silly to a lot of ppl who have been in fandom for a very long time but i just...never knew lmao. and then after a couple months i was like "well i really want to read a story about [plot] but i can't really find one?? maybe i could...try writing it myself? i mean clearly people do it who aren't like master authors, so i might as well try, right?"

and uhhhhh here we are eight years and 3.8m words later LMAO

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

honestly i'm like notoriously awful about fic research i tend to just go with like. what i think Makes The Most Sense but there are def situations wherein i have been like okay, i can't really determine whether this would be realistic (insofar as the realism matters in the fic in question) or i can't quite nail the way i want to describe this, or how much of it i want to talk about. so the few things i have actually researched in recent history are how long blood takes to dry (or, rather, how long it'd stay wet), the basics of milking a cow, the inside of a private jet (well, a couple private jets), and the sound a maserati makes when it starts

🦷 ⇢ share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on

ohhh god i don't have anything fun like ur cheesy bread recipe alas 😔 but here's my general advice!!

just try it. like. fuck it we ball style.

if there's something that would make u feel better in the moment, do it

if you do it, then it'll be done (not necessarily related to the last thing)

for the first one: just...go for stuff. who gives a fuck yknow. idk like don't quit ur stable job on a whim or anything but if you've been thinking about doing something, the world won't end if you end up not liking it or wanting it anymore yk? i think that holds a lot of ppl back is like 'what if this doesn't end as a success?' and like. first of all i think u get to define what success looks like. second of all especially with creative pursuits but really with anything in general, the experience of trying it is always always going to be informative to help u move closer to the life you want to be living in the moment

for the second one: oh my god i cannot express enough that like. if u want a lil treat just get one. if the light's bothering u just go turn it off. if u want to have a little guy that sits on ur desk put a little guy on ur desk. if it would ease ur brain a little to put twelve alarms instead of just one in the morning bc ur a chronic oversleeper, do it. if u want to get somewhere earlier than some ppl might consider 'normal', do it. it's a mad world we live in and if u can bring yourself some peace and joy just do it

last one: as someone whose brain likes to devote a large portion of its resources to Any Impending Task Or Activity such that doing literally anything else (of the creative variety or otherwise) becomes a challenge, this has been a super helpful philosophy for me. like. i may not WANT to do the dishes right now but if i do them, they're done, and i can stop thinking about how i have to do the dishes. it may not be the most optimal time in the day to brush my teeth but if i'm prone to forgetting, doing it now is better than not remembering to do it at all (i am also a chronic forgetter so this is helpful on that front as well, esp with things that are hard to set reminders for - though i am an avid user of those too lmao)

also like generally almost any situation, problem, or experience in life can be improved by talking to someone. share ur joy and ur burdens and u will be happier i promise

🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity

honestly apart from rest (which is always a good thing) i'd say just go have some experiences. media, games, high- or low-brain activity stuff, going outside, hanging out with friends, doing new things, doing the same things but the ones that aren't creativity-related, whatever, just like. take stuff in. a while ago i saw a poem/art piece about creating as exhaling and the fact of needing to inhale eventually and it really stuck with me as like. idk the things you experience influence or inspire, and sometimes both with writer's block and low creativity you just need the Juice. i've had plot problems work themselves out just from taking a walk y'know?

send me fic writer asks!!!