#and also i feel like no one Ever talks abt. idk for lack of a better word 'masculine drag' like i deserve to do gender theory sometimes too

[biracy]

MY turn to not want to derail prev but I've always found it. weird? odd? idk. when people claim that someone like Joan Jett is, in essence, "doing a bit." And like obviously there are things Joan Jett has done that are meant to be silly, like the photo of her lifting her leg on a fire hydrant like a dog, but idk I just remember this post that was like "and she wore LEATHER and sang about DRINKING omg so camp" but like. Joan Jett never felt like a parody to me! At least not more than any of her guy contemporaries. Why should her being classed as A Female make her performance of rock and metal culture "more subversive" than the same kind of performance from people classed as men? People don't treat Rob Halford like he's "camp," and I think Joan Jett is far more of a gay sex freak than he ever was lol. And ofc this means something to me bc I essentially discovered my transness through rock culture, and I find no comfort in either the idea that my engagement with rock culture, goth culture, and leather culture is inherently superficial and mocking because of my externally assigned status of "woman," OR that I have some kind of secret transsexual DNA sequence that makes me inherently exempt from accusations of "performance," while those still externally classed as "cis women" are permanently delegated to the realm of "performance" or "mockery" or "camp."

[dukeofthomas]

Something I really especially love about btas is that every character is just… a human. Batman doesn't just show up and incapacitate 30 people no issue, he has to fight and brawl with just 1 or 2 henchmen. He can be taken out by hits and poisons and such. The rogues have to surrender when the cops get guns to their faces, and can be overpowered even by normal people. Joker isn't some pure evil incarnation of the Devil or whatever, he's just… a really bad man. Same for every other villain and character. And Bruce actually gets to show personality and emotion beyond Brooking and Grunting. He makes jokes and laughs and gets sad.

I'm really getting to understand why people call this the best Batman adaptation.

[p2ii]

.

[vampirebutterflies]

listen ‘ere boy there is a voice in ur head telling u ur fine and you don’t need to go to therapy tomorrow and that voice is a f u c k i n g liar don’t listen to it boy don’t fuckin’ listen to that rat ass bastard it does NOT have ur best interests at heart

[beauzos]

brother i have so many villager-adjacent OCs i have thought an obscene amount about. i have villager-adjacent OCs i’ve thought an insane amount about that i’ve never even mentioned KRHF

[noxtivagus]

reading some short stories for literature rn n i'm just. in awe of life.

[blueslight]

Im in such a weirdly shit mood today i feel so sad and isolated and BORED out of my motherfucking mind and I just feel like asssss

[prosciuttoon]

Toshiro/Shuro is overhated

(mirror of my thread on twitter)

ever wanted to talk abt something so bad but u have so many thoughts so u cant even begin to organize a sentence. thats me abt shuro and its why i cant give my thoughts on him. i NEED to get this out of my system bc its takign up so much memory in my brain i need that space for thinking.

so i was really surprised to find so much hate for him even tho he seems pretty normal and rational out of the whole cast. ive deducted that its mostly abt his laios fight and that the ppl who hate him probably had bad experiences w social cues and relationships w neurotypicals bc of that. theres no way to avoid it bc its pretty much Right In Your Face that laios is ND. but thats not the only factor in why their relationship is rocky. its also the culture barrier. u have to understand toshiro was raised as JAPANESE NOBILITY ofc he would be a little conservative

also culture shock. idk if u know this but jp culture is very Mind Your Own Business like a lot of other asian cultures . ofc hes gonna be weirded out by a stranger invading his space. also his names not even Shuro. its just yt ppl not pronouncing his name right and settling for whats easiest.

img src: fan translation by savaralyn2 , i think its from the adventurers bible Complete Edition bc i dont remember it in the old one

ok you get the gist of the culture aspect of it. lets go into the ND/NT clash aspect of it. yes i understand its pretty hurtful to never be told when youre acting inappropriately. i am autistic too lmao. but you have to understand that shiro is one guy and he even does realize that repressing things is one of his fatal flaws. again. asian culture. non confrontational. that sorta thing. but these are genuine frustrations. if i were him id be annoyed too but id speak out about it. set boundaries. bc im blunt. shiros not. he was taught crazy strict manners (hierarchies, respect, politeness, etc).

his problem isnt ableism its a culmination of culture barriers, how he was raised to behave, and terrible lack of communication as thing caused by "all of the above" plus he just generally keeps to himself a lot which means repressing frustrations that will explode leading to a pathetic fistfight while hes starved, exhausted, and dehydrated. also. if he was ableist he would hate laios. he doesnt hate laios. at the end of the day, they are friends. NT and ND ppl can be friends u know. there will be rifts (like their fight) but you just have to communicate misunderstandings. theyre gonna be fine lol

anyways that was my whole spiel abt it. i think i got everything out that i wanted to? my head still feels a little full so i may add more later when i remember something

also i think its a little unfair to rule out the possibility of laios and him just being 2 very different kinds of ND bc its very common for misunderstandings to occur even then. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT BUT WE NEED TO COMMUNICATE TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER! but for the sake of interpreting the Fight as a commentary on NT social rules and ND frustration, ill say toshiros NT. will we ever know? hes so far in the sidelines... youd really have to dig in the extra content to see the intricacies of his character.... please give him a chance

[sminiac]

WAIT SORRY FOR BUGGING SM 😭😭 but i reread ur post abt who u write for and im a p1ece 🫡🫡🫡 sooo,, same question as the bnd one,, i would love some hcs for piwon too 🤲🏾🤲🏾🤲🏾

- lunicho

💌 — Bunny please you’re literally not bugging me at all, I love seeing you in my notifs, GOTCHU ALWAYS!!

Warnings — Smut focused, MDNI.

⋆ Y. Keeho

There’s this one clip of him from a live that I can’t stop thinking about, basically someone in the chat said something that bugged him a little and he wasn’t scared to be like “Yeah… no.” But he was also so gentle about it afterwards? Like he made his disagreement with them graspable but it wasn’t petty, idk, making me think of Possesive!Keeho and him dragging you back to the dorms, the two of you having left before the event was fully over because he couldn’t stand seeing so many people try to pursue more than just an innocent friendship with his girlfriend, right in front of him. His agitation warping his perception of the situation and being so quick to think that you’re entertaining them.. when really you’re trying to sway the conversation away from the uncomfortable lack of decorum, so he’s dragging you home, his jaw so tight that you swear you can see a vein pushing through the skin of his forehead. Being unable to wait until he’s got you in his bed, taking you right by the front door, struggling to keep yourself up with only the handle and flat wall behind you. His annoyance makes the things he has to say come easily, probably says some shit like “Wish it was him fucking you like this? Funny you think someone could ever fill you up the way I can? Look at you, can barely even speak.”… Lol… afterwards he’s so gentle and sweet with you during aftercare, but he’ll take the time to pull you into his chest, gently rubbing at any sore muscles in your body whilst explaining in detail why he reacted the way he did, what you should do the next time something like that happens, what he should do better. I’m okay :,)

⋆ C. Taeyang

Sub!Theo, just- ….Sub!Theo. Although when he’s feeling a little more assertive he’s so relentless when teasing you, wants you whining, begging for him to please you. Has the prettiest smile on his face as the head of his cock presses into you, but he has enough self control to not slam his length all the way inside of you, merely drags himself through your folds, enjoying the sticky mess you make, so warm and alluring. Think he’d be the type to get lost in the pleasure though, would completely forget about being inside of you as his pace speeds up, now slipping the whole of his cock against your pussy, his pretty fingers placed on top of him so there’s some pressure stimulating the both of you. Becomes a little embarrassed that only the act of fucking himself against you has him cumming, his chest straining as soft, jumbled moans spill from his lips in tandem with the sticky white fluid beading from his slit and getting all over your inner thighs. That’s when you’ve decided he’s had his fun having his way with you, I think he’d become so fucked out so quickly with you, gets ahead of himself a lot of the time and tries to be strict with you, bullying you with his cock into submission but then he’s so quickly overcome by the pleasure that his handle on the facade starts slipping and then he’s the one whimpering, begging for you to fuck him, take care of him, make him a mess.

⋆ C. Jiung

Jiung definitely has the ability to switch between sub and dom, another person I’d say 50/50 with. But c’mon, Dom!Jiung? I’m weeeaaak. I think about that clip from the radio show with Keeho when they’re talking about how they’d handle their ‘gf’ dancing with another man at a party quite often, he’s so not the type to be confrontational about something he’s not okay with, but instead he’d be more reserved, he’s got a good levelled head on his shoulders, but he’d definitely want to be shown that you only care about him. “Show me how much you love me.. please? Jus’ wanna fuck your mouth.” I’M NOT OKAY. Being on your knees for him backstage, cock heavy in your tongue as he slouches against the wall with his hand fisting at the hem of his shirt, enough of the material bunched up between his fingers so that you can see the butterfly tattoo that lives near his hipbone. He’d definitely make the prettiest sounds ever, isn’t afraid to be moaning in your ear like a slut even when he’s the one in charge, always, aaalways has to let you know how good you’re making him feel.

⋆ H. Intak

A being called ‘Daddy’ enjoyer, but I think we know this? That and his name, isn’t afraid to ask of you to “Say my name, god- please baby say m’name, the way I like it.” He’s sick. I’M SICK, GRAVELY ILL. I think he’d have a thing for restraining you, tying you up all pretty just so he can fuck you until he’s shooting blanks. That and sleepy sex, definitely likes starting most of his mornings off with pulling you into him and slipping your panties and whatever else you have on to the side just so he can bury himself in you, slow, self indulgent thrusts, doesn’t pull all the way out because he can’t bare to not be so close to you. Requests of you to wear specific bottoms that have a thin, stretchy material just so he can get his cock inside of you faster, easier. His hands. Has a thing for rubbing your tummy, and it would be such a warm, comforting feeling, his touch slowly pulling you back under your sleepy lidded eyes as he grinds into you from behind. I also think that he wouldn’t be shy about pda with you, likes having his hands on you, his arms, his eyes, his lips. Just wants to show you off, that you’re his, that he’s allowed to touch you in so many ways that nobody else ever could.

ᰔ sminiac’s P1Harmony M.list

[livestock-and-bibles]

Things I've Noticed During My Several Rewatches of The Doomstar Requiem

(Lock in, this is gonna be long)

Murderface is the only one out of the group to have a completely obscured face, possession foreshadowing perhaps? Also he lacks the golden streaks on the halo-esque circles behind them. Inch resting... (Not gonna talk too much abt when the scene goes red and the beam behind Murderface is dripping blood because I believe it's already been talked about before by others, and I don't want to include anything in this post that's already been discussed) Also I love how all of their weapons match their instruments

The way Toki doesn't even flinch when he gets alcohol poured on his wound is heartbreaking, likely either because the torture his parents put him through as a kid has given him a wicked pain tolerance or because he's so dissociated, similarly to how he behaves in Dethfam when his parents are around or Dethzazz when he's mentally in the punishment hole (I do believe this sort of catatonic state he's in is what's causing him to seem so much worse off than Abigail—though his untreated diabetes + Magnus targeting him more because of his relation to Dethklok probably also adds to it—he's likely not really eating or taking care of himself)

At first I thought that Magnus was feeding them dog food, but on closer inspection I actually believe it to be human remains. Yeesh. You can see it really looks like muscle fibers, and there's bones, as well as skin that still has hair on it. Magnus Hammersmith they could never make me like you

On the table is the Klokateer from Tracking/Ishnifus and The Challenge!!

I think it's interesting how much Nathan's fantasies look like Toki's! I just think it's neat! They're more similar than they seem :)

This is the most expressive we've ever seen Charles and it makes my heart hurt AUUGHH

The way Nathan licks his lips/teeth after the "How can I be a hero when my dick's as big as a shoe" line. DISGUSTING /affectionate

Does this fan look familiar? He should, because it's Dethklok's son, Fatty Ding Dong!! Good to see he's doing well lol, and his real name is Rick, we can also assume that at LEAST four years have passed since season 1, since in season 1 episode 10, he's said to be 14. Since he has a roommate now, he is likely to be around 18 years old

(Apologies for the low quality screencap I had to nab this from Youtube) I kind of wish that the animators didn't change this original animation for the end of The Fans Are Chatting. I just feel like Nathan pushing away the Klokateers is more symbolically relevant. Nathan is quite literally pushing away the safety and security his avoidance has given him, the hologram disappearing and the fans leaving is a metaphor for the fact that he can no longer keep himself deluded into thinking that everything is fine, he can't hide from the truth anymore

Almost all of the Rock A Roonie Fantasy Camp counsellors came to the Dethklok audition, there's even the depressed blues guy in the background. There's also Sammy Candynose from Snakes 'n Barrels, so I like to think that Pickles told him about the auditions

There's also the guitarist from Get Thee Hence

Toki's shadow!!! The wings!!!

The animals they take the form of match two of the guitars Brendon Small created with Gibson, The Thunderhorse and the Snow Falcon :D

It's super tiny but their smiles :'))!!! Also the way their parts play on different sides when you listen with headphones but then combine at this part makes me so crazy. Not only does Toki challenge Skwisgaar and inspire him to get better, but they're also having fun! Which I can imagine never really happened when he played with Magnus

Probably just an animation error but Skwisgaar is animated as his present day self here. Idk, just thought that was interesting

I think the order of the rest of the band joining in on the background vocals is really interesting, it goes: Skwisgaar, Pickles, Nathan, Murderface. Personally I choose to interpret it as a representation of how long it took each member to warm up to Toki as their rhythm guitarist, Skwisgaar was super fast since he was the one to choose him, Pickles was the one wanting a new guitarist in the first place, Nathan and Magnus seemed to be close, so it would definitely take more time for him to accept Toki as the whole Magnus situation would still feel a little raw, and Murderface is a professional hater so of course it took him the longest

I really love just how soft and content Murderface looks in Toki's fantasy. We all know he has a softer side and I think that either Toki perceives it, or possibly Murderface shows it towards him (Which I can believe because they're often together and they get along pretty well, Toki is probably the person Murderface gets along with the best actually)

I also want to mention that at this part of I Believe, Toki is no longer singing along with the other's background vocals, and is harmonizing with himself, which gets really sad when you realize that it's because this was just Toki remembering this to keep himself sane and he's actually kidnapped, hurt, and alone. Ouch :(

The drunk driver who crashed into the Jomfru brothers is the same guy who crashed into Nathan's second grade class in Dethgov. I guess there's only one drunk driver that exists in the Metalocalypse universe lol

I think we as a fandom need to appreciate Eric Jomfru more. He's such a real one. The way they make you care about him after he's already gone is so evil lol /affectionate

The way the Klokateers join in on this song makes me wonder if perhaps they view each other as brothers, or if there's just like a strong sense of brotherhood between them

The groupie on the left can actually be seen in Fatherklok at the beginning of the episode, as one of the women Skwisgaar has been with, so y'know what? She has valid reasons to be mad honestly

Murderface's pose up top always sends me, sir please calm down, keep it together king

Murderface holding his wrist :(

If you look closely, you can actually see that the Revengeancers are eating Ishnifus. Which is just,, utterly horrifying

In between the shots of the band and the assassin, there's so many inconsistencies in the placement of the characters. For the last two images, I just like to rationalize it as Pickles immediately attempting to run away, then noticing that the rest of the band is still there and being like "Oh shit we're squaring up? Ok I guess". I know it's just so Nathan can be in the center when they use the Dethlights but I just think it's funny

Also in the second to last picture, the way Murderface, typically the most cowardly of the band, isn't looking at the assassin, but instead, is looking worriedly at Toki, makes my heart hurt. I adore their relationship

Murderface is actually sleeping in Nathan's bed here. If you compare different shots of their bedrooms and beds, it's clear that this is Nathan's, you can tell from the striped pillowcase. I'm not gonna talk too much about this, mostly because I want to make a separate post talking about how Murderface is seen more than once sleeping in Nathan's bed when he's hurt/unwell. It's very sweet lol

ANYWAY! Thanks for reading these rambles, I love The Doomstar Requiem so much! I might make a post like this for Army of the Doomstar as well, and also just some analysis posts if I get the confidence lol. Big thanks to @ratskal for watching this a dozen times with me and pointing out things too. (I actually reached the max limit of pictures allowed in a post which is a little funny, I am so normal about this show /lying)

[nightviator]

So I was watching s1 e7 of the umberlla academy again (my fav ep ever, and I've watched it so many times and will never stop yapping abt it) when I noticed something.

Here. If you look closely, you can assume Five was sitting in the front seat and Allison was in the back seat.

And this is like a really normal thing, no hidden meaning and stuff, but im not normal about tua. About anything related to it.

When i noticed this i really really could just see Five telling that he is the oldest one and should sit there (or not saying it and just going in it), Diego getting kinda angry and Allison saying nah. It's fine. Nevermind.

And well look. Why is this important to me?! Let me explain!

I've read many (and by that I mean a LOT) fanfics about Five getting hurt or any kind of his angst and Diego being there for him. I really love these 2 together.

So when I see Diego just getting angry of Five (ALSO LATER HE WAS NOT AS EMOTIONAL AS I COULD REMEMBER IN FIVE BEING HURT SCENE AND THIS REALLY WAS A BIG SHOCK) and Allison telling to let it go.. idk. I may be crazy but I felt a bit guilty for never thinking about her as a really good sister to him. Because she, a famous actor who definitely cares about herself and her place, just let her brother be happy without more fights. And Five was bleeding and in pain at that time so I'm sure this lack of tension made him at least a bit happier, yk. And this is a so "older sister" coded thing so maybe she felt it.

Also she was so worried about him here (the same episode), which I may talk more about it later cause I have a lot to say.

But here when watching this for 1939392929th time, it was like Allison was already feeling like a big sister, and when he was injured her protective motherly feeling wakened up even more. She really was trying to help five (in a way I've seen in fanfics. Actually less than that, but better than nothing.)

Now, because of that, I feel guilty for not liking Alison that much. I am going to give her more love from now.

[melissa-titanium]

HELLOOO CAN I TALK TO YOU ABT DOLL

do you think that like, her being at school let her have some escape from her home and her revenge plans, like in this picture she is smiling and it looks way more like a happy smile than here

SHE IS HAPPY TO GET HER REVENGE, BUT SHE LOOKS SO TIRED, EVEN HER LAUGH IS TIRED

its like shes getting worse from the kills, in her house there was enough oil for her to not kill any other drones, yet her plan had to work, but it didnt, and only let her feeling more guilty

EVERYONE IS ALLOWED TO SEND ME SHIT ABOUT DOLL ALWAYS AT ANY TIME EVER FOREVER AND EVER. I LITERALLY NEED HER. SHES SO FUCKING COOL. BUT OMG HI YES HOLD ON

thats such an interesting take on pilot doll omg HI???? YES I CAN TOTALLY SEE THIS CONSIDERING WE DONT SEE DOLL IN SCHOOL OUTSIDE OF THE PILOT. HIIII YES OMG ok ok.

i havent actually thought this much about this. i personally think her in the pilot vs her in promening was like. not really a Whole big difference but like...the fact that lizzy now has access to v set her off. shes always been a little unsettling, a little fucking deranged but maybe something happened between ep 1 and 3 thatr was like. lizzy came to her like... hey, one of the disassembly drones came by my bunk the other day. was this the one? (shows doll a pic) and doll just FUcking Loses it . i think she was actively vengeful during the pilot too but YES like ur saying its almost a .grounding thing. everyone here is real and alive. and then at the end of the day she has to go back and face dozens upon dozens upon dozens of corpses that are there because of HER and its liike. idk i imagine shes 18-22 . shes young as hell. and that FUCKS WITH YOU. this is doll to me:

they know damn well her parents are dead but she's just under being eerie enough that no one really suspects her for anything going on. she's relatively normal around lizzy & not aggressive but not outgoing with other students. like to everyone, shes just a normal kid who lost her parents. plenty of kids have lost their parents, considering the murder drones lurking *right outside the bunker.*

i think she would get tired. yeah. she held onto the all consuming debilitating hatred for these genocidal war machines that killed her parents and countless others. then heartbeat happens, and suddenly people are Okay with them??? that would fucking set her OFF. so long, so fucking long shes been holding onto her anger and not being able to do anything about it . BUT NOW SHE CAN. ough ok but then theres those conflicting feelings bcos of uzi. u can see in promening she has SOME sense of... for lack of a better word, humanity in how she treats uzi (hell even tossing lizzy out of the way when she started killing people.) i think she picks and choses who she cares about and then is usually consistent in how she treats them. basically; dont get on her bad side. she's conflicted at the end of ep3 after learning uzi has the solver; but uzi is siding with the murder drones and thats HER loss for being SCHTUPIDDDDDDDD!!!! but then again, she finally has someone who understands what shes going through... but also AUGH..! i have to kill v i HAVE to kill v ive gotten so far i cant give up now FUCK!!!! FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!! i think there would be so much of her being conflicted between uzi knows what i feel. but also uzi is siding with the bitch who killed my fucking parents. i think she would just spiral and spiral until dead end comes along and she has a decision to make. and she makes it. and uzi is Fucked and v is Fucked and n and tessa are FUCKEd AND OK TYHIS IS GETTING LONG IM DONE

doll jumpscare

[batsplat]

you might have already talked abt this but I’m interested if you have any thoughts on the similarities & differences in Casey & Valentino’s early childhoods and families……I don’t know much abt Casey’s upbringing & the little I know about Valentino’s all makes me go “huh ok I kinda get it now” lol. Idk like I found out Jorge’s whole deal w his dad and I was like “OH OK you make perfect sense to me now” but I’m not there yet w the other two, yk?

so okay,, I do have an ask from forever back about marc and valentino's childhoods that I got extremely stuck at answering, and also an ask about jorge's father that I haven't even touched because like. sometimes you just do not feel up for that lol. and well it's just an area where I do generally try and be quite careful in how I discuss it... BUT this is casey stoner hot take round™ so I will give a reasonably succinct answer to this and not overthink it too much. basically: yeah, I do have thoughts, because casey's childhood does undeniably do a lot of the work in the 'oh okay that makes sense now' department. a lot of his career narrative, his struggles, his disillusionment with the sport... and yes, the way the valentino rivalry unfolded - a lot of it can be traced back quite a long way, to grievances he's been carrying around with him for years and years. I talked in this post about that podcast interview casey did this year, which included... well, a bit of a reckoning. talking as openly as he ever has about how being a rider wasn't ever really his dream - it's something that was decided for him. and that's our starting point... casey's eternally ambivalent relationship with being a rider, one that feels so violently different from valentino's

the big, big contrast between casey and valentino's respective journeys is pretty simple to sum up: it's the joy. valentino was having fun. casey wasn't. now, look - valentino as a child very obviously did not have perfect autonomy in making the choice to be a rider. it's always going to be more complicated than that; his father did obviously push him in that direction. but at the end of the day, it's not too controversial to say that valentino always enjoyed riding and always had fun racing. it's a joy he carried with him on his way to becoming a rider, one that remained a part of his competitive dna throughout his professional career. it's a joy that kept him racing for as long as he did. a childlike joy, in a way - valentino's lack of 'adult' seriousness, how it's been remarked upon that this brutal sport has never quite managed to wear him down. his peter pan persona, how he's the boy who won't ever grow up. and, y'know... valentino had the chance to actually be a kid. he got to have something vaguely resembling a proper childhood. makes sense, right - if you want to be a kid forever, it helps to have been one in the first place

there's a quote of his from 2009 I posted recently:

which, in the context of that interview - this question refers back to an earlier exchange about how casey wasn't a 'romantic' rider (still think that's an objectively pretty funny thing to say about your rival but that's neither here nor there). and, well, valentino's correct! sports has become considerably more professionalised over time. children are less and less likely to be able to afford any sort of life outside of it. which isn't just about reducing passion, right - it's also about not really giving these kids the chance to properly grow up, to become more rounded human beings who don't have to be the perfect little athlete 100% of the time. it's also a correct diagnosis of casey specifically, who certainly could never afford to see racing as a game. I'd recommend reading this autobiography excerpt, where casey tells you exactly that: racing wasn't about having fun for casey. he'd moved to the uk with his parents at fourteen years of age, at which point he essentially became his family's sole provider. his family depended on him not failing - and every opportunity threatened to be his last, his racing future and financial situation always desperately precarious. he was constantly fearful all of his family's sacrifices might have been for nothing. it's immense pressure to put any teenager under, regardless of how much you want to convince them that it's their dream rather than your own. if casey wasn't already an overly self-critical perfectionist before those years, he certainly was by the time he made it to motogp. he couldn't afford to be anything less than perfect. remember: the shape his anxiety took was by making him curl up in his motorhome, terrified of letting everyone down. wonder where that came from

is it any surprise, then, that while valentino feels like kids today take racing too seriously, casey thinks they don't take it seriously enough?

The system has changed: when you put too much pressure on a 20-year-old, he can react by closing up and becoming serious and sad. // Nowadays I see too many kids coming through behaving too relaxed, and too happy with what they have achieved already. I don’t want them to be miserable but they have to understand what’s at stake.

doesn't this make you want to scream. a little

and, look, there are similarities between valentino and casey in ways that will be true of many child prodigy athletes. valentino has spoken about how his father would not do anything with him that didn't involve motorcycle racing, casey likewise has more recently in that podcast said he doesn't think he was allowed to pursue any other interest. we can talk plenty about how the parents of athletes like to use their children to fulfil their own dreams - how their child's athletic performance seems to become the only aspect of their child they have any interest in. how so much of that parental relationship becomes distorted by the ceaseless quest to achieve results. it's there in both of their stories... and obviously they are hardly unique in that respect. there's perhaps a little bit of a divide - to what extent kids are aware of this dynamic and are uncomfortable with it, especially publicly. both casey and valentino are united in being somewhat openly critical of their parents without being completely estranged from them. casey got his parents to move back to australia when he was arguing with his father too frequently as a young rider; valentino has seemingly kept his father at a bit of a distance for years. they've never cut themselves off entirely - but there's a certain undeniable wariness there. a lack of conviction that their parents acted as parents should that they've been willing to hint at publicly, here and there

Our communication is mostly about motorbikes. He wasn't a good father, I mean... When I was with him, playing always meant riding motorbikes for him. // To be honest, I don’t know if I was allowed to have any other attraction to be honest. I think it was, you know, you’re going to be a bike rider from when I was a very very young age - and I’m not the only one to think that.

still, it does come back to the joy of it all. casey justifies his belief that racing isn't fun by talking about how he'd always known how high the stakes were... whereas for valentino, fun is an integral part of the experience. it's what he's there for. and beyond the racing itself, valentino always found his life as a rider considerably more joyous than casey did. which leads us to the other difference between the pair of them: casey's loneliness. valentino has spoken frequently about the importance of his childhood friend group, about having them travel with him and ground him and be there with him throughout - people who knew him before he became the valentino rossi, people he feels that he can fully rely on. he grew up as part of a community and has a strong sense of identification with not just his country but also his town... he's got deep ties to his place of origin and the people who live there, built up over a lot of time, and he draws a lot of strength from that. by contrast, casey grew up moving around a fair bit, unhappy at school and the victim of bullying - his only real friends, he says, were from the dirt track, since they were the only people he 'had anything in common with'. even those friendships don't feel particularly substantial, especially given how often he frames his childhood racing experiences around the hostility of his competitors (and especially their parents) in response to his peerless talent. his parents eventually home schooled him, inevitably further isolating him. then, as a teenager, he moved to the uk where he knew nobody, before moving to spain where he didn't even speak the language. he continued to have a strong sense of connection to australia, fuelled at least in part by homesickness - but it's also a connection to a country he hadn't lived in since age fourteen, a sense of belonging that's fundamentally less stable, less comforting. one that exists primarily in contrasting himself to all the europeans he surrounds with, as a way of making sense of his feelings of cultural alienation - which in truth are sometimes just plain alienation. the paddock cannot function as a home for casey either, and he is unwilling or unable to form substantial connections in that environment. in 2009, ten odd years after moving away from australia, he said his only friend in the paddock was his wife

and yes, it plays into that rivalry - inevitably so. casey and valentino are both somewhat alien to each other, fundamentally unknowable... and it does come back to how at odds they were in their approaches, in how they motivated themselves. casey finds the europeans and their flamboyant celebrations baffling. valentino cannot relate to casey's lack of romantic affection for the sport. casey is there to do a job. valentino is there to put on a show. casey does not think racing should be about having fun. valentino believe the fun is non-negotiable. casey loves almost nothing about being a rider, whereas valentino loves almost all of it

another thing. when I was writing this post about the similarities between casey and valentino, one aspect I talked about was how they can both be.... uh. suspicious characters, shall we say. paranoid, some might call them. conspiratorial, even. now, again, to some extent they do share this with a lot of other athletes, it's kind of part of the game. but, y'know, they do take it quite far - and there's quite a pleasing parallel between the pair of them where they've both come up with a conspiracy theory about one of valentino's lost titles. which leads us to quite a nice distinction between these two theories. not to brag, but I kinda feel I nailed one of the most important elements of their dynamic:

now, look. I deliberately did not do this,, but obviously if you really wanted to, you can do some pop psychology on valentino's approach to interpersonal attachment and relate that back to his relationship with his parents. I am not interested in doing that for various reasons, most of which the cia would not get out of me, but I'm aware it's an approach you can take. in any case, I do still think you can make quite a straightforward case for this distinction: one of them believes the world is fundamentally out to get them, one of them doesn't. one of them is waiting for the system to fuck them over, the other is wary of individuals who have gotten a little too close. both of them at times are exceedingly ready to read malice into the words and actions of those around them - and both of them can react rather dramatically to such a provocation. the shape their suspicion takes is a little bit different and a little bit the same... but it's central to understanding both of them, in a way that does set them apart from their competitors. they're the two aliens who are the most likely to read an agenda into anything and everything. they're the ones who are most likely to take note of slights, to accumulate grievances. the most likely to not forget when they have been wronged - and to take great pleasure in getting back at whoever has done them ill

in the end, it all comes back to just what an excellent foil for casey you have in valentino. in all the ways casey defines himself against valentino, in all the ways valentino challenges casey, in all the ways casey's issues with the sport are inextricably interwoven with the character of valentino rossi. casey hates so much of the sport in ways that are tied so closely to valentino; he hates a system that invariably would like nothing more than to see valentino succeed. but valentino also represents what casey cannot be - not just an entertainer, but someone completely at ease with their life as a rider. someone who finds joy in that life, who did not step away from it until he absolutely had to. valentino is there long before casey arrives and he is there long after casey leaves. valentino is an idol, an enemy, a mystery. more so than any other rider, valentino embodies an emotion that casey believed he simply could not afford to feel. valentino is the sport's joy - and casey was never there to have fun

[floof-wulf030]

GIVE ME UR DON PAOLO THOUGHTS HES AN INTERESTING CHARACTER IVE HARDLY SEEN TALED ABT

Ummm…. Where do I start?

Yeah he doesn’t really get talked about a lot… though I’m not really surprised because you know…

I feel like many don’t really care much about or always forget about him.. like yeah there are some people who like him but??? It seems like people focus more on villains that are more complex and sympathetic. (Which… DON’T GET ME WRONG! I totally understand that and I love those too, and I’m also a huge fan of Clive and Descole too but this ain’t about them..)

I know Paul doesn’t really have this tragic backstory like the rest of them but hey not all villains need a tragic backstory right?? Sure the reason of him being evil is ridiculous and stupid but I personally think it fits his character more. I personally find it funny and a little entertaining. Tbh I never really did expect him to be very complex even before playing Lost Future a year ago. However yes, parts of me wished Level-5 gave Don Paolo more time to marinate as a character. One thing that bothered me though was the whole thing about him being exiled from the society of scholars. Like it was only mentioned in Curious Village then it was never talked about ever again?? Like whatever happened to that???

In general though, I really like Don Paolo aesthetically. I established this many times already but I just love wacky and goofy looking villains, probably even more than the whole “Tall dark and Handsome” ones. Again, don’t get me wrong I love those too! There are many handsome villain designs that I love. I just find myself fawn more towards the weirdos lol, LET THEM BE WHIMSICAL CREATURES. (Kinda wished we had more of those in the PL series if I have to be honest here..) His design definitely reminds me of Dick Dastardly or Robbie Rotten, which both were some of my favorite villain characters from my childhood lol. Maybe because of the whole color scheme. I feel like SOME also don’t really pay an attention to him either was because he’s not one of the attractive ones, idk??? Honestly that’s what I really like about him though! Also the whole disguising thing with the latex masks?? Like how the hell did he PULL that off? (No pun intended) How was he able to change his size? This man is like spineless or perhaps just liquid!

My favorite tiny little fact about him is that he plays music. I know this could refer to listening to music, but him being some sort of musician is so fun and interesting to think about. Like what instrument would he play? I’ve seen some people hc him being a guitarist which I’m totally on board for. The fact that he likes playing music and that he’s also Tomohito Nishiura’s (The composer for the PL games) favorite character is really cool :3

Anyways yeah! I personally think Don Paolo deserves more love and appreciation than what he was given. I noticed he’s been lacking some fanart (oh and fanfics too), which is why I’ve been wanting to draw him a lot more often. Just to fill up the tag (and that empty void in my heart) Ngl at first impression I thought he was going to be hard to draw but it turns out that he is really fun to doodle

I would love to talk more about him but for now I’ll leave it here, because I’ve been typing for so long lmaooo.

Thanks for coming to my Tedtalk

(Also feel free to leave any thoughts if you have any)

[vigilskeep]

also have you ever talked about your quibbles with leliana's writing in dao? got curious, i love reading your thoughts

i have a little, yes. um mostly i just find it deeply confusing what they were going for. her bard backstory just doesn’t tally with her painfully naive dialogue, i don’t really find her compassion convincing so as a “good companion” she just doesn’t land for me, and her faith doesn’t really land either... she never has anything interesting to say about it and it doesn’t feel like the writers really care that much lmao. then there’s the whole baffling thing where they couldn’t decide if morrigan or leliana was the more traditionally feminine one so they commit to neither and both have weird moments jumping between complaining about each other’s gender conformity or lack thereof. there are huge missed opportunities to actually make her relevant to the plot: leliana’s mixed orlesian and ferelden identity could have fixed a massive hole in how dao lands emotionally by making the past conflict with orlais relevant, and yet it’s discussed exclusively in banter with loghain, who most people never recruit. and they cut late game chantry involvement in the landsmeet so that’s nothing

to me frankly it feels like they made up the bard backstory and then decided they had to offer a “nice girl” romance to counter morrigan and just sort of frantically smashed the two together and imo it rarely works. it’s obvious the bard character was something they really wanted to do and they had various thoughts on how to do it, because they put another one in the stolen throne. the lack of real sharpness of characterisation for leliana means that for me when you’re selecting your party she just can’t remotely stand up in dialogue quality to our other available rogue option. leliana needs a really good banter partner to sort of lift her up and i’m always disappointed by her plot comments i’m like... wow... you’re glad we could help some people... again... riveting... could’ve brought Anyone Else... like it’s mesmerising that she has a whole mechanic where you can ask her about locations while you’re walking out and about and she never once has anything really fresh and interesting to say. how are you a bard. as an aside, i really don’t care for the VA work and i’m mesmerised to have just discovered on a google search that the actress is actually french. i was really going to say with my whole chest that maybe she just had to devote all her effort to maintaining the accent but no! wild. it feels deeply unconvincing to have this be the skilled voice of the subtle bard when claudia black is doing her thing thirty feet away

I FEEL LIKE I SOUND RLLY MEAN... whenever i talk abt this... idk i can never decide whether there’s really something wrong with the writing quality or if i simply personally Don’t Get It and am self-consciously trying to justify that. perhaps both. i seek to convince no-one, this is just how i feel. and it’s not character hate i swear i do not mean to attack anyone’s girl and she’s probably the thing i most enjoy in what i’ve played of inquisition

[hazshit-hotel-hater]

What ships do you do not like?

Im saving Huskerdust for last. I have way too much shit to say.

Aside from weird illegal ones and also disgusting ones, I am a very big Sir Pentious x Cherri Bomb disliker. It couldve been good but theres like no chemistry and Cherri doesn’t seem to actually like Pentious for any reasons other than he kissed her and then exploded and also weird double penis joke. Said it before, I’ll say it again, Cherri does not need a boyfriend she needs character development. If you’re interested in more of my hatred I have this rant abt it here

Valentino x Vox is another that I hate. I feel like I don’t need to explain why but I will anyway. I know they’re technically not canon anymore, but idk how I’m supposed to enjoy a ship between two characters when one is Valentino and also knowing that it was previously canon that Valentino has shattered Vox’s screen multiple times. Honestly you can’t even be like “well the voxtagram posts arent canon anymore so he’s not abusing vox” because you’re like objectively wrong. In the first couple shots we see of Vox and Valentino together Vox has an entire glass thrown at his head. Very important detail, he nonchalantly dodges it implying that while we know this is a common occurrence for Valentino to have violent breakdowns, it is also a common occurrence for Valentino to throw things at him or try to injure him in some way. Not to mention he seems very unsurprised when Valentino takes his phone and breaks that as well. Vox is also forced to walk on eggshells around this guy with how he talks to him. There’s literally no way for it to be healthy at all.

While I love the concept of Charlie and Vaggies relationship, it’s entirely brought down by Vivzies inability to write women and her lack of care for wlw relationships. There’s a lot of good rants about this, but I have so little substance to mention on these two it’s kind of hard to talk on. Vaggie doesn’t have much character development and Charlie is just incompetent all the time in the canon show and the only interesting stuff we got was from episode 7 (very good episode btw)

Any Alastor ship ever. End.

I do not like Huskerdust a lot of the time. I don’t enjoy how the fandom does it a lot of the time because they don’t really consider the others boundaries and just are like “well they like each other now so they should kiss!” And I disagree with that very hard. For how it is in the show, the best i've seen is the little bit in episode 8 which I really do enjoy but obviously there was no build up to it really so I hardly have much to grasp and I have to do everything myself. Relationships take a long time. That goes hand in hand with my rewrite also. Angel has harassed Husk and other people multiple times and that’s not okay obviously but for some reason no one acknowledges that?? The first step of them ever getting together or even being friends for that matter is Angel apologising. I will be mentioning my fuckass rewrite again just as an example of what I’d do, so I apologise! Everything from this chunk till the end is about how my friend and I have tried to fix this dumb relationship. It’d take him a little to mention it, but for how I’ve done it with my friend he ends up going out to dinner with Husk after rewritten episode 4 events and after getting texts from Valentino he starts reflecting on how bad Valentino and other people objectifying makes him feel and has that “..shit im doing that to other people.” And they have a little talk about it where Angel apologises for acting that way and tells Husk to call him out if he started doing it again on accident.

And it's not a quick fix conversation either, they aren’t magically best friends now and they don’t suddenly start being lovey with each other, Angel doesn’t even list Husk as a friend yet in his mind and has a bit where he only lists two people as his friends. There’s also bits of rewriting where Angel is yelling at Husk and ends up getting upset to the point he indirectly hurts Husk by throwing a wine bottle at him and Husk steps on the glass while he’s walking out. They talk it out again and Angel has another small crisis about potentially starting a cycle of abuse because his own trauma is shaping how violently he reacts to minor situations. Both of them need to work on themselves before they do anything. Especially Angel when he’s developed a habit of snapping and has a mindset that he needs to physically fight any potential threat away from him and it's leading him to actually hurt people. While that isn’t the sole reason he's in hell he's still in hell he is an objectively bad person and Husk has his own problems too especially when dealing with Angel specifically, both of them have an issue of pushing blame off themselves or shaming the other in overly stressful situations even if they don’t mean to. Husk has a tendency to shame Angel for his coping mechanisms and even if he's well intentioned with his criticism he gives it in a very uncaring and harsh way and will sometimes default to saying “I didn’t actually care in the first place” even if he does. They currently are not ready to be in a relationship together by any means, but fights help them reflect on themselves and of course at least Angel is at the hotel to be a better person. Charlie talks to him often and shows him it’s okay to confide in other people but that he doesn’t need to tell someone everything and that he can keep things to himself, and then the help from Charlie leads to Angel apologising again and trying to do the same for Husk like listening to him talk about his own issues and then giving input on them or just casual banter and so on. Both of them desperately need to work on themselves and they’re trying to do it together and I think when they're ready they’ll probably the best matches for each other, but you can’t just skip over the issues, the issues are the entire point of growing, that's why they are at the hotel.