#and to me this is the simplest explanation

[cugzarui]

future self here: read the article it's pretty good. anyway down heres my take before i finished the article

---------------

ok imma make the post while reading the article

this reads more like something thats meant to make you outraged than something that makes a genuine attempt to analyze the lightning thief. ragemongering if you will.

Now why the hell would the Greek gods ever live in America? Great question. Here’s where it starts to get real ugly real quick.

is it though? is it really? cuz im pretty sure the real world reason is to have an excuse to make the series happen in America (the home of the target audience) as opposed to greece (not the home of the target audience). and the in-story reason is just whatever lets you justify this in-universe.

Chiron who had been previously disguised as a Latin teacher in a wheelchair—presumably to better hide his… horse parts? I’m not sure

yes? it has admittedly been a while since i read those books but im pretty sure that is the cannon in universe reason why he uses a wheelchair. did you read the book?

ok reading further they start bringing up actually relevant points that do support their claim. im not gonna copy all of that but i will respond with: it is still a book about the greek gods and is based on greek legends. idk if you forgot but greeks are white europeans. legends about demigods tend to have exceptionalism as part of their main themes. often explicitly. yea unless you're writing some really sanitized story, basing it on greek legends will probably make it at least a little problematic.

i didnt know that bit about western civilization being a new concept. that is a good point:

This emphasis on the power of western civilization — a concept that didn’t emerge until the 19th century and was bound up in “imperialism and colonialism, white supremacism, classism and exceptionalism” — absolutely pervades The Lightning Thief,

lets keep reading -

It is perhaps tempting to write this off as a common — albeit indelicate — narrative technique. Riordan is writing for Americans, so he crafted a narrative focused on Americans.

oh i was anticipated.

the promotion of a (falsely) white ancient Greece and Rome is not limited to The Lightning Thief. White people love narratives wherein Greeks, Romans, and their gods are white

ok yea ancient greece wasnt just white people. still they were definitely europeans. actually let me just google this real quick -

What races lived in ancient Greece?

Hellenes

Central and Eastern Greek tribes (Aeolians, Achaeans and Ionians) ...

Western Greek tribes (Dorians and Macedonians) ...

Macedonians-Magnetes.

https://en.wikipedia.org

List of ancient Greek tribes - Wikipedia

that doesnt help much. a bunch of ancient greek tribes i don't recognize. hmmm maybe if i go into the article and nope nope just more words and graphs i dont understand. ok since im a little stupid lets go with this. ancient greece definitely had non-white people in it too, but i dont think its that controversial to say it was mainly white europeans. if not, then you have to explain how the current inhabitants are mostly white europeans. which...idk you can probably explain it pretty easily but i am not smart and the simplest explanation is just that the ethnicities of the current inhabitants roughly matches that of the ancient inhabitants.

i still dont think its so unreasonable to assume that rick decided to move the gods to america as a way to appeal to his audience, rather than as some kind of white supremacist move. though tbf it could be both. he doesn't even have to be aware hes doing it for it to be the case. but just because it could be the case doesnt mean it is.

the way he phrases it in-story does kinda seem supremacist now that i think about it but again, this is a story about demigods and is based on ancient myths and literal legends. giving these things some epic framing with exceptionalism is hardly surprising.

and...thats about all the notes i have about the article. it goes on to make a lot of good points and best of all, it doesn't actually pile up on rick and his stories that much. just brings attention to the fact that there is some genuine white supremacy stuff in there and that you should be aware of that. it doesn't even tell you not to read them and it makes note of the fact rick has gotten much better at not doing white supremacy.

in a way i was right about this article being rage mongering. just that it only rage mongers at the beginning as a way to draw you in to read it. call that a hook call it clickbait but the article is genuinely good and insightful and i recommend reading it.

you thought you can just read my addition instead of the article didnt you? think again buster you are merely a fool.

so like. everyone in the pjo fandom has read this article right? ok cool

[dearweirdme]

https://www.tumblr.com/dearweirdme/714931786938040320/hello-if-they-ask-you-why-you-believe-in-taekook?source=share

Wow your response is so 👌👌👌

Also I wanna know what do you think about this 'Streisand effect'? I just learnt about this term😂.. Don't you think taekook especially their company uses this inorder to create constant buzz and make it more widespread?

Hi Anon!

Tricky question you’ve sent me here! I so wish we could take just a small peak into BTS’s marketing strategies, but unfortunately all we can do is guess. This is probably going to be long again. Their way of dealing with Taekook has been confusing to me at times. Because while there are several clear instances where Tae and Jk are being forced to distance themselves, there are also a lot of instances shown that we would expect to be hidden if the ship was something they wanted to hide (Tae cuddling up with Jk in his bed in The Soop for instance). So why show some things, but also obviously hide others?

The way I understand it is that the Streisand Effect is not something that can be used as a marketing strategy, it’s more a side effect of doing a poor job at hiding things. For the company to actually try to hide stuff only to want people to pay more attention would be way to risky I believe. So while I do think the Streisand effect may be happening a bit, I don’t think it’s necessarily what they want. I think both the company and Taekook actively try to hide stuff and they probably succeed in hiding way (!) more than any of us are able to imagine.

The thing with Tae and Jk is… it’s so hard to completely hide their connection. It’s one thing to hide actual obvious actions, like hugging and touching… those can be edited out rather easily. But affection and intimacy are things that show themselves through very small often automatic responses to the other. It’s in the way we look at someone, the way our initial response to someone’s voice or appearance is. It’s called micro expressions (look it up, it’s interesting) and those are hard to describe, so it’s even harder for an editor to look for and hide. That is why so many people pick up on the bond between Tae and Jk but very little people know how to actually describe why their bond appears different from the other members. It’s just hard to get your head around, because when looking for signs to proof two people are in a relationship we tend to look for the obvious grand gesture kind off stuff (enter Jikook here), while real relationships, especially long term ones, go beyond those.

Now imagine having started this new Kpop band. Thankfully all of the members seem to get along, become real friends even and two of them have amazing chemistry. Shipping is a common thing especially in Kpop, so you utilize it. You want attention on your band, because the competition is hard. With these two member having this great chemistry, you don’t have to push for it as much. It’s already there and it works. But, at some point… maybe it’s getting out of hand a bit. And then it becomes clear that the members actually are in a relationship. What do you do? South Korea might love shipping, they do not love actual queer relationships (in general that is). So while you don’t mind the ship, the relationship has to be hidden. I think that’s when Jikook comes into play. Jimin is their close friend, they are comfortable with each other, the role comes easy to him as he is kind off a flirty person with everyone. Him and Jk are able to play of the grand gesture parts I mentioned before so to a lot of people that becomes the next ship. Now they are able to say, look it’s just shipping Jk, Tae and Jimin are just close friends… it’s normal. They start showing less and less of Taekook, going with a “they are no longer close” narrative and boom… the story changes for the eyes of the greater public. To people paying attention this was never enough, but companies are mostly concerned with the media. They do not actually care if there’s a part of fandom that’s still picking up on reality, they are probably even happy that it’s still a thing, because it does create fandom chatter and that is always a good thing.

I think they are walking a fine line (both the company and Tae and Jk themselves). The company wants to keep the ship, but hide the relationship. That is why we at times got clear footage of Taekook being close, but at other times clear instances of them being forced apart. Tae and Jk seem to really want to show their strong bond these days, but they don’t actually want to be out I think. They can’t it’s not safe for them to do so. I think they are being very brave, I admire them a lot.

[corkinavoid]

DPxDC Hogwarts AU [pt. 4]

On the day of his birthday, Tim is very rudely awoken by something hitting his face. Or, multiple somethings, actually.

It doesn't hurt - even though the somethings are quite hard and full of edges, and some of them heavy, they were very gently dropped on him from only a few inches above. More like placed if he is being honest.

Tim groans and raises his head up from the pillow, blinking his sleep away and coming almost face to face with Minky's large, wet-looking and eager eyes.

"Happy Birthday gifts for Young Master," the house elf tells him with the deep satisfaction of a job well done and disappears with a loud crack. Tim drops his head back down, burying his face in the pillow. She does that every year, so he is not exactly surprised by this kind of present delivery. But it's still a little annoying.

It takes him a few minutes to come to the conclusion that he won't be able to fall back asleep no matter how hard he tries. Which also doesn't surprise him - who in their right mind would be able to sleep while surrounded by birthday presents? - but it's kind of a tradition at this point. Just like Minky buries him in his gifts every year on his birthday, he is trying to get a few more minutes of sleep every time after it.

With a huff, Tim sits up on his bed and throws the blanket off him, looking around. And there comes the first surprise of this morning; there are more boxes in his bed than he expected.

Usually, it's only three or four: Mother's and Father's, that come either together, as one gift, or as two separate ones, the obligatory gift from Malfoy family because they like to make sure they are paying attention to absolutely everyone, even if they have little personal interest in the Heir of Drake family, and Diggorys', who send him something unbearably expensive every time because Mr. Diggory is friends with Father and likes showing off that he is rich.

This year, there are six gifts. Well, of course there are, like, a couple dozen birthday cards as well, from everyone who bothers remembering the birth date of the Drake's Heir, but Minky never brings those, and Tim is not particularly interested in them anyway. They are for Mother to sort through and decide what to do with them.

But back to the topic. Six gifts.

For the first time since Tim was around four - so, before he realized that none of those presents were for him personally, not really - he feels excited.

He sorts through the boxes, setting the recognizable emerald green one with a white bow (Malfoys) and the yellow with a red ribbon (Diggorys) aside. He doesn't care for those, he can open them later.

Which leaves him with a white, neatly wrapped in silk package that has to be from his parents, a blue rectangular box with yellow patterns on it, a small box in pinks and purples, and a rather large, narrow cardboard thing that isn't wrapped at all and actually looks like it's made from several smaller boxes with the use of sticking charms.

The last one is the most curious, so Tim leaves it for later and starts with the white package from his parents. There's no card - not like they need to add it since they are, well, his parents - and it's not exactly the most exciting present either: a 'Guide to Your First Potion' and an empty journal in a matching cover with a self-inking quill. Tim has no interest in potions; he likes reading about charms and enchantments way more, but the underlying message is clear. He sets both the book and the journal aside on the table by his bed and runs his hands through the rest of the gifts.

He decides to go with the blue one next, an impatient feeling tugging at his stomach. It turns out to be a chess set, with the pieces made of some kind of semi-translucent, crystalline stone, but what intrigues him even more is an additional, poorly wrapped purple lump with a crooked bow inside the box. As soon as he opens that, half-a-dozen chocolate frogs leap out of it, hopping away and all over Tim's bed.

He blinks in surprise, but upon closer inspection, there's a card on the bottom of the purple package. Make sure to bite their legs off, it advises in a jumpy handwriting, and, below that, Happy Birthday! - Steph.

Tim can't help but laugh. He doesn't bother going after the runaway candy; if Minky was cheeky enough to wake him up by throwing presents all over him, he's sure she'll be delighted to go on a frog hunt later.

Instead, he goes for the next box, the pinkish-purple one. This one is signed To: Timothy Drake, From: Samantha Manson in a curly handwriting on top, but despite knowing the sender, Tim has no idea what to expect.

Inside, he finds a shiny, silvery thing with about a dozen buttons and what looks like a piece of telescope on one side of it. He frowns, carefully setting the thing aside on the bed and looking inside the box again. Sure enough, there is a note, and it's about ten times longer than Steph's.

It's called a camera, the note says with no preamble, and Tim can very vividly hear Sam's condescending voice in his ears, You use it to take pictures. Then, there's a whole list of instructions on how to use it, which Tim is reluctantly grateful for. Thanks, he knows what a camera is, he's seen them before. It's just that they were always big and kind of bulky, and he hadn't known they could be so compact.

But it's a strangely thoughtful gift, now that Tim thinks about it. He and Sam still didn't talk much when Mrs. Manson brought her over; they just somehow wordlessly came to a mutual agreement of never bothering each other and spent the time reading their respective books while sitting in the opposite corners of a room. But in the few instances when they did talk, Tim remembers saying he wished he could draw. Just so he could keep things he liked seeing in physical, tangible form, and not only in his memory.

He should probably find out when Sam's birthday is, and send her something nice in return. He has no idea what that is going to be yet, but he has to try.

Carefully setting the camera back in the box - he is not sure how delicate he should be with it but better safe than sorry - Tim looks to the only present left. He tried not to think about it lest he ends up getting his hopes up and being thoroughly disappointed later, but, well.

There's only a few things he can imagine needing a package of this shape and size, long, narrow and thin.

He licks his lips, swallows and reaches for the cardboard monstrosity, his fingers trembling slightly as he rips the packaging off.

He is very much not disappointed, because it ends up being exactly what he suspected it was.

A broom.

It's not a new broom, Tim can feel the scratches on the handle when he runs his fingers over it. And, realistically, he should probably be at least a little put off by having a second-handed gift given to him, but he can't bring himself to.

Because it's not a kiddie broom. It's an actual, real broom, a Cleansweep that's a bit too old but is still evidently well cared for. With no restrictions about speed of height or anything.

Tim takes the rest of the cardboard off of his new treasured possession, running his hands over it again, just to make sure it's not an illusion. It takes him a few minutes to come back to reality and notice a piece of paper that was also inside the poor excuse of a box. Tim thinks he knows who sent it either way, but he still picks it up, unable to get the happy grin off his face.

So next time you can join us, the slightly different sized, wide letters say, Happy Birthday, Tim! And, below that, a completely different, stern, and pointy handwriting adds, Please, make sure you have an adult supervising your first flight. There are disillusionment charms applied to this broom, as well as a notice-me-not charm, so you don't have to worry about any unwanted attention. We hope you have a very nice birthday! - Best wishes, Fenton family.

Tim thinks he is going to cry because of how happy he is.

...Although, he probably won't be able to follow that advice about adult supervision. It's not like his parents are ever home long enough to watch over him. But, on the other hand, Minky has been a Drake's elf for a few generations now, hasn't she? She's gotta be old enough to count.

He can't wait to try it out.

—☆—☆—☆—

Vague visual vibes for Tim's room and the library at Drake manor:

As well as the drawings (I swear I spent more effort on editing that first one than I did on actually writing the piece)

[Picrew] [Pic of the broom found through Pinterest, I couldn't find the artist]

—☆—☆—☆—

Other notes on random things:

Part 1 of this AU was set in late spring, part 2 was happening in early summer, and part 3 took place on Christmas Eve, what with the 'Winter Ball' and all. Which means we are now more than a year into this story and Tim just turned 9 years old (his birthday is in July, so he was still 7 y.o. in part 2 but already 8 y.o. in part 3). Danny's birthday is October 31st, by the way, so technically Tim is older than him by a few months.

There's an running joke in the Brown family that they've clearly named the wrong child Lavender since Steph is absolutely in love with the color purple in all shades and hues.

One could argue that a camera is bordering on a muggle-related gift, which should probably be considered sketchy in pure-blood community, but a) Mansons don't give a shit, b) Tim doesn't give a shit either (granted, it's because he doesn't know he should give a shit), c) canonically, Harry had a whole photo-album with pictures of his parents and their friends, so I'm under the impression that it's an acceptable level of muggle technology incorporated into wizarding world.

The gift from Diggorys was a pair of sapphire cufflinks that Tim literally has nowhere to wear, and the gift from Malfoys was a book on pureblood customs because Lucius likes making vague hints about Malfoys being better than all those other, lesser families.

Also, trust me, that poll really was relevant, I'll get to that in the next part, where we'll be meeting the Waynes, finally.

[<- part 3 | part 5 ->]

[demonio-fleurs]

i wanna make a post about all of the wild theories i’ve seen surrounding why the number 56 keeps popping up around luffy and how imo it might just be that oda likes that number & associates it with luffy and how it might not be That Deep but i don’t wanna come across as mean or snarky so im making this post instead!!!

[academicgangster]

Gave a blood sample to test for vector-borne parasites. It's definitely not malaria, but if it's dengue it explains the previously inexplicable insane joint and muscle pain. Also it vindicates me, lol. My back and shoulders hurt this morning in a way they super mega did not before.

[daesungindistress]

[closed]

[youareinlove]

PEOPLE CLAIM THAT PETER IS ABOUT HARRY? 😭😭😭😭

all i'm going to say is that i heavily disagree and think it's reaching

[mutini-ooc]

did you guys know that if you wldnt treat a someone in real life the way you wld treat them on the internet you probbly shldnt do tht because its weird as shit & shitty & also probably a sign you are invalidating a boundary this goes double for minors by the way

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

(love of my life but it's about her love of her own life)

[icekingandbetty]

if jay t. doggzone Is just younger jake (p sure he explicitly says this in reign of gunters?) then braco (21 year old)'s grandfather's corpse having a book by him is a BIT FISHY I THINK

[killaura]

people in my notes trying to say gerard quoted agatha christie by coincidence…. ok. known book quoter gerard way who brings books on stage to read??? ok!

[avayarising]

@revnantdpxdclover @asphyxia778 @idfk-man10 @skulld3mort-1fan @runfromthemedic @ectoradiation @emergentpanda-blog @emerald-fox-93 @learning-to-fly-on-my-own @aikoiya @mlpizza @tired-yet-awaken @meira-3919 @zelabee @persephonerose96 @rubber-ducky-your-the-one @blackshuckatdusk @bathildaburp @autumnwulf @xye-chan @overtherose @fantasticbluebirdfan @screamingtofillthevoid @my-perfect-storybook-love @everystarstorm @onyxlightdragon @spider-lilly @blackroserelina @phoenixdemonqueen @gin2212 @dannyphantomphan @scribbiesan-main @skyite @olivethetreebitch @enderglace @malice-of-the-sunrise @leftmiraclechaos @crispywonderlandwombat @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit @blazeart @ashleysmshly @halfalix @osnii @drowningroane @sara0055 @gabrielandjackthenephilim @thegatorsgoose @oceanfaerielover @wordsgohere95 @littlefeather345 @that-random-fangirl @rogue-wolf-guardian @britcision @illusionwolfwriter24r8 @lazy-bouqet @pike-s

Jason was acting strange.

Bruce was worried. It had started when the batfam investigated the hideout of a new gang in Gotham. They had attacked Jason earlier that week with strange weapons, so Batman, Nightwing and Red Hood followed them to a warehouse. They saw the men in white suits with the weapons, several vans and some sort of powersource they called a core. Batman and Nightwing were making a plan when one of the men activated the machine housing the core.

Suddenly Red Hood had gone ballistic! He attacked them recklessly, with much more force than neccesary. Nightwing had to sto him from beating one of them to death! Batman was furious. They left the men for commisioner Gordon and took some evidence to the cave. When they arrived, Jason looked shaken. Bruce wanted to scold him, but the look on Jason's face made him pause. He needed to focus on the case, but he knew he couldn't bring Jason along. So he 'benched' Jason. Thats what the Robins called it, anyway. But someone needed to guard the evidence, they had no idea what this power core even was.

He expected Jason to protest. To insult him to complain. But when Bruce told Jason to look after the core, he instead looked suprised. Really? Jason had asked. Then Jason had told Bruce he could count on him. Red flag number 1. This had confused Bruce, but if it kept Jason from following then it was fine.

Then Jason had started carrying the core everywhere. He held it in his hand, close to his chest. He stayed in the manor, wich was red flag number 2. Damian had caught him talking to the thing numerous times. Alfred had heard Jason in the library, reading a children's book out loud. Tim noticed whenever they discussed the gang of men in white suits that Jason would leave, instead of listening. Dick had even caught Jason singing softly to it! Too many red flags to count.

Bruce was worried about him. He was starting to worry about mind control! But when he had tried to confront Jason, he had cut him off. Jason told Bruce that he knew he had messed up at the warehouse, that he had gone too far. So he was really happy that Bruce had trusted him with this. After that Bruce had been too stunned to say anything about it. But they knew the problem had to be adressed. During dinner, the whole family where going to discuss this matter with Jason.

That was before the core transformed into a glowing, white haired child.

[exculis]

MY DAD IS GONNA MAKE ME A DOCTORS APPOINTMENT LET'S GOOO

[bixiaoshi]

why does my mom try so hard to get me to understand the existence of landlords 😭 u will never see me saying i think they r necessary

[politicalprof]

Parsimony, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump

As Democrats undergo their quadrennial "why aren't we winning big against this guy?" freakout, a quick thought:

Social science has an informal dictum called "parsimony." Parsimony means that the best explanation is the simplest one that explains the most variance. It might not be a total explanation, but it's the best explanation.

We are in a particularly unparsimonious moment. Pretty much everyone believes that if only Kamala Harris would follow their preferred strategy -- more interviews! fewer interviews! more radical politics! more mainstream politics! -- then she'd be winning big.

If only.

In contrast, let me suggest five core elements of this campaign that have not and cannot change. Accordingly, the dynamics of the race are fairly fixed and fairly close. In five words, these are: woman, color, context, cult, and media.

Woman: Kamala Harris is one. And like it or not, misogyny is a strong thing (as we were reminded in 2016). Lots of people don't think women are or can be leaders/presidents/competent. That isn't likely to change during a presidential race. It's not "fair." It's just true.

Color: Kamala Harris has one that isn't white. Racism is a strong thing (as we are reminded constantly). Lots of people don't think people of color are or can be leaders/presidents/competent. That isn't likely to change during a presidential race. It's not "fair." It's just true.

Context: Fairly or not, the last few years have been "blamed" on Joe Biden. Lots of people have decided that the events of COVID and protests of 2020 (when Donald Trump was president) are Biden's fault since he was *elected* in 2020. Inflation, immigration, and Israel have overwhelmed the stunning number of real accomplishments of the Biden administration. That isn't likely to change during a presidential race. It's not "fair." It's just true.

Cult: Donald Trump leads one. His supporters *believe.* Facts are reinterpreted to fit the narrative. Obvious failures are explained away or outright ignored. Empirical experiences are denied by those who experienced them. None of this is likely to change during a presidential race. It's not "fair." It's just true.

Media: It fundamentally *loves* Donald Trump. Not, notably, because its members support his politics. Rather, most US media is for profit and Donald Trump drives clicks, eyeballs, retweets, whatever. He is an anchor of the attention economy. So long as we pay attention he will dominate attention. None of this is likely to change during a presidential race. It's not "fair." It's just true.

Five core factors don't change with temporary tactics.

What might work? Turnout. Massive turnout favors Democrats. It's about who shows up and votes and election day, not about specific campaign tactics. It always has been.

[lailau7904]

So y'all have seen the Williams F1 Logo before, yeah?

well get ready, becaues I am about to ruin your day!

where does one even begin with this. i am sorry in advance. -just a poor learning graphic design student, who simply tried to enjoy their saturday evening

The Logo

For anyone that doesn't know, here's the Williams F1 Logo. Entirely unedited, copied straight from Wikipedia:

Now like many fans, I actually quite enjoy this logo. I like the modern, sharp edges of it and it's simple yet intriguiging design. It's memorable, while also easily recognizable as a W. I also really enjoy the colour choice (this, however, is entirely a personal preference.)

(entire rant under the cut. please keep reading this took years off my life span.)

How did we even get here?

Let's start at the beginning. How did we even get here? Well I, a poor poor learning graphic designer, was watching this lovely video from Mr. V's Garage about bad F1 Logo's over the past 35 or so seasons. Very interesting, I can only recommend it (but you don't need to watch the video to understand this post)!

Now, to cleanse the palette at the end of the video, Mr. V included a top 10 GOOD logos from this time span, it was very kind of him.

On P4 of this "Good List," Mr. V placed the current Williams F1 Logo, as pictured above. At first I vaguely agreed with this, believing that he probably simply hadn't noticed one of the things that's been bothering me about that Logo since the first time I saw it up close.

The first sign of Trouble

So, what is this mystery issue, you might ask?

It's simple really. You don't necessarily notice it at a first glance, but something about that logo seems off. Taking a second longer, you may notice it yourself.

No, I mean it, take a minute and go look at the logo. It looks wonky as hell, doesn't it?

Well I can tell you the first thing that I personally noticed. The arms of the W aren't in line with the bottom half, see:

(Graphic by @girlrussell who was so kind to let me use it, as it is way prettier than the one I made)

It's a crooked W. There is no good explanation for this. The rest of the font is perfectly fine, geometrical shapes.

Anyway, the good person that I am I went to point this out to my partner ( @leftneb ) who proceeded to inform me that he, infact, was not aware about this and was, quote, "never going to unsee that."

Now, the good FRIEND that I am, I, of course, proceeded to rush into our broader F1 friendgroup to make them suffer for eternity.

What's the logical next step to take? Of course, fix the logo in Adobe Photoshop, you know, as a joke.

(Disclaimer at this point, I am not necessarily the biggest fan of Williams Management Team. I enjoy ALL their drivers this season. I do NOT enjoy James Vowels. Be warned.)(Also I am aware that he probably did not have an influence on the logo)

Trying to fix it. Oh god, I was so innocent back then

Trying to fix the logo in Photoshop is the worst mistake I could've made. THE worst path to take. I could've just giggled about making my friends suffer (which I succeeded in, by the way) and moved on. Instead I ruined a perfectly good Saturday evening, and for what? I don't know anymore.

Anyway, how was I gonna go about fixing the logo in the simplest way possible? Simplest way I could come up with: slap the thing in Photoshop and put two, mirrored boxes at each side to make the sides line up. Small issue, how do I make the thing actually even? Fix: line them up at the intersecting point with the bottom tips of the W.

Here's the result:

Hey, anyone care to explain to me why in THE LORDS NAME the arms are different sized? I mean, surely they weren't before. Surely, certainly, I must've messed up.

I double, I tripple checked. I made sure everything was lined up and made sense. But no.

It just couldn't be. Something was uneven in this logo, something even deeper. Something I could not have predicted when first taking a closer look. It was at this point I realized I had messed up. What rabbit hole had I stumbled across? Certainly, it couldn't get much worse.

And that's when I noticed.

(pictured above; my genuine reaction)

There's MORE? (oh god, the top isn't lined up)

I couldn't believe my eyes. This is the PINNACLE of the sport, and THIS was the logo of one of the competing teams? I mean, yeah, we have a Visa Cash App RB or a Kick Sauber or even a MoneyGram Haas which are all terrible logos, but at least they're CLEAN. (this has not been checked. If anyone wishes to ruin a nice Saturday evening, feel free to check them and tell me how wrong I was in the previous statement!)

But you can see that there is no end in sight for this post. I'm sure you're as scared as I was at this point. By now we were sitting in VC, discussing the horribleness of this logo. I had long informed my irl's about this, who take said design classes with me. And it was one of them who pointed out the next thing that had been bothering me, but I had not been able to put a finger on up to this point.

thE DISTANCE, HOW DID THEY FUCK IT?

I'm afraid I have to confirm your fears.

Yes, those lines are the same length. According to Photoshop, they're on the same level as well, so no flunking with angles.

The gaps of the arms to the main W are not the same. They're differently sized gaps.

It was clear to us, this logo is inherintely flawed. They're subtle issues, but once you pay attention you start to notice things. It all looks slightly wonky and off centre. And eventually, you get paranoid, and start comparing other angles and sizes. And you will keep finding things. This has ruined my life.

HOOOOOW

Honestly, I don't even know what to say. Yes, yes sadly those lines, too, are the same length. Just copied over from one side to the other and layed over on the same height. I admit, they're not layed over perfectly. I was honestly holding back tears at this point. But the point still stands, you can clearly see a difference in width.

Honestly, the only way I can explain it is that at some point there was a mess up of distance or proportions and whoever was designing the logo couldn't pin it down and tried to restore the visual balance by making manual adjustments. And in all honesty? They kinda did a good job, if that's what's happened. I mean, you notice the crookedness of the arms, and then maybe the difference in height, but the rest you probably will not notice if you don't spend too much time staring at it. (like some of us) And even those issues clearly aren't noticeable to the vast majority, considering I had to go point it out to a group chat for my friends at least to notice.

what the fuck is THAT?

Now, the thing about doing this investigative work of prooving a team you dislike is worse in more aspects than you previously thought, is that you do a lot of zooming in. And zooming in means you might notice bits that yours eyes simply overlooked before, because they were too small.

Here you can witness the top of the middle point, that, for whatever reason, really wants to touch the top border of the Logo. I'm relatively certain that's the highest few pixel in the entire graphic, considering earlier chapter "There's MORE?" I have no idea why it looks like that or why they thought it was necessary for it to not end in a clean point.

I just actually have no idea how to even describe what is going on on the top of the left arm. That left hand side, again, touches the side and is therefore the most-left-pixel in the graphic. I, once again, have no idea the purpose of this. However the RIGHT hand side also makes no sense, as it is the most prominent corner in the whole logo. There's pointed corners, and rounded OF corners, but nothing that is trying to form it's own colony in a distant land that hopefully isn't this god awful logo. I hope that blob gets away. I really do. You go king.

i'm loosing my mind

Anyway, the only reason I could come UP with those weird "reachy-outy-bits" was to establish the dimensions of the logo? But if that was the case, I don't understand why they managed to keep all the other potentially border touching corners clean?

Like, look. Those are clean, sharp corners with some clearance off the borders. I have no clue why they managed it here but not with the others.

guys. please.

Backtrackig a little bit, going back to the positioning of the arms.

Do I need to mention that those lines are both the same length and the same (mirrored) angle? I really hope I don't, because I don't think I could be making this shit up. Like, once you roughly know what you need to look for it just kinda becomes easy to find.

As said before, I genuinely do think that most of these issues happened in a chain-reaction. For example, the distances between the main part and the W wouldn't be as noticeable (and they do get noticeable once you start looking at it) if the angle wasn't fucked. And guess what, there's more fucked angles here! Which ALSO influence this specific area of the logo!

this is just embarrasing for you.

something something same line copied over and mirrored etc etc

It's not as visible but the angles defintely don't line up here as well. As mentioned before, these issues for the most part all influence each other. It doesn't really excuse the issues, in my opinion as a designer, because a big company like this shouldn't have these sort of issues in their logo.

So let's review;

to sum it up,

i cannot even BEGIN to explain to you how big of a fucking JOKE this FUCKING logo is. because, i thought to myself, to round the post out, hey, why not show ALL the issues i pointed out in one picture? that would round it out quite nicely, wouldn't it?

Yeah well, this logo sent STRAIGHT FROM HELL just could NOT let me rest. I had only done the lines visualizing the crooked arms in PAINT up until this point, i.e. I had only pulled both up individually. To make a nice "rounding out" picture I still had to add them into PHOTOSHOP. so i did. i pulled up the line. i mirrored the line.

THE ANGLE IS FUCKING DIFFERENT

none. and i mean NONE of my friends had noticed this before. i need you to understand that we looked at this thing with FIVE pair of eyes, and NONE of us noticed that until i thought to myself "Oh I still need to add these specific lines to have ALL the issues I pointed out in my SILLY TUMBLR POST in ONE image" and i get THAT FUCKING SURPRISE

I was PLANNING to round the post out with a statement on how obviously this isn't a serious post. Here, I even had it all written out already because I accidentally started writing it in the last paragraph:

Of course, this is nitpicking, and it's not that serious. I'm aware of that. AS MENTIONED most of these would not be noticeable if we hadn't gone specifically looking for them.

yeah, well, fuck that. i just spent two hours seething about this logo. i'm ending the post on this instead.