#anyway here are the tags for engagement
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
lebron discovers the chimps experience
#god i hope this trend isn't dead yet#i fucking love popping bloons#btd6 has consumed my life#i wake up i pop bloons#i eat cereal its all bananas#i try to do my homework and my pen is a dart and the paper is#ouch the btd6 map#i go to bed and the mattress is pat fusty wearing a bedsheet over him#its cute but im so tired#anyway here are the tags for engagement#btd6#bloons tower defense#dart monkey#btd6 obyn greenfoot
122 notes
·
View notes
Text
Look, Aym, I know you wanna annoy your big bro sometimes, but y'all really gotta stop putting the death god into silly mode. He is Very Dangerous, you see. ŎuŎ;
this idea wouldn't go away until i drew it so here it is lmfao
#fanart#cult of the lamb#cotl#cotl narinder#cotl aym#cotl baal#comics#the lamb tries to engage narinder's silly mode One (1) Time#they regret it the instant his giant paw comes bearing down on them like fukken kitty armageddon#get martyr'd idiot#anyway my buddy told me the dialogue could come across as flirty somehow??? which my aroace ass doesn't get At All#but just in case i wanna say right here and now:#if you tag this as shipping between aym and baal you are getting a block from me So Fast#ship what you want - i am totes cool with that - but keep it away from my art k thnx :)#aside from bishop orphans it's basically gonna be all narilamb from this point on#i just had to get the rest of this stuff outta my system first XD
2K notes
·
View notes
Text
solidarity
#letters regarding jeeves#my pal bertie#dracula daily#jeeves#Tom Gauld#made this for myself because i started getting a bit green eyed over how big the dracula bookclub is#even though i totally understand that the appeal of dracula is naturally much broader#than the appeal of some episodic-ish comedic stories about a rich british aristocrat who talks weird and his hypercompetent servant#and anyway it's very cozy here in the jeeves corner I have to say#it's surprisingly nice to be involved in a fandom active enough to be engaging#but slow enough to be able to keep up with practically everything that's going on#idanit talks#?#i don't have a tag for memes lol
756 notes
·
View notes
Text
thinking about orvs metatextual engagement with its genre and specifically how that interacts with its women again. kim dokja is a self insert for the reader - what he thinks is largely meant to represent what we think, especially in the beginning before sing shong really fleshes out his character. kim dokja sees the world through tropes, directly acknowledging the genre around him and the cliches we expect e.g. the overpowered mc, the scheming villain, the beautiful heroine.
but a major part of his arc is deconstructing this reductionist view of the world in a way that parallels the author's deconstruction of the genre, and that plays really well with the way orv writes women. yoo sangah is perhaps the best exanple - shes introduced as the heroine, a one-dimensional pretty girl who in any other novel would become kim dokja's love interest. but the authors allow her to be her own character, directly challenging the stereotype of the heroine and calling attention to the genre's typical lack of depth for such a character. i think this undercurrent plays in the background often but really comes to the forefront when yoo sangah reminds kim dokja of her putting pepper in their bosses' coffee, a memory kim dokja had supressed because it didn't fit with the pretty girl persona he made for her.
i interpret that moment as yoo sangah pushing her way out of the mold of heroine often found in these stories, demanding a depth be added to her character, asking kim dokja - and thus the reader - to see her in her entirety, to see the heroine archetype for what she could be. orv is at all times in conversation with its genre, and its simultaneous writing of female characters with agency and depth and acknowledgement of the tropes these women are expected to fulfill is undeniably a part of that. and its a part i enjoy. most of the time.
#ok trigger warning for discussion of sa in the tags#ive been thinking about this in context with my discomfort with sa in orv specifically#i think its sort of related to this i think sa happens in orv not because sing shong is at all interested#in exploring that topic or discussing its place in this genre#i think its one of those things that 'happens because it happens' if that makes sense#and like i dont blame sing shong for not wanting to explore that topic#but i think it does stand out to me#especially in contrast with orvs usual depth and it's willingness to engage with heavier topics#like its implied that if kim dokja wouldn't have saved her han sooyoung would have been sexually assaulted possibly to DEATH!!!#and its so brushed over she never expresses any real feelings about it#honestly im just rambling in here but like. yeah.#thats why we have tags babyyyytt#anyway. coughs.#orv#omniscient reader's viewpoint
174 notes
·
View notes
Text
“an exceedingly pleasant and amiable young gentleman but… mentally he is negligible - quite negligible” is the Jeeves and Wooster equivalent of “she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me”
#just thinking#especially because after that#lizzie despises darcy and refuses to humour him#constantly trying to prove that she doesn’t like him and that she’s more than tolerable thank you#meanwhile darcy’s falling in love#that’s exactly what happens to bertie and jeeves#bertie embarks on a quest to prove jeeves wrong#while jeeves becomes more and more fond#until it culminates in TYJ and RHJ#is the bicycle scene in RHJ a parallel to the rainy proposal in P&P?#who’s to say#is that what wodehouse intended me to think? positively not#anyway i did write like the opening two chapters of a p&p version of jeeves and wooster#where jeeves was darcy and bertie elizabeth#obviously madeline was jane and gussie bingley#they fit the roles quite well because jeeves was over here like “i have never met anyone i can call truly accomplished”#and having insane tension with bertie#and at the same time gussie was just like “miss bassett can i show you another newt”#i mean jeeves has a habit of ending engagements if he disapproves#very fitzwilliam darcy of him#jeeves and wooster#bertie wooster#reginald jeeves#pg wodehouse#jooster#sorry long tags#i got too into the pride and prejudice
117 notes
·
View notes
Text
We need more engagement in this fandom!
So, as the title says, because I was thinking about this - I love this manga with all my heart as you very well know, and the main reason I started translating is because I wanted more engagement in the fandom, which was pretty much dead. Well, it still kind of is, which brings me here lol
I tried to keep this blog translations only to keep everything more in order and make it easy to find the various chapters and all, and I kept all my theories and ramblings either in the tags or on my main blog, except for the times I got asks.
But I would love for this fandom to be more active! I wanna talk about theories and headcanons and ships and all that! I want this fandom to start living again :')
So I was wondering - would you people like it if I started also posting about that kind of stuff? Reblogging fanarts, posts, fanfics or whatever I see around? Would you like to engage more in the fandom? I'm asking because: 1) maybe you'd prefer it if this blog stays translations only, kinda like an archive; 2) maybe there aren't many people who actually wants to engage in fandom activities anyway lmao
I'm asking honestly! I just really would love for this fandom to be active again :')
#dunno how to tag it#i know this is my blog and i can do whatever i want with it#but also i already do that on my main blog#so if i were to doit here it would be because i want to engage with people#and i would love to see people talking about stuff and making theories and talking ships and headcanons and whatever#since i think here on tumblr this blog is kind of the centre of the fandom#i could also use it to promote fanarts and stuff i see around#and i think people tend to not create fandom content when they know not many people will engage with it#i'll be honest this came to me bc i was thinking about my own fanfictions ahgdkhsgd sorry#more precisely i started thinking about it bc im writing a fic about a ship i know no one will engage with on ao3!#but yeah anyway lmao#if you ppl prefers this to be just a translations archive then thats okay!
96 notes
·
View notes
Note
https://www.tumblr.com/louisupdates/754934426217152513/goodbye-faith-in-the-future-world-tour-272024?source=share
did he or did he not lose fans then?
I will answer this because this anon actually brings a concrete question to the table rather than just "hurhur but you're a larrie??" (tell me you can't actually refute any of our points…). Anyway this post shows the decrease in Louis instagram followers between the screenshots taken directly after the release of Faith in the Future in Nov '22, when he changed his bio to promote that album and the tour tickets, and now, when he changed it again to mention the current release. But I'm putting that response under a cut because I'm tired of the actual POINT of all this nonsense getting lost in a sea of made up things people insist are important:
There is no rational argument you can make to say that Louis has less fans now than he did 2, 4, or 6 years ago. You don't need a spreadsheet of details you need to USE YOUR EYES! He has gone from filling theaters to filling arenas and stadiums. His second album made a higher chart position than his first album. His festival has doubled in size EVERY year of its existence. And for that matter: his insta post engagement numbers remain about the same (despite the fact that older posts should have way MORE likes due to having been there longer, even aside from follower counts.) SO WHO FUCKING CARES ABOUT HIS INSTA FOLLOWER NUMBER???? Serious question: what does the word "fans" mean if these things aren't what matters? ALL of this quibbling about what he should do to make things better and people can't even see that THINGS AREN'T BAD.
Anyway to address the specific question- (con't......)
NO- HE DID NOT LOSE FANS. HE LOST SOME INSTA FOLLOWERS. THESE ARE NOT THE SAME THING. As I said above, literally what does it mean to lose fans if that number change coincides with him having higher sales, more audience members, and higher engagement than ever before? Whatever he lost ISN'T FANS. I wouldn't be surprised if a significant factor was something like a bot purge, but also yes: I'm sure a lot of casuals followed him around the time of his big album release and later unfollowed him. That's extremely normal because that's how casual engagement works, and why the definition of fan really matters. Louis and his team understand this and have referenced it repeatedly, talking about how lucky he is to have *us* specifically, to have the kind of dedicated fanbase he has, to have the KIND of fans he does who will allow him to do what HE wants. @dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram named the issue of depth vs breadth with regard to fans a long time ago, and pointed out why having DEPTH is so much more important. It's like this- artists who are on top 40 radio have more numbers on things like insta follows, and for a time on sales and tickets. But those aren't FANS- they're people with a casual interest. And as soon as that person isn't being forced in their ears 10x a day, those people lose interest and stop supporting them, stop buying stuff and unfollow, and those artists end up doing the 'opener on the jingle ball' circuit rather than their own tours. One Direction as a whole, and Louis maybe most of all or near to at this point, have something MUCH MORE VALUABLE than that- DEPTH FANS. Louis has fans who will support him even if he takes years to release music, or stops parading around with a pretend girlfriend to stay in the headlines at least once a month, or completely changes his image and genre, and that is UNHEARD OF. It's ASTONISHING and worth SO MUCH MORE. And they get that! THAT is why he always bragging about us, why industry people he works with are always so agog about us, why he will do anything for US- not for randos. He is also growing his breadth- and it's OBVIOUSLY WORKING whatever his follower counts are, but that is always going to be secondary to doing things for THE FANDOM because that is his sustainable business model. That is what keeps him onstage and reaching number one. And not coincidentally, the things they do are also working to grow that- much more valuable- commodity. So the fact that that's exactly what these chuckleheads complain about- that he does things that are just fandom facing or serving rather than everything being aimed at recruiting casual fans- does nothing but betray how completely they, unlike Louis and his team, misunderstand the actual drivers of his (actual, existing, happening) success. Luckily for Louis, he and his team rely on their own data harvesting (they do a LOT of it) and growth metrics (they're off the charts) rather than the smug assumptions of random (mostly quite new to this) fans and the few bitter people leading the complaining about everything Louis does.
#louis promo#all this nonsense about this tag or that tag or this or that number is so getting lost in the trees#when the forest is RIGHT HERE: WHAT THEY ARE DOING IS WORKING#so for now#I'm pretty done with this discussion unless someone actually engages meaningfully with the content of anything I'm saying#rather than just repeating the same things- but he needs to tag more! or the even more boring-#but you're a larry! if you send me a bitchy response that doesnt actually address any points I've made#I will assume it is because I'm right and you have no rebuttal other than to act like a preschooler because deep down you know it#honestly the discourse around this makes me feel a little sad and scared about the state of literacy and reading comprehension#and just general analytical thinking#but I hope its just that no one over 15 spends their time sending hate anons about fandom#if I'm wrong please come engage in actual conversation! but otherwise... let's just... not#blah blah blah#anyway there's a reason Louis is always so afraid no one will be there for him and that he started out solo era playing those radio fests..#because we are IMPROBABLE we are UNBELIEVABLE we are NOT SOMETHING YOU CAN EXPECT OR COUNT ON#and making nurturing and maintaining that his number one priority ALWAYS is extremely correct and smart#actually#I was originally going to be like here are when there were bot purges here are other artists that have seen numbers go down etc#but then I was like WAIT WHO CARES. You're letting these people dictate the conversation... but the premise is stupid#it DOESNT MATTER#depth v breadth
81 notes
·
View notes
Text
You know. Something I really hate about a lot of popular fantasy books, and it's especially prevalent in Romantasy, is what passes for Feminism in them. It's a toothless fake, used as an aesthetic/seasoning. A sprinkle of *strong female character* and a dash of deceptively misogynistic everything else, and for the finishing touch a pinch of man who's slightly better than being openly sexist and Boom. Fantasy series led by a FMC.
Generally, the Female Main character either starts out or becomes incredibly powerful, but always, always, always her power is linked to the men around her. She supposedly has agency and makes her own choices but the choices she makes are between choices provided to her by men. Her male love interest is more powerful in SOME way, and ends up besting her in some way. Experience, training, power, there's always some way the man is better than her. Female characters are never allowed to just BE powerful. Or even just BE single. Often they give up their powers, or are forcibly stripped of them. They look down on other female characters for doing "feminine" work. And, they're stupid as hell to supposedly make them relatable or endearing. Often, the male mc is concerningly abusive but it's portrayed as dreamy, romantic and Ideal. (I genuinely get the love for villains, and enemies to not, and the love for morally grey characters, I genuinely do, but this isn't that, what happens in these books is just genuinely bad (if they actually were people) being portrayed through rose colored glasses) [And in some stories that could be genuinely interesting!] If there's a second Love Interest, he will just do the same awful shit to the MC but it's better now bc it's him.
If the female character isn't white, all of this + a staggering amount of racism. They're rarely MCs. They're fridged for the MCs, they serve the MCs, they're never as beautiful or powerful as the MC, they're stereotyped and portrayed as savage, vapid, comically evil, or just as a good guy with no character at all.
These books are presented as feminist and it pisses me off. Feminism is equality for all, and the fight for Women to be equal and have their own agency. To make their own decisions. Genuinely I believe writers should be able to write whatever they want. I have no issues with having "problematic" stuff in books. My issue is when people start to believe that this shit is feminist, and the author is so skilled and amazing, and it's a masterpiece! Fuck that.
#feminism#romantasy#there are so many books this applies to#fantasy#books#booklr#reading#anyway this was brought on by a friend of my starting Assassin's Blade by SJM#I refuse to say anything about my thoughts to her in case she enjoys it#Ya know like I don't want to yuck in anyone's yum#genuinely I believe writers should write whatever they want and readers should read whatever they want#but I also think people should be aware of things?#And engage with what they read#Tags for proper classification and filtering#Anti-sjm#anti-acotar#anti-throne of glass#anti-fourth wing#anti-crescent city#anti-belladona#anti-Emily Wild's Encyclopaedia of Faeries#Now you might be like Girl you just don't enjoy fantasy or Romantasy then? Untrue#Here are some Fantasy and Romantasy Books I actually genuinely enjoy:#-The Coldest Girl in Cold Town#-Vespertine#-Spinning Silver#-The Cruel Prince#Graceling and Fire#Earthsea - Howl's Moving Castle - Sabriel - Bear and the Nightingale - A Master of Djinn#LOTR and More! I genuinely enjoy books considered Fantasy and “Romantasy”
55 notes
·
View notes
Text
jean moreau, and faith and religion and the absence of it.
the sunshine court, nora sakavic // the unabridged journals of sylvia plath, sylvia plath // "stay down" by boygenius ft. julien baker, lucy dacus, and phoebe bridgers // the denial of st. peter, caravaggio // salome with the head of st. john the baptist, simon vouet // henry iv pt. ii, william shakespeare // the rebirth of the arts, charles haslewood shannon // daredevil: "born again" (1986) by frank miller et al. // "ash-wednesday", t.s. eliot // map of hell, botticelli
#jean moreau#the sunshine court#aftg#tsc#renee walker#all for the game#nora sakavic#web weaving#r weaves webs#okay yall im gonna be honest this is a new kind of engagement for me soooo pls b nice#however i simply had to get into it bc i have so many ideas all the time#in this case all the religious imagery in tsc literally had me losing my mind#i didn't even have space to use half the examples i found here#renee rainbow post coming maybe???#anyway for those of yall who do these web posts all the time pls lmk if u have any advice bc honestly i just gave it my best shot#like i did do my research so everything should in fact mean what i believe it means#but u know. nowhere to go from here but UP#r tags#r posts
45 notes
·
View notes
Text
I already forget where I heard this, but it's really sparkly to think about:
Which do you think is greater:
1. the combined number of jumps all humans throughout all of human existence have performed
or
2. the combined number of jumps all video game characters (specifically ones piloted directly by the player) have performed
?
--
(and
if you think it's the latter-- when did 2 overtake 1?)
#I have zero guesses and no capacity to meaningfully speculate beyond a very shallow first pass#but the *concept* of it is so fun to me#hmm need a category tag for like#posts where the point is engagement but i think there's an edge chance they will break containment#so i post them here instead of on main#so that if that happens i don't have to feel trapped between killing a perfectly good post#and feeling uncomfortably on display#(turns out turning off notifications has limited utility because I don't want a ton of *invisible* attention either)#anyway uh#containment
118 notes
·
View notes
Text
Remember George's outline notes that had "joy of giving" and "mercy at the gate" for Arya? Mercy is crossed out and we obviously have that as her sample chapter, so what if Arya's next alias is "Joy"? Over-thinking the significance of that phrase and how it could apply to the rest of her Braavos arc🤔
#arya stark#asoiaf#something something /joy of giving/ could align with /all men must serve/ and Arya's apprenticeship with the courtesans#Arya learns more about courtly manners and becomes more comfortable with engaging in highborn spaces#while becoming more privy to Braavosi politics and how that connects to her responsibilities/identity as a Stark#when I imagine Arya reclaiming her identity I imagine it coming with her acceptance of even the /hard/ parts of her identity#I think Ned's words about /summer games/ and growing up will be incredibly relevant to her here#her reclaiming her identity while ignoring the /Lady/ aspect of it makes no sense...especially considering how often we're reminded of it#literally every time she reveals her identity it comes with people acknowledging her highborn status#one thing that makes me wish we had on-page Cat/Arya interactions cause I think her twow arc will be heavy on remembering Ned's words 😭#imagine her reuniting with Jeyne before she knows Bran+Rickon are alive and deciding to reclaim her identity at the unmasking festival#I have a pet theory that she could end up /taking responsibility/ for Jeyne's marriage to Ramsay in order to offer some protection to Jeyne#I think it fits considering she has a very protective nature and could feel guilty since she had the opportunity to reveal herself to Roose#basically I want the reclamation of her identity to be incredibly personal and about her feelings + values#which is why I like to imagine it happening before she's aware rickon+bran are alive but after she gets news that Jon is dead#I want her motivation to return home to be primarily about her internal development while outside factors are supporting#/need/ Arya exploring and accepting her identity in her own way#deciding to be Arya while her family is lost to her and that identity is connected to an unwanted marriage would feel so significant#(and yes it was Jeyne that was married to Ramsay but it was Arya's name used and it's still (partially) about/will impact her)#anyways I think about Arya's Braavosi arc a normal about can you tell? 😀#one day I won't put the majority of my post in the tags but today is not that day#I definitely thought too hard about this though that's why I have to hide it lol
23 notes
·
View notes
Text
★ Help me get on VGen! ★
Hello beloveds, as you may or may not know i offer commissions, and i'd like to try getting on a platform like VGen! I've already had someone ask me if they can commission me from there, but i don't have artist access haha..
VGen is a commissions website for all kinds of artists, with a focus on supporting human artists. It's in open beta, and to get artist access i'll need:
★ 100 likes
★ 5 comments
You can also get on it if an artist with access gifts you a code, so if anyone stumbling upon this post would be so generous my life is in your hands.
My VGen is https://vgen.co/l1f3l.
Thank u o/
#VGenCode#l1f3l's art#l1f3l#vgen#commissions open#art commisions#idk what to tag this as i dont wanna b annoying lol..#12 am here is usually like. 6pm or somethin in america right#its fiiine to post it now#i aint good at soshal media can u tell#The process of gettin on vgen via engagement post is kinda long so if anyone is interested in commissioning me#and thinkin of waitin till i set up vgen. I'm still v much open and i d love to talk to u! my prices r flexible atm#But they start at around 35 pounds/44 dollars ish equivalent#anyway! thats me. i shall go do some work now#wuthering waves#hatsune miku#madoka magica#madoka kaname#seragaki aoba#dmmd#dramatical murder#lamento#asato lamento#konoe lamento
20 notes
·
View notes
Text
Rating: Explicit
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Fandoms: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo, Les Misérables - All Media Types
Relationships: Enjolras/Grantaire, Enjolras/Patria
Characters: Enjolras, Grantaire
Additional Tags: Canon Era, BDSM, Submissive Enjolras, Sexual Fantasy, Praise Kink, Discipline, Restraints, Orgasm Control, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Aftercare
Word Count: 8,543
Summary:
“I belong to my mistress in body and soul,” Enjolras said seriously, “but her nature is such that she is unable to directly communicate her desires to me.” Grantaire’s mind stuck on one baffling word in Enjolras’s sentence. “Your mistress?” “Patria,” Enjolras clarified, waving a dismissive hand, as if Grantaire ought to have understood implicitly. - Enjolras makes an unexpected request of Grantaire.
a gift for the wonderful @koheletgirl <3
#les mis#les miserables#exr#enjoltaire#but to be clear the real ship here is enjolras/patria#anyway i hope you enjoy this it's really normal. enjolras engages with the kinks mentioned in tags in a super typical manner definitely#also thank you to alex inmarbleimmobility for betaing!#lpdlr#<- bc i often see posts i wanna tag as this fic so i want a tag for it#my fic#maybe someday i'll use that tag again
49 notes
·
View notes
Text
in my quest to find fic about platonic/generally nonromantic but emotionally intimate sex to read (partially bc when i write about something especially without having written about it much before i like to read a lot to see what other people are doing, get inspiration etc) im once again BEGGING people to only tag something ‘platonic x’ if they actually mean that. stop with this ‘#platonic x #…or is it’ ‘#platonic x #haha ‘platonic’ anyway’ etc bullshit. it’s not cute and it’s not funny.
#gav gab#SAY WHAT YOU MEANNNNNN#sex ment#I’m just trying to read some PLATONIC SMUT over here#so i can better WRITE SOME#I’m tired of this cutesy teehee bullshit that presumes#nobody could ever be searching the ‘platonic x’ tag#(where x is sex in this case but is also cuddling kissing love etc anything you can think of)#because they actually want to read about platonic relationships#no they must want teehee but it’s actually totes romantic they’re just in denial shit#nobody could possibly actually care about platonic dynamics on purpose and in specific#it’s exhausting lmfao#anyways the more of that particular activity i engage in#the more i want to write about it
35 notes
·
View notes
Text
might make a longer post when i have the brainpower for it, but i do think some of the wider fandom criticisms about the direction of veilguard/dragon age as a franchise are coming from us looking at this piece of media and thinking about where we wanted to see it go rather than an objective view about where it’s been going from the beginning
this is not tacit approval, to be clear. i also really preferred the more grounded approach in origins & da2 over the high fantasy angle things have taken from inquisition onwards
unfortunately, the more i reflect on the games the clearer it is to me that we were always going to end up here!
flemeth has been there right from the start, and there’s nothing to suggest her being mythal was a retcon in any way.
the starting stats from origins with elves being more attuned to magic with the dwarves being cut off from it… that’s been there! sandal with his titan magic through his exposure to lyrium was there!
we met our first magister sidereal all the way back in awakening, the second in da2. the games never drifted from that plotline. we were always inching closer and closer to understanding what caused the blight and how the magisters tied into that story.
the games may have shifted in scope but the trajectory of the narrative was set up very early on
i don’t think the execution on many of these was Great & pulling references from real, still persecuted minority groups for their depictions for elves knowing they were going to take this kind of direction was definitely…. a choice
it’s not a choice i’m surprised by bioware making though! if we’re being honest their sensitivity to dealing with non-white (or fantasy minority) cultures has consistently been one of the weakest aspects of their writing from day 1.
ultimately i would also have liked a franchise that stuck with the scale(/tone) of origins and da2, but i just don’t think there’s any basis for railing against these choices as if they’re a symptom of inquisition-era developments. i really don’t think they are. this is what they had planned and this is how they executed it for better or worse
if it’s not for you, it’s completely valid to just take what you like from the instalments you enjoyed and engage with the works in a purely transformative capacity. i might take that approach myself!
i think it will just be less painful going forward though if we can all call a spade a spade. it’s not about the devs leaving, and it’s not about solas. dragon age was headed here, one way or another
#bioware critical#datv critical#veilguard spoilers#da4 spoilers#<- honestly this is none of those things but it kind of engages with all that so. tagging for anyone who wants to block these out#anyway. u can do whatever u want forever!#it would just be nice (for me personally) if we could stop going around in circles discourse wise 🥹#there are other things to discuss here! plenty to critique!
16 notes
·
View notes
Note
hello, i have a question. what is the difference betwwen a hard and a dangerous racer? is there some sort of characteristics like how succesful a racer is or is more of a "a dangerous racer races on the limit and that's dangerous. a hard racer races on the limit but. its just a hard racer". thank you for answering!
completely in the eye of the beholder, I'm afraid. it's a perpetual debate, and one where everyone draws the line differently... very much a case of one man's dangerous manoeuvre is another one's hard but fair overtake... that being said! I'll have a go at coming up with a general framework with which people assess this stuff
let's bring in two strawmen, which feels like the most direct way to illustrate the possible stances you can take on this debate. to be clear, nobody really fits neatly in either ideological category - but, well, these are pretty much the two most extreme positions anyone could have:
when people are describing something as 'hard racing' (as opposed to... idk, 'clean' racing), they are usually talking about a) contact between the two bikes, and/or b) an action that forces the other bike to take evasive action. what constitutes forcing evasive action? well, this is all very nebulous and hard to define - there's crossing another rider's racing line, making them pick up the bike mid-corner, forcing them wide/off-track, not yielding in situations where one of you will have to yield to avoid a crash... but this is always an assessment that will depend on the specific circumstances. not every block pass is considered hard racing, for instance, even though you are quite literally 'blocking' the other bike. contact is the more straightforward one... if you initiate a move that leads to contact, then most people would agree this is 'hard' racing
so say you are in the 'A' camp. according to this line of thinking, pretty much every contact is 'dangerous' riding and should not be allowed. here's what gibernau said about jerez 2005, included in the sete post:
let's not discuss the merits of the jerez 2005 move specifically here - this is an expression of a broader ideological position. "this is not a contact sport" "it's not about hitting another guy"... so, according to this stance, actions that knowingly result in contact should not be acceptable and as a result need to be penalised. taken to the logical extreme, any and all 'hard racing' is dangerous
let's go to the other extreme, 'B'. let's say you're very pro-hard racing, to the point where you think that contact is more than fine and that it is unreasonable to call it 'dangerous'. sure, of course it is dangerous, but inherently all motorcycle racing has a lot of risk attached. racing that involves contact is basically acceptable. even within this extreme, my lovely venn diagram allows for some actual 'dangerous' riding - either behaviour that is wholly irresponsible during races... or stuff that doesn't count as hard racing because it's not 'racing'. here are some examples:
stuff that happens during races but is like... egregious misbehaviour. cf romano fenati pulling a rival's brake lever during a race - obviously dangerous and no longer really exists within the confines of actual racing
in either races or non-race sessions - not following proper safety procedures like for instance ignoring yellow flags. again, should be pretty obvious why that's dangerous
poor behaviour in non-race sessions,the general tag for not exhibiting appropriate care, awareness for your environment, all that stuff... the extreme example is marc barrelling into the back of another rider after the chequered flag had been waved in friday practise at phillip island 2011 (more on that here). it's also things like faffing about on the racing line, see the pecco mugello dramatics
so, yes, everyone will agree that there's some stuff that counts as 'dangerous riding' that's distinct from 'hard racing' just because it's not actual racing. that's the most straightforward stuff... but yeah, anyway, those are basically the two extreme positions you can take. you can say that all contact is bad and dangerous, that any time you're forcing another rider to take evasive action and are making a pass that isn't 1000% clean, you are putting others at unnecessary risk. or, you can say, hey, everything goes, rubbing is racing on steroids - sure, there's a small category of things that aren't acceptable, mainly stuff that isn't actually racing, but otherwise you should be allowed to brute force yourself past riders whenever you please
obviously, they're strawmen for a reason. basically nobody holds either of these positions in their entirety - and in race situations, there's always going to be actions that are seen as hard racing by some and as dangerous by others. so, unfortunately, we're going to have to dig a little deeper here, and figure out by what metrics people draw the line between hard and dangerous. let's... hey, how about we bring in casey stoner, just this once. as a treat. here's what he said after laguna '08:
“I’ve been in hard racing all my life, some very aggressive racing, but today was a little bit too much. I nearly went in the gravel so many times and I don’t think it was necessary.”
hard racing? casey's done that before. some very aggressive racing? no issue. but what valentino did at laguna was "a little bit too much" and not "necessary". the specific thing casey cites is nearly going into the gravel - and indeed, forcing other riders wide/off-track is one of the types of racing behaviour that most finely straddles the line between 'hard' and 'dangerous'. for other examples, see suzuka 2001 in which biaggi forced valentino off-track and valentino flipped him off when he eventually got past (a few more details here), qatar 2012 where marc forced luthi off-track and got slapped after the race (here) and sepang 2015, where... uh. you know. or how about argentina 2018 where... look, I think you get the point - plenty of controversy comes from forcing your opponent's bike into places where it's simply not supposed to be
while we're at it, let's throw in a little excerpt from casey's autobiography about the race:
A lot of it was fair racing, he was out-braking me on the inside and riding better than me around a lot of the track. If it had all been like that I would cop it sweet. But a couple of moves off camera added to my frustration. I risked running off the track, and racing at the limits like that as we were I even became worried about my safety.
(does have to be said that the pair of them spend... relatively little time off-camera, never when the bikes seem to be particularly close - but of course the problem this statement creates is that by definition you can't judge any footage you don't have access to)
so, let's strip away the details and think about what casey is actually talking about here. it's a risk/reward calculation. this is what's at the heart of this riding standards debate: what level of risk is acceptable for what level of reward? there are situations in which there is inherently a higher level of risk in a way that isn't caused by either party - influenced by the circuit layout, what the weather is like, how hard you're both pushing aka how much on the 'limit' you are, and so on. but even if that risk isn't your 'fault', if you are riding at very high speeds on a dangerous track, you can still be considered a dangerous rider if you're not exercising appropriate levels of caution
so, let's break it down even further and try and come up with some basic criteria by which people judge whether a specific move is 'hard' or 'dangerous'. how about this: (1) does the action have a reasonable chance of coming off, (2) is the risk you're taking proportionate to the reward, and (3) is the move likely to cause serious harm to you or the other rider. let's take them one by one
listen, it needs to be plausible that you're going to be able to pull this move off. if you're firing the bike from fifty miles back into a gap that doesn't exist, then this is by definition an unnecessary risk. you are not going to do yourself any good and you are also not going to do the other rider any good. (sometimes it might be in your interest to crash the other rider out so you might as well, but unsurprisingly this is frowned upon. see the 1998 250cc title decider.) obviously, this is going to be affected by your skill level - if you're a mid rider, there will be fewer moves that are 'plausible' for you than for the best riders
this is basically the common sense metric. if you are riding in a pack, make sure to keep in mind that crashing in this situation could get ugly. if you are fighting for p5, maybe a different approach is fitting than fighting for p1. if you can make an overtake a lap later as long as you're patient, in a way that's a lot safer than doing it now, perhaps just do that instead. don't be silly in the wet! this comes down to stakes, whether it's worth it, how likely the move is to succeed... and also what the consequences would be if you got it wrong, for both yourself and other riders. you're making an overall judgement based on all of those factors... sometimes you need to take risk, but it's better to make sure that risk is reasonably sensible
however high the potential rewards are, there's a certain level of risk that is no longer acceptable, where the 'risk/reward calculation' stuff has to be thrown out of the window because the reward no longer matters. this is basically the catch-all for 'wholly irresponsible riding' - anything that's just going too far
so, uh. obviously everything described above is super subjective... but that's what people are judging in my opinion, this is the standards they are using in their head to determine where they draw the line. so, as an example, to bring back the stuff from this post about the inter-alien ideological differences:
and again, this is also what the debate after aragon 2013 was about:
if you think aragon 2013 is unacceptable to the point of being dangerous, then you probably take quite a hard line view and think pretty much any action that could lead to contact needs to be stamped down on. while that contact did have unpleasant consequences for the other party (dani wasn't able to walk for several days and his title bid was basically over), it is perhaps a little worse than could have been reasonably expected in that situation. in that sense, there's a bit of surface level similarity with jerez 2005... there, valentino made the pass for the win at the last corner, knowing he would probably bump into sete while doing so. neither rider is knocked off their bike (though sete has to leave the track) and it is at a slow corner, with relatively 'light' contact. unfortunately, as a result of where valentino's bike impacted sete's body and sete's preexisting shoulder issues, it ended up injuring sete (see here for valentino learning of this perhaps a little later than was ideal and only after he'd taken the piss out of sete for dramatically clutching his arm). at aragon 2013, marc was harrying dani and sticking very close to his rear tyre as he applied pressure to his teammate before he made a small misjudgement, getting his braking a little wrong and clipping the back of dani's bike. he happened to cut a crucial wire in the process, causing dani to highside a few moments later
these aren't equivalent situations and each have their own risk/reward profile. but the basic point is this: inviting contact with another rider will always generate more risk, and can always have unintended consequences... even when the action is relatively innocuous and the rider would not have expected this outcome. if you are in the 'all passes should be clean passes' school, this risk is fundamentally unacceptable. even trickier - what if contact is made as a result of a move you initiated but the other rider could have avoided? of course, you started it, but they could have yielded... and maybe they should have, maybe that would have been the wise, the sensible thing to do in that situation. it's always important to remember that at least two riders are involved in all these situations - and there are many cases where contact and/or crashing is not 100% the fault of any one party. so, for instance, there are several moments in laguna 2008 that are so risky in part because casey is also refusing to yield. that's not to necessarily imply any blame or fault! of course, it might not be ideal for the most aggressive riders being able to bully everyone else as they please because they know they can generally rely on everyone else being more sensible and yielding. but the differing outcomes resulting from the choices made by the 'other' rider will always help influence perception of any race situation - a move that is seen as 'hard but fair' might have been seen as considerably more dangerous if the other party hadn't yielded
and yes... yes, there is absolutely a question of your success rate. this links back to point (1) - is the move plausible? there are moves that aren't really considered examples of 'hard racing' and certainly not dangerous... because they worked. take valentino's last corner move at catalunya 2009, at a corner where you don't traditionally overtake (remember, before the race jorge was going around tempting fate by saying that if you're ahead by that point you're sorted). sure, he goes for a gap that exists, but it could easily have gone wrong - and if a lot of other riders had tried that, then it would have. how do you think yamaha would have felt if valentino had taken both yamaha riders out at the very end of the race to allow ducati to claim an unlikely victory and an increased championship lead? here's another one: misano 2017 and marc making a last lap move in treacherous conditions to snatch the win. no contact required to make that risky as shit - and if stuff like that goes wrong too often they call you an idiot at best and dangerous at worst. of course, both valentino and marc have had moments where they very much did not pull off moves they were intending, which is how we get ambition outweighing talent and 'I hope he can learn from this one and improve for the future', among other hits. but, relative to the amount of risk they're regularly taking in their racing, they get a lot of reward for their troubles... because they're very good at what they do. the risk/reward calculation is one that they... uh, can both be very adept at, but it's also one that's fundamentally easier when you're skilled enough to pull off a lot of moves that would be beyond the capabilities of other riders. it's when you don't know how to judge your moments, when you keep trying moves that you can't pull off - that's where other riders will start having a problem with you
which is where we get to reputation! how different incidents are judged will also depend on the existing reputations of the riders involved and whether they are seen as 'fair' racers or not (an even more nebulous term, if possible), versus hard racers, dangerous racers... often, this is a question of quantity too - with certain riders on the grid, you will notice they're involved in controversial incidents disproportionately often. how likely people are to pay you the benefit of the doubt... how likely they are to believe you as to what your intent was in a certain situation, perhaps the most nebulous concept of them all. 'hard' and 'dangerous' aren't assessments that are made in isolation, and how severely riders are judged will often depend on their pasts and how those pasts are perceived by others
where you get into really sticky territory is... okay, both valentino and marc have more often than not (arguably) been able to stay on the right side of 'the line', where their moves might be hard but aren't putting anyone else in active danger - but that's because they are at least theoretically capable of exhibiting a good sense of judgement and are also good at what they're doing, as covered above. here's a question: do they bear any responsibility for when younger and/or worse riders copy their moves and/or general approach to racing, with worse consequences? when they have been criticised, when they are called dangerous, at times it's not just what they're doing in the moment... it's what they're inspiring. so you've got stuff like this from sete:
even more drastically than that, after the death of a fifteen year old rider in supersport in 2021, one of his fellow rider said this about marc (which marc unsurprisingly strongly pushed back on):
(just worth remembering, this is a rider who did walk away from the sport as a result and was clearly deeply affected by what happened - the marc comments were part of a longer statement that got overshadowed by this part and the resulting controversy)
setting aside the merits or lack thereof of these specific assertions, what of the general questions they raise... can you be a dangerous rider in an indirect fashion like this, by the very nature of your legacy? are riders who helped bring about a more aggressive baseline standard of racing in any way responsible for anything that happens as a result of this standard? (even worse, there's a line of succession here - after all, who was marc's biggest inspiration?) or does individual responsibility reign supreme here? athletes are by design only interested in their own successes, aren't they - and 'legacy' is so abstract, how can anyone know how others will be influenced by what they do? how can we even begin to assess how big an influence individual riders really are? let's not forget that there will be other factors - riders in the past have discussed how particular characteristics of the moto2 class have bred more aggressive racing, or the influence of the size of motogp bikes, or how difficult it is these days to overtake in a completely 'clean' manner, or the rules themselves and to what extent they have actually been enforced etc etc... maybe there's also an element of people focusing on the easiest, most visible explanation in the form of star riders, without giving proper consideration to the underlying factors that will influence an era's style of riding. again, how you feel about all of this will vary from person to person - but part of the hard vs dangerous debate is inherently forward-looking. and it's hardly just legacy... your hard/dangerous moves may also be setting a precedent in the present. to what extent is it the duty of riders to worry about that?
so then, that's what I've got. how you draw the distinction between hard racing and dangerous riding will come down to your individual ideological position and what you think racing even entails. do you think all contact is objectionable? do you think only the most extreme of transgressions - most of which don't qualify as 'racing' per se - should be labelled dangerous? somewhere in between? everyone will draw the line in a different place, according to the situation and their individual biases and understanding of events. it comes down, generally speaking, to how you judge the risks and rewards of a certain move, whether you think what a rider attempted was 'worth' it. all of which depends on whether the rider could realistically have managed whatever action they were attempting, whether the potential rewards were proportionate to the risks, or whether the whole thing was just too flat out dangerous to ever be worth it... of course, none of these are objective standards by which you can assess the racing, but they should give you a rough indication of what people are even talking about when they're distinguishing between hard and dangerous racing. riders as individuals are also far from consistent in their stances (surely not!) so you do have to play it by ear a lot of the times... and while there are plenty incidents where the majority can agree whether it is 'hard' or 'dangerous', there are plenty more where you're going to get a lot of contradictory opinions. no definitive answers here - unfortunately a lot of the time you'll just have to make your own mind up
#is this actually coherent? please write in if it's not coherent#tried to mostly stick to examples I've discussed elsewhere but still feels a bit short on details in places... kinda wishy washy... eh. idk#this is SUCH a vibes thing I cannot stress enough what a vibes thing this is#please don't judge the venn diagrams they were made in two minutes in google slides... not my best work but it'll have to do#smolnerdz#motogp#//#brr brr#batsplat responds#I do find this stuff really tricky myself because. okay so you might not have noticed this but I'm rather fond of both marc and valentino#and I clearly do derive quite a lot of enjoyment from their racing not *in spite* but *because* of their aggression#which is all well and good but it's healthy to always just... engage with the other side of things. ruminate on it a bit#a morally tricky sport to engage with in lots of ways - doesn't mean it all has to be done in only the most self-flagellating of ways#but personally I do feel like you shouldn't just. shut yourself off from the critiques. idk it IS a dangerous sport with real victims#and yet several of the races I've mentioned here made it to a list of my all time favourite races I posted *yesterday*. so now what hm#anyways#current tag
42 notes
·
View notes